Psalms 106:25

106:13-33 Those that will not wait for God's counsel, shall justly be given up to their own hearts' lusts, to walk in their own counsels. An undue desire, even for lawful things, becomes sinful. God showed his displeasure for this. He filled them with uneasiness of mind, terror of conscience, and self-reproach. Many that fare deliciously every day, and whose bodies are healthful, have leanness in their souls: no love to God, no thankfulness, no appetite for the Bread of life, and then the soul must be lean. Those wretchedly forget themselves, that feast their bodies and starve their souls. Even the true believer will see abundant cause to say, It is of the Lord's mercies that I am not consumed. Often have we set up idols in our hearts, cleaved to some forbidden object; so that if a greater than Moses had not stood to turn away the anger of the Lord, we should have been destroyed. If God dealt severely with Moses for unadvised words, what do those deserve who speak many proud and wicked words? It is just in God to remove those relations that are blessings to us, when we are peevish and provoking to them, and grieve their spirits.

But murmured in their tents,.... Throughout their tents; the murmuring was general; they murmured often; but what is here referred to seems to be their murmuring upon the report of the spies, Numbers 14:2 . To murmur against God and his providence is a very great evil; and which generally proceeds on one or other of these two things; either because men have not so much of the good things of this world as others have; or because they endure more afflictions, and so are ready to charge the ways of God with inequality; not considering that God is a Sovereign, and may do with his own what he pleases; and that they are deserving of nothing at his hands; and that their punishment or chastisement is less than their sins deserve. And hearkened not unto the voice of the Lord; to go up and possess the land; they disbelieved his word, and were disobedient to his command. The use the apostle makes of this, see Hebrews 3:7, and of their other provocations, of their lust, idolatry, fornication, tempting of God, and murmuring against him, see 1 Corinthians 10:6.

Verse 25. - But murmured in their tents. The "murmuring" intended is undoubtedly that mentioned in Numbers 14:1-4 . The phraseology employed is from Deuteronomy 1:27 . And hearkened not unto the voice of the Lord; i.e. hearkened not to the many promises which God had made to drive out the Canaanitish nations before them ( Exodus 3:17 ; Exodus 6:8 ; Exodus 15:15-17 , etc.). Psalm 106:25

24-27. The sin of refusing to invade Canaan, "the pleasant land" (Jer 3:19; Eze 20:6; Da 8:9), "the land of beauty," was punished by the destruction of that generation (Nu 14:28), and the threat of dispersion (De 4:25; 28:32) afterwards made to their posterity, and fulfilled in the great calamities now bewailed, may have also been then added. despised—(Nu 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).

But murmured in their tents ... - Numbers 14:2 , Numbers 14:27 . They complained of Moses; they complained of their food; they complained of the hardships of their journey; they complained of God. They did this when "in their tents;" when they had a comfortable home; when safe; when provided for; when under the direct divine protection and care. So people often complain: perhaps oftener when they have "many" comforts than when they have "few."

The fact to which the poet refers in Psalm 106:24 , viz., the rebellion in consequence of the report of the spies, which he brings forward as the fourth principal sin, is narrated in Numbers 13 , Numbers 14 . The appellation ארץ חמדּה is also found in Jeremiah 3:19 ; Zechariah 7:14 . As to the rest, the expression is altogether Pentateuchal. "They despised the land," after Numbers 14:31 ; "they murmured in their tents," after Deuteronomy 1:27 ; "to lift up the land" equals to swear, after Exodus 6:8 ; Deuteronomy 32:40 ; the threat להפּיל, to make them fall down, fall away, after Numbers 14:29 , Numbers 14:32 . The threat of exile is founded upon the two great threatening chapters, Leviticus 26 ; Deuteronomy 28:1 ; cf. more particularly Leviticus 26:33 (together with the echoes in Ezekiel 5:12 ; Ezekiel 12:14 , etc.), Deuteronomy 28:64 (together with the echoes in Jeremiah 9:15 ; Ezekiel 22:15 , etc.). Ezekiel 20:23 stands in a not accidental relationship to Psalm 106:26 .; and according to that passage, וּלהפיל is an error of the copyist for וּלהפיץ (Hitzig). Now follows in Psalm 106:28-31 the fifth of the principal sins, viz., the taking part in the Moabitish worship of Baal. The verb נצמד (to be bound or chained), taken from Numbers 25:3, Numbers 25:5, points to the prostitution with which Baal Per, this Moabitish Priapus, was worshipped.

The sacrificial feastings in which, according to Numbers 25:2, they took part, are called eating the sacrifices of the dead, because the idols are dead beings (nekroi', Wisd. 13:10-18) as opposed to God, the living One. The catena on Revelation 2:14 correctly interprets: τὰ τοῖς εἰδώλοις τελεσθέντα κρέα. (Note: In the second section of Aboda zara, on the words of the Mishna: "The flesh which is intended to be offered first of all to idols is allowed, but that which comes out of the temple is forbidden, because it is like sacrifices of the dead," it is observed, fol. 32b: "Whence, said R. Jehuda ben Bethra, do I know that that which is offered to idols (תקרובת לעבדה זרה) pollutes like a dead body? From Psalm 106:28. As the dead body pollutes everything that is under the same roof with it, so also does everything that is offered to idols." The Apostle Paul declares the objectivity of this pollution to be vain, cf. more particularly 1 Corinthians 10:28.) The object of "they made angry" is omitted; the author is fond of this, cf. Psalm 106:7 and Psalm 106:32. The expression in Psalm 106:29 is like Exodus 19:24. The verb עמד is chosen with reference to Numbers 17:13. The result is expressed in Psalm 106:30 after Numbers 25:8, Numbers 25:18., Numbers 17:13. With פּלּל, to adjust, to judge adjustingly (lxx, Vulgate, correctly according to the sense, ἐξιλάσατο), the poet associates the thought of the satisfaction due to divine right, which Phinehas executed with the javelin.