_A.M. 2962. B.C. 1042._ The foregoing Psalm was a history of God's goodness to Israel: this is a history of their provocations and rebellions against him. Poole, Mudge, and some other commentators, infer from the prayer in Psalms 106:47, that it was composed in the time of the Israelites' captivity... [ Continue Reading ]
_Praise ye the Lord_, &c. He deserves our praises, notwithstanding all our sufferings, which are not to be imputed to him, for he is gracious and merciful, but only to our own sins. _Who can show forth all his praise?_ That is, his praiseworthy actions: “who is sufficient for a work which demands th... [ Continue Reading ]
_Remember me, O Lord_, &c. Or, _us:_ for he may be considered as praying, either for himself, or for the church of God among the Israelites, that they, with himself, might partake of the blessedness here spoken of. _With the favour that thou bearest unto thy people_ With those favours and blessings... [ Continue Reading ]
_We have sinned with our fathers_ That is, as our fathers did, and have not been made wiser or better by their examples, as we ought to have been. _Our fathers understood not_ Or, _considered not; thy wonders in Egypt_ Namely, so as to be rightly affected with them, and to receive from them the inst... [ Continue Reading ]
_Nevertheless, he saved them for his name's sake_ That he might glorify his name, and vindicate it from the blasphemous reproaches which the Egyptians and others would have cast upon it if the Israelites had been destroyed. _He rebuked the sea also_ For standing in their way, and retarding their mar... [ Continue Reading ]
_They soon forgat his works_ Even within three days, Exodus 15:22, and lost the impressions those works had made upon them. They that do not improve God's mercies to them, nor endeavour, in some measure, to render to him according to the benefits done unto them, do indeed forget them. Hebrew, מהרו ש... [ Continue Reading ]
_They envied Moses also_ His authority; _in the camp_ As generalissimo of the armies of Israel, and chief justice in all their courts; _and Aaron_ They envied him his power, as _high-priest_, on account of his consecration to which office he is here termed _the saint of the Lord_, and not on account... [ Continue Reading ]
_They made a calf in Horeb_ When they were but very lately brought out of Egypt, by such wonderful power and goodness of God, and had seen the dreadful plagues of God upon the Egyptian idolaters, and upon their idols too, as is observed Numbers 33:4; and when the law of God was but newly delivered t... [ Continue Reading ]
_They despised the pleasant land_ Canaan, which was so, not only in truth, but even by the relation of those spies, who discouraged them from entering into it. They preferred Egypt and their former bondage before it, Numbers 14:3, and did not think it deserving of a little hazard and difficulty in t... [ Continue Reading ]
_They joined themselves also unto Baal-peor_ To wit, in worship, whereby they had a union and communion with him, as God's people have with God in acts of his worship. _And ate the sacrifices of the dead_ Which were offered to idols, which he calls _dead_, in opposition to the true and living God, a... [ Continue Reading ]
_And that was counted to him for righteousness_ And although that action of his might seem rash, severe, and irregular, as being done by a private person, and a priest, and allowing the delinquents no space for repentance, it was nevertheless accepted and rewarded by God as an act of justice and pie... [ Continue Reading ]
_They angered him also at the waters of strife_ Of which see Numbers 20:3. _It went ill with Moses for their sakes_ Or, _because of them_, upon occasion of their unbelief and murmuring, whereby he was provoked to speak unadvisedly, as it here follows. For though he was the meekest of all the men on... [ Continue Reading ]
_They did not destroy the nations, concerning whom_ Concerning whose destruction, _the Lord commanded them_ For when the iniquity of the Canaanites was full, it was God's will to extirpate their race, and Israel was commissioned to execute upon them the vengeance determined. _But were mingled among... [ Continue Reading ]
_Many times did he deliver them_ This seems to refer to the times of the judges; when God, many times, raised up deliverers, and wrought deliverances for them; and yet they relapsed to idolatry. _They provoked him with their counsel_ By forsaking God's counsel, and the way which he had appointed, an... [ Continue Reading ]
_Save us, O Lord our God_ O thou, who hast so often pardoned and saved us, notwithstanding our former and manifold provocations, be thou pleased again to interpose and deliver us, how unworthy soever we may be, from all our present enemies. _Gather us from the heathen_ Restore into their own country... [ Continue Reading ]