The Lord glorified in His long-suffering to Israel, and in their final gathering

The doxology at the end of the psalm ends the fourth book within the Psalter. Again, we have a recounting and reciting of the Jewish history, but this time it deals mainly with their wilderness wilfulness, and their whoredom in Canaan.

Notwithstanding their departure and aberrations from God, His mercy endured and many times He delivered them. But when they were obdurate and intransigent, the Lord gave them up to heathen nations. It was when they recognised their sins and confessed it, that God regarded their affliction and heard their cry. The psalmist, representing the people, understood this, and in penitence prayed, “We have sinned, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly.”

On such grounds, we too can cry, “Save us O Lord our God,” our covenant God. So our Hallelujahs shall ascend to Him.

Pastor Jeff O’ Neil

Recommended Tune: Milton (v1-5), St Kilda (v6-48)

Psalm 106

¹Give praise and thanks unto the LORD,
For bountiful is he;
His tender mercy doth endure
Unto eternity.

²GOD’s mighty works who can express?
Or show forth all his praise?
³Blessed are they that judgment keep,
And justly do always.

⁴Remember me, LORD, with that love
Which thou to thine dost bear;
With thy salvation, O my God,
To visit me draw near:

⁵That I thy chosen’s good may see,
And in their joy rejoice;
And may with thine inheritance
Triumph with cheerful voice.

⁶We with our fathers sinned have,
And of iniquity
Too long we have the workers been;
We have done wickedly.

⁷The wonders great, which thou, O Lord,
Didst work in Egypt land,
Our fathers, though they saw, yet them
They did not understand:

And they thy mercies’ multitude
Kept not in memory;
But at the sea, ev’n the Red sea,
Provok’d him grievously.

⁸Nevertheless he saved them,
Ev’n for his own name’s sake;
That so he might to be well known
His mighty power make.

⁹When he the Red sea did rebuke,
Then dried up it was:
Through depths, as through the wilderness,
He safely made them pass.

¹⁰From hands of those that hated them
He did his people save;
And from the en’my’s cruel hand
To them redemption gave.

¹¹The waters overwhelm’d their foes;
Not one was left alive.
¹²Then they believ’d his word, and praise
To him in songs did give.

¹³But soon did they his mighty works
Forget unthankfully,
And on his counsel and his will
Did not wait patiently;

¹⁴But much did lust in wilderness,
And God in desert tempt.
¹⁵He gave them what they sought, but to
Their soul he leanness sent.

¹⁶And against Moses in the camp
Their envy did appear;
At Aaron they, the saint of GOD,
Envious also were.

¹⁷Therefore the earth did open wide,
And Dathan did devour,
And all Abiram’s company
Did cover in that hour.

¹⁸Likewise among their company
A fire was kindled then;
And so the hot consuming flame
Burnt up these wicked men.

¹⁹Upon the hill of Horeb they
An idol-calf did frame,
A molten image they did make,
And worshipped the same.

²⁰And thus their glory, and their God,
Most vainly changed they
Into the likeness of an ox
That eateth grass or hay.

²¹They did forget the mighty God,
That had their saviour been,
By whom such great things brought to pass
They had in Egypt seen.

²²In Ham’s land he did wondrous works,
Things terrible did he,
When he his mighty hand and arm
Stretch’d out at the Red sea.

²³Then said he, He would them destroy,
Had not, his wrath to stay,
His chosen Moses stood in breach,
That them he should not slay.

²⁴Yea, they despis’d the pleasant land,
Believed not his word:
²⁵But in their tents they murmured,
Not heark’ning to the LORD.

²⁶Therefore in desert them to slay
He lifted up his hand:
²⁷’Mong nations to o’erthrow their seed,
And scatter in each land.

²⁸They unto Baal-peor did
Themselves associate;
The sacrifices of the dead
They did profanely eat.

²⁹Thus, by their lewd inventions,
They did provoke his ire;
And then upon them suddenly
The plague brake in as fire.

³⁰Then Phin’has rose, and justice did,
And so the plague did cease;
³¹That to all ages counted was
To him for righteousness.

³²And at the waters, where they strove,
They did him angry make,
In such sort, that it fared ill
With Moses for their sake:

³³Because they there his spirit meek
Provoked bitterly,
So that he utter’d with his lips
Words unadvisedly.

³⁴Nor, as the LORD commanded them,
Did they the nations slay:
³⁵But with the heathen mingled were,
And learn’d of them their way.

³⁶And they their idols serv’d, which did
A snare unto them turn.
³⁷Their sons and daughters they to dev’ls
In sacrifice did burn.

³⁸In their own children’s guiltless blood
Their hands they did imbrue,
Whom to Canaan’s idols they
For sacrifices slew:

So was the land defil’d with blood.
³⁹They stain’d with their own way,
And with their own inventions
A whoring they did stray.

⁴⁰Against his people kindled was
The wrath of GOD therefore,
Insomuch that he did his own
Inheritance abhor.

⁴¹He gave them to the heathen’s hand;
Their foes did them command.
⁴²Their en’mies them oppress’d, they were
Made subject to their hand.

⁴³He many times deliver’d them;
But with their counsel so
They him provok’d, that for their sin
They were brought very low.

⁴⁴Yet their affliction he beheld,
When he did hear their cry:
⁴⁵And he for them his covenant
Did call to memory;

After his mercies’ multitude
He did repent: ⁴⁶And made
Them to be pitied of all those
Who did them captive lead.

⁴⁷O LORD our God, us save, and gather
The heathen from among,
That we thy holy name may praise
In a triumphant song.

⁴⁸Bless’d be JEHOVAH, Isr’el’s God,
To all eternity:
Let all the people say, Amen.
Praise to the LORD give ye.