Biblion Bible Commentary
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Many Times He Delivered Them
Psalms 106:24-48
24 Yes, they despised the pleasant land. They didn’t believe his word, · WEB
The confession runs all the way to child sacrifice, and the fourth book closes on a plea from among the nations.
Yes, they despised the pleasant land. They didn't believe his word Psalms 106:24.
The refusal at Kadesh, where the spies' report was believed and the promise was not Numbers 14. Despising the land is the psalm's summary of it, and the verdict is harsher than the narrative's.
They joined themselves also to Baal Peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead Psalms 106:28.
Then Phinehas stood up and executed judgment, so the plague was stopped. That was credited to him for righteousness Psalms 106:30–31.
The phrase credited for righteousness is the one used of Abraham's faith Genesis 15:6, and the psalm applies it to an act. What the two men have in common is that each acted on what God had said when nobody else was.
They angered him also at the waters of Meribah, so that Moses was troubled for their sakes; because they were rebellious against his spirit, he spoke rashly with his lips Psalms 106:32–33.
The psalm's account of why Moses lost the land, and it is more sympathetic than the narrative. He spoke rashly, and the cause given is the wearing down of a man by people who would not stop.
They didn't destroy the peoples, as Yahweh commanded them, but mixed themselves with the nations, and learned their works Psalms 106:34–35.
The verb is learned. What follows is what they learned.
Yes, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons. They shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters Psalms 106:37–38.
The worst sentence in the psalm and it is a confession rather than an accusation against somebody else. The people singing this are saying it about their own ancestors, in worship, and the doubling of the phrase about sons and daughters refuses to let it pass quickly.
He rescued them many times, but they were rebellious in their counsel Psalms 106:43.
The cycle of the book of Judges compressed into a verse, and the word many is doing the work.
Nevertheless he regarded their distress, when he heard their cry. He remembered for them his covenant Psalms 106:44–45.
The psalm's last nevertheless, and it comes after child sacrifice. What is remembered is the covenant rather than any improvement.
He made them also to be pitied by all those who carried them captive Psalms 106:46.
An unexpected mercy — not release, but the disposition of the people holding them. Someone in Babylon felt sorry for them, and the psalm counts it as an act of God.
Save us, Yahweh, our God, gather us from among the nations Psalms 106:47.
The psalm's only request, and it comes at the very end, from exile. Then the doxology closing the fourth book Psalms 106:48 — and, as at the end of the third, it is placed immediately after an unanswered prayer.
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