Psalms 106 commentary

None of our sins or sufferings should prevent our ascribing glory and praise to the Lord. The more unworthy we are, the more is his kindness to be admired. And those who depend on the Redeemer's righteousness will endeavour to copy his example, and by word and deed to show forth his praise. God's people have reason to be cheerful people; and need not envy the children of men their pleasure or pride.

Here begins a confession of sin; for we must acknowledge that the Lord has done right, and we have done wickedly. We are encouraged to hope that though justly corrected, yet we shall not be utterly forsaken. God's afflicted people own themselves guilty before him. God is distrusted because his favours are not remembered. If he did not save us for his own name's sake, and to the praise of his power and grace, we should all perish.

Those that will not wait for God's counsel, shall justly be given up to their own hearts' lusts, to walk in their own counsels. An undue desire, even for lawful things, becomes sinful. God showed his displeasure for this. He filled them with uneasiness of mind, terror of conscience, and self-reproach. Many that fare deliciously every day, and whose bodies are healthful, have leanness in their souls: no love to God, no thankfulness, no appetite for the Bread of life, and then the soul must be lean. Those wretchedly forget themselves, that feast their bodies and starve their souls. Even the true believer will see abundant cause to say, It is of the Lord's mercies that I am not consumed. Often have we set up idols in our hearts, cleaved to some forbidden object; so that if a greater than Moses had not stood to turn away the anger of the Lord, we should have been destroyed. If God dealt severely with Moses for unadvised words, what do those deserve who speak many proud and wicked words? It is just in God to remove those relations that are blessings to us, when we are peevish and provoking to them, and grieve their spirits.

The conduct of the Israelites in Canaan, and God's dealings with them, show that the way of sin is down-hill; omissions make way for commissions: when they neglected to destroy the heathen, they learned their works. One sin led to many more, and brought the judgments of God on them. Their sin was, in part, their own punishment. Sinners often see themselves ruined by those who led them into evil. Satan, who is a tempter, will be a tormentor. At length, God showed pity to his people for his covenant's sake. The unchangeableness of God's merciful nature and love to his people, makes him change the course of justice into mercy; and no other change is meant by God's repentance. Our case is awful when the outward church is considered. When nations professing Christianity, are so guilty as we are, no wonder if the Lord brings them low for their sins. Unless there is general and deep repentance, there can be no prospect but of increasing calamities. The psalm concludes with prayer for completing the deliverance of God's people, and praise for the beginning and progress of it. May all the people of the earth, ere long, add their Amen.

PSALM 106

This psalm differs from the preceding, inasmuch as there the Psalmist showed that God had been more than a bountiful father to his chosen people, in order to procure for himself, in coming ages, a race of pure worshippers, while here he acknowledges that these remarkable benefits had been turned to a bad account; because the Jews from time to time threw off the yoke of God, basely abused his kindness, defiled themselves with many pollutions, and also perfidiously departed from his word. Nevertheless, it is not so much in the shape of a reproof or complaint, as a confession of their sins, in order to the obtaining the pardon of them. For the prophet commences with the praises of God, with the design of encouraging both himself and others to cherish good hope in him. Then he prays that God would continue his blessing to the seed of Abraham. But because the people, after so frequently revolting from God, were unworthy of the continuation of his kindness, he asks pardon to be extended to them, and this after he had confessed that from first to last, they had provoked God’s wrath by their malice, ingratitude, pride, perfidy, and other vices. The first and two last verses of this psalm form a part of that psalm which David delivered into the hand of Asaph and his brethren, to be sung before the ark of the covenant, after it was brought from the house of Obed-edom to mount Zion. See 1 Chronicles 16:34-36. Hence it has been ascribed to the pen of David. Many of the ancients thought, and they are followed by Horsley and Mudge, that it was written during the captivity; resting their opinion chiefly on verse 47; but as that verse occurs in the psalm of David recorded in 1 Chronicles 16, at the 35th verse, this argument is clearly without force.

Psalm 106:1-5

1. Hallelujah. “הללו יה, Praise the Lord. These words constitute the title, and are not to be considered as making any part of the text of the psalm. The Chaldee retains them as a title; the LXX. and Vulgate have the Hebrew words, which are joined into one; whilst the Syriac has in their stead a sort of table of contents of the psalm ” — Phillips. Praise ye Jehovah; because he is good; “כי-טוב, For he is good. משפטיו is employed emphatically, denoting that God is good, without any mixture of evil, perfectly good in himself, and is, as it were, the fountain from which flows every good, and nothing but good. Hence we read in Matthew 19:17, ‘There is none good but one, that is, God.’” — Ibid. because his mercy endureth for ever. 2. Who shall express the power of Jehovah? who shall declare all his praise? 3. Blessed are they that keep judgment, and blessed is he who worketh in righteousness at all times. Bishop Horsley, following the Syriac, which reads משפטיו, and all the other versions, which read עשי, translates the verse, “Blessed are they that keep his judgments, and do righteousness at all seasons.” 4. Remember me, O Jehovah! with the good will which thou bearest towards thy people: visit me with thy salvation; 5. That I may see the good of thy chosen, that I may rejoice in the joy of thy nation, and glory with thy heritage.

1. Praise ye Jehovah This exhortation supplies the want of a title; not that the psalm contains nothing else than thanksgiving and praise to God, but that the people, from the experience of past favors, may obtain the assurance of reconciliation; and thus entertain the hope that God, although at present offended, would soon be pacified towards them. In celebrating the praises of God, therefore, he orders them to call to mind such things as would have a tendency to assuage their grief on account of present ills, and to animate their spirits, and prevent them from sinking into despair. It is the province of faith to celebrate the divine mercy in the most trying circumstances.

PSALM 106

Psa 106:1-48. This Psalm gives a detailed confession of the sins of Israel in all periods of their history, with special reference to the terms of the covenant as intimated (Psa 105:45). It is introduced by praise to God for the wonders of His mercy, and concluded by a supplication for His favor to His afflicted people, and a doxology.

1. Praise, &c.--(See on Psa 104:35), begins and ends the Psalm, intimating the obligations of praise, however we sin and suffer 1Ch 16:34-36 is the source from which the beginning and end of this Psalm are derived.

2. His acts exceed our comprehension, as His praise our powers of expression (Ro 11:33). Their unutterable greatness is not to keep us back, but to urge us the more to try to praise Him as best we can (Psa 40:5; 71:15).

3. The blessing is limited to those whose principles and acts are right. How "blessed" Israel would be now, if he had "observed God's statutes" (Psa 105:45).

4-5. In view of the desert of sins to be confessed, the writer invokes God's covenant mercy to himself and the Church, in whose welfare he rejoices. The speaker, me, I, is not the Psalmist himself, but the people, the present generation (compare Psa 106:6).

visit--(Compare Psa 8:4).

6. Compare 1Ki 8:47; Da 9:5, where the same three verbs occur in the same order and connection, the original of the two later passages being the first one, the prayer of Solomon in dedicating the temple.

sinned ... fathers--like them, and so partaking of their guilt. The terms denote a rising gradation of sinning (compare Psa 1:1).

with our fathers--we and they together forming one mass of corruption.

7-12. Special confession. Their rebellion at the sea (Ex 14:11) was because they had not remembered nor understood God's miracles on their behalf. That God saved them in their unbelief was of His mere mercy, and for His own glory.

the sea ... the Red Sea--the very words in which Moses' song celebrated the scene of Israel's deliverance (Ex 15:4). Israel began to rebel against God at the very moment and scene of its deliverance by God!

13-15. The faith induced by God's display of power in their behalf was short lived, and their new rebellion and temptation was visited by God with fresh punishment, inflicted by leaving them to the result of their own gratified appetites, and sending on them spiritual poverty (Nu 11:18).

They soon forgat--literally, "They hasted, they forgat" (compare Ex 32:8). "They have turned aside quickly (or, hastily) out of the way." The haste of our desires is such that we can scarcely allow God one day. Unless He immediately answers our call, instantly then arise impatience, and at length despair.

his works--(De 11:3, 4; Da 9:14).

his counsel--They waited not for the development of God's counsel, or plan for their deliverance, at His own time, and in His own way.

16-18. All the congregation took part with Dathan, Korah, &c., and their accomplices (Nu 16:41).

Aaron the saint--literally, "the holy one," as consecrated priest; not a moral attribute, but one designating his office as holy to the Lord. The rebellion was followed by a double punishment: (1) of the non-Levitical rebels, the Reubenites, Dathan and Abiram, &c. (De 11:6; Nu 26:10); these were swallowed up by the earth.

19-23. From indirect setting God at naught, they pass to direct.

made--though prohibited in Ex 20:4, 5 to make a likeness, even of the true God.

calf--called so in contempt. They would have made an ox or bull, but their idol turned out but a calf; an imitation of the divine symbols, the cherubim; or of the sacred bull of Egyptian idolatry. The idolatry was more sinful in view of their recent experience of God's power in Egypt and His wonders at Sinai (Ex 32:1-6). Though intending to worship Jehovah under the symbol of the calf, yet as this was incompatible with His nature (De 4:15-17), they in reality gave up Him, and so were given up by Him. Instead of the Lord of heaven, they had as their glory the image of an ox that does nothing but eat grass.

24-27. The sin of refusing to invade Canaan, "the pleasant land" (Jr 3:19; Eze 20:6; Da 8:9), "the land of beauty," was punished by the destruction of that generation (Nu 14:28), and the threat of dispersion (De 4:25; 28:32) afterwards made to their posterity, and fulfilled in the great calamities now bewailed, may have also been then added.

despised--(Nu 14:31).

believed not his word--by which He promised He would give them the land; but rather the word of the faithless spies (compare Psa 78:22).

28-30. sacrifices of the dead--that is, of lifeless idols, contrasted with "the living God" (Jr 10:3-10; compare Psa 115:4-7; 1Co 12:2). On the words,

joined themselves to Baal-peor--see Nu 25:2, 3, 5.

Baal-peor--that is, the possessor of Peor, the mountain on which Chemosh, the idol of Moab, was worshipped, and at the foot of which Israel at the time lay encamped (Nu 23:28). The name never occurs except in connection with that locality and that circumstance.

31. counted ... righteousness--"a just and rewardable action."

for--or, "unto," to the procuring of righteousness, as in Ro 4:2; 10:4. Here it was a particular act, not faith, nor its object Christ; and what was procured was not justifying righteousness, or what was to be rewarded with eternal life; for no one act of man's can be taken for complete obedience. But it was that which God approved and rewarded with a perpetual priesthood to him and his descendants (Nu 25:13; 1Ch 6:4, &c.).

32-33. (Compare Nu 20:3-12; De 1:37; 3:26).

went ill with--literally, "was bad for"

Moses--His conduct, though under great provocation, was punished by exclusion from Canaan.

34-39. They not only failed to expel the heathen, as God

commanded--(Ex 23:32, 33), literally, "said (they should)," but conformed to their idolatries [Psa 106:36], and thus became spiritual adulterers (Psa 73:27).

40-43. Those nations first seduced and then oppressed them (compare Jud 1:34; 2:14; 3:30). Their apostasies ungratefully repaid God's many mercies till He finally abandoned them to punishment (Le 26:39).

44-46. If, as is probable, this Psalm was written at the time of the captivity, the writer now intimates the tokens of God's returning favor.

Praise ye the Lord - This, which is a sort of title, is wanting in several MSS., and in the Syriac Version.

O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good - Ye who live by his bounty should praise his mercy. God is the good Being, and of all kinds of good he is the Author and Dispenser. That the term God among our Anglo-Saxon ancestors, expressed both the Supreme Being and good or goodness, is evident from the Anglo-Saxon version of this clause: "Confess Lord for that God, (or good), for that on world mildheartness his." Which the old Psalter thus translates and paraphrases: -

Trans. Schifes to Lorde for he is gude; for in worlde the mercy of him.

Par - Schryfes synes, and louyngs to God. for he is gude of kynde, that nane do bot aske his mercy; for it lastes to the worlds ende in wriches whame it comfortes and delyvers: and the blysfulhede that is gyfen thrugh mercy is endles. That is: -

Confess your sins, and give praise to God, for he is good in his nature to all that ask his mercy; for it lasts to the world's end in comforting and delivering the wretched: and the blessedness that is given through mercy is endless.

Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord? - His acts are all acts of might; and particularly those in behalf of his followers.

Blessed are they that keep judgment, and he that doeth righteousness at all times - How near do the Anglo-Saxon, the ancient Scottish Version, and the present translation, approach to each other!

Anglo-Saxon. "Blessed they that holdeth doom, and doth righteousness in ilkere tide."

Anglo-Scottish.

Blisful tha that kepes dome, and duse rightwisnes in ilk tyme.

Those are truly blessed, or happy, whose hearts are devoted to God, and who live in the habit of obedience. Those, the general tenor of whose life is not conformed to the will of God, have no true happiness.

Remember me - This and the following clauses are read in the plural by several MSS.: Remember Us - that We may rejoice, - that We may glory, etc.: and thus all the Versions except the Chaldee; and this is more agreeable to the context.

That I may see the good of thy chosen - That I may enjoy the good, for so the word see is understood among the Hebrews. "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God," - they shall enjoy him, possess his favor, and be made like unto him.

We have sinned - Here the confession begins; what preceded was only the introduction to what follows: Our forefathers sinned, and suffered; we, like them, have sinned, and do suffer.

Our fathers understood not - They did not regard the operation of God's hands; and therefore they understood neither his designs nor their own interest.

At the sea, even at the Red Sea - Some of the rabbins suppose that the repetition of the words point out two faults of the Israelites at the Red Sea.

1. They murmured against Moses for bringing them out of Egypt, when they saw the sea before them, and Pharaoh behind them.

2. When the waters were divided, they were afraid to enter in, lest they should stick in the mud which appeared at the bottom.

The word seems to be added by way of explanation, and perhaps may refer to the above: they provoked על ים al yam, "At the sea;" בים סוף beyam suph, "In the sea Suph," or Red Sea. They provoked him at it and in it.

He saved them for his name's sake - למען שמו lemaan shemo, "on account of his name;" to manifest his own power, goodness, and perfections. There was nothing which he could draw from them as a reason why he should save them; therefore he drew the reason from himself. There is a singular gloss in the old Psalter on this verse: "Whan thai cam oute of Egypt to the rede Se, whare thai were closed on a syde with a hylle that na man mygt passe: on another side was the rede See: behynde tham was men of Egypt foluand; and for this thai began to gruch, forgetand Gods mygt: bot than he safed tham, depertand the Se in twelfe, to ilk kynde of Isrel a passage." It seems as if this author thought there were twelve passages made through the Red Sea, that each tribe should have a passage to itself.

He rebuked the Red Sea - In the descriptions of the psalmist every thing has life. The sea is an animated being, behaves itself proudly, is rebuked, and retires in confusion.

The hand of him that hated them - Pharaoh.

Then believed they - Just while the miracle was before their eyes.

They soon forgat his works - Three days afterwards, at the waters of Marah, Exo 15:24.

They waited not for his counsel - They were impatient, and would not wait till God should in his own way fulfll his own designs.

Sent leanness - They despised the manna, and called it light, that is, innutritive, bread. God gave flesh as they desired, but gave no blessing with it; and in consequence they did not fatten, but grew lean upon it. Their souls also suffered want.

They envied Moses - A reference to the case of Korah and his company.

Aaron the saint - The anointed, the high priest of the Lord.

Thus they changed their glory - That is, their God, who was their glory; and they worshipped an ox in his stead. See the use St Paul makes of this, Rom 1:23 (note); see also the note there. The incorruptible God was thus served by all the heathen world.

Wondrous works in the land of Ham - The plagues inflicted on the Egyptians. Egypt is called the Land of Ham or Cham, because it was peopled by Misraim the son of Cham.

Moses his chosen - Or elect; (Vulgate, electus ejus; Septuagint, ὁ εκλεκτος αυτου); the person that he had appointed for this work. It would be very difficult to show that this word in any part of the Old Testament refers to the eternal state of any man, much less to the doctrine of unconditional election and reprobation.

They joined themselves also unto Baalpeor - The Vulgate, Septuagint, and others, have Belphegor; the Syriac and Arabic, the idol Phegor, or Phaaur; the ע ain in the word being pronounced as gh.

Ate the sacrifices or the dead - מתים methim, of dead men. Most of the heathen idols were seen, who had been deified after their death; many of whom had been execrated during their life.

They provoked his spirit - המרו himru, from מרה marah, to rebel: they brought it into a rebellious state; he was soured and irritated, and was off his guard.

So that he spake unadvisedly with his lips - For this sentence we have only these two words in the Hebrew, ויבטא בשפתיו vayebatte bisephathaiv, he stuttered or stammered with his lips, indicating that he was transported with anger. See the notes on Num 20:10-12 (note).

They served their idols - עצביהם atsabbeyhem, their labors or griefs - idols, so called because of the pains taken in forming them, the labor in worshipping them, and the grief occasioned by the Divine judgments against the people for their idolatry.

They sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils - See 2Kgs 16:3; Isa 57:5; Eze 16:20; ezekiel Eze 20:26. That causing their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire to Moloch did not always mean they burnt them to death in the flames, is very probable. But all the heathen had human sacrifices; of this their history is full. Unto devils, לשדים lashshedim, to demons. Devil is never in Scripture used in the plural; there is but One devil, though there are Many demons.

And went a whoring - By fornication, whoredom, and idolatry, the Scripture often expresses idolatry and idolatrous acts. I have given the reason of this in other places. Besides being false to the true God, to whom they are represented as betrothed and married, (and their acts of idolatry were breaches of this solemn engagement), the worship of idols was frequently accompanied with various acts of impurity.

The translation in the Anglo-Saxon is very remarkable: and they fornicated. In Anglo-Saxon, signifies to fire, to ignite; to commit adultery. So is a prostitute, a whore; and is to go a whoring, to fornicate; probably from, or to fire, and to lie, or a glutton, - one who lies with fire, who is ignited by it, who is greedily intent upon the act by which he is inflamed. And do not the words themselves show that in former times whoredom was punished, as it is now, by a disease which produces the sensation of burning in the unhappy prostitutes, whether male or female? And to this meaning the following seems particularly to be applicable.

Therefore was the wrath of the Lord kindled - God kindled a fire in his judgments for those who by their flagitious conduct had inflamed themselves with their idols, and the impure rites with which they were worshipped.

Many times did he deliver them - See the Book of Judges; it is a history of the rebellions and deliverances of the Israelites.

He made them also to be pitied - This was particularly true as to the Babylonish captivity; for Cyrus gave them their liberty; Darius favored them, and granted them several privileges; and Artaxerxes sent back Nehemiah, and helped him to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple. See the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah; and see Calmet.

Save us, O Lord - and gather us - These words, says Calmet, are found in the hymn that was sung at the ceremony of bringing the ark to Jerusalem, 1 Chronicles 16; but it is supposed they were added by Ezra or some other prophet: here they are in their natural place. The author of the Psalm begs the Lord to gather the Israelites who were dispersed through different countries; for at the dedication of the second temple, under Nehemiah, (where it is probable this Psalm, with the 105th and the 107th, was sung), there were very few Jews who had as yet returned from their captivity.

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel - Here both gratitude and confidence are expressed; gratitude for what God had already wrought, and confidence that he would finish the great work of their restoration.

From everlasting to everlasting - מן האולם ועד האולם min haolam vead haolam, "from the hidden term to the hidden term," from the beginning of time to the end of time, from eternity and on to eternity. Fra worlde and into worlde, old Psalter; which it paraphrases thus: Fra with outen beginning, &withouten endyng.

And let all the people say, Amen - Let the people join in the prayer and in the thanksgiving, that God may hear and answer. Anglo-Saxon: "And, quoth all folk, be it, be it." Hallelujah - Praise ye Jehovah! Let his name be eternally magnified! Amen.

This is the end of the fourth book of the Psalms.

Me - He speaks here in the name, and on the behalf of the whole nation. With - With those favours which thou dost usually and peculiarly give to thy people.

See - Enjoy. Chosen - Of thy chosen people; such as are Israelites indeed. Gladness - Such joy as thou hast formerly afforded unto thy beloved nation. Glory - That we may have occasion to glory in God's goodness towards us. Inheritance - In the congregation of thy people.

Glory - As our fathers did.

At the sea - When those wonders were but newly done, and fresh in memory.

Saved them - That he may vindicate his name from the blasphemous reproaches, which would have been cast upon it, if they had been destroyed.

Led them - As securely as if they had walked upon the dry land.

Soon - Even within three days, Exod 15:22,23. Waited not - They did not wait patiently upon God for supplies, in such manner and time as he thought fit.

Lusted - For flesh.

Souls - Into their bodies. So their inordinate desire of pampering their bodies, was the occasion of destroying them.

The saint - So called, because he was consecrated by God for that sacred office of the priesthood, in which respect all the priests are said to be holy, Lev 21:6 - 8. Hereby he intimates, that their envy and rebellion was not only against Aaron, but against God himself.

A calf - When they were but just brought out of Egypt by such wonders, and had seen the plagues of God upon the Egyptian idolaters, and when the law of God was but newly delivered to them in such a tremendous manner.

Their glory - God, who was indeed their glory. Into - Into the golden image of an ox or calf, which is so far from feeding his people, as the true God did the Israelites, that he must be fed by them.

Breach - God had made a wall about them; but they had made a 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.

Despised - Preferring Egypt, and their former bondage, before it, Numb 14:3,4.

The voice - To God's command, that they should boldly enter into it.

Lifted up - He sware. Of this dreadful and irrevocable oath of God, see Numb 14:11,12.

Overthrow - He sware also (tho' not at the same time) that he would punish their sins, not only in their persons, but in their posterity.

Joined - They had communion with him, as God's people have with God in acts of his worship.

And - It was accepted and rewarded of God as an act of justice and piety.

Devils - They did not worship God as they pretended, but devils in their idols; for those spirits, which were supposed by the Heathen idolaters to inhabit in their images, were not good spirits, but evil spirits, or devils.

Counsel - By forsaking God's way, and following their own inventions.

Repented - Changed his course and dealing with them.

1. 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.

Marginal references: Heb. Hallelujah.; 1 Chr. 16. 34. Psal. 107. 1. & 118. 1. & 1[illegible: 1+ letters]6. 1.

2. Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord? who can shew forth all his praise ?

(i. e.) His Praise▪worthy actions, by an usual Metonymy.

3. Blessed are they that keep judgment ▪ and he that doth righteousness at all times .

That observe and practise what is just and right towards God and Men; which in the next clause he calls doing righteousness.

In Adversity as well as in Prosperity. And this clause may belong either, 1. to the last foregoing Words, that doth 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.

4▪ Remember me , O Lord, with the favour that thou be arest unto thy people : O visit me with thy salvation .

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.

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 compleat deliverance, and that improved to thy praise and glory, as well as to our own comfort, as is clearly implyed v. 47.

Give me that salvation or deliverance which thou hast promised, and which none but thou canst give.

Marginal references: Heb. of thy People.

5. That I may see the good of thy chosen , that I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation : that I may glory with thine inheritance ▪

(i. e.) Enjoy, as the next clause explains it, and as this word is frequently used.

Of thy chosen People; which thou usest to give to thine Elect, or to such as are Israelites indeed.

With such joy as thou hast formerly afforded unto thy beloved Nation or People.

That we may have occasion to glory in Gods Goodness towards us.

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.

6. We have sinned with our fathers : we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly.

As our Fathers did, and have not been made wiser or better by their examples, as we should have been.

Marginal references: Dan. 9. 5.

7. Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt, they remembred not the multitude of thy mercies, but provoked him at the sea, even at the Red sea .

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.

When those wonders of thy Power and Goodness in Egypt, were but newly done, and fresh in memory.

Marginal references: Exod. 14. 11, 12.

8. Nevertheless; he saved them for his namessake ; that he might make his mighty power to be known.

That he might glorifie his name, and vindicate it from the Blasphemous [illegible: 1 word], 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.

Marginal references: Exod. 9. 16.

9. 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.

Marginal references: Exod. 14. 21.; Psal. 136. 13. Isa. 63. 11, 12, 13.

10. And he saved them from the hand of him that hated them , and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.

Of Pharaoh who pursued them with cruel Rage and Hatred.

13. They soon forgat his works, they waited not for his counsel .

Even within three days, Exod. 15. 22, 23.

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.

Marginal references: Exod. 15. 24. & 17. 2.; Heb. they made hast, they forgat.

14. But lusted exceedingly , in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desart.

To wit, for flesh, as the next Verse sheweth.

Marginal references: Num. 11. 4. 33. 1 Cor. 10. 6.; Heb. lusted i[illegible: 1+ letters] lust.

15. 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.

Marginal references: Num. 11. 31.

16. 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.

Marginal references: Num. 16. 1, 1[illegible: 1+ letters]

17. The earth opened, and swallowed up Dathan , and covered the company of Abiram.

With his company, which is sufficiently understood out of the following clause, and out of the History, Numb. 16.

Marginal references: Num. 16. 31. Deut. 11. 16.

18. And a fire was kindled in their company , the flame burnt up the wicked.

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.

Marginal references: Num. 16. 35, [illegible: 1+ letters].

19. They made a calf in Horeb , and worshipped the molten Image.

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.

Marginal references: Exod. 32. 4.

20. Thus they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass .

As far as in them lay, and in respect of their Worship.

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 Golden Image of an Ox or Calf.

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.

Marginal references: Jer. 2. 11. [illegible: 1 word]. 1. 23.

23. Therefore he said that he would destroy them, had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach : to turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy them

He declared his intention in express words, as Exod. 32. 10. and elsewhere.

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[illegible: 1+ letters]. & 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.

Marginal references: Exod. 32. 10, 11, 32.

24. Yea, they despised the pleasant land : they believed not his word :

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.

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.

(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.

Marginal references: Heb. a land of [illegible: 1 word].

25. 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.

Marginal references: Num. 14. 2.

26. Therefore he lifted up his hand against them, to overthrow them in the wilderness:

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.

Marginal references: Num. 14. 28.

27. To overthrow their seed also among the Nations, and to scatter them in the lands.

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[illegible: 1+ letters] ▪ 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.

Marginal references: Heb. to make them fall.; Psal. 44. 11. Ezek. 20. 23.

28. They joyned themselves also unto Baal-peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead .

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.

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.

Marginal references: Num. 25. 2, 3. & 31. 16. Rev. 2. 14.

31. And that was counted unto him for righteousness , unto all generations for evermore.

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.

32. 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.

Marginal references: Num. 20. [illegible: 1+ letters], 12, 13.

33. Because they provoked his spirit, so that he spake unadvisedly with his lips.

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.

34. They did not destroy the nations, concerning whom the Lord commanded them.

(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.

Marginal references: Judg. 1. 21, 27.; Deut. 7. 2.

35. But were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works.

In their Habitations and Negotiations, as also in Marriages.

Marginal references: Judg. 1. 21. & 2. 2. & 3. 5, 6.

36. 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.

37. Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils :

Of which Heathenish practice, see the notes on Levit. 18. 21.

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.

Marginal references: 2 Kings 16. 3. Isai. 57. 5. Ezek. 16. 20. & 20. 26.

38. And shed innocent blood , 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.

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.

Marginal references: Numb. 35. 33.

39. 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.

43. Many times did he deliver them, but they provoked him with their counsel , and were brought low for their iniquity.

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.

Marginal references: Judg. 2. 16.; Or, impoverished, or, weakned.

45. And he remembred for them his covenant and repented according to the multitude of his mercies.

The Covenant made with their Fathers, which, notwithstanding their horrible violation of it, he made good unto them, and in consideration thereof delivered them.

Changed his course and dealing with them, as penitent Persons usually do. See the Note on Gen. 6. 6.

Marginal references: Deut. 30. 3.

46. 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.

Marginal references: 1 Kings 8. 50. Jer. 42. 12.

47. Save us, O LORD our God , and gather us from among the heathen, to give thanks unto thy holy name, and to triumph in thy praise .

O thou who hast so often pardoned and saved us, notwithstanding our former and manifold provocations, be thou pleased once more to deliver us.

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.

Israel’s Unfaithfulness from Egypt Onwards, and God’s Faithfulness Down to the Present Time

With this anonymous Psalm begins the series of the strictly Hallelujah-Psalms, i.e., those Psalms which have הללו־יה for their arsis-like beginning and for their inscription (Ps 106, 111-113, Psa 117:1-2, 135, 146-150). The chronicler in his cento, 1Ch 16:8., and in fact in 1Ch 16:34-36, puts the first and last verses of this Psalm (Psa 106:1, Psa 106:47), together with the Beracha (Psa 106:48) which closes the Fourth Book of the Psalms, into the mouth of David, from which it is to be inferred that this Psalm is no more Maccabaean than Psa 96:1-13 and Ps 105 (which see), and that the Psalter was divided into five books which were marked off by the doxologies even in the time of the chronicler. The Beracha, Psa 106:48, appears even at that period to have been read as an integral part of the Psalm, according to liturgical usage. The Hallelujah Psalms 106, like the Hodu Ps 105 and the Asaph Ps 78, recapitulates the history of the olden times of the Israelitish nation. But the purpose and mode of the recapitulation differ in each of these three Psalms. In Ps 78 it is didactic; in Ps 105 hymnic; and here in Psalms 106 penitential. It is a penitential Psalm, or Psalm of confession, a ודּוּי (from התודּה to confess, Lev 16:21). The oldest types of such liturgical prayers are the two formularies at the offering of the first-fruits, Deut. 26, and Solomon’s prayer at the dedication of the Temple, 1 Kings 8. And to this kind of tephilla, the Vidduj, belong, beyond the range of the Psalter, the prayer of Daniel, Dan 9:1 (vid., the way in which it is introduced in Dan 9:4), and the prayer (Neh 9:5-38) which eight Levites uttered in the name of the people at the celebration of the fast-day on the twenty-fourth of Tishri. It is true Psalms 106 is distinguished from these prayers of confession in the prose style as being a Psalm; but it has three points in common with them and with the liturgical tephilla in general, viz., (1) the fondness for inflexional rhyming, i.e., for rhyming terminations of the same suffixes; (2) the heaping up of synonyms; and (3) the unfolding of the thoughts in a continuous line. These three peculiarities are found not only in the liturgical border, Psa 106:1-6, Psa 106:47, but also in the middle historical portion, which forms the bulk of the Psalm. The law of parallelism, is, it is true, still observed; but apart from these distichic wave-like ridges of the thoughts, it is all one direct, straight-line flow without technical division.

Psa 106:1-5

The Psalm begins with the liturgical call, which has not coined for the first time in the Maccabaean age (1 Macc. 4:24), but was already in use in Jeremiah’s time (Psa 33:11). The lxx appropriately renders טּוב by χρηστός, for God is called “good” not so much in respect of His nature as of the revelation of His nature. The fulness of this revelation, says Psa 106:2 (like Psa 40:6), is inexhaustible. גּבוּרות are the manifestations of His all-conquering power which makes everything subservient to His redemptive purposes (Psa 20:7); and תּהלּה is the glory (praise or celebration) of His self-attestation in history. The proclaiming of these on the part of man can never be an exhaustive echo of them. In Psa 106:3 the poet tells what is the character of those who experience such manifestations of God; and to the assertion of the blessedness of these men he appends the petition in Psa 106:4, that God would grant him a share in the experiences of the whole nation which is the object of these manifestations. עמּך beside בּרצון is a genitive of the object: with the pleasure which Thou turnest towards Thy people, i.e., when Thou again (cf. Psa 106:47) showest Thyself gracious unto them. On פּקד cf. Psa 8:5; Psa 80:15, and on ראה ב, Jer 29:32; a similar Beth is that beside לשׂמח (at, on account of, not: in connection with), Psa 21:2; Psa 122:1. God’s “inheritance” is His people; the name for them is varied four times, and thereby גּוי is also exceptionally brought into use, as in Zep 2:9.

Psa 106:6-12

The key-note of the vidduj, which is a settled expression since 1Ki 8:47 (Dan 9:5, cf. Bar. 2:12), makes itself heard here in Psa 106:6; Israel is bearing at this time the punishment of its sins, by which it has made itself like its forefathers. In this needy and helpless condition the poet, who all along speaks as a member of the assembly, takes the way of the confession of sin, which leads to the forgiveness of sin and to the removal of the punishment of sin. רשׁע, 1Ki 8:47, signifies to be, and the Hiph. to prove one’s self to be, a רשׁע. עם in Psa 106:6 is equivalent to aeque ac, as in Ecc 2:16; Job 9:26. With Psa 106:7 the retrospect begins. The fathers contended with Moses and Aaron in Egypt (Exo 5:21), and gave no heed to the prospect of redemption (Exo 6:9). The miraculous judgments which Moses executed (Exo 3:20) had no more effect in bringing them to a right state of mind, and the abundant tokens of loving-kindness (Isa 63:7) amidst which God redeemed them made so little impression on their memories that they began to despair and to murmur even at the Red Sea (Exo 14:11.). With על, Psa 106:7, alternates בּ (as in Eze 10:15, בּנהר); cf. the alternation of prepositions in Joe 3:8. When they behaved thus, Jahve might have left their redemption unaccomplished, but out of unmerited mercy He nevertheless redeemed them. Psa 106:8-11 are closely dependent upon Ex. 14. Psa 106:11 is a transposition (cf. Psa 34:21; Isa 34:16) from Exo 14:28. On the other hand, Psa 106:9 is taken out of Isa 63:13 (cf. Wisd. 19:9); Isa. 63:7-64:12 is a prayer for redemption which has a similar ground-colouring. The sea through which they passed is called, as in the Tôra, ים־סוּף, which seems, according to Exo 2:3; Isa 19:3, to signify the sea of reed or sedge, although the sedge does not grow in the Red Sea itself, but only on the marshy places of the coast; but it can also signify the sea of sea-weed, mare algosum, after the Egyptian sippe, wool and sea-weed (just as Arab. ṣûf also signifies both these). The word is certainly Egyptian, whether it is to be referred back to the Egyptian word sippe (sea-weed) or seebe (sedge), and is therefore used after the manner of a proper name; so that the inference drawn by Knobel on Exo 8:18 from the absence of the article, that סוּף is the name of a town on the northern point of the gulf, is groundless. The miracle at the sea of sedge or sea-weed - as Psa 106:12 says - also was not without effect. Exo 14:31 tells us that they believed on Jahve and Moses His servant, and the song which they sang follows in Ex. 15. But they then only too quickly added sins of ingratitude.

Psa 106:13-23

The first of the principal sins on the other side of the Red Sea was the unthankful, impatient, unbelieving murmuring about their meat and drink, Psa 106:13-15. For what Psa 106:13 places foremost was the root of the whole evil, that, falling away from faith in God’s promise, they forgot the works of God which had been wrought in confirmation of it, and did not wait for the carrying out of His counsel. The poet has before his eye the murmuring for water on the third day after the miraculous deliverance (Exo 15:22-24) and in Rephidim (Exo 17:2). Then the murmuring for flesh in the first and second years of the Exodus which was followed by the sending of the quails (Ex. 16 and Num. 11), together with the wrathful judgment by which the murmuring for the second time was punished (Kibrôth ha - Ta'avah, Num 11:33-35). This dispensation of wrath the poet calls רזון (lxx, Vulgate, and Syriac erroneously πλησμονήν, perhaps מזון, nourishment), inasmuch as he interprets Num 11:33-35 of a wasting disease, which swept away the people in consequence of eating inordinately of the flesh, and in the expression (cf. Psa 78:31) he closely follows Isa 10:16. The “counsel” of God for which they would not wait, is His plan with respect to the time and manner of the help. חכּה, root Arab. ḥk, a weaker power of Arab. ḥq, whence also Arab. ḥkl, p. 111, ḥkm, p. 49 note 1, signifies prop. to make firm, e.g., a knot (cf. on Psa 33:20), and starting from this (without the intervention of the metaphor moras nectere, as Schultens thinks) is transferred to a firm bent of mind, and the tension of long expectation. The epigrammatic expression ויּתאוּוּ תאוה (plural of ויתאו, Isa 45:12, for which codices, as also in Pro 23:3, Pro 23:6; Pro 24:1, the Complutensian, Venetian 1521, Elias Levita, and Baer have ויתאו without the tonic lengthening) is taken from Num 11:4.

The second principal sin was the insurrection against their superiors, Psa 106:16-18. The poet has Num 16:1 in his eye. The rebellious ones were swallowed up by the earth, and their two hundred and fifty noble, non-Levite partisans consumed by fire. The fact that the poet does not mention Korah among those who were swallowed up is in perfect harmony with Num 16:25., Deu 11:6; cf. however Num 26:10. The elliptical תפתּה in Psa 106:17 is explained from Num 16:32; Num 26:10.

The third principal sin was the worship of the calf, Psa 106:19-23. The poet here glances back at Ex. 32, but not without at the same time having Deu 9:8-12 in his mind; for the expression “in Horeb” is Deuteronomic, e.g., Deu 4:15; Deu 5:2, and frequently. Psa 106:20 is also based upon the Book of Deuteronomy: they exchanged their glory, i.e., the God who was their distinction before all peoples according to Deu 4:6-8; Deu 10:21 (cf. also Jer 2:11), for the likeness (תּבנית) of a plough-ox (for this is pre-eminently called שׁוּר, in the dialects תּור), contrary to the prohibition in Deu 4:17. On Psa 106:21 cf. the warning in Deu 6:12. “Land of Cham” = Egypt, as in Psa 78:51; Psa 105:23, Psa 105:27. With ויאמר in Psa 106:23 the expression becomes again Deuteronomic: Deu 9:25, cf. Exo 32:10. God made and also expressed the resolve to destroy Israel. Then Moses stepped into the gap (before the gap), i.e., as it were covered the breach, inasmuch as he placed himself in it and exposed his own life; cf. on the fact, besides Ex. 32, also Deu 9:18., Psa 10:10, and on the expression, Eze 22:30 and also Jer 18:20.

Psa 106:24-33

The fact to which the poet refers in Psa 106:24, viz., the rebellion in consequence of the report of the spies, which he brings forward as the fourth principal sin, is narrated in Num 13, Num 14. The appellation ארץ חמדּה is also found in Jer 3:19; Zec 7:14. As to the rest, the expression is altogether Pentateuchal. “They despised the land,” after Num 14:31; “they murmured in their tents,” after Deu 1:27; “to lift up the land” = to swear, after Exo 6:8; Deu 32:40; the threat להפּיל, to make them fall down, fall away, after Num 14:29, Num 14:32. The threat of exile is founded upon the two great threatening chapters, Lev 26; Deu 28:1; cf. more particularly Lev 26:33 (together with the echoes in Eze 5:12; Eze 12:14, etc.), Deu 28:64 (together with the echoes in Jer 9:15; Eze 22:15, etc.). Eze 20:23 stands in a not accidental relationship to Psa 106:26.; and according to that passage, וּלהפיל is an error of the copyist for וּלהפיץ (Hitzig).

Now follows in Psa 106:28-31 the fifth of the principal sins, viz., the taking part in the Moabitish worship of Baal. The verb נצמד (to be bound or chained), taken from Num 25:3, Num 25:5, points to the prostitution with which Baal Peôr, this Moabitish Priapus, was worshipped. The sacrificial feastings in which, according to Num 25:2, they took part, are called eating the sacrifices of the dead, because the idols are dead beings (nekroi', Wisd. 13:10-18) as opposed to God, the living One. The catena on Rev 2:14 correctly interprets: τὰ τοῖς εἰδώλοις τελεσθέντα κρέα.In the second section of Aboda zara, on the words of the Mishna: “The flesh which is intended to be offered first of all to idols is allowed, but that which comes out of the temple is forbidden, because it is like sacrifices of the dead,” it is observed, fol. 32 b: “Whence, said R. Jehuda ben Bethêra, do I know that that which is offered to idols (תקרובת לעבדה זרה) pollutes like a dead body? From Psa 106:28. As the dead body pollutes everything that is under the same roof with it, so also does everything that is offered to idols.” The Apostle Paul declares the objectivity of this pollution to be vain, cf. more particularly 1Co 10:28.

The object of “they made angry” is omitted; the author is fond of this, cf. Psa 106:7 and Psa 106:32. The expression in Psa 106:29 is like Exo 19:24. The verb עמד is chosen with reference to Num 17:13. The result is expressed in Psa 106:30 after Num 25:8, Num 25:18., Num 17:13. With פּלּל, to adjust, to judge adjustingly (lxx, Vulgate, correctly according to the sense, ἐξιλάσατο), the poet associates the thought of the satisfaction due to divine right, which Phinehas executed with the javelin. This act of zeal for Jahve, which compensated for Israel’s unfaithfulness, was accounted unto him for righteousness, by his being rewarded for it with the priesthood unto everlasting ages, Num 25:10-13. This accounting of a work for righteousness is only apparently contradictory to Gen 15:5.: it was indeed an act which sprang from a constancy in faith, and one which obtained for him the acceptation of a righteous man for the sake of this upon which it was based, by proving him to be such.

In Psa 106:32, Psa 106:33 follows the sixth of the principal sins, viz., the insurrection against Moses and Aaron at the waters of strife in the fortieth year, in connection with which Moses forfeited the entrance with them into the Land of Promise (Num 20:11., Deu 1:37; Deu 32:51), since he suffered himself to be carried away by the persevering obstinacy of the people against the Spirit of God (המרה mostly providing the future for מרה, as in Psa 106:7, Psa 106:43, Psa 78:17, Psa 78:40, Psa 78:56, of obstinacy against God; on את־רוּחו cf. Isa 63:10) into uttering the words addressed to the people, Num 20:10, in which, as the smiting of the rock which was twice repeated shows, is expressed impatience together with a tinge of unbelief. The poet distinguishes, as does the narrative in Num. 20, between the obstinacy of the people and the transgression of Moses, which is there designated, according to that which lay at the root of it, as unbelief. The retrospective reference to Num 27:14 needs adjustment accordingly.

Psa 106:34-43

The sins in Canaan: the failing to exterminate the idolatrous peoples and sharing in their idolatry. In Psa 106:34 the poet appeals to the command, frequently enjoined upon them from Exo 23:32. onwards, to extirpate the inhabitants of Canaan. Since they did not execute this command (vid., Jdg 1:1), that which it was intended to prevent came to pass: the heathen became to them a snare (mowqeesh), Exo 23:33; Exo 34:12; Deu 7:16. They intermarried with them, and fell into the Canaanitish custom in which the abominations of heathenism culminate, viz., the human sacrifice, which Jahve abhorreth (Deu 12:31), and only the demons (שׁדים, Deu 32:17) delight in. Thus then the land was defiled by blood-guiltiness (חנף, Num 35:33, cf. Isa 24:5; Isa 26:21), and they themselves became unclean (Eze 20:43) by the whoredom of idolatry. In Psa 106:40-43 the poet (as in Neh 9:26.) sketches the alternation of apostasy, captivity, redemption, and relapse which followed upon the possession of Canaan, and more especially that which characterized the period of the judges. God’s “counsel” was to make Israel free and glorious, but they leaned upon themselves, following their own intentions (בּעצתם); wherefore they perished in their sins. The poet uses מכך (to sink down, fall away) instead of the נמק (to moulder, rot) of the primary passage, Lev 26:39, retained in Eze 24:23; Eze 33:10, which is no blunder (Hitzig), but a deliberate change.

Psa 106:44-46

The poet’s range of vision here widens from the time of the judges to the history of the whole of the succeeding age down to the present; for the whole history of Israel has essentially the same fundamental character, viz., that Israel’s unfaithfulness does not annul God’s faithfulness. That verifies itself even now. That which Solomon in 1Ki 8:50 prays for on behalf of his people when they may be betrayed into the hands of the enemy, has been fulfilled in the case of the dispersion of Israel in all countries (Psa 107:3), Babylonia, Egypt, etc.: God has turned the hearts of their oppressors towards them. On ראה ב, to regard compassionately, cf. Gen 29:32; 1Sa 1:11. בּצּר לחם belong together, as in Psa 107:6, and frequently. רנּה is a cry of lamentation, as in 1Ki 8:28 in Solomon’s prayer at the dedication of the Temple. From this source comes Psa 106:6, and also from this source Psa 106:46, cf. 1Ki 8:50 together with Neh 1:11. In ויּנּחם the drawing back of the tone does not take place, as in Gen 24:67. חסדו beside כּרב is not pointed by the Kerî חסדּו, as in Psa 5:8; Psa 69:14, but as in Lam 3:32, according to Psa 106:7, Isa 63:7, חסדו: in accordance with the fulness (riches) of His manifold mercy or loving-kindness. The expression in Psa 106:46 is like Gen 43:14. Although the condition of the poet’s fellow-countrymen in the dispersion may have been tolerable in itself, yet this involuntary scattering of the members of the nation is always a state of punishment. The poet prays in Psa 106:47 that God may be pleased to put an end to this.

Psa 106:47

He has now reached the goal, to which his whole Psalm struggles forth, by the way of self-accusation and the praise of the faithfulness of God. השׁתּבּח (found only here) is the reflexive of the Piel, to account happy, Ecc 4:2, therefore: in order that we may esteem ourselves happy to be able to praise Thee. In this reflexive (and also passive) sense השׁתבח is customary in Aramaic and post-biblical Hebrew.

Psa 106:48

The closing doxology of the Fourth Book. The chronicler has ואמרוּ before Psa 106:47 (which with him differs only very slightly), an indispensable rivet, so to speak, in the fitting together of Psa 106:1 (Psa 107:1) and Psa 106:47. The means this historian, who joins passages together like mosaic-work, calls to his aid are palpable enough. He has also taken over. Psa 106:48 by transforming and let all the people say Amen, Hallelujah! in accordance with his style (cf. 1Ch 25:3; 2Ch 5:13, and frequently, Ezr 3:11), into an historical clause: ויּאמרוּ כל־העם אמן והלּל ליהוה. Hitzig, by regarding the echoes of the Psalms in the chronicler as the originals of the corresponding Psalms in the Psalter, and consequently 1Ch 16:36 as the original of the Beracha placed after our Psalm, reverses the true relation; vid., with reference to this point, Riehm in the Theolog. Literat. Blatt, 1866, No. 30, and Köhler in the Luther. Zeitschrift, 1867, S. 297ff. The priority of Ps 106 is clear from the fact that Psa 106:1 gives a liturgical key-note that was in use even in Jeremiah’s time (Psa 33:11), and that Psa 106:47 reverts to the tephilla-style of the introit, Psa 106:4. And the priority of Psa 106:48 as a concluding formula of the Fourth Book is clear from the fact that is has been fashioned, like that of the Second Book (Psa 72:18.), under the influence of the foregoing Psalm. The Hallelujah is an echo of the Hallelujah-Psalm, just as there the Jahve Elohim is an echo of the Elohim-Psalm. And “let all the people say Amen” is the same closing thought as in Psa 106:6 of Ps, which is made into the closing doxology of the whole Psalter. Ἀμὴν ἀλληλούΐα together (Rev 19:4) is a laudatory confirmation.

Praise for Divine Goodness.

1 Praise ye the Lord . O give thanks unto the Lord ; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. 2 Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord ? who can show forth all his praise? 3 Blessed are they that keep judgment, and he that doeth righteousness at all times. 4 Remember me, O Lord , with the favour that thou bearest unto thy people: O visit me with thy salvation; 5 That I may see the good of thy chosen, that I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation, that I may glory with thine inheritance.

We are here taught,

I. To bless God (v. 1, 2): Praise you the Lord, that is, 1. Give him thanks for his goodness, the manifestation of it to us, and the many instances of it. He is good and his mercy endures for ever; let us therefore own our obligations to him and make him a return of our best affections and services. 2. Give him the glory of his greatness, his mighty acts, proofs of his almighty power, wherein he has done great things, and such as would be opposed. Who can utter these? Who is worthy to do it? Who is able to do it? They are so many that they cannot be numbered, so mysterious that they cannot be described; when we have said the most we can of the mighty acts of the Lord, the one half is not told; still there is more to be said; it is a subject that cannot be exhausted. We must show forth his praise; we may show forth some of it, but who can show forth all? Not the angels themselves. This will not excuse us in not doing what we can, but should quicken us to do all we can.

II. To bless the people of God, to call and account them happy (v. 3): Those that keep judgment are blessed, for they are fit to be employed in praising God. God's people are those whose principles are sound—They keep judgment (they adhere to the rules of wisdom and religion, and their practices are agreeable); they do righteousness, are just to God and to all men, and herein they are steady and constant; they do it at all times, in all manner of conversation, at every turn, in every instance, and herein persevering to the end.

III. To bless ourselves in the favour of God, to place our happiness in it, and to seek it, accordingly, with all seriousness, as the psalmist here, v. 4, 5. 1. He has an eye to the lovingkindness of God, as the fountain of all happiness: "Remember me, O Lord! to give me that mercy and grace which I stand in need of, with the favour which thou bearest to thy people." As there are a people in the world who are in a peculiar manner God's people, so there is a peculiar favour which God bears to that people, which all gracious souls desire an interest in; and we need desire no more to make us happy. 2. He has an eye to the salvation of God, the great salvation, that of the soul, as the foundation of happiness: O visit me with thy salvation. "Afford me (says Dr. Hammond) that pardon and that grace which I stand in need of, and can hope for from none but thee." Let that salvation be my portion for ever, and the pledges of it my present comfort. 3. He has an eye to the blessedness of the righteous, as that which includes all good (v. 5): "That I may see the good of thy chosen and be as happy as the saints are; and happier I do not desire to be." God's people are here called his chosen, his nation, his inheritance; for he has set them apart for himself, incorporated them under his own government, is served by them and glorified in them. The chosen people of God have a good which is peculiar to them, which is the matter both of their gladness and of their glorying, which is their pleasure, and their praise. God's people have reason to be a cheerful people, and to boast in their God all the day long; and those who have that gladness, that glory, need not envy any of the children of men their pleasure or pride. The gladness of God's nation, and the glory of his inheritance, are enough to satisfy any man; for they have everlasting joy and glory at the end of them.

The Sins of Israelites.

6 We have sinned with our fathers, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly. 7 Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt; they remembered not the multitude of thy mercies; but provoked him at the sea, even at the Red sea. 8 Nevertheless he saved them for his name's sake, that he might make his mighty power to be known. 9 He rebuked the Red sea also, and it was dried up: so he led them through the depths, as through the wilderness. 10 And he saved them from the hand of him that hated them, and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy. 11 And the waters covered their enemies: there was not one of them left. 12 Then believed they his words; they sang his praise.

Here begins a penitential confession of sin, which was in a special manner seasonable now that the church was in distress; for thus we must justify God in all that he brings upon us, acknowledging that therefore he has done right, because we have done wickedly; and the remembrance of former sins, notwithstanding which God did not cast off his people, is an encouragement to us to hope that, though we are justly corrected for our sins, yet we shall not be utterly abandoned.

I. God's afflicted people here own themselves guilty before God (v. 6): "We have sinned with our fathers, that is, like our fathers, after the similitude of their transgression. We have added to the stock of hereditary guilt, and filled up the measure of our fathers' iniquity, to augment yet the fierce anger of the Lord," Num. xxxii. 14; Matt. xxiii. 32. And see how they lay a load upon themselves, as becomes penitents: "We have committed iniquity, that which is in its own nature sinful, and we have done wickedly; we have sinned with a high hand presumptuously." Or this is a confession, not only of their imitation of, but their interest in, their fathers' sins: We have sinned with our fathers, for we were in their loins and we bear their iniquity, Lam. v. 7.

II. They bewail the sins of their fathers when they were first formed into a people, which, since children often smart for, they are concerned to sorrow for, even further than to the third and fourth generation. Even we now ought to take occasion from the history of Israel's rebellions to lament the depravity and perverseness of man's nature and its unaptness to be amended by the most probable means. Observe here,

1. The strange stupidity of Israel in the midst of the favours God bestowed upon them (v. 7): They understood not thy wonders in Egypt. They saw them, but they did not rightly apprehend the meaning and design of them. Blessed are those that have not seen, and yet have understood. They thought the plagues of Egypt were intended for their deliverance, whereas they were intended also for their instruction and conviction, not only to force them out of their Egyptian slavery, but to cure them of their inclination to Egyptian idolatry, by evidencing the sovereign power and dominion of the God of Israel, above all gods, and his particular concern for them. We lose the benefit of providences for want of understanding them. And, as their understandings were dull, so their memories were treacherous; though one would think such astonishing events should never have been forgotten, yet they remembered them not, at least they remembered not the multitude of God's mercies in them. Therefore God is distrusted because his favours are not remembered.

2. Their perverseness arising from this stupidity: They provoked him at the sea, even at the Red Sea. The provocation was, despair of deliverance (because the danger was great) and wishing they had been left in Egypt still, Exod. xiv. 11, 12. Quarrelling with God's providence, and questioning his power, goodness, and faithfulness, are as great provocations to him as any whatsoever. The place aggravated the crime; it was at the sea, at the Red Sea, when they had newly come out of Egypt and the wonders God had wrought for them were fresh in their minds; yet they reproach him, as if all that power had no mercy in it, but he had brought them out of Egypt on purpose to kill them in the wilderness. They never lay at God's mercy so immediately as in their passage through the Red Sea, yet there they affront it, and provoke his wrath.

3. The great salvation God wrought for them notwithstanding their provocations, v. 8-11. (1.) He forced a passage for them through the sea: He rebuked the Red Sea for standing in their way and retarding their march, and it was dried up immediately; as, in the creation, at God's rebuke the waters fled, Ps. civ. 7. Nay, he not only prepared them a way, but, by the pillar of cloud and fire, he led them into the sea, and, by the conduct of Moses, led them through it as readily as through the wilderness. He encouraged them to take those steps, and subdued their fears, when those were their most dangerous and threatening enemies. See Isa. lxiii. 12-14. (2.) He interposed between them and their pursuers, and prevented them from cutting them off, as they designed. The Israelites were all on foot, and the Egyptians had all of them chariots and horses, with which they were likely to overtake them quickly, but God saved them from the hand of him that hated them, namely, Pharaoh, who never loved them, but now hated them the more for the plagues he had suffered on their account. From the hand of his enemy, who was just ready to seize them, God redeemed them (v. 10), interposing himself, as it were, in the pillar of fire, between the persecuted and the persecutors. (3.) To complete the mercy, and turn the deliverance into a victory, the Red Sea, which was a lane to them, was a grave to the Egyptians (v. 11): The waters covered their enemies, so as to slay them, but not so as to conceal their shame; for, the next tide, they were thrown up dead upon the shore, Exod. xiv. 30. There was not one of them left alive, to bring tidings of what had become of the rest. And why did God do this for them? Nay, why did he not cover them, as he did their enemies, for their unbelief and murmuring? He tells us (v. 8): it was for his name's sake. Though they did not deserve this favour, he designed it; and their undeservings should not alter his designs, nor break his measures, nor make him withdraw his promise, or fail in the performance of it. He did this for his own glory, that he might make his mighty power to be known, not only in dividing the sea, but in doing it notwithstanding their provocations. Moses prays (Num. xiv. 17, 19), Let the power of my Lord be great and pardon the iniquity of this people. The power of the God of grace in pardoning sin and sparing sinners is as much to be admired as the power of the God of nature in dividing the waters.

4. The good impression this made upon them for the present (v. 12): Then believed they his words, and acknowledged that God was with them of a truth, and had, in mercy to them, brought them out of Egypt, and not with any design to slay them in the wilderness; then they feared the Lord and his servant Moses, Exod. xiv. 31. Then they sang his praise, in that song of Moses penned on this great occasion, Exod. xv. 1. See in what a gracious and merciful way God sometimes silences the unbelief of his people, and turns their fears into praises; and so it is written, Those that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and those that murmured shall learn doctrine, Isa. xxix. 24.

Provocation of Israel in the Wilderness.

13 They soon forgat his works; they waited not for his counsel: 14 But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert. 15 And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul. 16 They envied Moses also in the camp, and Aaron the saint of the Lord . 17 The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, and covered the company of Abiram. 18 And a fire was kindled in their company; the flame burned up the wicked. 19 They made a calf in Horeb, and worshipped the molten image. 20 Thus they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass. 21 They forgat God their saviour, which had done great things in Egypt; 22 Wondrous works in the land of Ham, and terrible things by the Red sea. 23 Therefore he said that he would destroy them, had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach, to turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy them. 24 Yea, they despised the pleasant land, they believed not his word: 25 But murmured in their tents, and hearkened not unto the voice of the Lord . 26 Therefore he lifted up his hand against them, to overthrow them in the wilderness: 27 To overthrow their seed also among the nations, and to scatter them in the lands. 28 They joined themselves also unto Baal-peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead. 29 Thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions: and the plague brake in upon them. 30 Then stood up Phinehas, and executed judgment: and so the plague was stayed. 31 And that was counted unto him for righteousness unto all generations for evermore. 32 They angered him also at the waters of strife, so that it went ill with Moses for their sakes: 33 Because they provoked his spirit, so that he spake unadvisedly with his lips.

This is an abridgment of the history of Israel's provocations in the wilderness, and of the wrath of God against them for those provocations: and this abridgment is abridged by the apostle, with application to us Christians (1 Cor. x. 5, &c.); for these things were written for our admonition, that we sin not like them, lest we suffer like them.

I. The cause of their sin was disregard to the works and word of God, v. 13. 1. They minded not what he had done for them: They soon forgot his works, and lost the impressions they had made upon them. Those that do not improve God's mercies to them, nor endeavour in some measure to render according to the benefit done unto them, do indeed forget them. This people soon forgot them (God took notice of this, Exod. xxxii. 8, They have turned aside quickly): They made haste, they forgot his works (so it is in the margin), which some make to be two separate instances of their sin. They made haste; their expectations anticipated God's promises; they expected to be in Canaan shortly, and because they were not they questioned whether they should ever be there and quarrelled with all the difficulties they met with in their way; whereas he that believeth does not make haste, Isa. xxviii. 16. And, withal, they forgot his works, which were the undeniable evidences of his wisdom, power, and goodness, and denied the conclusion as confidently as if they had never seen the premises proved. This is mentioned again (v. 21, 22): They forgot God their Saviour; that is, they forgot that he had been their Saviour. Those that forget the works of God forget God himself, who makes himself known by his works. They forgot what was done but a few days before, which we may suppose they could not but talk of, even then, when, because they did not make a good use of it, they are said to forget it: it was what God did for them in Egypt, in the land of Ham, and by the Red Sea, things which we at this distance cannot, or should not, be unmindful of. They are called great things (for, though the great God does nothing mean, yet he does some things that are in a special manner great), wondrous works, out of the common road of Providence, therefore observable, therefore memorable, and terrible things, awful to them, and dreadful to their enemies, and yet soon forgotten. Even miracles that were seen passed away with them as tales that are told. 2. They minded not what God had said to them nor would they depend upon it: They waited not for his counsel, did not attend his word, though they had Moses to be his mouth to them; they took up resolves about which they did not consult him and made demands without calling upon him. They would be in Canaan directly, and had not patience to tarry God's time. The delay was intolerable, and therefore the difficulties were looked upon as insuperable. This is explained (v. 24): They believed not his word, his promise that he would make them masters of Canaan; and (v. 25), They hearkened not to the voice of the Lord, who gave them counsel which they would not wait for, not only by Moses and Aaron, but by Caleb and Joshua, Num. xiv. 6, 7, &c. Those that will not wait for God's counsel shall justly be given up to their own hearts' lusts, to walk in their own counsels.

II. Many of their sins are here mentioned, together with the tokens of God's displeasure which they fell under for those sins.

1. They would have flesh, and yet would not believe that God could give it to them (v. 14): They lusted a lust (so the word is) in the wilderness; there, where they had bread enough and to spare, yet nothing would serve them but they must have flesh to eat. They were now purely at God's finding, being supported entirely by miracles, so that this was a reflection upon the wisdom and goodness of their Creator. They were also, in all probability, within a step of Canaan, yet had not patience to stay for dainties till they came thither. They had flocks and herds of their own, but they will not kill them; God must give them flesh as he gave them bread, or they will never give him credit, or their good word. They did not only wish for flesh, but they lusted exceedingly after it. A desire, even of lawful things, when it is inordinate and violent, becomes sinful; and therefore this is called lusting after evil things (1 Cor. x. 6), though the quails, as God's gift, were good things, and were so spoken of, Ps. cv. 40. Yet this was not all: They tempted God in the desert, where they had had such experience of his goodness and power, and questioned whether he could and would gratify them herein. See Ps. lxxviii. 19, 20. Now how did God show his displeasure against them for this. We are told how (v. 15): He gave them their request, but gave it them in anger, and with a curse, for he sent leanness into their soul; he filled them with uneasiness of mind, and terror of conscience, and a self-reproach, occasioned by their bodies being sick with the surfeit, such as sometimes drunkards experience after a great debauch. Or this is put for that great plague with which the Lord smote them, while the flesh was yet between their teeth, as we read, Num. xi. 33. It was the consumption of the life. Note, (1.) What is asked in passion is often given in wrath. (2.) Many that fare deliciously every day, and whose bodies are healthful and fat, have, at the same time, leanness in their souls, no love to God, no thankfulness, no appetite to the bread of life, and then the soul must needs be lean. Those wretchedly forget themselves that feast their bodies and starve their souls. Then God gives the good things of this life in love, when with them he gives grace to glorify him in the use of them; for then the soul delights itself in fatness, Isa. lv. 2.

2. They quarrelled with the government which God had set over them both in church and state (v. 16): They envied Moses his authority in the camp, as generalissimo of the armies of Israel and chief justice in all their courts; they envied Aaron his power, as saint of the Lord, consecrated to the office of high priest, and Korah would needs put in for the pontificate, while Dathan and Abiram, as princes of the tribe of Reuben, Jacob's eldest son, would claim to be chief magistrates, by the so-much-admired right of primogeniture. Note, Those are preparing ruin for themselves who envy those whom God has put honour upon and usurp the dignities they were never designed for. And justly will contempt be poured upon those who put contempt upon any of the saints of the Lord. How did God show his displeasure for this? We are told how, and it is enough to make us tremble (v. 17, 18); we have the story, Num. xvi. 32, 35. (1.) Those that flew in the face of the civil authority were punished by the earth, which opened and swallowed them up, as not fit to go upon God's ground, because they would not submit to God's government. (2.) Those that would usurp the ecclesiastical authority in things pertaining to God suffered the vengeance of heaven, for fire came out from the Lord and consumed them, and the pretending sacrificers were themselves sacrificed to divine justice. The flame burnt up the wicked; for though they vied with Aaron, the saint of the Lord, for holiness (Num. xvi. 3, 5), yet God adjudged them wicked, and as such cut them off, as in due time he will destroy the man of sin, that wicked one, notwithstanding his proud pretensions to holiness.

3. They made and worshipped the golden calf, and this in Horeb, where the law was given, and where God had expressly said, Thou shalt neither make any graven image nor bow down to it; they did both: They made a calf and worshipped it, v. 19.

(1.) Herein they bade defiance to, and put an affront upon, the two great lights which God has made to rule the moral world:—[1.] That of human reason; for they changed their glory, their God, at least the manifestation of him, which always had been in a cloud (either a dark cloud or a bright one), without any manner of visible similitude, into the similitude of Apis, one of the Egyptian idols, an ox that eateth grass, than which nothing could be more grossly and scandalously absurd, v. 20. Idolaters are perfectly besotted, and put the greatest disparagement possible both upon God, in representing him by the image of a beast, and upon themselves, in worshipping it when they have so done. That which is here said to be the changing of their glory is explained by St. Paul (Rom. i. 23) to be the changing of the glory of the incorruptible God. [2.] That of divine revelation, which was afforded to them, not only in the words God spoke to them, but in the works he wrought for them, wondrous works, which declared aloud that the Lord Jehovah is the only true and living God and is alone to be worshipped, v. 21, 22.

(2.) For this God showed his displeasure by declaring the decree that he would cut them off from being a people, as they had, as far as lay in their power, in effect cut him off from being a God; he spoke of destroying them (v. 23), and certainly he would have done it if Moses, his chosen, had not stood before him in the breach (v. 23), if he had not seasonably interposed to deal with God as an advocate about the breach or ruin God was about to devote them to and wonderfully prevailed to turn away his wrath. See here the mercy of God, and how easily his anger is turned away, even from a provoking people. See the power of prayer, and the interest which God's chosen have in heaven. See a type of Christ, God's chosen, his elect, in whom his soul delights, who stood before him in the breach to turn away his wrath from a provoking world, and ever lives, for this end, making intercession.

4. They gave credit to the report of the evil spies concerning the land of Canaan, in contradiction to the promise of God (v. 24): They despised the pleasant land. Canaan was a pleasant land, Deut. viii. 7. They undervalued it when they thought it not worth venturing for, no, not under the guidance of God himself, and therefore were for making a captain and returning to Egypt again. They believed not God's word concerning it, but murmured in their tents, basely charging God with a design upon them in bringing them thither that they might become a prey to the Canaanites, Num. xiv. 2, 3. And, when they were reminded of God's power and promise, they were so far from hearkening to that voice of the Lord that they attempted to stone those who spoke to them, Num. xiv. 10. The heavenly Canaan is a pleasant land. A promise is left us of entering into it; but there are many that despise it, that neglect and refuse the offer of it, that prefer the wealth and pleasure of this world before it, and grudge the pains and hazards of this life to obtain that. This also was so displeasing to God that he lifted up his hand against them, in a way of threatening, to destroy them in the wilderness; nay, in a way of swearing, for he swore in his wrath that they should not enter into his rest (Ps. xcv. 11; Num. xiv. 28); nay, and he threatened that their children also should be overthrown and scattered (v. 26, 27), and the whole nation dispersed and disinherited; but Moses prevailed for mercy for their seed, that they might enter Canaan. Note, Those who despise God's favours, and particularly the pleasant land, forfeit his favours, and will be shut out for ever from the pleasant land.

5. They were guilty of a great sin in the matter of Peor; and this was the sin of the new generation, when they were within a step of Canaan (v. 28): They joined themselves to Baal-peor, and so were entangled both in idolatry and in adultery, in corporeal and in spiritual whoredom, Num. xxv. 1-3. Those that did often partake of the altar of the living God now ate the sacrifices of the dead, of the idols of Moab (that were dead images, or dead men canonized or deified), or sacrifices to the infernal deities on the behalf of their dead friends. Thus they provoked God to anger with their inventions (v. 29), in contempt of him and his institutions, his commands, and his threatenings. The iniquity of Peor was so great that, long after, it is said, They were not cleansed from it, Josh. xxii. 17. God testified his displeasure at this, (1.) By sending a plague among them, which in a little time swept away 24,000 of those impudent sinners. (2.) By stirring up Phinehas to use his power as a magistrate for the suppressing of the sin and checking the contagion of it. He stood up in his zeal for the Lord of hosts, and executed judgment upon Zimri and Cozbi, sinners of the first rank, genteel sinners; he put the law in execution upon them, and this was a service so pleasing to God that upon it the plague was stayed, v. 30. By this, and some other similar acts of public justice on that occasion (Num. xxv. 4, 5), the guilt ceased to be national, and the general controversy was let fall. When the proper officers did their duty God left it to them, and did not any longer keep the work in his own hands by the plague. Note, National justice prevents national judgments. But, Phinehas herein signalizing himself, a special mark of honour was put upon him, for what he did was counted to him for righteousness to all generations (v. 31), and, in recompence of it, the priesthood was entailed on his family. He shall make an atonement by offering up the sacrifices, who had so bravely made an atonement (so some read it, v. 30) by offering up the sinners. Note, It is the honour of saints to be zealous against sin.

6. They continued their murmurings to the very last of their wanderings; for in the fortieth year they angered God at the waters of strife (v. 32), which refers to that story, Num. xx. 3-5. And that which aggravated it now was that it went ill with Moses for their sakes; for, though he was the meekest of all the men in the earth, yet their clamours at that time were so peevish and provoking that they put him into a passion, and, having now grown very old and off his guard, he spoke unadvisedly with his lips (v. 33), and not as became him on that occasion; for he said in a heat, Hear now, you rebels, must we fetch water out of this rock for you? This was Moses's infirmity, and is written for our admonition, that we may learn, when we are in the midst of provocation, to keep our mouth as with a bridle (Ps. xxxix. 1-3), and to take heed to our spirits, that they admit not resentments too much; for, when the spirit is provoked, it is much ado, even for those that have a great deal of wisdom and grace, not to speak unadvisedly. But it is charged upon the people as their sin: They provoked his spirit with that with which they angered God himself. Note, We must answer not only for our own passions, but for the provocation which by them we give to the passions of others, especially of those who, if not greatly provoked, would be meek and quiet. God shows his displeasure against this sin of theirs by shutting Moses and Aaron out of Canaan for their misconduct upon this occasion, by which, (1.) God discovered his resentment of all such intemperate heats, even in the dearest of his servants. If he deals thus severely with Moses for one unadvised word, what does their sin deserve who have spoken so many presumptuous wicked words? If this was done in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry? (2.) God deprived them of the blessing of Moses's guidance and government at a time when they most needed it, so that his death was more a punishment to them than to himself. It is just with God to remove those relations from us that are blessings to us, when we are peevish and provoking to them and grieve their spirits.

Provocation of Israel in the Wilderness; The Divine Compassion.

34 They did not destroy the nations, concerning whom the Lord commanded them: 35 But were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works. 36 And they served their idols: which were a snare unto them. 37 Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils, 38 And shed innocent blood, 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. 39 Thus were they defiled with their own works, and went a whoring with their own inventions. 40 Therefore was the wrath of the Lord kindled against his people, insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance. 41 And he gave them into the hand of the heathen; and they that hated them ruled over them. 42 Their enemies also oppressed them, and they were brought into subjection under their hand. 43 Many times did he deliver them; but they provoked him with their counsel, and were brought low for their iniquity. 44 Nevertheless he regarded their affliction, when he heard their cry: 45 And he remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his mercies. 46 He made them also to be pitied of all those that carried them captives. 47 Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from among the heathen, to give thanks unto thy holy name, and to triumph in thy praise. 48 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting: and let all the people say, Amen. Praise ye the Lord .

Here, I. The narrative concludes with an account of Israel's conduct in Canaan, which was of a piece with that in the wilderness, and God's dealings with them, wherein, as all along, both justice and mercy appeared.

1. They were very provoking to God. The miracles and mercies which settled them in Canaan made no more deep and durable impressions upon them than those which fetched them out of Egypt; for by the time they were just settled in Canaan they corrupted themselves, and forsook God. Observe,

(1.) The steps of their apostasy. [1.] They spared the nations which God had doomed to destruction (v. 34); when they had got the good land God had promised them they had no zeal against the wicked inhabitants whom the Lord commanded them to extirpate, pretending pity; but so merciful is God that no man needs to be in any case more compassionate than he. [2.] When they spared them they promised themselves that, notwithstanding this, they would not join in any dangerous affinity with them. But the way of sin is down-hill; omissions make way for commissions; when they neglect to destroy the heathen the next news we hear is, They were mingled among the heathen, made leagues with them and contracted an intimacy with them, so that they learned their works, v. 35. That which is rotten will sooner corrupt that which is sound than be cured or made sound by it. [3.] When they mingled with them, and learned some of their works that seemed innocent diversions and entertainments, yet they thought they would never join with them in their worship; but by degrees they learned that too (v. 36): They served their idols in the same manner, and with the same rites, that they served them; and they became a snare to them. That sin drew on many more, and brought the judgments of God upon them, which they themselves could not but be sensible of and yet knew not how to recover themselves. [4.] When they joined with them in some of their idolatrous services, which they thought had least harm in them, they little thought that ever they should be guilty of that barbarous and inhuman piece of idolatry the sacrificing of their living children to their dead gods; but they came to that at last (v. 37, 38), in which Satan triumphed over his worshippers, and regaled himself in blood and slaughter: They sacrificed their sons and daughters, pieces of themselves, to devils, and added murder, the most unnatural murder, to their idolatry; one cannot think of it without horror. They shed innocent blood, the most innocent, for it was infant-blood, nay, it was the blood of their sons and their daughters. See the power of the spirit that works in the children of disobedience, and see his malice. The beginning of idolatry and superstition, like that of strife, is as the letting forth of water, and there is no villany which those that venture upon it can be sure they shall stop short of, for God justly gives them up to a reprobate mind, Rom. i. 28.

(2.) Their sin was, in part, their own punishment; for by it, [1.] They wronged their country: The land was polluted with blood, v. 38. That pleasant land, that holy land, was rendered uncomfortable to themselves, and unfit to receive those kind tokens of God's favour and presence in it which were designed to be its honour. [2.] They wronged their consciences (v. 39): They went a whoring with their own inventions, and so debauched their own minds, and were defiled with their own works, and rendered odious in the eyes of the holy God, and perhaps of their own consciences.

2. God brought his judgments upon them; and what else could be expected? For his name is Jealous, and he is a jealous God. (1.) He fell out with them for it, v. 40. He was angry with them: The wrath of God, that consuming fire, was kindled against his people; for from them he took it as more insulting and ungrateful than from the heathen that never knew him. Nay, he was sick of them: He abhorred his own inheritance, which once he had taken pleasure in; yet the change was not in him, but in them. This is the worst thing in sin, that it makes us loathsome to God; and the nearer any are to God in profession the more loathsome are they if they rebel against him, like a dunghill at our door. (2.) Their enemies then fell upon them, and, their defence having departed, made an easy prey of them (v. 41, 42): He gave them into the hands of the heathen. Observe here how the punishment answered to the sin: They mingled with the heathen and learned their works; from them they willingly took the infection of sin, and therefore God justly made use of them as the instruments of their correction. Sinners often see themselves ruined by those by whom they have suffered themselves to be debauched. Satan, who is a tempter, will be a tormentor. The heathen hated them. Apostates lose all the love on God's side, and get none on Satan's; and when those that hated them ruled over them, and they were brought into subjection under them, no marvel that they oppressed them and ruled them with rigour; and thus God made them know the difference between his service and the service of the kings of the countries, 2 Chron. xii. 8. (3.) When God granted them some relief, yet they went on in their sins, and their troubles also were continued, v. 43. This refers to the days of the Judges, when God often raised up deliverers and wrought deliverances for them, and yet they relapsed to idolatry and provoked God with their counsel, their idolatrous inventions, to deliver them up to some other oppressor, so that at last they were brought very low for their iniquity. Those that by sin disparage themselves, and will not by repentance humble themselves, are justly debased, and humbled, and brought low, by the judgments of God. (4.) At length they cried unto God, and God returned in favour to them, v. 44-46. They were chastened for their sins, but not destroyed, cast down, but not cast off. God appeared for them, [1.] As a God of mercy, who looked upon their grievances, regarded their affliction, beheld when distress was upon them (so some), who looked over their complaints, for he heard their cry with tender compassion (Exod. iii. 7) and overlooked their provocations; for though he had said, and had reason to say it, that he would destroy them, yet he repented, according to the multitude of his mercies, and reversed the sentence. Though he is not a man that he should repent, so as to change his mind, yet he is a gracious God, who pities us, and changes his way. [2.] As a God of truth, who remembered for them his covenant, and made good every word that he had spoken; and therefore, bad as they were, he would not break with them, because he would not break his own promise. [3.] As a God of power, who has all hearts in his hand, and turns them which way soever he pleases. He made them to be pitied even of those that carried them captives, and hated them, and ruled them with rigour. He not only restrained the remainder of their enemies' wrath, that it should not utterly consume them, but he infused compassion even into their stony hearts, and made them relent, which was more than any art of man could have done with the utmost force of rhetoric. Note, God can change lions into lambs, and, when a man's ways please the Lord, will make even his enemies to pity him and be at peace with him. When God pities men shall. Tranquillus Deus tranquillat omnia—A God at peace with us makes every thing at peace.

II. The psalm concludes with prayer and praise. 1. Prayer for the completing of his people's deliverance. Even when the Lord brought back the captivity of his people still there was occasion to pray, Lord, turn again our captivity (Ps. cxxvi. 1, 4); so here (v. 47), Save us, O Lord our God! and gather us from among the heathen. We may suppose that many who were forced into foreign countries, in the times of the Judges (as Naomi was, Ruth i. 1), had not returned in the beginning of David's reign, Saul's time being discouraging, and therefore it was seasonable to pray, Lord, gather the dispersed Israelites from among the heathen, to give thanks to thy holy name, not only that they may have cause to give thanks and hearts to give thanks, that they may have opportunity to do it in the courts of the Lord's house, from which they were now banished, and so may triumph in thy praise, over those that had in scorn challenged them to sing the Lord's song in a strange land. 2. Praise for the beginning and progress of it (v. 48): Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting. He is a blessed God from eternity, and will be so to eternity, and so let him be praised by all his worshippers. Let the priests say this, and then let all the people say, Amen, Hallelujah, in token of their cheerful concurrence in all these prayers, praises, and confessions. According to this rubric, or directory, we find that when this psalm (or at least the closing verses of it) was sung all the people said Amen, and praised the Lord by saying, Hallelujah. By these two comprehensive words it is very proper, in religious assemblies, to testify their joining with their ministers in the prayers and praises which, as their mouth, they offer up to God, according to his will, saying Amen to the prayers and Hallelujah to the praises.

PSAL. CVI.

HAlelu-jah; Confesse ye to Iehovah, for he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever. Who can expresse the powers of Iehovah, can cause to heare all his praise? O blessed are they that keepe judgement, is he that doth justice in all time. Remember me, Iehovah, with the favourable acceptation of thy people; visit me with thy salvation. To see the good of thy chosen, to rejoyce with the joy of thy nation, to glory with thy inheritance. We have sinned with our fathers, we have done crookedly, we have done wickedly.

Our fathers in Egypt did not prudently minde thy marvellous workes; they remembred not the multitude of thy mercies, but turned rebellious at the sea, at the red sea. Yet he saved them for his Name sake, to make knowne his power. And he rebuked the red sea, and it was dried up; and he led them in the deeps as in the wildernesse. And he saved them from the hand of the hater, and redeemed them from the hand of the enemie. And the waters covered their distressers, one of them was not left. And they beleeved in his words, they sang his praise.

They made haste, they forgat his workes, they waited not for his counsell. But lusted with lust in the wildernesse, and tempted God in the desart. And he gave to them their request, and sent leannesse into their soule.

And they envied at Moses in the campe, at Aharon the holy one of Iehovah. The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, and covered over the congregation of Abiram. And a fire burned in their congregation, a flame burnt up the wicked.

They made a calfe in Horeb, and bowed themselves to a molten Idoll. And turned their glory into the forme of an Oxe that eateth grasse. They forgat God their Saviour, that did great things in Egypt. Marvellous workes in the land of Cham, fearefull things by the red sea. And he said, to abolish them; had not Moses, his chosen, stood in the breach before him, to turne his wrathfull heat from destroying them.

And they contemptuously refused the land of desire, they beleeved not his Word. But murmured in their tents; they heard not the voice of Iehovah. And he lifted up his hand to them, to fell them in the wildernesse.

And to fell their seed among the heathens, and to fanne them in the lands.

And they were joyned to Baal-pehor, and did eat the sacrifices of the dead. And moved indignation by their actions, and the plague brake in upon them. And Phineas stood and executed judgement, and the plague was restrained. And it was counted to him for justice to generation and generation for ever.

And they caused servent wrath at the waters of Meribah, and evill was to Moses for their sake. For they bitterly provoked his spirit, and he pronounced it with his lips.

They abolished not the peoples which Iehovah had said unto them. But mixed themselves among the heathens, and learned their works.

And served their Idols, & they were to them for a snare. And they sacrified their sonnes and their daughters to Devils. And shed innocent bloud, the bloud of their sonnes and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed to the Idols of Canaan; and the land was impiously distained with blouds. And they defiled themselves by their workes, and whored by their practises. And the anger of Iehovah was kindled against his people, and hee abhorred his inheritance. And hee gave them into the hand of the heathens, and their haters ruled over them. And their enemies oppressed them, and they were humbled under their hand. Many times did hee deliver them, and they bitterly provoked by their counsell; and were brought downe by their iniquitie. Yet he saw when distresse was on them, when he heard their cry. And he remembred toward them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his mercies. And gave them to tender mercies, before all that led them captives.

Save thou us, Iehovah our God, and gather us from the heathens, for to confesse unto the Name of thine holinesse, to glory in thy praise. Blessed bee Iehovah, God of Israel, from eternitie and unto eternitie; and let all the people say, Amen, Halelu-jah.

Annotations. THe powers] that is, the powerfull workes, such as after follow, verse 8, &c. Thus also were Christs miracles named, Mat. 11. 20, 21. So after, praise for praise-worthy acts. cause to heare[illegible: 2 letters] that is, sound forth, or display, so as it may bee heard: so Psal. 26. 7. Vers. 4. visit mee] that is, come and bestow thy salvation (helpe or deliverance) upon mee: See Psalme 8. 5. and compare herewith. Luke 1. 68, 69. Vers. 5. To see] That I may see or enjoy; See the Notes on Psal. 27. 4. to glory] or boast joyfully; see Psal. 34. 3. thy inheritance] that is, the people whom thou inheritest see Psal. 28. 9. Vers. 6. sinned with our fathers] This confession agreeth with the law, Leviticus 26. 40. and with the practises of other godly, Ieremy. 3. 25. Dan. 9. 5. Vers. 7. turned rebellious] the Greeke salth, provoked to bitteruesses; see Psal. 5. 11. By the red sea the Israelites distrusted God, and murmured against Moses, Exod. 14. 11, 12. yet there he saved them, vers. 15. 16, &c. thered Sea] so the new Testament calleth it in Greeke, Heb. 11. 29. but the Hebrew is the sea Suph, that is, the sea of sedge or sea weeds which grew therein. Vers. 9. [illegible: 1 word] reb[illegible: 2 letters]ked] that is, powerfully repressed the waves, &c. See the like, Nahum 1. 4. Isa. 50. 2. Mat. 8. 26. Psal. 18. 16. in the deeps] Israel went in the bottome of the red sea on dry ground, the deepe waters being as walls on each hand of them, Exod. 14. 21, 22, 29 See also Isa. 63. 11, 12, 13. Vers. 10. the hater] Pharaoh and his host that pursued them, Exod. 14. 23, 24, 30. Vers. 12. they sang] as is expressed, Exod. 15. Vers. 14. with lust] that is, greedily, even weeping for desire of flesh to eat, and loathing Manna, Numb. 11. 4. 6. Vers. 15. leannesse] a sudden plague, whereby the soules or lives of the fatrest of them were taken away: see Psal. 78. 30, 31. also Isa. 10. 16. Vers. 16. the holy one] sanctified of the Lord to the worke of the Priesthood, Exodus 29. 44. Levit. 8. 12, &c. which Korah with other Levites envied, opposing their own holinesse, Num. 16. 1, 3, 5. Vers. 17. Dathan] and Abiram, princes with their families and all their goods went downe alive into hell, Numb. 16. 32, 33. Vers. 18. the wicked] 2[illegible: 1 letter]0. men that would burne incense to the Lord, were burnt with fire from the Lord, Numbers 16. 35. Korach was the chiefe of them. Vers. 19. in Hereb] a mount in the wildernesse, called the mountaine of God, Exod. 3. 1. 1 King. 19. 8. for there God gave his Law, and made a covenant with them, Deut. 4. 10. and 5. 2. but while Moses was with God on the Mount, they made themselves a god of gold, Deuteronomy 9. 8, 9,—12. Exodus 32. 1, 4, 31. It was called also Sinai, Psalme 68. 9. of bushes that there grew, and Horeb of the drinesse, for it was a waterlesse desart, Deut. 8. 15. Vers. 20. their glorie] that is, their God: so Ier. 2. 11. Thus did they like the heathens, Rom. 1. 23. for me [illegible: 1 letter]patterne, structure, or type, as the Apostle calleth it in Greeke, Heb. 8. 5. from Exodus 25. 40. Vers. 23. to abolish] or, that hee would destroy them, and put out their name from under Heaven, as is expressed, Deut. 9. 13, 14. in the breach] in the gap which their sinne had opened, for God as an enemy to enter and destroy them. A similitude taken from warre, when by a breach in the wall, the enemy entreth the citie: so Ezek. 13. 5. and 22. 30. But Moses earnest prayer stopped this breach, Exodus 32. 11,—14. destroying] Heb. corrupting, that is, consuming them: See Psal. 57. 1. Vers. 24. land of desire] the pleasant land of Canaan, which was to be desired for the pleasures and profits of it above all other Countries, Ezek. 20. 6. Deut. 11. 11 22. This land they through unbeleefe refused to take possession of, Num. 14. 1, 2, 3, &c. Heb. 3. 19. So meat of desire is daintie meat, Iob 33. 20. Vers. 26. his hand] that is, sware (as the Chaldee explaineth) for so lifting up the hand often signifieth, as Gen. 14. 22. Rev. 10. 5, 6. Deut. 32. 40. Nehem. 9. 15. How God sware against this people, see Numbers 14. 21, 23. Psalme 95. 11. Vers. 27. to fanne] that is, scatter: see Psal. 44. 12. Ezek. 20. 23. Vers. 28. were joined] or coupled, yoked unequally with infidels, which the Apostle forbiddeth, 2 Cor. 6. 14. Baal-pehor] the God of Moab and Madian, to whom by Balaams counsell Israel joyned, Numb. 25. 3. and 31. 16. Revel. 2. 14. Baal signifieth a Lord, master, husband or patron: Pehor was the name of a mountaine where this god was worshipped, and had a temple called Beth-pehor, Numb. 23. 28. Deut. 3. 29. Baal was a common name whereby the heathens called their gods, 2 King. 1. 2. Iudg. 8. 33. and so Israel also called the true God, Hos. 2. 16. but for the shamefull abuse of Gods worship, the Scriptures turne Baal, a Lord, into bosheth, a shame; as Ierub-besheth, 2 Sam. 11. 21. for Ierub-baal (or Gedeon) Iudg. 8. 35. and 9. 1. Ish-bosheth, 2 Sam. 2. 10. or Esh-baal, 1 Chron. 8. 33. Mephi-bosheth, 2 Sam. 9. 10. or Merib-baal, 1 Chron. 8. 34. So the Greeke in 1 King. 18. 25. for Baal hath Aischunes, that is, Shame. Hereupon the Prophet saith, they went to Baal-pehor, and separated themselves unto that Shame (Bosheth) Hos. 9. 10. and so Ieremy calleth the Idols Shame or Confusion, Ier. 3. 24. and 11. 13. the dead] idols that have no life or breath, and so are opposed to the living God, Ier. 10. 5, 10. 1 Thes. 1. 9. Vers. 29. brake in] with violence killing 24. thousand men, Numb. 25. 9. Vers. 30. Phineas] nephew of Aaron the Priest, he being zealous for the Lord, thrust thorow with a speare Zimri and Cozbi, that wrought abomination, Numb. 25. 7, 8, &c. Vers. 31. for justice] for a just action, though done without ordinary authority, and God rewarded him for it, Numb. 25. 11, 12, 13. Vers. 32. Meribah] that is, Contention, where they strove with the Lord, Numb. 20. 13. See Psal. 95. 8. evill was] Gods displeasure towards Moses, who uttering his anger, was for it deprived of comming into the land of Canaan, Num. 20. 12. Deut. 3. 25, 26. Vers. 34. the peoples] the heathens in Canaan, as is noted, Iud. 1. 21. 27, 29, 30, 31, 33. though God commanded them, Exod. 23. 32, 33. Vers. 36. idols] or images, named in Hebrew of the curious labour spent in framing and serving them, Ier. 10. 9. Isa. 44, 9, 12, 13, 15. or of sorrowes that they bring to such as worship them, Psal. 16. 4. sometime they are called gods, 2 Sam. 5. 21. compared with 1 Chro. 14. 12. a snare] a scandall (as the Greeke saith) whereby they fell into miseries; Iudg. 2. 12, 13, 14, 15. Exod. 23. 33. Vers. 37. devils] the Idols forementioned, whereby deuils are worshipped and not God, as 1 Cor. 10. 19, 20. Rev. 9. 20. 2 Chron. 11. 15. Deut. 32. 17. Lev. 17. 7. Devils here are called Shedim, Wasters, in opposition to Shaddas, God Almighty, Psal. 68. 15. Vers. 38. with blouds] that is, with bloud-shed, as the Chaldee expounds it, with finnes of murder. Vers. 39. whored] committed spirituall whordome, that is, idolatry: see Psal. 73. 27. Iudg. 2. 17. Ezek. 23. 7, 37. Vers. 42. their haters] the heathens round about, as was prophesied, Levit. 26. 17. and fulfilled, Iudg. 3. 8, 14. and 4. 2. and 6. 1. and 10. 7, 8, 9. and 13. 1. Vers. 43. Many times] by Ehud, Barak, Gedeon, Iephtah, Samson, &c. Iud. 3. and 4. and 7. and 11. and 15. Nehem. 9. 28, 30. by their counsell] that is, purposely and advisedly, as 1 Chronicles 12. 19. Vers. 46. gave them] that is, procured mercy (or favour) towards them. Vers. 47. from the heathens] among whom divers Israelites were scattered by reason of their often troubles at home. So 1 Chron. 16. 35, 36. to glory] that we may glory or commend our selves.

PSAL. CVI.

VErſ. 1. Praiſe yee the Lord] Though ſcattered among the heathen, and in a ſorrowful condition, verſ. 47. In proſperity praiſe the Lord, ſaith Auſtin, and it ſhall increaſe upon thee. In adverſity praiſe him, and is ſhall be better with thee.

O give thanks unto the Lord, &c.] This verſe was, ſay ſome, the foot or tenor of the Song in many ſacred hymns.

For his mercy indureth for ever] Even to thoſe alſo that have ſinned againſt his goodneſs.

Verſ. 2. Who can utter, &c.] i.e. To the juſt worth of them? None can; they are fitter to be admired than poſſible to be uttered. It is enough that we do what we can toward the work. God accepteth according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not, 2 Cor. 8. he taketh it for no ſmall praiſe, when we thus acknowledge him to be above all praiſe.

Who can ſhew forth all his praiſe?] Surely none can[illegible: 1 letter] David ſaith he will, Pſal. 9.1.Quis fando expt[illegible: 1 letter]mat? but ſoon found his utter inability; for according to thy Name, O Lord, ſo is thy praiſe, faith he in another Pſalm. The beſt way is, as here in the inſuing verſes, to ſubmit to Gods juſtice, and to implore his mercy, and to ſtudy integrity, verſ. 3, 4, 5.6.

Verſ. 3. Bleſſed are they that keep judgement, &c.] That are of right principles and upright practices; this is real and ſubſtantial praiſing of God. Thank[illegible: 1 letter]-doing is the proof of Thankſ-giving; and the good life of the thankful is the life of thankfulneſs. Thoſe that ſay, God a thank only, and no more, are not only contumelious, but injurious.

And be that doth righteouſneſs] So preaching forth the vertues (or praiſes) of God who hath called him into his marvellous light, 1 Pet. 2.9.Jun. and compoſing his whole courſe, velut ſpectatum aliquod ſimulach[illegible: 1 letter]um & documentum laudi[illegible: 1 letter] ejus conſtans atque perpetuum.

Verſ. 4. Remember me, O Lord, with the favour, &c.] The Pſalmiſt would have favour, and ſpecial favour, mercies, and ſure mercies proper to Go is peculiar, and with theſe he would be remembred; grace, he would find ſuch as might help in time of need, Heb. 4.16. God remembred Noah, Gen 8.3. Your heavenly Father knoweth that hee have need of theſe things, Mat. 6. Though our Ark be driven in a tempeſtuous ſea, yet it ſhall neither ſink, nor ſplit, while we ſail in the thoughts of God.

O viſit me with thy ſalvation] A gracious ſpirit will not be ſatisfied with low things, common mercies.

Verſ. 5. That I may ſee the good of thy choſen] Ʋt videam in bonum, that I may ſee it, and partake of it, have both the viſion and fruition of thy great goodneſs, which thou haſt laid up for them that fear thee, Pſal. 31.19. giving them a taſte thereof aforehand, as a few grapes of that promiſed Canaan.

Of thy Nation] i.e. By this name Gods elect, are here and elſewhere ſtiled, and therefore the Jews have no reaſon to reproach us, as they do by it; calling us Goi, and Ma[illegible: 1 letter]zer goi, baſtard heathens.

Verſ. 6. We have ſinned with our Fathers] Adding to their heap, and making up their meaſure, Mal. 23.32. People think the example of their Fathers a ſufficient excuſe. Jerom once (but not well) deſired leave of Auſtin to erre with ſeven Fathers whom hee found of his opinion. I will follow my forefathers, ſaith Cicero, although I fall together with them. See Jer. 44.17. But ſo would not theſe good ſouls, as neither Jeremy chap. 3.25. nor Daniel chap. 9.5. whoſe confeſſion ſuting and ſymbolizing with this (together with that we read, verſ. 47. maketh ſome think that this Pſalm was penned for the peoples uſe then, when they were captives in Babylon.

We have committed iniquity &c. Sin muſt bee confeſſed with utmoſt aggravation. Ile hear how full in the mouth theſe are againſt themſelves, laying on load, whilſt their ſins ſwell as ſo many toads in their eyes.

Verſ. 7. Our Fathers underſtood not] i.e. They weighed them not, improved them not, but as the dull earth is ſurrounded by the heavens, yet perceiveth it not; ſo were theſe with miracles and mercies, yet underſtood them not.

Even at the red Sea] Not only whiles they were on the bank they feared to enter, but alſo even when they were paſſing and walking over that dry land made for them by a miracle, they did ſtill continue their murmurings and mu[illegible: 1 letter]inings.

Verſ. 8. Nevertheleſs be ſaved them for his Names ſake] Here he comes in with a Non-obſtante. So Iſa. 57.17. Now if God will ſave for his Names ſake, wheat people is there whom he may not ſave?

That be might make his power to be known] The Lord hath other things to look unto, than preſently to puniſh his people, when they moſt deſerve it.

Verſ. 9. He rebuked the red ſea alſo] Ingentia, beneficia, flagitia, ſupplicia, as appeareth in the ſubſequent verſes.

So be led them through the depths] Inter duas aquarum congeries, betwixt two mountains of waters which ſtood on each hand of them as a wall, and made a lane. Every main affliction is our red ſea; which while it threatneth to ſwallow us up, preſerveth us.

Verſ. 10. And be ſaved them, &c.] From Pharaoh that perfect enemy of theirs, that purſued them with a deadly deſign, but was happily prevented.

Verſ. 11. And the waters covered their enemies] The preſervation of the Church is ever accompanied with the deſtruction of its enemies, that the mercy may appear the greater.

Not one of them was left] Left alive to carry the news.

Verſ. 12. Then they beleeved his words] Then for a flaſh, whilſt the memory of the mercy was freſh and warm? but ere they were three dayes elder, they murmured again; It proved not ſo much as a nine dayes wonderment; they were ſoon at old ward.

They ſang his praiſe] Exod. 15. A tempory faith and joy.

Verſ. 13. They ſoon forgat his works] Heb. They made baſte, they forgat. This is an aggravating circumſtance. See Gal. 1.6. Exod. 32.8. Deut. 9.16.

They waited not for his counſel] For the performance of what he had purpoſed and promiſed; they were ſhort-ſpirited and impatient.

Verſ. 14. But luſted exceedingly] Heb. Luſted a luſt. See Num. 11. they had a ſufficiency, but muſt have ſuperfluities, as belly-gods; not want, but wantonneſs ſet them a luſting, and that in the wilderneſs, where they knew that in an ordinary way it was not to be had.

And templed God] Whom they ſhould have truſted rather, ſith he waiteth to be gracious. and being a God of judgement, knoweth beſt when to deal forth his favours, Iſa. 30.18 and 49 8.

Verſ. 15.Aug. And he gave them their requeſt] Deus ſaepe dat iralus quod negat propitius. Munera magna quidem miſit, ſed miſit in bamo.Martial.

Quales they had, but to choake them; as afterwards, a King, but to vex them, &c.

But ſont leaneneſs into their ſoul] i.e. Into their bodies, ſuch a loathing as cauſed leanneſs, Num 11.20. a plague upon their bodies, a curſe upon their ſouls. Many men eat that on earth, which they digeſt in hell. It is dangerous ſeeding on ſins murthering-morſels.

Verſ. 16. They envied Moſes alſo] Korah, and his complices did; and becauſe the people puniſhed them not, they are all accuſed as guilty of that conſpiracy, and looked upon as a rabble of rebels againſt heaven.

And Aaron the Saint of the Lord] Separated to the Prieſthood. The Rabbins tell us that they had choſen Dathan inſtead of Moſes, and Abiram for Aaron.

Verſ. 17. The earth opened and ſwallowed up Dathan, &c.] Korah is not here mentioned, haply for his ſons ſakes, who were famous Prophets and Muſick-maſters in Davids dayes. As for On the ſon of Peleth (one of the chief conſpirators) the Rabbins ſay that by the good counſel of his wiſe he repented, and ſo eſcaped.

Verſ. 18. And a fire was kindled in their company] It is both a juſt preſage and deſert of ruine, not to be warned. Let ſeditious perſons and Schiſmaticks take heed; for even our God alſo is a conſuming fire, Heb. 12.ult.

The flame burnt up the wicked] And among the reſt Korah, as ſome conceive, Dathan and Ab[illegible: 1 letter]ram are ſtigmatized for their ſtubbornneſs, Num. 26.9. as was afterwards Abaz, 2 Chron. 28.22. and before them all Cain, Gen. 4.15. and Lamech, 23, 24.

Verſ. 19. They made a Calf in Horch] i. e. In the Country near to that mountain, where they at ſame time ſaw viſible tokens of Gods dreadful preſence. Well might Aaron ſay of this people that they were wholly ſet upon wickedneſs, Exod. 3[illegible: 1 letter].22. This peece of Idolatry they had learned belike of the Egyptians, who worſhipped Apis in ſuch a ſhape; ſo catching is ſin,Lege Lact[illegible: 1 letter]nt. & [illegible: 1 word]. 1. de muab. Scrip. cap. 15. and ſo dangerous is ill company.

Verſ. 20. Tous they change their glory] i.e. Their God, Rom. 1.23. the Creator for a contemptible creature.

Of an O[illegible: 1 letter]e that eateth graſs] Tun[illegible: 1 letter] ſtercora egerit, & multam inquinat[illegible: 1 letter]r, as R. Solomon here gloſſeth. They pretended not to worſhip the Calf but God in the Calf, as did alſo Jehu, a King. 10.16.29. 2 Chron. 11.15. and as the Idolatrous Papiſte do at this day. See Exod. 32.5. yet the text here ſaith, They worſhipped the mo[illegible: 1 letter]en Imago, they changed their glory into the ſi[illegible: 1 letter]ilitude of an Oxe. And although ſome of the Rabbins would excuſe this groſs Idolatry of their fore-fathers, yet others more wiſe bewail us, and ſay that there is an ounce of this golden Calf in all their preſent ſufferings.

Verſ. 21. They forget God their Saviour] This is often mentioned as the Mother of all the miſ-rule amongſt them.

Verſ. 22. Wondrous things in the land of Hon] i.e. Among the Egyptians, Hams poſterity.

And terrible things at the red Sea] All which were buried, together with the remembrance of God the doer.

Verſ. 23. Therefore he ſaid that he would deſtroy them] Idolatry is a people-deſolating sin. God was once in a mind to have deſtroyed this people utterly, and to have left none but Moſes, Exod, 32.10.31, &c. promiſing him a great fortune if he would have ſuffered it; But he tendring Gods glory, more than his own greatneſs, refuſed it: Choice and excellent ſpirits uſe to do ſo.

Had not Moſes his choſen] Choſen to repreſent Chriſt in his mediatorſhip.

Stood up in the breach] A metaphor from Military matters. When a ſtrong Hold is beſieged, and a breach made, valiant Souldiers uſe to make up that breach with their own bodies, till the enemy be beaten back. Gods wrath was even breaking in upon the people. Moſes prayed inſtantly and conſtantly, even the moſt part of thoſe forty dayes and nights he ſpent in the Mount, Deut. 9. and at length prevailed. See Ezek. 13.5. and 22.30.

Verſ. 24. Yea they deſpiſed the pleaſant land] Heb. The land of deſire, flowing with milk and hony, ſumen totius terre, as One calleth it; Egypt they preferred before it, though it were a gage of heaven, as Cardinal Burbon did his part in Paris, before his part in Paradiſe.

They beleeved not his word] ſo. That he would, or indeed could give them that good land. He that beleeveth not, maketh God a liar.

Verſ. 25. But murmured in their tents] Where they ſate diſcontented (after the report of the Spies) and as we ſay, Sick of the Sullens, they would not attempt a conqueſt, but bewayled their hard fortune, and let flye on all hands, keeping a clutter, and a rattle.

Verſ. 26. Therefore he lifted up his hand] i.e. He ſolemnly ſwore, as Nun. 14.30. or he was fetching his full blow at them.

To overthrow them in the wilderneſs] Which alſo befel them according to their own wicked wiſh: Let men take heed of wiſhing evil to themſelves, left God ſay Amen to it.

Verſ. 27. To overthrow their ſeed alſo among the Nations] This clauſe of Gods oath is not expreſſed in Numbers, but drawn there-hence as a fearful conſequence, both here by the Pſalmiſt, and alſo by the Prophet Ezekiel, chap. 20. And R. Solomons note upon this text is, Tunc erat decretum de deſola[illegible: 2 letters]e Temple, ut lachrymas pro re magna, ſicut ante pro nibilo effunderent, Then was the deſolation of the Temple (though it fell out long after) determined, that thoſe male-contents who cryed for nothing before, might have ſomewhat to cry for.

Verſ. 28. They joyned themſelves alſo unto Baal-peor Heb. They were unequally ye aked, as 2 Cor. 6.14. Quam male in equales veniunt ad ar atra juvenci.Ab opertione [illegible: 1 word] nud[illegible: 1 letter]tione pudondorum.

They ſeperated themſelves to that ſhams, Priapus, Hoſ. 9.10. who had his name from ſhewing all; and his worſhippers were moſt impudent Varlets.

And ate the ſacrifices of the dead] i.e. Of Idols oppoſed to the living God: The beginning of Idolatry ſome ſay, was the attributing of divine honours to great perſons when they were dead. The heathens ſhewed the ſepulchres of their oldeſt Deities.

Verſ. 29. Thus they provoked him] God cannot brook mans devices in matters of Religious; he will have no other worſhip than what himſelf hath appointed.

And the plague brake in upon them] As a Deinge, or as an Army, very impetuouſly, to the deſtroying of; twenty four thouſand perſons.

Verſ. 30.Animoſe ſurtexit. Vatab. Thou [illegible: 1 word] By a ſecret, heroical and extraordinary motion of Gods Spirit, ſuch as may not be drawn i[illegible: 1 letter] [illegible: 1 letter] example[illegible: 1 letter] All things reported and commended in [illegible: 1 word] may not [illegible: 1 word] imitated[illegible: 1 letter] O[illegible: 2 letters] Birche[illegible: 1 letter], by example of P[illegible: 1 letter]i[illegible: 2 letters]as and [illegible: 1 word] thought he might have killed a great per[illegible: 1 letter]o[illegible: 1 letter]age in this land whom he looked upon as a naughty man, and Gods enemy. A patricular example will afford a general inſtruction where the equity of the thing done is univerſal, and the cauſe common, otherwiſe not ſaith learned Junius.

And exe[illegible: 3 letters]ed judgement] Not tarrying for the ſentence of the Judge[illegible: 1 letter]. The Chaldee rendreth it, And prayed. Execution of juſtice, is that actual, magiſterial, and majeſtical king of prayer, that will ſtay the plague, when nothing elſe will.

Verſ. 31. And that was counted unto him for righteouſneſs] God not only condemned him not of r[illegible: 1 letter]ſh zeal, but looked upon what he had done, as a peece of ſingula[illegible: 1 letter] ſervice, and rewarded it accordingly.

Verſ. 32. They angred him alſo at the waters of ſtrife] Yet he made not the leaſt ſemblance of it to Moſes, but only bad him ſmite the Rock, which if he had then done, and no more, he had done right. God is Bagnal Chemah maſter of his anger, Nab. 1.2. ſo was not meek Moſes at this time. The beſt are miſcarried by their paſſions ſometimes to their coſt.

So that it went ill with Moſes for their ſakes] i. e. By their means he was kept out of Canaan, which was a great croſs to him, and his repentance, as to that favour, came too lare, for God was reſolved.

Verſ. 33. Becauſe they provoked his ſpirit] So that he was in a pelt to the grieving of God[illegible: 1 letter] good Spirit within him, Eph. 4.30, 31. O tantaene anim is coeleſtibus [illegible: 1 word]?

So that be ſpake unadviſedly] Some render it only, be ſpake, or be pronounced; he ſhould not have ſpoken at alſ to the people (as having no order from God ſo to do in that tranſaction) but only to the Rock.Et perperam locutus eſt. Contra charita[illegible: 1 letter], [non-Latin text not transcribed] 1 Cor. 13. Whereas he not onely ſmote the Rock, and ſmote it twice but ſpake to the people, and ſpake raſhly, or idlely (the Greek word [non-Latin text not transcribed] is thought to come from the Hebrew Bate here uſed) yea bitterly, calling them Rebels, and falling foul upon them, with diſtruſtful interrogations, and miſ-implications. This is called Rebellion, Numb. 20.10, 11.24. and ſeverely puniſhed in Gods favourite Moſes.

Verſ. 34. They did not deſtroy the Nations] For which neglect of theirs, pity would be pleaded. But there is a cruel mercy, ſaith One; There is a pious cruelty ſaith another Curſed is he that doth the Lords work deceitfully, and curſed is he that reſtraineth his ſword from blood, when God biddeth him ſtrike. Saul and Ahab felt the dint of this curſe, and ſo did theſe Iſraelites, for ſparing the Canaanites, whether out of puſillanimity, or fooliſh pity.

Verſ. 35. But were mingled among the beathen] With whom they made leagues, and mariages, Jud. 3. and ſo were ſoon corrupted by them. It is dangerous to converſe with graceleſs people, their very example is a compulſion. See Gal. 2.14. how much more their evil counſel?

Verſ. 36. And they ſerved their Idols] The Devil is [non-Latin text not transcribed] faith Syneſius, a lover of Idolatry, and hee ſpeaks through Idolaters as through his truncks, perſwading people to like practiſe, as did Julian, whom an Ancient therefore called Idolian

Which were a ſnare unto them] Or a tuine, as ſome render it; they were firſt drawn in, and then undone by them.

Verſ. 37. Yea they ſacrificed their ſons, &c. The Devils are here called Shedim Deſtroyers (in oppoſition to [illegible: 1 word] the Almighty) and worthily; for they make it their work to waſte and ſpoyl people of their deareſt children (as here) of their precious fools, with the blood where of they do daily glut themſelves.

Verſ. 38. And ſhed innocent blood &c.] This was futor [illegible: 1 word]; but what may not the Devil do with is drudges, when Gods word cannot obtain the ſmalleſt things of [illegible: 1 word]?

Whom they ſacrificed unto the Idols of Canaan] Prompted thereunto by that old manſlayer. This was practiſed by Maniſſ[illegible: 2 letters], [illegible: 1 word] and others not a ſew, Jer. 7.19. Ezek. 16. Haec [illegible: 1 word] frequent [illegible: 1 span].

And the land was polluted with blood] [illegible: 1 span] See Ezra 9.11. As an hypocrite is a fair [illegible: 1 span]

Verſ 39. Thus they were [illegible: 1 word] ] Great ſins do greatly pollute; neither are men by any thing more diſadvantaged than by doating upon their own devi[illegible: 2 letters]s.

And went a whoring] They followed it earneſtly, and with delight.

Verſ. 40. Therefore was the wrath of the Lord kind[illegible: 1 letter]ed] Sin doth as naturally draw and ſuck judgements to it, as the Loadſto[illegible: 1 letter] doth iron, or Turpentine fire.

Inſomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance] This was the greateſt of all miſeries, and a peece of hell.

Verſ. 41. And hee gave them into the hand of the beaten] That they might ſuffer by them with whom they had ſinned, and with whom, by compliance, they hoped to have ingratiated.

Verſ. 42. And they were brought into ſubjection] Heb. They were bowed down, or humbled, who would not humble themſelves under the mighty hand of God, that he might exalt them.

Verſ. 43. Many times did be deliver them] And as many times told them, Servati eſt is ut mibi ſervatis, I have therefore ſaved you that ye might ſerve me the better V Sed ſurdo fabulam, but they would not hearken. [non-Latin text not transcribed].Theogn.

Verſ. 44. Nevertheleſs be regarded their affliction] See for proof hereof the whole book of Judges, and take notice of Gods Philanthropie, who heareth mens afflictions as he did Hegars, Gen. 16.11. and is oft found of them that ſeek him not, Iſa. 65 1. See 2 King. 14.26 27.

When he heard their cry] Heb. Their ſhril out-cry; not for joy (as the word is moſtly tak[illegible: 2 letters]) but for grief.

Verſ. 45. And he remembred for them his Covenant] Which could not bee vacated or aboliſhed by the wickedneſs of men, but ſtood firm and inviolable, in as much as God is faithful and merciful.

And repented] That is, changed his ſeverity into clemency. Gods repentance is not a change of his will, but of his work, Mutatio rei, non Dei.

Verſ. 46. And he made them alſo to be pitied] God can ſoon turn the hearts of Tyrants, and make them of Lions, Lambs, &c.

Verſ 47. Save us O Lord our God] This is the main requeſt of the Pſalm, and the chief thing intended; for, for this cauſe prefaced the Prophet, as verſe 1.2. &c. and reckoned up the peoples ſins, and Gods deliverances, that he might bring in this, Save us, as thou ever haſt done.

To give thanks unto thy holy Name] Good ends propounded in prayer is a ſpecial means of ſpeeding. Hypocrites do all in themſelves ſo do not the Saints, Hoſ. 14.8.) and all for themſelves, as Zach. 7.5. Hoſ. 10.1. which is not the Saints practice, Cant. 5.1 they have good aims in their good actions.

Verſ. 38. Bleſſed be the Lord] viz. For our return out of captivity, which we foreſee, beleeve, and give thanks for aforehand.

Praiſe ye the Lord] Thus they ſpeak one to another, by way of excitation [non-Latin text not transcribed] ſo Juſtin Martyr rendreth it.

Praise ye the Lord. Hallelujah. Praise ye Jah. This song is for the assembled people, and they are all exhorted to join in praise to Jehovah. It is not meet for a few to praise and the rest to be silent; but all should join. If David were present in churches where quartets and choirs carry on all the singing, he would turn to the congregation and say, "Praise ye the Lord." Our meditation dwells upon human sin; but on all occasions and in all occupations it is seasonable and profitable to praise the Lord. O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good. To us needy creatures the goodness of God is the first attribute which excites praise, and that praise takes the form of gratitude. We praise the Lord truly when we give him thanks for what we have received from his goodness. Let us never be slow to return unto the Lord our praise; to thank him is the least we can do —let us not neglect it. For his mercy endureth for ever. Goodness towards sinners assumes the form of mercy, mercy should therefore be a leading note in our song. Since man ceases not to be sinful, it is a great blessing that Jehovah ceases not to be merciful. From age to age the Lord deals graciously with his church, and to every individual in it he is constant and faithful in his grace, even for evermore. In a short space we have here two arguments for praise, "for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever, "and these two arguments are themselves praises. The very best language of adoration is that which adoringly in the plainest words sets forth the simple truth with regard to our great Lord. No rhetorical flourishes or poetical hyperboles are needed, the bare facts are sublime poetry, and the narration of them with reverence is the essence of adoration. This first verse is the text of all that which follows; we are now to see how from generation to generation the mercy of God endured to his chosen people.

Who can utter the mighty acts of the LORD? What tongue of men or angels can duly describe the great displays of divine power? They are unutterable. Even those who saw them could not fully tell them. Who can shew forth all his praise? To declare his works is the same thing as to praise him, for his own doings are his best commendation. We cannot say one tenth so much for him as his own character and acts have already done? Those who praise the Lord have an infinite subject, a subject which will not be exhausted throughout eternity by the most enlarged intellects, nay, nor by the whole multitude of the redeemed, though no man can number them. The questions of this verse never can be answered; their challenge can never be accepted, except in that humble measure which can be reached by a holy life and a grateful heart.

Since the Lord is so good and so worthy to be praised, it must be for our happiness to obey him. Blessed are they that keep judgment, and he that doeth righteousness at all times. Multiplied are the blessings which must descend upon the whole company of the keepers of the way of justice, and especially upon that one rare man who at all times follows that which is right. Holiness is happiness. The way of right is the way of peace. Yet men leave this road, and prefer the paths of the destroyer. Hence the story which follows is in sad contrast with the happiness here depicted, because the way of Israel was not that of judgment and righteousness, but that of folly and iniquity. The Psalmist, while contemplating the perfections of God, was impressed with the feeling that the servants of such a being must be happy, and when he looked around and saw how the tribes of old prospered when they obeyed, and suffered when they sinned, he was still more fully assured of the truth of his conclusion. O could we but be free of sin we should be rid of sorrow! We would not only be just, but "keep judgment"; we would not be content with occasionally acting rightly, but would "do justice at all times."

Remember me, O Lord, with the favour which thou bearest unto thy people. Insignificant as I am, do not forget me. Think of me with kindness, even as thou thinkest of thine own elect. I cannot ask more, nor would I seek less. Treat me as the least of thy saints are treated and I am content. It should be enough for us if we fare as the rest of the family. If even Balaam desired no more than to die the death of the righteous, we may be well content both to live as they live, and die as they die. This feeling would prevent our wishing to escape trial, persecution, and chastisement; these have fallen to the lot of saints, and why should we escape them

"Must I be carried to the skies

On flowery beds of case?

While others fought to will the prize,

And sailed through bloody seas."

At the same time we pray to have their sweets as well as their bitters. If the Lord smiled upon their souls we cannot rest unless he smiles upon us also. We would dwell where they dwell, rejoice as they rejoice, sorrow as they sorrow, and in all things be for ever one with them in the favour of the Lord. The sentence before us is a sweet prayer, at once humble and aspiring, submissive and expansive; it might be used by a dying thief or a living apostle; let us use it now. O visit me with thy salvation. Bring it home to me. Come to my house and to my heart, and give me the salvation which thou hast prepared, and art alone able to bestow. We sometimes hear of a man's dying by the visitation of God, but here is one who knows that he can only live by the visitation of God. Jesus said of Zacchaeus, "This day is salvation come to this house, "and that was the case because he himself had come there. There is no salvation apart from the Lord, and he must visit us with it or we shall never obtain it. We are too sick to visit our Great Physician, and therefore he visits us. O that our great Bishop would hold a visitation of all the churches, and bestow his benediction upon all his flock. Sometimes the second prayer of this verse seems to be too great for us, for we feel that we are not worthy that the Lord should come under our roof. Visit me, Lord? Can it be? Dare I ask for it? And yet I must, for thou alone cans: bring me salvation: therefore, Lord, I entreat thee come unto me, and abide with me for ever.

That I may see the good of thy chosen. His desire for the divine favour was excited by the hope that he might participate in all the good things which flow to the people of God through their election. The Father has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus, according as he has chosen us in him, and in these precious gifts we desire to share through the saving visitation of the Lord. No other good do we wish to see, perceive, and apprehend, but that which is the peculiar treasure of the saints. That I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation. The psalmist, having sought his portion in the good of the chosen, now also begs to be a partaker in their joy for of all the nations under heaven the Lord's true people are the happiest. That I may glory with thine inheritance. He would have a part and lot in their honour as well as their joy. He was willing to find glory where saints find it, namely, in being reproached for truth's sake. To serve the Lord and endure shame for his sake is the glory of the saints below: Lord, let me rejoice to bear my part therein. To be with God above, for ever blessed in Christ Jesus, is the glory of saints above: O Lord, be pleased to allot me a place there also. These introductory thanksgivings and supplications, though they occur first in the psalm, are doubtless the result of the contemplations which succeed them, and may be viewed not only as the preface, but also as the moral of the whole sacred song.

We have sinned with our fathers. Here begins a long and particular confession. Confession of sin is the readiest way to secure an answer to the prayer of verse 4; God visits with his salvation the soul which acknowledges its need of a Saviour. Men may be said to have sinned with their fathers when they imitate them, when they follow the same objects, and make their own lives to be mere continuations of the follies of their sires. Moreover, Israel was but one nation in all time, and the confession which follows sets forth the national rather than the personal sin of the Lord's people. They enjoyed national privileges, and therefore they shared in national guilt. We have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly. Thus is the confession repeated three times, in token of the sincerity and heartiness of it. Sins of omission, commission, and rebellion we ought to acknowledge under distinct heads, that we may show a due sense of the number and heinousness of our offences.

Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt. The Israelites saw the miraculous plagues and ignorantly wondered at them: their design of love, their deep moral and spiritual lessons, and their revelation of the divine power and justice they were unable to perceive. A long sojourn among idolaters had blunted the perceptions of the chosen family, and cruel slavery had ground them down into mental sluggishness. Alas, how many of God's wonders are not understood, or misunderstood by us still. We fear the sons are no great improvement upon the sires. We inherit from our fathers much sin and little wisdom; they could only leave us what they themselves possessed. We see from this verse that a want of understanding is no excuse for sin, but is itself one count in the indictment against Israel. They remembered not the multitude of thy mercies. The sin of the understanding leads on to the sin of the memory. What is not understood will soon be forgotten. Men feel little interest in preserving husks; if they know nothing of the inner kernel they will take no care of the shells. It was an aggravation of Israel's sin that when God's mercies were so numerous they yet were able to forget them all. Surely some out of such a multitude of benefits ought to have remained engraven upon their hearts; but if grace does not give us understanding, nature will soon east out the memory of God's great goodness. But provoked him at the sea, even; at the Red sea. To fall out at starting was a bad sign. Those who did not begin well can hardly be expected to end well. Israel is not quite out of Egypt, and yet she begins to provoke the Lord by doubting his power to deliver, and questioning his faithfulness to his promise. The sea was only called Red, but their sins were scarlet in reality; it was known as the "sea of weeds, "but far worse weeds grew in their hearts.

Nevertheless he saved them for his name's sake, that he might make his mighty power to be known. When he could find no other reason for his mercy he found it in his own glory, and seized the opportunity to display his power. If Israel does not deserve to be saved, yet Pharaoh's pride needs to be crushed, and therefore Israel shall be delivered. The Lord very jealously guards his own name and honour. It shall never be said of him that he cannot or will not save his people, or that he cannot abate the haughtiness of his defiant foes. This respect unto his own honour ever leads him to deeds of mercy, and hence we may well rejoice that he is a jealous God.

He rebuked the Red sea also, and it was dried up. A word did it. The sea heard his voice and obeyed. How many rebukes of God are lost upon us! Are we not more unmanageable than the ocean? God did, as it were, chide the sea, and say, "Wherefore dost thou stop the way of my people? Their path to Canaan lies through thy channel, how dare you hinder them?" The sea perceived its Master and his seed royal, and made way at once. So he led them through the depths, as through the wilderness. As if it had been the dry floor of the desert the tribes passed over the bottom of the gulf; nor was their passage venturesome, for HE bade them go;nor dangerous, for He led them. We also have under divine protection passed through many trials and afflictions, and with the Lord as our guide we have experienced no fear and endured no perils. We have been led through the deeps as through the wilderness.

And he saved them from the hand of them that hated them. Pharaoh was drowned, and the power of Egypt so crippled that throughout the forty years' wanderings of Israel they were never threatened by their old masters. And redeemed them from the hand of the enemy. This was a redemption by power, and one of the most instructive types of the redemption of the Lord's people from sin and hell by the power which worketh in them.

And the waters covered their enemies: there was not one of them left. The Lord does nothing by halves. What he begins he carries through to the end. This, again, made Israel's sin the greater, because they saw the thoroughness of the divine justice, and the perfection of the divine faithfulness. In the covering of their enemies we have a type of the pardon of our sins; they are sunk as in the sea, never to rise again; and, blessed be the Lord, there is "not one of them left." —Not one sin of thought, or word, or deed, the blood of Jesus has covered all. "I will cast their iniquities into the depths of the sea."

Then believed they his words. That is to say, they believed the promise when they saw it fulfilled, but not till then. This is mentioned, not to their credit, but to their shame. Those who do not believe the Lord's word till they see it performed are not believers at all. Who would not believe when the fact stares them in the face? The Egyptians would have done as much as this. They sang his praise. How could they do otherwise? Their song was very excellent, and is the type of the song of heaven; but sweet as it was, it was quite as short, and when it was ended they fell to murmuring. "They sang his praise, "but "they soon forgat his works." Between Israel singing and Israel sinning there was scarce a step. Their song was good while it lasted, but it was no sooner begun than over.

They soon forgat his works. They seemed in a hurry to get the Lord's mercies out of their memories; they hasted to be ungrateful. They waited not for his counsel, neither waiting for the word of command or promise; eager to have their own way, and prone to trust in themselves. This is a common fault in the Lord's family to this day; we are long in learning to wait for the Lord, and upon the Lord. With him is counsel and strength, but we are vain enough to look for these to ourselves, and therefore we grievously err.

But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness. Though they would not wait God's will, they are hot to have their own. When the most suitable and pleasant food was found them in abundance, it did not please them long, but they grew dainty and sniffed at angel's food, and must needs have flesh to eat, which was unhealthy diet for that warm climate, and for their easy life. This desire of theirs they dwelt upon till it became a mania with them, and, like a wild horse, carried away its rider. For a meal of meat they were ready to curse their God and renounce the land which floweth with milk and honey. What a wonder that the Lord did not take them at their word! It is plain that they vexed him greatly, And tempted God in the desert. In the place where they were absolutely dependent upon him and were everyday fed by his direct provision, they had the presumption to provoke their God. They would have him change the plans of his wisdom, supply their sensual appetites, and work miracles to meet their wicked unbelief: these things the Lord would not do, but they went as far as they could in trying to induce him to do so. They failed not in their wicked attempt because of any goodness in themselves, but because God "cannot be tempted, " —temptation has no power over him, he yields not to man's threats or promises.

And he gave them their request. Prayer may be answered in anger and denied in love. That God gives a man his desire is no proof that he is the object of divine favour, everything depends upon what that desire is. But sent leanness into their soul. Ah, that "but!" It embittered all. The meat was poison to them when it came without a blessing; whatever it might do in fattening the body, it was poor stuff when it made the soul lean. If we must know scantiness, may God grant it may not be scantiness of soul: yet this is a common attendant upon worldly prosperity. When wealth grows with many a man his worldly estate is fatter, but his soul's state is leaner. To gain silver and lose gold is a poor increase; but to win for the body and lose for the soul is far worse. How earnestly might Israel have unprayed her prayers had she known what would come with their answer! The prayers of lust will have to be wept over. We fret and fume till we have our desire, and then we have to fret still note because the attainment of it ends in bitter disappointment.

They envied Moses also in the camp. Though to him as the Lord's chosen instrument they owed everything, they grudged him the authority which it was needful that he should exercise for their good. Some were more openly rebellious than others, and became leaders of the mutiny, but a spirit of dissatisfaction was general, and therefore the whole nation is charged with it. Who can hope to escape envy when the meekest of men was subject to it? How unreasonable was this envy, for Moses was the one man in all the camp who laboured hardest and had most to bear. They should have sympathised with him; to envy him was ridiculous. And Aaron the saint of the Lord. By divine choice Aaron was set apart to be holiness unto the Lord, and instead of thanking God that he had favoured them with a high priest by whose intercession their prayers would be presented, they cavilled at the divine election, and quarrelled with the man who was to offer sacrifice for them. Thus neither church nor state was ordered aright for them; they would snatch from Moses his sceptre, and from Aaron his mitre. It is the mark of bad men that they are envious of the good, and spiteful against their best benefactors.

The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, and covered the company of Abiram. Korah is not mentioned, for mercy was extended to his household, though he himself perished. The earth could no longer bear up under the weight of these rebels and ingrates: God's patience was exhausted when they began to assail his servants, for his children are very dear to him, and he that toucheth them touches the apple of his eye. Moses had opened the sea for their deliverance, and now that they provoke him, the earth opens for their destruction. It was time that the nakedness of their sins was covered, and that the earth should open her mouth to devour those who opened their mouths against the Lord and his servants.

And a fire was kindled in their company; the flame burned up the wicked. The Levites who were with Korah perished by fire, which was a most fitting death for those who intruded into the priesthood, and so offered strange fire. God has more than one arrow in his quiver, the fire can consume those whom the earthquake spares. These terrible things in righteousness are mentioned here to show the obstinacy of the people in continuing to rebel against the Lord. Terrors were as much lost upon them as mercies had been; they could neither be drawn nor driven.

They made a calf in Horeb. In the very place where they had solemnly pledged themselves to obey the Lord they broke the second, if not the first, of his commandments, and set up the Egyptian symbol of the ox, and bowed before it. The ox image is here sarcastically called "a calf"; idols are worthy of no respect, scorn is never more legitimately used than when it is poured upon all attempts to set forth the Invisible God. The Israelites were foolish indeed when they thought they saw the slightest divine glory in a bull, nay, in the mere image of a bull. To believe that the image of a bull could be the image of God must need great credulity. And worshipped the molten image. Before it they paid divine honours, and said, "These be thy gods, O Israel." This was sheer madness. After the same fashion the Ritualists must needs set up their symbols and multiply them exceedingly. Spiritual worship they seem unable to apprehend; their worship is sensuous to the highest degree, and appeals to eye, and ear, and nose. O the folly of men to block up their own way to acceptable worship, and to make the path of spiritual religion, which is hard to our nature, harder still through the stumblingblocks which they cast into it. We have heard the richness of Popish paraphernalia much extolled, but an idolatrous image when made of gold is not one jot the less abominable than it would have been had it been made of dross and dung: the beauty of art cannot conceal the deformity of sin. We are told also of the suggestiveness of their symbols, but what of that, when God forbids the use of them? Vain also is it to plead that such worship is hearty. So much the worse. Heartiness in forbidden actions is only an increase of transgression.

Thus they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass. They said that they only meant to worship the one God under a fitting and suggestive similitude by which his great power would be set forth to the multitude; they pleaded the great Catholic revival which followed upon this return to a more ornate ceremonial, for the people thronged around Aaron, and danced before the calf with all their might. But in very deed they had given up the true God, whom it had been their glory to adore, and had set up a rival to him, not a representation of him; for how should he be likened to a bullock? The psalmist is very contemptuous, and justly so: irreverence towards idols is an indirect reverence to God. False gods, attempts to represent the true God, and indeed, all material things which are worshipped, are so much filth upon the face of the earth, whether they be crosses, crucifixes, virgins, wafers, relics, or even the Pope himself. We are by far too mealy mouthed about these infamous abominations: God abhors them, and so should we. To renounce the glory of spiritual worship for outward pomp and show is the height of folly, and deserves to be treated as such.

They forgat God their saviour. Remembering the calf involved forgetting God. He had commanded them to make no image, and in daring to disobey they forgot his commands. Moreover, it is clear that they must altogether have forgotten the nature and character of Jehovah, or they could never have likened him to a grass eating animal. Some men hope to keep their sins and their God too —the fact being that he who sins is already so far departed from the Lord that he has actually forgotten him. Which had done great things in Egypt. God in Egypt had overcome all the idols, and yet they so far forgot him as to liken him to them. Could an ox work miracles? Could a golden calf cast plagues upon Israel's enemies? They were brutish to set up such a wretched mockery of deity, after having seen what the true God could really achieve. "Wondrous works in the land of Ham, and terrible things by the Red sea". They saw several ranges of miracles, the Lord did not stint them as to the evidences of his eternal power and godhead, and yet they could not rest content with worshipping him in his own appointed way, but must needs have a Directory of their own invention, an elaborate ritual after the old Egyptian fashion, and a manifest object of worship to assist them in adoring Jehovah. This was enough to provoke the Lord, and it did so; how much he is angered every day in our own land no tongue can tell.

Therefore he said that he would destroy them. The threatening of destruction came at last. For the first wilderness sin he chastened them, sending leanness into their soul; for the second he weeded out the offenders, the flame burned up the wicked; for the third he threatened to destroy them; for the fourth he lifted up his hand and almost came to blows (Ps 106:26); for the fifth he actually smote them, "and the plague brake in among them"; and so the punishment increased with their perseverance in sin. This is worth noting, and it should serve as a warning to the man who goeth on in his iniquities. God tries words before he comes to blows, "he said that he would destroy them": but his words are not to be trifled with, for he means them, and has power to make them good. Had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach. Like a bold warrior who defends the wall when there is an opening for the adversary and destruction is rushing in upon the city, Moses stopped the way of avenging justice with his prayers. Moses had great power with God. He was an eminent type of our Lord, who is called, as Moses here is styled, "mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth." As the Elect Redeemer interposed between the Lord and a sinful world, so did Moses stand between the Lord and his offending people. The story as told by Moses himself is full of interest and instruction, and tends greatly to magnify the goodness of the Lord, who thus suffered himself to be turned from the fierceness of his anger. With disinterested affection, and generous renunciation of privileges offered to himself and his family, the great Lawgiver interceded with the Lord to turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy them. Behold the power of a righteous man's intercession. Mighty as was the sin of Israel to provoke vengeance, prayer was mightier in turning it away. How diligently ought we to plead with the Lord for this guilty world, and especially for his own backsliding people! Who would not employ an agency so powerful for an end so gracious! The Lord still harkens to the voice of a man, shall not our voices be often exercised in supplicating for a guilty people? Verse 24. Yea, they despised the pleasant land. They spoke lightly of it, though it was the joy of all lands: they did not think it worth the trouble of seeking and conquering; they even spoke of Egypt, the land of their iron bondage, as though they preferred it to Canaan, the land which floweth with milk and honey. It is an ill sign with a Christian when he begins to think lightly of heaven and heavenly things; it indicates a perverted mind, and it is, moreover, a high offence to the Lord to despise that which he esteems so highly that he in infinite love reserves it for his own chosen. To prefer earthly things to heavenly blessings is to prefer Egypt to Canaan, the house of bondage to the land of promise. They believed not his word. This is the root sin. If we do not believe the Lord's word, we shall think lightly of his promised gifts. "They could not enter in because of unbelief" —this was the key which turned the lock against them. When pilgrims to the Celestial City begin to doubt the Lord of the way, they soon come to think little of the rest at the journey's end, and this is the surest way to make them bad travellers. Israel's unbelief demanded spies to see the land; the report of those spies was of a mingled character, and so a fresh crop of unbelief sprang up, with consequences most deplorable.

But murmured in their tents. From unbelief to murmuring is a short and natural step; they even fell to weeping when they had the best ground for rejoicing. Murmuring is a great sin and not a mere weakness; it contains within itself unbelief, pride, rebellion, and a whole host of sins. It is a home sin, and is generally practised by complainers "in their tents, "but it is just as evil there as in the streets, and will be quite as grievous to the Lord. And hearkened not unto the voice of the Lord. Making a din with their own voices, they refused attention to their best Friend. Murmurers are bad hearers.

Therefore he lifted up his hand against them, to overthrow them in the wilderness. He swore in his wrath that they should not enter into his rest; he commenced his work of judgment upon them, and they began to die. Only let God lift his hand against a man and his day has come; he falls terribly whom Jehovah overthrows. To overthrow their seed also among the nations, and to scatter them in the lands. Foreseeing that their descendants would reproduce their sins, he solemnly declared that he would give them over to captivity and the sword. Those whose carcases fell in the wilderness were, in a sense, exiles from the land of promise, and, being surrounded by many hostile tribes, they were virtually in a foreign land: to die far off from their father's inheritance was a just and weighty doom, which their rebellions had richly deserved. Our own loss of fellowship with God, and the divisions in our churches, doubtless often come to us as punishments for the sins out of which they grow. If we will not honour the Lord we cannot expect him to honour us. Our captains shall soon become captives, and our princes shall be prisoners if we forget the Lord and despise his mercies. Our singing shall be turned into sighing, and our mirth into misery if we walk contrary to the mind of the Lord.

They joined themselves also unto Baalpeor. Ritualism led on to the adoration of false gods. If we choose a false way of worship we shall, ere long, choose to worship a false god. This abomination of the Moabites was an idol in whose worship women gave up their bodies to the most shameless lust. Think of the people of a holy God coming down to this. And ate the sacrifices of the dead. In the orgies with which the Baalites celebrated their detestable worship Israel joined, partaking even in their sacrifices as earnest inner court worshippers, though the gods were but dead idols. Perhaps they assisted in necromantic rites which were intended to open a correspondence with departed spirits, thus endeavouring to break the seal of God's providence, and burst into the secret chambers which God has shut up. Those who are weary of seeking the living God have often shown a hankering after dark sciences, and have sought after fellowship with demons and spirits. To what strong delusions those are often given up who cast off the fear of God! This remark is as much needed now as in days gone by.

Thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions: and the plague brake in upon them. Open licentiousness and avowed idolatry were too gross to be winked at. This time the offences clamoured for judgment, and the judgment came at once. Twenty-four thousand persons fell before a sudden and deadly disease which threatened to run through the whole camp. Their new sins brought on them a disease new to their tribes. When men invent sins God will not be slow to invent punishments. Their vices were a moral pest, and they were visited with a bodily pest: so the Lord meets like with its like.

Then stood up Phinehas, and executed judgment: and so the plague was stayed. God has his champions left in the worst times, and they will stand up when the time comes for them to come forth to battle. This righteous indignation moved him to a quick execution of two open offenders. His honest spirit could not endure that lewdness should be publicly practised at a time when a fast had been proclaimed. Such daring defiance of God and of all law he could not brook, and so with his sharp javelin he transfixed the two guilty ones in the very act. It was a holy passion which inflamed him, and no enmity to either of the persons whom he slew. The circumstances were so remarkable and the sin so flagrant that it would have involved great sin in a public man to have stood still and seen God thus defied, and Israel thus polluted. Phinehas was not of this mind, he was no trimmer, or palliator of sin, his heart was sound in God's statutes, and his whole nature was ablaze with zeal for God's glory, and therefore, though a priest, and therefore not obliged to be an executioner, he undertook the unwelcome task, and though both transgressors were of princely stock he had no respect of persons, but dealt justice upon them as if they had been the lowest of the people. This brave and decided deed was so acceptable to God as a proof that there were some sincere souls in Israel that the deadly visitation went no further. Two deaths had sufficed to save the lives of the multitude.

And that was counted unto him for righteousness unto all generations for evermore. Down to the moment when this psalm was penned the house of Phinehas was honoured in Israel. His faith had performed a valorous deed, and his righteousness was testified of the Lord, and honoured by the continuance of his family in the priesthood. He was impelled by motives that what would otherwise have been a deed of blood was justified in the sight of God; nay, more, was made the evidence that Phinehas was righteous. No personal ambition, or private revenge, or selfish passion, or even fanatical bigotry, inspired the man of God, but zeal for God, indignation at open filthiness, and true patriotism urged him on. Once again we have cause to note the mercy of God that even when his warrant was out, and actual execution was proceeding, he stayed his hand at the suit of one man: finding, as it were, an apology for his grace when justice seemed to demand immediate vengeance.

They angered him also at the waters of strife. Will they never have done? The scene changes, but the sin continues. Aforetime they had mutinied about water when prayer would soon have turned the desert into a standing pool, but now they do it again after their former experience of the divine goodness. This made the sin a double, yea a sevenfold offence, and caused the anger of the Lord to be the more intense. So that it went in with Moses for their sakes. Moses was at last wearied out, and began to grow angry with them and utterly hopeless of their ever improving; can we wonder at it, for he was man and not God? After forty years bearing with them the meek man's temper gave way, and he called them rebels, and showed unhallowed anger; and therefore he was not permitted to enter the land which he desired to inherit. Truly, he had a sight of the goodly country from the top of Pisgah, but entrance was denied him, and thus it went ill with him. It was their sin which angered him, but he had to bear the consequences; however clear it may be that others are more guilty than ourselves, we should always remember that this will not screen us, but every man must bear his own burden.

Because they provoked his spirit, so that he spake unadvisedly with his lips. Which seems a small sin compared with that of others, but then it was the sin of Moses, the Lord's chosen servant, who had seen and known so much of the Lord, and therefore it could not be passed by. He did not speak blasphemously, or falsely, but only hastily and without care; but this is a serious fault in a lawgiver, and especially in one who speaks for God. This passage is to our mind one of the most terrible in the Bible. Truly we serve a jealous God. Yet he is not a hard master, or austere; we must not think so, but we must then rather be jealous of ourselves, and watch that we live the more carefully, and speak the more advisedly, because we serve such a Lord. We ought also to be very careful how we treat the ministers of the gospel, lest by provoking their spirit we should drive them into any unseemly behaviour which should bring upon them the chastisement of the Lord. Little do a murmuring, quarrelsome people dream of the perils in which they involve their pastors by their untoward behaviour.

They did not destroy the nations, concerning whom the LORD commanded them. They were commissioned to act as executioners upon races condemned for their unnatural crimes, and through sloth, cowardice, or Sinful complacency they sheathed the sword too soon, very much to their own danger and disquietude. It is a great evil with professors that they are not zealous for the total destruction of all sin within and without. We make alliances of peace where we ought to proclaim war to the knife; we plead our constitutional temperament, our previous habits, the necessity of our circumstances, or some other evil excuse as an apology for being content with a very partial sanctification, if indeed it be sanctification at all. We are slow also to rebuke sin in others, and are ready to spare respectable sins, which like Agag walk with mincing steps. The measure of our destruction of sin is not to be our inclination, or the habit of others, but the Lord's command. We have no warrant for dealing leniently with any sin, be it what it may.

But were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works. It was not the wilderness which caused Israel's sins; they were just as disobedient when settled in the land of promise. They found evil company, and delighted in it. Those whom they should have destroyed they made their friends. Having enough faults of their own, they were yet ready to go to school to the filthy Canaanites, and educate themselves still more in the arts of iniquity. It was certain that they could learn no good from men whom the Lord had condemned to utter destruction. Few would wish to go to the condemned cell for learning, yet Israel sat at the feet of accursed Canaan, and rose up proficient in every abomination. This, too, is a grievous but common error among professors: they court worldly company and copy worldly fashions, and yet it is their calling to bear witness against these things. None can tell what evil has come of the folly of worldly conformity.

And they served their idols: which were a snare unto them. They were fascinated by the charms of idolatry, though it brings misery upon its votaries. A man cannot serve sin without being ensnared by it. It is like birdlime, and to touch it is to be taken by it. Samson laid his head in the Philistine woman's lap, but ere long he woke up shorn of his strength. Dalliance with sin is fatal to spiritual liberty.

Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils. This was being snared indeed; they were spell bound by the cruel superstition, and were carried so far as even to become murderers of their own children, in honour of the most detestable deities, which were rather devils than gods. "And shed innocent blood." The poor little ones whom they put to death in sacrifice had not been partakers of their sin, and God looked with the utmost indignation upon the murder of the innocent. "Even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan." Who knows how far evil will go? It drove men to be unnatural as well as ungodly. Had they but thought for a moment, they must have seen that a deity who could be pleased with the blood of babes spilt by their own sires could not be a deity at all, but must be a demon, worthy to be detested and not adored. How could they prefer such service to that of Jehovah? Did he tear their babes from their bosoms and smile at their death throes? Men will sooner wear the iron yoke of Satan than carry the pleasant burden of the Lord; does not this prove to a demonstration the deep depravity of their hearts? If man be not totally depraved, what worse would he do if he were? Does not this verse describe the ne plus ultra of iniquity? And the land was polluted with blood. The promised land, the holy land, which was the glory of all lands, for God was there, was defiled with the reeking gore of innocent babes, and by the blood red hands of their parents, who slew them in order to pay homage to devils. Alas! alas! What vexation was this to the spirit of the Lord.

Thus were they defiled with their own works, and went a whoring with their own inventions. Not only the land but the inhabitants of it were polluted. They broke the marriage bond between them and the Lord, and fell into spiritual adultery. The language is strong, but the offence could not be fitly described in less forcible words. As a husband is deeply dishonoured and sorely wounded should his wife become unchaste and run riot with many paramours in his own house, so was the Lord incensed at his people for setting up gods many and lords many in his own land. They made and invented new gods, and then worshipped what they had made. What a folly! Their novel deities were loathsome monsters and cruel demons, and yet they paid them homage. What wickedness! And to commit this folly and wickedness they cast off the true God, whose miracles they had seen, and whose people they were. This was provocation of the severest sort.

Verses 40. Therefore was the wrath of the LORD kindled against his people, in so much that he abhorred his own inheritance. Not that even then he broke his covenant or utterly cast off his offending people, but he felt the deepest indignation, and even looked upon them with abhorrence. The feeling described is like to that of a husband who still loves his guilty wife, and yet when he thinks of her lewdness feels his whole nature rising in righteous anger at her, so that the very sight of her afflicts his soul. How far the divine wrath can burn against those whom he yet loves in his heart it were hard to say, but certainly Israel pushed the experiment to the extreme. And he gave them into the hand of the heathen. This was the manifestation of his abhorrence. He gave them a taste of the result of sin; they spared the heathen, mixed with them and imitated them, and soon they had to smart from them, for hordes of invaders were let loose upon them to spoil them at their pleasure. Men make rods for their own backs. Their own inventions become their punishments. And they that hated them ruled over them. And who could wonder? Sin never creates true love. They joined the heathen in their wickedness, and they did not win their hearts, but rather provoked their contempt. If we mix with men of the world they will soon become our masters and our tyrants, and we cannot want worse.

Their enemies also oppressed them. This was according to their nature; an Israelite always fares ill at the hands of the heathen. Leniency to Canaan turned out to be cruelty to themselves. And they were brought into subjection under their hand. They were bowed down by laborious bondage, and made to lie low under tyranny. In their God they had found a kind master, but in those with whom they had perversely sought fellowship they found despots of the most barbarous sort. He who leaves his God leaves happiness for misery. God can make our enemies to be rods in his hands to flog us back to our best Friend.

Many times did he deliver them. By reading the book of Judges we shall see how truthful is this sentence: again and again their foes were routed, and they were set free again, only to return with rigour to their former evil ways. But they provoked him with their counsel. With deliberation they agreed to transgress anew; self will was their counsellor, and they followed it to their own destruction. And were brought low for their iniquity. Worse and worse were the evils brought upon them, lower and lower they fell in sin, and consequently in sorrow. In dens and caves of the earth they hid themselves; they were deprived of all warlike weapons, and were utterly despised by their conquerors; they were rather a race of serfs than of free men until the Lord in mercy raised them up again. Could we but fully know the horrors of the wars which desolated Palestine, and the ravages which caused famine and starvation, we should shudder at the sins which were thus rebuked. Deeply engrained in their nature must the sin of idolatry have been, or they would not have returned to it with such persistence in the teeth of such penalties; we need not marvel at this, there is a still greater wonder, man prefers sin and hell to heaven and God. The lesson to ourselves, as God's people, is to walk humbly and carefully before the Lord and above all to keep ourselves from idols. Woe unto those who become partakers of Rome's idolatries, for they will be joined with her in her plagues. May grace be given to us to keep the separated path, and remain undefiled with the fornication of the scarlet harlot of Babylon.

Nevertheless he regarded their affliction, when he heard their cry. Notwithstanding all these provoking rebellions and detestable enormities the Lord still heard their prayer and pitied them. This is very wonderful, very godlike. One would have thought that the Lord would have shut out their prayer, seeing they had shut their ears against his admonitions; but no, he had a father's heart, and a sight of their sorrows touched his soul, the sound of their cries overcame his heart, and he looked upon them with compassion. His fiercest wrath towards his own people is only a temporary flame, but his love burns on for ever like the light of his own immortality.

And he remembered for them his covenant. The covenant is the sure foundation of mercy, and when the whole fabric of outward grace manifested in the saints lies in ruins this is the fundamental basis of love which is never moved, and upon it the Lord proceeds to build again a new structure of grace. Covenant mercy is sure as the throne of God. And repented according to the multitude of his mercies. He did not carry out the destruction which he had commenced. Speaking after the manner of men he changed his mind, and did not leave them to their enemies to be utterly cut off, because he saw that his covenant would in such a case have been broken. The Lord is so full of grace that he has not only mercy but mercies, yea a multitude of them, and these hive in the covenant and treasure up good for the erring sons of men.

He made them also to be pitied of all those that carried them captives. Having the hearts of all men in his hands he produced compassion even in heathen bosoms. Even as he found Joseph friends in Egypt, so did he raise up sympathizers for his captive servants. In our very worst condition our God has ways and means for allaying the severity of our sorrows: he can find us helpers among those who have been our oppressors, and he will do so if we be indeed his people.

This is the closing prayer, arranged by prophecy for those who would in future time be captives, and suitable for all who before David's days had been driven from home by the tyranny of the various scatterings by famine and distress which had happened in the iron age of the judges. Save us, O Lord our God. The mention of the covenant encouraged the afflicted to call the Lord their God, and this enabled them with greater boldness to entreat him to interpose on their behalf and rescue them. And gather us from among the Heathen. Weary now of the ungodly and their ways, they long to be brought into their own separated country, where they might again enjoy the means of grace, enter into holy fellowship with their brethren, escape from contaminating examples, and be free to wait upon the Lord. How often do true believers now a days long to be removed from ungodly households, where their souls are vexed with the conversation of the wicked. To give thanks unto thy holy name, and to triumph in thy praise. Weaned from idols, they desire to make mention of Jehovah's name alone, and to ascribe their mercies to his ever abiding faithfulness and love. The Lord had often saved them for his holy name's sake, and therefore they feel that when again restored they would render all their gratitude to that saving name, yea, it should be their glory to praise Jehovah and none else.

Blessed be the LORD God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting. Has not his mercy endured for ever, and should not his praise be of like duration? Jehovah, the God of Israel, has blessed his people, should they not also bless him? And let all the people say, Amen. They have all seen spared by his grace, let them all join in the adoration with loud unanimous voice. What a thunder of praise would thus be caused! Yet should a nation thus magnify him, yea, should all the nations past and present unite in the solemn acclaim, it mould fall far short of his deserts. O for the happy day when all flesh shall see the glory of God, and all shall aloud proclaim his praise.

Praise ye the LORD, or "Hallelujah." Reader, praise thou the Lord, as he who writes this feeble exposition now does with his whole heart.

"Now blest, for ever blest, be He,

The same throughout eternity,

Our Israel's God adored!

Let all the people join the lay,

And loudly, `Hallelujah', say, `Praise ye the living Lord!'"

Verse 1. For he is good; essentially, solely and originally; is communicative and diffusive of his goodness; is the author of all good and no evil; and is gracious and merciful and ready to forgive. John Gill.

Verse 1. For he is good: for his goodness endureth for ever. Observe here what is a true and perfect confession of the divine goodness. Whenever God so blesses his own people that his goodness is perceived by carnal sense, in bestowing riches, honours, peace, health and things of that kind, then it is easy to acknowledge that God is good, and that acknowledgment can be made by the most carnal men. The case stands otherwise when he visits offenders with the rod of correction and scourges them with the grace of chastisement. Then the flesh hardly bears to confess what by its own sense it does not perceive. It fails to discern the goodness of God unto salvation in the severity of the rod and the scourging, and therefore refuses to acknowledge that goodness in strokes and sufferings. The prophet, however, throughout this Psalm celebrates in many instances the way wherein the sinning people were arrested and smitten. And when he proposed that this Psalm should be sung in the church of God, Israel was under the cross and afflictions. Yet he demands that Israel should acknowledge that the Lord is good, that his mercy endureth for ever, even in the act of smiting the offender. That therefore alone is a true and full confession of the divine goodness which is made not only in prosperity but also in adversity. Musculus.

Verse 1. There is,

1. The doxology;

2. Invitation;

3. The reason that we should, and why we should, give thanks always;

4. The greatness of the work. But "who can utter the mighty acts of the LORD? who can shew forth all his praise?" That is, it is impossible for any man in the world to do this great duty aright, as he should.

5. The best mode and method of giving thanks. "Blessed are they that keep judgment, and he that doeth righteousness at all times." As if he had said, "This is indeed a vast duty; but yet he makes the best essay towards it that sets himself constantly to serve God and keep his commandments." —William Cooper, in the "Morning Exercises."

Verse 1. The first and two last verses of this psalm form a part of that psalm which David delivered into the hand of Asaph and his brethren, to be sung before the ark of the covenant, after it was brought from the house of Obededom to Mount Zion. See 1Ch 16:34-36. Hence it has been ascribed to the pen of David. Many of the ancients thought, and they are followed by Horsley and Mudge, that it was written during the captivity; resting their opinion chiefly on verse 47; but as that verse occurs in the Psalm of David recorded in 1Ch 16:35, this argument is clearly without force. James Anderson's Note to Calvin in loc.

Verse 2. Who can utter? etc. This verse is susceptible of two interpretations; for if you read it in connection with the one immediately following, the sense will be, that all men are not alike equal to the task of praising God, because the ungodly and the wicked do nothing else than profane his holy name with their unclean lips; as it is said in the fiftieth psalm: "But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth?" And hence to this sentence the following clause should have been annexed, in the form of a reply, "Blessed are they that keep judgment." I am of opinion, however, that the prophet had another design, namely, that there is no man who has ever endeavoured to concentrate all his energies, both physical and mental, in the praising of God, but will find himself inadequate for so lofty a subject, the transcendant grandeur of which overpowers all our senses. Not that he exalts the power of God designedly to deter us from celebrating its praises, but rather as the means of stirring us up to do so to the utmost of our power. Is it any reason for ceasing our exertions, that with whatever alacrity we pursue our course, we yet come far short of perfection? But the thing which ought to inspire us with the greatest encouragement is the knowledge that, though ability may fail us, the praises which from the heart we offer to God are pleasing to him; only let us beware of callousness; for it would certainly be very absurd for those who cannot attain to a tithe of perfection, to make that the occasion of their not reaching to the hundredth part of it. John Calvin.

Verse 2. Who can utter the mighty acts of the LORD? etc. Our sight fails us when we look upon the sun, overpowered by the splendour of his ways; and the mind's eye suffers the like in every meditation on God, and the more attention is bestowed in thinking of God, the more is the mental vision blinded by the very light of its own thoughts. For what canst thou say of him, what, I repeat, canst thou adequately say of him, who is more sublime than all loftiness, and more exalted than all height, and deeper than all depth, and clearer than all light, and brighter than all brightness, and more splendid than all splendour, stronger than all strength, more vigorous than all vigour, fairer than all beauty, truer than all truth, and more puissant than puissance, and greater than all majesty, and mightier than all might, richer than all riches, wiser than all wisdom, gentler than all gentleness, more just than all justice, more merciful than all mercy? —Tertullian, quoted by Neale and Littledale.

Verse 2. Who can utter the mighty acts of the LORD? etc. This may be resolved either into a negation or restriction. Few or none can "utter the mighty acts of the LORD, "can "show forth all his praise"; few can do it in an acceptable manner, and none can do it in a perfect manner. And indeed it is not unusual in Scripture for such kind of interrogations to amount unto either a negation, or at least an expression of the rareness and difficulty of the thing spoken of: 1Co 2:16 Ps 92:1 Isa 53:1. Without a full confession of mercies it is not possible to make either a due valuation of them, or a just requital of them. And how impossible a thing it is fully to recount mercies, you may see by Ps 40:5; "Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are toward us: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered." —Henry Jeanes, in "The Works of Heaven upon Earth," 1649.

Verse 2. Mighty acts of the Lord. Or powers, to which answers the Greek word for the miracles of Christ (Mt 11:20,21), and Kimchi here restrains them to the wonders wrought in Egypt and at the Red Sea; but they may as well be extended to the mighty acts of God, and the effects of his power, in the creation of all things out of nothing; in the sustentation and government of the world; in the redemption of his people by Christ; in the conversion of sinners, and in the final perseverance of the saints; in all which there are such displays of the power of God as cannot be uttered and declared by mortal tongues. John Gill.

Verse 3. Blessed are they that keep judgment, etc. That are of right principles and upright practices; this is real and substantial praising of God. Thanks doing is the proof of thanksgiving; and the good life of the thankful is the life of thankfulness. Those that thank God only, and no more, are not only contumelious, but injurious. John Trapp.

Verse 3. Keep judgment; doeth righteousness. I doubt not that there is some difference; viz. that he is said to keep judgment who judgeth rightly, but he to do righteousness who acts righteously. Augustine.

Verse 3. I have read of Louis, king of France, that when he had through inadvertency granted an unjust suit, as soon as ever he had read those words of the Psalmist, "Blessed is he that doeth righteousness at all times, "he presently recollected himself, and upon better thoughts gave his judgment quite contrary. Thomas Brooks.

Verse 4. O visit me. This is a beautiful figure. The prayer is not, "Give me a more intense desire, increased energy of action, that I may please thee, that I may serve thee, that I may go step by step up to thee, every step bringing with it is fresh sense of meritorious claim upon thee". No such thing. It is "Visit me"; "descend down upon me" daily from thine own lofty throne, for the fulfilment of thine own purposes. "Visit me". George Fisk, 1851.

Verse 4. O visit me with thy salvation. Hugo takes the visit of God as that of a physician of whom healing of the eyes is sought, because it is immediately added, "That I may see", etc. Lorinus.

Verse 4. There is an ancient Jewish gloss which is noteworthy, that the petition is for a share in the resurrection in the days of Messiah in order to see his wonderful restoration of his suffering people. Neale and Littledale.

Verse 5. We may note that the threefold nature of man prompts the union of the three petitions of this verse in one. "That I may see, " is the prayer of the body, desiring the open vision of God; "and rejoice, "is the wish of the soul or mind, that the affections may likewise be gratified; and vice thanks, as the spirit needs to pour itself out in worship. Further, there are three names here given to the saints, each for a reason of its own. They are God's "chosen, " because of his predestinating grace, "according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love" (Eph 1:4); they are his "nation, "having one law and one worship under him as sole king, "And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law?" (De 4:8) they are his "inheritance, "for it is written, "I shall give the heathen for thine inheritance" (Ps 2:8). Hugo Cardinalis and Albertus Magnus, in Neale and Littledale.

Verse 5. That I may see the good of thy chosen. That, having been predestined, and justified, we may come to see the good of thy chosen, which means that the very face of the Lord may be made conspicuous to us. (1Jo 3:2). By the "good of thy chosen" we are not to understand their own probity or goodness, but the supreme happiness that is their lot. "That I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation." That we may partake in that unspeakable joy which arises from the beatific vision, which is the peculiar property of the chosen people, of which strangers cannot taste, of which the gospel says, "Enter into the joy of thy Lord." —Robert Bellarmine, 1542-1621.

Verse 6. We have sinned with our fathers. Let us look a little further back, to find the age of sin; even as far as the original, from whence comes all the copy of imitation. Be they never so new in act, they are old in example: "We have sinned with our fathers." God tells them they had rebelled of old; "As your fathers did, so do ye" (Ac 8:51). Antiquity is no infallible argument of goodness: though Tertullian says the first things were the best things; and the less they distanced from the beginning, the poorer they were; but he must be understood only of holy customs. For iniquity can plead antiquity: he that commits a new act of murder finds it old in the example of Cain; drunkenness may be fetched from Noah; contempt of parents from Ham; women's lightness from the daughters of Lot. There is no sin but hath white hairs upon it, and is exceeding old. But let us look further back yet, even to Adam; there is the age of sin. This is that St. Paul calls the old man; it is almost as old as the root, but older than all the branches. Therefore our restitution by Christ to grace is called the new man. Thomas Adams.

Verse 6. We have sinned with our fathers. It enhances the sin considerably by adding "with our fathers." He would have seemed to extenuate, not exaggerate, if he had said, We have sinned with other mortals. But by saying, We have sinned with our fathers, he by no means lessens but aggravates their offences, while he thereby extols the goodness of God who blessed not only those who acted sinfully and impiously, but also the children and descendants of the sinful and impious, even those whom he could with the highest justice have cut off as doubly detestable. Musculus.

Verse 6. Sinned; committed iniquity; done wickedly. The Rabbins tell us that there are three kinds and degrees of sin here set down in an ascending scale; against one's self, against one's neighbour, against God; sins of ignorance, sins of conscious deliberation, sins of pride and wickedness. R. Levi and Genebrardus, in Neale and Littledale.

Verse 6. Though the writers of the Scriptures were by divine inspiration infallibly preserved from extravagance, yet they use every appropriate variety of strong and condemnatory language against sin (Ps 106:6). Surely moral evil cannot be a trifle. Yet it breaks forth on all occasions and on all hands. Sometimes it is in the form of forgetfulness of God (Ps 106:13,21), sometimes of rash impetuosity towards evil (Ps 106:13), sometimes of strong, imperious lusts (Ps 106:14), sometimes of vile unbelief (Ps 106:12,24), and so of the whole catalogue of offences against God and man. O how vile we are! —William S. Plumer.

Verse 7. Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt. Though the elders went along with Moses, and heard him shew his commission to Pharaoh, and make his demands in the name of the Lord to let Israel go, (Ex 3:16); yea, and they saw the judgments of God on Egypt; yet "they did not understand" that these wonders would do the work of their deliverance. At first they thought it was worse with them. Much less did they understand, that their deliverance should be a type of eternal deliverance, that God would be their God, as after is explained in the preface to the ten commandments. And because they "understood not his wonders, "therefore they "remembered not his mercies." A shallow understanding causeth a short memory. Nathaniel Homes, 1652.

Verse 7. Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt. It is more than probable, that many of the Israelites ascribed most of these wonders to the skill of Moses transcending that of the Egyptian magicians or to his working by the assistance of a higher and more potent spirit than that which assisted them. Or, in case they did believe them to have been the effects of a Divine Power, yet they did not inure their minds seriously to consider it, so as to have a standing awe of that power imprinted upon their hearts by such a consideration: and he that considers great and important matters superficially, in the language of the Scripture, does not understand them. Robert South.

Verse 7. Understood not...remembered not. He reproveth both their understanding and memory. Understanding there was need of; that they might meditate unto what eternal blessings God was calling them through these temporal ones; and of memory, that at least they might not forget the temporal wonders which had been wrought, and might faithfully believe, that by the same power which they had already experienced, God would free them from the persecution of their enemies; whereas they forgot the aid which he had given them in Egypt, by means of such wonders, to crush their enemies. Augustine.

Verse 7. One sin is a step to another more heinous; for not observing, is followed with not remembering, and forgetfulness of duty draweth on disobedience and rebellion. David Dickson.

Verse 7. They provoked him. To provoke, is an expression setting forth a peculiar and more than ordinary degree of misbehaviour, and seems to import an insolent daring resolution to offend. A resolution not contented with one single stroke of disobedience, but such a one as multiplies and repeats the action, till the offence greatens, and rises into an affront; and as it relates to God, so I conceive it as aimed at him in a threefold respect. First, of his power. Secondly, of his goodness. Thirdly, of his patience.

First. And first it rises up against the power and prerogative of God. It is, as it were, an assault upon God sitting upon his throne, a snatching at his sceptre, and a defiance of his very royalty and supremacy. He that provokes God does in a manner dare him to strike, and to revenge the injury and invasion upon his honour. He considers not the weight of God's almighty arm, and the edge of his sword, the swiftness and poison of his arrows, but puffs at all, and looks the terrors of sin revenging justice in the face. The Israelites could not sin against God, after those miracles in Egypt, without a signal provocation of that power that they had so late, and so convincing an experience of: a power that could have crushed an Israelite as easily as an Egyptian; and given as terrible an instance of its consuming force upon false friends, as upon professed enemies; in the sight of God, perhaps, the less sort of offenders of the two.

Secondly. Provoking God imports an abuse of his goodness. God, as he is clothed with power, is the proper object of our fear; but as he displays his goodness, of our love. By one he would command, by the other he would win and (as it were) court our obedience. And an affront to his goodness, his tenderness, and his mercy, as much exceeds an affront of his power as a wound at the heart transcends a blow on the hand. For when God shall show miracles of mercy, step out of the common road of providence, commanding the host of heaven, the globe of the earth, and the whole system of nature out of its course, to serve a design of goodness upon a people, as he did upon the Israelites; was not a provocation, after such obliging passages, infinitely base and insufferable, and a degree of ingratitude, higher than the heavens struck at, and deeper than the sea that they passed through?

Thirdly. Provoking God imports an affront upon his longsuffering, and his patience. The movings of nature in the breasts of mankind, tell us how keenly, how regretfully, every man resents the abuse of his love; how hardly any prince, but one, can put up an offence against his acts of mercy; and how much more affrontive it is to despise majesty ruling by the golden sceptre of pardon, than by the iron rod of penal law. But now patience is a further and an higher advance of mercy; it is mercy drawn out at length; mercy wrestling with baseness, and striving, if possible, even to weary and outdo ingratitude; and therefore a sin against this is the highest pitch, the utmost improvement, and, as I may so speak, the ne plus ultra of provocation. For when patience shall come to be tired, and even out of breath with pardoning, let all the invention of mankind find something further, either upon which an offender may cast his hope, or against which he can commit a sin. But it was God's patience the ungrateful Israelites sinned against; for they even plied and pursued him with sin upon sin, one offence following and thronging upon the neck of another, the last account still rising highest, and swelling bigger, till the treasures of grace and pardon were so far drained and exhausted, that they provoked God to swear, and what is more, to swear in his wrath and with a full purpose of revenge, that they should never enter into his rest. Robert South.

Verse 7. They provoked him. Wherein lay their provocation? They remembered not the multitude of his mercies:the former mercies of the Lord did not strengthen their trust in present troubles; that was one provocation. And as former mercies did not strengthen their trust, so the present troubles drew out their distrust, as another Scripture assures, reporting their behaviour in it (Ex 14:11): "And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt? "What were these fearful forecasts, these amazing bodements of an unavoidable (as they apprehended) ruin, but the overflowing of unbelief, or distrust in God; and this was another provocation. Former mercies are forgotten, yea, eaten up by unbelief, as the seven lean kine in Pharaoh's dream, eat up the fat ones, and present difficulties are aggravated by unbelief, as if all the power of God could not remove and overcome them. And will not the Lord (think you) visit in anger such a sin as this? —Joseph Caryl.

Verse 7. At the Red Sea. That is to say, at the Arabian Gulf: literally, at the Sea of Suph, which, if Suph be not here a proper name, (as it seems to be in De 1:1, and, with a slight variation, in Nu 31:14) means the sea of weeds, and that sea is still called by a similar name, in modern Egypt. Its designation, throughout the books of the Old Testament, is in the Syriac version, and the Chaldee Paraphrased, likewise rendered the sea of weeds; which name may have been derived from the reeds growing near its shore: or from the weeds, or coralline productions, seen through its waters, and the corals seen at its bottom...Pliny states, that it is called the Red Sea from King Erythras, or from the reflection of a red colour by the sun, or from its sand and its ground, or form the nature of its water. Daniel Cresswell.

Verses 7-8. This psalm is a psalm of thanksgiving, as the first and last verses declare. Now because a man is most fit to praise God when he is most sensible of his own sin and unworthiness; the psalmist doth throughout this psalm lay Israel's sin and God's mercy together. Ps 106:7. Our Fathers (says he) understood not thy wonders in Egypt. They saw them with their eyes, but they did not understand them with their heart: they did not apprehend the design and scope and end of God in those wonders: and therefore, "they remembered not (says the text) thy mercies; for a man remembers no more than he understands."

But it may be these mercies were very few, and so their sin in forgetfulness the less? Nay, not so, Ps 106:7, They remembered not the multitude of thy mercies.

But it may be this was their infirmity or weakness, and so they were rather to be borne withal? Not so, but they rebelled against him; so Montanus reads it better.

But it may be this sin was committed whilst they were in Egypt, or among the Egyptians, being put on by them? Not so neither, but when they were come out of Egypt, and only had to deal with God, and saw his glorious power at the Red Sea, then they rebelled against him, at the sea, even at the Red Sea.

What, then, did not the Lord destroy them? No says the text, Notwithstanding, all their grievance, unthankfulness, and their rebellion, he saved them for his name's sake. William Bridge, in a Sermon preached before the House of Commons, Nov. 5, 1647.

Nevertheless he saved them. If God should not shew mercy to his people with a nevertheless, how should the glory of his mercy appear? If a physician should only cure a man that hath the headache or the toothache; one that hath taken cold, or some small disease; it would not argue any great skill and excellency in the physician. But when a man is nigh unto death, hath one foot in the grave, or is, in the eye of reason, past all recovery; if then the physician cure him, it argues much the skill and excellency of that physician. So now, if God should only cure, and save a people that were less evil and wicked; or that were good indeed, where should the excellence of mercy appear? But when a people shall be drawing near to death, lying bed ridden, as it were, and the Lord out of his free love, for his own name's sake, shall rise, and cure such an unworthy people, this sets out the glory of his mercy. It is said in the verse precedent, "They rebelled at the sea, even at the Red Sea", or, as in the Hebrew, "even in the Red Sea; "when the waters stood like walls on both sides of them; when they saw those walls of waters that never people saw before, and saw the power, the infinite power of God leading them through on dry land; then did they rebel, at the sea, even in the sea; and yet for all this the Lord saved them with a notwithstanding all this. And I say, shall the Lord put forth so much of grace upon a people, that were under the law; and not put forth much more of his grace upon those that are under the gospel? —William Bridge.

For his name's sake. Improve his name in every case; for he hath a name suiting every want, every need. Do you need wonders to be wrought for you? His name is Wonderful; look to him so to do, for his name's sake. Do you need counsel and direction? His name is the Counsellor: cast yourself on him and his name for this. Have you mighty enemies to debate with? His name is the Mighty God; seek that he may exert his power for his name's sake. Do you need his fatherly pity? His name is the everlasting Father; "As a Father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him." Plead his pity, for his name's sake. Do you need peace external, internal, or eternal? His name is the Prince of Peace; seek for his name's sake, that he may create peace. O sirs, his name is JEHOVAH ROPHI, the Lord, the healer and physician; seek, for his name's sake, that he may heal all your diseases. Do you need pardon? His name is JEHOVAH TSlDKENU, the Lord our righteousness: seek, for his name's sake, that he may be merciful to your unrighteousness. Do you need defence and protection? His name is JEHOVAH NISSI, the Lord your banner; seek, for his name's sake, that his banner of love and grace may be spread over you. Do you need provision in extreme want? His name is JEHOVAH JIREH, in the mount of the Lord it shall be seen, the Lord will provide. Do you need his presence? His name is JEHOVAH SHAMMAH, the Lord is there: IMMANUEL, God with us: look to him to be with you, for his name's sake. Do you need audience of prayer? His name is the Hearer of prayer. Do you need strength? His name is the Strength of Israel. Do you need comfort? His name is the Consolation of Israel. Do you need shelter? His name is the City of Refuge. Have you nothing and need all His name is All in all. Sit down and devise names to your wants and needs, and you will find he hath a name suitable thereunto; for your supply, he hath wisdom to guide you; and power to keep you; mercy to pity you; truth to shield you; holiness to sanctify you; righteousness to justify you; grace to adorn you; and glory to crown you. Trust in his name, who saves for his name's sake. Ralph Erskine, 1685-1752.

He rebuked the Red sea also, and it was dried up. A poetical expression, signifying that the Red Sea retired at God's command, just as a slave would fly from his master's presence on being severely rebuked. Robert Bellarmine.

He rebuked. We do not read that any voice was sent forth from heaven to rebuke the sea; but he hath called the Divine Power by which this was effected, a rebuke, unless indeed any one may choose to say, that the sea was secretly rebuked, so that the waters might hear, and yet men could not. The power by which God acts is very abstruse and mysterious, a power by which he causeth that even things devoid of sense instantly obey at his will. Augustine.

Wilderness. Midbar; a broad expanse of poor dry land, suited for sheep walks (like our South Downs, or Salisbury Plain). Compare Isa 43:13. William Kay.

There was not one of them left. An emblem this of the utter destruction of all our spiritual enemies by Christ, who has not only saved us from them, but has entirely destroyed them; he has made an end of sin, even of all the sins of his people; he has spoiled Satan, and his principalities and powers; he has abolished death, the last enemy, and made his saints more than conquerors over all. Likewise it may be a representation of the destruction of the wicked at the last day, who will all be burnt up at the general conflagration, root and branch, not one will be left. See Mal 4:1. John Gill.

Then believed they his words. There is a temporary faith, as Mark calls it in (Mr 4:17), which is not so much a fruit of the Spirit of regeneration, as of a certain mutable affection, and so it soon passeth away. It is not a voluntary faith which is here extolled by the prophet, but rather that which is the result of compulsion, namely, because men, whether they will or not, by a sense which they have of the power of God, are constrained to show some reverence for him. This passage ought to be well considered, that men, when once they have yielded submission to God, may not deceive themselves, but may know that the touchstone of faith is when they spontaneously receive the word of God, and constantly continue firm in their obedience to it. John Calvin.

Natural affections raised high in a profession of religion will withstand temptations for a fit, but wait till the stream runs lower, and you will see. What a fit of affection had the Israelites when their eyes had seen that miraculous deliverance at the Red Sea! What songs of rejoicing had they! what resolves never to distrust him again! Then believed they his words; they sang his praise. Satan doth not presently urge them to murmuring and unbelief, though that was his design, but he staid till the fit was over, and then he could soon tempt them to forget his works. Richard Gilpin in "A Treatise of Satan's Temptations," 1677.

In the very brevity of this verse, the only one of its kind in the narrative portion of the psalm, we may well see how short lived were their gratitude, belief, and worship of God; as it follows at once, They soon forgat, etc. Neale and Littledale.

Verses 12-13. They sang his praise. They soon forgat his works. This was said of that generation of the Israelites, which came out of Egypt. The chapter which contains the portion of their history here alluded to, begins with rapturous expressions of gratitude, and ends with the murmurs of discontent; both uttered by the same lips, within the short space of three days. Their expressions of gratitude were called forth by that wonderful display of the divine perfections, which delivered them from the host of Pharaoh, and destroyed their enemies. Their murmurs were excited by a comparatively trifling inconvenience, which in a few hours was removed. Of persons whose thanksgivings were so quickly, and so easily changed to murmurings, it might well be said, —though they sang God's praises, "they soon forgat his works." Unhappily, the Israelites are by no means the only persons of whom this may, in truth, be said. Their conduct, as here described, affords a striking exemplification of that spurious gratitude, which often bursts forth in a sudden flash, when dreaded evils are averted, or unexpected favours bestowed; but expires with the occasion that gave it birth; a gratitude resembling the joy excited in an infant's breast by the gift of some glittering toy, which is received with rapture, and pleases for an hour; but when the charm of novelty vanishes, is thrown aside with indifference; and the hand that bestowed it is forgotten. Springing from no higher principle than gratified self love, it is neither acceptable to God, nor productive of obedience to his laws; nor does it in any respect really resemble that holy, heaven born affection, whose language it often borrows, and whose name it assumes. It may be called, distinctively, the gratitude of sinners; who, as they love those that love them, will of course be grateful to those that are kind to them; grateful even to God when they view him as kind.

Of these instances, the first which I shall notice is furnished by the works of creation; or, as they are often, though not very properly, called, the works of nature. In so impressive a manner do these works present themselves to our senses; so much of variety, and beauty, and sublimity do they exhibit; such power, and wisdom, and goodness do they display; that perhaps no man, certainly no man who possesses the smallest share of sensibility, taste, or mental cultivation, can, at all times, view them without emotion; without feelings of awe, or wonder, or admiration, or delight. But, alas, how transient, how unproductive of salutary effects, have all these emotions proved? Appetite and passion, though hushed for a moment, soon renewed their importunities; the glitter of wealth and distinction, and power, eclipsed, in our view, the glories of Jehovah; we sunk from that heaven toward which we seemed rising, to plunge afresh into the vortex of earthly pleasures and pursuits; we neglected and disobeyed him, whom we had been ready to adore; and continued to live without God, in a world which we had just seen to be full of his glory. A second instance of a similar nature is afforded by the manner in which men are often affected by God's works of providence. In these works his perfections are so constantly, and often so clearly displayed; our dependence on them is at all times so real, and sometimes so apparent; and they bear, in many eases, so directly and evidently upon our dearest temporal interests, that even the most insensible cannot, always, regard them with indifference.

But the feeling is usually transient; and the acknowledgment is forgotten almost as soon as it is made. In a similar manner are men often affected by God's works of grace; or those works whose design and tendency it is, to promote the spiritual and eternal interests of man. These works most clearly display, not only the natural, but the moral perfections of Jehovah. Here his character shines, full-orbed and complete. That an exhibition of these wonders should make, at least, a temporary impression upon our minds, is no more than might naturally be expected. For a moment our hearts seem to be melted. We feel, and are ready to acknowledge, that God is good; that the Saviour is kind; that his love ought to be returned; that heaven is desirable! Like a class of hearers described by one great Teacher, we receive the word with joy; a joy not unmingled with something which resembles gratitude; and we sing, or feel as if we could with pleasure sing, God's praises. But we leave his house; the emotions there excited subside; like the earth, when partially softened by a wintry sun, our hearts soon regain their icy hardness; the wonders of divine grace are forgotten; and God has reason to say in sorrow and displeasure, —Your goodness is as the morning cloud; and as the early dew it goeth away. Condensed from a Sermon by Edward Payson, 1783-1827.

They soon forgat his works. They forgat, yea, "soon"; they made haste to forget, so the original is: "They made haste, they forgat." Like men that in sleep shake Death by the hand, but when they are awake they will not know him. Thomas Adams.

How may we know that we are rightly thankful? When we are careful to register God's mercy, 1Ch 16:4: "David appointed certain of the Levites, to record, and to thank and praise the Lord God of Israel." Physicians say the memory is the first thing that decays; it is true in spirituals: "They soon forgat his works." —Thomas Watson.

They soon forgat. As it is with a sieve or boulter, the good corn and fine flour goes through, but the light chaff and coarse bran remains behind; or as a strainer, that the sweet liquor is strained out, but the dregs are left behind: or as a grate, that lets the pure water run away, but if there be any straws, sticks, mud, or filth, that it holds. Thus it is with most men's memories; by nature they are but, as it were, pertusa dolia, mere river tubs, especially in good things very treacherous, so that the vain conceits of men are apt to be held in, when divine instructions and gracious promises run through; trifles and toys, and worldly things, they are apt to remember, tenacious enough; but for spiritual things they leak out; like Israel, they soon forget them. William Gouge.

They soon forgat his works. Three days afterwards, at the waters of Marah (Ex 15:24). Adam Clarke.

They waited not. The insatiable nature of our desires is astonishing, in that scarcely a single day is allowed to God to gratify them. For should he not immediately satisfy them, we at once become impatient, and are in danger of eventually falling into despair. This, then, was the fault of the people, that they did not cast all their cares upon God, did not calmly call upon him, nor wait patiently until he was pleased to answer their requests, but rushed forward with reckless precipitation, as if they would dictate to God what he was to do. And, therefore, to heighten the criminality of their rash course, he employs the term counsel; because men will neither allow God to be possessed of wisdom, nor do they deem it proper to depend upon his counsel, but are more provident than becomes them, and would rather rule God than allow themselves to be ruled by him according to his pleasure. That we may be preserved from provoking God, let us ever retain this principle, That it is our duty to let him provide for us such things as he knows will be for our advantage. And verily, faith divesting us of our own wisdom, enables us hopefully and quietly to wait until God accomplishes his own work; whereas, on the contrary, our carnal desire always goes before the counsel of God, by its too great haste. John Calvin.

They waited not. They ought to have thought, that so great works of God towards themselves were not without a purpose, but that they invited them to some endless happiness, which was to be waited for with patience; but they hastened to make themselves happy with temporal things, which give no man true happiness, because they do not quench insatiable longing: "for whosoever", saith our Lord, "shall drink of this water, shall thirst again." Joh 4:13. Augustine.

They waited not for his counsel. Which neglect of theirs may be understood two ways. First, that they waited not for his open or declared counsel, to direct them what to do, but without asking his advice would needs venture and run on upon their own heads, to do what seemed good in their own eyes. Secondly, that they waited not for the accomplishment of his hidden and secret counsel concerning them; they would not tarry God's time for the bringing forth and bringing about his counsels. Not to wait upon God either way is very sinful. Not to wait for his counsel to direct us what to do, and not to wait for his doing or fulfilling his own counsel, argues at once a proud and an impatient spirit; in the one, men so even slight the wisdom of God, and in the other vainly presume and attempt to prevent his providence. Joseph Caryl.

They waited not for his counsel. A believer acting his faith, hath great advantage of an unbeliever. An unbeliever is froward and passionate, and heady and hasty, when he is put to plunge; he waits not for the counsel of God. He leaps before he looks, before he hath eyes to see his way; but a believer is quiet and confident, and silent and patient, and prayerful, and standing upon his watch tower, to see what God will answer at such a time. Matthew Lawrence, in "The Use and Practice of Faith," 1657.

In the wilderness. When God by circumstances of time and place doth call for moderation of carnal appetite, the transgression is more heinous and offensive unto God: "They lusted exceedingly in the wilderness", where they should have contented themselves with any sort of provision. David Dickson.

In the wilderness. There, where they had bread enough and to spare, yet nothing would serve them but they must have flesh to eat. They were now purely at God's finding; so that this was a reflection upon the wisdom and goodness of their Creator. They were now, in all probability, within a step of Canaan, yet had not patience to stay for dainties till they came thither. They had flocks and herds of their own, but they will not kill them; God must give them flesh as he gave them bread, or they will never give him credit or their good word: they did not only wish for flesh, "but" they "lusted exceedingly" after it. A desire even of lawful things, when it is inordinate and violent, becomes sinful; and therefore this is called "lusting after evil things", (1Co 10:6), though the quails as God's gift, were good things, and were so spoken of, Ps 105:40. Yet this was not all, "they tempted God in the desert", where they had had such experience of his goodness and power, and questioned whether he could and would gratify them therein. See Ps 78:19-20. Matthew Henry.

And he gave them their request, etc. The throat's pleasure did shut up paradise, sold the birthright, beheaded the Baptist, and it was the chief of the cooks, Nebuzaradan, that first set fire to the temple, and razed the city. These effects are,

1. Grossness; which takes away agility to any good work; which makes a man more like a tun upon two pottle pots. Caesar said he mistrusted not Antony and Dolabella for any practices, because they were fat; but Casca and Cassius, lean, hollow fellows, who did think too much. The other are the devil's crammed fowls, too fat to lay. Indeed, what need they travel far, whose felicity is at home; placing paradise in their throats, and heaven in their food?

2. Macilency of grace; for as it puts fatness into their bodies, so leanness into their souls. God fatted the Israelites with quails, but withal sent leanness into their soul. The flesh is blown up, the spirit doth languish. They are worse than man eaters, for they are self eaters: they put a pleurisy into their bloods, and an apoplexy into their souls. Thomas Adams.

Sent leanness into their soul. God affords us as great means for our increase in these Gospel times as ever he did; he puts us into fat pastures, and well watered, Ps 23:1-6; therefore it is a shame for God's people not to grow, not to "bring forth twins", as So 6:6. They should grow twice as fast, bring forth twice as fast, bring forth twice as many lambs, twice as much wool, twice as much milk, as those that go upon bare commons. All the world may cry shame on such a man that is high fed, and often fed with fat and sweet ordinances, if he be still like Pharaoh's lean kine, as lean and ill favoured as ever he was before. Certainly, fat ordinances and lean souls do not well agree. We are to look upon it as the greatest of judgments to have leanness sent into our souls while we are fed with manna. We look on it as an affliction to have an over lean body; but it's a far sadder condition to have a lean soul. Of the two, it were far better to have a well thriving body and a lean soul: it is a great mercy when both prosper, 3Jo 1:2: "I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth." Oh it is a sweet thing, especially to have a prospering soul, and still upon the growing hand: and God expects it should be so, where he affords good diet, great means of grace; as Da 1:10: "The prince of the eunuchs said unto Daniel, I fear my lord the king, who hath appointed your meat and your drink." If you should look ill, who fare so well, I should be sure to bear the blame; it were so much as my head is worth. So certainly, where God affords precious food for precious souls, if these souls be lean under fat ordinances, either those that are fed, or those that feed them; either the stewards or the household; either minister, or people, or both, are sure to bear the blame. It is but equal and just that such should grow. We do not wonder to see lean sheep upon bare commons, but when we see sheep continue lean in fat pastures, we think their meat is ill bestowed on them; and therefore let us strive to be on the growing hand. Matthew Lawrence.

Leanness is rendered "loathing" by Bishop Horsley, which accords with the literal state of the case; but I think leanness, as applied to the soul is exceedingly descriptive of its spiritual barrenness and emptiness of aught like Divine tastes or enjoyments. Thomas Chalmers.

The earth opened, etc. This element was not used to such morsels. It devours the carcases of men; but bodies informed with living souls, never before. To have seen them struck dead upon the earth had been fearful; but to see the earth at once their executioner and grave, was more horrible. Neither the sea nor the earth are fit to give passage; the sea is moist and flowing, and will not be divided, for the continuity of it; the earth is dry and massy, and will neither yield naturally, nor meet again when it hath yielded: yet the waters did cleave to give way unto Israel for their preservation; the earth did cleave to give way to the conspirators in judgment; both sea and earth did shut their jaws again upon the adversaries of God. There was more wonder in this latter. It was a marvel that the waters opened; it was no wonder that they shut again; for the retiring and flowing was natural. It was no less marvel that the earth opened; but more marvel that it shut again; because it had no natural disposition to meet when it was divided. Now might Israel see they had to do with a God that could revenge with ease. There are two sorts of traitors: the earth swallowed up the one, the fire the other. All the elements agree to serve the vengeance of their Maker. Nadab and Abihu brought fit persons, but unfit fire, to God; these Levites bring the right fire, but unwarranted persons, before him: fire from God consumes both. It is a dangerous thing to usurp sacred functions. The ministry will not grace the man; the man may disgrace the ministry. Joseph Hall.

Dathan and Abiram only are mentioned, and this in strict agreement with Nu 26:11, where it is said, "the children of Korah died not." And the same thing is at least implied in Nu 16:27, where it is said, that, just before the catastrophe took place, "Dathan and Abiram" (there is no mention of Korah) "came out and stood in the door of their tents." See this noticed and accounted for in Blunt's Veracity of the Books of Moses, Part 1, 20 pounds, 86. J.J. Stewart Perowne.

They made a calf. And why a calf? Could they find no fitter resemblance of God amongst all the creatures? Why not rather the lordly lion, to show the sovereignty; vast elephant, the immensity; subtle serpent, the wisdom; long-lived hart, the eternity; swift eagle, the ubiquity of God, rather than the silly senseless calf, that eateth hay? But the shape matters not much, for if God be made like anything, he may be made like anything, it being as unlawful to fashion him an angel as a worm, seeing the commandment forbids as well the likeness of things in heaven above as ill earth beneath (Ex 20:4). But probably a calf was preferred before other forms because they had learned it from the Egyptians' worshipping their ox Apis. Thus the Israelites borrowed (Ex 12:35) not all gold and silver but some dross from the Egyptians, whence they fetch the idolatrous forms of their worship.

The modern Jews are of opinion that all the afflictions which ever since have, do, or shall befall their nation, are still the just punishments on them for this their first act of idolatry. And the rabbins have a saying that God never inflicts any judgment upon them, but there is an ounce of his anger on them for their ancestors' making the golden calf. A reverend friend of mine, conversing at Amsterdam with a Jewish youth (very capable and ingenious for one of that nation) endeavoured to make him sensible of God's anger upon them for rejecting and crucifying of Christ, for which foul act he showed how the Jews have lived many hundred years in miserable banishment. But the youth would in no wise acknowledge in their sufferings any effect or punishment of their murdering of Christ, but taking his Bible turned to God's threatening immediately after their making of the calf (Ex 33:34); "Nevertheless in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them", so interpreting and applying all the numerous calamities which since have befallen them to relate to no other cause than that their first idolatry. Whereas, indeed, the arrears of their idolatry long ago were satisfied, and this is a new debt of later date contracted on themselves by their infidelity. Thomas Fuller, 1608-1661, in "A Pisgah Sight of Palestine."

They made a calf, etc. This people had seen this idolatrous service in Egypt; and now they did not more long after Egyptian food, than after this Egyptian god...It is an easy matter for men to be drawn to the practice of that idolatry that they have been accustomed to see practised in those places that they have a long time lived in. He that would take heed of idolatry, let him take heed of Egypt; the very air of Egypt (as I may so say) is infectious in this kind. See here, they had seen the worship of a young bullock in Egypt, and they must have a bullock. . . . The local seat of Antichrist (and what seat can that be but Rome?) is called in the Revelation by three names: it is called Egypt, Re 2:8. It is called Sodom in the same verse. It is called Babylon in many places of the Revelation. It is called Babylon, in regard of her cruelty. It is called Sodom, in regard to her filthiness; and Egypt, in regard of her idolatry. It is a hard matter for a man to live in Egypt, and not to taste and savour somewhat of the idolatry of Egypt. We had sometime, in England, a proverb about going to Rome. They said, a man that went the first time to Rome, he went to see a wicked man there; he that went the second rime to Rome, went to be acquainted with that wicked man there; he that went the third time, brought him home with him. How many have we seen (and it is pity to see so many) of our nobility and gentry go to those Egyptian, parts, and return home again; but few of them bring home the same manners, the same religion, nor the same souls they carried out with them. Thomas Westfield, Bishop of Brigtow, in "England's Face in Israel's Glasse," 1658.

In Horeb. There is a peculiar stress on the words "in Horeb", as denoting the very place where the great manifestation of God's power and presence has been made, and where the law had been given, whose very first words were a prohibition of the sin of idolatry. Agellius, in Neale and Littledale.

Verse 19-20. Apis, or Serapis, was a true living black bull, with a white list or streak along the back, a white mark in fashion of an half moon on his right shoulder, only two hairs growing on his tail (why just so many and no more, the devil knows), with a fair square blaze on his forehead, and a great bunch called cantharus under his tongue. What art their priests did use to keep up the breed and preserve succession of cattle with such gwrismata, or privy marks, I list not to inquire...Besides this natural and living bull, kept in one place, they also worshipped boun diacruson, a golden or gilded ox, the image or portraiture of the former. Some conceive this Apis to have been the symbol and emblem of Joseph the patriarch, so called from ba, ab, a father, seeing he is said to be made by God a father to Pharaoh (Ge 45:8), that is, preserver of him and his country; and therefore the Egyptians, in after ages, gratified his memory with statues of an ox, a creature so useful in ploughing, sowing, bringing home, and treading out of corn, to perpetuate that gift of grain he had conferred upon them. They strengthen their conjecture because Serapis (which one will have to be nothing else but Apis with addition of rv, sar, that is, a prince, whence perchance our English Sir) was pictured with a bushel over his head, and Joseph (we know) was corn meter general in Egypt. Though others, on good ground, conceive ox worship in Egypt of far greater antiquity. However, hence Aaron (Ex 32:4), and hence afterwards Jeroboam (who flying from Solomon, lived some years with Shishak, king of Egypt, 1Ki 11:40) had the pattern of their calves, which they made for the children of Israel to worship. If any object the Egyptians' idols were bulls or oxen, the Israelites' but calves, the difference is not considerable; for (besides the objector never looked into the mouths of the latter to know their age) gradus non variat speciem, a less character is not another letter. Yea, Herodotus calls Apis himself moscov, a calf, and Vitulus is of as large acceptation among the Latins. Such an old calf the poet describes —

Ego hanc vitalam (ne forte recuses

Bis venit ad mulctram binos alit ubere faetus)

Depono.

My calf I lay (lest you mistake both tides

She comes to the pail and suckles twain besides).

But to put all out of doubt, what in Exodus is termed a calf, the psalmist calleth an ox (Ps 106:20). —Thomas Fuller.

Verses 19-22. It is to be hoped, we shall never live to see a time, when the miracles of our redemption shall be forgotten; when the return of Jesus Christ from heaven shall be despaired of; and when the people shall solicit their teachers to fabricate a new philosophical deity, for them to worship, instead of the God of their ancestors, to whom glory hath been ascribed from generation to generation. George Horne.

An ox that eateth grass. The Egyptians, when they consulted Apis, presented a bottle of hay or of grass, and if the ox received it, they expected good success. Daniel Cresswell.

Although some of the Rabbins would excuse this gross idolatry of their forefathers, yet others more wise bewail them, and say that there is an ounce of this golden calf in all their present sufferings. John Trapp.

They forgat God. To devise images and pictures to put, us in the mind of God, is a very forgetting both of God's nature and of his authority, which prohibits such devices, for so doth the Lord expound it: "They forgat God their saviour." —David Dickson.

Let us observe in this place that Israel is now for the third time accused of forgetting God; above in Ps 106:7, afterwards in Ps 106:13, and now in Ps 106:21. And that he might shew the greatness of this forgetfulness he does not simply say they forgat God, but adds, their Saviour: not the Saviour of their fathers in former times, but their own Saviour. Musculus.

Land of Ham. Egypt is called the land of Ham, or rather Cham, Mx, because it was peopled by Mizraim, the son of Ham, and grandson of Noah. Plutarch (De Iside and Osiride) informs us, that the Egyptians called their country Chmia, Chemia; and the Copts give it the name of Chmi, Chemi, to the present day. Comprehensive Bible.

Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach. Moses stood in the gap, and diverted the wrath of God; the hedge of religion and worship was broken down by a golden calf, and he made it up: Nu 16:41-42, the people murmured, rose up against Moses and Aaron, trod down the hedge of authority, whereupon the plague brake in upon them; presently Aaron steps That into the gap, makes up the hedge, and stops the plague, Nu 16:47-48 which they did was honourable; and they were repairers of breaches. We, through infinite mercy, have had some like Moses and Aaron, to make up our hedges, raise up our foundations, and stop some gaps; but all our gaps are not yet stopped. Are there not gaps in the hedge of doctrine? If it were not so, how came in such erroneous, blasphemous, and wild opinions amongst us? Are there not gaps in the hedges of civil and ecclesiastical authority? Do not multitudes trample upon magistracy and ministry, all powers, both human and divine? Are there not gaps in the worship of God? Do not too many tread down all churches, all ordinances, yea, the very Scriptures? Are there not gaps in the hedge of justice, through which the bulls of Bashan enter, which oppress the poor, and crush the needy? Am 4:1: Are there not gaps in the hedge of love; is not that bond of perfection broken? Are there not bitter envyings and strife amongst us; do we not bite and devour one another? Are there not gaps in the hedge of conscience? Is not the peace broken between God and your souls? Doth not Satan come in oft at the gap, and disturb you? Are there not gaps also in your several relations, whereby he gets advantage? Surely, if our eyes be in our heads, we may see gaps enough. William Greenhill.

The breach. This is a metaphor taken from a city which is besieged, and in the walls of which the enemy having made a "breach" is just entering in, to destroy it, unless he be driven back by some valiant warrior. Thus Moses stood, as it were "in the breach", and averted the wrath of God, when he was just going to destroy the Israelites. See Ex 32:1-35. Thomas Fenton.

If Christians could be brought to entertain a just sense of the value and power of intercessory prayer, surely it would abound. It is a terrible reproof against the lying prophets of Ezekiel's time: "Ye have not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord" (Eze 13:5). Compare Ex 32:9-14. William S. Plumer.

Yea, they despised. When the promised inheritance of heaven (which was figured by the pleasant land of promise), is not counted worthy of all the pains and difficulties which can be sustained and met with in the way of going toward it; the promised inheritance is but little esteemed of, as appeareth in the Israelites, who for love of ease, and fear of the Canaanites, were ready to turn back to Egypt: They despised the pleasant land. David Dickson.

They despised the pleasant land. This was a type of heaven, the good land afar off; the better country, the land of promise and rest; in which is fulness of provisions, and where there will be no hunger and thirst; where flows the river of the water of life, and stands the tree of life, bearing all manner of fruits; where there is fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore; the most delightful company of Father, Son, and Spirit, angels and glorified saints, and nothing to disturb their peace and pleasure neither from within nor from without. And yet this pleasant land may be said to be despised by such who do not care to go through any difficulty to it; to perform the duties of religion; to bear reproach for God's sake; to go through tribulation; to walk in the narrow and afflicted way which leads unto it; and by all such who do not care to part with their sinful lusts and pleasures; but prefer them and the things of this world to the heavenly state. John Gill.

One great bar to salvation is spiritual sloth. It is said of Israel, They despised the pleasant land. What should be the reason? Canaan was a paradise of delight, a type of heaven; aye, but they thought it would cost them a great deal of trouble and hazard in the getting, and they would rather go without it, they despised the pleasant land. Are there not millions of us who would rather go sleeping to hell, than sweating to heaven? I have read of certain Spaniards that live near where there is great store of fish, yet are so lazy that they will not be at the pains to catch them, but buy of their neighbours: such a sinful stupidity and sloth is upon the most, that though Christ be near them, though salvation is offered in the Gospel, yet they will not work out salvation. Thomas Watson.

Verse 24-25. Murmuring hath in it much unbelief and distrust of God. They believed not his word; but murmured in their tents. They could not believe that the wilderness was the way to Canaan, that God would provide and furnish a table for them there, and relieve them in all their straits. So it is with us in trouble. We quarrel with God's providence, because we do not believe his promises; we do not believe that this can be consistent with love, or can work for good in the end. John Willison, 1680-1750.

But murmured. Murmuring! It must have been a malady characteristic of the Hebrew people, or a disease peculiar to that desert. As we proceed with this narrative we are constantly meeting it, creaking along in discord harsh and chronic, or amazing earth and heaven by its shrill ear piercing paroxysms. They lift up their eyes, and as the Egyptians pursue, the people murmur. They come to a fountain, the water is bitter, and once more they murmur. Then no bread; murmurings redoubled. Moses is no longer in the Mount; murmurs. He takes too much upon him; more murmurs. When shall we reach that promised land? —murmurs extraordinary, loud murmurs. We are close to the land, but its inhabitants are giants, and their towns walled up to heaven. Oh, what a take in! and the last breath of the last survivors of that querulous race goes forth in a hurricane of reproach and remonstrance —a perfect storm of murmurs. James Hamilton (1814-1867) in "Moses the man of God."

The murmuring on this occasion seems to have been a social evil, they murmured in their tents. So do men in social life promote among each other prejudice and aversion to true religion. W. Wilson.

They joined themselves also unto Baalpeor, —rather "bound themselves with his badge": for it was the custom in ancient times, as it is now, in all Pagan countries, for every idol to have some specific badge, or ensign, by which his votaries are known. John Kitto, in "Daily Bible Illustrations."

They joined themselves also unto Baalpeor. The narrative (Nu 25:1-18) seems clearly to show that this form of Baal worship was connected with licentious rites. Without laying too much stress on the Rabbinical derivation of the word rwep, hiatus, i.e., "aperire hymenem virgineum", we seem to have reason to conclude that this was the nature of the worship. Baal Peor was identified by the Rabbins and early fathers with Priapus (see the authorities quoted by Selden, De Diis Syris, 1., 4, p. 302, sq., who, however, dissents from this view.) This is, moreover, the view of Creuzer (2., 411), Winer, Gesenius, Furst, and almost all critics. The reader is referred for more detailed information particularly to Creuzer's Symbolik and Movers' Phönizier. William Gotch, in "Smith's Dictionary of the Bible."

Ate the sacrifices. It was usual for the officers to eat the chief part of the sacrifice. Hence the remarks of Paul on this subject, 1Co 8:1-13. Benjamin Boothroyd.

The dead. The word Mytm, maithim, signifies dead men; for the idols of the heathen were generally men, —warriors, kings, or lawgivers, —who had been deified after their death; though many of them had been execrated during their life. Comprehensive Bible.

And they ate the sacrifices of the dead.

His obsequies to Polydorus paying

A tomb we raise, and altars to the dead

With dark blue fillets and black cypress bind

Our dames with hair dishevelled stand to mourn;

Warm frothy bowls of milk and sacred blood

We offer, in his grave the spirit lay,

Call him aloud, and bid our last farewell. Virgil.

They provoked him to anger with their inventions. Note, that it is not said, with their deeds, but with their pursuits (studies). It is one thing simply to do a thing; it is quite another to pursue it earnestly night and day. The first may take place by chance, or through ignorance, or on account of some temptation, or violence, and that without the consent and against the inclination of the mind. But the latter is brought about in pursuance of a fixed purpose and design and by effort and forethought. We see, therefore, in this passage that the patience of God was at length provoked to anger and fury when the people sinned not merely once and again, but when the pursuit of sin grew and strengthened. Musculus.

Their inventions. Their sins are here called by the name of "their inventions." And so, sure, they are; as no ways taught us by God, but of our own imagining or finding out. For, indeed, our inventions are the cause of all sins. And if we look well into it we shall find our inventions are so. By God's injunction we should all live, and his injunction is, "You shall not do every man what seems good in his own eyes" (or finds out in his own brains), but "whatsoever I command you, that shall you do." De 12:8. But we, setting light by that charge of his, out of the old disease of our father Adam ("ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil"), think it a goodly matter to be witty, and to find out things ourselves to make to ourselves, to be authors, and inventors of somewhat, that so we may seem to be as wise as God, if not wiser; and to know what is for our turns, as well as he, if not better. It was Saul's fault. God bade him destroy Amalek altogether, and he would invent a better way, to save some (forsooth) for sacrifice, which God could not think of. And it was St. Peter's fault, when he persuaded Christ from his passion, and found out a better way (as he thought) than Christ could devise. Lancelot Andrewes.

Brake in upon them. The image is that of a river which has burst its barriers; see Ex 19:24. The plague is the slaughter inflicted upon the people by command of Moses; Nu 25:4-5,8-9,18. "The Speaker's Commentary."

Then stood up Phinehas. All Israel saw the bold lewdness of Zimri, but their hearts and eyes were so full of grief, that they had not room enough for indignation. Phinehas looked on with the rest, but with other affections. When he saw this defiance bidden to God, and this insult upon the sorrow of his people (that while they were wringing their hands, a proud miscreant durst outface their humiliation with his wicked dalliance), his heart boils with a desire of a holy revenge; and now that hand, which was used to a censer and sacrificing knife, takes tip his javelin, and, with one stroke, joins these two bodies in their death, which were joined in their sin, and in the very flagrance of their lust, makes a new way for their souls to their own place. O noble and heroical courage of Phinehas! Which, as it was rewarded of God, so is worthy to be admired of men. He doth not stand casting of scruples: Who am I to do this? The son of the high priest. My place is all for peace and mercy: it is for me to sacrifice, and pray for the sin of the people, not to sacrifice any of the people for their sin. My duty calls me to appease the anger of God what I may, not to revenge the sins of men; to pray for their conversion, not to work the confusion of any sinner. And who are these? Is not the one a great prince in Israel, the other a princess of Midian? Can the death of two so famous personages go unrevenged? Or, if it be safe and fit, why doth my uncle Moses rather shed his own tears than their blood? I will mourn with the rest; let them revenge whom it concerneth. But the zeal of God hath barred out all weak deliberations; and he holds it now both his duty and his glory, to be an executioner of so shameless a pair of offenders. . . . Now the sin is punished, the plague ceaseth. The revenge of God sets out ever after the sin; but if the revenge of men (which commonly comes later) can overtake it, God gives over the chase. How oft hath the infliction of a less punishment avoided a greater! There are none so good friends to the state, as courageous and impartial ministers of justice: these are the reconcilers of God and the people, more than the prayers of them that sit still and do nothing. Joseph Hall.

Then stood up Phinehas, etc. Mark the mighty principle, which rolled like a torrent in the heart of Phinehas. The Spirit leaves it not obscure. The praise is this, "He was zealous for his God", Nu 25:13. He could not fold his arms, and see God's law insulted, his rule defied, his majesty and empire scorned. The servant's heart blazed in one blaze of godly indignation. He must be up to vindicate his Lord. His fervent love, his bold resolve, fear nothing in a righteous cause. The offending Zimri was a potent prince: nevertheless he spared him not. Believer, can you read this and feel no shame? Do your bold efforts testify your zeal? Sinners blaspheme God's name. Do you rebuke? His Sabbaths are profaned. Do you protest? False principles are current? Do you expose the counterfeits? Vice stalks in virtue's garb. Do you tear down the mask? Satan enthrals the world. Do you resist? Nay, rather are you not dozing unconcerned? Whether Christ's cause succeeds, or be cast down, you little care. If righteous zeal girded your loins, and braced your nerves, and moved the rudder of your heart, and swelled your sails of action, would God be so unknown, and blasphemy so daring? Mark, next, the zeal of Phinehas is sound minded. It is not as a courser without rein, a torrent unembanked, a hurricane let loose. Its steps are set in order's path. It executes God's own will in God's own way. The mandate says, let the offenders die. He aims a death blow, then, with obedient hand. The zeal, which heaven kindles, is always a submissive grace. Henry Law, in "Christ is All", 1858.

Stood up, as valiantly to do his work of zeal, as Moses had done to discharge the office of intercessor, and because he alone rose to set the example of resistance to the foul rites of Baal Peor. Cassiodorus, quoted by Neale and Littledale.

So the plague was stayed. God himself puts this peculiar honour of staying the plague (when he was about to destroy the whole camp) upon this fact of Phinehas, saying, "He hath turned away my wrath", Nu 25:10-11, because he was acted with the same zeal for God's glory and Israel's good, as God himself is acted with for them, and feared not to lose his life in God's cause, by putting to death a prince and a princess in the very flagrancy of their lust at one blow. There is such an accent and such an emphasis put by the Lord on this act, (as the Jewish Rabbis observe), that here they begin the forty-first section or lecture of the Law, or (as Vatablus saith) the seventh section of the book, which they call Phinehas. Moreover, it teacheth us, that zeal of justice in the cause of God is an hopeful means to remove God's wrath from, and to procure his mercy to, man. Thus David also made an atonement by doing justice on Saul's house, 2Sa 21:3, etc. . . . Phinehas by virtue of this promise of the priesthood (Nu 25:12-13) lived himself to a great old age, even (as some say) to three hundred years, as appeareth by Jud 20:28, where he then is found alive, for his zeal at this time. He lived so long that some of the Rabbis are of opinion that he died not at all, but is still alive, whom they suppose to be the Elias that is to come before the coming of Christ; but this notion is confuted by others of their Rabbis, and by the mention of his seed succeeding him in sacred Scripture. However, though few after the Flood did near attain to any such age, yet must Phinehas be very old in that time of Israel's warring with Benjamin...Phinehas's priesthood is called "everlasting", not in his person, but in his posterity, whose sons were successively high priests till the captivity of Babylon, 1Ch 6:4-16; and at the return out of captivity, Ezra, the great priest and scribe, was of his line, Ezr 7:1-6; and so it continued in that line until, or very near, the approach of our evangelical High Priest (as Christ is called, Heb 5:6), who was of the order of Melchizedek. Christopher Ness.

Why is the pacifying of God's wrath, and the staying of the plague ascribed to Phinehas, having a blush of irregularity in it, rather than to the acts of Moses and the judges, which were by express command from God and very regular? For answer, the acts of Moses and the judges slaked the fire of God's wrath, that of Phinehas quenched it; again, the acts of Moses and the judges had a rise from a spark, that of Phinehas from a flame of zeal and holy indignation in him; hence the Lord, who is exceedingly taken with the springs and roots of actions, sets the crown upon the head of Phinehas. Edmund Staunton, in a Sermon preached before the House of Lords, 1644.

So the plague was stayed. A man doth not so live by his own faith, but in temporal respects the faith of another man may do him good. Masters by their faith obtained healing for their servants, parents for their children, Mt 15:28. "Oh, man, great is thy faith!" "Jesus seeing their faith", healed the sick of the palsy. God's people for the town or place where they live: "The innocent" (i.e., the faithful doer) "shall deliver the island", Job 22:30. Ge 18:32, "If ten righteous persons shall be found there, I will not destroy it for ten's sake." Especially in Magistrates, Moses, Nu 14:1-45; Hezekiah, Isa 37:1-38, put up prayers, and God saved the people and places, they prayed for: Then Phinehas executed judgment (appeased God by faith) and so the plague was stayed. Matthew Lawrence.

Elevation of mind and sweetness of spirit are pearls of great price, and if we wish to preserve them we had better intrust them to God's own keeping. If Moses lost his faith, it was by first losing self command: and if a man lose this, it is hard to say what next he may lose: like the mad warrior who makes a missile of his shield and hurls it at the head of all enemy, he is henceforward open to every fiery dart, to the cut and thrust of every assailant. But, as John Newton remarks, "The grace of God is as necessary to create a right temper in a Christian on the breaking of a china plate as on the death of an only son"; and as no man can tell on any dawning day but what that may be the most trying day in all his life, how wise to pray without ceasing, "uphold me according unto thy word. Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe." "Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth: keep the door of my lips." "Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression." —James Hamilton.

It went ill with Moses. This judgment of God on that sin did not imply that he had blotted Moses out of the book of life, or the number of the saints, or otherwise than forgive his sin. For he continued still to talk with him, and advise with him of the governing of his people, and spake to Joshua that he should be faithful to him as his servant Moses. That was not the true Canaan from which he was shut out, but only the figure and shadow; and that he was allowed to see; a vision well worthy of all his labours, for the more excellent things signified by it. Isaac Williams, in "The Characters of the Old Testament," 1873.

They provoked his spirit. As Abraham was distinguished for his faith, so was Moses for his meekness; for Scripture has declared that he was "very meek, above all the men which were on the face of the earth", Nu 12:3. Yet, judging from facts recorded of him, we should be inclined to suppose that he was by nature remarkable for sensitiveness and hastiness of temper —that was his one besetting infirmity. Such appears to have been evinced when he slew the Egyptian; when he twice smote the rock in the wilderness; and on that occasion when he was "punished", as the psalmist says, "because they provoked his spirit, so that he spake unadvisedly with his lips", and when he broke the two tables of stone. Something of the same kind appears to have been the case with our own Hooker, whose biographer attributes to him such singular meekness, while his private writings indicate a temper keenly alive and sensitive to the sense of wrong. Isaac Williams.

They provoked his spirit. In a dispensation itself mainly gracious, and foreshadowing one which would be grace altogether, it was of prime importance that the mediating men should be merciful and gracious, long suffering, and slow to anger. And sure they were in marvellous manner. . . . Brimming, over with instruction as is this passage, we must leave it with a few remarks.

1. How careful preachers of the gospel and expounders of Scripture should be not to give an erroneous impression of God's mind or message. The mental acumen is rare, but the right spirit is rarer. But what is the right spirit? —A loving spirit, a gentle spirit, a faithful spirit, a meek and weaned spirit, a spirit which says, "Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth", and a spirit which adds, "All that the Lord giveth me, that will I speak", that excellent spirit which is only imparted by the good Spirit of God. For if He withdraw, even a Moses ceases to be meek, and ceasing to be meek, even a Moses becomes a bad divine and an erroneous teacher, striking the rock that has been already stricken once for all, and preaching glad tidings gruffly. He who gives the living water does not grudge it; but sometimes, instead of "Ho! every one that thirsteth", the preacher says, "Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock?" and makes the very invitation repulsive.

2. When any one has run long and run well, how sad it is to stumble within a few steps of the goal! If Moses had an earthly wish, it was to see Israel safe in their inheritance, and his wish was all but consummated. Faith and patience had held out well nigh forty years, and in a few months more the Jordan would be crossed and the work would be finished. And who can tell but this very nearness of the prize helped to create something of a presumptuous confidence? The blood of Moses was hot to begin with, and he was not the meekest of men when he smote the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. But he had got a good lesson in ruling his spirit, and betwixt the long sojourn with Jethro and the self discipline needful in the charge of this multitude, he might fancy that he had now his foot on the neck of this enemy: when lo! the sin revives and Moses dies.

Blessed is the man that feareth alway! Blessed is the man who, although years have passed without an attempt at burglary, still bars his doors and sees his windows fastened! Blessed is the man who, although a generation has gone since the last eruption, forbears to build on the volcanic soil and dreads fires which have smouldered for fourscore years! Blessed is the man who, even when the high seas are crossed and the land is made, still keeps an outlook! Blessed is the man who, even on the confines of Canaan, takes heed of the evil heart, lest, with a promise of entering in, he should come short through unbelief!

They provoked his spirit, etc. Angry he certainly was; and when, reverting to a former miracle, the Most High directed him to take the wonder staff —his rod of many miracles and at the head of the congregation "speak to the rock", and it would "give forth its water", in the heat and agitation of his spirit he failed to implement implicitly the Divine command. Instead of speaking to the rock he spoke to the people, and his harangue was no longer in the language calm and dignified of the lawgiver, but had a certain tone of petulance and egotism. "Hear now, ye rebels, must we —must I and Aaron, not must Jehovah —fetch you water out of this rock?" And instead of simply speaking to it, he raised the rod and dealt it two successive strokes, just as if the rock were sharing the general perversity, and would no more than the people obey its Creator's bidding. He was angry, and he sinned. He sinned and was severely punished. Water flowed sufficient for the whole camp and the cattle, clear, cool, and eagerly gushing, enough for all the million; but at the same moment that its unmerited bounty burst on you, ye rebels, "a cup of wrath was put into the hand of Moses." (Van Oosterzee.) To you, ye murmurers, there came forth living water; to your venerable leaders the cup of God's anger. "The Lord spoke unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them." Nu 20:12. James Hamilton.

He spake unadvisedly with his lips. The Lord desires him to address the rock, but Moses speaks to Israel. God wishes him to speak a word to the inanimate stone, and Moses strikes it twice. God still is willing that the people shall remain as his inheritance, but Moses evidently treats them with ill will and much offensiveness. God wishes to relieve, and give refreshing to the people in their thirst, and Moses is selected to cooperate with him in all such joy; but mark how, on this very day, a deep discord between God's inclination and the mind of Moses shows itself. God is inclined to grant forgiveness, —Moses inclines to punishment; before, the very opposite seemed to prevail. God is forbearing, —Moses, filled with bitterness; God seeks to glorify his grace, —with Moses, self, not God, comes into prominence. "Must we", —not, "must the Lord", —but "must we fetch you water out of this rock?" We see now, in this prophet, strong at other times, the first plain indications of decay and weariness. He has grown tired (and truly it should not seem strange, for which of us could have sustained a struggle such as his for half the time?) of carrying these stubborn children any longer now. This man, so truly great, has never for an instant hitherto forgotten his own dignity in presence of all Israel; but now, he is no longer master of himself. J.J. Van Oosterzee.

He spake unadvisedly. A gracious person may be surprised and fall suddenly among thieves that lurk behind the bushes. Nay, very holy men, unless wonderful wary, may be quickly tripped up by sudden questions and unexpected emergencies. Who knows the subtilty of sin, and the deceitfulness of his own heart? Take heed of answering quickly, and send up sudden ejaculations to heaven before you reply to a weighty and doubtful motion. Samuel Lee.

Verse 34-38. The miracles and mercies which settled them in Canaan made no more deep and durable impressions upon them than those that fetched them out of Egypt; for by that time they were well warm in Canaan, they corrupted themselves, and forsook God. Observe the steps of their apostasy.

1. They spared the nations which God had doomed to destruction (Ps 106:34). When they had got the good land God had promised them, they had no zeal against the wicked inhabitants, whom the Lord commanded them to extirpate, pretending pity; but so merciful is God, that no man needs to be in any case more compassionate than he.

2. When they spared them, they promised themselves, that for all this, they would not join in any dangerous affinity with them; but the way of sin is down hill; omissions make way for commissions; when they neglect to destroy the heathen, the next news we hear is, they were mingled among the heathen, made leagues with them, and contracted an intimacy with them, so that they learned their works (Ps 106:35). That which is rotten will sooner corrupt that which is sound, than be cured or made sound by it.

3. When they mingled with them, and learned some of their works that seemed innocent diversions and entertainments, yet they thought they would never join with them in their worship; but by degrees they learned that too (Ps 106:36). They served their idols in the same manner, and with the same rites that they served them; and they became a snare unto them, that sin drew on many more, and brought the judgments of God upon them, which they themselves could not but be sensible of, and yet knew not how to recover themselves.

4. When they joined with them in some of their idolatrous services, which they thought had least harm in them, they little thought that ever they should be guilty of that barbarous and inhuman piece of idolatry, the sacrificing of their living children to their dead gods: but they came to that at last (Ps 106:37-38) in which Satan triumphed over his worshippers, and regaled himself in blood and slaughter. They sacrificed their sons and daughters, pieces of themselves to devils; and added murder, the most unnatural murder, to their idolatry; one cannot think of it without horror; they "shed innocent blood", the most innocent, for it was infant blood, nay, it was the "blood of their sons and their daughters." See the power of the spirit that works in the children of disobedience, and see his malice. The beginning of idolatry and superstition, like that of strife, is as the letting forth of water, and there is no villainy which they that venture upon it can be sure they shall stop short of, for God justly "gives them up to a reprobate mind" (Ro 1:28). Matthew Henry.

Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils. We need no better argument to discover the nature of these gods than this very service in my text accepted of them: for both by the record of sacred writ, and relation of heathen authors and other writers, we know that nothing was so usually commanded nor gratefully accepted by these heathenish gods, as was the shedding of man's blood, and the sacrificing of men, maids, and children unto them, as appears by the usual practice of men in former times. From the testimonies of Scripture, I give only the example of the king of Moab, mentioned in 2Ki 3:27, where it is said, that, being in some straits, "He took his eldest son that should have reigned in his stead, and offered him for a burnt offering upon the wall."

The stories likewise of the heathen are full of like examples. When the oracle of Apollo was asked by the Athenians how they might make amends for their killing of Androgens, it willed them to send yearly to king Minos seven bodies of each sex to appease the wrath of god. Now this kind of yearly sacrifice continued still in Athens in the time of Socrates. Thus the Carthaginians, being vanquished by Agathocles, king of Sicily, and supposing their god to be displeased, to appease him did sacrifice two hundred noble men's children. This custom was ancient even before the Trojan war, for then was Iphigenia sacrificed. Thus we read that the Latins sacrificed the tenth of their children to Jupiter; that men and children were usually sacrificed to Saturn in many places in Candia, Rhodomene, Phoenice, Africa, and those commonly the choice and dearest of their children and most nobly descended. The manner of sacrificing their children to Saturn, Diodorus relates to be this: bringing their children to the statue or image of Saturn, which was of huge greatness, they gave them into his hands, which were made so hollow and winding that the children offered slipped and fell down through into a cave and furnace of fire. These sacrifices continued in use till the birth and death of our Saviour Christ, who came to destroy the work of the devil; for such sacrifices were first forbidden by Augustus Caesar; after more generally by Tiberius (in whose reign our Saviour suffered) who, as Tertullian writes, so straitly forbade them, that he crucified the priests who offered them: howbeit, even in Tertullian's time, and after in Eusebius' and Lactantius' times, such sacrifices were offered (but closely) to Jupiter Latialis.

Who can now doubt, seeing such exceeding superstitious cruelty, but that the gods commanding such sacrifices were very devils and enemies to mankind? God commands no such thing, but forbids it, and threatens plagues to his people, because they had forsaken him and "built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, not spake it, neither came it into my mind" (Jer 19:5). Most infallibly then we may conclude that none but Satan, that arch devil, with his angels, were the commanders of such service, for this agrees right well with his nature, who hath been a murderer from the beginning. Robert Jenison, in "The Height of Israel's Heathenish Idolatrie, in Sacrificing their Children to the Devil," 1621.

Yea, they sacrificed their sons, etc. From this we learn that inconsiderate zeal is a flimsy pretext in favour of any act of devotion. For by how much the Jews were under the influence of burning zeal, by so much does the prophet convict them of being guilty of greater wickedness; because their madness carried them away to such a pitch of enthusiasm, that they did not spare even their own offspring. Were good intentions meritorious, as idolaters suppose, then indeed the laying aside of all natural affection in sacrificing their own children was a deed deserving the highest praise. But when men act under the impulse of their own capricious humour, the more they occupy themselves with acts of external worship, the more do they increase their guilt. For what difference was there between Abraham and those persons of whom the prophet makes mention, but that the former, under the influence of faith was ready to offer up his son, while the latter, carried away by the impulse of intemperate zeal, cast off all natural affection, and imbrued their hands in the blood of their own offspring. John Calvin.

Devils, Mydv, Shedim. It appears that children were sacrificed to the deities thus named; that they were considered to be of an angry nature, and inimical to the human race, and thus the object of the homage rendered to them was to avert calamities. The name Mydv may signify either lord or master, or anything that is black, it being derived from an Arabic Ain Vav verb —viz., to be black, or to be master. John Jahn, in "Biblical Antiquities."

Verse 37-38. We stand astonished, doubtless, at this horrid, barbarous, and unnatural impiety, of offering children by fire to a Moloch: but how little is it considered, that children, brought up in the ways of ignorance, error, vanity, folly, and vice, are more effectually sacrificed to the great adversary of man kind! —George Horne.

And went a whoring with their own inventions. As harlotry is one of the most abominable of sins that can be committed by a daughter or a wife; so often in the Scriptures turning from God and especially the practice of idolatry is called whoredom and fornication, Ps 73:27 Ex 34:15-16. William S. Plumer.

He abhorred his own inheritance. Whenever great love sinks into great hate it is termed abhorrence. Lorinus.

They were brought low for their iniquity. Sin is of a weakening and impoverishing nature; it has weakened all mankind, and taken from them their moral strength to do good; and has brought them to poverty and want; to be beggars on the dunghill; to a pit wherein is no water; and left them in a hopeless and helpless condition; yea, it brings the people of God often times after conversion into a low estate, when God hides his face because of it, temptations are strong, grace is weak, and they become lukewarm and indifferent to spiritual things. John Gill.

He made them also to be pitied of all them that carried them captives. This improved feeling towards the Jews through God's influence appears in Da 1:9; as Joseph similarly had his captivity improved by God's favour (Ge 39:21). So Evil merodach, King of Babylon, treated kindly Jehoiachin, king of Judah (2Ki 25:27). A.R. Fausset.

Gather us. Bishop Patrick says that, in his opinion, this verse refers to those, who, in the days of Saul, or before, were taken prisoners by the Philistines, or other nations; whom David prays God to gather to their own land again; that they might worship him in that place which he had prepared for the ark of his presence. Thomas Fenton.

Amen. Martin Luther said once of the Lord's Prayer that "it was the greatest martyr on earth because it was used so frequently without thought and feeling, without reverence and faith." This quaint remark, as true as it is sad, applies perhaps with still greater force to the word "Amen." Familiar to us from our infancy is the sound of this word, which has found a home wherever the natives have learnt to adore Israel's God and Saviour. It has been adopted, and without translation retained, in all languages in which the gospel of Jesus the Son of David is preached. The literal signification, "So be it", is known to all; yet few consider the deep meaning, the great solemnity, and the abundant consolation treasured up in this word, which has formed for centuries the conclusion of the prayers and praises of God's people. A word which is frequently used without due thoughtfulness, and unaccompanied with the feeling which it is intended to call forth, loses its power from this very familiarity, and though constantly on our lips, lies bedridden in the dormitory of our soul. But it is a great word this word "Amen"; and Luther has truly said, "As your Amen is, so has been your prayer." It is a word of venerable history in Israel and in the church. The word dates as far back as the law of Moses. When a solemn oath was pronounced by the priest, the response of the person who was adjured consisted simply of the word "Amen." In like manner the people responded "Amen" when, from the heights of Ebal and Gerizim, the blessings and the curses of the divine law were pronounced. Again, at the great festival which David made when the ark of God was brought from Obed Edom, the psalm of praise which Asaph and his brethren sang concluded with the words, "Blessed be the Lord. God of Israel for ever and ever. And all the people said, Amen" (1Ch 16:36). Thus we find in the Psalms, not merely that David concludes his psalm of praise with the word Amen, but he says, And let all the people say, Amen. Adolph Saphir, in "The Lord's Prayer," 1870.

Take this verse as the theme of the Psalm, and we shall then see that its exhortation to praise,

1. Is directed to a special people: chosen, redeemed, but sinful, borne with, and forgiven.

2. Is supported by abundant arguments. Man not to be praised, for he sins. God gives in his goodness, and forgives in his mercy, and is therefore to be thanked.

3. Is as applicable now as ever: for our story is a transcript of Israel's.

1. A challenge.

2. A suggestion: at least let us do what we can.

3. An ambition: in the ages to come we will make known with the church to angels, and all intelligent beings, the mighty acts of divine grace.

4. A question —shall I be there?

The blessedness of a godly life.

1. The language of Humility: "Remember me, O Lord." Let me not escape thy notice amongst the many millions of creatures under thy care.

2. The language of Faith.

(a) That God has a people to whom he shows special favour.

(b) That he himself has provided salvation for them.

3. The language of prayer.

(a) For the free gift of salvation.

(b) For the common salvation —not wishing to be peculiar, but to be as "Thy people", taking them for all in all, both here and hereafter. Walking in the footsteps of the flock.

"Be this my glory, Lord, to be

Joined to thy saints, and near to thee." —G.R.

Verses 4, 7, 45. In Ps 106:4, a remembrance desired. In Ps 106:7, a failure of remembrance deplored. In Ps 106:45, a divine remembrance extolled.

1. The Persons: "Thy chosen"; "Thy nation"; "Thine inheritance."

2. The Privileges: "The good of thy chosen"; "The gladness of thy nation"; "The glory of thine inheritance."

3. The Pleas: "That I may see", etc. They were once as I am: make me what they are now.

(a) My salvation is everything to me. "That I may see," etc. "That I may rejoice", etc. They are many, I am but one. "That I may glory", etc. —G.R.

In what respects men may be partakers in the sins of their ancestors.

Verses 7-8.

1. On man's part a darkened understanding, ungrateful forgetfulness, and provocation.

2. On God's part: understanding discovering a reason for mercy; memory mindful of the covenant; patience revealing its power.

Verses 7-8.

1. A special provocation; they murmured at the Red Sea.

2. A special deliverance; "Nevertheless", etc.

3. A special Design; "For his own sake"; "That he might make his power known." —G.R.

Salvation by grace a grand display of power.

"Why are men saved?" See "Spurgeon's Sermons", No. 115.

1. The glorious Saviour, "He."

2. The favoured persons, who are they?

(a) They were a stupid people: "Our fathers understood not", etc., Ps 106:7.

(b) An ungrateful people: "They remembered not", etc., Ps 106:7,13,24, etc.

(c) A provoking people.

3. The reason of salvation: "He saved them for his name's sake." The name of God is his person, his attributes, and his nature. We might, perhaps, include this also: "My name is in him" —that is, in Christ; he saves us for the sake of Christ, who is the name of God. He saved them that he might manifest his nature: "God is love." He saved them to vindicate his name.

4. The obstacles removed: "Nevertheless."

Israel at the Red Sea. See "Spurgeon's Sermons", No. 72.

1. Israel's three difficulties.

(a) The Red Sea in front of them. This was not put there by an enemy; but by God himself. The Red Sea represents some great and trying providence placed in the path of every newborn child of God, to try his faith, and the sincerity of his trust in God. b) The Egyptians behind them, —the representatives of the sins which we thought were dead and gone. (c) The third difficulty was faint hearts within them.

2. Israel's three helps.

(a) Providence.

(b) Their knowledge that they were the covenant people of God.

(c) The man, —Moses. So the believer's hope and help is in the God man Christ Jesus.

3. God's grand design in it. To give them a thorough baptism into his service, consecrating them for ever to himself (1Co 1-2).

(second clause). Dangerous and difficult paths rendered safe and easy by God's leadership.

(second clause). Song over sins forgiven.

Verses 12-14. The faith of nature, based on sight, causes transient joy, soon evaporates, dies in utter unbelief, and conducts to greater sin.

Verses 13-15.

1. Mercies are sooner forgotten than trials: "They soon forgat", etc. We write our afflictions on marble, our mercies upon sand.

2. We should wait for God, as well as upon God: "They waited not," etc.

3. Immoderate desire for what we have not of worldly goods, tempts God to deprive us of what we have: Ps 106:14.

4. Prayer may be answered for evil as well as for good: "He gave them their request", then smote them with a plague.

5. Carnal indulgence is inimical to spiritual mindedness: Ps 106:15. Better have a lean body and healthy soul, than a healthy body and leanness of soul. "Poor in this world, rich in faith." There are few of whom it can be said, "I wish thou mayest prosper and be in health," etc. (3Jo 2). G.R.

The wickedness of inordinate desires.

1. They are out of place —"in the wilderness."

2. They are assaults upon God —"and tempted God."

3. They are despisers of former mercies —see preceding verses.

4. They involve solemn danger —see following verse.

The sin of envy. Its base nature, its cruel actions its unscrupulous ingratitude, its daring assaults, its abomination before God.

The sinner as an inventor.

Verses 19-22.

1. The Sin remembered.

(a) Idolatry: not forgetting God merely, or disowning him, but setting up an idol in his place.

(b) Idolatry of the worst kind: changing be glory of God into the similitude of an ox, etc.

(c) The idolatry of Egypt under which they had suffered, and from which they had been delivered.

(d) Idolatry after many wonderful interpositions of the true God in their behalf.

2. The Remembrance of Sin.

(a) For Humiliation. It was the sin of their fathers.

(b) For self condemnation. "We have sinned with our fathers." It was our nature in them, and it is their nature in us that has committed this great sin.

Moses, the intercessor, a type of our Lord. Carefully study his pleading as recorded in Ex 32:1-35.

1. Mediation required: "He said that he would destroy them," etc.

2. Mediation offered: "Moses stood before him in the breach."

3. Mediation accepted: "To turn away his wrath", etc. Ex 32:1-35. G.R.

Verse 24-26. Murmuring.

1. Arises from despising our mercies.

2. Is fostered by unbelief.

3. Is indulged in all sorts of places.

4. Makes men deaf to the Lord's voice.

5. Provokes great judgments from the Lord.

Verse 24-27.

1. The Rest promised: "The pleasant land."

2. The Refusal of the Rest: "They despised", etc.

3. The Reason of the Refusal: unbelief. "They could not enter in because of unbelief." —G.R.

Verse 30-31. The effects of one decisive act for God; immediate, personal, and for posterity.

Verses 32-33.

1. The afflictions of God's people are for the trial of their faith.

2. The trial of their faith is to bring them from dependence upon circumstances to depend upon God himself.

3. The forbearance of God with his people is greater than that of the best of men. G.R.

1. What it is so to speak unadvisedly.

2. What is the great cause of it —"they provoked his spirit."

3. What the results may be.

Verse 34-42.

1. What Israel did not do. They began well, but did not complete the conquest of their foes: Ps 106:34.

2. What they did do: Ps 106:35-39.

(a) They became friendly with them.

(b) They adopted their habits: "learned their works."

(c) They embraced their religion: "served their idols."

(d) They imitated their cruelties; Ps 106:37-38.

(e) They did worse than the heathen (Ps 106:39), they added wicked inventions of their own.

3. What God did to them: Ps 106:40-42. He gave them into the hands of their enemies, and suffered them to be severely oppressed by them. We must either conquer all our foes or be conquered by them. Bring your shield from the battle or be brought home upon it. —G.R.

Moloch worship in modern times. Children sacrificed to fashion, wealth, and loveless marriage among the higher classes. Bad example, drinking customs, etc., among the poorer sort. A needful subject.

Verse 44-45. Sin in God's people.

1. Is very provoking to God.

2. Ensures chastisement.

3. Is to be sincerely mourned —"their cry."

4. Will be graciously forgiven, and its effect removed. So the covenant promises.

1. An earnest Prayer: "Save us, O Lord", etc.

2. A Believing Prayer: "O Lord our God."

3. A humble Prayer: "Gather us from among the heathen."

4. A sincere Prayer: "To give thanks unto thy holy name"; to own thy justice and holiness in all thy ways.

5. A confident Prayer: "To triumph in thy praise." None but bruised spices give forth such odours. —G.R.

1. God is to be praised as the "God of Israel."

(a) Of typical Israel.

(b) Of the true Israel.

2. He is to be praised as the God of Israel under all circumstances: for his judgments as well as for his mercies.

3. At all times: "From everlasting to everlasting."

4. By all people: "Let all the people say, Amen."

5. As the beginning and end of every song: "Praise ye the Lord." —G.R.

Let all the people say, Amen. The exhortation to universal praise. All men are indebted to the Lord, all have sinned, all hear the gospel, all his people are saved. Unanimity in praise is pleasant, and promotes unity in other matters.