They Turned Back and Tested God
32 For all this they still sinned, and didn’t believe in his wondrous works. 33 Therefore he consumed their days in vanity, and their years in terror. 34 When he killed them, then they inquired after him. They returned and sought God earnestly. 35 They remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God, their redeemer. 36 But they flattered him with their mouth, and lied to him with their tongue. 37 For their heart was not right with him, neither were they faithful in his covenant. 38 But he, being merciful, forgave iniquity, and didn’t destroy them. Yes, many times he turned his anger away, and didn’t stir up all his wrath. 39 He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes away, and doesn’t come again. 40 How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness, and grieved him in the desert! 41 They turned again and tempted God, and provoked the Holy One of Israel. 42 They didn’t remember his hand, nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary; 43 how he set his signs in Egypt, his wonders in the field of Zoan, 44 he turned their rivers into blood, and their streams, so that they could not drink. 45 He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them. 46 He also gave their increase to the caterpillar, and their labor to the locust. 47 He destroyed their vines with hail, their sycamore fig trees with frost. 48 He also gave over their livestock to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts. 49 He threw on them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, indignation, and trouble, and a band of angels of evil. 50 He made a path for his anger. He didn’t spare their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence, 51 and struck all the firstborn in Egypt, the chief of their strength in the tents of Ham. 52 But he led out his own people like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock. 53 He led them safely, so that they weren’t afraid, but the sea overwhelmed their enemies. 54 He brought them to the border of his sanctuary, to this mountain, which his right hand had taken. 55 He also drove out the nations before them, allotted them for an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.
A cycle of disaster, repentance, flattery and relapse, interrupted by one verse about why God kept forgiving.
For all this they still sinned, and didn’t believe in his wondrous works.
The psalm now describes a pattern rather than an episode, and the pattern is the least flattering thing in Scripture about religious behavior under pressure.
34 When he killed them, then they inquired after him. They returned and sought God earnestly. 35 They remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God, their redeemer.
The repentance is real in the sense that it happened, and its trigger is stated plainly: it came when people started dying. Nothing else produced it.
36 But they flattered him with their mouth, and lied to him with their tongue. 37 For their heart was not right with him, neither were they faithful in his covenant.
The verdict on the revival. Flattery is the word the twelfth psalm used of a corrupt society talking to itself; here it is used of a nation at prayer. What was said was orthodox, urgent and false — not because they were consciously deceiving, but because the heart underneath had not moved.
But he, being merciful, forgave iniquity, and didn’t destroy them. Yes, many times he turned his anger away, and didn’t stir up all his wrath.
The hinge of the entire psalm, and it comes immediately after the exposure of the flattery. He knew what the repentance was worth and forgave anyway, many times, and didn't stir up all his wrath — a phrase that admits there was more available and it was not used.
He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes away, and doesn’t come again.
The reason given for the mercy, and it is not their improvement. It is their fragility. God's memory of what human beings are made of is what stands between the nation and the end of it, and the same thought appears in the hundred and third psalm — he remembers that we are dust Psalms 103:14.
How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness, and grieved him in the desert!
Grieved. The word says that this is not a matter of an offended sovereign but of someone hurt.
They didn’t remember his hand, nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary;
The root failure named again, and the psalm answers it by listing the plagues in detail across nine verses Psalms 78:43–51 — blood, flies, frogs, locusts, hail, and the firstborn. It is a memory exercise: this is what you forgot.
52 But he led out his own people like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock. 53 He led them safely, so that they weren’t afraid, but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
Against the catalogue of judgments on Egypt, the treatment of Israel is described in one image, and it is a shepherd walking in front of animals that are not frightened.
settled What this mark means