1Aleluja! Vzdávejte díky Jahvovi, neboť je dobrý, neboť jeho láska trvá navěky! 2Kdo vypoví Jahvovy chrabré činy, kdo dá zaznít vší jeho chvále? 3Šťasten, kdo zachovává právo, kdo v každé době žije podle spravedlnosti! 4Vzpomeň si na mne, Jahve, z lásky ke svému lidu, navštiv mě svou spásou, 5ať vidím štěstí tvých vyvolených a raduji se nad radostí tvého lidu, chlubím se spolu s tvým dědictvím! 6Provinili jsme se spolu se svými otci, sešli jsme z cesty, zapřeli jsme; 7naši otcové v Egyptě neporozuměli tvým divům. Nerozpomenuli se na tvou velkou lásku, protivili se Nejvyššímu u Rákosového moře. 8On je pro své jméno zachránil, aby dal poznat svou chrabrost. 9Pohrozil Rákosovému moři, ono vyschlo, vedl je přes propasti jako po poušti, 10zachránil je z ruky nepřítele, vykoupil je z ruky protivníka. 11A vody přikryly jejich utlačovatele, ani jediný z nich neunikl. 12Tu uvěřili jeho slovům, zazpívali jeho chválu. 13Ve spěchu zapomínali na jeho činy, dokonce ani na jeho záměr nečekali; 14vzplanuli na poušti chtíčem, na odlehlých místech pokoušeli Boha. 15On jim dopřál, čeho si žádali: na jejich duše poslal horečku; 16záviděli v táboře Mojžíšovi, Áronovi, Jahvovu svatému. 17Země se otvírá, pohlcuje Datana a přikrývá Abiramovu tlupu; 18proti jejich tlupě se zažíhá oheň, plamen spaluje odpadlíky. 19Na Chorebu si zhotovili tele, klaněli se před litým kovem; 20zaměnili svou slávu za obraz býka, jenž požírá trávu. 21Zapomínali na Boha, svého zachránce, původce velkých věcí v Egyptě, 22divů v Chamově zemi, hrůz v Rákosovém moři. 23On mluvil o tom, že je zahubí, nebýt toho, že Mojžíš, jeho vyvolený, se před ním neustále za to bil, aby jeho ničivý hněv odvrátil. 24Odmítli rajskou zemi, neměli víru v jeho slova; 25ve svých stanech reptali, neposlouchali Jahvův hlas. 26Pozdvihl na ně svou ruku, aby je na poušti pobil, 27aby pobil jejich potomstvo u pohanů, aby je rozmetal do různých zemí. 28Vzali na sebe jařmo Baal-Peora a jedli oběti mrtvých. 29Rozhořčili ho svými činy, přihrnula se na ně pohroma. 30Tu povstává Pinchas, zakročuje, tu se pohroma zastavuje; 31je za to spravedlivě oceňován od věků do věků a navždy. 32Hněvali ho u vod Meriby; jejich vinou se potázal Mojžíš se zlou, 33neboť oni roztrpčili jeho ducha a příliš rychle promluvily jeho rty. 34Nevyhladili ty národy, o nichž jim to Jahve řekl, 35a mísili se s pohany, učili se jejich způsobům. 36Sloužili jejich modlám, ty se pro ně staly léčkou! 37Obětovali své syny a své dcery zlým duchům. 38Prolévali nevinnou krev, krev svých synů a svých dcer, obětovali je kanaánským modlám, a ta zem se zhanobila krví. 39Poskvrňovali se svými činy, tím, co dělali, se dopouštěli smilstva; 40Jahve se proti svému lidu rozohnil, zošklivil si své dědictví. 41Vydal je do rukou pohanům, opanovali je jejich nepřátelé, 42jejich protivníci nad nimi krutě vládli, oni se skláněli pod jejich rukama. 43Mnohokrát a mnohokrát je vysvobodil, ale oni se ze vzdoru bouřili a propadali se do své viny; 44on shlédl na jejich tíseň, když slyšel jejich volání. 45Rozpomenul se kvůli nim na svou smlouvu, pohnula jím jeho veliká láska; 46dopřál jim, že vzbudili soucit všech, kteří je drželi v zajetí. 47Zachraň nás, Jahve, náš Bože, shromáždi nás zprostřed pohanů, abychom vzdávali dík tvému svatému jménu, abychom se radovali ve tvé chvále. 48Buď veleben Jahve, Bůh Izraele, od věků až navěky! A všechen lid ať řekne: Amen!
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 1 This Psalm gives a detailed confession of the sins of Israel in all periods of their history, with special reference to the terms of the covenant as intimated (
Ps 105:45). It is introduced by praise to God for the wonders of His mercy, and concluded by a supplication for His favor to His afflicted people, and a doxology. (Psa. 106:1-48)
Praise, &c.--(See on
Ps 104:35), begins and ends the Psalm, intimating the obligations of praise, however we sin and suffer
1Chr 16:34-36 is the source from which the beginning and end of this Psalm are derived.
2 His acts exceed our comprehension, as His praise our powers of expression (
Rom 11:33). Their unutterable greatness is not to keep us back, but to urge us the more to try to praise Him as best we can (
Ps 40:5;
Ps 71:15).
3 The blessing is limited to those whose principles and acts are right. How "blessed" Israel would be now, if he had "observed God's statutes" (
Ps 105:45).
4 In view of the desert of sins to be confessed, the writer invokes God's covenant mercy to himself and the Church, in whose welfare he rejoices. The speaker, me, I, is not the Psalmist himself, but the people, the present generation (compare
Ps 106:6).
visit--(Compare
Ps 8:4).
5 see the good--participate in it (
Ps 37:13).
thy chosen--namely, Israel, God's elect (
Isa 43:20;
Isa 45:4). As God seems to have forgotten them, they pray that He would "remember" them with the favor which belongs to His own people, and which once they had enjoyed.
thine inheritance-- (
Deut 9:29;
Deut 32:9).
6 Compare
1Kgs 8:47;
Dan 9:5, where the same three verbs occur in the same order and connection, the original of the two later passages being the first one, the prayer of Solomon in dedicating the temple.
sinned . . . fathers--like them, and so partaking of their guilt. The terms denote a rising gradation of sinning (compare
Ps 1:1).
with our fathers--we and they together forming one mass of corruption.
7 Special confession. Their rebellion at the sea (
Exod 14:11) was because they had not remembered nor understood God's miracles on their behalf. That God saved them in their unbelief was of His mere mercy, and for His own glory.
the sea . . . the Red Sea--the very words in which Moses' song celebrated the scene of Israel's deliverance (
Exod 15:4). Israel began to rebel against God at the very moment and scene of its deliverance by God!
8 for his name's sake-- (
Ezek 20:14).
9 rebuked-- (
Ps 104:7).
as through the wilderness-- (
Isa 63:11-
Isa 63:14).
12 believed . . . his words--This is said not to praise the Israelites, but God, who constrained even so unbelieving a people momentarily to "believe" while in immediate view of His wonders, a faith which they immediately afterwards lost (
Ps 106:13;
Exod 14:31;
Exod 15:1).
13 The faith induced by God's display of power in their behalf was short lived, and their new rebellion and temptation was visited by God with fresh punishment, inflicted by leaving them to the result of their own gratified appetites, and sending on them spiritual poverty (
Num 11:18).
They soon forgat--literally, "They hasted, they forgat" (compare
Exod 32:8). "They have turned aside quickly (or, hastily) out of the way." The haste of our desires is such that we can scarcely allow God one day. Unless He immediately answers our call, instantly then arise impatience, and at length despair.
his works-- (
Deut 11:3-
Deut 11:4;
Dan 9:14).
his counsel--They waited not for the development of God's counsel, or plan for their deliverance, at His own time, and in His own way.
14 Literally, "lusted a lust" (quoted from
Num 11:4, Margin). Previously, there had been impatience as to necessaries of life; here it is lusting (
Ps 78:18).
15 but sent leanness--rather, "and sent," that is, and thus, even in doing so, the punishment was inflicted at the very time their request was granted. So
Ps 78:30, "While their meat was yet in their mouths, the wrath of God came upon them."
soul--the animal soul, which craves for food (
Num 11:6;
Ps 107:18). This soul got its wish, and with it and in it its own punishment. The place was therefore called Kibroth-hattaavah, "the graves of lust" [
Num 11:34], because there they buried the people who had lusted. Animal desires when gratified mostly give only a hungry craving for more (
Jer 2:13).
16 All the congregation took part with Dathan, Korah, &c., and their accomplices (
Num 16:41).
Aaron the saint--literally, "the holy one," as consecrated priest; not a moral attribute, but one designating his office as holy to the Lord. The rebellion was followed by a double punishment: (1) of the non-Levitical rebels, the Reubenites, Dathan and Abiram, &c. (
Deut 11:6;
Num 26:10); these were swallowed up by the earth.
17 covered--"closed upon them" (
Num 16:33). (2) Of the Levitical rebels, with Korah at their head (
Num 16:35;
Num 26:10); these had sinned by fire, and were punished by fire, as Aaron's (being high priest) sons had been (
Lev 10:2; Num. 16:1-35).
19 From indirect setting God at naught, they pass to direct.
made--though prohibited in
Exod 20:4-
Exod 20:5 to make a likeness, even of the true God.
calf--called so in contempt. They would have made an ox or bull, but their idol turned out but a calf; an imitation of the divine symbols, the cherubim; or of the sacred bull of Egyptian idolatry. The idolatry was more sinful in view of their recent experience of God's power in Egypt and His wonders at Sinai (
Exod 32:1-
Exod 32:6). Though intending to worship Jehovah under the symbol of the calf, yet as this was incompatible with His nature (
Deut 4:15-
Deut 4:17), they in reality gave up Him, and so were given up by Him. Instead of the Lord of heaven, they had as their glory the image of an ox that does nothing but eat grass.
23 he said--namely, to Moses (
Deut 9:13). With God, saying is as certain as doing; but His purpose, while full of wrath against sin, takes into account the mediation of Him of whom Moses was the type (
Exod 32:11-
Exod 32:14;
Deut 9:18-
Deut 9:19).
Moses his chosen--that is, to be His servant (compare
Ps 105:26).
in the breach--as a warrior covers with his body the broken part of a wall or fortress besieged, a perilous place (
Ezek 13:5;
Ezek 22:30).
to turn away--or, "prevent"
his wrath-- (
Num 25:11;
Ps 78:38).
24 The sin of refusing to invade Canaan, "the pleasant land" (
Jer 3:19;
Ezek 20:6;
Dan 8:9), "the land of beauty," was punished by the destruction of that generation (
Num 14:28), and the threat of dispersion (
Deut 4:25;
Deut 28:32) afterwards made to their posterity, and fulfilled in the great calamities now bewailed, may have also been then added.
despised-- (
Num 14:31).
believed not his word--by which He promised He would give them the land; but rather the word of the faithless spies (compare
Ps 78:22).
26 lifted up his hand--or, "swore," the usual form of swearing (compare
Num 14:30, Margin).
27 To overthrow--literally, "To make them fall"; alluding to the words (
Num 14:39).
among . . . nations . . . lands--The "wilderness" was not more destructive to the fathers (
Ps 106:26) than residence among the heathen ("nations") shall be to the children.
Lev 26:33,
Lev 26:38 is here, before the Psalmist's mind, the determination against the "seed" when rebellious, being not expressed in
Num 14:31-
Num 14:33, but implied in the determination against the fathers.
28 sacrifices of the dead--that is, of lifeless idols, contrasted with "the living God" (
Jer 10:3-
Jer 10:10; compare
Ps 115:4-
Ps 115:7;
1Cor 12:2). On the words,
joined themselves to Baal-peor--see
Num 25:2-
Num 25:3,
Num 25:5.
Baal-peor--that is, the possessor of Peor, the mountain on which Chemosh, the idol of Moab, was worshipped, and at the foot of which Israel at the time lay encamped (
Num 23:28). The name never occurs except in connection with that locality and that circumstance.
29 provoked--excited grief and indignation (
Ps 6:7;
Ps 78:58).
30 stood--as Aaron "stood between the living and the dead, and the plague was stayed" (
Num 16:48).
executed judgment--literally, "judged," including sentence and act.
31 counted . . . righteousness--"a just and rewardable action."
for--or, "unto," to the procuring of righteousness, as in
Rom 4:2;
Rom 10:4. Here it was a particular act, not faith, nor its object Christ; and what was procured was not justifying righteousness, or what was to be rewarded with eternal life; for no one act of man's can be taken for complete obedience. But it was that which God approved and rewarded with a perpetual priesthood to him and his descendants (
Num 25:13;
1Chr 6:4, &c.).
32 (Compare
Num 20:3-
Num 20:12;
Deut 1:37;
Deut 3:26).
went ill with--literally, "was bad for"
Moses--His conduct, though under great provocation, was punished by exclusion from Canaan.
34 They not only failed to expel the heathen, as God
commanded-- (
Exod 23:32-
Exod 23:33), literally, "said (they should)," but conformed to their idolatries [
Ps 106:36], and thus became spiritual adulterers (
Ps 73:27).
37 unto devils--Septuagint, "demons" (compare
1Cor 10:20), or "evil spirits."
38 polluted with blood--literally, "blood," or "murder" (
Ps 5:6;
Ps 26:9).
40 Those nations first seduced and then oppressed them (compare
Judg 1:34;
Judg 2:14;
Judg 3:30). Their apostasies ungratefully repaid God's many mercies till He finally abandoned them to punishment (
Lev 26:39).
44 If, as is probable, this Psalm was written at the time of the captivity, the writer now intimates the tokens of God's returning favor.
45 repented--(compare
Ps 90:13).
46 made . . . pitied-- (
1Kgs 8:50;
Dan 1:9). These tokens encourage the prayer and the promise of praise (
Ps 30:4), which is well closed by a doxology.
