Psalms

Psalms 106

48 verses · Wisdom · Old Testament

1Praise Yahweh! Give thanks to Yahweh, for he is good, for his loving kindness endures forever. 2Who can utter the mighty acts of Yahweh, or fully declare all his praise? 3Blessed are those who keep justice. Blessed is one who does what is right at all times. 4Remember me, Yahweh, with the favor that you show to your people. Visit me with your salvation, 5that I may see the prosperity of your chosen, that I may rejoice in the gladness of your nation, that I may glory with your inheritance.
6We have sinned with our fathers. We have committed iniquity. We have done wickedly. 7Our fathers didn’t understand your wonders in Egypt. They didn’t remember the multitude of your loving kindnesses, but were rebellious at the sea, even at the Red Sea. 8Nevertheless he saved them for his name’s sake, that he might make his mighty power known. 9He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it was dried up; so he led them through the depths, as through a desert. 10He saved them from the hand of him who hated them, and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy. 11The waters covered their adversaries. There was not one of them left. 12Then they believed his words. They sang his praise.
13They soon forgot his works. They didn’t wait for his counsel, 14but gave in to craving in the desert, and tested God in the wasteland. 15He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul. 16They envied Moses also in the camp, and Aaron, Yahweh’s saint. 17The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, and covered the company of Abiram. 18A fire was kindled in their company. The flame burned up the wicked. 19They made a calf in Horeb, and worshiped a molten image. 20Thus they exchanged their glory for an image of a bull that eats grass. 21They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt, 22wondrous works in the land of Ham, and awesome things by the Red Sea. 23Therefore he said that he would destroy them, had Moses, his chosen, not stood before him in the breach, to turn away his wrath, so that he wouldn’t destroy them. 24Yes, they despised the pleasant land. They didn’t believe his word, 25but murmured in their tents, and didn’t listen to Yahweh’s voice. 26Therefore he swore to them that he would overthrow them in the wilderness, 27that he would overthrow their offspring among the nations, and scatter them in the lands. 28They joined themselves also to Baal Peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead. 29Thus they provoked him to anger with their deeds. The plague broke in on them. 30Then Phinehas stood up and executed judgment, so the plague was stopped. 31That was credited to him for righteousness, for all generations to come. 32They angered him also at the waters of Meribah, so that Moses was troubled for their sakes; 33because they were rebellious against his spirit, he spoke rashly with his lips. 34They didn’t destroy the peoples, as Yahweh commanded them, 35but mixed themselves with the nations, and learned their works. 36They served their idols, which became a snare to them. 37Yes, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons. 38They shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan. The land was polluted with blood. 39Thus they were defiled with their works, and prostituted themselves in their deeds. 40Therefore Yahweh burned with anger against his people. He abhorred his inheritance. 41He gave them into the hand of the nations. Those who hated them ruled over them. 42Their enemies also oppressed them. They were brought into subjection under their hand. 43He rescued them many times, but they were rebellious in their counsel, and were brought low in their iniquity. 44Nevertheless he regarded their distress, when he heard their cry. 45He remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses. 46He made them also to be pitied by all those who carried them captive.
47Save us, Yahweh, our God, gather us from among the nations, to give thanks to your holy name, to triumph in your praise!
48Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, from everlasting even to everlasting! Let all the people say, “Amen.” Praise Yah!

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What others are saying

3 commentators · 60 notes on this chapter

Matthew HenryEnglish Puritan / Nonconformist · 1708–17144

Writes as a pastor rather than a critic. Expect devotional and practical application over historical or linguistic analysis, read through a Reformed covenantal frame — and expect the Old Testament to be read forward toward Christ throughout.

Why this voice is here: The most widely read English commentary for three centuries. Included as a baseline: where Henry and a modern voice diverge, the divergence itself is usually the interesting part.

v. 1–5

We are here taught, I. To bless God (Psa 106:1, Psa 106:2): 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…

v. 6–12

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…

v. 13–33

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 (Co1 10:5, etc.); for these things…

John GillParticular Baptist / High Calvinist · 1746–176348

The most exhaustive and the most doctrinally committed here. Expect high — even supralapsarian — Calvinism applied consistently, and unusually heavy use of rabbinic and Talmudic sources for Jewish context. Where a passage bears on election or the will, Gill will read it in one direction, and knowing that in advance is the point.

Why this voice is here: The strongest Calvinist reading available in the public domain, and the best on Jewish background. Read alongside Clarke, not instead of him — between them you get both sides of the argument.

v. 1

Praise ye the Lord,.... Or "hallelujah"; which, according to the Arabic version, is the title of the psalm; and so it stands in the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and Ethiopic versions. Several psalms following begin in like manner; it begins as the former ended…

v. 2

Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord?.... Or powers (i); to which answers the Greek word for the miracles of Christ, Matthew 11:20, and Kimchi here restrains them to the wonders wrought in Egypt, and at the Red sea: but they may as well be extended to…

v. 3

Blessed are they that keep judgment,.... Or "observe" (k) it; the righteous judgment of God on wicked men; by which he is known in his justice, holiness, truth, and faithfulness; and by which the inhabitants of the earth observing it, learn to do…

Keil & DelitzschGerman Lutheran, conservative-critical · 1861–18758

The technical one, and Old Testament only. Expect Hebrew grammar, textual argument, and direct engagement with nineteenth-century critical scholarship — closer to a scholarly apparatus than a devotional read. Where a modern critic claims a text is late or composite, this is where the conservative counter-argument was made.

Why this voice is here: Old Testament only, and heavy going — but the place to look when someone asserts a passage cannot mean what it appears to.

v. 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…

v. 6–12

The key-note of the vidduj, which is a settled expression since Kg1 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…

v. 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…

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