Psalm 106:2

Verse 2. -- Who can utter the mighty acts of the LORD? etc. Our sight fails us when we look upon the sun, overpowered by the splendour of his ways; and the mind's eye suffers the like in every meditation on God, and the more attention is bestowed in thinking of God, the more is the mental vision blinded by the very light of its own thoughts. For what canst thou say of him, what, I repeat, canst thou adequately say of him, who is more sublime than all loftiness, and more exalted than all height, and deeper than all depth, and clearer than all light, and brighter than all brightness, and more splendid than all splendour, stronger than all strength, more vigorous than all vigour, fairer than all beauty, truer than all truth, and more puissant than puissance, and greater than all majesty, and mightier than all might, richer than all riches, wiser than all wisdom, gentler than all gentleness, more just than all justice, more merciful than all mercy? -- Tertullian, quoted by Neale and Littledale.

Verse 2. -- Who can utter the mighty acts of the LORD? etc. This may be resolved either into a negation or restriction. Few or none can "utter the mighty acts of the LORD," can "show forth all his praise"; few can do it in an acceptable manner, and none can do it in a perfect manner. And indeed it is not unusual in Scripture for such kind of interrogations to amount unto either a negation, or at least an expression of the rareness and difficulty of the thing spoken of: 1 Corinthians 2:16 Psalms 92:1 Isaiah 53:1 . Without a full confession of mercies it is not possible to make either a due valuation of them, or a just requital of them. And how impossible a thing it is fully to recount mercies, you may see by Psalms 40:5 ; "Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are toward us: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered." --Henry Jeanes, in "The Works of Heaven upon Earth", 1649.

Verse 2. -- Mighty acts of the Lord. Or powers, to which answers the Greek word for the miracles of Christ ( Matthew 11:20 Matthew 11:21 ), and Kimchi here restrains them to the wonders wrought in Egypt and at the Red Sea; but they may as well be extended to the mighty acts of God, and the effects of his power, in the creation of all things out of nothing; in the sustentation and government of the world; in the redemption of his people by Christ; in the conversion of sinners, and in the final perseverance of the saints; in all which there are such displays of the power of God as cannot be uttered and declared by mortal tongues. --John Gill.

HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS

Verse 2.