A Confession of the Manifold Sins and Ingratitudes of the Israelites
Explanation of the Psalm
1 The prophet speaks here in the person of a faithful people sorry for their sins, and returning thanks to God. He invites all to praise God, for his goodness, for his previous direction of man, for the many favors he confers on him and because his mercy in receiving the returning sinner remains ever unchanged; it even exceeds our misery, which we may attribute to our crimes, which even, through God’s mercy, speedily disappear, whereas “his justice continueth forever and ever.”
2 Having invited all to praise God, he now asks where will anyone be found fit to praise him. “Who shall declare?” who is equal to the task? “The power of the Lord;” the words of his power, or rather, of his omnipotence, which he repeats when he says, “Who shall set forth all his praises?” arising from a knowledge of the works of his power. Though the prophet speaks of all the attributes of God as worthy of praise, he speaks principally of his power, to which all his attributes may be reduced. For, of his wisdom it is written, “She reacheth from end to end mightily, and ordereth all things sweetly;” and, in fact, God’s wisdom is all powerful, and cannot be thwarted, and as such cannot be deceived. By a similar process of reasoning, the works of his mercy may be brought under the head of his power, because God alone is absolutely merciful, for he alone can remove all misery; and thus, he alone is, properly speaking, merciful, and that by reason of his omnipotence. He, then, that could speak of all God’s powers, could also cause all his praises to be heard. But where is the man capable of doing that? The just man, in this life, can do it to a certain extent, according to his abilities; but much more fully and satisfactorily will it be done by the blessed in the world to come; and, therefore, the prophet, in answer to his own query, says,
3 As much as to say, they alone are blessed, and, therefore, alone able to declare the power of the Lord, and to set forth his praises, “who keep judgments, and do justice at all times;” that is, they who always form a correct judgment on everything they do, by reason of their following the rule of the divine law in all their actions; and thus lead a life of sanctity, in declining from evil, and doing good. This may be applied to the blessed on their pilgrimage, as well as to the blessed in heaven; the former “keep judgment and do justice,” to the best of their abilities, as far as human frailty will allow them, and they ask pardon for their daily sins; the latter do it with that amount of perfection that leaves no room for any sin. Thus, both are required to praise God, but in a different way, according to the relative degree of their perfection and happiness.
4–5 Having said that to the just and the blessed belonged the duty of praising God, he wishes that he and his may share in that pleasing duty, and briefly touches on predestination, justification, and glory, the beginning, the means, and the end of human happiness. “Remember us, O Lord, in the favor of thy people.” Carry out those benevolent intentions of yours in regard of your people, that of your pure free will you selected before the beginning of the world to be your little flock, and to bestow your everlasting kingdom on them. “Visit us with thy salvation;” and, in order to carry that out, visit us through Christ our Savior, cleansing us, through his merits, from our sins, “that we may see the good of thy chosen.” That, having been predestined, and justified, we may come to see the good of thy chosen, which means that the very face of the Lord may be made conspicuous to us. “For we shall then be like to him when we shall see him as he is,” 1 Jn. 3. By the “good of thy elect” we are not to understand their own probity or goodness, but the supreme happiness that is their lot. “That we may rejoice in the joy of thy nation.” That we may partake in that unspeakable joy that arises from the beatific vision, which is the peculiar property of your nation; that is, of your chosen people, of which strangers cannot taste, of which the gospel says, “Enter into the joy of thy Lord,”—”that thou mayest be praised with thy inheritance;” that all your favors may have the effect of eternal praise being rendered to you and your inheritance; to you for having produced so noble a work, and to the inheritance, as being the work of your own hands; to you, as being a most powerful, wise, superior, and excelling artist, to whom no one can be compared; and to your inheritance, as a most perfect incomparable work, that cannot be equalled. By “inheritance” is meant that assembly of the just selected by God as his own possession; for inheritance and possession appear to be synonymous in the Scripture, and are used indiscriminately.
6–12 The prophet, speaking now in the person of those not quite perfect, but still penitent, begins to confess his sins and the sins of their fathers from the time of their departure out of Egypt to the present day, coupling it with praise of God’s mercy that never closes its bosom against the penitent. Those verses are easily understood from the book of Exodus and Psalm 77. “We have sinned with our fathers” means, we, too, have sinned by imitating them. “Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt” refers to the time when they saw Pharao’s army in pursuit of them, and got so dispirited that they began to murmur against Moses for having led them out of Egypt; for had they understood the previous miracles that had been performed by the Almighty they would have placed unbounded confidence in his hope and protection. “And they provoked to wrath” means, that when they saw the Red Sea before them, and Pharao’s army behind them, they provoked God by their diffidence and incredulity. “Going up to the sea, the Red Sea,” means, on their journey to the Red Sea. “He rebuked the Red Sea, and it was dried up,” is a poetical expression, signifying that the Red Sea retired at God’s command, just as a slave would fly from his master’s presence on being severely rebuked “And he led them through the depths;” that is, through the place that a moment before had been the depths of the sea; an expression similar to “the blind see, the deaf hear,” meaning, those who had been so afflicted.
13–15 The prophet goes on with the relation of the ingratitude of the people, and that, after witnessing the astounding miracle performed in the Red Sea, and for which they had thanked God so profoundly; for no sooner did they feel the slightest want of food and drink than they lost all sight of God’s providence and omnipotence, and broke out in language of impatience and infidelity. “They had quickly done,” without any delay, “they forgot his works,” all the miracles they had witnessed; “and they waited not for his counsel,” they would not wait for the time appointed by God in his counsel or wisdom; for God, in allowing them to suffer for a while, was only trying their faith, their hope, and their love, while they, in ignorance of God’s designs, began to murmur, as if he did not care for them, or could not help them. He now enters into the particulars of their impatience. “And they coveted their desire in the desert; and they tempted God in the place without water.” They could not have patience even for a short time, or endure for a moment the scarcity of bread and water. “They coveted their desire” is not an unusual phrase, meaning, merely, that they longed or wished for. “And he gave them their request,” bread and water, that they asked. “And sent fullness into their hearts,” by not only giving them food and drink, but giving both in abundance, Exod. 16 and 17, Num. 11 and 20.
16–18 He now alludes to Dathan and Abiron, whose history may be found in Numbers 16. “They provoked Moses in the camp.” Core, Dathan, and Abiron, provoked him by charging him with having usurped supreme power. “Aaron, the holy one of the Lord,” and they provoked Aaron too, who was sanctified by God to be his priest. “The earth opened,” etc., and swallowed up the three of them, with all their families and substance, “and covered the congregation,” etc. After opening and swallowing them it closed upon the rebels, and covered them and their families. “And a fire was kindled in the congregation, the flame burned the wicked.” Immediately after the death of those three disaffected, some of the Jews, who were not authorized to offer incense, having presumed to do so, fire from heaven descended and killed two hundred and fifty of them; and when the people began to murmur against Moses, as if he had been the author of it, another fire was sent by God that consumed four thousand seven hundred of them.
19–23 The prophet now gives expression to his detestation of the people’s idolatry, in making a calf of gold, and rendering divine worship to it; and, at the same time, praises God’s mercy, in having, at the instance of Moses, forgiven so great a sin. Exod. 32. “They made also a calf in Horeb;” a calf of gold, to represent an idol they had seen in Egypt, that was made for them by Aaron, who was obliged to comply with their wishes through fear. They did that at Horeb, a mountain quite convenient to mount Sinai. “And they adored the graven thing;” the golden heifer; and though it is not a graven thing, but a molten thing, it is called graven, it being a general term for all idols, whether of timber or marble, that are, properly speaking, graven; or of gold or silver, that are usually molten. He alludes to mount Horeb, and to graven things, because it was on mount Horeb that God, when he appeared not long before, said to them, “Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven thing; thou shalt not adore or worship them;” and thus a great aggravation in the sin of the Jews was, that they made and set up for adoration this graven or molten thing, on the very spot on which God had forbidden it. “And they changed their glory into the likeness of a calf that eateth grass.” An aggravation of the folly of the Jews consisted in their setting up an idol in the form of a calf for the true God, thereby changing their glory, the true God, who was their glory, for the image of a brute beast; nor does he say they exchanged God for a beast, but, to render the case worse, for the image of a calf, or, in other words, the most precious thing in existence for the most contemptible. “They forgot God who saved them, who had done great things in Egypt, wondrous works in the land of Cham, terrible things in the Red Sea.” A further aggravation of the folly of the Jews consisted in their having forgotten or deserted that God who freed them from the captivity of Pharao, for the service of a god who could neither save himself nor anyone else; for Moses smashed the calf, and made powder of it without any resistance, or even consciousness, on the part of the golden calf. They also forgot that God of all power, “who hath done great things in Egypt,” which was also called the land of Cham; “terrible things in the Red Sea;” by drying it up so as to afford a passage through to the children of Israel, and then letting the waters on so as to suffocate the Egyptians; and, notwithstanding all this, they worshipped an empty, an imbecile god, that is to say, a mute and useless image. “And he said that he would destroy them, had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach.” God, then, determined, and said he would destroy them; and he would have done so, had not Moses, his chosen servant, interfered, and by his intercession succeeded “in turning away his wrath lest he should destroy them.” He uses a metaphor, taken from a brave soldier who stands in the breach to repel the enemy until his own reinforcements should come up; and from this we can argue in favor of the power of the intercession of the saints.
24–27 The Prophet now records another sin of the Jews, in their despising the land of promise, which God told them was one flowing with milk and honey. “And they set at naught the desirable land.” They despised and thought little of the land of promise, instead of valuing it highly, as they should have done; for they said, “The land which we have viewed devoureth its inhabitants.”—”They believed not his word;” God’s word, that he had spoken so often to them, as to the quality of the land; and “they murmured in their tents” against him who had brought them out of Egypt to establish them in the land of promise. “They hearkened not to the voice of the Lord;” they did not obey his commands. “And he lifted up his hand over them; to overthrow them in the desert: And he cast down their seed among the nations, and to scatter them in the countries.” He raised his hand, armed with the sword of justice, over his sinful people, in order to slay the murmurers in the desert, and to scatter their posterity abject and desolate, all over the world, so that they could no longer be called a nation. The former has been already accomplished, for all the murmurers perished in the desert; the latter, at the instance of Moses, was not then and there carried out, but, in consequence of the repeated sins of the people, was fully accomplished, both by the king of Babylon, and by Titus and Vespasian. How incensed, then, must not God feel with those who despise the kingdom of heaven, as announced and promised to us by his Son, when he was so grievously incensed with the Jews for having disregarded the land of promise, that was nothing but earth, and a mere figure of the kingdom of heaven?
28–31 David now alludes to another sin committed by the Jews, the history of which is to be found in Numbers 25. We read there that the children of Israel, seduced by the daughters of Moab, began to commit fornication with them, and to worship an idol of their’s, called Beelphegor, which incensed God so much that he ordered all the princes of the people to be hanged on gibbets; but when Phinees, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, in his zeal slew an Israelite in the act of fornication with a Madianite woman, God was so pleased with his zeal, that he forgave the whole people for it. “They also were initiated to Beelphegor;” to their other sins the Israelites added that of becoming disciples of Beelphegor, the idol of the Madianites; “and ate the sacrifice of the dead;” the sacrifices that were offered to their dead gods, such as Apis and Serapis with the Egyptians, Jupiter and Apollo with the Greeks, instead of sacrificing to the one, true, and living God. “And they provoked him with their inventions.” They naturally provoked God by the worship of new gods invented by them; not that they were the first to set up Beelphegor, but that they were the first to learn his worship from the Moabites, and introduce it to the Israelites. “And destruction was multiplied among them,” in consequence of that sin destruction set in upon them, numbers of them having miserably perished. “Then Phinees stood up, and pacified him; and the slaughter ceased.” Phinees, full of zeal for the glory of God, stood up courageously against the impious deserters of the old religion, and by his zeal so appeased God, that “the slaughter ceased.” “And it was reputed to him unto justice.” God, who searcheth the heart, and well knew the good dispositions of Phinees, did not look upon such slaughter as a sinful act, or one worthy of punishment, but, on the contrary, as a good and a meritorious act, “and that to generation and generation forevermore;” in allusion to the promise made by God to Phinees, that in consideration of what he did so nobly, the priesthood should remain in his family as long as the Jewish dynasty should hold.
32–33 He now passes to another sin of the Jews, recorded in Numbers 20. When the people, suffering from want of water, began to wrangle with Moses, who was so frightened that he seemed to have some hesitation, and said, “Can we bring you forth water from this rock?” However, on striking the rock twice, water poured forth in the greatest abundance. God, however, half in anger with Moses for his hesitation, in punishment of it did not allow him to introduce the people to the land of promise, and he died on the way to it. “They provoked him;” the Jews provoked God “at the waters of contradiction;” the place where they upbraided and wrangled with Moses, by reason of their want of water. “And Moses was quieted, for their sakes,” troubled and grieved in his mind at the unreasonableness of the people. “Because they exasperated his spirit.” By their murmurs and reproaches they made Moses, who, at all times was most alive and ready to carry out all God’s commands, now truly downcast and disheartened. “And he distinguished with his lips;” they so confused him, that when God ordered him to bring the water from the rock, he did not put full faith in God, or give him that implicit obedience he required; for God said to him, “Speak to the rock before thee, and it shall yield waters,” instead of doing which he said, “Can we bring forth water frown this rock?” and thus, “he distinguished with his lips.”
34–36 He now records another grievous transgression of the Jews, who, instead of banishing all the idolaters from the land of promise, as they had been ordered by God, began to cohabit with them, and to adopt their superstitions and sacrileges. Herein he alludes to the words of the Angel, who, in the person of God, thus addresses them, Judges 2, “I made you go out of Egypt, and have brought you into the land for which I swore to your fathers; and I promised that I would not make void any covenant forever, on condition that you should not make a league with the inhabitants of this land, but should throw down their altars; and you would not hear my voice. Why have you done this?”—”And they were mingled among the heathens, and learned their works, and served their idols,” as the whole book of Judges testifies; “and it became a stumbling block to them;” proved their ruin; for it caused God to give them up to various idolatrous kings, as we read in the same book; and it was only meet that they who preferred the devil to God, should be handed over to the devil’s servants.
37–39 There is no record of all this in the book of Judges, but it must, of necessity be true, as the Holy Ghost inspired the prophet to record it, who possibly had it also by tradition. God once commanded Abraham to slay his son, yet he would not allow him to do it, being satisfied with his readiness to obey; but the false gods, the demons, envying God for such obedience in Abraham, not satisfied with the same readiness on the part of their dupes, actually required of them to sacrifice and spill the blood of their own children. And such was the blindness of man then, that they did rot feel such tyranny on the part of the demons, nor perceive the difference between the sweet yoke of their Maker, and the severe and bitter fetters of the destroyer. “And they went aside after their own intentions;” that synagogue of the Jews that was betrothed to God left him, abandoned him, and went in pursuit of idols, to worship them; idols of their own invention, for they learned no such worship from Moses, but rather from the idolaters about them that they thus chose to follow.
40–46 These seven verses are a sort of abridgment of the book of Judges, where we read of God having been so provoked by the sins of the Jews that he frequently allowed them to fall into the hands of their enemies the Moabites, Ammonites, Philistines, and others; but when they would return to penance he was wont to raise up some brave leader, such as Jepthe, Gedeon, Samson, and others, to deliver them. The only verse of those seven requiring an explanation is the last. “And he gave them unto mercies in the sight of all those that had made them captives.” God so placed them in the bosom of his mercy, to the utter astonishment of those who made them captives, that their very enemies could not deny but that God was fighting for his own people.
47–48 The conclusion of the Psalm, in which the prophet prays to God to gather all his faithful from the nations; that is, to bring back all the strayed ones to the assembly of the pious, that all may together give thanks to God, and praise him, and also glory in praising him. Some think that herein he alludes to the dispersion in the Babylonian captivity, which he foresaw in spirit; but it is more likely that he alludes to the dispersion among the gentiles that were still in the land of promise, and against whom David had waged several wars. He concludes by praising God, saying “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel” at all times, or rather forever, and let all the people confirm his prayer by saying, “So be it, so be it.” And this is the end of the fourth book, according to the Hebrews.