I. (106:1–3) Praise to the Lord for His Mighty Deeds. The psalm begins in a way reminiscent of Psalm 105, calling the people to “give thanks” and to reflect on his “mighty deeds.” (The words of 106:1 are similar to 107:1; 118:1, 29; 136:1; cf. 100:5.)

Psalm 106:3 offers a description of covenant faithfulness for the members of Israel: to “observe justice” and “do righteousness at all times.” There is not likely much difference between these two expressions; they both concern faithful adherence to God’s will in what we would call personal, social, and religious life. Hence verse 3 reminds the singing congregation that they must authentically take hold of God’s grace (cf. 1 John 2:29; 3:7; Rev. 22:11)—an authenticity absent in most of what follows.

II. (106:4–5) Request to Share in the Future of God’s People. A crucial principle of biblical faith is that the story of God’s people is going somewhere; in the OT it is primarily to the time in which God so blesses his people with godliness that the Gentiles are drawn into the light. This section looks to that future (“when you show favor to your people”), or perhaps to a nearer-term foreshadowing (cf. “save”; v. 47). True piety seeks to participate in the gladness of God’s nation and recognizes that, for this to occur, covenant authenticity, along with personal forgiveness, is required (v. 3).

Verses 4–5 use four terms for Israel: “your people,” “your chosen ones,” “your nation,” and “your inheritance.” These all stress the unique position the people enjoy and also God’s commitment to them (and through them to the world).

III.A. (106:6) Theme: Both We and Our Fathers Have Sinned. This verse is the theme and focus of the whole list of incidents. The sins, iniquity, and wickedness described here are the kind that express the unfaithful hearts of the members of Israel. It is entirely possible that the penitent generation singing this psalm has not committed the kinds of unfaithfulness that brought about its exile (v. 47), and yet the psalm presents the current generation as having been present in its representatives, its ancestors, and thus incorporates the current generation in its ancestors’ sin (cf. the use of “we” and “you” in Deut. 1:20; cf. also similar prayers of confession, Dan. 9:4–19; Ezra 9:6–15; Neh. 1:5–11, all expressing multigenerational solidarity in wrongdoing). The words “We . . . have sinned” derive from Solomon’s prayer (1 Kings 8:47).

III.B. (106:7–12) At the Shore of the Red Sea. The first incident is from the shore of the Red Sea (Ex. 14:10–31), when the people of Israel who had followed Moses saw the pursuing army of Egypt. To say that they “did not consider [God’s] wondrous works” but “rebelled” is to indicate that their reaction was more than justifiable fear of the Egyptians—it was evidence of unbelieving hearts. The phrase “abundance of your steadfast love” (cf. Ps. 106:45) reminds us of Exodus 34:6; that Israel “did not remember” it at the Red Sea suggests that the revelation to Moses in Exodus 34 should not be seen as entirely new information for Israel.

Nevertheless the Lord “saved them for his name’s sake,” namely, “that he might make known his mighty power” (both to Israel, Ex. 6:7, and to the nations, Ex. 14:18). The terms “saved” and “redeemed” (Ps. 106:10) come from Exodus (Ex. 14:30; 15:13) and speak of the great deeds God has done to rescue his people as a whole and to bring about the conditions in which their piety may flourish. As a result, “they believed his words” (cf. Ex. 14:31) and “sang his praise” (cf. Ex. 15:1). The Lord “rebuked” the Red Sea waters; as with 104:7, this should not be taken to imply that the waters are a force hostile to God. Rather, in doing what they would otherwise do, the waters do not allow human beings to flourish.

III.C. (106:13–15) The Wanton Craving. Sadly, the people of Israel “soon forgot [God’s] works”; they descended back into unfaithfulness (cf. 106:7), such that they “put God to the test in the desert” (a hideous sin; Num. 14:22). The specific incident in view is not the very next event in Exodus; the term “wanton craving” points to Numbers 11:4, 31–35, at Kibroth-hattaavah (“the Graves of Craving”). The “wasting disease” of Psalm 106:15 is called a “very great plague” (Num. 11:33) that killed many Israelites, indicating God’s disapproval of the unbelief behind the asking.

III.D. (106:16–18) The Rebellion of Dathan and Abiram. The next event is the rebellion led by Dathan and Abiram (Num. 16:1–40), who apparently enlisted the Levite Korah as their chief spokesman. Korah spoke against Moses and Aaron; the specific question he raised regarded whether Aaron was “holy” in a way distinct from the holiness of the whole congregation. Because these people were “jealous,” they rebelled against God’s appointed spokesman, Moses. Such a situation is intolerable, since Dathan, Abiram, and Korah were among the leaders of God’s people. Thus God brought a dramatic judgment upon them: “The earth opened and swallowed up” the tents of the conspirators, and “fire also broke out” and slew those who had dared to violate the priestly requirements (Num. 16:31–35), called “the wicked” here. Neither the psalm nor Numbers gives any hope that people came to believe as a result.

III.E. (106:19–23) The Golden Calf. The psalm moves on to the “calf in Horeb,” the “metal image,” the “golden calf” (Ex. 32:1–14). The reason why they committed this horror was, at bottom, unfaithfulness: “They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt” (cf. Ps. 106:7, 13). This captures the force of the Exodus account, in which the people grew impatient as they awaited Moses’ return from the mountain. To “forget” in the Bible refers commonly to willful ignoring, not merely to the purely cognitive act of memory failure.

Verse 20 describes their evil as they “exchanged the glory of God.” The Hebrew is “exchanged their glory” (cf. ESV mg.). The idea would be “the glory that was given to them in the Lord’s sanctuary.”664

Moses “stood in the breach before” God, an image taken from risking one’s own life to close up a gap in a wall (cf. Ezek. 13:5; Neh. 6:1), “to turn away [God’s] wrath from destroying” the Israelites. That is, Moses earnestly interceded for them, reminding God of his promises and reputation (Ex. 32:11–14).

III.F. (106:24–27) Refusal to Enter the Land. The sad list now moves to what transpired when the twelve spies returned from their mission to scout out the land God had promised (Num. 13:32–14:38): ten of them gave a “bad report,” which led Israel to give in to fear. As a result, they “despised the pleasant land, having no faith in his promise”; they refused God’s command to enter the land and conquer it. The psalm follows the Mosaic account in attributing the basic problem to unbelief (cf. Num. 14:11). This is a major turning point in the Pentateuch storyline: a generation must now “fall in this wilderness” (Num. 14:32; cf. Ps. 95:11). Israel must wander for another thirty-eight years, with the children taking on the task of conquest. This section closes with an ominous foreshadowing of the singers’ current situation: just as God made the Israelites to fall in the wilderness, so would he “make their offspring fall among the nations, scattering them among the lands” (cf. 106:27), borrowing words from the Pentateuch (Lev. 26:33).

III.G. (106:28–31) Yoked to Baal of Peor. Next is the time when the Israelites “yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor” (Num. 25:1–15). The “sacrifices offered to the dead” were apparently given to the lifeless gods of the Moabites; since the Pentateuch account influences the wording here, this is the simplest reading (Num. 25:2).665 These led to other kinds of immorality as well, which would have corrupted the people of God and ruined their ability to carry out their calling in the world (Num. 25:1, 6). It took the prompt and drastic action of Phineas to stay the “plague” that “broke out among” the Israelites as a result of God’s anger (Num. 25:8–9, 18; 31:16).666 This deed was “counted to him as righteousness”; that is, God considered it a deed of covenant faithfulness,667 which led to his family’s holding the priesthood “from generation to generation forever” (Num. 25:13), as other passages attest (Josh. 22:13, 30–33; Judg. 20:28; 1 Chron. 6:4–15).

III.H. (106:32–33) At the Waters of Meribah. The final specific incident took place “at the waters of Meribah,” where the people complained about lack of water and accused Moses of bringing them out of Egypt, apparently forgetting that he had acted throughout as God’s spokesman (Num. 20:2–13). This unbelief led Moses to speak “rashly”—that is, to become careless about acting by faith (cf. Lev. 5:4; Prov. 12:18)—and thus to lose his right to enter the Promised Land. The Pentateuch account does not explain in what sense Moses failed to uphold the Lord as holy before the people of Israel (Num. 20:12); the psalm suggests that it was in the form of his speech, either in denouncing the people as rebels or in saying that “we” shall bring water, placing himself alongside God (Num. 20:10).668

As before, the exact sequence in the Pentateuch does not determine the psalm’s sequence of presentation.

III.I. (106:34–46) The Pattern in Judges. This description in this section is unlike those in the previous episodes: here the psalm refers not to a specific event but to the recurring pattern found in Judges 2:11–3:6, in which the people of Israel “did not destroy the peoples” in Canaan (disobeying what “the Lord commanded them”) but instead “mixed with the nations” (esp. via intermarriage; Judg. 3:6; cf. Ezra 9:2) and “learned to do as they did” (Ps. 106:35).

This idol worship led to the unspeakable practice of child sacrifice (vv. 36–39), a hideous moral outrage that attacks the very heart of God’s covenant with his people (Gen. 17:7; cf. Ps. 103:17–18) and of what it means to be human (Gen. 1:28). Hence the “anger of the Lord was kindled against his people,” and “he gave them into the hand of the nations” (Ps. 106:40–41; cf. Judg. 2:14). The stunning thing about the period of the judges is the two-sided reality that “many times he delivered them” while yet “they were rebellious in their purposes” (Ps. 106:43). “Nevertheless, [God] looked upon their distress” (v. 44) and kept coming to their aid. The expressions “remembered his covenant” and “abundance of his steadfast love” (v. 45, a reference to Ex. 34:6) look back to Psalm 106:7 and put the faithful Lord in stark contrast with the unfaithful people. In keeping with Solomon’s prayer (1 Kings 8:50), God caused his repentant people “to be pitied by all those who held them captive” (Ps. 106:46), and he restored them.

IV. (106:47–48) Concluding Prayer That God Will Save His People. The previous sad recital establishes clearly that nothing is more certain than God’s continuing commitment to his people as a body, so that when the members come to their senses and repent, they may appeal to God to “save” them and “gather [them] from among the nations” (cf. Deut. 30:3, which envisions such a corporate repentance and restoration). He will do so when they share his goal for them: “That we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise.”

The doxology in verse 48 closes Book 4 of the Psalms (cf. comment on 41:13). Unlike those that close Books 1–3, this doxology certainly belongs to its psalm, as the final words (“Praise the Lord!”; Hb. hallelu-yah) echo the opening phrase of 106:1 and provide an envelope enclosing the psalm as a whole. In view of what this list of events establishes about God’s faithfulness, “blessed be the Lord” indeed, and “all the people” may well say, and should indeed say, “Amen!”

I. (107:1–3) Let the Redeemed of the Lord Give Him Thanks. The opening section states the purpose of the psalm, to call the congregation to give thanks to the Lord, and the theme, “his steadfast love endures forever” (v. 1; cf. 106:1). The specific reason is that God has “redeemed” his people—that is, rescued them from their “trouble”—and “gathered [them] in from the lands” (from exile; cf. Deut. 30:3; Ps. 106:47).

The term “redeem” (107:2 [2x]) has previously been used for God’s delivering his people from Egypt (cf. Ex. 15:13; Pss. 74:2; 77:15; 106:10). Thus the psalm invites the worshipers to view the return from exile as if it were a second exodus. The mention of the four points of the compass in 107:3 suggests the ways in which the people had been scattered (for a similar description of the return from exile cf. Isa. 43:5–6).670

II. (107:4–9) First Group: Those Who Wandered in Barren Places. This is the first group of those banished from the land as a result of the exile. Some of the exiles “wandered in desert wastes”; the psalm likens these waste places to the Sinai desert (cf. Deut. 32:10; Ps. 106:14). Their wandering meant their “finding no way to a city to dwell in.” Their proper home was the Promised Land, but God had sent them away. So the exile is likened to the wilderness experience of Israel.

Nevertheless, when “they cried to the Lord in their trouble,” God “delivered them,” bringing them to a “city to dwell in” (107:7, which answers v. 4); the trouble (cf. v. 2) would be the yearning for return to the land. The proper response is for them to “thank the Lord for his steadfast love.” The Lord has done “wondrous works” for his people in the past (105:2, 5; 106:7, 22), and the restoration of the remnant of Judah to Jerusalem after exile is a crowning achievement. Even as this applies to the whole community, God also “satisfies . . . the hungry soul,” the particular members of the restored community who recognize his grace in their own lives.

III. (107:10–16) Second Group: Those Who Sat in Darkness. The next group of exiles “sat in darkness and in the shadow of death” (v. 10). The term “prisoners” indicates that these people suffered as captives and forced laborers (“hard labor”; v. 12) because “they had rebelled against the words of God” (78:8, 17, 40, 56; 105:28; 106:7, 32–33, 43). The focus here—as is usual in historical recitations in the Bible—lies upon the corporate life of Israel, which God had intended to reflect his own character.

Even though the people rejected God’s covenant by their rebellion, God still heard them when “they cried to the Lord in their trouble,” and “he brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death” (107:14, answering v. 10), setting them free from captivity and exile. They too should thank the Lord for his steadfast love.

IV. (107:17–22) Third Group: Those Who Suffered for Their Own Folly. Some of the exiles were “fools through their sinful ways”; their own folly (the stupidity that results from turning away from God) brought on their “affliction,” so that “they loathed any kind of food.” The impoverished life of the exile in foreign lands is here portrayed as dreary.

Nevertheless, God heard and relieved them when “they cried to the Lord in their trouble.” In context, the healing (v. 20) is not simply relief of bodily ailments (v. 18) but also their return to the Promised Land. These people should thank the Lord, specifically with sacrifices of thanksgiving (cf. comment on 50:7–15; cf. also 116:17), using “songs of joy” in their worship to “tell of [God’s] deeds.”

V. (107:23–32) Fourth Group: Those Who Went Down to the Sea in Ships. The description of the fourth group envisions sailors and merchants caught in a storm. If these are exiles, they are sailing in the service of a foreign king—Israelites rarely went to sea on their own. Verses 25–27 offer a vivid picture of being on the deck of an ancient oceangoing vessel amid a furious sea, vivid enough to give some a feeling of seasickness. Israelites, both the sailors and those in the congregation, would be glad for solid land. This vividness, together with the other sections of the psalm, provides a good reason to take this as describing a physical experience of some Israelites rather than as presenting a metaphor for the unsettling exile.

As the storm increased in its fury, threatening the Israelites with shipwreck and drowning, “they cried to the Lord in their trouble,” and God “made the storm be still.” These people should thank the Lord for his steadfast love; they have returned to the stable Promised Land, where they can extol God in the great congregation.

VI. (107:33–42) The Lord Vindicates Himself through Reversals. This section moves on to reflect more generally on the reversals God accomplishes in order to display his own righteousness. God may take a pleasant and prosperous land and turn it into a waste, if the “evil of its inhabitants” calls for it (vv. 33–34), and he may reverse this judgment and make the land fruitful and pleasant again in his mercy to “the hungry” (vv. 35–38). The words “blessing” and “multiply” (v. 38) echo the creation account (Gen. 1:28); Israel’s purpose in its land was to show forth the image of God, true humanness under God’s rule. That is, the psalm is here dealing especially with Israel and its life in the land, much more than with God’s general dealings with the rest of humankind.

Psalm 107:39–41 looks at this from another angle. When the people are “diminished and brought low,” God can humble their oppressors and raise up “the needy.” This psalm celebrates how God has fulfilled this pattern in restoring Judah after the exile. The “upright” (here the faithful among God’s people) “see it and are glad,” because God has vindicated his faithfulness to his people. And “all wickedness”—whatever repudiates God’s gracious covenant, whether on the part of the unfaithful in Israel or on that of Gentile oppressors—“shuts its mouth” for the same reason.

VII. (107:43) Let the Wise Attend to These Things. The final verse closes by inviting “whoever is wise”—anyone who genuinely seeks to be skillful in godly living (cf. Proverbs)—to “attend to these things,” specifically, to the many ways in which God has displayed his steadfast love in preserving his people through their justly deserved exile and in marvelously returning them to the land. Such a meditative singing will serve to increase each worshiper’s wisdom.