Commentary - Psalm 106:34-39

Bird's-eye view

Psalm 106 is a national confession of sin, a corporate litany of Israel's persistent rebellion against their covenant Lord. It stands in stark contrast to the preceding psalm, Psalm 105, which recounts God's covenant faithfulness to Israel. The two psalms together present a diptych of divine fidelity and human infidelity. Our passage, verses 34-39, is the horrifying climax of this confession. It details the final stages of Israel's apostasy upon entering the Promised Land. They failed to drive out the inhabitants as commanded, which led to syncretism, which led to idolatry, which culminated in the abomination of child sacrifice. This section is a stark reminder that disobedience is never static; it is a slippery slope that leads to the deepest forms of depravity. The central theme is the tragic irony of a chosen people, delivered by mighty acts of God, who then turn and adopt the very practices of the nations God judged for those same sins.

The psalmist here is not engaging in historical minutiae for its own sake. He is laying out a theological pattern. The failure was not simply military or political; it was fundamentally a failure of worship. Israel was called to be a holy nation, separate from the world, a light to the Gentiles. Instead, they became just like them, and in some cases, even worse. This passage is a graphic illustration of the principle that who you associate with, you will eventually become like. The progression is clear: incomplete obedience led to unholy association, which led to ungodly education ("learned their works"), which led to damnable adoration ("served their idols"), and finally to unspeakable abomination ("sacrificed their sons and their daughters"). This is a timeless warning against all forms of worldly compromise.

Outline

Context In Psalms

Psalm 106 is one of the historical psalms, which reflect on Israel's past to teach theological truths. It functions as a national lament and confession, a necessary counterpart to psalms of praise for God's deliverance. The structure of the psalm follows Israel's history, from Egypt (vv. 7-12) through the wilderness (vv. 13-33) and into the land of Canaan (vv. 34-46). Our passage forms the capstone of their rebellion. After all God's miraculous provision and patient discipline in the desert, their entry into the land of promise becomes the occasion for their most grotesque sins. The placement of this confession after Psalm 105 (a celebration of God's faithfulness) is intentional. It highlights the sheer grace of God. God's covenant does not depend on Israel's perfection, but their sin still brings about devastating consequences, as the subsequent verses show (vv. 40-42).

Clause-by-Clause Commentary

v. 34 They did not destroy the peoples, As Yahweh commanded them,

The root of the whole disaster is identified immediately. It was a failure of obedience, plain and simple. God's command was not a suggestion, nor was it an invitation to a multicultural experiment. It was a command rooted in His holiness and His desire to protect His people from spiritual contamination. The Canaanites were not to be destroyed because of ethnicity, but because of their morally and spiritually terminal condition. Their cup of iniquity was full (Gen. 15:16). God was using Israel as His instrument of judgment, just as He would later use Assyria and Babylon as instruments of judgment against a disobedient Israel. The command was an act of holy justice and also an act of profound mercy to Israel, preserving them from the spiritual cancer that would otherwise consume them. Their failure to obey was not a mark of superior compassion, as some modern sentimentalists might imagine. It was a mark of cowardice, compromise, and a deficient trust in the wisdom of God's command.

v. 35 But they mingled with the nations And learned their works,

Here is the inevitable result of the first disobedience. What you fail to judge, you will eventually join. What you tolerate, you will eventually embrace. They "mingled" with them. This speaks of intermarriage, business partnerships, and social fellowship. The line of separation, which God had commanded for their own good, was blurred and then erased. The antithesis was abandoned. And the result of this mingling was not that Israel evangelized the Canaanites, but that the Canaanites paganized Israel. "And learned their works." Education always occurs. The only question is who your teacher will be. By choosing to fellowship with the nations, Israel enrolled in the university of paganism. They learned by observation and participation. This is how corruption works. It is not usually a sudden leap, but a slow, gradual assimilation. You get used to things you once found shocking. You start to think their thoughts after them. Their assumptions become your assumptions. Their works become your works.

v. 36 And served their idols, Which became a snare to them.

From learning their works, it is a short step to serving their gods. Worship is the central issue of human existence. You will always worship something. If you do not worship the true and living God, you will worship an idol. And notice the progression: they served their idols. This is the language of slavery. They thought they were being sophisticated and cosmopolitan, but they were actually putting chains on their own necks. And the psalmist adds the divine commentary: these idols "became a snare to them." An idol is a trap. It promises freedom, power, pleasure, or security, but it delivers only bondage and death. It is a baited hook. The bait looks appealing, but destruction is hidden within it. This is what happened at Baal Peor (Num. 25), and it is what happened throughout the period of the judges and the kings. Idolatry was the snare that repeatedly caught the feet of the nation.

v. 37 They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons,

This is where the logic of idolatry ultimately leads. If you will not sacrifice your sinful desires to God, you will end up sacrificing your own children to demons. This is not hyperbole. The text is brutally literal. The worship of gods like Molech explicitly required the sacrifice of children, who were burned alive. But the psalmist, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, pulls back the curtain. They may have been sacrificing to idols named Baal or Molech, but the spiritual reality was that they were sacrificing to demons. Paul makes the same point in 1 Corinthians 10:20: "the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God." All idolatry is ultimately trafficking with the demonic. This is the darkest point in the indictment. The very children of the covenant, the heritage of the Lord, were being offered up on the altars of hell. This is what happens when a people abandons the Word of God as their absolute standard. There is no bottom.

v. 38 And they shed innocent blood, The blood of their sons and their daughters, Whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; And the land was polluted with the blood.

The psalmist drives the point home, emphasizing the horror. This was "innocent blood." These children had done nothing to deserve such a fate. They were victims of their parents' apostasy. The repetition of "the blood of their sons and their daughters" underscores the unnatural cruelty of it all. This was not the blood of animals, but the blood of their own flesh. And the consequence was that "the land was polluted with the blood." The Promised Land, the holy inheritance from God, was defiled. Bloodguilt cries out from the ground (Gen. 4:10). This pollution of the land necessitated a cleansing, which would eventually come in the form of exile. God would have the land vomit out its inhabitants for these very abominations (Lev. 18:28). This is a foundational principle: sin, especially the shedding of innocent blood, defiles not just individuals but the very land they inhabit.

v. 39 Thus they became unclean in their works, And played the harlot in their actions.

This verse summarizes the spiritual condition that resulted from this cascade of sin. They became "unclean." This is the language of ritual defilement, but it points to a deep moral and spiritual corruption. They were unfit to come into the presence of a holy God. Their very works, the things they did, were contaminated. And then the psalmist uses one of the Bible's most potent metaphors for covenant unfaithfulness: they "played the harlot." Israel was the bride of Yahweh. Her relationship with Him was to be one of exclusive love and fidelity. Idolatry, therefore, is not just a mistake; it is adultery. It is spiritual prostitution. It is taking the love and devotion that belong to God alone and giving it to another. This imagery reveals the personal, relational nature of our covenant with God. To serve other gods is to cheat on Him, to break the marriage vow. This is the ultimate betrayal.

Application

We read a passage like this and the temptation is to thank God that we are not like those ancient Israelites, with their grotesque statues and child-burning rituals. But that is to miss the point entirely. The names of the idols have changed, but the nature of idolatry has not. We are just as prone to mingle with the world, to learn its works, and to serve its gods. Our idols may be more sophisticated, they may be called security, comfort, approval, power, or sexual freedom, but they are just as demonic and just as demanding of sacrifice.

And make no mistake, we are sacrificing our children on these modern altars. When we embrace an education system that teaches them they are meaningless accidents of evolution and that their identity is found in their sexual confusion, we are sacrificing them. When we champion the "right" to abortion, which is nothing less than the industrial-scale shedding of innocent blood, we are sacrificing our sons and daughters to the demons of convenience and personal autonomy. The land is polluted with this blood, and we should not be surprised when judgment comes.

The pattern remains the same. It begins with a small compromise, a failure to obey God's clear command to be separate from the world's evil. This leads to mingling, to assimilation. We start to think like the world, talk like the world, and entertain ourselves with the world's filth. Before we know it, we are serving the world's idols and have become a snare to ourselves and our children. The only remedy is the one the psalmist points to later: to cry out to the God who, "nevertheless," remembers His covenant (v. 44-45). Our only hope is in the grace of God displayed in Jesus Christ, who became a curse for us to deliver us from the curse of our spiritual harlotry. We must repent of our compromise, tear down the idols in our hearts and homes, and return to our first love, our faithful husband, the Lord Jesus Christ.