Psalm 106:7

Verse 7. -- They provoked him. Wherein lay their provocation? They remembered not the multitude of his mercies: the former mercies of the Lord did not strengthen their trust in present troubles; that was one provocation. And as former mercies did not strengthen their trust, so the present troubles drew out their distrust, as another Scripture assures, reporting their behaviour in it ( Exodus 14:11 ): "And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt? "What were these fearful forecasts, these amazing bodements of an unavoidable (as they apprehended) ruin, but the overflowing of unbelief, or distrust in God; and this was another provocation. Former mercies are forgotten, yea, eaten up by unbelief, as the seven lean kine in Pharaoh's dream, eat up the fat ones, and present difficulties are aggravated by unbelief, as if all the power of God could not remove and overcome them. And will not the Lord (think you) visit in anger such a sin as this? --Joseph Caryl.

Verse 7. -- At the Red Sea. That is to say, at the Arabian Gulf: literally, at the Sea of Suph, which, if Suph be not here a proper name, (as it seems to be in Deuteronomy 1:1 , and, with a slight variation, in Numbers 31:14 ) means the sea of weeds, and that sea is still called by a similar name, in modern Egypt. Its designation, throughout the books of the Old Testament, is in the Syriac version, and the Chaldee Paraphrased, likewise rendered the sea of weeds; which name may have been derived from the reeds growing near its shore: or from the weeds, or coralline productions, seen through its waters, and the corals seen at its bottom...Pliny states, that it is called the Red Sea from King Erythras, or from the reflection of a red colour by the sun, or from its sand and its ground, or form the nature of its water. --Daniel Cresswell.

Verse 7-8 This psalm is a psalm of thanksgiving, as the first and last verses declare. Now because a man is most fit to praise God when he is most sensible of his own sin and unworthiness; the psalmist doth throughout this psalm lay Israel's sin and God's mercy together. Psalms 106:7 . Our Fathers (says he) understood not thy wonders in Egypt. They saw them with their eyes, but they did not understand them with their heart: they did not apprehend the design and scope and end of God in those wonders: and therefore, "they remembered not (says the text) thy mercies; for a man remembers no more than he understands."

But it may be these mercies were very few, and so their sin in forgetfulness the less? Nay, not so, Psalms 106:7 , They remembered not the multitude of thy mercies.

But it may be this was their infirmity or weakness, and so they were rather to be borne withal? Not so, but they rebelled against him; so Montanus reads it better.

But it may be this sin was committed whilst they were in Egypt, or among the Egyptians, being put on by them? Not so neither, but when they were come out of Egypt, and only had to deal with God, and saw his glorious power at the Red Sea, then they rebelled against him, at the sea, even at the Red Sea.

What, then, did not the Lord destroy them? No says the text, Notwithstanding, all their grievance, unthankfulness, and their rebellion, he saved them for his name's sake. -- William Bridge, in a Sermon preached before the House of Commons, Nov. 5, 1647.

HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS

Verse 7-8.

Verse 7-8.

--G.R.