Psalms 106:4-14

4 Remember me, O Jehovah, With the favour of Thy people, Look after me in Thy salvation.

5 To look on the good of Thy chosen ones, To rejoice in the joy of Thy nation, To boast myself with Thine inheritance.

6 We have sinned with our fathers, We have done perversely, we have done wickedly.

7 Our fathers in Egypt, Have not considered wisely Thy wonders, They have not remembered The abundance of Thy kind acts, And provoke by the sea, at the sea of Suph.

8 And He saveth them for His name's sake, To make known His might,

9 And rebuketh the sea of Suph, and it is dried up, And causeth them to go Through depths as a wilderness.

10 And He saveth them from the hand Of him who is hating, And redeemeth them from the hand of the enemy.

11 And waters cover their adversaries, One of them hath not been left.

12 And they believe in His words, they sing His praise,

13 They have hasted -- forgotten His works, They have not waited for His counsel.

14 And they lust greatly in a wilderness, And try God in a desert.

Psalms 106:4-14 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 106

This psalm is without the name of its author, as the Syriac interpreter observes. Aben Ezra, on Ps 106:47, says, that one of the wise men of Egypt (perhaps Maimonides) was of opinion that it was written in the time of the judges, when there was no king in Israel; and another, he says, thought it was written in Babylon: but he was of opinion it was wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, or by a prophetic spirit, concerning their present captivity; and so Kimchi. The petition in Ps 106:47, "gather us from among the Heathen", has led most interpreters to conclude that it was written either in the Babylonish captivity, or, as some, in the times of Antiochus: but by comparing it with 1Ch 16:7, it appears that it was written by David, at the time of the bringing up of the ark to Zion; since the first and two last verses of it are there expressly mentioned, in the psalm he gave Asaph to sing on that occasion, Ps 106:34-36, who therein might have respect to the Israelites that had been taken captive by some of their neighbours, as the Philistines, and still retained; though there is no difficulty in supposing that David, under a prophetic spirit, foresaw future captivities, and represents those that were in them. As the preceding psalm treats of the mercies and favours God bestowed upon Israel, this of their sins and provocations amidst those blessings, and of the goodness of God unto them; that notwithstanding he did not destroy them from being a people; for which they had reason to be thankful.