Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 106:45

And he remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his mercies.

45. Cp. Lev 26:41-42.

repented ] Cp. Psa 90:13.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

And he remembered for them his covenant – His solemn promises made to their fathers. He remembered that covenant in their behalf; or, on account of that, he came and blessed them. He had made gracious promises to the patriarchs; he had promised to be the God of their posterity; he had his own great purposes to accomplish through their nation in the distant future; and on these accounts, he came and blessed them.

And repented – He averted impending judgments. He checked and arrested the calamities which he was bringing upon them for their sins. He acted toward them as though his mind had been changed; as though he was sorry for what he was doing. The word repent can be applied to God in no other sense than this. It cannot be applied to him in the sense that he felt or admitted that he had done wrong; or that he had made a mistake; or that he had changed his mind or purposes; or that he intended to enter on a new course of conduct; but it may be applied to him in the sense that his treatment of people is as if he had changed his mind, or as if he were sorry for what he had done: that is, a certain course of things which had been commenced, would be arrested and changed to meet existing circumstances, because they had changed – though all must have been foreseen and purposed in his eternal counsels.

According to the multitude of his mercies – The greatness of his mercy; the disposition of his nature to show mercy; the repeated instances in which he had shown mercy in similar circumstances.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Psa 106:45

He remembered for them His covenant.

—

Gods remembrance of His covenant

I. Then the covenant exists.

1. The covenant is in its own nature everlasting. By everything that is permanent in the universe, and by everything that is permanent in the Godhead, we are made to know that the covenant of grace is a fixed and settled thing, and abides to-day as it ever has done; for there is no variableness nor turning with Him from whom every good gift comes down. The promises in Christ Jesus are Yea and Amen, to the glory of God by us. Heaven and earth shall pass away; but not one jot or tittle of the law shall fail, much less shall the covenant of Divine grace be disannulled.

2. Well may the covenant of grace be everlasting, for it was made with deliberation and foresight. God made it, knowing all that would happen in time or eternity.

3. The covenant was sealed and ratified in the most solemn manner. Jesus has gone into heaven bearing with Him the blood of sprinkling. Can God deny His promise to His bleeding Son?

4. The Divine glory is wrapped up in it. The Lord cannot break His word, nor forego His designs, nor forget His promises. Think not so. The crown jewels of God are staked and pawned upon the carrying out of the covenant of grace.

5. Furthermore, it is not possible for God to break a covenant. When you and I stand and tremble before a Divine promise for fear it should not be fulfilled, we cast a slur upon the truth, faithfulness, and immutability of God. Has He ever changed? Has He ever been false?

II. This covenant is too often forgotten by us.

1. Are not Gods people at this day chargeable with forgetting the covenant by their unspiritual carelessness?

2. Sometimes, too–and in the case of Israel it was so–we get away from that covenant by wanton sin, or by negligent omission of most delightful duty. This ought to yield in our hearts a harvest of repentance. It should bind us to God with intense affection that should tend towards perpetual sanctification from this day and onward.

3. These people had forgotten their God for another reason, namely, in the depth of their sorrow. A great sorrow stuns men, and makes them forget the best sources of consolation. A little blow will cause great pain; but I have frequently heard in reports of assaults that far more serious blows have occasioned no pain whatever, because they have destroyed consciousness. So do extreme distresses rob men of their wits, and cause them to forget the means of relief. Under the chastening rod, the smart is remembered, and the healing promise is forgotten.

III. Though we forget the covenant, yet God remembers His covenant: He remembered for them His covenant. Even though these people had so grievously provoked Him, He remembers His covenant so as to find in it a reason for pardoning their sin, and dealing with them in a way of mercy. He meets the flood of their sins with the flood of His faithfulness. O friend, God must remember His covenant; fur He can never forget what the making of that covenant has cost Him. It cost Him His Only-begotten: the eternal Son, the Well-beloved, must die the death of the cross that the covenant may be established.

IV. If God remembers for us His covenant, let us remember it. What is the covenant? Here is one form of it: I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be thou perfect. The Lord God Almighty gives Himself up to be our portion, and we are to yield ourselves to Him, to walk before Him in perfect obedience. This also is the covenant: I will be their God, and they shall be My people. Say not, I am poor. Not so, for God is yours, and so all things are yours. Say not, I am weak. Not so, God Almighty is yours: when you are weak, then you are strong. But I have no wisdom. Is not the Lord Jesus made of God unto us wisdom, righteousness, and sanctification? He that hath God hath everything. Wilt thou belittle thy God and limit the Holy One of Israel? Come, find thine all in God. This is thy part of the covenant, to accept God as being to thee what He says He is. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

His covenant; the covenant made with their father which, notwithstanding their horrible violation of it. made good unto them, and in consideration thereof delivered them.

Repented; changed his course and dealing with them, as penitent persons usually do. See Poole “Gen 6:6“.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

45. repented(compare Ps90:13).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

And he remembered for them his covenant,…. At Sinai, according to Aben Ezra; rather that made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; see Ps 105:8, not their covenant who promised to hear and do all that the Lord commanded, and did it not; but his covenant, his promise of giving them the good land, and settling them in it: the Lord is ever mindful of the covenant of his grace for his people, for their good; he remembers the promises he has made, where they are in Christ; and so as to fulfil and apply them; he remembers the blessings of it, the sure mercies of David, and gives them; he remembers for whom it is made, and never forgets them; he remembers with whom it is made, with his Son, the surety, messenger, and Mediator of it; he remembers that he is their covenant God and Father, and will be so for evermore; he remembers his lovingkindness, which has been ever of old, which is the source and foundation of it.

And repented according to the multitude of his mercies; his mercies temporal and spiritual are many; and there is an abundance of mercy displayed especially in spiritual ones, in redemption, in regeneration, and in the forgiveness of sin. Or “according to the abundance of his grace”, or “gracious benefits” e; there is an abundance of grace in his heart, in his Son, in his covenant, in salvation by Christ, and in every part of it; and which appears at conversion, as superabundant; and by this multitude of mercy, and abundance of grace, he is moved to “repent”. This is sometimes denied of him; and indeed he never repents so as to change his mind, to alter his purposes, to revoke his promises or his gifts, these are all without repentance; but he sometimes changes his ways and his works, his conduct in Providence, and the course of it; and then he may be said to repent of the evil he threatened to do, or was doing, when he puts a stop to it; and instead of that bestows favours and blessings.

e “secundum amplitudinem, seu multitudinem gratiarum suarum”, Cocceius, Gejerus.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

45. And he remembered God’s being mindful of his covenant is here assigned as the cause of his great mercy and long-suffering. In that covenant, he not only declares that there is a gracious pardon for transgressions, but he also adverts to the perverse blindness of those who were not brought back by such remedies to the covenant, in which they were well aware that their safety was placed. But above all, he charges them with ingratitude; because, when deserving to perish, they did not acknowledge that they were indebted to the mercy of God alone for their preservation. This observation is strengthened by the next clause of the verse, in which he says that God had spared them according to the greatness of his mercies For the greatness of the punishment which their sins deserved, may be inferred from the great treasures of his loving-kindness, which God had to open in order to procure their redemption. The word to repent expresses no change in God, but only in the mode of administering his corrections. It may seem as if God altered his purpose, when he mitigates punishment, or withdraws his hand from executing his judgments. The Scripture, however, accommodating itself to our weak and limited capacity, speaks only after the manner of men.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

45. And he remembered for them his covenant “Behold the goodness and severity of God!” The closing descriptions of the divine tenderness are exceedingly touching, as his judgments are fearful.

Repented A term, as applied to God, wholly anthropopathic, and by this accommodation to our infirmity sets forth the divine pity. The word simply means that God changed his administration with regard to them as if he had changed his feelings from condign judgment to compassion, in order that by every method he might win them back to him.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Psa 106:45 And he remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his mercies.

Ver. 45. And he remembered for them his covenant ] Which could not be vacated or abolished by the wickedness of men, but stood firm and inviolable, inasmuch as God is faithful and merciful.

And repented ] That is, changed his severity into clemency. God’s repentance is not a change of his will, but of his work, Mutatio rei, non Dei.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)