God’s Blessings in Spite of Israel’s Unfaithfulness
This psalm, whose author is not known, gives a detailed confession of the sins of Israel, as contrasted with the wonders of God’s mercy, the conclusion being a supplication for God’s favor.
V. 1. Praise ye the Lord, for the attitude of praise should characterize the believers at all times. O give thanks unto the Lord; for He is good, He has revealed himself to men in the beauty of His goodness; for His mercy endureth forever, the hand of His merciful kindness is always extended in a loving appeal to all men.
V. 2. Who can utter, fully declare, sufficiently describe, the mighty acts of the Lord, as He manifested them in the power of His mercy, for the salvation of men? Who can show forth all His praise, the glory of His essence as He revealed Himself in history?
V. 3. Blessed are they that keep judgment, observing the demands of right and justice, and He that doeth righteousness at all times, in accordance with the holy will of the Lord.
V. 4. Remember me, O Lord, the psalmist here seeking the application of God’s blessings to Himself, with the favor, the unmerited affection and good pleasure, that Thou bearest unto Thy people: O visit with Thy salvation, letting the inspired singer have the assurance that he also is included in the saving grace of the Lord, v. 5. that I may see the good of Thy chosen, taking part in the blessings which God had promised to Israel, the nation of His choice, that I may rejoice in the gladness of Thy nation, that I may glory with Thine inheritance, boasting of the favor of the Lord as shown in His many miracles in their behalf. Note that four different names are given to Israel in these two verses, all of them denoting the close fellowship which the Lord intended between Himself and them. But now follows the recital of Israel’s trespasses.
V. 6. We have sinned with our fathers, the present generation following their fathers in wickedness, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly, all of them forming one mass of corruption and the terms denoting a rising gradation of sinning. Note the emphatic “we,” which is essential for a full and free confession of sins.
V. 7. Our fathers understood not Thy wonders in Egypt, they did not realize the Lord’s purpose or the fullness of His divine favor; they remembered not the multitude of Thy mercies, but provoked Him, rather, they showed themselves rebellious, at the sea, even at the Red Sea, all the miracles of the Lord for their deliverance having been forgotten in this short space of time.
V. 8. Nevertheless He saved them, in spite of their ungrateful behavior He delivered them, for His name’s sake, without any merit or worthiness on their part, solely with the intention of keeping His glory untarnished, that He might make His mighty power to be known, and thus be exalted in the eyes of men everywhere.
V. 9. He rebuked the Red Sea also, which apparently obstructed their way to liberty, and it was dried up; so He led them through the depths, the bed of the sea, as through the wilderness, ordinary plain country. V. 10. And He saved them from the hand of him that hated them, Pharaoh of the exodus, and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy. V. 11. And the waters covered their enemies; there was not one of them left, Ex. 14, 21-31. V. 12. Then believed they His words, for God constrained even such a hard-hearted people to turn to Him in momentary faith; they sang His praise, Ex. 15, 1-21.