29
Thus they provoked Him to anger with their deeds,
And the plague broke out among them.
30
Then Phinehas stood up and intervened,
And the plague was stopped.
31
And that was accounted to him for righteousness
To all generations forevermore.
This psalm section was remembered from the events in Numbers 25:1-13, where Israel sinned against the Lord with the people of Peor. God had enough and sent a plague among them and 24,000 people were killed until Phineas stood up for the Lord when two people were openly sinning in the camp of Israel. It was Phineas’s zeal for God that led him to do what he did. Reading this I asked myself about my zeal for the Lord. I’m not talking about me taking a spear and thrusting sinners, I’m speaking of things in everyday life. A television show that makes fun of God or that mocks Jesus, a song on the radio that promotes things that I know are an offense to God; do I take a stand for God by turning the television show off or changing the radio station and do I take a stand when I see and hear things like this? The zeal that Phineas had like that of Stephen in Acts 7 was that of a person who was totally in love with God and could not stand to see anything that he knew offended God taking place in front of him without doing something about it or in Stephen’s case, saying something about it………Bill
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Charles Spurgeon
“Thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions: and the plague brake in upon them.” Open licentiousness and avowed idolatry were too gross to be winked at. This time the offenses clamored for judgment, and the judgment came at once. Twenty-four thousand persons fell before a sudden and deadly disease which threatened to run through the whole camp. Their new sins brought on them a disease new to their tribes. When men invent sins God will not be slow to invent punishments. Their vices were a moral pest, and they were visited with a bodily pest: so the Lord meets like with its like.
“Then stood up Phinehas, and executed judgment: and so the plague was stayed.” God has his champions left in the worst times, and they will stand up when the time comes for them to come forth to battle. This righteous indignation moved him to a quick execution of two open offenders. His honest spirit could not endure that lewdness should be publicly practiced at a time when a fast had been proclaimed. Such daring defiance of God and of all law he could not brook, and so with his sharp javelin, he transfixed the two guilty ones in the very act. It was a holy passion which inflamed him and no enmity to either of the persons whom he slew. The circumstances were so remarkable and the sin so flagrant that it would have involved great sin in a public man to have stood still and seen God thus defied, and Israel thus polluted. Phinehas was not of this mind, he was no trimmer or palliator of sin, his heart was sound in God’s statutes, and his whole nature was ablaze with zeal for God’s glory, and therefore, though a priest, and therefore not obliged to be an executioner, he undertook the unwelcome task, and though both transgressors were of princely stock he had no respect of persons, but dealt justice upon them as if they had been the lowest of the people. This brave and decided deed was so acceptable to God as a proof that there were some sincere souls in Israel that the deadly visitation went no further. Two deaths had sufficed to save the lives of the multitude.
“And that was counted unto him for righteousness unto all generations for evermore.” Down to the moment when this psalm was penned the house of Phinehas was honored in Israel. His faith had performed a valorous deed, and his righteousness was testified of the Lord, and honored by the continuance of his family in the priesthood. He was impelled by motives that what would otherwise have been a deed of blood was justified in the sight of God; nay, more, was made the evidence that Phinehas was righteous. No personal ambition, or private revenge, or selfish passion, or even fanatical bigotry, inspired the man of God, but zeal for God, indignation at open filthiness, and true patriotism urged him on.
Once again we have cause to note the mercy of God that even when his warrant was out, and actual execution was proceeding, he stayed his hand at the suit of one man: finding, as it were, an apology for his grace when justice seemed to demand immediate vengeance.
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Enduring Word
Plague broke out among them: God sent a plague as a judgment against the Israelites, and the plague was only stopped when righteous Phinehas brought God’s judgment against an Israelite man and Moabite woman apparently in the midst of immorality at or near the Tabernacle itself (Numbers 25:6-9). This act of righteousness stopped the plague.(Guzik)
i. John Trapp emphasized the truth that no one should use Phinehas as an example of taking violence against sinners: “By a secret, heroical, and extraordinary motion of God’s Spirit, such as may not be drawn into example. All things reported and commended in Scripture may not be imitated.”
That was accounted to him for righteousness: In recognition of his righteous act, God made a covenant regarding the priesthood with Phinehas and his descendants (Numbers 25:10-13). (Guzik)
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Barnes
And that was counted unto him for righteousness – See Numbers 25:11-13. Compare the notes at Romans 4:3. The meaning here is, that this was regarded as a “proof” or “demonstration” that he was a righteous man – a man fearing God.
Unto all generations for evermore – Hebrew, “To generation and generation forever.” The record would be transmitted from one generation to another, without any intermission, and would be permanent. This is one of the illustrations of the statement so frequently made in the Scriptures (compare Exodus 20:6; Deuteronomy 7:9; Romans 11:28) that the blessings of religion will descend to a distant posterity. Such instances are constantly occurring, and there is no legacy which a man can leave his family so valuable as the fact that he himself fears God and keeps his laws.
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John Gill
Thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions,…. Sin is an invention of man’s: when our first parents sinned, they found out many inventions; and their posterity ever since have been inventors of evil things; and man’s invention is very quick at that work. All false doctrine and false worship are of men’s finding out; all idolatrous practices are their inventions, and which are here intended; see Psalm 106:39. And these are very provoking to God, who is jealous of his glory, and which is taken from him hereby; and even when he forgives such sins of men, he takes vengeance on their inventions, as in this case, Psalm 99:8. For it follows:
and the plague brake in upon them: like an inundation of water, and carried off four and twenty thousand persons, Numbers 25:9.
Then stood up Phinehas, and executed judgment,…. When none else would, he rose up in great zeal for the Lord of hosts; and took on him the work of a civil magistrate, and slew two persons of noble birth in the very act of fornication. The Targum is, “he prayed” and so the Syriac version “he interceded with the Lord, that the plague might stop.” This he might do, as well as the other, though it is not elsewhere recorded, and in which he succeeded: The Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions render it, “he appeased”; made atonement for propitiation; and this is said of him, Numbers 25:13.
And so the plague was stayed; it was restrained from proceeding further; no more execution was done by it. In this he was a type of Christ, who, by doing righteousness, by the atoning sacrifice of himself, and by his intercession, has appeased the wrath of God, and satisfied divine justice so that there is no condemnation to them that are interested in him; no evil of punishment shall befall them, nor plague come nigh them.
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Matthew Henry
They were guilty of a great sin in the matter of Peor; and this was the sin of the new generation when they were within a step of Canaan (v. 28): They joined themselves to Baal-peor, and so were entangled both in idolatry and in adultery, in corporeal and in spiritual whoredom, Num. 25:1-3. Those that did often partake of the altar of the living God now ate the sacrifices of the dead, of the idols of Moab (that were dead images, or dead men canonized or deified), or sacrifices to the infernal deities on the behalf of their dead friends. Thus they provoked God to anger with their inventions (v. 29), in contempt of him and his institutions, his commands, and his threatenings. The iniquity of Peor was so great that, long after, it is said, They were not cleansed from it, Jos. 22:17. God testified his displeasure at this,
(1.) By sending a plague among them, which in a little time swept away 24,000 of those impudent sinners.
(2.) By stirring up Phinehas to use his power as a magistrate for the suppressing of the sin and checking the contagion of it. He stood up in his zeal for the Lord of hosts, and executed judgment upon Zimri and Cozbi, sinners of the first rank, genteel sinners; he put the law in execution upon them, and this was a service so pleasing to God that upon it the plague was stayed, v. 30. By this, and some other similar acts of public justice on that occasion (Num. 25:4, 5), the guilt ceased to be national, and the general controversy was let fall. When the proper officers did their duty God left it to them, and did not any longer keep the work in his own hands by the plague. Note, National justice prevents national judgments. But, Phinehas herein signalizing himself, a special mark of honor was put upon him, for what he did was counted to him for righteousness to all generations (v. 31), and, in recompense of it, the priesthood was entailed on his family. He shall make an atonement by offering up the sacrifices, who had so bravely made an atonement (so some read it, v. 30) by offering up the sinners. Note, It is the honor of saints to be zealous against sin.
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KJV W/ STRONGS BIBLE – PSALMS 106
106:29 Thus they provoked [him] to anger 3707 8686 with their inventions 4611: and the plague 4046 brake in 6555 8799 upon them.
106:30 Then stood up 5975 8799 Phinehas 6372, and executed judgment 6419 8762: and [so] the plague 4046 was stayed 6113 8735.
106:31 And that was counted 2803 8735 unto him for righteousness 6666 unto all 1755 generations 1755 for 5704 evermore 5769.
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Geneva Bible 1560
Psalm 106:29-31
29 Thus they q provoked him unto anger with their own inventions, and the plague brake in upon them.
30 But r Phinehás stood up, and executed judgement, and the plague was staied.
31 *And it was s imputed unto him for righteousness from generation to generation for ever.
q Signifying, that whatsoever man invents of himself to serve God by, is detestable and provokes his anger. r When all other neglected God’s glory, he in his zeal killed the adulterers and prevented God’s wrath. *Num. 25.12. 31 s This act declared his lively faith, & for his faith’s sake was accepted.
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