Psalms, Volume 2 by W. Dennis Tucker Jr. & Jamie A. Grant

Author:W. Dennis Tucker, Jr. & Jamie A. Grant [Tucker Jr., W. Dennis & Grant, Jamie A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Zondervan Academic
Published: 2018-07-02T00:00:00+00:00

Provoking Yahweh through Idolatry (106:28–33)

THEY YOKED THEMSELVES TO THE BAAL OF PEOR. As in the book of Judges, just when the reader thinks that things could not possibly get any worse, events nosedive further. Five of the six verses in this stanza begin with the waw-conjunction (“then,” “and,” or “but”) and the sixth with the causative ki (“for”). Their “yoking” leads to a string of events that shows the ups and downs of a community’s unraveling and veering away from its true identity. “Then they yoked themselves . . .,” “and they ate . . .,” “but Phineas stood up . . .,” “and this was credited . . .,” “but they angered the LORD . . .,” “for they rebelled. . . .” Even the actions of the best of Israelites (Phineas and Moses) could not save that generation from their rebellion. The lack of belief and obedience highlighted in the previous stanza ultimately manifests itself in idolatry. Verse 28b refers, literally, to the “sacrifices to the dead”—possibly offerings made on behalf of dead ancestors (a practice prohibited in Deut 26:14), but the NIV’s translation is probably to be preferred here. Following on from the reference to the golden calf as a metal image of a thing that eats grass (Ps 106:19–20), the psalmist reminds the reader that these gods are dead, “sacrifices offered to lifeless gods.”34

But Phineas stood up and intervened. The events of Numbers 25 describe an idolatrous orgy of cultic prostitution quelled only by the radical intervention of Phineas. The language echoes the actions of Moses in Psalm 106:23 and presents Phineas as an intermediary who is zealous for God’s purposes to be fulfilled (Num 25:13). His intervention stayed the immediate punishment but was not enough to secure obedience on the part of the people. Just as Moses’ prayer saved them from destruction (Ps 106:23), so Phineas’ intervention saved them from the plague, but neither of these representative actions was enough to bring a change of heart and behavior on the part of the people.

By the waters of Meribah they angered the LORD. The place name Meribah is a byword for the failure of God’s people (Exod 17:1–7; Num 20:1–13; Ps 95:8). As we have already seen above regarding food in the desert (Ps 106:13–15), it is the revisionist take on their shared history in Egypt and the associated aspersions cast regarding God’s good character and good plan that provoke God’s anger. The addition of “and trouble came to Moses because of them” refers to Numbers 20:9–12 and adds the image of communal sin’s bringing down even a leader of great faith and obedience. Faithlessness has repercussions.

For they rebelled against the Spirit of God. As footnoted in the NIV, there is a translational issue here. The text simply alludes to the fact that “they rebelled against his spirit.” So, the question becomes, Is this a reference to Yahweh’s Spirit or to Moses’ spirit? Either option is possible, but the latter is more likely. Note the flow

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