Psalm 106    

“visit.” When God “visited” someone, He intervened in their life, and He could intervene for their blessing or to bring deserved consequences or punishment. Here in Psalm 106:4, the psalmist is asking for God to “visit” with the blessing of deliverance.

[For more on God “visiting,” see commentary on Exod. 20:5.]

“bowed down.” The common biblical way of bowing down before people or God was to fall to one’s knees and bow the upper body and face to the earth. The word translated “bowed down,” shachah (#07812 שָׁחָה), is the same Hebrew word as “worship.”

[For more on bowing down, see commentary on 1 Chron. 29:20.]

“their Glory.” In this context, scholarly consensus is that “Glory” is being used as an appellative (or metonymy) for God Himself. There is some evidence that the original text said “my glory,” referring to the praise and honor due God, but that does not seem to fit as well with the last part of the verse. It makes more sense that the people exchanged God for an ox idol than exchanged God’s praise for an ox idol.

[See word study on “metonymy.”]

“yoked.” This Hebrew word only occurs here and Numbers 25:3 about the same incident (see commentary on Num. 25:3).

“demons.” The Hebrew word is shed (#07700 שֵׁד), and means “demons.” The Greeks who translated the Septuagint understood that and translated shed into Greek as daimonion (#1140 δαιμόνιον), “demon,” an evil spirit being. The BDB Hebrew lexicon says that shed is a loanword from the Assyrian šêdu, a protecting spirit, and that Psalm 106:37, which says the people sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons, is referring to human sacrifice. Putting Psalm 106:36-37 together leads us to conclude that the “idols” people worshiped were actually demons, and that is also what Paul said in 1 Cor. 10:20.

The ancient peoples understood there were many types of demons. Leviticus 17:7 mentions “goat demons.”

“he relented.” The Hebrew word translated “relented” is nacham (#05162 נָחַם), and here it refers to God backing off of punishment for evil that had already begun. For more on nacham and “relented,” see commentary on Jeremiah 18:8.

“Save us, O Yahweh our God.” Psalm 106:47-48 is very similar to 1 Chronicles 16:35-36 (see commentary on 1 Chron. 16:8).