---
title: "Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible -  Psalms 106"
description: "PSALM 106   :-. 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 c"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/psalms/106"
---

PSALM 106

. 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 (). 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 ), begins and ends the Psalm, intimating the obligations of
praise, however we sin and suffer 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 (). Their unutterable greatness is not to keep us back, but
to urge us the more to try to praise Him as best we can ([Psalms 40:5](../../../kjv/psalms/40/5);
[Psalms 71:15](../../../kjv/psalms/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"
([Psalms 105:45](../../../kjv/psalms/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 ).
**visit**—(Compare ).

**5. see the good**—participate in
it ([Psalms 37:13](../../../kjv/psalms/37/13)).
**thy chosen**—namely,
Israel, God's elect ([Isaiah 43:20](../../../kjv/isaiah/43/20);
[Isaiah 45:4](../../../kjv/isaiah/45/4)). As God seems to have
*forgotten* them, they pray that He would "remember"
them with the favor which *belongs* to His own people, and which
once they had enjoyed.
**thine inheritance**—
([Deuteronomy 9:29](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/9/29); [Deuteronomy 32:9](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/32/9)).

**6.** Compare [1 Kings 8:47](../../../kjv/1-kings/8/47);
[Daniel 9:5](../../../kjv/daniel/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 [Daniel 9:5](../../../kjv/daniel/9/5)).
**with our fathers**—we and
they together forming one mass of corruption.

**7-12.** Special confession. Their
rebellion at the sea ([Exodus 14:11](../../../kjv/exodus/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 ([Exodus 15:4](../../../kjv/exodus/15/4)). Israel
began to rebel against God at the very moment and scene of its
deliverance by God!

**8. for his name's sake**— ().

**9. rebuked**— ().
**as through the wilderness**—
([Isaiah 63:11-14](../../../kjv/isaiah/63/11-14)).

**7-12.** Special confession. Their
rebellion at the sea ([Exodus 14:11](../../../kjv/exodus/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 ([Exodus 15:4](../../../kjv/exodus/15/4)). Israel
began to rebel against God at the very moment and scene of its
deliverance by God!

**12. believed . . . his words**—This
is said not to praise the Israelites, but God, who constrained even
so unbelieving a people momentarily to "believe" while in
immediate view of His wonders, a faith which they immediately
afterwards lost ([Psalms 106:13](../../../kjv/psalms/106/13);
[Exodus 14:31](../../../kjv/exodus/14/31); [Exodus 15:1](../../../kjv/exodus/15/1)).

**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 ().
**They soon forgat**—literally,
"They hasted, they forgat" (compare ). "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**— ([Deuteronomy 11:3](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/11/3);
[Deuteronomy 11:4](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/11/4); [Daniel 9:14](../../../kjv/daniel/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.

**14.** Literally, "lusted a
lust" (quoted from [Numbers 11:4](../../../kjv/numbers/11/4),
*Margin*). Previously, there had been impatience as to
*necessaries* of life; here it is *lusting* ([Numbers 11:4](../../../kjv/numbers/11/4)).

**15. but sent leanness**—rather,
"*and* sent," that is, *and thus, even in doing so,*
the punishment was inflicted at the very time their request was
granted. So [Psalms 78:30](../../../kjv/psalms/78/30), "While
their meat was yet in their mouths, the wrath of God came upon them."
**soul**—the animal soul,
which craves for food ([Numbers 11:6](../../../kjv/numbers/11/6);
[Psalms 107:18](../../../kjv/psalms/107/18)). This soul got its
wish, and with it and in it its own punishment. The place was
therefore called *Kibroth-hattaavah,* "the graves of lust"
[[Numbers 11:34](../../../kjv/numbers/11/34)], because there they
buried the people who had lusted. Animal desires when gratified
mostly give only a hungry craving for more ([Numbers 11:34](../../../kjv/numbers/11/34)).

**16-18.** All the congregation took
part with Dathan, Korah, c., and their accomplices ().
**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.
([Deuteronomy 11:6](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/11/6) [Numbers 26:10](../../../kjv/numbers/26/10));
these were swallowed up by the earth.

**17. covered**—"closed upon
them" ([Numbers 16:33](../../../kjv/numbers/16/33)). (2) Of
the *Levitical* rebels, with Korah at their head ([Numbers 16:35](../../../kjv/numbers/16/35);
[Numbers 26:10](../../../kjv/numbers/26/10)); these had *sinned*
by fire, and were punished by fire, as Aaron's (being high priest)
sons had been ([Leviticus 10:2](../../../kjv/leviticus/10/2); [Numbers 16:1-35](../../../kjv/numbers/16/1-35)).

**16-18.** All the congregation took
part with Dathan, Korah, c., and their accomplices ().
**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.
([Deuteronomy 11:6](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/11/6) [Numbers 26:10](../../../kjv/numbers/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 [Exodus 20:4](../../../kjv/exodus/20/4); [Exodus 20:5](../../../kjv/exodus/20/5)
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 ([Exodus 20:5](../../../kjv/exodus/20/5)). Though intending to worship Jehovah under the symbol of
the calf, yet as this was incompatible with His nature ([Exodus 20:5](../../../kjv/exodus/20/5)), 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.

**23. he said**—namely, to Moses
([Deuteronomy 9:13](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/9/13)). With God, *saying*
is as certain as *doing;* but His purpose, while full of wrath
against sin, takes into account the mediation of Him of whom Moses
was the type ([Exodus 32:11-14](../../../kjv/exodus/32/11-14);
[Deuteronomy 9:18](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/9/18); [Deuteronomy 9:19](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/9/19)).
**Moses his chosen**—that
is, to be His servant (compare [Deuteronomy 9:19](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/9/19)).
**in the breach**—as a
warrior covers with his body the broken part of a wall or fortress
besieged, a perilous place ([Ezekiel 13:5](../../../kjv/ezekiel/13/5);
[Ezekiel 22:30](../../../kjv/ezekiel/22/30)).
**to turn away**—or,
"prevent"
**his wrath**— ([Numbers 25:11](../../../kjv/numbers/25/11);
[Psalms 78:38](../../../kjv/psalms/78/38)).

**24-27.** The sin of refusing to
invade Canaan, "the pleasant land" ([Jeremiah 3:19](../../../kjv/jeremiah/3/19);
[Ezekiel 20:6](../../../kjv/ezekiel/20/6); [Daniel 8:9](../../../kjv/daniel/8/9)),
"the land of beauty," was punished by the destruction of
that generation ([Numbers 14:28](../../../kjv/numbers/14/28)), and
the threat of dispersion ([Deuteronomy 4:25](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/4/25);
[Deuteronomy 28:32](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/28/32)) afterwards made to
their posterity, and fulfilled in the great calamities now bewailed,
may have also been then added.
**despised**— ([Deuteronomy 28:32](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/28/32)).
**believed not his word**—by
which He promised He would give them the land; but rather the word of
the faithless spies (compare [Deuteronomy 28:32](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/28/32)).

**26. lifted up his hand**—or,
"swore," the usual form of swearing (compare , *Margin*).

**27. To overthrow**—literally,
"To make them fall"; alluding to the words ().
**among . . . nations . . .
lands**—The "wilderness" was not more destructive to
the *fathers* ([Psalms 106:26](../../../kjv/psalms/106/26))
than residence among the heathen ("nations") shall be to
the children. [Leviticus 26:33](../../../kjv/leviticus/26/33); [Leviticus 26:38](../../../kjv/leviticus/26/38)
is here, before the Psalmist's mind, the determination against the
"seed" when rebellious, being not *expressed* in [Leviticus 26:38](../../../kjv/leviticus/26/38), but *implied* in the determination against the
fathers.

**28-30. sacrifices of the dead**—that
is, of lifeless idols, contrasted with "the living God"
([Jeremiah 10:3-10](../../../kjv/jeremiah/10/3-10); compare
[Psalms 115:4-7](../../../kjv/psalms/115/4-7); [1 Corinthians 12:2](../../../kjv/1-corinthians/12/2)).
On the words,
**joined themselves to
Baal-peor**—see [Numbers 25:2](../../../kjv/numbers/25/2);
[Numbers 25:3](../../../kjv/numbers/25/3); [Numbers 25:5](../../../kjv/numbers/25/5).
**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 ([Numbers 23:28](../../../kjv/numbers/23/28)). The name
never occurs except in connection with that locality and that
circumstance.

**29. provoked**—excited grief and
indignation ([Psalms 6:7](../../../kjv/psalms/6/7); [Psalms 78:58](../../../kjv/psalms/78/58)).

**30. stood**—as Aaron "stood
between the living and the dead, and the plague was stayed" ().
**executed judgment**—literally,
"judged," including sentence and act.

**31. counted . . . righteousness**—"a
just and rewardable action."
**for**—or, "unto,"
to the procuring of righteousness, as in [Romans 4:2](../../../kjv/romans/4/2);
[Romans 10:4](../../../kjv/romans/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 ([Numbers 25:13](../../../kjv/numbers/25/13);
[1 Chronicles 6:4](../../../kjv/1-chronicles/6/4), &c.).

**32, 33.** (Compare [Numbers 20:3-12](../../../kjv/numbers/20/3-12);
[Deuteronomy 1:37](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/1/37); [Deuteronomy 3:26](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/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**— ([Exodus 23:32](../../../kjv/exodus/23/32);
[Exodus 23:33](../../../kjv/exodus/23/33)), literally, "said
(they should)," but conformed to their idolatries [[Exodus 23:33](../../../kjv/exodus/23/33)], and thus became spiritual adulterers ([Exodus 23:33](../../../kjv/exodus/23/33)).

**37. unto devils**—*Septuagint,*
"demons" (compare ), or "evil spirits."

**38. polluted with blood**—literally,
"blood," or "murder" ([Psalms 5:6](../../../kjv/psalms/5/6);
[Psalms 26:9](../../../kjv/psalms/26/9)).

**34-39.** They not only failed to
expel the heathen, as God
**commanded**— ([Exodus 23:32](../../../kjv/exodus/23/32);
[Exodus 23:33](../../../kjv/exodus/23/33)), literally, "said
(they should)," but conformed to their idolatries [[Exodus 23:33](../../../kjv/exodus/23/33)], and thus became spiritual adulterers ([Exodus 23:33](../../../kjv/exodus/23/33)).

**40-43.** Those nations first
seduced and then oppressed them (compare [Judges 1:34](../../../kjv/judges/1/34);
[Judges 2:14](../../../kjv/judges/2/14); [Judges 3:30](../../../kjv/judges/3/30)).
Their apostasies ungratefully repaid God's many mercies till He
finally abandoned them to punishment ([Judges 3:30](../../../kjv/judges/3/30)).

**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.

**45. repented**—(compare ).

**46. made . . . pitied**—
([1 Kings 8:50](../../../kjv/1-kings/8/50); [Daniel 1:9](../../../kjv/daniel/1/9)).
These tokens encourage the prayer and the promise of praise ([Daniel 1:9](../../../kjv/daniel/1/9)), which is well closed by a doxology.

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