Psalm 106
BSB
Give Thanks to the LORD, for He Is Good
1Hallelujah!
Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good;
His loving devotion endures forever.
2Who can describe the mighty acts of the LORD
or fully proclaim His praise?
3Blessed are those who uphold justice,
who practice righteousness at all times.
4Remember me, O LORD, in Your favor to Your people;
visit me with Your salvation,
5that I may see the prosperity of Your chosen ones,
and rejoice in the gladness of Your nation,
and give glory with Your inheritance.
6We have sinned like our fathers;
we have done wrong and acted wickedly.
7Our fathers in Egypt did not grasp Your wonders
or remember Your abundant kindness;
but they rebelled by the sea,
there at the Red Sea.
8Yet He saved them for the sake of His name,
to make His power known.
9He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up;
He led them through the depths as through a desert.
10He saved them from the hand that hated them;
He redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.
11The waters covered their foes;
not one of them remained.
12Then they believed His promises
and sang His praise.
13Yet they soon forgot His works
and failed to wait for His counsel.
14They craved intensely in the wilderness
and tested God in the desert.
15So He granted their request,
but sent a wasting disease upon them.
16In the camp they envied Moses,
as well as Aaron, the holy one of the LORD.
17The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan;
it covered the assembly of Abiram.
18Then fire blazed through their company;
flames consumed the wicked.
19At Horeb they made a calf
and worshiped a molten image.
20They exchanged their Glory
for the image of a grass-eating ox.
21They forgot God their Savior,
who did great things in Egypt,
22wondrous works in the land of Ham,
and awesome deeds by the Red Sea.
23So He said He would destroy them—
had not Moses His chosen one
stood before Him in the breach
to divert His wrath from destroying them.
24They despised the pleasant land;
they did not believe His promise.
25They grumbled in their tents
and did not listen to the voice of the LORD.
26So He raised His hand and swore
to cast them down in the wilderness,
27to disperse their offspring among the nations
and scatter them throughout the lands.
28They yoked themselves to Baal of Peor
and ate sacrifices offered to lifeless gods.
29So they provoked the LORD to anger with their deeds,
and a plague broke out among them.
30But Phinehas stood and intervened,
and the plague was restrained.
31It was credited to him as righteousness
for endless generations to come.
32At the waters of Meribah they angered the LORD,
and trouble came to Moses because of them.
33For they rebelled against His Spirit,
and Moses spoke rashly with his lips.
34They did not destroy the peoples
as the LORD had commanded them,
35but they mingled with the nations
and adopted their customs.
36They worshiped their idols,
which became a snare to them.
37They sacrificed their sons
and their daughters to demons.
38They shed innocent blood—
the blood of their sons and daughters,
whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan,
and the land was polluted with blood.
39They defiled themselves by their actions
and prostituted themselves by their deeds.
40So the anger of the LORD burned against His people,
and He abhorred His own inheritance.
41He delivered them into the hand of the nations,
and those who hated them ruled over them.
42Their enemies oppressed them,
and subdued them under their hand.
43Many times He rescued them,
but they were bent on rebellion
and sank down in their iniquity.
44Nevertheless He heard their cry;
He took note of their distress.
45And He remembered His covenant with them,
and relented by the abundance of His loving devotion.
46He made them objects of compassion
to all who held them captive.
47Save us, O LORD our God,
and gather us from the nations,
that we may give thanks to Your holy name,
that we may glory in Your praise.
48Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting.
Let all the people say, “Amen!”
Hallelujah!
Introduction
Psalms 106
We must give glory to God by making confession, not only of his goodness but our own badness, which serve as foils to each other. Our badness makes his goodness appear the more illustrious, as his goodness makes our badness the more heinous and scandalous. The foregoing psalm was a history of God's goodness to Israel; this is a history of their rebellions and provocations, and yet it begins and ends with Hallelujah; for even sorrow for sin must not put us out of tune for praising God. Some think it was penned at the time of the captivity in Babylon and the dispersion of the Jewish nation thereupon, because of that prayer in the close (Psa 106:47). I rather think it was penned by David at the same time with the foregoing psalm, because we find the first verse and the last two verses in that psalm which David delivered to Asaph, at the bringing up of the ark to the place he had prepared for it (Ch1 16:34-36), "Gather us from among the heathen;" for we may suppose that in Saul's time there was a great dispersion of pious Israelites, when David was forced to wander. In this psalm we have, I. The preface to the narrative, speaking honour to God (Psa 106:1, Psa 106:2), comfort to the saints (Psa 106:3), and the desire of the faithful towards God's favour (Psa 106:4, Psa 106:5). II. The narrative itself of the sins of Israel, aggravated by the great things God did for them, an account of which is intermixed. Their provocations at the Red Sea (Psa 106:6-12), lusting (Psa 106:13-15), mutinying (Psa 106:16-18), worshipping the golden calf (Psa 106:19-23), murmuring (Psa 106:24-27), joining themselves to Baal-peor (Psa 106:28-31), quarrelling with Moses (Psa 106:32, Psa 106:33), incorporating themselves with the nations of Canaan (Psa 106:34-39). To this is added an account how God had rebuked them for their sins, and yet saved them from ruin (Psa 106:40-46). III. The conclusion of the psalm with prayer and praise (Psa 106:47, Psa 106:48). It may be of use to us to sing this psalm, that, being put in mind by it of our sins, the sins of our land, and the sins of our fathers, we may be humbled before God and yet not despair of mercy, which even rebellious Israel often found with God.
Cross-references: Ps 106:47 · 1Chr 16:34 · Ps 106:1 · Ps 106:2 · Ps 106:3 · Ps 106:4 · Ps 106:5 · Ps 106:6 · Ps 106:13 · Ps 106:16 · Ps 106:19 · Ps 106:24 · Ps 106:28 · Ps 106:32 · Ps 106:33 · Ps 106:34 · Ps 106:40 · Ps 106:48