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Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents
106:6-46 Illustrating God's Faithfulness and the People's Unfaithfulness. The body of the psalm is a list of incidents in which both we and our fathers have sinned. This list begins at the shore of the Red Sea (vv. 7-12); this is the only case listed in which the result of God's response to the unfaithfulness was that the people "believed his words." The list then moves to Kibroth-hattaavah (vv. 13-15), then to the revolt of Dathan and Abiram (vv. 16-18), then to the golden calf (vv. 19-23), then to the rebellion due to the spies' bad report (vv. 24-27), then to the sin with the Baal of Peor (vv. 28-31), then to Meribah (vv. 32-33), then to the wearying cycle of unfaithfulness followed by deliverance followed by more unfaithfulness that Judges records (Ps. 106:34-46). Each of these events can be tied to a passage in the Pentateuch and Judges; the psalm is probably based directly on the way that the narrative books describe the events. However, even though the overall movement, from the Red Sea to the time of the judges, is sequential, the incidents in between do not strictly follow the chronology of the Pentateuch. Perhaps the simplest explanation for this (see also note on Psalm 105) is that this poem does not depend as much on sequence as narrative tends to depend.
106:6 Both we and our fathers have sinned. This verse is the theme and focus of the whole list of incidents. The sins, iniquity, and wickedness described here are the kind that reveal that the people of Israel have unfaithful hearts. It is entirely possible that the penitent generation singing this psalm has not committed the kinds of unfaithfulness that brought about their exile (v. 47); and yet the psalm presents the current generation as having been present in their representatives, their ancestors, and thus incorporates the current generation in their ancestors' sin (see note on Deut. 1:20-21; cf. similar prayers of confession--Ezra 9:6-15; Neh. 1:5-11; Dan. 9:4-19--all expressing multigenerational solidarity in wrongdoing). The words "we have sinned" derive from Solomon's prayer (1 Kings 8:47).
106:7-12 The first incident is from the shore of the Red Sea (Ex. 14:10-31), when the people of Israel who had followed Moses saw the pursuing army of Egypt. To say that they did not consider God's wondrous works and that they rebelled is to indicate that their reaction was more than justifiable fear of the Egyptians; it was evidence of unbelieving hearts. Nevertheless the Lord saved them for his name's sake, i.e., that he might make known his mighty power (both to Israel, Ex. 6:7; and to the nations, Ex. 14:18). The terms saved and redeemed (Ps. 106:10) come from Exodus (Ex. 14:30; 15:13) and speak of the great deeds God has done to rescue his people as a whole and to bring about the conditions in which their piety may flourish. The result was that they believed his words (cf. Ex. 14:31) and sang his praise (cf. Ex. 15:1).
106:13-15 Sadly, the people of Israel soon forgot God's works, i.e., descended back into unfaithfulness (cf. v. 7), such that they put God to the test in the desert (a hideous sin; cf. Num. 14:22). The specific incident in view is not the very next event in Exodus; the term wanton craving points to Num. 11:4, 31-35, at Kibroth-hattaavah (Hb. for "the Graves of Craving"). The wasting disease here is called a "very great plague" (Num. 11:33), and it killed many Israelites, indicating God's disapproval of the unbelief behind the asking.
106:16-18 The next event is the rebellion led by Dathan and Abiram (Num. 16:1-40), who apparently enlisted the Levite Korah as their chief spokesman. Korah spoke against Moses and Aaron, and the specific question he raised was over whether Aaron was holy in a way distinct from the holiness of the whole congregation. Because these people were jealous, they rebelled against God's appointed spokesman, Moses. Such a situation is intolerable among the leaders of God's people, and God brought a dramatic judgment upon them: the earth opened and swallowed up the tents of the conspirators, and fire also broke out and slew those who had dared to violate the priestly requirements (Num. 14:31-35). Neither the psalm nor Numbers gives any hope that people came to believe as a result.
106:19-23 The psalm moves on to the calf in Horeb, the metal image, the "golden calf" (Ex. 32:1-14). The reason why they committed this horror was, at bottom, unfaithfulness: they forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt (cf. Ps. 106:7, 13). Moses stood in the breach before God (an image taken from risking one's own life to close up a gap broken in a wall; cf. Neh. 6:1; Ezek. 13:5; 22:20), to turn away God's wrath from destroying the Israelites, i.e., by earnestly interceding for them, reminding God of his promises and his reputation (Ex. 32:11-14).
106:20 exchanged the glory of God. In Rom. 1:23, Paul uses this expression to describe Gentile idolatry: people "exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles" (cf. Jer. 2:11). It is even more senseless when Israel does it.
106:24-27 The sad list now moves to what happened when the
106:28-31 Next is the time when the Israelites yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor (Num. 25:1-15). Participation in sacrifices offered to the dead (i.e., to the lifeless gods of the Moabites, see Num. 14:2) led to other kinds of immorality as well, which would have corrupted the people of God and ruined their ability to carry out their calling in the world (Num. 25:1, 6). It took the prompt and drastic action of Phinehas to stay the plague that broke out among the Israelites as a result of God's anger (see note on Num. 25:7-8). This deed was counted to Phinehas as righteousness, i.e., God considered it a deed of covenant faithfulness (rather than as giving legal status; see note on Deut. 6:25), and it led to his family having the priesthood from generation to generation forever (Num. 25:13-14).
106:32-33 At the waters of Meribah the people complained about lack of water and accused Moses of bringing them out of Egypt, apparently forgetting that Moses had acted throughout as God's spokesman (Num. 20:2-13; see note there). Their unbelief led Moses to speak rashly (i.e., to become careless about acting by faith) and thus to lose his right to enter the Promised Land. This is the last event from the Pentateuch in this list.
106:34-46 This description is unlike the previous episodes in that it refers not to a specific event but to the recurring pattern found in Judg. 2:11-3:6, in which the people of Israel did not destroy the peoples in Canaan (disobeying what the Lord commanded them): instead they mixed with the nations (esp. by intermarriage, Judg. 3:6; cf. Ezra 9:2) and learned to do as they did (Ps. 106:34-35). This led to the unspeakable practice of child sacrifice (vv. 36-39). This is in itself a hideous moral outrage, and it attacks the very heart of God's covenant with his people (Gen. 17:7; cf. Ps. 103:17-18), and what it means to be human (Gen. 1:28). Hence the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people, and he gave them into the hand of the nations (Ps. 106:40-41; cf. Judg. 2:14). The stunning thing about the period of the judges is the side-by-side themes: many times he delivered them while yet they were rebellious in their purposes (Ps. 106:43). Nevertheless God looked upon their distress (v. 44) and kept coming to their aid. The expressions remembered his covenant and the abundance of his steadfast love (v. 45, a reference to Ex. 34:6) look back to Ps. 106:7 and put the faithful Lord in stark contrast with the unfaithful people. In keeping with Solomon's prayer (1 Kings 8:50), God caused his repentant people to be pitied by all those who held them captive (Ps. 106:46), and he restored them.
