8
Nevertheless He saved them for His name’s sake,
That He might make His mighty power known.
9
He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it dried up;
So He led them through the depths,
As through the wilderness.
10
He saved them from the hand of him who hated them,
And redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.
This passage speaks of God’s mercy and love for us even when we murmur and complain about what life is giving us. Also, it speaks of God’s willingness to deliver His people for His name’s sake and shows that He keeps His word even when we break our covenant with Him. When the people of Israel had the Red Sea in front of them and the Egyptian army coming up behind them instead of crying out to God in expectation of Him saving them, they murmured and complained and said they would have been better off in Egypt. Psalm 23:3 says “He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness For the sake of His name.” When we go astray and away from the paths of righteousness we can trust that if we come to the Lord and seek His guidance He says “”I, I alone, am the one who wipes out your wrongdoings for My own sake, And I will not remember your sins.” Isaiah 43:25. Praise the Lord, He loves us and will always be there for us………..Bill
Charles Spurgeon
“Nevertheless he saved them for his name’s sake, that he might make his mighty power to be known.” When he could find no other reason for his mercy he found it in his own glory, and seized the opportunity to display his power. If Israel does not deserve to be saved, yet Pharaoh’s pride needs to be crushed, and therefore Israel shall be delivered. The Lord very jealously guards his own name and honor. It shall never be said of him that he cannot or will not save his people, or that he cannot abate the haughtiness of his defiant foes. This respect unto his own honor ever leads him to deeds of mercy, and hence we may well rejoice that he is a jealous God.
“He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it was dried up.” A word did it. The sea heard his voice and obeyed. How many rebukes of God are lost upon us! Are we not more unmanageable than the ocean? God did, as it were, chide the sea, and say, “Wherefore dost thou stop the way of my people? Their path to Canaan lies through thy channel, how dare you hinder them?” The sea perceived its Master and his seed royal and made way at once.
“So he led them through the depths, as through the wilderness.” As if it had been the dry floor of the desert the tribes passed over the bottom of the gulf; nor was their passage venturesome, for HE bade them go; nor dangerous, for He led them. We also have under divine protection passed through many trials and afflictions, and with the Lord as our guide we have experienced no fear and endured no perils. We have been led through the deeps through the wilderness.
“And he saved them from the hand of them that hated them.” Pharaoh was drowned, and the power of Egypt so crippled that throughout the forty years’ wanderings of Israel, they were never threatened by their old masters.
“And redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.” This was a redemption by power and one of the most instructive types of the redemption of the Lord’s people from sin and hell by the power which worketh in them.
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Enduring Word
Nevertheless, He saved them for His name’s sake: The Israelites responded to God’s great deliverance with ingratitude and rebellion. Despite all that (nevertheless), God answered with rescue, but not only for Israel’s sake. He saved them so that He might make His mighty power known. (Guzik)
i. “Thus Israel’s history is as much the story of God’s mercy, faithfulness, and long-suffering as it is the story of Israel’s faithlessness and unbelief. In fact, it is against the background of their sin that God’s patience is most fully illuminated.” (Boice)
He rebuked the Red Sea: The great works of God are remembered, from the dividing of the Red Sea to the destruction of the Egyptian army (waters covered their enemies). (Guzik)
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Barnes
Nevertheless, he saved them for his name’s 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 Ezekiel 36:22, Ezekiel 36:32; Isaiah 37:35; Isaiah 43:25; Isaiah 48:9; Jeremiah 14:7; Psalms 6:4; Psalms 23:3; Psalms 25:11; Psalms 31:16; Psalms 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 – Exodus 9:16. Compare the notes at Romans 9:17.
He rebuked the Red Sea also – The word rendered “rebuke” commonly means to chide – as when one is angry with another for having done wrong. Here it is evidently a poetic term, meaning that he spake “as if” he were angry; or “as if” the Red Sea did wrong in presenting an obstacle or obstruction to the passage of his people. Compare Exodus 14:21-22,
So he led them through the depths – Through what had been the abyss; what had seemed to be depths, being covered with water.
As through the wilderness – As through a desert or dry place; as he afterward led them through the wilderness. The waters parted asunder and made a way for them.
And he saved them from the hand of him that hated them – From Pharaoh. By making a path through the waters, they were enabled to escape; by the overthrow of the Egyptians in the Red Sea, they were completely and forever delivered from their oppressors. Exodus 14:30.
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John Gill
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 Ezekiel 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 Deuteronomy 9:28.
As through the wilderness; or rather, “as on a plain”; for a passage through a wilderness where no roads are, and many obstructions be, is not easy; and so it is manifestly to be understood in Isaiah 63:13, where Jarchi and Kimchi interpret it a plain and smooth ground, a champaign country; and so the word is used for a plain, in opposition to mountains, in Jeremiah 9:10, and then the sense is, that God led them through the sea, being dried up, as if they were led through a plain and open country, where was nothing to obstruct their march; an emblem of baptism, 1 Corinthians 10:1, and of the passage of the people of God through this world;
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Matthew Henry
The great salvation God wrought for them notwithstanding their provocations.
He forced a passage for them through the sea: He rebuked the Red Sea for standing in their way and retarding their march, and it was dried up immediately; as, in the creation, at God’s rebuke the waters fled, Ps. 104:7. Nay, he not only prepared them a way, but, by the pillar of cloud and fire, he led them into the sea, and, by the conduct of Moses, led them through it as readily as through the wilderness. He encouraged them to take those steps and subdued their fears when those were their most dangerous and threatening enemies. See Isa. 63:12-14.
He interposed between them and their pursuers, and prevented them from cutting them off, as they designed. The Israelites were all on foot, and the Egyptians had all of them chariots and horses, with which they were likely to overtake them quickly, but God saved them from the hand of him that hated them, namely, Pharaoh, who never loved them, but now hated them the more for the plagues he had suffered on their account. From the hand of his enemy, who was just ready to seize them, God redeemed them (v. 10), interposing himself, as it were, in the pillar of fire, between the persecuted and the persecutors.
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John Wesley’s Explanatory Notes
Verse 8
[8] Nevertheless he saved them for his name’s sake, that he might make his mighty power to be known.
Saved them — That he may vindicate his name from the blasphemous reproaches, which would have been cast upon it, if they had been destroyed.
Verse 9
[9] He rebuked the Red sea also, and it was dried up: so he led them through the depths, as through the wilderness.
Led them — As securely as if they had walked upon the dry land.
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KJV W/ STRONGS BIBLE – PSALMS 106
106:8 Nevertheless he saved 34678686 them for his name’s 8034 sake, that he might make his mighty power 1369 to be known 3045 8687.
106:9 He rebuked 1605 8799 the Red 5488 sea 3220 also, and it was dried up 2717 8799: so he led 3212 8686 them through the depths 8415, as through the wilderness 4057.
106:10 And he saved 3467 8686 them from the hand 3027 of him that hated 8130 8802 [them], and redeemed 1350 8799 them from the hand 3027 of the enemy 341 8802.
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Geneva Bible 1560
Psalm 106:8-10
8 Nevertheless he e saved them for his Name’s sake, that he might make his power to be knowen.
9 And he rebuked the red Sea, and it was dried up, and he led them in the deep, as in the wilderness.
10 And he saved them from the adversary’s hand, and delivered them from the hand of the enemie.
e The inestimable goodness of God appears in this, that he would change the order of nature, rather than his people should not be delivered, although they were wicked.
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Psalm 55:
16 As for me, I will call upon GOD and the LORD shall save me.
17 Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud, And He shall hear my voice.
18 He has redeemed my soul in peace from the battle that was against me,
22 Cast your burden on the LORD, And He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved.
23 ….But I will Trust in YOU
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