Psalms 106

The object of the present psalm is identical with the preceding to rouse the people to the worship of God and the faithful observance of his holy covenant. But the methods of attaining this end are diverse. In Psalms 105:0 the judgments of God upon Israel’s enemies, and his faithful care of his people, are the chosen themes; in this, the disobedience of his people and God’s judgments upon their sins. The miracles of Egypt are here passed over, and the history of Israel through their desert life, and after their settlement in Canaan through the times of the Judges, is brought out. Psalms 106:1-2, are an invitation to praise and give thanks for the mercies of the Lord; Psalms 106:3-5 are a blessing pronounced upon the obedient, and a prayer for that salvation which belonged to the true covenant nation; Psalms 106:6-42, contain a confession of the national sins and unfaithfulness; Psalms 106:43-46 recall the forbearance and forgiving mercy of God when Israel repented; Psalms 106:47, is a prayer for national deliverance from their enemies, the heathen nations, and for the spirit of praise and worship; Psalms 106:48 is a doxology.

The date of the psalm has been fixed by some in the reign of David; by others, late in, or after, the Babylonian captivity. We assign it to David, because its theme and tone constitute it a side piece, or pair, with Psalms 105:0, and because Psalms 106:1; Psalms 106:47-48, are copied from 1 Chronicles 16:34-36. We have already given reasons for taking the psalm as inserted in Chronicles as the original production of David, (see introduction to Psalms 96:0,) and have assumed that he took the first fifteen verses of that psalm (1 Chronicles 16:8-22) to prefix to Psalm cv, (see introduction to this psalm,) and the following eleven verses (1 Chronicles 16:23-33) to constitute, with some variations, the whole of Psalms 96:0. There is nothing improbable in the supposition that David should thus divide and distribute the psalms which were at first sung at the removal of the ark, in order to adapt their several parts to various occasions. Psalms 106:46-47, would suit well enough the Babylon captives; but would also find sufficient explanation in the practice of the heathen nations of making Hebrew captives during the period of the Judges, and in the repressed liberty of the Palestine Hebrews who dwelt among their unsubdued enemies. The preterit tense of the verbs shows he is giving a historical review, and the prayer of Psalms 106:47 is general for all time. But to assume a postexilic date to this and the preceding psalms is to make the psalm-piece of 1 Chronicles 16:0 an unauthorized, and, indeed, historically a false, entry.