Psalm 106:40

Psalm 106:40, in plain English

Finally, God's anger burned against His own people—the nation He'd chosen, redeemed, and promised blessing to—and He actually despised them for how completely they'd rejected Him. Even God's love for His people couldn't override His hatred of their rebellion and unfaithfulness.

Why it's here

You're reaching the climax of this psalm's recitation of Israel's failures. God doesn't express anger lightly, but when His people repeatedly reject Him, mock His goodness, and embrace evil, His holy anger is kindled. This is the moment where God's patience has reached its limit, and judgment must come. Yet even here, embedded in the darkness, you can feel the tragedy of it—God is describing His own people as His 'inheritance,' the people He cared for.

Who's speaking

The psalmist, describing God's response to Israel's accumulated rebellion.

Where it sits in the story

This sets up the exile—the judgment is coming. But even this isn't the end of the story. The psalm continues (verses 41-47) with Israel's cry for help and God's willingness to save them again. Even in anger, God remembers mercy.

The scholarly reading

As a result of this comprehensive covenant-breaking, God's wrath burned against His own people—He abhorred His own inheritance, the relationship inverted from blessing to revulsion.

Language and setting

The phrase וַיִּחַר אַף יְהוָה בְעַמּוֹ (vayichar af YHWH be-amo—the anger of the LORD burned against His people) employs the characteristic language of divine wrath reaching its limit. The verb וַיְתָעֵב (vayetaev—He abhorred) is visceral, suggesting physical revulsion. Most strikingly, the people are called His 'inheritance' (נַחֲלָתוֹ—nahalatav), the very term used for the covenantal relationship; now God abhors what should be His most precious possession. This represents the nadir of the entire psalm—covenant relationship fractured to the point of divine loathing. Calvin emphasizes this as demonstrating that even God's eternally chosen people can experience His wrath when they persistently rebel; the covenant provides no automatic immunity.

Voice

The psalmist, narrating the ultimate consequence—God's wrath fully kindled against His own people, their covenant status transformed from privilege to peril.

Significance

This final verse of the recitation of sins sets the stage for the plea for restoration that follows in verses 41-46; it represents the absolute nadir from which only divine mercy can rescue Israel.

38They shed innocent blood— the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood.

39They defiled themselves by their actions and prostituted themselves by their deeds.

40So the anger of the LORD burned against His people, and He abhorred His own inheritance.

41He delivered them into the hand of the nations, and those who hated them ruled over them.

42Their enemies oppressed them and subdued them under their hand.

Read all of Psalm 106 — The other side of Psalm 105. Israel's history retold through the lens of rebellion — yet God saved them again and again for His name's sake.