Save us, Jehovah our God, and gather us from among the nations, to give thanks unto thy holy name, [and] to triumph in thy praise.
Psalm 106 spends forty-six verses tracing Israel's failure, from Egypt to the land. Then it ends not in despair but in a plea for rescue and regathering — a prayer commentators say God has not yet finished answering.
The cry comes at the end of a long admission of guilt. Once the nation owns its sin, the barrier to God's return is gone.
They looked back over this history of constant failure. All through it, they could still trace the love that had acted towards them. He could not openly display it as He would; but the one cause of this was unrepented evil. Now, in their confession of their sin, He could return; and if He could, He would. They cry to Him for this — that He would save and gather them from the nations. Their aim is to give thanks to His holy name and triumph in His praise.
Why should God act at all, after such a record? The answer is His own name, not anything in the people.
Psalm 106 begins with mercy. The reason is that it takes up facts the previous psalm left out, the facts from Sinai onward. Here is God's government acting in the middle of evil, and so acting in grace. But His name is mentioned there too, and very sweetly. "He remembered," but "they did not remember the abundance of His steadfast love"; still He saved them for His name's sake (verses 8 and 47).
Those who pray it have stopped defending themselves and stopped leaning on their ancestry.
They will not try to establish their own righteousness. They will not boast in the very law that condemns them. They will not say to themselves, "We have Abraham as our father." They will not put empty trust in the name and outward standing of the Lord's people. Instead, they will own that name in humble confession of their sin. They will call on the Lord their God to gather them again (verse 47), fully acknowledging His hand in their scattering. And He whom they call on will not ignore their prayer. He will be very gracious at the sound of that cry; when He hears it, He will surely answer it.
The gathering asked for here waits on a future moment.
We have here the two closing verses of Psalm 106. The first prays that God would gather Israel from among the nations. That gathering will be the result of the throne of Jesus set up in Zion. The second verse closes the psalm by blessing for ever Jehovah the God of Israel, as we find at the end of each book of Psalms.
How far does the gathering reach? One writer answers by naming who is still outside the land.
God's covenant with Abraham still stands, so the twelve tribes will possess the land again. As far as these psalms take us, the Jews have been brought back, but the ten tribes are not in the land. They will certainly come back, as Ezekiel teaches. For "all Israel will be saved" (Romans 11:26). Until that is done, the remnant of the Jews, back in their land, will not be satisfied. God's purposes for His earthly people will not stop short of it.
David chose these verses for the day the ark was brought to Jerusalem.
They closed that day with the first and the last two verses of Psalm 106. Those verses predict a state of things, and a need, that they were strangers to at that time. We understand it, and the godly remnant of the future will fully enter into it. At that time no nation oppressed them.
Book Four of the Psalms ends with a prayer. Book Five opens with the answer.
At the close of the fourth book was a prayer to God to gather His people out from the nations (106:47). He must do it; they cannot in their own strength. The fifth book then opens with that prayer answered: "Oh give thanks to the LORD, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures for ever! Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom He has redeemed from trouble and gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south" (107:1-3).
- Confession first. The prayer becomes possible once the people confess their sin. Unrepented evil, not God's unwillingness, held back His open blessing.
- His name, not their record. The reason that saved them in verse 8 is the reason they can ask again in verse 47 — He acts for His name's sake.
- Gathered, not self-gathering. He must do it; they cannot in their own strength. They own the scattering as His hand, so the regathering must be His hand too.
- Reaching to all Israel. Commentators tie the prayer to Christ's throne in Zion, and to "all Israel will be saved." Nothing less meets God's purposes for His earthly people.
- Ending in praise. The prayer aims at thanksgiving to His holy name. Psalm 107 opens with that thanksgiving, from the redeemed He has gathered in.
Blessed be Jehovah the God of Israel, from eternity and to eternity! And let all the people say, Amen! Hallelujah!
Psalm 106 spends forty-seven verses on Israel's failures, from Egypt to exile, and then ends by blessing God and asking the whole nation to answer with one word. How can praise be the last word after such an honest record of failure?
The Psalms are not one long collection but five gathered books, and the seams between them are marked in a consistent way.
Looking at the whole collection, we learn that it falls into five books — 1–41; 42–72; 73–89; 90–106; 107–150. Each of the first four ends with a doxology, a burst of praise, and with it we meet the significant word "Amen." ... Then the whole collection ends with a call on everything that has breath to praise Jah. The Psalmist strikes the keynote: "Hallelu-Jah" — that is, praise the LORD. What a day that will be! Hallelujah first sounds through the whole of heaven (Rev. 19:1, 3-4, 6). Then that joyful note will be taken up on earth, and everything that has breath will praise Him.
The praise is not laid over the failure as a polite ending. It comes out of the confession, because owning the sin is exactly what opens the way for God to act.
They looked back over this history of constant failure. All the way through it, they could still trace the love that had acted towards them. He could not openly display it as He wanted to; but the one cause of this was unrepented evil. Now, in their confession of their sin, He could return; and if He could, He would. They cry to Him for this: that He would save and gather them from the nations. They ask it so that they may give thanks to His holy name and triumph in His praise!
Israel's story is a record of change. The blessing at the end reaches back before that story began and on past its end.
"Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting" — He does not change. All the people are called on to say Amen to this solemn truth. What marvellous grace first, and what patience of mercy afterwards! Such is the hope of Israel!
At these four book-endings the word is not a crowd agreeing with a speaker. The writer himself sets his seal on what he has written.
At the end of each of the first four books of the Psalms, Amen is added (Ps. 41:13; Ps. 72:19; Ps. 89:52; Ps. 106:48). In these cases it is not someone else agreeing with what the writer said. The writer adds Amen himself at the end. It means "may it be so," and three times it is repeated.
But the verse also asks the people to answer out loud. That answer belongs in real gatherings.
As there are responses in heaven, as seen in some of the texts above, so there should be responses on earth in the gatherings of the saints, and not simply a hearing of prayer and praise.
The prayer just before it — save us and gather us from the nations — has not yet been answered as the psalm intends, so the closing Amen still looks ahead.
"Praise the LORD." "Blessed be the LORD God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting! And let all the people say, Amen. Hallelujah." This confesses the evil deeds of Israel in ungrateful forgetfulness, rebellion and idolatry. Yet the LORD's ear is open to their repentant cry, and His hand is open to deliver. So comes their prayer to "the LORD our God": "Save us," and "gather us from among the nations." They pray this so that they may give thanks to His holy name and triumph in His praise, as will surely happen at the end of this age.
David had already borrowed these closing lines once, when the ark was brought to Jerusalem — and used them as a song about the future.
Our verses 35 and 36, matching the last two verses of Psalm 106, look ahead to the full accomplishment of all the blessings listed in this chapter. They will be completely realised only by Israel's deliverance from among the nations, a time still future, when this praise will sound out: "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from eternity to eternity!" David's people rejoice in anticipation in this praise. "And all the people said, Amen! and praised the LORD."
- Confession — owning the sin is the doorway to blessing, not the obstacle. Unrepented evil held God back; once Israel confessed, He could return.
- Changelessness — "from everlasting to everlasting" answers a history of failure. He does not change, and the psalm calls the whole nation to say Amen to it.
- Amen — the word means "may it be so." The writer seals his own praise with it, and the people add theirs.
- Response — praise expects a spoken answer from the people, not silent listening.
- Hallelujah — the psalm ends where the whole book of Psalms ends: with praise. The full Amen still waits for the day God gathers Israel from the nations.