23 And he said that he would destroy them, had not Moses, his chosen, stood before him in the breach, to turn away his fury, lest he should destroy [them].
And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the fence, and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found none.
Ye seed of Abraham his servant, ye sons of Jacob, his chosen ones.
But they rebelled against me, and would not hearken unto me: none of them cast away the abominations of his eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt. Then I thought to pour out my fury upon them, so as to accomplish mine anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt.
Confess therefore your offences to one another, and pray for one another, that ye may be healed. [The] fervent supplication of the righteous [man] has much power.
Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and have set you that ye should go and [that] ye should bear fruit, and [that] your fruit should abide, that whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name he may give you.
Behold my servant, whom I have chosen, my beloved, in whom my soul has found its delight. I will put my Spirit upon him, and he shall shew forth judgment to the nations.
But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness: they walked not in my statutes, and they rejected mine ordinances, which if a man do, he shall live by them; and my sabbaths they greatly profaned: and I said I would pour out my fury upon them in the wilderness, to consume them. But I wrought for my name's sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I had brought them out.
And now let me alone, that my anger may burn against them, and I may consume them; and I will make of thee a great nation. And Moses besought Jehovah his God, and said, Why, Jehovah, doth thy wrath burn against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a strong hand? Why should the Egyptians speak, and say, For misfortune he has brought them out, to slay them on the mountains, and to annihilate them from the face of the earth? Turn from the heat of thine anger, and repent of this evil against thy people! Remember Abraham, Isaac and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou sworest by thyself, and saidst to them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give to your seed, and they shall possess [it] for ever! And Jehovah repented of the evil that he had said he would do to his people.
Ye have not gone up into the breaches, nor made up the fence for the house of Israel, to stand in the battle in the day of Jehovah.
He sent Moses his servant, [and] Aaron whom he had chosen:
But I stood upon the mountain according to the former days, forty days and forty nights; and Jehovah listened unto me also at that time: Jehovah would not destroy thee.
And Jehovah spoke unto me, saying, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Let me alone, that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under heaven; and I will make of thee a nation mightier and greater than they.
And he spoke to Korah and to all his band, saying, Even to-morrow will Jehovah make known who is his, and who is holy; and he will cause him to come near to him; and him whom he has chosen, him will he cause to come near to him.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 106
Commentary on Psalms 106 Matthew Henry Commentary
Psalm 106
We must give glory to God by making confession, not only of his goodness but our own badness, which serve as foils to each other. Our badness makes his goodness appear the more illustrious, as his goodness makes our badness the more heinous and scandalous. The foregoing psalm was a history of God's goodness to Israel; this is a history of their rebellions and provocations, and yet it begins and ends with Hallelujah; for even sorrow for sin must not put us out of tune for praising God. Some think it was penned at the time of the captivity in Babylon and the dispersion of the Jewish nation thereupon, because of that prayer in the close (v. 47). I rather think it was penned by David at the same time with the foregoing psalm, because we find the first verse and the last two verses in that psalm which David delivered to Asaph, at the bringing up of the ark to the place he had prepared for it (1 Chr. 16:34-36), "Gather us from among the heathen;' for we may suppose that in Saul's time there was a great dispersion of pious Israelites, when David was forced to wander. In this psalm we have,
It may be of use to us to sing this psalm, that, being put in mind by it of our sins, the sins of our land, and the sins of our fathers, we may be humbled before God and yet not despair of mercy, which even rebellious Israel often found with God.
Psa 106:1-5
We are here taught,
Psa 106:6-12
Here begins a penitential confession of sin, which was in a special manner seasonable now that the church was in distress; for thus we must justify God in all that he brings upon us, acknowledging that therefore he has done right, because we have done wickedly; and the remembrance of former sins, notwithstanding which God did not cast off his people, is an encouragement to us to hope that, though we are justly corrected for our sins, yet we shall not be utterly abandoned.
Psa 106:13-33
This is an abridgment of the history of Israel's provocations in the wilderness, and of the wrath of God against them for those provocations: and this abridgment is abridged by the apostle, with application to us Christians (1 Co. 10:5, etc.); for these things were written for our admonition, that we sin not like them, lest we suffer like them.
Psa 106:34-48
Here,