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Psalm 106 (LXX 105) - Give Thanks to the Lord, for He Is Good

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This narration is from a previous version of the study. The text on this page is current.

Psalm 106 is the Psalm of covenant memory turned into corporate repentance. It does not flatter Israel. Even after the Red Sea, manna, covenant, and mercy, the people still run after idols, lust, murmuring, unbelief, and compromise. Yet the last word is not apostasy but mercy. The Lord remembers His covenant, looks upon affliction, and shows compassion even among the captors. The scattered people still pray to be gathered, and all the people are called to answer Amen.

Beside Psalm 105 (LXX 104), which rehearses the Lord’s mighty acts, this Psalm confesses the people’s recurring rebellion. St Augustine hears its prayer for visitation in the light of Christ: “Visit us, then, with Your salvation, that is, with Your Christ.”1 The Psalm teaches the Church not to excuse sin, but to confess it honestly before the God whose covenant mercy is stronger than our unfaithfulness.

Psalm 106 (LXX 105) - Give Thanks to the Lord, for He Is Good

Psalm Metadata

FieldNotes
NKJV / Masoretic numberingPsalm 106
Septuagint / Coptic numberingPsalm 105
Accepted authorNo human author is named in the superscription, which reads Alleluia.
Period in author’s lifeNo precise life event is given; the Psalm is a liturgical confession and prayer for restoration, likely from the period of the exile or return.
Christ prophecy statusTypological and ecclesial. The confession of sin and the prayer for restoration point toward Christ, who bears the sins of His people and brings the true and final restoration.
Coptic lectionary/service useDocumented Wednesday of the first week of the Holy Fifty Days Liturgy selects the praise and mighty-acts words of Brenton LXX 105:1-2; its Gospel is John 2:12-25.
Numbering issueThe embedded text is Brenton LXX Psalm 105. The documented service prints Psalm 106:1 and Psalm 106:2; it selects the substantive words of Brenton 105:1-2 without the Alleluia superscription.

Historical and Scriptural Context

Psalm 106 stands beside Psalm 105 as a companion historical prayer. Where Psalm 105 magnifies the Lord’s fidelity from Abraham through the Exodus, Psalm 106 remembers His works alongside the people’s infidelity at the sea, in the wilderness, at Horeb, at Baal-peor, at Meribah, and in the land. Remembering grace gives the people courage to tell the truth about themselves.

Augustine says it is better “to accuse even the sins of ignorance and negligence” than to excuse them.2 He calls for humble confession and prayer for God’s help when people have failed to understand or remember what they should. He is not saying that every unwitting mistake carries the same guilt. The history trains the Church in truthful repentance, not despair: we can acknowledge sin because we are calling upon the merciful Lord.

Geographical Significance ⛰️

The geography moves from Egypt and the Red Sea through the wilderness, Horeb, Baal-peor, and the waters of Strife to the desirable land. The Psalm ends with the people scattered among the nations. Their prayer for gathering is spoken from that place of need.

🕯️ Light from the Word

Psalm 105:1-5, Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good

105:1 Alleluia. Give thanks to the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endures for ever. 105:2 Who shall tell the mighty acts of the Lord? who shall cause all his praises to be heard? 105:3 Blessed are they that keep judgment, and do righteousness at all times. 105:4 Remember us, O Lord, with the favour thou hast to thy people: visit us with thy salvation; 105:5 that we may behold the good of thine elect, that we may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation, that we may glory with thine inheritance.

The Psalm begins with thanksgiving, not an inventory of failures. Its question about the Lord’s mighty acts enlarges praise: who could tell them all? The confession that follows is offered to the God whose goodness and enduring mercy have already been named.

The Psalm blesses those who keep judgment and do righteousness, then asks God to remember and visit His people so that they may share the joy of His inheritance. Righteousness matters, and the prayer asks for God’s help to live the life it praises. In the visitation Augustine recognizes Christ, who forgives and heals, enabling His people to walk in righteousness. Salvation is sought as a gift to be shared with God’s people, not as a private escape.

Psalm 105:6-12, We have sinned with our fathers

105:6 We have sinned with our fathers, we have transgressed, we have done unrighteously. 105:7 Our fathers in Egypt understood not thy wonders, and remembered not the multitude of thy mercy; but provoked him as they went up by the Red Sea. 105:8 Yet he saved them for his name’s sake, that he might cause his mighty power to be known. 105:9 And he rebuked the Red Sea, and it was dried up: so he led them through the deep as through the wilderness. 105:10 And he saved them out of the hand of them that hated them, and redeemed them out of the hand of the enemy. 105:11 The water covered those that oppressed them: there was not one of them left. 105:12 Then they believed his words, and celebrated his praise.

“We have sinned with our fathers” joins the present worshippers to the history they confess. They do not stand at a safe distance, blaming ancestors for everything; they admit their own need for mercy. Remembering is more than recalling a story. It means allowing what God has done to shape the way we respond to Him now.

The people did not remember the multitude of His mercy. “Yet he saved them”: the turn in verse 8 rests on the Lord’s name and power, not on a catalogue of their achievements. He makes a way through the deep, and their response is belief and praise. Christians can also hear in the crossing an image of Baptism and the deliverance given in Christ (1 Corinthians 10:1-2), without losing sight of the historical rescue the Psalm remembers.

Psalm 105:13-23, They made haste, they forgot his works

105:13 They made haste, they forgot his works; they waited not for his counsel. 105:14 And they lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the dry land. 105:15 And he gave them their request, and sent fulness into their souls. 105:16 They provoked Moses also in the camp, and Aaron the holy one of the Lord. 105:17 The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, and closed upon the congregation of Abiron. 105:18 And a fire was kindled in their congregation, and a flame burnt up the sinners. 105:19 And they made a calf in Choreb, and worshipped the graven image, 105:20 and they changed their glory into the similitude of a calf that feeds on grass. 105:21 They forgot God that saved them, who had wrought great deeds in Egypt; 105:22 wondrous works in the land of Cham, and terrible things at the Red Sea. 105:23 So he said that he would have destroyed them, had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach, to turn him away from the fierceness of his anger, so that he should not destroy them.

The people hurry to forget and do not wait for the Lord’s counsel. Verse 15 says that He grants their request and sends “fulness” into their souls: the displayed text speaks of satiety. Receiving what they demanded did not by itself teach them trust. The warning concerns desire that has displaced reliance on God, not the ordinary need for food.

The calf exposes the cost of forgetting. The people exchange “their glory” for the likeness of an animal that itself needs grass to live. The God who saved them is not diminished, but they turn from Him to an image of a dependent creature. The account of the earth opening and the fire also refuses to treat rebellion as harmless.

Moses stands in the breach when destruction threatens. Theodoret recalls the prayer in which Moses asks forgiveness for the people and places himself alongside them.3 His intercession does not call the calf harmless; he brings the people and their sin before God. Christians see this costly solidarity pointing beyond Moses to Christ, who offers Himself for His people and intercedes for them.

Psalm 105:24-48, They set at nought the desirable land

105:24 Moreover they set at nought the desirable land, and believed not his word. 105:25 And they murmured in their tents: they hearkened not to the voice of the Lord. 105:26 So he lifted up his hand against them, to cast them down in the wilderness; 105:27 and to cast down their seed among the nations, and to scatter them in the countries. 105:28 They were joined also to Beelphegor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead. And they provoked him with their devices; 105:29 and destruction was multiplied among them. 105:30 Then Phinees stood up, and made atonement: and the plague ceased. 105:31 And it was counted to him for righteousness, to all generations for ever. 105:32 They provoked him also at the water of Strife, and Moses was hurt for their sakes; 105:33 for they provoked his spirit, and he spoke unadvisedly with his lips. 105:34 They destroyed not the nations which the Lord told them to destroy; 105:35 but were mingled with the heathen, and learned their works. 105:36 And they served their graven images; and it became an offence to them. 105:37 And they sacrificed their sons and their daughters to devils, 105:38 and shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Chanaan; and the land was defiled with blood, 105:39 and was polluted with their works; and they went a whoring with their own devices. 105:40 So the Lord was very angry with his people, and he abhorred his inheritance. 105:41 And he delivered them into the hands of their enemies; and they that hated them ruled over them. 105:42 And their enemies oppressed them, and they were brought down under their hands. 105:43 Many a time he delivered them; but they provoked him by their counsel, and they were brought low by their iniquities. 105:44 Yet the Lord looked upon their affliction, when he heard their petition. 105:45 And he remembered his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his mercy. 105:46 And he caused them to be pitied in the sight of all who carried them captive. 105:47 Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from among the heathen, that we may give thanks to thy holy name, that we may glory in thy praise. 105:48 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting and to everlasting; and all the people shall say, Amen, Amen.

The people despise the desirable land because they do not believe the Lord’s word. Their murmuring is paired with a refusal to listen. Fear can be real, but the Psalm invites the worshipper to bring fear before God rather than dismiss His promise.

At Baal-peor Phinehas, called Phinees in Brenton, intervenes, and the plague ceases. Numbers 25 recounts a killing, and the Psalm counts his action as righteousness in that history. Augustine understands his act as zeal for the people; he also contrasts Christ’s milder New Testament discipline with the severity of final judgment.4

Later the Psalm remembers the command to destroy the nations and traces Israel’s disobedience into serving idols and sacrificing children. It calls the children’s blood innocent. Neither this historical judgment nor the rejection of idolatry licenses private violence or ethnic contempt. Christian zeal finds expression in repentance, intercession, and protection of the vulnerable.

At the waters of Strife the people provoke Moses, and he speaks unadvisedly. The Psalm acknowledges both the pressure upon him and his own words. Those entrusted with leadership, too, need prayer and honest accountability; provocation does not make their response unimportant.

The history then moves through judgment and repeated deliverance to another “Yet”: the Lord sees their affliction and hears their petition. Theodoret relates this mercy to God’s promises to the ancestors and understands His “repented” as the ending of correction, not a change in God’s moral character.5 God is neither fickle nor correcting an error. His relenting shows His covenant mercy at work among people in distress. This account of judgment is not a license to treat someone’s illness or suffering as proof of personal sin.

The ending makes a careful distinction. The Lord has caused the captives to receive pity from those who carried them away, but the people still ask Him to save and gather them. Their purpose is thanksgiving and praise, and the whole people are called to answer Amen. Christians know Christ gathering people from every nation into His Church. That hope does not erase the Psalm’s prayer for a scattered people or pretend that its requested return has already been narrated.

The Church’s Voice in Worship 📖

In the Liturgy documented for April 22, 2020, Wednesday of the first week of the Holy Fifty Days, the service prints Psalm 106:1 and Psalm 106:2. Its Psalm text corresponds to the praise and mighty-acts words of Brenton LXX 105:1-2, without the Alleluia superscription. The Gospel in the same Liturgy is John 2:12-25.

The Psalm asks who can tell all the Lord’s mighty acts. In the Gospel, Jesus cleanses the temple and speaks of raising the temple of His body; after His resurrection, His disciples remember and understand His words. In the light of the risen Christ, the Psalm’s thanksgiving invites us to wonder at the Lord’s saving work. Christ’s cleansing of the temple is not permission for private violence.

Iconography Connection 🖼️

The Exodus and the golden calf recall both deliverance and human forgetfulness. An icon of the Crucifixion invites us to remember Christ, who gives Himself for His people. Moses stands in the breach; Christ offers His own life to reconcile us to the Father.

Spiritual Fruit 🍇

  1. Give thanks for enduring mercy. Name a gift of God in prayer before turning to what remains difficult or unresolved.

  2. Confess sin honestly. Rather than blaming those who came before you, acknowledge your own part, seek God’s forgiveness, and make amends where you can.

  3. Remember the mighty acts of God. Return to the story of His deliverance when haste or fear makes His care easy to forget.

  4. Stand in the breach. Pray for people caught in conflict and seek their good. Christian zeal protects rather than harms.

  5. Pray for gathering. Bring divisions and estrangement before the Lord without pretending they are already healed, and ask to join His people in thanksgiving.

Footnotes

  1. St Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 106, §5, New Advent. ↩

  2. St Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 106, §6, New Advent. ↩

  3. Theodoret of Cyrus, Commentary on Psalm 106, §9, translated by Robert C. Hill, p. 183. ↩

  4. St Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 106, §§24-25, New Advent. ↩

  5. Theodoret of Cyrus, Commentary on Psalm 106, §15, translated by Robert C. Hill, p. 186. ↩

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