Psalms 106 - The Popular Commentary by Paul E. Kretzmann

Bible Comments
  • Psalms 106:1 open_in_new

    Praise ye the Lord, for the attitude of praise should characterize the believers at all times. O give thanks unto the Lord; for He is good, He has revealed himself to men in the beauty of His goodness; for His mercy endureth forever, the hand of His merciful kindness is always extended in a loving appeal to all men.

  • Psalms 106:1-48 open_in_new

    God's Blessings in Spite of Israel's Unfaithfulness.

    This psalm, whose author is not known, gives a detailed confession of the sins of Israel, as contrasted with the wonders of God's mercy, the conclusion being a supplication for God's favor.

  • Psalms 106:2 open_in_new

    Who can utter, fully declare, sufficiently describe, the mighty acts of the Lord, as He manifested them in the power of His mercy, for the salvation of men? Who can show forth all His praise, the glory of His essence as He revealed Himself in history?

  • Psalms 106:3 open_in_new

    Blessed are they that keep judgment, observing the demands of right and justice, and He that doeth righteousness at all times, in accordance with the holy will of the Lord.

  • Psalms 106:4 open_in_new

    Remember me, O Lord, the psalmist here seeking the application of God's blessings to Himself, with the favor, the unmerited affection and good pleasure, that Thou bearest unto Thy people: O visit with Thy salvation, letting the inspired singer have the assurance that he also is included in the saving grace of the Lord,

  • Psalms 106:5 open_in_new

    that I may see the good of Thy chosen, taking part in the blessings which God had promised to Israel, the nation of His choice, that I may rejoice in the gladness of Thy nation, that I may glory with Thine inheritance, boasting of the favor of the Lord as shown in His many miracles in their behalf. Note that four different names are given to Israel in these two verses, all of them denoting the close fellowship which the Lord intended between Himself and them. But now follows the recital of Israel's trespasses.

  • Psalms 106:6 open_in_new

    We have sinned with our fathers, the present generation following their fathers in wickedness, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly, all of them forming one mass of corruption and the terms denoting a rising gradation of sinning. Note the emphatic "we," which is essential for a full and free confession of sins.

  • Psalms 106:7 open_in_new

    Our fathers understood not Thy wonders in Egypt, they did not realize the Lord's purpose or the fullness of His divine favor; they remembered not the multitude of Thy mercies, but provoked Him, rather, they showed themselves rebellious, at the sea, even at the Red Sea, all the miracles of the Lord for their deliverance having been forgotten in this short space of time.

  • Psalms 106:8 open_in_new

    Nevertheless He saved them, in spite of their ungrateful behavior He delivered them, for His name's sake, without any merit or worthiness on their part, solely with the intention of keeping His glory untarnished, that He might make His mighty power to be known, and thus be exalted in the eyes of men everywhere.

  • Psalms 106:9 open_in_new

    He rebuked the Red Sea also, which apparently obstructed their way to liberty, and it was dried up; so He led them through the depths, the bed of the sea, as through the wilderness, ordinary plain country.

  • Psalms 106:10 open_in_new

    And He saved them from the hand of him that hated them, Pharaoh of the exodus, and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.

  • Psalms 106:12 open_in_new

    Then believed they His words, for God constrained even such a hard-hearted people to turn to Him in momentary faith; they sang His praise, Exodus 15:1-21. But the reaction came almost immediately.

  • Psalms 106:13 open_in_new

    They soon forgat His works, literally, "they made haste, they forgot," their flare of faith lasting barely three days; they waited not for His counsel, the plan which He had for their care,

  • Psalms 106:14 open_in_new

    but lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, demanding to be given their desire, and tempted God in the desert, trying Him out, wearing down His patience with their constant grumbling. Cf 1 Corinthians 10:6.

  • Psalms 106:18 open_in_new

    And a fire was kindled in their company; the flame burned up the wicked. After this reference to the rebellion of Korah the psalmist returns to the early days of the wilderness journey.

  • Psalms 106:20 open_in_new

    Thus they changed their glory, Jehovah, the true God Himself, as He had manifested and proved Himself before the people, into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass.

  • Psalms 106:21 open_in_new

    They forgat God, their Savior, who had delivered them by such a signal deliverance, which had done great things in Egypt, in the ten plagues upon Pharaoh and his people;

  • Psalms 106:22 open_in_new

    wondrous works in the land of Ham, Egypt being called so because the descendants of Ham had settled there, and terrible things, which caused Him to be feared, by the Red Sea.

  • Psalms 106:27 open_in_new

    to overthrow their seed also among the nations, dispersing them with the effect of destroying their national identity, and to scatter them in the lands, a fate which Moses then averted, but which later struck the northern-tribes. Cf Deuteronomy 9:23-26. Another occasion is now cited.

  • Psalms 106:28 open_in_new

    They joined themselves also unto Baal-peor, Numbers 25, in the immoral worship introduced by the Moabites, and ate the sacrifices of the dead, so called because the idols are dead, lifeless nothingnesses, as they are sometimes designated.

  • Psalms 106:30 open_in_new

    Then stood up Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron, and executed judgment, by summarily putting to death two flagrant malefactors; and so the plague was stayed.

  • Psalms 106:31 open_in_new

    And that was counted unto him for righteousness unto all generations forevermore, Numbers 25:11-13; for his deed was an act of faith and received the reward of faith. Still another event is here listed.

  • Psalms 106:32 open_in_new

    They angered Him also at the waters of strife, at Meribah and Massa, Numbers 20:3-13, so that it went ill with Moses for their sakes, his disgust causing him to give way to doubt, at least for a moment,

  • Psalms 106:35 open_in_new

    but were mingled among the heathen, permitting them to live in their midst and in many cases intermarrying with them, and learned their works. Cf Judges 1, 2.

  • Psalms 106:36 open_in_new

    And they served their idols, the many cases of wholesale idolatry during the time of the judges and later being included here; which were a snare unto them, Exodus 23:33.

  • Psalms 106:37 open_in_new

    Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils, by letting them pass through the fire of Hinnom or actually offering them to Moloch, the abomination of the Moabites, Leviticus 17:7,

  • Psalms 106:39 open_in_new

    Thus were they defiled with their own works, through the spiritual adultery of their idolatrous practices, and went a whoring with their own inventions, with the doings dictated by their rejection of the true God.

  • Psalms 106:40 open_in_new

    Therefore was the wrath of the Lord kindled against His people, whom He had chosen for His own, insomuch that He abhorred His own inheritance, looking upon them with aversion and loathing.

  • Psalms 106:41 open_in_new

    And He gave them into the hand of the heathen, as stated throughout the Book of Judges and later; and they that hated them ruled over them.

  • Psalms 106:42 open_in_new

    Their enemies also oppressed them, not only by exacting tribute, but also by sending marauding parties into Canaan whenever it suited their fancy, and the were brought into subjection under their hand, in the great humiliation of being servants to the despised heathen.

  • Psalms 106:43 open_in_new

    Many times did He deliver them; but they provoked Him with their counsel, being self-willed and rebellious, and were brought low for their iniquity, the same circle of apostasy, servitude, deliverance, and relapse being found time and again during the four hundred years following the conquest of Canaan.

  • Psalms 106:44 open_in_new

    Nevertheless He regarded their allocation when He heard their cry, the reference here probably being to the time of Samuel and the century following;

  • Psalms 106:45 open_in_new

    and He remembered for them His covenant, Leviticus 26:41-42, and repented, turning to them in sympathy, according to the multitude of His mercies, out of free grace and mercy, and not because of any merit or worthiness in them.

  • Psalms 106:46 open_in_new

    He made them also to be pitied of all those that carried them captives, as in the case of Jehoiachin, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther. In firm reliance upon this mercy of Jehovah the psalmist concludes with an appeal and a doxology.

  • Psalms 106:47 open_in_new

    Save us, O Lord, our God, and gather us from among the heathen, these words apparently pointing to the exile as the probable time when this psalm was written, to give thanks unto Thy holy name and to triumph in Thy praise, their boast being not of themselves, but of the wonderful attributes and works of Jehovah.

  • Psalms 106:48 open_in_new

    Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting, throughout all eternity, and let all the people, especially all believers, all members of the Church of God, say, Amen, in joyful, believing assent. Praise ye the Lord! This hallelujah will be the chief content of the hymns in heaven, the song of the saved. while eternal ages run.