Psalm 106 (1928 BCP)
Psalm 106 (1928 BCP) is the great penitential rehearsal of Israel's unfaithfulness in the Psalter of the Book of Common Prayer (1928). Appointed for Evening Prayer on the Twenty-first Day of the month, it blesses the Lord for enduring mercy, confesses a shared history of sin, remembers the exodus and wilderness, and ends by asking to be gathered for thanksgiving.
Prayer Book Text and Shape
O GIVE thanks unto the LORD; for he is gracious, * and his mercy endureth for ever. 2 Who can express the noble acts of the LORD, * or show forth all his praise? 3 Blessed are they that alway keep judgment, * and do righteousness. 4 Remember me, O LORD, according to the favour that thou bearest unto thy people; * O visit me with thy salvation; 5 That I may see the felicity of thy chosen, * and rejoice in the gladness of thy people, and give thanks with thine inheritance.
The Prayer Book sets thanksgiving before the catalogue of failures, and the singular prayer “Remember me” before the communal history that follows. Mercy makes confession possible, while “keep judgment” and “do righteousness” show that praise is not an escape from obedience.
We have sinned with our fathers; * we have done amiss, and dealt wickedly. 7 Our fathers regarded not thy wonders in Egypt, neither kept they thy great goodness in remembrance; * but were disobedient at the sea, even at the Red Sea. 8 Nevertheless, he helped them for his Name's sake, * that he might make his power to be known. 9 He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it was dried up; * so he led them through the deep, as through a wilderness. 10 And he saved them from the adversary's hand, * and delivered them from the hand of the enemy. 11 As for those that troubled them, the waters overwhelmed them; * there was not one of them left. 12 Then believed they his words, * and sang praise unto him.
The confession is corporate—“we” have sinned “with our fathers”—yet it is not fatalistic. Exodus 14 supplies the sea-crossing which the Psalm remembers, and Exodus 15 the answering song. The Psalm teaches the Church to name inherited and present disobedience truthfully while trusting the God who saves for his Name's sake.
Memory, Repentance, and Intercession
But within a while they forgat his works, * and would not abide his counsel. 14 But lust came upon them in the wilderness, * and they tempted God in the desert. 15 And he gave them their desire, * and sent leanness withal into their soul. 16 They angered Moses also in the tents, * and Aaron the saint of the LORD. 17 So the earth opened, and swallowed up Dathan, * and covered the congregation of Abiram. 18 And the fire was kindled in their company; * the flame burnt up the ungodly.
Psalm 106 refuses to reduce sin to isolated mistakes. Forgetting God's works becomes refusal of his counsel; desire received apart from trust becomes “leanness” of soul. The episodes point to Numbers 11 and 16, where impatience and rebellion wound Israel's common life. Read in the Office, the Psalm makes memory a moral practice.
They made a calf in Horeb, * and worshipped the molten image. 20 Thus they turned their glory * into the similitude of a calf that eateth hay. 21 And they forgat God their Saviour, * who had done so great things in Egypt; 22 Wondrous works in the land of Ham; * and fearful things by the Red Sea. 23 So he said he would have destroyed them, had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the gap, * to turn away his wrathful indignation, lest he should destroy them.
The calf episode returns to Exodus 32: Israel exchanges the glory of the saving God for an image. But Moses “in the gap” also makes room for intercession. His plea in Exodus 32:11–14 is not a claim that sin is harmless; it is the prayer of a mediator pleading for the people whom God has redeemed.
John Calvin observes that the opening praise does not conceal distress but gives faith a way to live within it:
In celebrating the praises of God, therefore, he orders them to call to mind such things as would have a tendency to assuage their grief on account of present ills, and to animate their spirits, and prevent them from sinking into despair.
Calvin's comment explains the movement from thanksgiving to confession: remembered mercy is not a denial of grief but the ground on which repentance hopes. His interpretation does not replace the Psalm's concrete accounts of Egypt, the sea, Horeb, and the wilderness.
Augustine likewise hears the Psalm's confession as praise that refuses despair:
Although when any one confesses his sins, he ought to do so with praise of God; nor is a confession of sins a pious one, unless it be without despair, and with calling upon the mercy of God.
That historic Christian theological reading preserves the force of “We have sinned” while clarifying why the first line may still give thanks: the God addressed in confession is gracious and merciful.
Covenant Mercy and Evening Prayer
Many a time did he deliver them; * but they rebelled against him with their own inventions, and were brought down in their wickedness. 43 Nevertheless, when he saw their adversity, * he heard their complaint. 44 He thought upon his covenant, and pitied them, according unto the multitude of his mercies; * yea, he made all those that led them away captive to pity them. 45 Deliver us, O LORD our God, and gather us from among the heathen; * that we may give thanks unto thy holy Name, and make our boast of thy praise. 46 Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, from everlasting, and world without end; * And let all the people say, Amen.
The conclusion does not minimize judgment or turn covenant into entitlement. It names repeated rebellion, adversity, mercy, and a plea for gathering in the same breath. The final “Amen” makes the Psalm communal: a people who has confessed its disorder asks to be restored to thankful praise. At Evening Prayer on the Twenty-first Day, Psalm 106 follows Psalm 105's account of covenant faithfulness; together the pair holds promise and human infidelity in view, and directs both toward worship.
See Also
External Links
- The 1928 BCP Psalter: Psalms 101–150 (Justus Anglican)
- Augustine, Exposition on Psalm 106
- Calvin, Commentary on Psalm 106:1–5
References
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church (New York: Church Pension Fund, 1928), “The Psalter,” Psalm 106, Confitemini Domino, verses 1–5, pp. 479–480, Twenty-first Day, Evening Prayer, Justus Anglican, “The Psalter (1928),” Psalm 106.
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church (New York: Church Pension Fund, 1928), “The Psalter,” Psalm 106, Confitemini Domino, verses 6–12, pp. 479–480, Twenty-first Day, Evening Prayer, Justus Anglican, “The Psalter (1928),” Psalm 106.
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church (New York: Church Pension Fund, 1928), “The Psalter,” Psalm 106, Confitemini Domino, verses 13–18, pp. 479–480, Twenty-first Day, Evening Prayer, Justus Anglican, “The Psalter (1928),” Psalm 106.
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church (New York: Church Pension Fund, 1928), “The Psalter,” Psalm 106, Confitemini Domino, verses 19–23, pp. 479–480, Twenty-first Day, Evening Prayer, Justus Anglican, “The Psalter (1928),” Psalm 106.
- ↑ John Calvin, Commentary on the Book of Psalms, vol. 4, trans. James Anderson (Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Society, 1849), Psalm 106:1–5, Christian Classics Ethereal Library, “Psalm 106:1–5”.
- ↑ Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 106, §2 (Psalm 105 in the Vulgate/LXX numbering), trans. J. E. Tweed, in Philip Schaff, ed., Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 8 (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1888), New Advent, “Exposition on Psalm 106”.
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church (New York: Church Pension Fund, 1928), “The Psalter,” Psalm 106, Confitemini Domino, verses 42–46, pp. 479–480, Twenty-first Day, Evening Prayer, Justus Anglican, “The Psalter (1928),” Psalm 106.