“And he remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his mercies.”
My Notes
What Does Psalms 106:45 Mean?
Psalm 106:45 comes near the end of a long, painful recounting of Israel's repeated failures — the golden calf, the complaining in the wilderness, the idolatry at Baal-peor, the provocation at Meribah. The psalm is a litany of national sin. And after cataloging failure after failure, the psalmist arrives here: "And he remembered for them his covenant."
The Hebrew vayyizkor lahem berito — He remembered for their sake His covenant. Not their goodness. Not their repentance. Not their merit. His covenant. The memory that saved Israel wasn't Israel's memory of God. It was God's memory of His own promise. The covenant was the thing that held when everything else broke. Israel forgot God repeatedly. God remembered His covenant without fail.
"And repented according to the multitude of his mercies" — vayyinnachem kerov chasdav. The word vayyinnachem (repented, relented, was moved with compassion) describes God changing His course of action — not because He made a mistake, but because His compassion overwhelmed His judgment. And the scale: kerov — according to the multitude, the abundance, the overflowing quantity — of His mercies (chasdav, His covenant loyalties). God's mercies aren't measured in drops. They come in multitudes. And it was the sheer volume of mercy that turned God from judgment back toward compassion.
The verse is the theological heartbeat of the entire psalm: Israel sinned abundantly. God had mercy abundantly. And the mercy was bigger.
Reflection Questions
- 1.When you look at your own pattern of repeated failure, do you believe God's mercy is more abundant than your sin?
- 2.What does it mean that God remembered His covenant — not Israel's merit — as the basis for relenting?
- 3.How does 'the multitude of his mercies' change how you approach God after another failure?
- 4.Have you experienced God 'repenting' — relenting from a consequence you deserved — because of His compassion?
Devotional
Israel sinned. Again and again and again. The psalm doesn't spare a single embarrassing detail — the golden calf, the grumbling, the idolatry, the rebellion. A complete, unflinching record of a nation that couldn't stop failing. And then, after all of it: He remembered His covenant.
Not He remembered their faithfulness — they had almost none. Not He remembered their sacrifices — they were often corrupted. He remembered His covenant. The thing He promised. The commitment He made that didn't depend on their compliance. When everything Israel built collapsed under the weight of their own sin, the one thing that held was something God built: His promise.
"And repented according to the multitude of his mercies." God's mercies don't come in singles. They come in multitudes. And the multitude was enough to turn the tide — to move God from the course of judgment back toward compassion. Not because Israel changed. Because His mercy was that abundant.
If you're looking at your own record — the repeated failures, the cycles you can't seem to break, the promises you've made to God and broken more times than you can count — this verse says the thing holding your life together isn't your faithfulness. It's His covenant. And the mercy that covers your multitude of sins comes from His multitude of mercies. Your failures are real. His mercy is realer. And there's more of it than there is of your worst.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
He made them also to be pitied of all those that carried them captives. He not only pitied them himself, but caused them…
And he remembered for them his covenant - His solemn promises made to their fathers. He remembered that covenant in…
Here, I. The narrative concludes with an account of Israel's conduct in Canaan, which was of a piece with that in the…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture