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Commentary on Psalms 106 verses 34–48
Here, I. The narrative concludes with an account of Israel's conduct in Canaan, which was of a piece with that in the wilderness, and God's dealings with them, wherein, as all along, both justice and mercy appeared.
1.They were very provoking to God. The miracles and mercies which settled them in Canaan made no more deep and durable impressions upon them than those which fetched them out of Egypt; for by the time they were just settled in Canaan they corrupted themselves, and forsook God. Observe,
(1.)The steps of their apostasy. [1.] They spared the nations which God had doomed to destruction (Psa 106:34); when they had got the good land God had promised them they had no zeal against the wicked inhabitants whom the Lord commanded them to extirpate, pretending pity; but so merciful is God that no man needs to be in any case more compassionate than he. [2.] When they spared them they promised themselves that, notwithstanding this, they would not join in any dangerous affinity with them. But the way of sin is down-hill; omissions make way for commissions; when they neglect to destroy the heathen the next news we hear is, They were mingled among the heathen, made leagues with them and contracted an intimacy with them, so that they learned their works, Psa 106:35. That which is rotten will sooner corrupt that which is sound than be cured or made sound by it. [3.] When they mingled with them, and learned some of their works that seemed innocent diversions and entertainments, yet they thought they would never join with them in their worship; but by degrees they learned that too (Psa 106:36): They served their idols in the same manner, and with the same rites, that they served them; and they became a snare to them. That sin drew on many more, and brought the judgments of God upon them, which they themselves could not but be sensible of and yet knew not how to recover themselves. [4.] When they joined with them in some of their idolatrous services, which they thought had least harm in them, they little thought that ever they should be guilty of that barbarous and inhuman piece of idolatry the sacrificing of their living children to their dead gods; but they came to that at last (Psa 106:37, Psa 106:38), in which Satan triumphed over his worshippers, and regaled himself in blood and slaughter: They sacrificed their sons and daughters, pieces of themselves, to devils, and added murder, the most unnatural murder, to their idolatry; one cannot think of it without horror. They shed innocent blood, the most innocent, for it was infant-blood, nay, it was the blood of their sons and their daughters. See the power of the spirit that works in the children of disobedience, and see his malice. The beginning of idolatry and superstition, like that of strife, is as the letting forth of water, and there is no villany which those that venture upon it can be sure they shall stop short of, for God justly gives them up to a reprobate mind, Rom 1:28.
(2.)Their sin was, in part, their own punishment; for by it, [1.] They wronged their country: The land was polluted with blood, Psa 106:38. That pleasant land, that holy land, was rendered uncomfortable to themselves, and unfit to receive those kind tokens of God's favour and presence in it which were designed to be its honour. [2.] They wronged their consciences (Psa 106:39): They went a whoring with their own inventions, and so debauched their own minds, and were defiled with their own works, and rendered odious in the eyes of the holy God, and perhaps of their own consciences.
2.God brought his judgments upon them; and what else could be expected? For his name is Jealous, and he is a jealous God. (1.) He fell out with them for it, Psa 106:40. He was angry with them: The wrath of God, that consuming fire, was kindled against his people; for from them he took it as more insulting and ungrateful than from the heathen that never knew him. Nay, he was sick of them: He abhorred his own inheritance, which once he had taken pleasure in; yet the change was not in him, but in them. This is the worst thing in sin, that it makes us loathsome to God; and the nearer any are to God in profession the more loathsome are they if they rebel against him, like a dunghill at our door. (2.) Their enemies then fell upon them, and, their defence having departed, made an easy prey of them (Psa 106:41, Psa 106:42): He gave them into the hands of the heathen. Observe here how the punishment answered to the sin: They mingled with the heathen and learned their works; from them they willingly took the infection of sin, and therefore God justly made use of them as the instruments of their correction. Sinners often see themselves ruined by those by whom they have suffered themselves to be debauched. Satan, who is a tempter, will be a tormentor. The heathen hated them. Apostates lose all the love on God's side, and get none on Satan's; and when those that hated them ruled over them, and they were brought into subjection under them, no marvel that they oppressed them and ruled them with rigour; and thus God made them know the difference between his service and the service of the kings of the countries, Ch2 12:8. (3.) When God granted them some relief, yet they went on in their sins, and their troubles also were continued, Psa 106:43. This refers to the days of the Judges, when God often raised up deliverers and wrought deliverances for them, and yet they relapsed to idolatry and provoked God with their counsel, their idolatrous inventions, to deliver them up to some other oppressor, so that at last they were brought very low for their iniquity. Those that by sin disparage themselves, and will not by repentance humble themselves, are justly debased, and humbled, and brought low, by the judgments of God. (4.) At length they cried unto God, and God returned in favour to them, Psa 106:44-46. They were chastened for their sins, but not destroyed, cast down, but not cast off. God appeared for them, [1.] As a God of mercy, who looked upon their grievances, regarded their affliction, beheld when distress was upon them (so some), who looked over their complaints, for he heard their cry with tender compassion (Exo 3:7) and overlooked their provocations; for though he had said, and had reason to say it, that he would destroy them, yet he repented, according to the multitude of his mercies, and reversed the sentence. Though he is not a man that he should repent, so as to change his mind, yet he is a gracious God, who pities us, and changes his way. [2.] As a God of truth, who remembered for them his covenant, and made good every word that he had spoken; and therefore, bad as they were, he would not break with them, because he would not break his own promise. [3.] As a God of power, who has all hearts in his hand, and turns them which way soever he pleases. He made them to be pitied even of those that carried them captives, and hated them, and ruled them with rigour. He not only restrained the remainder of their enemies' wrath, that it should not utterly consume them, but he infused compassion even into their stony hearts, and made them relent, which was more than any art of man could have done with the utmost force of rhetoric. Note, God can change lions into lambs, and, when a man's ways please the Lord, will make even his enemies to pity him and be at peace with him. When God pities men shall. Tranquillus Deus tranquillat omnia - A God at peace with us makes every thing at peace.
II. The psalm concludes with prayer and praise. 1. Prayer for the completing of his people's deliverance. Even when the Lord brought back the captivity of his people still there was occasion to pray, Lord, turn again our captivity (Psa 126:1, Psa 126:4); so here (Psa 106:47), Save us, O Lord our God! and gather us from among the heathen. We may suppose that many who were forced into foreign countries, in the times of the Judges (as Naomi was, Rut 1:1), had not returned in the beginning of David's reign, Saul's time being discouraging, and therefore it was seasonable to pray, Lord, gather the dispersed Israelites from among the heathen, to give thanks to thy holy name, not only that they may have cause to give thanks and hearts to give thanks, that they may have opportunity to do it in the courts of the Lord's house, from which they were now banished, and so may triumph in thy praise, over those that had in scorn challenged them to sing the Lord's song in a strange land. 2. Praise for the beginning and progress of it (Psa 106:48): Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting. He is a blessed God from eternity, and will be so to eternity, and so let him be praised by all his worshippers. Let the priests say this, and then let all the people say, Amen, Hallelujah, in token of their cheerful concurrence in all these prayers, praises, and confessions. According to this rubric, or directory, we find that when this psalm (or at least the closing verses of it) was sung all the people said Amen, and praised the Lord by saying, Hallelujah. By these two comprehensive words it is very proper, in religious assemblies, to testify their joining with their ministers in the prayers and praises which, as their mouth, they offer up to God, according to his will, saying Amen to the prayers and Hallelujah to the praises.
But they of whose iniquities this Psalm speaks, when they had entered into that temporal land of promise, "destroyed not the heathen, which the Lord commanded them" [Psalm 106:34]; "but were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works" [Psalm 106:35]. "Insomuch that they worshipped their idols, which became to them an offense" [Psalm 106:36]. Their not destroying them, but mingling with them, became to them an offense.
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SUMMARY
Psalms 106:34 encapsulates a profound moment of Israel's historical failure, vividly illustrating their direct and consequential disobedience to the Lord's explicit command to utterly dispossess the pagan nations inhabiting the Promised Land. This pivotal verse, embedded within a psalm that meticulously chronicles Israel's cyclical rebellion and God's enduring covenant faithfulness, serves as a stark and enduring reminder of the devastating spiritual and national consequences that inevitably arise from spiritual compromise and partial obedience, thereby setting the stage for centuries of idolatry, moral decay, and subsequent suffering within the nation.
CONTEXT
Literary Context: Psalms 106 functions as a historical psalm, a communal lament and confession of sin that meticulously recounts the extended narrative of Israel's unfaithfulness, spanning from their miraculous deliverance at the Exodus through their wilderness wanderings and entry into Canaan, culminating in the Babylonian exile. It serves as a poetic synthesis of historical accounts found in books such as Exodus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Judges. Verse 34 specifically harks back to the critical period immediately following Israel's initial entry into Canaan, serving as a poignant lament over their foundational failure to fully obey God's directives concerning the indigenous populations. The preceding verses in Psalm 106 detail Israel's persistent grumbling in the wilderness and their egregious idolatry, while the subsequent verses, particularly Psalms 106:35-39, elaborate on the bitter and tragic fruits of this initial act of disobedience: intermarriage, the adoption of pagan cultic practices, and the horrific sin of child sacrifice. This verse, therefore, acts as a crucial narrative hinge, pinpointing the root cause of much of Israel's subsequent spiritual decline and national apostasy.
Historical & Cultural Context: Upon their miraculous exodus from Egyptian bondage and their arduous journey towards the Promised Land, God issued clear, emphatic, and repeated commands to Israel to utterly dispossess, drive out, and destroy the Canaanite nations. These divine mandates, found in passages such as Deuteronomy 7:1-6 and Exodus 23:31-33, were not arbitrary acts of cruelty but rather a divinely ordained prophylactic measure. The Canaanites were deeply entrenched in abhorrent idolatrous worship, including ritual prostitution, child sacrifice to deities like Molech, and various forms of spiritual and moral defilement that were an abomination to God's holiness. God's overarching intention was to establish a distinct, holy nation, set apart for His glory, whose identity would be solely rooted in their covenant relationship with Him. The continued presence of these morally corrupt nations posed an existential threat to Israel's spiritual purity, their unique identity as God's chosen people, and their faithfulness to the covenant. Their tragic failure to obey this absolute command, as vividly detailed in the early chapters of the book of Judges, directly led to the very spiritual compromise and syncretism God sought to prevent, plunging Israel into cycles of apostasy and judgment.
Key Themes: This verse powerfully underscores several recurring and foundational themes found throughout the Old Testament narrative. Primarily, it highlights the theme of disobedience to divine command, emphasizing that Israel's failure was not a mere oversight or a minor transgression, but a direct and deliberate contravention of God's explicit and clearly communicated will. This leads directly to the profound theme of the danger of partial obedience; Israel did not completely disregard God's instructions to enter the land, but their incomplete obedience—their failure to "destroy the nations" fully—proved to be as destructive, if not more insidious, than outright rebellion, illustrating that God demands wholehearted submission, not just selective adherence. Furthermore, the verse introduces the pervasive theme of compromise and its devastating consequences. By allowing the Canaanite inhabitants to remain within the land, Israel opened the floodgates to intermarriage, the insidious assimilation of pagan religious practices, and widespread idolatry, which became a pervasive and debilitating problem throughout their history, clearly seen in the cyclical pattern of apostasy and judgment described in Judges 2:11-15. This fundamental failure to "destroy the nations" ultimately compromised their unique covenant relationship with God and inexorably led to their spiritual and national decline.
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
The psalmist employs Historical Narrative as the overarching literary device in Psalm 106, recounting Israel's past failures and God's enduring faithfulness to illustrate a consistent pattern of human rebellion and divine patience. Within this broader narrative, verse 34 functions as a concise, lamenting statement of a critical turning point and a foundational act of disobedience. There is also a strong element of Irony present within the verse's implications: God commanded the utter destruction of the nations for Israel's protection and spiritual purity, yet Israel's failure to obey this command ironically led to their own spiritual destruction and profound defilement by the very nations they spared. This highlights the tragic and often paradoxical consequences of human will opposing divine wisdom. The verse's direct, declarative, and almost accusatory statement also imbues it with a powerful Didactic quality, serving as a cautionary tale for future generations, including the psalmist's contemporary audience and believers today, about the perilous nature of partial obedience and the insidious dangers of spiritual compromise.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Psalms 106:34 resonates deeply with several core theological truths that transcend its historical context. It profoundly underscores God's absolute sovereignty and His inherent right to command His people, emphasizing that His divine commands are always issued for their ultimate good, even when they appear harsh, difficult, or counter-intuitive from a human perspective. The persistent failure of Israel to fully obey, despite experiencing God's miraculous deliverance and enduring covenant faithfulness, reveals the pervasive human tendency towards rebellion, spiritual apathy, and compromise. This verse also highlights the vital importance of holiness and separation for God's covenant people; the command to destroy the nations was fundamentally about preserving Israel's distinct identity as a holy nation, consecrated to God and untainted by the pervasive idolatry and immorality of Canaan. Their tragic failure to maintain this divinely mandated separation inevitably led to spiritual syncretism, demonstrating that compromise with the world's values, practices, and philosophies inevitably leads to the corruption and dilution of genuine faith.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Psalms 106:34 serves as a potent and timeless warning for believers today, transcending its ancient historical setting. Just as the Canaanite nations represented profound spiritual dangers and temptations to ancient Israel, there are analogous "nations" or ungodly influences in our contemporary lives that God commands us to decisively remove or avoid for the sake of our spiritual well-being and purity. These modern "nations" can manifest as persistent sinful habits, worldly philosophies that directly contradict biblical truth, cultural norms that subtly erode our devotion to Christ, or relationships that compromise our integrity. The insidious temptation to practice partial obedience—to follow God wholeheartedly in some areas of our lives while neglecting or willfully disobeying Him in others—is a subtle yet profoundly dangerous snare. This verse challenges us to undertake a rigorous self-examination, identifying areas where we might be compromising, allowing ungodly influences to remain unchallenged, or failing to fully obey God's clear and unambiguous commands. True spiritual health, flourishing, and fruitfulness come only from wholeheartedly following the Lord's instructions and diligently removing anything that hinders our intimate walk with Him, trusting implicitly in His divine wisdom for our protection, sanctification, and ultimate prosperity.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Why did God command Israel to "destroy the nations"? Was this not harsh?
Answer: God's command to "destroy the nations" (specifically the Canaanites) was not an act of arbitrary cruelty or capricious violence but a divinely ordained judgment against peoples whose wickedness and moral depravity had reached its full measure, as foreshadowed in Genesis 15:16. Their religious practices were an abomination to God's holiness, including widespread child sacrifice, cultic prostitution, and severe moral corruption. Furthermore, the command served as a crucial protective measure for Israel. God, in His omniscience, knew that if the Canaanites remained, their pervasive idolatrous and immoral practices would inevitably corrupt His chosen people, leading them astray from the covenant and into spiritual ruin. The command was therefore a severe but necessary act of divine justice and a means to preserve the spiritual purity and distinct identity of the nation through whom the Messiah would eventually come. It highlighted God's absolute intolerance for sin and His unwavering commitment to establishing a holy people set apart for Himself.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Psalms 106:34 poignantly highlights Israel's profound and recurring failure to fulfill God's command, a failure that starkly underscores humanity's pervasive inability to perfectly obey divine law and maintain spiritual purity. This inherent brokenness and spiritual compromise, stemming from their failure to "destroy the nations" and separate themselves, finds its ultimate resolution and perfect fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Unlike Israel, who repeatedly disobeyed and compromised, Jesus perfectly fulfilled the Law and all of God's commands, living a life of absolute and unwavering obedience, as He Himself declared, "I always do what pleases Him". Moreover, where Israel failed to eradicate the spiritual enemies within the land and succumbed to their influence, Jesus, as the true and greater Joshua, utterly defeated the ultimate "nations" of sin, death, and the devil through His atoning sacrifice on the cross and His glorious resurrection (see Colossians 2:15). He did not merely drive out external enemies but decisively conquered the internal spiritual forces that enslave humanity. Through His perfect obedience and decisive victory, Christ provides the means for believers to truly be set apart from the world's corrupting influences, empowering them by His indwelling Spirit to live lives of holiness and obedience that Israel could not achieve on its own (as articulated in Romans 8:3-4). He is the true Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, making a way for a new people who are truly consecrated to God and enabled to walk in His ways.