Yet he saved them for his name's sake, that he might make known his might.
Psalm 106 is a confession: the singer walks through Israel's history and admits the nation's sin at every stage. Then comes the turn — God saved them anyway, and the reason lay in His own name, not in theirs.
One writer shows where this verse falls in the psalm's survey of history:
After this general confession of sin, the psalm traces Israel's failure in detail, from the slavery in Egypt to the captivity in Babylon. At the start of the nation's history they understood neither God's wonders against the Egyptians nor His mercies to themselves. At the Red Sea they rebelled and would have turned back to Egypt and its bondage. Still, God "led them through the deep," saved them, redeemed them, and judged their enemies. Then they believed and sang His praise.
The rescue did not wait for Israel to improve. It came while they still distrusted God at the sea:
Fresh from the many mercies of their wonderful deliverance, they rebelled, refusing to believe His power and grace — and that from the Red Sea itself. There they would have gone back into that hard Egyptian slavery in sheer distrust of Him. Yet He saved them for His name's sake, to make His power known.
The force of the verse is in its "Yet". One writer sets God's remembering against Israel's forgetting:
Psalm 106 begins with mercy, because it takes up facts that the previous psalm left out, from Sinai onward. Here God's government acts in the middle of evil, and so acts in grace. But there too His name appears, and very sweetly. "He remembered" (Psalm 105:8, 42), but they did not remember the abundance of His steadfast love (Psalm 106:7); yet He saved them for His name's sake (verses 8 and 47).
"For his name's sake" puts the reason for the rescue in God. The verse then gives a purpose: "that he might make known his mighty power." One writer shows who was meant to learn from it:
By His mighty power God would teach the nations that He is God in heaven above, and on the earth beneath. It prepared the way for all nations to know Him later as the Saviour-God. But even then God gave Israel the knowledge of His great power in saving. It was never clearer than when the sea stood up like a rock. It was a question of delivering His people from their enemies, not of what they deserved: He would magnify Himself.
One writer explains why God's name was at stake in Egypt at all:
In wonderful grace, God had committed Himself to deliver His people out of the land that held them captive. The honour of His great Name was bound up with what He had said He would do. And God vindicated His Name when He poured out His judgments. They fell not on Israel, who deserved it as much as the Egyptians, but on those who had taught His people to serve their idols. They would not let Israel go to worship the living and true God.
The same ground carries over to believers now:
In this way we have received the forgiveness of our sins. And in the same way our feet are kept while we pass through the wilderness. We read, for example, in Psalm 23: "He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake." That is, God has undertaken everything for us on the same ground on which He has forgiven our sins. He acts in grace and love. His attitude never changes. He watches over us and protects us. The motive for all of it is found in Christ, and not in ourselves.
- Cause. Israel rebelled at the sea itself, still distrusting God as He rescued them. The salvation came despite them, not because of them.
- Ground. The reason lies in His name: a question of delivering His people, not of what they deserved.
- Commitment. God bound the honour of His great Name to His own word. His name and their deliverance stood or fell together.
- Reach. The power shown at the sea reached beyond Israel. It taught the nations who God is, and prepared them to know Him later as Saviour.
- Result. The same ground still holds. Forgiveness, restoring, and guidance all rest on His name. The motive is found in Christ, not in ourselves.
And he rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up; and he led them through the deeps as through a wilderness.
Israel failed from the very start, rebelling at the sea even while God was bringing them out of Egypt. Verse 9 answers that rebellion not with judgment but with a display of power — the sea rebuked, dried up, and turned into a road.
The sea in Israel's way looked like the end of them, with their enemy pressing in behind. Then the barrier changed sides:
They dreaded this sea, and it seemed impossible to cross. It even seemed to help their enemy in his last desperate effort to drag them back into slavery. Yet it becomes the means of their deliverance. The One of whom it is said, "The sea is His, and He made it," by His sovereign power makes this huge barrier the means of His people's defence. For we read, "And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left."
To "rebuke" the sea is to speak to it as its Maker. One writer hears the same voice again later, on the Sea of Galilee:
This was Jesus-Jehovah. This was the God whom the Jordan and the Red Sea had obeyed long ago: "What ails you, O sea, that you flee? O Jordan, that you turn back? O mountains, that you skip like rams? O hills, like lambs? Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord." The answer is there. It is the same whether we listen to the voice of the Red Sea in the days of the exodus, or to the Sea of Galilee in the times of the Gospel. The presence of God tells the secret. "He spoke, and it was done."
The people had just begged to go back to slavery. God rescued them anyway, and the reason lay in Himself:
Fresh from the many mercies of their wonderful deliverance, they were rebellious. They did not believe in His power and grace, right from the Red Sea itself. There they would have gone back into that hard Egyptian slavery, in sheer distrust of the One who still saved them for His name's sake, to make His power known. He led them through the depths of the sea, as if it were the dry ground of the wilderness. He redeemed them with His right hand from the enemy; and their enemies were swept away by the returning waters: not one of them was left. Then they believed His word, and sang His praise.
The same crossing that saved Israel destroyed the army behind them, and only then did faith and singing appear:
At the Red Sea they rebelled and would have turned back to Egypt and its slavery. Yet God "led them through the depths," saved them, redeemed them, and judged their enemies. Then they believed and sang His praise.
Commentators read the crossing as more than history. It pictures a rescue that goes deeper than leaving Egypt:
As a moral type, the Red Sea is plainly the death and resurrection of Jesus. This holds as far as the actual doing of the work goes, in its own efficacy, as deliverance by redemption — and of His people as seen in Him. God acted in it to bring them through death, out of sin and the flesh. By that death, into which Christ had gone, He gave them complete deliverance from sin and flesh, and so from all the power of the enemy… The blood shelters us from the judgment of God. Then His power acts for us and delivers us from the power of Satan, the prince of this world.
A later generation, home again from exile, saw nothing like that miracle. The power had not gone; only its form had changed:
In days of old there was a mighty display of the power of God, when "He rebuked the Red Sea, and it became dry, and He led them through the deep as through a desert." In their own day there was nothing that matched this miraculous display of power. They had indeed been delivered from Babylon, but no cloud by day or pillar of fire by night marked their way. All outward signs of power were gone. But in the mercy of God, the Spirit remained with the same power. It was now shown not in outward display, but in spiritual power that enabled faith to rise above every enemy and to care for the glory of the LORD.
- Cause: Israel rebelled at the sea and wanted Egypt back; God saved them anyway, "for His name's sake, to make His power known."
- Command: A rebuke was enough. He made the sea that blocked them, and at His word it became their defence.
- Crossing: They walked through the deep as though it were dry desert ground. The returning waters swept their enemy away — "not one of them was left."
- Christ: Writers take the crossing as a picture of His death and resurrection. It means deliverance from sin, from the flesh, and from the power of the enemy.
- Continuing: When no visible wonders are on show, the power has not gone. The Spirit remains, and faith still rises above every enemy.