Psa 106:45 | KingComments | STEP | The closing verses of the psalm, like the beginning of the psalm, are a song of praise for the grace of God. He had responded to their distress and their crying out ( ). It had caught His attention. He had not turned away from them, but saw their distress and heard their cry. He had not lost sight of them. He had not closed His ear to them. The reason is that He had not removed them from His heart. “He remembered” namely “His covenant” ( ) which He had made with the fathers. Therefore, He remembered “for their sake”. He could not forget the covenant He had made with them, the promises He had made that made the covenant unconditional. Therefore, He could not completely destroy them ( ). His covenant He fulfilled and all the promises attached to it He fulfilled. That He “relented” is not regret over a wrong act or decision. God is never wrong and never needs to relent ( ). If He does relent, it is “according to the greatness of His lovingkindness”. Relenting here means coming back from a certain path. It does not concern God’s counsel, but God’s governmental ways. In this case, He stops His disciplining of His people because otherwise He would utterly destroy them (cf. ; ; ). He can prove His lovingkindness because Christ has fulfilled all the conditions for the covenant. All who are joined to Him receive the promises and blessings of the covenant. On the basis of the work of His Son, which He foresaw, He was able to show mercy to them ( ). That mercy He worked in the heart of all those who had carried away His people as captives. He had the people carried away into exile as a result of their disobedience. In their exile they repented and cried out to the LORD for help ( ). For this they appealed, not to their actions, but to the holy Name of the LORD their God (cf. ). We see examples of the mercy the LORD worked on all those who had taken them away as captives by Cyrus, Evil-Merodach and Arthahsasta ( ; cf. ; ). This shows the power of God over the heart of men, including kings ( ; ; ). These proofs of lovingkindness and mercy in the misery that has come upon the people through their own fault bring the psalmist to a prayer and a thanksgiving. His prayer is a prophetic prayer. It concerns the situation in which God’s people will be in the end time, the time of the great tribulation. Then they will pray: “Save us, LORD our God, and gather us from among the nations.” It is a prayer for the intervention of God for their deliverance from the power of the nations. When God does, they will be able to “give thanks to” His “holy name” in the place where He dwells, in Jerusalem (cf. ). They will boast in His praise, which is to say that there will be nothing else and higher for them than to give thanks to God for His mighty deeds. The psalmist already makes a start, as it were, when he exults: “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel” ( ). This jubilation will never cease, but will continue “from everlasting even to everlasting”. God is worthy of worship in the realm of peace and for all eternity. The psalmist calls on “all the people” to join in with this with a resounding “amen” – meaning ‘so it is’. Then he ends the psalm as he began it, with a loud “hallelujah!”, or “praise the LORD!” ( ). See at Psalm 105:35. and of this psalm also occur in 1 Chronicles 16 and as a contiguous section ( ). This underscores the special connection between the beginning and the end of the psalm. At we have seen that the occasion for the call to praise God is His lovingkindness which is eternal. By connecting this with the prayer of , it becomes clear that trust in God’s lovingkindness is the basis of the prayer for salvation.

‏ Psalms 106:45

The Greatness of God’s Lovingkindness

The closing verses of the psalm, like the beginning of the psalm, are a song of praise for the grace of God. He had responded to their distress and their crying out (Psa 106:44). It had caught His attention. He had not turned away from them, but saw their distress and heard their cry. He had not lost sight of them. He had not closed His ear to them. The reason is that He had not removed them from His heart.

“He remembered” namely “His covenant” (Psa 106:45) which He had made with the fathers. Therefore, He remembered “for their sake”. He could not forget the covenant He had made with them, the promises He had made that made the covenant unconditional. Therefore, He could not completely destroy them (Lev 26:44-45). His covenant He fulfilled and all the promises attached to it He fulfilled.

That He “relented” is not regret over a wrong act or decision. God is never wrong and never needs to relent (1Sam 15:29). If He does relent, it is “according to the greatness of His lovingkindness”. Relenting here means coming back from a certain path. It does not concern God’s counsel, but God’s governmental ways.

In this case, He stops His disciplining of His people because otherwise He would utterly destroy them (cf. Exo 32:14; Jdg 2:18; 2Sam 24:16). He can prove His lovingkindness because Christ has fulfilled all the conditions for the covenant. All who are joined to Him receive the promises and blessings of the covenant.

On the basis of the work of His Son, which He foresaw, He was able to show mercy to them (Psa 106:46). That mercy He worked in the heart of all those who had carried away His people as captives. He had the people carried away into exile as a result of their disobedience. In their exile they repented and cried out to the LORD for help (Psa 106:47). For this they appealed, not to their actions, but to the holy Name of the LORD their God (cf. Eze 36:20-23).

We see examples of the mercy the LORD worked on all those who had taken them away as captives by Cyrus, Evil-Merodach and Arthahsasta (Ezra 1:1-4; cf. 2Kgs 25:27-30; Neh 2:1-6). This shows the power of God over the heart of men, including kings (1Kgs 8:50; Pro 21:1; Dan 1:9).

These proofs of lovingkindness and mercy in the misery that has come upon the people through their own fault bring the psalmist to a prayer and a thanksgiving. His prayer is a prophetic prayer. It concerns the situation in which God’s people will be in the end time, the time of the great tribulation. Then they will pray: “Save us, LORD our God, and gather us from among the nations.” It is a prayer for the intervention of God for their deliverance from the power of the nations.

When God does, they will be able to “give thanks to” His “holy name” in the place where He dwells, in Jerusalem (cf. Mt 6:9b). They will boast in His praise, which is to say that there will be nothing else and higher for them than to give thanks to God for His mighty deeds.

The psalmist already makes a start, as it were, when he exults: “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel” (Psa 106:48). This jubilation will never cease, but will continue “from everlasting even to everlasting”. God is worthy of worship in the realm of peace and for all eternity. The psalmist calls on “all the people” to join in with this with a resounding “amen” – meaning ‘so it is’.

Then he ends the psalm as he began it, with a loud “hallelujah!”, or “praise the LORD!” (Psa 106:1). See at Psalm 105:35.

Psa 106:1 and Psa 106:47-48 of this psalm also occur in 1 Chronicles 16 and as a contiguous section (1Chr 16:34-36). This underscores the special connection between the beginning and the end of the psalm. At Psa 106:1 we have seen that the occasion for the call to praise God is His lovingkindness which is eternal. By connecting this with the prayer of Psa 106:47-48, it becomes clear that trust in God’s lovingkindness is the basis of the prayer for salvation.