Psalm 106:32-33 NKJV
They angered Him also at the waters of strife,
So that it went ill with Moses on account of them;
Because they rebelled against His Spirit,
So that he spoke rashly with his lips.
Here the psalmist goes back to the time when the people’s murmuring and complaining, Numbers 20:9-11, (Numbers 20:12-13) pushed Moses to the point where he lost it and because of that, it cost him so that he wasn’t able to go into the promised land. I appreciate what Henry says below in his comments “ If this was done in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry?”, because if a man such as Moses, who the word says was the meekest man on earth, can be provoked to anger then surely I can as well. Ps. 39:1-3 is a warning for us to not speak too quickly when the murmuring and complaining come at us and drives us to the point where anger sets in………….Bill
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Charles Spurgeon
“They angered him also at the waters of strife.” Will they never have done? The scene changes, but the sin continues. Aforetime they had mutinied about water when prayer would soon have turned the desert into a standing pool, but now they do it again after their former experience of the divine goodness. This made the sin a double, yea a sevenfold offense, and caused the anger of the Lord to be the more intense.
“So that it went ill with Moses for their sakes.” Moses was at last wearied out, and began to grow angry with them and utterly hopeless of their ever-improving; can we wonder at it, for he was man and not God? After forty years bearing with them the meek man’s temper gave way, and he called them rebels and showed unhallowed anger; and therefore he was not permitted to enter the land which he desired to inherit. Truly, he had a sight of the goodly country from the top of Pisgah, but entrance was denied him, and thus it went ill with him. It was their sin which angered him, but he had to bear the consequences; however clear it may be that others are more guilty than ourselves, we should always remember that this will not screen us, but every man must bear his own burden.
“Because they provoked his spirit, so that he spake unadvisedly with his lips.” Which seems a small sin compared with that of others, but then it was the sin of Moses, the Lord’s chosen servant, who had seen and known so much of the Lord, and therefore it could not be passed by. He did not speak blasphemously, or falsely, but only hastily and without care; but this is a serious fault in a lawgiver, and especially in one who speaks for God. This passage is to our mind one of the most terrible in the Bible. Truly we serve a jealous God. Yet he is not a hard master, or austere; we must not think so, but we must then rather be jealous of ourselves, and watch that we live the more carefully, and speak the more advisedly, because we serve such a Lord. We ought also to be very careful how we treat the ministers of the gospel, lest by provoking their spirit we should drive them into any unseemly behavior which should bring upon them the chastisement of the Lord. Little do a murmuring, quarrelsome people dream of the perils in which they involve their pastors by their untoward behavior.
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Enduring Word
They angered Him also at the waters of strife: Numbers 20:9-11 explains how the Israelites angered Moses at Meribah by their complaining and contention. Nevertheless, God commanded Moses to speak to the rock (Numbers 20:7-8), and God promised to miraculously provide water from the rock. (Guzik)
It went ill with Moses on account of them: Moses did not speak to the rock as God commanded. In anger he struck the rock (Numbers 20:9-11). God provided the water, but Moses misrepresented God and was therefore denied entrance into the Promised Land (Numbers 20:12-13). (Guzik)
Because they rebelled against His Spirit: The author of this psalm put the emphasis on how the Israelites provoked Moses by their rebellion, which made him angry. Moses was truly provoked, but God still held him responsible for his reaction to the provocation.(Guzik)
i. He spoke rashly with His lips: “For this sentence we have only these two words in the Hebrew, vayebatte bisephathaiv, he stuttered or stammered with his lips, indicating that he was transported with anger.” (Clarke)
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Barnes
They angered him also at the waters of strife – Numbers 20:3-13. They complained of the lack of water. They wished that they had died as others had done. They murmured against God as if he could not supply their needs. They showed an unbelieving and rebellious spirit – provoking God, and tempting Moses to in act of great impatience by their conduct. In Numbers 20:13, this is, “the waters of Meribah;” – margin, “strife.” This is the meaning of the Hebrew word. The place took its name from the fact that the people there strove against the Lord and against Moses.
So that it went ill with Moses for their sakes – Evil came upon him. He was betrayed into impatience, and was tempted to use words which offended God, and prevented his being permitted to lead the people into the promised land. Numbers 20:12.
Because they provoked his spirit – literally, “They made his spirit bitter,” or they embittered his soul. They threw him off his guard so that instead of manifesting the meekness and gentleness which so eminently characterized him in general (see Numbers 12:3), he gave way to expressions of anger. See Numbers 20:10.
So that he spake unadvisedly with his lips – Passionately; in a severe, harsh, and threatening manner. He did not bear with them as he should have done; he did not refer to God, to his power, and to his goodness as he should have done; he spake as if the whole thing depended on him and Aaron: “Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock?” The word rendered “spake unadvisedly” – בטא bâṭâ’ – means properly to “babble;” and then, to talk idly, or unadvisedly; to utter that which has no meaning, or an improper meaning. Let us not harshly blame Moses until we are placed in circumstances similar to his, and see how we would ourselves act. Who is there that would not have been provoked as he was, or even to a greater degree? If there are any such, let them “cast the first stone.”
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John Gill
They angered him also at the waters of strife,…. Or, “at the waters of Meribah” {z}; that is, Meribahkadesh, as it is called in Deuteronomy 32:51 to distinguish it from Meribahrephidim, where also were waters of strife or contradiction; at which the people murmured and strove with the Lord, and greatly displeased him, Exodus 17:7.
So that it went ill with Moses for their sakes; he was not suffered to go with them into the good land; though he most earnestly desired it, it could not be granted: but when he was just upon the borders of it, he is bid to go up to the mount, and take a view of it, and die; and all because of what was done at this place; see Numbers 20:12.
Because they provoked his spirit;…. Though he was a very meek man, meeker than any upon the face of the earth, Numbers 12:2, yet, being greatly provoked, let fall some passionate and undue expressions: and this was not only his sin, but the fault of those also that provoked him, and with this view, it is mentioned. The Targum is, “for they rebelled against his Holy Spirit;” the Holy Spirit of God, as in Isaiah 63:10. Jarchi interprets it of Moses and Aaron provoking the Spirit of God; which sense is mentioned, by Aben Ezra and Kimchi; though they seem to prefer the former, and which seems best. Some interpret it of the Israelites, that they caused Moses and Aaron to provoke his Spirit.
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Matthew Henry
They continued their murmurings to the very last of their wanderings; for in the fortieth year they angered God at the waters of strife (v. 32), which refers to that story, Num. 20:3-5. And that which aggravated it now was that it went ill with Moses for their sakes; for, though he was the meekest of all the men in the earth, yet their clamors at that time were so peevish and provoking that they put him into a passion, and, having now grown very old and off his guard, he spoke unadvisedly with his lips (v. 33), and not as became him on that occasion; for he said in a heat, Hear now, you rebels, must we fetch water out of this rock for you? This was Moses’s infirmity and is written for our admonition, that we may learn, when we are in the midst of provocation, to keep our mouth as with a bridle (Ps. 39:1-3), and to take heed to our spirits, that they admit not resentments too much; for, when the spirit is provoked, it is much ado, even for those that have a great deal of wisdom and grace, not to speak unadvisedly. But it is charged upon the people as their sin: They provoked his spirit with that with which they angered God himself. Note, We must answer not only for our own passions but for the provocation which by them we give to the passions of others, especially of those who, if not greatly provoked, would be meek and quiet. God shows his displeasure against this sin of theirs by shutting Moses and Aaron out of Canaan for their misconduct upon this occasion, by which,
(1.) God discovered his resentment of all such intemperate heats, even in the dearest of his servants. If he deals thus severely with Moses for one unadvised word, what does their sin deserve who have spoken so many presumptuous wicked words? If this was done in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry?
(2.) God deprived them of the blessing of Moses’s guidance and government at a time when they most needed it so that his death was more a punishment to them than to himself. It is just with God to remove those relations from us that are blessings to us, when we are peevish and provoking to them and grieve their spirits.
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KJV W/ STRONGS BIBLE – PSALMS 106
106:32 They angered 7107 8686 [him] also at the waters 4325 of strife 4808 8677 4809, so that it went ill 3415 8799 with Moses 4872 for their sakes:
106:33 Because they provoked 4784 8689 his spirit 7307, so that he spake unadvisedly 981 8762 with his lips 8193.
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Geneva Bible 1560
Psalm 106:32-33
32 They angered him also at the waters of *Meribáh, so that t Mosés was punished for their sakes,
33 Because they vexed his spirit, so that he spake unadvisedly with his lips.
*Num. 20.2, Ps. 95.8. 32 t If so notable a Prophet of God escape not punishment though others provoked him to sin, how much more shall they be subject to God’s judgement, which cause God’s children to sin?
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Numbers 6:24-26 NKJV
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