Psalms 106 - Introduction

The author of this psalm is unknown, and the occasion on which it was composed cannot now be ascertained. It belongs to the same “class” as Psalms 78; Psalms 105; as referring to the ancient history of the Hebrew people, and as deriving lessons of instruction, admonition, gratitude and praise from that history. The cvth Psalm referred to that history particularly as showing the mercy and favor of God to that people, and hence, their obligation to love and serve him; this psalm is occupied mainly with a confession, drawn from a review of that history, that the nation had not been mindful of those mercies, but that they had rebelled against God, and incurred his displeasure. The psalm has a striking resemblance in many respects to the prayer in Daniel 9; and, like that, is a prayer that God would now interpose and deliver the people as in times that were past. It is possible that the psalm may have been composed in the time of the Babylonian captivity (compare Psalms 106:47), and this is the opinion of Hengstenberg; but it is impossible to demonstrate this with any certainty. It was evidently composed in some period of public calamity, and there is no impropriety in supposing that it may have been then.

The psalm consists essentially of three parts:

I. A brief introduction, setting forth the duty of praising God, and referring to his mercy, and expressing the desire of the author of the psalm that he himself might participate in his mercy, and share the happy lot of the “chosen” of God, Psalms 106:1.

II. A reference to the history of the nation, and a confession of their sins in all the periods of their history, and their proneness as a people to disobey God, referring particularly to their history in Egypt, Psalms 106:6; in the desert, Psalms 106:13; and in the land of Canaan, Psalms 106:34.

III. A prayer - founded on the fact that God had often interposed in their behalf - that he would now again interpose, and gather them from among the pagan, that they might again sing his praises, Psalms 106:44.