Where sin abounded
grace abounded all the more
Call to give thanks (vv.1-5) |
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1 Praise Yah! (Hallelujah!) [2] |
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Oh give thanks to Yahweh, for He is good; |
For His lovingkindness is everlasting. [3] |
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2 Who can speak of the mighty deeds of Yahweh, |
Or can show forth all His praise? |
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3 How blessed are those who keep justice, |
Who practice righteousness at all times! [4] |
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4 Remember me, O Yahweh, in Your favor toward Your people; |
Visit me with Your salvation, |
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5 That I may see the prosperity of Your chosen ones, |
That I may rejoice in the gladness of Your nation, |
That I may glory with Your inheritance. |
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A remembrance of Israel’s not remembering (vv.6-12)
Yahweh’s deliverance of Israel from
Egypt (vv.6-12; cf. Exodus 14:10-31) |
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6 We have sinned like our fathers, |
We have committed
iniquity, |
we have behaved wickedly. |
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7 Our fathers in Egypt did not understand Your wonders; |
They did not remember Your abundant kindnesses, |
But rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea. |
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8 Nevertheless He saved them for the sake of His name, |
That He might make His power known. |
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9 Thus He rebuked the Red Sea and it dried up, |
And He led them through the deeps, as through the wilderness. |
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10 So He saved them from the hand of the one who hated them, |
And redeemed [5] them from the hand of the enemy. |
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11 The waters covered their adversaries; |
Not one of them was left. |
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12 Then they believed His words; |
They sang His praise. |
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Seven complaints and seven punishments (vv.13-43)
Tempting God & wasting disease
(vv.13-15; cf. Numbers 11) |
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13 They quickly forgot His works; |
They did not wait for His counsel, |
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14 But craved intensely in the wilderness, |
And tempted God in the desert. |
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15 So He gave them their request, |
But sent a wasting disease among them. |
Dathan and Abiram (vv.16-18; cf.
Numbers 16) |
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16 When they became envious of Moses in the camp, |
And of Aaron, the holy one of Yahweh, |
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17 The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, |
And engulfed the company of Abiram. |
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18 And a fire blazed up in their company; |
The flame consumed the wicked. |
The golden calf (vv.19-23; cf.
Exodus 32) |
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19 They made a calf in Horeb |
And worshiped a molten image. |
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20 Thus they exchanged their glory |
For the image of an ox that eats grass. |
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21 They forgot God their Savior, |
Who had done great things in Egypt, |
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22 Wonders in the land of Ham |
And awesome things by the Red Sea. |
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23 Therefore He said that He would destroy them, |
Had not Moses His chosen one stood in the breach before Him, |
To turn away His wrath from destroying them. |
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Refusal to believe God’s word and
enter the Promised Land [Kadesh-barnea] (vv.24-27; cf. Numbers 13-14) |
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24 Then they despised the pleasant land; |
They did not believe in His word, |
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25 But grumbled in their tents; |
They did not listen to the voice of Yahweh. |
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26 Therefore He swore [lifted up His hand] to them |
That He would cast them down in the wilderness, |
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27 And that He would cast their seed among the nations |
And scatter them in the lands. |
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Baal-peor (vv.28-31; cf. Numbers 25) |
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28 They joined themselves also to Baal-peor, |
And ate sacrifices offered to the dead. |
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29 Thus they provoked Him to anger with their deeds, |
And the plague broke out among them. |
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30 Then Phinehas stood up and interposed, |
And so the plague was stayed. |
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31 And it was reckoned to him for righteousness, [6] |
To all generations forever. |
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Meribah (vv.32-33; cf. Numbers
20:1-13) |
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32 They also provoked Him to wrath at the waters of Meribah, |
So that it went hard with Moses on their account; |
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33 Because they were rebellious against His Spirit, |
He spoke rashly with his lips. |
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Rebellion in the Promised Land
(vv.34-43; cf. Judges) |
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34 They did not destroy the peoples, |
As Yahweh commanded them, |
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35 But they mingled with the nations |
And learned their practices, |
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36 And served their idols, |
Which became a snare to them. |
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37 They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons, |
38 And shed innocent blood, |
The blood of their sons and their daughters, |
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Whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; |
And the land was polluted with the blood. |
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39 Thus they became unclean in their practices, |
And played the harlot in their deeds. |
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40 Therefore the anger of Yahweh was kindled against His people |
And He abhorred His inheritance. |
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41 Then He gave them into the hand of the nations, |
And those who hated them ruled over them. |
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42 Their enemies also oppressed them, |
And they were subdued under their power. |
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43 Many times He would deliver them; |
They, however, were rebellious in their counsel, |
And so sank down in their iniquity. |
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Nevertheless…Yahweh remembered His covenant
(vv.44-46) |
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44 Nevertheless He looked upon their distress |
When He heard their cry; |
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45 And He remembered His covenant for their sake,[7] |
And relented according to the greatness of His lovingkindness. |
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46 He also made them objects of compassion |
In the presence of all their captors. |
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47 Save us, O Yahweh our God, |
And gather us from among the nations, |
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To give thanks to Your holy name |
And glory in Your praise. |
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CONCLUSION TO BOOK
4 OF THE PSALTER |
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48 Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, |
From everlasting even to everlasting. |
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And let all the people say, “Amen.”[8] |
Praise Yah! (Hallelujah!) [9] |
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[1]
Psalms 105-106 are like Cliff Notes for Genesis à
Judges. Psalm
105 surveys about 600 years of Israel’s history from Abraham to the Promised
Land. It paints a picture of God as
the faithful covenant making and keeping God.
Psalm 106 traces Israel’s unfaithfulness beginning with their
redemption from Egypt to the period of the Judges and perhaps all the way to
the exile (vv.41-43). Psalm 106
underscores God’s faithfulness to His covenant despite Israel’s
unfaithfulness. |
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[2] There are seven imperatives in this Psalm:
Hallelujah (v.1); give thanks (v.1); remember me (v.4); visit me (v.4); save
us (v.47); gather us (v.47); and Hallelujah (v.48). |
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[3] This is the most oft repeated thanksgiving
in the Psalms (106:1; 107:1; 118:1,29; 136:1-26; cf. 1 Chron.16:34; 2
Chron.20:21). |
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[4] Righteousness and justice are often paired in Scripture with reference to social justice: helping the alien, the poor, the widow, not taking the pledge of your neighbor to whom you have given a loan, paying workers fair wages, not perverting justice, leaving crops in the field for the alien, orphan, and widow (Ex.23:6-9 with Isaiah 53; Deut.16:18-20; 24:10-22; 2 Sam.8:15 = 1 Chron.18:14; 1 Kings 10:9=2 Chron.9:8; Job 29:12-17; Isaiah 5:7; 9:6; Psalm 72:1-4; Ezek.18:5-9; Amos 5; cf. Lev.19:5). Righteousness and justice were
an integral part of God’s covenant and the first pairing of these terms
occurs when God says He knew Abraham to do “righteousness and justice”
(Genesis 18:19). They are also
fundamental for the other covenants: Mosaic (Ex.23:6-9; Deut.4:8-9; 16:18-20;
24:10-22) Davidic (2 Sam.8:15 = 1
Chron.18:14; 1 Kings 10:9=2 Chron.9:8; cf. 2 Samuel 23:3-5) and New
Covenant (Isaiah 9:7; Jeremiah 23:5; 33:15).
Here in Psalm 106, Phinehas’ righteous judgment which turned away
Yahweh’s wrath and atoned for Israel’s sin is celebrated. Indeed, because of Phinehas’ righteousness
and justice, Yahweh made a covenant with him and his seed (Numbers 25:11-13;
cf. 106:3,30-31). See Moshe Weinfeld, Social Justice in Ancient
Israel and in the Ancient Near East, Jerusalem/Minneapolis:
Magnes/Fortress, 1995. |
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[5] Outside of Exodus, the only place in which ga’al is used in reference to the redemption from Egypt is in the Psalms (74:2; 77:15; 106:10) (The Anchor Bible Dictionary, 5:652). |
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[6] The language used for Phinehas’ just judgment is the same that is used for Abraham’s faith, “Then he believed in Yahweh; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6). Phinehas was one of the few faithful Israelites who came out of Egypt and was allowed to enter the Promised Land (Judges 22:13,30-33). He was one of the few Israelites in the wilderness to practice the righteousness and justice of the Abrahamic covenant and Mosaic (Genesis 18:19; Deuteronomy 4:8-9; 16:18-20 with 106:3,30-31). It was for this reason that Yahweh honored Phinehas and his seed with an everlasting covenant (Numbers 25:11-13).
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[7] This echoes the language of Exodus, “Now it came about in the course of those many days that the king of Egypt died. And the sons of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry for help because of their bondage rose up to God. So God heard their groaning; and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” (Exodus 2:23-24). |
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[8]
“Amen” concludes the first four books of the Psalter: Book 1 (Psalm
41:13); Book II (Psalm 72:19); Book III (Psalm 89:52); Book IV (Psalm
106:48). |