6
We have sinned with our fathers,
We have committed iniquity,
We have done wickedly.
7
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.
Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it –Winston Churchill in 1948.
The quote by Churchill was in the aftermath of World War 2 in a speech to the English government, but it is something that we can do well to remember in our walk with God. I often wonder while reading Exodus, Judges, and also the Gospels how people could see the power of God and Jesus manifested in powerful miracles and immediately turn around and complain and murmur and yes, sin. How could they not remember what they had seen and been through? But isn’t that what we do? When trouble happens to us, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Is it to remember all the things that God did for the people in the bible, not to mention the things He has delivered us from in our personal lives? Or do we fail to learn from history and murmur and complain and instead of trusting God, try and deal with the situation ourselves? Abba, please help me to remember to come to you first when trouble and bad situations come into my life and let me lean on and depend on You to carry me through it. In Jesus name, Amen………..(Bill)
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Charles Spurgeon
We have sinned with our fathers.” Here begins a long and particular confession. Confession of sin is the readiest way to secure an answer to the prayer of verse 4; God visits with his salvation the soul which acknowledges its need of a Savior. Men may be said to have sinned with their fathers when they imitate them, when they follow the same objects, and make their own lives to be mere continuations of the follies of their sires.
“We have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly.” Thus is the confession repeated three times, in token of the sincerity and heartiness of it. Sins of omission, commission, and rebellion we ought to acknowledge under distinct heads, that we may show a due sense of the number and heinousness of our offenses.
“Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt.” The Israelites saw the miraculous plagues and ignorantly wondered at them: their design of love, their deep moral and spiritual lessons, and their revelation of the divine power and justice they were unable to perceive. A long sojourn among idolaters had blunted the perceptions of the chosen family, and cruel slavery had ground them down into mental sluggishness. Alas, how many of God’s wonders are not understood, or misunderstood by us still. We fear the sons are no great improvement upon the sires. We inherit from our fathers much sin and little wisdom; they could only leave us what they themselves possessed. We see from this verse that a want of understanding is no excuse for sin, but is itself one count in the indictment against Israel.
“They remembered not the multitude of thy mercies.” The sin of the understanding leads on to the sin of the memory. What is not understood will soon be forgotten. Men feel little interest in preserving husks; if they know nothing of the inner kernel they will take no care of the shells. It was an aggravation of Israel’s sin that when God’s mercies were so numerous they yet were able to forget them all. Surely some out of such a multitude of benefits ought to have remained engraven upon their hearts; but if grace does not give us understanding, nature will soon east out the memory of God’s great goodness.
“But provoked him at the sea, even; at the Red Sea.” To fall out at starting was a bad sign. Those who did not begin well can hardly be expected to end well. Israel is not quite out of Egypt, and yet she begins to provoke the Lord by doubting his power to deliver and questioning his faithfulness to his promise. The sea was only called Red, but their sins were scarlet in reality; it was known as the “sea of weeds,” but far worse weeds grew in their hearts.
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Enduring Word
We have sinned with our fathers: This psalm mainly focuses on the repeated failure of Israel through her history. Yet the singer of this psalm did not see failure as something only of Israel’s past. He identified his present generation with Israel of old, connected in their sin, their iniquity, and their wicked deeds. (Guzik)
i. This is a remarkably humble and straightforward confession of sin. “Such a prayer stands in the closest relation to the theme of the psalm, which draws out the dark record of national sin, in order to lead to that national repentance…. Precisely because the hope of restoration is strong, the delineation of sin is unsparing.” (Maclaren)
ii. We have sinned with our fathers: “The fathers’ sins are often reflected in their children; and each new reflection, instead of being weaker, is stronger than the foregoing.” (Horne)
Our fathers in Egypt did not understand Your wonders: Based on the lines from Psalm 106:6, we understand this to suggest, “Our fathers sinned and rebelled, and so have we.” He recounted Israel’s sin at Marah, shortly after coming from the Red Sea (Exodus 15:22-27). (Guzik)
i. They did not remember the multitude of Your mercies: “The contrast between the loving acts (v. 7, pl. of hesed; NIV, ‘kindnesses’) of the Lord and Israel’s lack of responsiveness dramatizes the greatness of God’s love and salvation. He delivered a people who did not respond to his love!” (VanGemeren)
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Barnes
We have sinned with our fathers – We have sinned as “they” did; we have followed their example. The illustration of the manner in which the nation had sinned occupies a considerable part of the remainder of the psalm; and the idea here is, that, in the generation in which the psalmist lived, there had been the manifestation of the same rebellious spirit which had so remarkably characterized the entire nation. The “connection” of this with the foregoing verses is not very apparent. It would seem to be that the psalmist was deeply impressed with a sense of the great blessings which follow from the friendship of God, and from keeping his commandments – as stated, Psalms 106:3-5; but he remembered that those blessings had not come upon the people as might have been expected, and his mind suddenly adverts to the cause of this, in the fact that the nation had “sinned.” It was not that God was not disposed to bestow that happiness; it was not that true religion “failed” to confer happiness; but it was that the nation had provoked God to displeasure, and that in fact the sins of the people had averted the blessings which would otherwise have come upon them. The psalmist, therefore, in emphatic language – repeating the confession in three forms, “we have sinned – we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly,” acknowledges that the failure was in them, not in God. The language here is substantially the same as in Daniel 9:5-6, and it would seem not improbable that the one was suggested by the other. Which was prior in the order of time, it is now impossible to determine.
Our fathers understood not – They did not fully comprehend the design of the divine dealings. They did not perceive the greatness of the favor shown to them, or the obligation to obey and serve God under which they were placed by these remarkable manifestations.
Thy wonders in Egypt – The miracles performed there in behalf of the Hebrew people.
They remembered not the multitude of thy mercies – The great number of the divine interpositions in their behalf. They did not allow them to influence their conduct as they should have done. The aggravation of their offense in the case here referred to was particularly in the “multitude” of the mercies. It would have been sinful to have forgotten even one act of the divine favor; it was a great aggravation of their guilt that “so many” acts were forgotten, or that they failed to make an impression on them. So now. It is a great sin to be unmindful of a “single” favor conferred by God; it is a great aggravation of guilt that men live continually amidst so many proofs of the divine goodness; that they are fed, and clothed, and protected; that they breathe the pure air, and look upon the light of the sun; that they enjoy the comforts of domestic life, the blessings of liberty, and the offers of salvation; that they lie down and rise up; that their toils are crowned with success, and that the blessings of every land are made to come around them – and yet they forget or disregard all these proofs of the divine mercy.
But provoked him at the sea, even at the Red Sea – Exodus 14:10-12. They “rebelled” against him. Even amidst the wonders there occurring, and after all the blessings which they had received at his hands, when they were in danger they doubted his power, and called in question his faithfulness.
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John Gill
Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt,…. Or, “our fathers in Egypt”; while they were there, they did not understand, or wisely consider and attend unto, the miracles there wrought, the plagues inflicted on the Egyptians. These were done in their sight, they saw them with their eyes; yet had not hearts to perceive them, and understand the true use and design of them: not only that these were for the destruction of their enemies and for their deliverance from them; but that they were proofs of the power of God, and of his being the one only and true God, in opposition to the idols of the Egyptians; and that he only ought to be adhered unto, worshipped, and trusted in. Had they adverted to these things, they would not so easily have given in to a murmuring and repining spirit, to a distrust of the power and providence of God, and to idolatry, as they did; see Deuteronomy 29:2, something of this kind may be observed in the disciples of Christ, Mr 6:52.
They remembered not the multitude of thy mercies; the mercies of God bestowed on his people are many, both temporal and spiritual; there is a multitude of them; the sum of them is great, it cannot well be said how great it is: but though they are so many as not to be reckoned up in order, yet a grateful remembrance of them should be kept up; it is sinful to forget them, and argues great ingratitude. Past mercies should be remembered, both for the glory of God, and to encourage faith and hope in him, with respect to future ones, as well as to preserve from sinning against him. The stupidity and ingratitude of this people, here confessed, were the source of their rebellion against God, as follows:
But provoked him at the sea, even at the Red sea; or, “sea of Suph”; so called, either from a city of this name, which it washed, as Hillerus {n} thinks; see Numbers 21:14 or from the sedge and weeds in it, or reeds and rushes that grew upon the banks of it. When they were come hither, though just brought out of Egyptian bondage, and had seen the wonders the Lord had done; and though now in the utmost distress, the Egyptian army behind them, and the sea before them; yet neither past mercies nor present danger could keep them from rebelling against the Lord. They provoked him by their language to Moses; because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? Exodus 14:11. The Targum is, “but they rebelled against thy word.”
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Matthew Henry
Here begins a penitential confession of sin, which was in a special manner seasonable now that the church was in distress; for thus we must justify God in all that he brings upon us, acknowledging that therefore he has done right, because we have done wickedly; and the remembrance of former sins, notwithstanding which God did not cast off his people, is an encouragement to us to hope that, though we are justly corrected for our sins, yet we shall not be utterly abandoned.
God’s afflicted people here own themselves guilty before God (v. 6): “We have sinned with our fathers, that is, like our fathers, after the similitude of their transgression. We have added to the stock of hereditary guilt, and filled up the measure of our fathers’ iniquity, to augment yet the fierce anger of the Lord,” Num. 32:14; Mt. 23:32. And see how they lay a load upon themselves, as becomes penitents: “We have committed iniquity, that which is in its own nature sinful, and we have done wickedly; we have sinned with a high hand presumptuously.” Or this is a confession, not only of their imitation of, but their interest in, their fathers’ sins: We have sinned with our fathers, for we were in their loins and we bear their iniquity, Lam. 5:7.
The strange stupidity of Israel in the midst of the favors God bestowed upon them (v. 7): They understood not thy wonders in Egypt. They saw them, but they did not rightly apprehend the meaning and design of them. Blessed are those that have not seen, and yet have understood. They thought the plagues of Egypt were intended for their deliverance, whereas they were intended also for their instruction and conviction, not only to force them out of their Egyptian slavery, but to cure them of their inclination to Egyptian idolatry, by evidencing the sovereign power and dominion of the God of Israel, above all gods, and his particular concern for them. We lose the benefit of providences for want of understanding them. And, as their understandings were dull, so their memories were treacherous; though one would think such astonishing events should never have been forgotten, yet they remembered them not, at least they remembered not the multitude of God’s mercies in them. Therefore God is distrusted because his favors are not remembered.
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Clarke
At the sea, even at the Red Sea. — Some of the rabbins suppose that the repetition of the words point out two faults of the Israelites at the Red Sea. 1. They murmured against Moses for bringing them out of Egypt, when they saw the sea before them, and Pharaoh behind them. 2. When the waters were divided, they were afraid to enter in, lest they should stick in the mud which appeared at the bottom. The word seems to be added by way of explanation, and perhaps may refer to the above: they provoked על ים al yam, “AT the sea;” בים סוף beyam suph, “IN the sea Suph,” or Red Sea. They provoked him at it and in it.
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KJV W/ STRONGS BIBLE – PSALMS 106
106:6 We have sinned 2398 8804 with our fathers, we have committed iniquity 5753 8689, we have done wickedly 7561 8689.
106:7 Our fathers understood 7919 8689 not thy wonders 6381 8737 in Egypt 4714; they remembered 2142 8804 not the multitude 7230 of thy mercies 2617; but provoked 4784 8686 [him] at the sea 3220, [even] at the Red 5488 sea 3220.
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Geneva Bible 1560
Psalm 106:6-7
6 We have d sinned with our fathers: we have committed iniquity, and done wickedly.
7 Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt, neither remembred they the multitude of thy mercies, but rebelled at the Sea, even at the red Sea.
d By earnest confession aswel of their own, as of their father’s sins, they show that they had hope that God according to his promise would pity them.
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Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Hebrews 13:20-21 NKJV
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