Psalms 106:45

Psa 106:45 And he remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his mercies.

Ver. 45. And he remembered for them his covenant] Which could not be vacated or abolished by the wickedness of men, but stood firm and inviolable, inasmuch as God is faithful and merciful.

And repented] That is, changed his severity into clemency. God’s repentance is not a change of his will, but of his work, Mutatio rei, non Dei.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Psa_106:45

He remembered for them His covenant.

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Gods remembrance of His covenant

I. Then the covenant exists.

1. The covenant is in its own nature everlasting. By everything that is permanent in the universe, and by everything that is permanent in the Godhead, we are made to know that the covenant of grace is a fixed and settled thing, and abides to-day as it ever has done; for there is no variableness nor turning with Him from whom every good gift comes down. The promises in Christ Jesus are Yea and Amen, to the glory of God by us. Heaven and earth shall pass away; but not one jot or tittle of the law shall fail, much less shall the covenant of Divine grace be disannulled.

2. Well may the covenant of grace be everlasting, for it was made with deliberation and foresight. God made it, knowing all that would happen in time or eternity.

3. The covenant was sealed and ratified in the most solemn manner. Jesus has gone into heaven bearing with Him the blood of sprinkling. Can God deny His promise to His bleeding Son?

4. The Divine glory is wrapped up in it. The Lord cannot break His word, nor forego His designs, nor forget His promises. Think not so. The crown jewels of God are staked and pawned upon the carrying out of the covenant of grace.

5. Furthermore, it is not possible for God to break a covenant. When you and I stand and tremble before a Divine promise for fear it should not be fulfilled, we cast a slur upon the truth, faithfulness, and immutability of God. Has He ever changed? Has He ever been false?

II. This covenant is too often forgotten by us.

1. Are not Gods people at this day chargeable with forgetting the covenant by their unspiritual carelessness?

2. Sometimes, too--and in the case of Israel it was so--we get away from that covenant by wanton sin, or by negligent omission of most delightful duty. This ought to yield in our hearts a harvest of repentance. It should bind us to God with intense affection that should tend towards perpetual sanctification from this day and onward.

3. These people had forgotten their God for another reason, namely, in the depth of their sorrow. A great sorrow stuns men, and makes them forget the best sources of consolation. A little blow will cause great pain; but I have frequently heard in reports of assaults that far more serious blows have occasioned no pain whatever, because they have destroyed consciousness. So do extreme distresses rob men of their wits, and cause them to forget the means of relief. Under the chastening rod, the smart is remembered, and the healing promise is forgotten.

III. Though we forget the covenant, yet God remembers His covenant: He remembered for them His covenant. Even though these people had so grievously provoked Him, He remembers His covenant so as to find in it a reason for pardoning their sin, and dealing with them in a way of mercy. He meets the flood of their sins with the flood of His faithfulness. O friend, God must remember His covenant; fur He can never forget what the making of that covenant has cost Him. It cost Him His Only-begotten: the eternal Son, the Well-beloved, must die the death of the cross that the covenant may be established.

IV. If God remembers for us His covenant, let us remember it. What is the covenant? Here is one form of it: I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be thou perfect. The Lord God Almighty gives Himself up to be our portion, and we are to yield ourselves to Him, to walk before Him in perfect obedience. This also is the covenant: I will be their God, and they shall be My people. Say not, I am poor. Not so, for God is yours, and so all things are yours. Say not, I am weak. Not so, God Almighty is yours: when you are weak, then you are strong. But I have no wisdom. Is not the Lord Jesus made of God unto us wisdom, righteousness, and sanctification? He that hath God hath everything. Wilt thou belittle thy God and limit the Holy One of Israel? Come, find thine all in God. This is thy part of the covenant, to accept God as being to thee what He says He is. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

45. (Psa 106:45) And he has remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the abundance of his mercy. For them, i.e. in their favour, for their benefit. It does not qualify covenant, but remembered. With the first clause compare Lev 26:42; Lev 26:45, Psa 105:8; Psa 105:42; with the second, Num 14:19, Psa 5:7; Psa 69:13, Neh 13:22. The common version of the last word (mercies) rests upon the marginal or masoretic reading; the more ancient text is mercy.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Psalms Translated and Explained (1850) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

106:45 He remembered . . . and relented: Unlike Israel, the Lord is faithful to his covenant (105:8).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Not that God is changeable in himself, but that then he seemeth to us to repent when he altereth his punishment, and forgiveth us.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

45. And he remembered God’s being mindful of his covenant is here assigned as the cause of his great mercy and long-suffering. In that covenant, he not only declares that there is a gracious pardon for transgressions, but he also adverts to the perverse blindness of those who were not brought back by such remedies to the covenant, in which they were well aware that their safety was placed. But above all, he charges them with ingratitude; because, when deserving to perish, they did not acknowledge that they were indebted to the mercy of God alone for their preservation. This observation is strengthened by the next clause of the verse, in which he says that God had spared them according to the greatness of his mercies For the greatness of the punishment which their sins deserved, may be inferred from the great treasures of his loving-kindness, which God had to open in order to procure their redemption. The word to repent expresses no change in God, but only in the mode of administering his corrections. It may seem as if God altered his purpose, when he mitigates punishment, or withdraws his hand from executing his judgments. The Scripture, however, accommodating itself to our weak and limited capacity, speaks only after the manner of men.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

45. Cp. Lev_26:41-42.

repented] Cp. Psa_90:13.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He made them also to be pitied of all those that carried them captives. He not only pitied them himself, but caused them to be pitied by others, even by their enemies; he has the hearts of all men in his hands, and can turn them as he pleases; as he sometimes turned their hearts to hate his people, Psa 105:25, so he turned them to pity them, as he promised he would when they turned to him, Ch2 30:9, so he did, by stirring up Cyrus to proclaim liberty to them, and his successors to encourage and assist in rebuilding their city and temple.

, so he did, by stirring up Cyrus to proclaim liberty to them, and his successors to encourage and assist in rebuilding their city and temple.

Psalms 106:47

psa 106:47

psa 106:47

psa 106:47Save us, O Lord our God,.... Here the psalmist represents the people in captivity, and represents them as praying for deliverance; as well knowing that none but God could save them: and a prayer of this nature, with respect to spiritual salvation, supposes danger, and a sense of it; that they are not able to save themselves, nor any creature able to save them; only the Lord, who is both willing and able; and of this kind is the prayer of faith.

And gather us from among the Heathen; in Babylon, and other countries; See Gill on the title note "Ps 106:1".

To give thanks unto thy holy name; bring us out of captivity to our own land, to Jerusalem, to the temple there to give thanks to thy holy name for the merciful deliverance of us; see Psa 122:4.

And to triumph in thy praise; in thy salvation, in thy wondrous works, worthy of praise; or while praising thee: the word signifies to glory therein; and such who are sensible of the mercies they receive from the Lord will make their boast of him and them, and glory; see Psa 34:1.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

And he remembered for them his covenant - His solemn promises made to their fathers. He remembered that covenant in their behalf; or, on account of that, he came and blessed them. He had made gracious promises to the patriarchs; he had promised to be the God of their posterity; he had his own great purposes to accomplish through their nation in the distant future; and on these accounts, he came and blessed them.

And repented - He averted impending judgments. He checked and arrested the calamities which he was bringing upon them for their sins. He acted toward them as though his mind had been changed; as though he was sorry for what he was doing. The word “repent” can be applied to God in no other sense than this. It cannot be applied to him in the sense that he felt or admitted that he had done wrong; or that he had made a mistake; or that he had changed his mind or purposes; or that he intended to enter on a new course of conduct; but it may be applied to him in the sense that his treatment of people is “as if” he had changed his mind, or “as if” he were sorry for what he had done: that is, a certain course of things which had been commenced, would be arrested and changed to meet existing circumstances, because “they” had changed - though all must have been foreseen and purposed in his eternal counsels.

According to the multitude of his mercies - The greatness of his mercy; the disposition of his nature to show mercy; the repeated instances in which he had shown mercy in similar circumstances.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

His covenant; the covenant made with their father which, notwithstanding their horrible violation of it. made good unto them, and in consideration thereof delivered them.

Repented; changed his course and dealing with them, as penitent persons usually do. See Poole "Gen 6:6".

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ver. 45. And he remembered for them his covenant. The covenant is the sure foundation of mercy, and when the whole fabric of outward grace manifested in the saints lies in ruins this is the fundamental basis of love which is never moved, and upon it the Lord proceeds to build again a new structure of grace. Covenant mercy is sure as the throne of God.

And repented according to the multitude of his mercies. He did not carry out the destruction which he had commenced. Speaking after the manner of men he changed his mind, and did not leave them to their enemies to be utterly cut off, because he saw that his covenant would in such a case have been broken. The Lord is so full of grace that he has not only mercy but mercies, yea a multitude of them, and these hive in the covenant and treasure up good for the erring sons of men.

Psalms 106:46*

Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

45. And he remembered for them his covenant— “Behold the goodness and severity of God!” The closing descriptions of the divine tenderness are exceedingly touching, as his judgments are fearful.

Repented—A term, as applied to God, wholly anthropopathic, and by this accommodation to our infirmity sets forth the divine pity. The word simply means that God changed his administration with regard to them—as if he had changed his feelings—from condign judgment to compassion, in order that by every method he might win them back to him.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And he remembered for them his covenant. According to the promise in Lev_26:42. And repented according to the multitude of his mercies. (comp. Exo_32:14 2Sa_24:16 1Ch_21:15 Jer_26:19, etc.) The expression is anthropomorphic, and must be understood so as not to clash with the declaration, "God is not a man, that he should repent". (1Sa_15:29)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Repented - Changed his course and dealing with them.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

And He remembered His covenant On account of repentance.

and He relented in accordance with His abundant kindness On account of the end, when He heard, “Save us, etc.” Moses, too, included them in one verse (Deut. 4:30): “In this distress that will befall you etc.”

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.