1 Hallelujah!
Give thanks to Jehovah, for He is good,
For His loving-kindness [endures] for ever.
2 Who can speak forth the mighty deeds of Jehovah?
[Who] can cause all His praise to be heard?
3 Blessed are they who observe right,
He who does righteousness at all times.
4 Remember me, Jehovah, with the favour which Thou bearest to Thy
people,
Visit me with Thy salvation;
5 That I may look on the prosperity of Thy chosen ones,
That I may joy in the joy of Thy nation,
That I may triumph with Thine inheritance.
6 We have sinned with our fathers,
We have done perversely, have done wickedly.
7 Our fathers in Egypt considered not Thy wonders,
They remembered not the multitude of Thy loving-kindnesses,
And rebelled at the Sea, by the Red Sea.
8 And He saved them for His name's sake,
To make known His might;
9 And He rebuked the Red Sea and it was dried up,
And He led them in the depths as in a wilderness;
10 And He saved them from the hand of the hater,
And redeemed them from the hand of the enemy;
11 And the waters covered their oppressors,
Not one of them was left;
12 And they believed on His words,
They sang His praise.
13 They hasted [and] forgot His works,
They waited not for His counsel;
14 And they lusted a lust in the wilderness,
And tempted God in the desert;
15 And He gave them what they asked for,
And sent wasting sickness into their soul.
16 They were jealous against Moses in the camp,
Against Aaron, the holy one of Jehovah.
17 The earth opened and swallowed Dathan,
And covered the company of Abiram;
18 And fire blazed out on their company,
Flame consumed the wicked ones.
19 They made a calf in Horeb,
And bowed down to a molten image;
20 And they changed their Glory
For the likeness of a grass-eating ox.
21 They forgot God their Saviour,
Who did great things in Egypt,
22 Wonders in the land of Ham,
Dread things by the Red Sea.
23 And He said that He would annihilate them,
Had not Moses, His chosen one, stood in the breach confronting
Him
To turn His anger from destroying.
24 And they despised the delightsome land,
They trusted not to His word;
25 And they murmured in their tents,
They hearkened not to the voice of Jehovah;
26 And He lifted up His hand to them, [swearing]
That He would make them fall in the wilderness,
27 And that He would make their seed fall among the nations,
And scatter them in the lands.
28 And they yoked themselves to Baal-Peor,
And ate the sacrifices of dead [gods];
29 And they provoked Him by their doings,
And a plague broke in upon them;
30 And Phinehas stood up and did judgment,
And the plague was stayed;
31 And it was reckoned to him for righteousness,
To generation after generation, for ever.
32 And they moved indignation at the waters of Meribah,
And it fared ill with Moses on their account.
33 For they rebelled against [His] Spirit,
And he spoke rashly with his lips.
34 They destroyed not the peoples
[Of] whom Jehovah spoke to them;
35 And they mixed themselves with the nations
And learned their works;
36 And they served their idols
And they became to them a snare;
37 And they sacrificed their sons
And their daughters to demons;
38 And they shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and
daughters,
Whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan,
And the land was profaned by bloodshed.
39 And they became unclean through their works,
And committed whoredom through their doings.
40 And the anger of Jehovah kindled on His people,
And He abhorred His inheritance;
41 And He gave them into the hand of the nations,
And their haters lorded it over them;
42 And their enemies oppressed them,
And they were bowed down under their hand.
43 Many times did He deliver them,
And they--they rebelliously followed their own counsel,
And were brought low through their iniquity;
44 And He looked on their distress
When He heard their cry;
45 And He remembered for them His covenant,
And repented according to the multitude of His loving-kindness,
46 And caused them to find compassion,
In the presence of all their captors.
47 Save us, Jehovah, our God,
And gather us from among the nations,
That we may thank Thy holy name,
That we may make our boast in Thy praise.
48 Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Israel,
From everlasting and to everlasting,
And let all the people say Amen.
Hallelujah!
The history of God's past is a record of continuous mercies, the
history of man's, one of as continuous sin. The memory of the former
quickened the psalmist into his sunny song of thankfulness in the
previous psalm. That of the latter moves him to the confessions in this
one. They are complements of each other, and are connected not only as
being both retrospective, but by the identity of their beginnings and
the difference of their points of view. The parts of the early history
dealt with in the one are lightly touched or altogether omitted in the
other. The key-note of Psalm cv. is, "Remember His mighty deeds"; that
of Psalm cvi. is, "They forgot His mighty deeds."
Surely never but in Israel has patriotism chosen a nation's sins for
the themes of song, or, in celebrating its victories, written but one
name, the name of Jehovah, on its trophies. But in the Psalter we have
several instances of such hymns of national confession; and, in other
books, there are the formulary at the presentation of the first-fruits
(Deut. xxvi.), Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the Temple (1
Kings viii.), Nehemiah's prayer (Neh. ix.), and Daniel's (Dan. ix.).
An exilic date is implied by the prayer of ver. 47, for the gathering
of the people from among the nations. The occurrence of vv. 1 and 47,
48, in the compilation in 1 Chron. xvi. shows that this psalm, which
marks the close of the Fourth Book, was in existence prior to the
date of 1 Chronicles.
No trace of strophical arrangement is discernible. But, after an
introduction in some measure like that in Psalm cv., the psalmist
plunges into his theme, and draws out the long, sad story of Israel's
faithlessness. He recounts seven instances during the wilderness
sojourn (vv. 7-33), and then passes to those occurring in the Land
(vv. 34-39), with which he connects the alternations of punishment
and relenting on God's part and the obstinacy of transgression on
Israel's, even down to the moment in which he speaks (vv. 40-46). The
whole closes with a prayer for restoration to the Land (ver. 47); to
which is appended the doxology (ver. 48), the mark of the end of Book
IV., and not a part of the psalm.
The psalmist preludes his confession and contemplation of his
people's sins by a glad remembrance of God's goodness and enduring
loving-kindness and by a prayer for himself. Some commentators regard
these introductory verses as incongruous with the tone of the psalm,
and as mere liturgical commonplace, which has been tacked on without
much heed to fitness. But surely the thought of God's unspeakable
goodness most appropriately precedes the psalmist's confession, for
nothing so melts a heart in penitence as the remembrance of God's
love, and nothing so heightens the evil of sin as the consideration
of the patient goodness which it has long flouted. The blessing
pronounced in ver. 3 on those who "do righteousness" and keep the law
is not less natural, before a psalm which sets forth in melancholy
detail the converse truth of the misery that dogs breaking the law.
In vv. 4, 5, the psalmist interjects a prayer for himself, the
abruptness of which strongly reminds us of similar jets of personal
supplication in Nehemiah. The determination to make the "I" of the
Psalter the nation perversely insists on that personification here,
in spite of the clear distinction thrice drawn in ver. 5 between
the psalmist and his people. The "salvation" in which he desires
to share is the deliverance from exile for which he prays in the
closing verse of the psalm. There is something very pathetic in this
momentary thought of self. It breathes wistful yearning, absolute
confidence in the unrealised deliverance, lowly humility which bases
its claim with God on that of the nation. Such a prayer stands in the
closest relation to the theme of the psalm, which draws out the dark
record of national sin, in order to lead to that national repentance
which, as all the history shows, is the necessary condition of
"the prosperity of Thy chosen ones." Precisely because the hope of
restoration is strong, the delineation of sin is unsparing.
With ver. 6 the theme of the psalm is given forth, in language which
recalls Solomon's and Daniel's similar confessions (1 Kings viii.
47; Dan. ix. 5). The accumulation of synonyms for sin witnesses
at once to the gravity and manifoldness of the offences, and to
the earnestness and comprehensiveness of the acknowledgment. The
remarkable expression "We have sinned _with_ our fathers" is not to
be weakened to mean merely that the present generation had sinned
like their ancestors, but gives expression to the profound sense of
national solidarity, which speaks in many other places of Scripture,
and rests on very deep facts in the life of nations and their
individual members. The enumeration of ancestral sin begins with the
murmurings of the faint-hearted fugitives by the Red Sea. In Psalm
cv. the wonders in Egypt were dilated on and the events at the Red
Sea unmentioned. Here the signs in Egypt are barely referred to
and treated as past at the point where the psalm begins, while the
incidents by the Red Sea fill a large space in the song. Clearly,
the two psalms supplement each other. The reason given for Israel's
rebellion in Psalm cvi. is its forgetfulness of God's mighty deeds
(ver. 7_a_, _b_), while in Psalm cv. the remembrance of these is
urgently enjoined. Thus, again, the connection of thought in the
pair of psalms is evident. Every man has experiences enough of God's
goodness stored away in the chambers of his memory to cure him of
distrust, if he would only look at them. But they lie unnoticed, and
so fear has sway over him. No small part of the discipline needed for
vigorous hope lies in vigorous exercise of remembrance. The drying
up of the Red Sea is here poetically represented, with omission of
Moses' outstretched rod and the strong east wind, as the immediate
consequence of God's omnipotent rebuke. Ver. 9_b_ is from Isa. lxiii.
13, and picturesquely describes the march through that terrible
gorge of heaped-up waters as being easy and safe, as if it had
been across some wide-stretching plain, with springy turf to tread
on. The triumphant description of the completeness of the enemies'
destruction in ver. 11_b_ is from Exod. xiv. 28, and "they believed
on His words" is in part quoted from Exod. xiv. 31, while Miriam's
song is referred to in ver. 12_b_.
The next instance of departure is the lusting for food (vv. 13-15).
Again the evil is traced to forgetfulness of God's doings, to which in
ver. 13_b_ is added impatient disinclination to wait the unfolding of
His counsel or plan. These evils cropped up with strange celerity. The
memory of benefits was transient, as if they had been written on the
blown sands of the desert. "They hasted, they forgot His works." Of
how many of us that has to be said! We remember pain and sorrow longer
than joy and pleasure. It is always difficult to bridle desires and be
still until God discloses His purposes. We are all apt to try to force
His hand open, and to impose our wishes on Him, rather than to let
His will mould us. So, on forgetfulness and impatience there followed
then, as there follow still, eager longings after material good and
a tempting of God. "They lusted a lust" is from Num. xi. 4. "Tempted
God" is found in reference to the same incident in the other psalm of
historical retrospect (lxxviii. 18). He is "tempted" when unbelief
demands proofs of His power, instead of waiting patiently for Him. In
Num. xi. 33 Jehovah is said to have smitten the people "with a very
great plague." The psalm specifies more particularly the nature of the
stroke by calling it "wasting sickness," which invaded the life of the
sinners. The words are true in a deeper sense, though not so meant. For
whoever sets his hot desires in self-willed fashion on material good,
and succeeds in securing their gratification, gains with the satiety
of his lower sense the loss of a shrivelled spiritual nature. Full-fed
flesh makes starved souls.
The third instance is the revolt headed by Korah, Dathan, and
Abiram against the exclusive Aaronic priesthood (vv. 16-18). It was
rebellion against God, for He had set apart Aaron as His own, and
therefore the unusual title of "the holy one of Jehovah" is here
given to the high priest. The expression recalls the fierce protest
of the mutineers, addressed to Moses and Aaron, "Ye take too much
upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy" (Num. xvi. 3); and
also Moses' answer, "Jehovah will show ... who is holy." Envy often
masquerades as the champion of the rights of the community, when it
only wishes to grasp these for itself. These aristocratic democrats
cared nothing for the prerogatives of the nation, though they talked
about them. They wanted to pull down Aaron, not to lift up Israel.
Their end is described with stern brevity, in language coloured by
the narrative in Numbers, from which the phrases "opened" (_i.e._,
her mouth) and "covered" are drawn. Korah is not mentioned here,
in which the psalm follows Num. xvi. and Deut. xi. 6, whereas Num.
xxvi. 10 includes Korah in the destruction. The difficulty does not
seem to have received any satisfactory solution. But Cheyne is too
peremptory when he undertakes to divine the reason for the omission
of Korah here and in Deut. xi. 6, "because he was a Levite and his
name was dear to temple-poets." Such clairvoyance as to motives is
beyond ordinary vision. In ver. 18 the fate of the two hundred and
fifty "princes of Israel" who took part in the revolt is recorded as
in Num. xvi. 35.
The worship of the calf is the fourth instance (vv. 19-23) in the
narrative of which the psalmist follows Exod. xxxii., but seems
also to have Deut. ix. 8-12 floating in his mind, as appears from
the use of the name "Horeb," which is rare in Exodus and frequent
in Deuteronomy. Ver. 20 is apparently modelled on Jer. ii. 11: "My
people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit."
Compare also Paul's "_changed_ the _glory_ of the incorruptible God
for the _likeness_," etc. (Rom. i. 23). "His glory" is read instead
"their glory" by Noldeke, Graetz, and Cheyne, following an old
Jewish authority. The LXX., in Codd. Alex. and Sin. (second hand),
has this reading, and Paul seems to follow it in the passage just
quoted. It yields a worthy meaning, but the existing text is quite
appropriate. It scarcely means that God was the source of Israel's
glory or their boast, for the word is not found in that sense. It is
much rather the name for the collective attributes of the revealed
Godhead, and is here substantially equivalent to "their God," that
lustrous Light which, in a special manner, belonged to the people
of revelation, on whom its first and brightest beams shone. The
strange perverseness which turned away from such a radiance of glory
to bow down before an idol is strikingly set forth by the figure of
bartering it for an image, and that of an ox that ate grass. The one
true Substance given away for a shadow! The lofty Being whose light
filled space surrendered: and for what? A brute that had to feed,
and that on herbage! Men usually make a profit, or think they do, on
their barter: but what do they gain by exchanging God for anything?
Yet _we_ keep making the same mistake of parting with Substance for
shadows. And the reason which moved Israel is still operative. As
before, the psalmist traces their mad apostasy to forgetfulness of
God's deeds. The list of these is now increased by the addition of
those at the Red Sea. With every step new links were added to the
chain that should have bound the recipients of so many mercies to
God. Therefore each new act of departure was of a darker hue of
guilt, and drew on the apostates severer punishment, which also,
rightly understood, was greater mercy.
"He said that He would annihilate them" is quoted from Deut. ix. 25.
Moses' intercession for the people is here most vividly represented
under the figure of a champion, who rushes into the breach by which
the enemy is about to pour into some beleaguered town, and with his
own body closes the gap and arrests the assault (cf. Ezek. xxii. 30).
The fifth instance is the refusal to go up to the land, which
followed on the report of the spies (vv. 24-27). These verses are
full of reminiscences of the Pentateuch and other parts of Scripture.
"The delightsome land" (lit. "land of desire") is found in Jer. iii.
19 and Zech. vii. 14. "They despised" is from Num. xiv. 31. "They
murmured in their tents" is from Deut. i. 27 (the only other place
in which the word for murmuring occurs in this form). Lifting up
the hand is used, as here, not in the usual sense of threatening to
strike, but in that of swearing, in Exod. vi. 8, and the oath itself
is given in Num. xiv. 28 _sqq._, while the expression "lifted up My
hand" occurs in that context, in reference to God's original oath
to the patriarch. The threat of exile (ver. 27) does not occur in
Numbers, but is found as the punishment of apostasy in Lev. xxvi. 33
and Deut. xxviii. 64. The verse, however, is found almost exactly
in Ezek. xx. 23, with the exception that there "scatter" stands in
_a_ instead of _make to fall_. The difference in the Hebrew is only
in the final letter of the words, and the reading in Ezekiel should
probably be adopted here. So the LXX. and other ancient authorities
and many of the moderns.
The sixth instance is the participation in the abominable Moabitish
worship of "Baal-Peor," recorded in Num. xxv. The peculiar phrase
"yoked themselves to" is taken from that chapter, and seems to refer
to "the mystic, quasi-physical union supposed to exist between a god
and his worshippers, and to be kept up by sacrificial meals" (Cheyne).
These are called sacrifices of the dead, inasmuch as idols are dead
in contrast with the living God. The judicial retribution inflicted
according to Divine command by the judges of Israel slaying "every
one his man" is here called a "plague," as in the foundation passage,
Num. xxv. 9. The word (lit. "a stroke," _i.e._ from God) is usually
applied to punitive sickness; but God smites when He bids men smite.
Both the narrative in Numbers and the psalm bring out vividly the
picture of the indignant Phinehas springing to his feet from the midst
of the passive crowd. He "rose up," says the former; he "stood up,"
says the latter. And his deed is described in the psalm in relation to
its solemn judicial character, without particularising its details.
The psalmist would partially veil both the sin and the horror of its
punishment. Phinehas' javelin was a minister of God's justice, and
the death of the two culprits satisfied that justice and stayed the
plague. The word rendered "did judgment" has that meaning only, and
such renderings as _mediated_ or _appeased_ give the effect of the deed
and not the description of it contained in the word. "It was reckoned
to him for righteousness," as Abraham's faith was (Gen. xv. 6). It was
indeed an act which had its origin "in the faithfulness that had its
root in faith, and which, for the sake of this its ultimate ground,
gained him the acceptation of a righteous man, inasmuch as it proved
him to be such" (Delitzsch, Eng. Trans.). He showed himself a true son
of Abraham in the midst of these degenerate descendants, and it was
the same impulse of faith which drove his spear, and which filled the
patriarch's heart when he gazed into the silent sky and saw in its
numberless lights the promise of his seed. Phinehas' reward was the
permanence of the priesthood in his family.
The seventh instance is the rebellion at the waters of Meribah
(Strife), in the fortieth year (Num. xx. 2-13). The chronological
order is here set aside, for the events recorded in vv. 28-31
followed those dealt with in vv. 32, 33. The reason is probably
that here Moses himself is hurried into sin, through the people's
faithlessness, and so a climax is reached. The leader, long-tried,
fell at last, and was shut out from entering the land. That was in
some aspects the master-piece and triumph of the nation's sin. "It
fared ill with Moses on their account," as in Deut. i. 37, iii. 26,
"Jehovah was angry with me for your sakes." "His Spirit," in ver.
33, is best taken as meaning the Spirit of God. The people's sin is
repeatedly specified in the psalm as being rebellion against God,
and the absence of a more distinct definition of the person referred
to is like the expression in ver. 32, where "indignation" is that of
God, though His name is not mentioned. Isa. lxiii. 10 is a parallel
to this clause, as other parts of the same chapter are to other parts
of the psalm. The question which has been often raised, as to what
was Moses' sin, is solved in ver. 33_b_, which makes his passionate
words, wherein he lost his temper and arrogated to himself the power
of fetching water from the rock, the head and front of his offending.
The psalmist has finished his melancholy catalogue of sins in the
wilderness with this picture of the great leader dragged down by the
prevailing tone, and he next turns to the sins done in the land.
Two flagrant instances are given--disobedience to the command to
exterminate the inhabitants, and the adoption of their bloody worship.
The conquest of Canaan was partial; and, as often is the case, the
conquerors were conquered and the invaders caught the manners of
the invaded. Intermarriage poured a large infusion of alien blood
into Israel; and the Canaanitish strain is perceptible to-day in the
fellahin of the Holy Land. The proclivity to idolatry, which was
natural in that stage of the world's history, and was intensified
by universal example, became more irresistible, when reinforced by
kinship and neighbourhood, and the result foretold was realised--the
idols "became a snare" (Judg. ii. 1-3). The poet dwells with special
abhorrence on the hideous practice of human sacrifices, which exercised
so strong and horrible a fascination over the inhabitants of Canaan.
The word in ver. 37 _demons_ is found only here and in Deut. xxxii. 17.
The above rendering is that of the LXX. Its literal meaning seems to
be "lords." It is thus a synonym for "Baalim." The epithet "Shaddai"
exclusively applied to Jehovah may be compared.
In vv. 40-46 the whole history of Israel is summed up as alternating
periods of sin, punishment, deliverance, recurring in constantly
repeated cycles, in which the mystery of human obstinacy is set over
against that of Divine long-suffering, and one knows not whether
to wonder most at the incurable levity which learned nothing from
experience, or the inexhaustible long-suffering which wearied not in
giving wasted gifts. Chastisement and mercies were equally in vain.
The outcome of God's many deliverances was, "they rebelled in their
counsel"--_i.e._, went on their own stiff-necked way, instead of
waiting for and following God's merciful plan, which would have made
them secure and blessed. The end of such obstinacy of disobedience
can only be, "they were brought low through their iniquity." The
psalmist appears to be quoting Lev. xxvi. 39, "they that are left of
you shall pine away in their iniquity"; but he intentionally slightly
alters the word, substituting one of nearly the same sound, but with
the meaning of _being brought low_ instead of _fading away_. To
follow one's own will is to secure humiliation and degradation. Sin
weakens the true strength and darkens the true glory of men.
In vv. 44-46 the singer rises from these sad and stern thoughts
to recreate his spirit with the contemplation of the patient
loving-kindness of God. It persists through all man's sin and God's
anger. The multitude of its manifestations far outnumbers that of our
sins. His eye looks on Israel's distress with pity, and every sorrow
on which He looks He desires to remove. Calamities melt away beneath
His gaze, like damp-stains in sunlight. His merciful "look" swiftly
follows the afflicted man's cry. No voice acknowledges sin and calls
for help in vain. The covenant forgotten by men is none the less
remembered by Him. The numberless number of His loving-kindnesses,
greater than that of all men's sins, secures forgiveness after the
most repeated transgressions. The law and measure of His "repenting"
lie in the endless depths of His own heart. As the psalmist had sung
at the beginning, that loving-kindness endures for ever; therefore
none of Israel's many sins went unchastised, and no chastisement
outlasted their repentance. Solomon had prayed that God would "give
them compassion before those who carried them captive" (1 Kings viii.
50); and thus has it been, as the psalmist joyfully sees. He may
have written when the Babylonian captivity was near an end, and such
instances as those of Daniel or Nehemiah may have been in his mind.
In any case, it is beautifully significant that a psalm, which tells
the doleful story of centuries of faithlessness, should end with
God's faithfulness to His promises, His inexhaustible forgiveness,
and the multitude of His loving-kindnesses. Such will be the last
result of the world's history no less than of Israel's.
The psalm closes with the prayer in ver. 47, which shows that it was
written in exile. It corresponds in part with the closing words of
Psalm cv. Just as there the purpose of God's mercies to Israel was
said to be that they might be thereby moved to keep His statutes,
so here the psalmist hopes and vows that the issue of his people's
restoration will be thankfulness to God's holy name, and triumphant
pealing forth from ransomed lips of His high praises.
Ver. 48 is the concluding doxology of the Fourth Book. Some
commentators suppose it an integral part of the psalm, but it is more
probably an editorial addition.