Psalm 106:47 Komentář

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 (Psa 106:47). 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 (Ch1 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, I. The preface to the narrative, speaking honour to God (Psa 106:1, Psa 106:2), comfort to the saints (Psa 106:3), and the desire of the faithful towards God's favour (Psa 106:4, Psa 106:5). II. The narrative itself of the sins of Israel, aggravated by the great things God did for them, an account of which is intermixed. Their provocations at the Red Sea (Psa 106:6-12), lusting (Psa 106:13-15), mutinying (Psa 106:16-18), worshipping the golden calf (Psa 106:19-23), murmuring (Psa 106:24-27), joining themselves to Baal-peor (Psa 106:28-31), quarrelling with Moses (Psa 106:32, Psa 106:33), incorporating themselves with the nations of Canaan (Psa 106:34-39). To this is added an account how God had rebuked them for their sins, and yet saved them from ruin (Psa 106:40-46). III. The conclusion of the psalm with prayer and praise (Psa 106:47, Psa 106:48). 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.

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 106 This psalm is without the name of its author, as the Syriac interpreter observes. Aben Ezra, on Psa 106:47, says, that one of the wise men of Egypt (perhaps Maimonides) was of opinion that it was written in the time of the judges, when there was no king in Israel; and another, he says, thought it was written in Babylon: but he was of opinion it was wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, or by a prophetic spirit, concerning their present captivity; and so Kimchi. The petition in Psa 106:47, "gather us from among the Heathen", has led most interpreters to conclude that it was written either in the Babylonish captivity, or, as some, in the times of Antiochus: but by comparing it with Ch1 16:7, it appears that it was written by David, at the time of the bringing up of the ark to Zion; since the first and two last verses of it are there expressly mentioned, in the psalm he gave Asaph to sing on that occasion, Psa 106:34, who therein might have respect to the Israelites that had been taken captive by some of their neighbours, as the Philistines, and still retained; though there is no difficulty in supposing that David, under a prophetic spirit, foresaw future captivities, and represents those that were in them. As the preceding psalm treats of the mercies and favours God bestowed upon Israel, this of their sins and provocations amidst those blessings, and of the goodness of God unto them; that notwithstanding he did not destroy them from being a people; for which they had reason to be thankful.

You see, while Jesus did not go to the nations himself, he sent the disciples. That was the fulfillment of what the prophet said, “A people I never knew has served me.” Notice how profound, how clear, how explicit a prophecy this is: “A people I never knew”—that means one I had not presented myself to in person—“has served me.” How? It goes on, “The moment it heard, it obeyed me”; that is, it was not by seeing but by hearing that they came to believe. And it was to call and gather together the nations that the apostle Paul was sent, so fulfilling what we have just been singing, “Gather us from the nations, that we may confess to your name and glory in your praise.” That man Tiny, made into the Greatest, not by his own efforts but by the one he used to persecute, was sent to the nations, a sheep stealer turned shepherd, a wolf turned sheep. That least of the apostles was sent to the nations and labored much among the Gentiles, and it was by means of him that the Gentiles came to believe. His letters are the proof of this.

Deliver us, O Lord our God, and gather us from among the nations (other copies read, "from the heathen"); that we may give thanks unto Your holy Name, and make our boast of Your praise [Psalm 106:47]. Then he has briefly added this very praise, "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting, and world without end" [Psalm 106:48]: by which we understand from everlasting to everlasting; because He shall be praised without end by those of whom it is said, "Blessed are they that dwell in Your house: they will be always praising You." This is the perfection of the Body of Christ on the third day, when the devils had been cast out, and cures perfected, even unto the immortality of the body itself, the everlasting reign of those who perfectly praise Him, because they perfectly love Him; and perfectly love Him, because they behold Him face to face. For then shall be completed the prayer at the commencement of this Psalm: "Remember us, O Lord, according to the favour that You bear unto Your people," etc. For from the Gentiles He does not gather only the lost sheep of the house of Israel, [Matthew 15:24] but also those which do not belong to that fold; so that there is one flock, as is said, and one Shepherd. But when the Jews suppose that that prophecy belongs to their visible kingdom, because they know not how to rejoice in the hope of good things unseen, they are about to rush into the snares of him, of whom the Lord says, "I have come in My Father's Name, and you receive Me not: if another shall come in his own name, him you will receive." [John 5:24] Of whom the Apostle Paul says: "that Man of Sin shall be revealed, the son of perdition," etc. And a little after he says, "Then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the Spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming," etc. [2 Thessalonians 2:3-11] ...Through that Apostate, through him who exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, it seems to me, that the carnal people of Israel will suppose that prophecy to be fulfilled, where it is said, "Deliver us, O Lord, and gather us from among the heathen;" that under His guidance, before the eyes of their visible enemies, who had visibly taken them captive, they are to have visible glory. Thus they will believe a lie, because they have not received the love of truth, that they might love not carnal, but spiritual blessings....For Christ had other sheep that were not of this fold: [John 10:16] but the devil and his angels had taken captive all those sheep, both among the Israelites and the Gentiles. The power, therefore, of the devil having been cast out of them, in the sight of the evil spirits who had taken them captive, their cry in this prophecy is, that they may be saved and perfected for evermore: "Deliver us, O Lord our God, and gather us from among the heathen." Not, as the Jews imagine it, fulfilled through Antichrist, but through our Lord Christ coming in the name of His Father, "Day from day, His salvation;" of whom it is here said, "O visit us in Your salvation! And let all the people say," the predestined people of the circumcision and of the uncircumcision, a holy race, an adopted people, "So be it! So be it!"

Although the general theme of this Psalm may have been suggested by God's special favor to the Israelites in their restoration from captivity, it must be regarded as an instructive celebration of God's praise for His merciful providence to all men in their various emergencies. Of these several are given--captivity and bondage, wanderings by land and sea, and famine; some as evidences of God's displeasure, and all the deliverances as evidence of His goodness and mercy to them who humbly seek Him. (Psa. 107:1-43) This call for thankful praise is the burden or chorus (compare Psa 107:8, Psa 107:15, &c.).

He has now reached the goal, to which his whole Psalm struggles forth, by the way of self-accusation and the praise of the faithfulness of God. השׁתּבּח (found only here) is the reflexive of the Piel, to account happy, Ecc 4:2, therefore: in order that we may esteem ourselves happy to be able to praise Thee. In this reflexive (and also passive) sense השׁתבח is customary in Aramaic and post-biblical Hebrew.