Num 14:17-18, Isa 63:7, 1Pe 2:3 | JFB | STEP | 17. let the power of my Lord be great

Numbers 14:17-18

17. let the power of my Lord be great—be magnified.

Isaiah 63:7

7. Israel's penitential confession and prayer for restoration (Ps 102:17, 20), extending from Isa 63:7 to 64:12.

loving-kindnesses . . . praises . . . mercies . . . loving-kindnesses—The plurals and the repetitions imply that language is inadequate to express the full extent of God's goodness.

us—the dispersed Jews at the time just preceding their final restoration.

house of Israel—of all ages; God was good not merely to the Jews now dispersed, but to Israel in every age of its history.

1 Peter 2:3

3. Peter alludes to Ps 34:8. The first "tastes" of God's goodness are afterwards followed by fuller and happier experiences. A taste whets the appetite [BENGEL].

gracious—Greek, "good," benignant, kind; as God is revealed to us in Christ, "the Lord" (1Pe 2:4), we who are born again ought so to be good and kind to the brethren (1Pe 1:22). "Whosoever has not tasted the word to him it is not sweet it has not reached the heart; but to them who have experienced it, who with the heart believe, 'Christ has been sent for me and is become my own: my miseries are His, and His life mine,' it tastes sweet" [LUTHER].