God’s Great Grace – Psalm 106:1-23

“Praise the Lord! O, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord? Who can declare all His praise?” Psalm 106:1-2

God’s good deeds are too numerous to recount and too far beyond us to properly honor. In John 21:25, we read, “There are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”

“God You are good and merciful! Praise You! Thank You!”

“Blessed are those who keep justice, and he who does righteousness at all times!” Psalm 106:3

In Micah 6:8, it is written, “He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?”

God’s people are characterized by sound principles and faithful obedience. They keep judgment by following the wisdom and standards of God’s truth. They practice righteousness, living rightly before both God and others. Their obedience is not occasional but consistent. [1]

“Remember me, O Lord, with the favor You have toward Your people.” Psalm 106:4a

The psalmist asks the Lord to think of him with favor as He does towards His people. The word for favor in Hebrew is רָצוֹן (raw-tsone) which also has the meaning of pleasure, delight and good will. The psalmist wants his heavenly Father to approve of him.

In Matthew 3:17, the heavenly Father said of Jesus, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” When we abide in Christ, believe in Him and profess Him, God is well pleased with us.

“O, visit me with Your salvation, that I may see the benefit of Your chosen ones, that I may rejoice in the gladness of Your nation, that I may glory with Your inheritance.” Psalm 106:4b-5

God’s saving work comes to us in the person of His Chosen One Jesus Messiah. Jesus is the One who confers to us the joy and privilege of belonging to God and His people. It is in Christ that we inherit eternal life, and in that eternity, we shall glory in Him forever.

“We have sinned with our fathers. We have committed iniquity. We have done wickedly. Our fathers in Egypt did not understand Your wonders. They did not remember the multitude of Your mercies but rebelled by the sea—the Red Sea.” Psalm 106:6-7

How did the fathers of the psalmist sin against God? They forgot... they forgot the multitude of God’s mercies toward them. They witnessed God’s miracles in Egypt, yet failed to understand their meaning and purpose. God delivered them from Egyptian slavery to reveal Himself to them and to enjoy fellowship with Him.

The devil wants to replace our love for God with hatred of Him.

In Exodus 14:11-12, they said to Moses, “Have you taken us away to die in the wilderness because there were no graves in Egypt? Why have you so dealt with us, to bring us up out of Egypt? Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, ‘Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians?’ For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness.”

They were ready to abandon God in a moment. The mighty miracles He did among them should have strengthened their loving commitment toward Him.

Likewise, the welcome Jesus received on Palm Sunday contrasts with the rejection of Him six days later on Good Friday. In John 12:37, we read, “Although He had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in Him.” According to Matthew 26:56, on the night Jesus was betrayed, “all the disciples forsook Him and fled.”

“Nevertheless He saved them for His Name’s sake that He might make His mighty power known. He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it dried up. So, He led them through the depths, as through the wilderness. He saved them from the hand of him who hated them and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy. The waters covered their enemies. There was not one of them left.” Psalm 106:8-11

The Israelites had the Egyptians before them and the Red Sea behind them. Most assumed that they would die, but God saved them. The sea that became a path to life for Israel became a grave for Egypt. In Exodus 14:30, we read, “So the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.” [2]

God showed mercy to an unbelieving and complaining people to magnify His Name in them.

In Deuteronomy 7:7-8, we read, “The Lord did not set His love on you [Israel] nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”

In 1 Corinthians 1:27-29, it is written, “God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly and despised things of the world, and the things that are not, to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast in His presence.”

The apostle Paul wrote in Romans 7:24-25, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” God chose Israel, He chose Paul and He chose me because we all needed His great grace to survive and thrive.

God’s greatness was revealed in dividing the sea and in showing mercy to people who provoked Him. God’s power to forgive sin is every bit as marvelous as His power to do miracles. [3]

In Mark 2:9-11, Jesus said to His critics, “Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise, take up your bed and walk?’ But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins—He said to the paralytic, ‘I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.’”

We cannot visibly see sins forgiven by God but we can see the outcomes of His forgiveness.

“Then they believed His Words. They sang His praise.” Psalm 106:12

After God parted the Red Sea and drowned the Egyptian army, Israel believed God’s words. In Exodus 14:31, we read, “Thus Israel saw the great work which the Lord had done in Egypt. So the people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord and His servant Moses.” In Exodus 15:1, they sang God’s praise.

“They soon forgot His works. They did not wait for His counsel...” Psalm 106:13

In Romans 10:17, it is written, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” God’s Word contains the accounts of reliable witnesses who saw what God did, and heard what He said. In Joshua 1:8, the Lord said to Joshua, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” Joshua believed God and prospered.

“...But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tested God in the desert.” Psalm 106:14

While in the wilderness, Israel missed the pleasures of Egypt. According to the World History Encyclopedia, the Egypt that Israel escaped was a center of sensuality. Archaeological and textual evidence demonstrates that the Egyptians embraced pleasure and eroticism. God got Israel out of Egypt rather quickly compared to how long it took Him to get Egypt out of Israel. The lustful habits they learned in Egypt continued to plague their relationship with God.

“And He gave them their request but sent leanness into their soul.” Psalm 106:15

Leanness of soul is a sign that something is wrong with one’s relationship with God. In 1 John 3:6, it is written, “Whoever abides in Him does not sin.” The key to victory over sin is to abide in Christ. In John 15:4, Jesus said, “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.”

In Romans 1:28, Paul wrote, “Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting.” Romans 1:29-31 lists the sinful desires that people can be filled with when they don’t want to abide in Christ.

“When they envied Moses in the camp, and Aaron the saint of the Lord, the earth opened up and swallowed Dathan, and covered the faction of Abiram. A fire was kindled in their company. The flame burned up the wicked.” Psalm 106:16-18

In Numbers 15:32-36, a man gathered sticks on the Sabbath Day. He was arrested and brought to Moses and Aaron. The Lord told Moses that the congregation must stone him to death, and they did. After that, in Numbers 16, Korah, Dathan and Abiram along with 250 leaders rebelled against Moses and Aaron. What did God do? He opened earth and these men and their families went down into it. This event foreshadows what happens in eternity to those who rebel against Christ and His Word.

“They made a calf in Horeb and worshiped the molded image. Thus they changed their glory into the image of an ox that eats grass. They forgot God their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt, wondrous works in the land of Ham, awesome things by the Red Sea.” Psalm 106:19-22

In 1 Corinthians 10:6-8, Paul wrote, “Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. And do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, ‘The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.’ Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day 23,000 fell.”

“Therefore He said that He would destroy them, had not Moses His chosen one stood before Him in the breach, to turn away His wrath, lest He destroy them.” Psalm 106:23

In Exodus 32:30, Moses said to the people, “You have committed a terrible sin, but I will go back up to the Lord on the mountain. Perhaps I will be able to obtain forgiveness for your sin.”

Like Israel, we have sinned and need God’s forgiveness. In Romans 3:23, it is written, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” We need someone to stand in the gap for us.

In Luke 24:34, Jesus atoned for our sins. While on the cross He prayed for us, saying, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” Thus, in Romans 8:1, it is written, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” It is in Christ that God forgives our sins. It is in Christ that His Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us and to fill us with love for God and for people.

1 John 4:7 says, “Love is from God.” 1 John 4:19 says, “We love because He first loved us.” We know that God loves us because of what Jesus did for us on the cross and in His resurrection. Thus, knowing our sins are forgiven and that God loves us, we can focus on loving those around us. In Galatians 5:14, it is written, “The entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” Praise the Lord, being loved and loving others is a great way to live!


[1-3] Material developed and edited from Matthew Henry’s Commentary