Psalm 106:2

Who can utter the mighty acts of the LORD? who can shew forth all his praise?

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(2) Praise.—Tehillah, a term that has become technical for a liturgic hymn. (Tehillîm is the general Hebrew word for the psalter. See Gen. Introduction.) The psalmist asks in this verse who is worthy or privileged to sing a tehillah, and replies himself that loyalty to the covenant confers this privilege.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

106:1-5 None of our sins or sufferings should prevent our ascribing glory and praise to the Lord. The more unworthy we are, the more is his kindness to be admired. And those who depend on the Redeemer's righteousness will endeavour to copy his example, and by word and deed to show forth his praise. God's people have reason to be cheerful people; and need not envy the children of men their pleasure or pride.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord? - Who can speak the great things of God? Who can find language which will suitably express what he has done, or which will "come up" in sublimity to his acts? In other words, human language must fall immeasurably short of adequately expressing the praises of Yahweh, or conveying the fullness of what he has done. Who has not felt this when he has endeavored to praise God in a proper manner? Compare the notes at Psalm 40:5.

Who can shew forth all his praise - Hebrew, "Cause to be heard." That is, Language cannot be found which would cause "it to be heard" in a suitable manner.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

2. His acts exceed our comprehension, as His praise our powers of expression (Ro 11:33). Their unutterable greatness is not to keep us back, but to urge us the more to try to praise Him as best we can (Ps 40:5; 71:15).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

i.e. His praiseworthy actions, by a usual metonymy.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord?.... Or powers (i); to which answers the Greek word for the miracles of Christ, Matthew 11:20, and Kimchi here restrains them to the wonders wrought in Egypt, and at the Red sea: but they may as well be extended to the mighty acts of God, and the effects of his power, in the creation of all things out of nothing; in the sustaining and government of the world; in the redemption of his people by Christ; in the conversion of sinners, and in the final perseverance of the saints; in all which there are such displays of the power of God as cannot be uttered and declared by mortal tongues.

Who can show forth all his praise? all those things done by him, worthy of praise, they are so many and so great? see Psalm 40:5.

(i) "potentias", V. L. Michaelis; "virtutes", Cocceius.

Geneva Study Bible

Who can utter the mighty acts of the LORD? who can shew forth all his praise?

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

2. No human voice can adequately celebrate Jehovah’s mighty acts (Psalm 106:8; Psalm 20:6) or worthily proclaim His praises (Psalm 18:3). For the thought cp. Psalm 40:5; and note again the parallels in Isaiah 63:15 (“thy mighty acts,” R.V.), 7 (“the praises of the Lord”).

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 2. - Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord? (comp. Psalm 50:2; and for the impossibility of expressing God's greatness, see Job 11:7-9; Psalm 92:5; Isaiah 40:12-17; Romans 11:33-36). Who can show forth all his praise? i.e. "all the praise really due to him." Psalm 106:2

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The Psalm begins with the liturgical call, which has not coined for the first time in the Maccabaean age (1 Macc. 4:24), but was already in use in Jeremiah's time (Psalm 33:11). The lxx appropriately renders טּוב by χρηστός, for God is called "good" not so much in respect of His nature as of the revelation of His nature. The fulness of this revelation, says Psalm 106:2 (like Psalm 40:6), is inexhaustible. גּבוּרות are the manifestations of His all-conquering power which makes everything subservient to His redemptive purposes (Psalm 20:7); and תּהלּה is the glory (praise or celebration) of His self-attestation in history. The proclaiming of these on the part of man can never be an exhaustive echo of them. In Psalm 106:3 the poet tells what is the character of those who experience such manifestations of God; and to the assertion of the blessedness of these men he appends the petition in Psalm 106:4, that God would grant him a share in the experiences of the whole nation which is the object of these manifestations. עמּך beside בּרצון is a genitive of the object: with the pleasure which Thou turnest towards Thy people, i.e., when Thou again (cf. Psalm 106:47) showest Thyself gracious unto them. On פּקד cf. Psalm 8:5; Psalm 80:15, and on ראה ב, Jeremiah 29:32; a similar Beth is that beside לשׂמח (at, on account of, not: in connection with), Psalm 21:2; Psalm 122:1. God's "inheritance" is His people; the name for them is varied four times, and thereby גּוי is also exceptionally brought into use, as in Zephaniah 2:9.