Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 106:8
Nevertheless he saved them for his name’s sake, that he might make his mighty power to be known.
8. Their conduct would have justified Jehovah in taking them at their word, and leaving them to return to Egypt, but for His name’s sake, in order to uphold His character as a God of mercy, and to make known His might to the nations of the earth (Psa 77:14), He delivered them. Cp. Eze 20:9; Eze 20:14, a chapter evidently in the Psalmist’s mind: see Psa 106:26-27.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Nevertheless, he saved them for his names sake – For the promotion of his own honor and glory; that it might be seen that he is powerful and merciful. This is constantly given as the reason why God saves people; why he forgives sin; why he redeems the soul; why he delivers from danger and from death. Compare Eze 36:22, Eze 36:32; Isa 37:35; Isa 43:25; Isa 48:9; Jer 14:7; Psa 6:4; Psa 23:3; Psa 25:11; Psa 31:16; Psa 44:26. This is the highest reason which can be assigned for pardoning and saving sinners.
That he might make his mighty power to be known – Exo 9:16. Compare the notes at Rom 9:17.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 106:8
Nevertheless He saved them for His names sake.
Why are men saved?
I. A glorious Saviour–He saved them. Who is to be understood by that pronoun he? Possibly many may answer, Why, the Lord Jesus Christ is the Saviour of men. Right; but not all the truth. Jesus Christ is the Saviour; but not more so than God the Father, or God the Holy Ghost. Thou canst not be saved by the Son without the Father, nor by the Father without the Son, nor by Father and Son without the Spirit. But as they are one in creation, so are they one in salvation. But, note here, how this Divine being claims salvation wholly to Himself. Nevertheless He saved them. But, Moses, where art thou? Didst not thou save them, Moses? Thou didst stretch the rod over the sea, and it clave in halves. And thou, Aaron, thou didst offer the bullocks which God accepted; thou didst lead them, with Moses, through the wilderness. Wast not thou their Saviour? They answer, Nay, we were the instruments, but He saved them. God made use of us, but unto His name be all the glory, and none unto ourselves. But, Israel, thou wast a strong and mighty people; didst not thou save thyself? Perhaps it was by thine own holiness that the Red Sea was dried up; perhaps the parted floods were frighted at the piety of the saints that stood upon their margin; perhaps it was Israel that delivered itself. Nay, nay, saith Gods Word; He saved them; they did not save themselves, nor did their fellow-men redeem them.
II. The favoured persons. He saved them.Who are they? In the first place, they were a stupid people–Our fathers understood not Thy wonders in Egypt. In the next place, they were an ungrateful people–they remembered not the multitude of Thy mercies. In the third place, they were a provoking people–they provoked Him at the sea, even at the Red Sea. Ah, these are the people whom free grace saves, these are the men and these the women whom the God of all grace condescends to take to His bosom and to make anew.
III. The reason of salvation. For His names sake.
1. He saved them, first, that He might manifest His nature. God was all love, and He wanted to manifest it; He did show it when He made the sun, the moon, and the stars, and scattered flowers oer the green and laughing earth. He did show His love when He gave the air balmy to the body, and the sunshine cheering be the eye. How can I show them that, I love them with all My infinite heart? I will give My Son to die be save the very worst of them, and so will I manifest My nature. And God has done it; He has manifested His power, His justice, His love, His faithfulness, and His truth; He has manifested His whole self on the great platform of salvation.
2. He did it, again, to vindicate His name. Some say God is cruel; they wickedly call Him tyrant. Ah! says God, but I will save the worst of sinners, and vindicate My name; I will blot out the stigma; they shall not be able to say that, unless they be liars, for I will be abundantly merciful. I will take away this stain, and they shall see that My great name is a name of love. And said He, again, I will do this for My names sake; that is, to make these people love My name. I know if I take the best of men, and save them, they will love My name; but if I take the worst of men, oh, how they will love me! If I go and take some of the offscouring of the earth, and make them My children, oh, how they will love Me! Then they will cleave to My name; they will think it more sweet than music; it will be more precious to them than the spikenard of the Eastern merchants; they will value it as gold, yea, as much fine gold. The man who loves Me best, is the man who has most sins forgiven; he owes much, therefore he will love much. This is the reason why God often selects the worst of men to make them His. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Salvation entirely free
God is a sovereign and jealous of:His prerogative. Especially is He jealous of the undivided honour of redeeming man from the degradation and ruins of the fall. In the salvation of sinners by Jesus Christ, He has taken, as it should seem, extraordinary pains to establish and illustrate this fact; for this reason; that therein He, or His name, is more deeply interested–that thereby His name is more highly magnified and more abundantly glorified, both in heaven and in earth, than by any other of His most stupendous works.
I. The nature of the salvation granted to the people of God. It is a spiritual and eternal salvation–a salvation of the sinner from the power, the love, the pollution, the practice, and the punishment of sin.
II. Upon what grounds or upon what terms this salvation is vouchsafed. For His names sake. By the name of God we may understand His person and attributes. For the sake, therefore, of illustrating His power, mercy, wisdom, truth and faithfulness, justice and holiness, He devised the great work of redemption.
III. In opposition to what impediments this salvation is vouchsafed. Nevertheless He saved them–nevertheless what? In spite of what, according to the calculations of reason and of conscience, were utterly insuperable difficulties. But, blessed be God, His thoughts are not as our thoughts. Notwithstanding therefore the sins of Israel were so numerous and so heinous He saved them; and to judge of their enormity you have only to consult this psalm–by which it appears they were guilty of the most abominable idolatries, of the blackest ingratitude, of the most determined rebellion. Notwithstanding all which God saved them for His names sake. Yes, and so likewise are we encouraged to hope that He will save us. (Essex Remembrancer.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 8. He saved them for his name’s sake] lemaan shemo, “on account of his name;” to manifest his own power, goodness, and perfections. There was nothing which he could draw from them as a reason why he should save them; therefore he drew the reason from himself. There is a singular gloss in the old Psalter on this verse: “Whan thai cam oute of Egypt to the rede Se, whare thai were closed on a syde with a hylle that na man mygt passe: on another side was the rede See: behynde tham was men of Egypt foluand; and for this thai began to gruch, forgetand Gods mygt: bot than he safed tham, depertand the Se in twelfe, to ilk kynde of Isrel a passage.” It seems as if this author thought there were twelve passages made through the Red Sea, that each tribe should have a passage to itself.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
For his names sake; that he might glorify his name, and vindicate it from the blasphemous reproaches which the Egyptians and others would have cast upon it, if they had been destroyed. This argument was urged by Moses, Num 14:13, &c.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
8. for his name’s sake (Eze20:14).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Nevertheless, he saved them for his name’s sake,…. Not for any worth or worthiness in them; not for their righteousness sake, for they were a rebellious and disobedient people; but for his name’s sake, because his name was called upon them, and he was called the God of the Hebrews, as Aben Ezra observes; and the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, their ancestors; to whom he had promised the land of Canaan, and was their covenant God; and because of his covenant, and of his divine perfections, and the glory of them, which were engaged to make it good; therefore he saved them, see Eze 20:9. And so the spiritual Israel of God are saved, not for any superior excellencies in them, for they are in no wise better than others; nor for their righteousness sake; but to display the wisdom and faithfulness of God, his grace and mercy, his justice and holiness, power, goodness, and truth. And so here it follows;
that he might make his mighty power to be known; not only among the Israelites, but among the nations of the world; who, had he not saved them, might have thought, and said, that it was for want of power, and that he could not do it; see De 9:28.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
8 And saved them The prophet here teaches what any one could easily learn from the preceding sentence, that the Israelites were saved, not on account of their deserving to be so, but because God had a regard to his own glory. That obstacle being removed, God went on to accomplish that deliverance which he had commenced, in order that his holy name might not become a reproach among the heathen. Besides, we must not overlook the antithesis between the name of God and the merits of men, because God, out of a regard to his own glory, can find in us no cause wherefore he should be moved to save us. The inestimable kindness of God, which, for the sake of a people so perverse, altered the usual order of nature, is more illustriously displayed by the account which is afterwards given of the means by which they were preserved. When he says that the sea was rebuked, he extols the power of God, at whose command and will the sea was dried up — the waters receded, so that a free passage was opened up between the opposite heaps of waters. With the design of magnifying the miracle, he employs a similitude, which, in all likelihood, was drawn from Isaiah; for in the sixty-third chapter and thirteenth verse, he says, “Thou hast made thy people to walk through the deeps, as an horse in the wilderness, that he might not stumble.” When the people walked through the sea as upon a dry plain, the prophet informs us that this was done solely by the astonishing power of God. It is quite possible, that in the desert in which the people wandered, there was many an abyss, the path rugged, and many a hill and dale and ragged rock. But it cannot be doubted that the prophet extols the power of God in the passage through the sea, and enhances it by this consideration, that the path through that deep sea was smooth. Besides, he gives greater strength to the miracle in saying that their enemies were drowned; because, when the sea afforded a free passage to the children of Israel, and covered and engulfed the Egyptians, so that not one of them escaped alive, whence proceeded this instantaneous difference, but from this, that God made a distinction between the one people and the other?
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
8. For his name’s sake This explains God’s apparent partiality of kindness toward the Hebrew nation. It was not because of their righteousness, but “for his name’s sake,” from respect to his own character and the ultimate fulfilment of his purposes. The fact, therefore, that they were the organic medium through which God manifested before the nations his power, grace, and holiness, is no certain proof or test of their individual piety or good deservings. See Num 14:21; Eze 36:22; Eze 36:32
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
I beg the Reader to keep up his attention, not only here, but in every part of scripture, to the many neverthelesses, and buts, and notwithstandings, which are sweetly interspersed, to manifest the covenant-mercy and loving-kindness of God in Christ. See a few in point: Isa 42:25 , with Isa 43:1 ; Psa 99:8Psa 99:8 . Oh! how blessed it is to see that notwithstanding our unworthiness, the Name’s-sake, and the covenant-engagement, of Jehovah, remain! The relation in which God the Father hath put himself to his people in Christ, and the infinite merit of Christ’s blood and righteousness, must still come in to the relief of the poor sinner. There is a nevertheless, which is most blessed.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 106:8 Nevertheless he saved them for his name’s sake, that he might make his mighty power to be known.
Ver. 8. Nevertheless he saved them for his name’s sake] Here he comes, in with a Non-obstante. So Isa 57:17 . Now, if God will save for his name’s sake, what people is there whom he may not save?
That he might make his miqhly power to be known
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Nevertheless. Compare Structure, Psa 106:44. Figure of speech Palinodia. App-6.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
he saved: Psa 143:11, Num 14:13-16, Deu 32:26, Deu 32:27, Jos 7:9, Jer 14:7, Jer 14:21, Eze 20:9, Eze 20:14, Eze 20:22, Eze 20:44, Dan 9:17-19
that he: Psa 111:6, Exo 9:16, Exo 15:6, Rom 9:17
Reciprocal: Gen 19:16 – the Lord Exo 14:11 – Because Exo 14:30 – the Lord Exo 18:1 – heard Num 14:19 – and as thou Jos 4:24 – all the people Jdg 10:11 – Egyptians 1Sa 12:22 – for his great Neh 9:19 – in thy Psa 59:16 – But Psa 66:6 – He turned Psa 74:13 – divide Psa 105:43 – And he Isa 48:9 – my name’s Isa 64:2 – to make Jer 32:21 – brought Eze 36:22 – General Dan 9:15 – and hast Act 7:36 – after 1Jo 2:12 – for
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 106:8-12. Nevertheless, he saved them for his names sake That he might glorify his name, and vindicate it from the blasphemous reproaches which the Egyptians and others would have cast upon it if the Israelites had been destroyed. He rebuked the sea also For standing in their way, and retarding their march; and it was dried up Immediately; as, in the creation, at Gods rebuke the waters fled, Psa 104:7. He led them through the depths as through the wilderness As securely as if they had walked upon the dry land. He saved them from him that hated them From Pharaoh, who pursued them with cruel rage and hatred. The waters covered their enemies So as to slay them, but not so as to conceal their shame; for, the next tide, they were thrown up dead upon the shore. There was not one of them left To carry tidings what was become of the rest. Then believed they his words The Israelites acknowledged that God was with them of a truth, and had, in mercy to them, brought them out of Egypt, and not with any design to slay them in the wilderness. Then they feared the Lord, and his servant Moses, Exo 14:31. They sang his praise In that song of Moses, penned on this great occasion, Exo 15:1. Observe, reader, in what a gracious and merciful way God sometimes silences the unbelief of his people, and turns their fears into praises!
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
106:8 Nevertheless he {e} saved them for his name’s sake, that he might make his mighty power to be known.
(e) The inestimable goodness of God appears in this, that he would rather change the order of nature than have his people not be delivered, even though they were wicked.