Psalms 106

This Psalm was unquestionably composed in the time of the Israelites Captivity and Dispersion, as is manifest from v. 47. but whether it was that of Babylon, or some other of a later date, is neither easie nor necessary to determine.

PRaise ye the Lord; O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever He deserves our Praises, notwithstanding all our sufferings which are not to be imputed to him, for he is Gracious and Merciful but only to our own Sins..

Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord? who can show forth all his praise (i. e.) His Praise worthy actions, by an usual Metonymy.?

Blessed are they that keep judgment That observe and practise what is just and right towards God and Men; which in the next clause he calls doing righteousness. and he that does righteousness at all times In Adversity as well as in Prosperity. And this clause may belong either, 1. to the last foregoing Words, that does righteousness at all times, constantly and perpetually: Or rather, 2. to the first Words, they are blessed at all times, even in the Day of their calamity, which therefore ought not to hinder us from this great and just Duty of praising God. And so this verse coheres with the former..

Remember me Or, us: for he speaks here in the name, and on the behalf of the whole Nation, as is evident from v. 6, 7, 47. of which he oft speaks as of one Person., O Lord, with the favour that thou be arest unto thy people With those favours and blessings which thou dost usually and peculiarly give to thy People; such as the pardon of all our Sins, by which we have procured our present miseries, and a complete deliverance, and that improved to thy praise and glory, as well as to our own comfort, as is clearly implyed v. 47.: O visit me with thy salvation Give me that salvation or deliverance which thou hast promised, and which none but thou canst give..

That I may see (i. e.) Enjoy, as the next clause explains it, and as this word is frequently used. the good of thy chosen Of thy chosen People; which thou usest to give to thine Elect, or to such as are Israelites indeed., that I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation With such joy as thou hast formerly afforded unto thy beloved Nation or People.: that I may glory That we may have occasion to glory in Gods Goodness towards us. with thine inheritance Either in the Congregation of thy People: that we thy People may jointly and solemnly praise thy Name: Or, as thy People, who are commonly called Gods inheritance, in former ages have frequently done: for the Particle, with, is sometimes used as a Note of comparison, as it is in the very next Verse, and Iob 9. 26. Eccles. 2. 16. & 7. 11.

We have sinned with our fathers As our Fathers did, and have not been made wiser or better by their examples, as we should have been.: we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly.

Our fathers understood not Or, considered not, to wit, so as to be rightly affected with them, to give thee that Love, and Praise, and Trust, and Obedience, which they deserved and required. thy wonders in Egypt, they remembred not the multitude of thy mercies, but provoked him at the sea, even at the Red sea When those wonders of thy Power and Goodness in Egypt, were but newly done, and fresh in memory..

Nevertheless; he saved them for his namessake That he might glorifie his name, and vindicate it from the Blasphemous, which the Egyptians and others would have cast upon it, if they had been destroyed. This Argument was urged by Moses, Numb. 14. 13, &c.; that he might make his mighty power to be known.

He rebuked the Red sea also, and it was dried up: so he led them through the depths as through the wilderness As securely as if they had walked upon the dry Land..

And he saved them from the hand of him that hated them Of Pharaoh who pursued them with cruel Rage and Hatred., and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.

And the waters covered their enemies: there was not one of them left.

Then believed they his words, they sang his praise.

They soon Even within three days, Exod. 15. 22, 23. forgat his works, they waited not for his counsel They did not wait patiently and believingly upon God for supplies from his hand, in such manner and time as he in his own counsel had appointed and thought fit..

But lusted exceedingly To wit, for flesh, as the next Verse shows., in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desart.

And he gave them their request, but sent leanness into their Souls Either into their Persons: Or, rather their Bodies, which are oft understood by this word; of which see the Notes upon Psal. 16. 10. So their inordinate desire of pleasing and pampering their Bodies, was the occasion of destroying them; whilest God denied his Blessing, which alone makes food able to nourish us, and inflicted his curse, which made their food as destructive as Poison to them..

They envied Moses also in the camp, and Aaron the Saint of the Lord So called here not so much from his inherent Holiness, whereof Moses had a greater share, but because he was consecrated or set apart by God for that sacred office of the Priest-hood, in which respect all the Priests are said to be holy, Levit. 21. 6, 7, 8. Hereby he intimates, that their Envy and Rebellion was not only against Aaron, but against God himself..

The earth opened, and swallowed up Dathan With his company, which is sufficiently understood out of the following clause, and out of the History, Numb. 16., and covered the company of Abiram.

And a fire was kindled in their company In their Associates or Confederates, those wicked men, as he calls them in the next clause, to wit, Korah and his company, who were consumed by a Fire from the Lord, Numb. 16. 35. compared with v. 1, 2, 16, 17, 18, 19., the flame burnt up the wicked.

They made a calf in Horeb When they were but very lately brought out of Egypt by such wonderful Power and Goodness of God, and had seen the dreadful Plagues of God upon the Egyptian Idolaters, and upon their Idols too, as is noted Numb. 33. 4. and when the Law of God was but newly delivered to them in such a solemn and tremendous manner, and the most High God was yet present, and delivering further Precepts to Moses for their benefit upon the top of that very Mount. This greatly aggravated their Sin., and worshipped the molten Image.

Thus they changed As far as in them lay, and in respect of their Worship. their glory Their God, who was indeed their glory; for they had this just occasion of triumphing and glorying over all the Nations of the World; that whereas all other Nations worshipped stocks and stones, or the heavenly Bodies, or dead Men, they only worshipped the living true God, who was present and in Covenant with them, and with them only. into the similitude of an Into the Golden Image of an Ox or Calf. ox that eateth grass Which is so far from feeding his People, as the true God did the Israelites, that he must be fed by them. And yet the Image of such a creature was preferred by them, before the all-sufficient and everblessed God, which was an evidence of their horrid contempt of God, as also of their prodigious folly and stupidity..

They forgat God their Saviour, which had done great things in Egypt.

Wondrous works in the land of Ham, and terrible things by the Red sea.

Therefore he said He declared his intention in express words, as Exod. 32. 10. and elsewhere. that he would destroy them, had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach God had made an Hedge or Wall about them; but they had made a gap or breach in it by their Sins, at which the Lord, who was now justly become their Enemy, might enter to destroy them; which he had certainly done, if Moses by his prevailing intercession had not hindered him. See Deut. 9. 1.... & 10. 10. It is a Metaphor from a Besieged City, where the Enemy indeavours to make a breach in the Walls, and thereby to enter into the City; which he will do, unless some valiant Champion stand in the gap to oppose him.: to turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy them

Yea, they despised Preferring Egypt and their former Bondage before it, Numb. 14. 3, 4. and not thinking it worthy of a little hazard and difficulty in taking the possession of it. the pleasant land Canaan, which was so not only in truth, Deut. 11. 11, 12. Ier. 3. 19. Ezek. 20. 6. but even by the relation of those Spies, who discouraged them from entring into it.: they believed not his word (i. e.) His promise of giving them the land, and subduing all their Enemies before them; which they knew by late and manifold experience, that God was both able and willing to do.:

But murmured in their tents, and hearkned not unto the voice of the Lord To Gods command, which was that they should boldly and confidently enter into it..

Therefore he lifted up his hand He sware, as this phrase is commonly used, as Gen. 14. 22. Deut. 32. 40. Nehem. 9. 15. Revel. 10. 5, 6. of this dreadful and irrevocable Sentence and Oath of God, See Numb. 14. against them, to overthrow them in the wilderness:

To overthrow their seed He sware also (though not at the same time) that he would punish their Sins, not only in their Persons, but also in their Posterity. See Exod. 20. 5. & 3... 34. Levit. 26. 33. others refer this to the same Oath and History, Numb. 14. because God intended at first to destroy both Parents and Children, even the whole Nation, v. 12. 15. though afterwards upon Moses his intercession he limited the judgment to that Generation. But that Destruction threatned was by the Pestilence, v. 12. not, as here, by Captivity and Banishment. Besides, God said that, v. 11. but he did not swear it, but the Oath came afterward, v. 21. also among the Nations, and to scatter them in the lands.

They joyned themselves To wit, in Worship, whereby they had an union and communion with him, as Gods People have with God in acts of his Worship. And this phrase seems also to note their Carnal Copulation with the Daughters of Moab in the Temple, or to the Honour of Baal-Peor. also unto Baal-peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead Which were offered to Idols, which he calls dead, in opposition to the true and living God, and by way of contempt, and to note the sottishness of Idolaters who worshipped lifeless things, as stocks and stones or dead Men. And some learned men conceive that this is spoken with particular regard to Baal-Peor, or the Lord of Peor, a place so called, who had been a Person of great eminency in those parts, and therefore was Worshipped according to the custom of the Heathens, after his Death, by Sacrifices and Feasts appointed for his Honour and Memory..

Thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions: and the Plague brake in upon them.

Then stood up Phineas and executed judgment, and so the Plague was stayed.

And that was counted unto him for righteousness And although that action of his might seem harsh, and rash, and irregular, as being done by a private Person and a Priest, and as allowing the Delinquents no space for Repentance, it was accepted and rewarded by God as an act of Justice and Piety agreeable to his mind, and proceeding from a sincere zeal for Gods honour, and for the good of Gods People; and God gave him a publick Testimony of his approbation to be recorded to all Generations, and the Priesthood to be continued to him and his in all succeeding Generations, of all which see Numb. 25., unto all generations for evermore.

They angred him also at the waters of strife, so that it went ill with Moses for their sakes Or, because of them, upon occasion of their unbelief and murmuring, whereby he was provoked to speak unadvisedly, as it here follows..

Because they provoked his spirit, so that he spake unadvisedly So this word is thought to signifie, Leviticus 5. 4. Prov. 12. 18. Or, he spake, as the word commonly signifies. Not that it was in it self a Sin to speak, but because he spake when he should have been silent; or he spake to the People, when God commanded him only to speak to the Rock, Numb. 20. 8, 9, 10. or, he spake, to wit, the provocation of his spirit, or such words as were agreeable to it, and might be expected from it. He mentions not here what Moses spake, because that was fully known from the History, and because he would throw a veil over Moses his infirmity, and rather imply than express his fault. with his lips.

They did not destroy the nations, concerning whom (i. e.) Concerning whose destruction: Or rather, which thing, to wit, to destroy those Canaanitish Nations: for in the Hebrew there is nothing but asher, which signifies only, either whom or which. the Lord commanded them.

But were mingled In their Habitations and Negotiations, as also in Marriages. among the heathen, and learned their works.

And they served their idols which were a snare unto them Which Idols were an occasion of their falling both into further and greater sins, as it follows v. 37, 38. and into utter ruine, as this phrase also notes, Exod. 23. 33. Iudg. 2. 12, &c..

Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters Of which Heathenish practice, see the notes on Levit. 18. 21. unto devils By which expression he informeth them that they did not worship God, as they pretended and sometimes designed, but Devils in their Idols; and that those spirits, which were supposed by the Heathen Idolaters to inhabit in their Images, and which they worshipped in them, were not Gods or good Spirits, as they imagined, but evil Spirits or Devils. See Levit. 17. 7. Deut. 32. 17. 1 Cor. 10. 20. Revel. 9. 20.:

And shed innocent blood The blood of their Children, who, though Sinners before God, yet were innocent as to them, from any crime deserving such barbarous usage from them., even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the Idols of Canaan: and the land was polluted with blood.

Thus were they defiled with their own works, and went a whoring with their own inventions Committed spiritual Whoredom by worshipping those Idols which were but humane inventions, and that in such an unnatural and bloody manner, as they had devised..

Therefore was the wrath of the LORD kindled against his people, insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance.

And he gave them into the hand of the heathen, and they that hated them, ruled over them.

Their enemies also oppressed them, and they were brought into subjection under their hand.

Many times did he deliver them, but they provoked him with their counsel By forsaking Gods counsel and the way which he had appointed, and following after their own inventions and evil inclinations, as he charged them v. 39. See the like Numb. 15. 39., and were brought low for their iniquity.

Nevertheless, he regarded their affliction, when he heard their cry.

And he remembred for them his covenant The Covenant made with their Fathers, which, notwithstanding their horrible violation of it, he made good unto them, and in consideration thereof delivered them. and repented Changed his course and dealing with them, as penitent Persons usually do. See the Note on Gen. 6. 6. according to the multitude of his mercies.

He made them also to be pitied of all those that carried them captives By changing their opinions of them, and inclining their hearts towards them, which he had alienated from them. See on Psal. 105. 25..

Save us, O LORD our God O thou who hast so often pardoned and saved us, notwithstanding our former and manifold provocations, be thou pleased once more to deliver us., and gather us from among the heathen, to give thanks unto thy holy name, and to triumph in thy praise In thy Praise-worthy work wrought for us; Praise being but for actions worthy of Praise, as it is here above v. 2. 1 Chron. 16. 35. Psal. 9. 14. Phil. 4. 8. and oft elsewhere..

Blessed be the LORD God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting: and let all the people say, Amen. Praise ye the LORD.