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Psalm 106

A Confession of Israel’s Sins

Praise the L ord!

O give thanks to the L ord, for he is good;

for his steadfast love endures forever.

Who can utter the mighty doings of the L ord,

or declare all his praise?

Happy are those who observe justice,

who do righteousness at all times.

Remember me, O L ord, when you show favor to your people;

help me when you deliver them;

that I may see the prosperity of your chosen ones,

that I may rejoice in the gladness of your nation,

that I may glory in your heritage.

Both we and our ancestors have sinned;

we have committed iniquity, have done wickedly.

Our ancestors, when they were in Egypt,

did not consider your wonderful works;

they did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love,

but rebelled against the Most High at the Red Sea.

Yet he saved them for his name’s sake,

so that he might make known his mighty power.

He rebuked the Red Sea, and it became dry;

he led them through the deep as through a desert.

So he saved them from the hand of the foe,

and delivered them from the hand of the enemy.

The waters covered their adversaries;

not one of them was left.

Then they believed his words;

they sang his praise.

But they soon forgot his works;

they did not wait for his counsel.

But they had a wanton craving in the wilderness,

and put God to the test in the desert;

he gave them what they asked,

but sent a wasting disease among them.

They were jealous of Moses in the camp,

and of Aaron, the holy one of the L ord.

The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan,

and covered the faction of Abiram.

Fire also broke out in their company;

the flame burned up the wicked.

They made a calf at Horeb

and worshiped a cast image.

They exchanged the glory of God

for the image of an ox that eats grass.

They forgot God, their Savior,

who had done great things in Egypt,

wondrous works in the land of Ham,

and awesome deeds by the Red Sea.

Therefore he said he would destroy them—

had not Moses, his chosen one,

stood in the breach before him,

to turn away his wrath from destroying them.

Then they despised the pleasant land,

having no faith in his promise.

They grumbled in their tents,

and did not obey the voice of the L ord.

Therefore he raised his hand and swore to them

that he would make them fall in the wilderness,

and would disperse their descendants among the nations,

scattering them over the lands.

Then they attached themselves to the Baal of Peor,

and ate sacrifices offered to the dead;

they provoked the L ord to anger with their deeds,

and a plague broke out among them.

Then Phinehas stood up and interceded,

and the plague was stopped.

And that has been reckoned to him as righteousness

from generation to generation forever.

They angered the L ord at the waters of Meribah,

and it went ill with Moses on their account;

for they made his spirit bitter,

and he spoke words that were rash.

They did not destroy the peoples,

as the L ord commanded them,

but they mingled with the nations

and learned to do as they did.

They served their idols,

which became a snare to them.

They sacrificed their sons

and their daughters to the demons;

they poured out innocent blood,

the blood of their sons and daughters,

whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan;

and the land was polluted with blood.

Thus they became unclean by their acts,

and prostituted themselves in their doings.

Then the anger of the L ord was kindled against his people,

and he abhorred his heritage;

he gave them into the hand of the nations,

so that those who hated them ruled over them.

Their enemies oppressed them,

and they were brought into subjection under their power.

Many times he delivered them,

but they were rebellious in their purposes,

and were brought low through their iniquity.

Nevertheless he regarded their distress

when he heard their cry.

For their sake he remembered his covenant,

and showed compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love.

He caused them to be pitied

by all who held them captive.

Save us, O L ord our God,

and gather us from among the nations,

that we may give thanks to your holy name

and glory in your praise.

Blessed be the L ord, the God of Israel,

from everlasting to everlasting.

And let all the people say, “Amen.”

Praise the L ord!

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

23. And he said The prophet informs us, by these words, that the people had a feeling sense of their remarkable deliverance from impending destruction, by means of prayer alone, which, for a season, restrained God’s vengeance from bursting forth against them. In a very short time, however, they return to their wonted disposition of mind, a striking proof of the awful perversity of their hearts. To represent how highly God was offended, the prophet says that he had purposed to destroy the transgressors: not that God is subject to human passions, to be very angry for a little, and then immediately afterwards, on being appeased, changes his purpose; for God, in his secret counsel, had resolved upon their forgiveness, even as he actually did pardon them. But the prophet makes mention of another purpose, by which God designed to strike the people with terror, that coming to know and acknowledge the greatness of their sin, they might be humbled on account of it. This is that repentance so frequently referred to in the Scriptures. Not that God is mutable in himself; but he speaks after the manner of men, that we may be affected with a more feeling sense of his wrath: like a king who had resolved to pardon an offender, yet sisted him before his judgment-seat, the more effectually to impress him with the magnitude of the kindness done to him. God, therefore, while he keeps to himself his secret purpose, declared openly to the people that they had committed a trespass which deserved to be punished with eternal death. Next he says that Moses stood in the breach, meaning that he had made intercession with God, lest his awful vengeance might break forth among the people. There is here an allusion to the manner in which cities are stormed; for if a breach is made in the wall by any of the various engines which are employed in war, brave soldiers will instantly throw themselves into the breach to defend it. ²⁵⁵²⁵⁵ The sins of the people had opened a breach or gap, for God as an enemy to enter and destroy them. But, like soldiers who stand in the breach that has been made in the walls of a beleaguered city to oppose the irruption of the enemy, Moses, by his earnest prayer, stopped this breach, Exodus 32:11-14. “Moses is here mentioned in the character of a mediator, under the figure of one standing in the breach of the wall of a city made by besiegers, to oppose any farther hostile aggressions. The figure of a breach is frequently employed in Scripture to denote some destruction by God. Thus in Judges 21:15, God made a breach,פרף, in the tribes of Israel, i.e., He destroyed one of the tribes, viz., that of Benjamin: see also 2 Samuel 6:8; Ezekiel 22:30. Hence in this passage we understand that God would have destroyed the Israelites, had not Moses stood in the breach, i.e., interceded by his prayers, just at the time when the divine judgments were about to be executed. The Chaldee has paraphrased it thus, If Moses had not stood before Him and prevailed in prayer, i.e., arrested the destruction.” — Phillips Hence Ezekiel reproaches the false prophets, who, unlike Moses, deceiving the people by their flatteries, making, as it were, a mud-wall, do not place themselves in the breach in the day of battle.

“Ye have not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge for the house of Israel, to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord,” Ezekiel 13:5.

Some expositors are of opinion that the prophet refers to the separation which the people had made among themselves in violating the covenant of God, and the sacred relation in which they stood to each other; but the meaning is the same. For in that breach which gave rise to this metaphor or similitude, God, in defending his people so faithfully, was to them in place of a wall or bulwark. Having provoked him to anger anew, he was about to rush upon them for their destruction, had not Moses interposed as their intercessor.

²⁵⁵ The sins of the people had opened a breach or gap, for God as an enemy to enter and destroy them. But, like soldiers who stand in the breach that has been made in the walls of a beleaguered city to oppose the irruption of the enemy, Moses, by his earnest prayer, stopped this breach, Exodus 32:11-14. “Moses is here mentioned in the character of a mediator, under the figure of one standing in the breach of the wall of a city made by besiegers, to oppose any farther hostile aggressions. The figure of a breach is frequently employed in Scripture to denote some destruction by God. Thus in Judges 21:15, God made a breach,פרף, in the tribes of Israel, i.e., He destroyed one of the tribes, viz., that of Benjamin: see also 2 Samuel 6:8; Ezekiel 22:30. Hence in this passage we understand that God would have destroyed the Israelites, had not Moses stood in the breach, i.e., interceded by his prayers, just at the time when the divine judgments were about to be executed. The Chaldee has paraphrased it thus, If Moses had not stood before Him and prevailed in prayer, i.e., arrested the destruction.” — Phillips