Psalms 106:42

106:34-48 The conduct of the Israelites in Canaan, and God's dealings with them, show that the way of sin is down-hill; omissions make way for commissions: when they neglected to destroy the heathen, they learned their works. One sin led to many more, and brought the judgments of God on them. Their sin was, in part, their own punishment. Sinners often see themselves ruined by those who led them into evil. Satan, who is a tempter, will be a tormentor. At length, God showed pity to his people for his covenant's sake. The unchangeableness of God's merciful nature and love to his people, makes him change the course of justice into mercy; and no other change is meant by God's repentance. Our case is awful when the outward church is considered. When nations professing Christianity, are so guilty as we are, no wonder if the Lord brings them low for their sins. Unless there is general and deep repentance, there can be no prospect but of increasing calamities. The psalm concludes with prayer for completing the deliverance of God's people, and praise for the beginning and progress of it. May all the people of the earth, ere long, add their Amen.

Their enemies also oppressed them,.... By taxes, and taking the increase of their fields and sustenance, which often obliged them to cry for a deliverer, who upon this was sent to them; see Judges 2:9 . And they were brought into subjection under their hand; or were humbled under their hand, as the Targum; they were not only made to submit to their enemies, but they were humbled before the Lord; brought to a sense of their sins, and acknowledgment of them, when the Lord appeared for their deliverance, as follows.

The sins in Canaan: the failing to exterminate the idolatrous peoples and sharing in their idolatry. In Psalm 106:34 the poet appeals to the command, frequently enjoined upon them from Exodus 23:32 . onwards, to extirpate the inhabitants of Canaan. Since they did not execute this command (vid., Judges 1:1 ), that which it was intended to prevent came to pass: the heathen became to them a snare (mowqeesh), Exodus 23:33 ; Exodus 34:12 ; Deuteronomy 7:16 . They intermarried with them, and fell into the Canaanitish custom in which the abominations of heathenism culminate, viz., the human sacrifice, which Jahve abhorreth ( Deuteronomy 12:31 ), and only the demons (שׁדים, Deuteronomy 32:17 ) delight in. Thus then the land was defiled by blood-guiltiness (חנף, Numbers 35:33 , cf. Isaiah 24:5 ; Isaiah 26:21 ), and they themselves became unclean ( Ezekiel 20:43 ) by the whoredom of idolatry. In Psalm 106:40-43 the poet (as in Nehemiah 9:26 .) sketches the alternation of apostasy, captivity, redemption, and relapse which followed upon the possession of Canaan, and more especially that which characterized the period of the judges. God's "counsel" was to make Israel free and glorious, but they leaned upon themselves, following their own intentions (בּעצתם); wherefore they perished in their sins.

for in the Hebrew there is nothing but asher , w hich signifies only either whom or which . ## Psalms 106:35 Mingled in their habits and negotiations, as also in marriages. ## Psalms 106:36 Which idols were an occasion of their falling both into further and greater sins, as it follows, Psa_106:37 ,38 ; and into utter ruin, as this phrase also notes, Exo_23:33 Jud_2:12, &c. ## Psalms 106:37 Of which heathenish practice, See Poole " Lev_18:21 " . ## Unto devils; by which expression he informeth them that they did not worship God, as they pretended and sometimes designed, but devils in their idols; and that those spirits which were supposed by the heathen idolaters to inhabit in their images, and which they worshipped in them, were not gods or good spirits, as they imagined, but evil spirits or devils. See Lev_17:7 Deu_32:17 1Co_10:20 Rev_9:20. ## Psalms 106:38 Innocent blood; the blood of their children, who, though sinners before God, yet were innocent as to them, from any crime deserving such barbarous usage from them. Psalms 106:39 Committed spiritual whoredom, by worshipping those idols which were but human inventions, and that in such an unnatural and bloody manner, as they had devised. Psalms 106:40 No text from Poole on this verse. Psalms 106:41 No text from Poole on this verse. Psalms 106:42 No text from Poole on this verse. ## Psalms 106:43 Provoked him with their counsel, by forsaking God’s counsel and the way which he had appointed, and following after their own

6:14 To pass through the midst of it, to wit, without fear or danger, by comparing this with the next verse. Psalms 136:15 No text from Poole on this verse. ## Psalms 136:16 Through the wilderness; through that vast howling wilderness, where there was neither way nor provision; through which none but the Almighty God could have safely conducted them. Psalms 136:17 No text from Poole on this verse. Psalms 136:18 No text from Poole on this verse. Psalms 136:19 No text from Poole on this verse. Psalms 136:20 No text from Poole on this verse. Psalms 136:21 No text from Poole on this verse. ## Psalms 136:22 Israel his servant; he speaks of all that people as of one man, because they were united together in one body, in the worship of one and the same God. Thus God calleth them all his first-born , Exo_4:22. Psalms 136:23 No text from Poole on this verse. Psalms 136:24 No text from Poole on this verse. ## Psalms 136:25 To all flesh; either to all mankind, or to all living creatures. For which God deserves great praises, which the psalmist by his example teacheth us to render to God for them, because those who are most concerned either cannot or do not perform this duty. Psalms 136:26 No text from Poole on this verse. ## Psalms 137:1 PSALM 137 The penman of this Psalm is uncertain; the occasion of it was unquestionably the consideration of the Babylonish captivity; and it seems to have been composed either during the time of that captivity, or presently after their deliverance out of it.

(1) Good and bad men: Psalms 1, 5, 7, 9-12, 14, 15, 17, 24, 25, 32, 34, 36, 37, 50, 52, 53, 58, 73, 75, 84, 91, 92, 94, 112, 121, 125, 127, 128, 133; (2) God's law: Psalms 19, 119; (3) Human life vain: Psalms 39, 49, 90; (4) Duty of rulers: Psalms 82, 101. 2. Praise. (1) For God's goodness generally to Israel: Psalms 46, 48, 65, 66, 68, 76, 81, 85, 98, 105, 124, 126, 129, 135, 136, 149; (2) To good men, Psalms 23, 34, 36, 91, 100, 103, 107, 117, 121, 145, 146; (3) Mercies to individuals: Psalms 9, 18, 22, 30, 40, 75, 103, 108, 116, 118, 138, 144; (4) For His attributes generally: Psalms 8, 19, 24, 29, 33, 47, 50, 65, 66, 76, 77, 93, 95-97, 99, 104, 111, 113-115, 134, 139, 147, 148, 150. 3. Devotional—expressive of (1) Penitence: Psalms 6, 25, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143; (2) Trust in trouble: Psalms 3, 16, 27, 31, 54, 56, 57, 61, 62, 71, 86; (3) Sorrow with hope: Psalms 13, 22, 69, 77, 88; (4) Of deep distress: Psalms 4, 5, 11, 28, 41, 55, 59, 64, 70, 109, 120, 140, 141, 143; (5) Feelings when deprived of religious privileges: Psalms 42, 43, 63, 84; (6) Desire for help: Psalms 7, 17, 26, 35, 44, 60, 74, 79, 80, 83, 89, 94, 102, 129, 137; (7) Intercession: Psalms 20, 67, 122, 132, 144. 4. Historical. Psalms 78, 105, 106. 5. Prophetical. Psalms 2, 16, 22, 40, 45, 68, 69, 72, 97, 110, 118. Note. —The compiler of the following notes has omitted all references to authors, as needlessly encumbering the commentary.