1 Hallelujah! Give thanks to the Lord for his goodness, for his kindness endures forever. Who can describe his heroic deeds, or publish all his praise? Happy they who act justly, and do righteousness evermore. Remember me, Lord, as you remember your people, and visit me with your gracious help.
Jerome · AD 420 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. O you who sin grievously, and despair of your own salvation, and think that because of the greatness of your sins you cannot obtain pardon: I command you — that is, the prophet does — give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. Great are your sins: but great is the Lord, who has mercy on you. Give thanks, therefore, to the Lord.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 [Jesus] was granting pardon; but while he was granting it he raised his face to her and said, "Has no one stoned you?" And she did not say, "Why? What have I done, Lord? I am not guilty, am I?" She did not say that; what she said was, "No one, Lord." She accused herself. They had been unable to prove it against her and had withdrawn.
5 May I see the good fortune of your elect, may I share in the joy of your nation, and in the pride of your heritage.
6 We, like our fathers, have sinned, we have done perversely and wickedly
Jerome · AD 420 We have sinned with our fathers. As sons we have followed our fathers: we have done what our fathers also did. 'For he has shut up all under sin, that he might have mercy on all.' We have acted unjustly, we have committed iniquity. Note carefully what he says: We have sinned with our fathers, we have acted unjustly, we have committed iniquity.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 But let us hear what they next confess: "we have sinned with our fathers: we have done amiss, and dealt wickedly" [Psalm 106:6]. What means "with our fathers"?..."Our fathers," he says, "regarded not Your wonders in Egypt" [Psalm 106:7]; and many other things also, he does relate of their sins.
7 In the land of Egypt our fathers, all heedless of your wonders, and unmindful of your great kindness, at the Red Sea defied the Most High.
Jerome · AD 420 Our fathers in Egypt did not understand your wonders. They saw, and they did not see: they saw with the eyes of the flesh, and with spiritual eyes they did not see. He did not say, they did not see: but, they did not understand.
8 But true to his name he saved them, in order to show his might.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 He adds, that God acted not according to their unbelief. "Nevertheless," he says, "He saved them for His Name's sake: that He might make His power to be known": not on account of any deservings of their own.
9 He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried; they marched through the depths as through desert,
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it was dried up" [Psalm 106:9]. We do not read that any voice was sent forth from Heaven to rebuke the sea; but he has called the Divine Power by which this was effected, a rebuke: unless indeed any one may choose to say, that the sea was secretly rebuked, so that the waters might hear, and yet men could not.
10 saved from the hand of the hostile, redeemed from the hand of the foe.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "And He saved them from the hating ones" [Psalm 106:10]. Some translators, in order to avoid an expression unusual in Latin, have rendered the word, by a circumlocution, "And He saved them from the hand of those that hated them, and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy." What price was given in this redemption?
11 The waters covered their enemies: not one of them was left.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "As for those that troubled them, the waters overwhelmed them: there was not one of them left" [Psalm 106:11]; not of all the Egyptians, but of those who pursued the departing Israelites, desirous either of taking or of killing them.
12 So then they believed in his words, and began to sing his praise.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "Then believed they in His words" (ver. 12). The expression seemeth barely Latin, for he saith not "believed His word," or "on His words," but "in His words;" yet it is very frequent in Scripture.
13 But soon they forgot his deeds: they did not wait for his counsel.
Pachomius the Great · AD 348 Three days after our father Theodore died, when all the brothers were in deep mourning, our father Horsiesi became ill from grief over the death of our father Theodore of happy memory. Then some of the elderly brothers, including Apa [Pgentaesi] and Apa Pachomius, strongly urged Apa Horsiesi to go and speak some words of comfort to the brothers.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "They acted hastily: they forgot His works" (ver. 13): other copies read more intelligibly, "They hastened, they forgot His works, and would not abide His counsel." For they ought to have thought, that so great works of God towards themselves were not without a purpose, but that they invited them to some endless happiness, which was to be waited for with patience; but they hast…
14 Their greed was ravenous in the desert; they put God to the test in the wilderness.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 Lastly, "And they lusted a lust in the wilderness, and they tempted God in the dry land" (ver. 14). The "dry land," or land without water, and "desert," are the same: so also are, "they lusted a lust," and, "they tempted God." The form of speech is the same as above, "they praised a praise."
Philoxenus of Mabbug · AD 523 That they sought flesh lustfully, and asked for it with lust, David testifieth, saying, "They lusted with lust in the wilderness, and they tempted God in the waterless desert, And He gave them their requests, and sent fulness into their souls." And in the place where they required flesh it is written that, "The people said to Moses, It was better for us when we were in Egypt, f…
15 He gave them the thing they had asked for, but sent wasting disease among them.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "And He gave them their desire, and sent fullness withal into their souls" [Psalm 106:15]. But He did not thus render them happy: for it was not that fullness of which it is said, "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled." [Matthew 5:6] In this passage he does not speak of the rational soul, but of the soul as giving animal life…
16 The camp grew jealous of Moses and of Aaron, holy one of the Lord.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "And they angered Moses in the tents, and Aaron the saint of the Lord" [Psalm 106:16]. What angering, or, as some have more literally rendered it, what provocation, he speaks of, the following words sufficiently show.
17 The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, and covered Abiram’s company.
Pachomius the Great · AD 348 What shall I say of Adam who, at the beginning of the human race, gave the first example of disobedience and contempt? To him was given power over all the beasts of the earth, just as everything is to be given twofold to the firstborn.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "The earth opened," he says, "and swallowed up Dathan, and covered over the congregation of Abiram" [Psalm 106:17]: "swallowed up" answers to "covered over." Both Dathan and Abiram were equally concerned in a most sacrilegious schism.
18 Fire broke out on their company, flame kindled upon the wicked.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "And the fire was kindled in their company; the flame burnt up the sinners" [Psalm 106:18]. This word is not in Scripture usually applied to those, who, although they live righteously, and in a praiseworthy manner, are not without sin.
19 They made a calf in Horeb, and bowed to the molten image.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "And they made a calf in Horeb, and worshipped the graven image" (ver. 19). "Thus they changed their glory, in the similitude of a calf that eateth hay" (ver. 20). He saith not "into" the likeness, but "in" the likeness.
20 They exchanged their glorious God for the image of ox that eats grass.
21 They forgot the God who had saved them by mighty deeds in Egypt
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "They forgat God who saved them" [Psalm 106:21]. How did He save them? "Who did so great things in Egypt: Wondrous works in the land of Ham, and fearful things in the Red Sea" [Psalm 106:22].
22 Wonders in the land of Ham, terrors by the Red Sea.
23 So he vowed, and would have destroyed them, but for Moses his elect, who stepped into the breach before him, to divert his deadly wrath.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "So He said, He would have destroyed them" (ver. 23). Since they forgot Him who saved them, the Worker of wondrous works, and made and worshipped a graven image, by this atrocious and incredible impiety they deserved death.
24 They spurned the delightsome land, they refused to believe in his word.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "Yea, they thought scorn of that pleasant land" [Psalm 106:24]. But had they seen it? How then could they scorn that which they had not seen, except as the following words explain, "and believed not in His words." Indeed, unless that land which was styled the land that flowed with milk and honey, [Exodus 3:8] signified something great, through which, as by a visible token, He w…
25 They grumbled in their tents, would not listen to the voice of the Lord.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "But murmured in their tents, and hearkened not unto the voice of the Lord" [Psalm 106:25]; who strongly forbade them to murmur.
26 So he swore with uplifted hand to lay them low in the wilderness;
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "Then lift He up His hand against them, to overthrow them in the wilderness" [Psalm 106:26]; "to cast out their seed among the nations: and to scatter them in the lands" [Psalm 106:27].
27 to disperse their seed among heathen, to scatter them over the world.
28 Then they joined them to Baal of Peor, and ate what was offered the dead.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "They were initiated also unto Baalpeor;" that is, were consecrated to the Gentile idol; "and ate the offerings of the dead" [Psalm 106:28].
29 They provoked him to wrath by their deeds, and plague broke out among them.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "Thus they provoked Him to anger with their own inventions; and destruction was multiplied among them" (ver. 29). As if He had deferred the lifting up of His hand which was to cast them down in the desert, and to cast out their seed among the nations, and to scatter them in the lands; as the Apostle saith: "And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gav…
30 Then Phinehas stood between, and so the plague was stayed;
John Chrysostom · AD 407 Tell me this. Will you still dare to call Jesus an imposter and lawbreaker? Will you not instead go off and bury yourselves somewhere, when you look the facts in the face, since their truth is so obvious? If Jesus were an imposter and lawbreaker, as you say he was, you should have been held in high honor for putting him to death.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "Then stood up Phineas, and appeased Him, and the shaking ceased" [Psalm 106:30]. He has related the whole briefly, because he is not here teaching the ignorant, but reminding those who know the history. The word "shaking" here is the same as "breaking" before. For it is one word in the Greek.
31 and it was counted to him for righteousness unto all generations forever.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "And that was counted unto him for righteousness among all posterities for evermore" [Psalm 106:31]. God counted this unto His Priest for righteousness, not only as long as posterity shall exist, but "for evermore;" for He who knows the heart, knows how to weigh with how much love for the people that deed was done.
32 They angered him at the waters of Meribah, through them it went ill with Moses.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "And they angered Him at the waters of strife: so that Moses was vexed for their sakes" (ver. 32); "because they provoked his spirit, so that he spake doubtfully with his lips" (ver. 33). What is spake doubtfully? As if God, who had done so great wonders before, could not cause water to flow from a rock.
33 They rebelled against his spirit, and he uttered speech that was rash.
34 They did not destroy the nations, as the Lord had commanded them;
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 But they of whose iniquities this Psalm speaks, when they had entered into that temporal land of promise, "destroyed not the heathen, which the Lord commanded them" [Psalm 106:34]; "but were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works" [Psalm 106:35]. "Insomuch that they worshipped their idols, which became to them an offense" [Psalm 106:36].
35 but they mingled with the heathen, and learned to do as they did.
36 Their idol gods they worshipped, and they were ensnared by them.
37 They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "Yea, they offered their sons and their daughters unto devils" [Psalm 106:37]; "and shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they offered unto the idols of Canaan" [Psalm 106:38].
38 They poured out innocent blood the blood of their sons and daughters whom they offered to Canaan’s idols, and the land was polluted with blood.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 But what is it that follows? "And the land was slain with bloods." We might suppose that this was a mistake of the writer, and that he had written interfecta for infecta, were it not for the goodness of God, who has willed His Scriptures to be written in many languages; were it not that we see it written as in the text in many Greek copies which we have inspected; "the land was…
Bonaventure · AD 1257 The first plague was of blood, by which idolaters were struck, because the Psalm says of them: "They poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan."
39 They became unclean by their works, and adulterous in their deeds.
40 Then the Lord’s fury was on his people, filled with horror at his inheritance.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "Therefore was the wrath of the Lord kindled against His own people" [Psalm 106:40]. Our translators have been unwilling to use the word anger, for the Greek θυμὸς; though some have used it; while others translate by "indignation" or "mind." Whichever of these terms be adopted, passion does not affect God; but the power of punishing has assumed this name metaphorically from cus…
41 He delivered them to the heathen, to the sway of those who hated them.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "Insomuch that He abhorred His own inheritance; and He gave them over into the hand of the heathen: and they that hated them were lords over them" [Psalm 106:41]: "and their enemies oppressed them, and they were brought low under their hands" [Psalm 106:42].
42 Their enemies oppressed them, and subdued them under their hand.
43 Many a time he saved them, but they rebelled at his counsel, and were brought low by their wrongdoing.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 Lastly, he saith, "Many a time did He deliver them." "But they provoked Him with their own counsels" (ver. 43). This is what he said above, "They did not abide His counsel." Now a man's counsel is pernicious to himself, when he seeketh those things which are his own only, not those which are God's.
44 Yet he looked upon their distress, when he heard their cry.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 Nevertheless, God, full of mercy, forsook them not. "And He saw when they were in adversity, when He heard their complaint" [Psalm 106:44]. "And He thought upon His covenant, and repented, according to the multitude of His mercies" [Psalm 106:45]. He says, "He repented," because He changed that wherewith He seemed about to destroy them.
45 He remembered his covenant, and, in his great kindness, relented.
46 He caused them to be pitied by all who carried them captive.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 So "He gave them unto compassions, in the sight of all that had taken them captive" [Psalm 106:46]. That they might not be vessels of wrath, but vessels of mercy. [Romans 9:22-23] The compassions unto which He gave them are named in the plural for this reason, I imagine, because each one has a gift of his own from God, one in one way, another in another.
47 Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us out of the nations, to give thanks to your holy name, and to make our boast of your praise. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. And let all the people say “Amen.” Praise the Lord.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 You see, while Jesus did not go to the nations himself, he sent the disciples. That was the fulfillment of what the prophet said, "A people I never knew has served me." Notice how profound, how clear, how explicit a prophecy this is: "A people I never knew"—that means one I had not presented myself to in person—"has served me." How?