Then stood up
Phinehas, and executed judgment: and so the plague was stayed. And that was
counted unto him for righteousness unto all generations for evermore. (Psa
106:30-31)
Psa
106:30-31 (105:30-31 in the LXX and Vulgate) is a text that Protestants
struggle with, as it soundly refutes their blasphemous understanding of
justification. For a discussion, see, for e.g.:
Response
to a Recent Attempt to Defend Imputed Righteousness
For an
example of the eisegesis Protestants are forced to engage in, see:
John
Murray on Genesis 15:6 and Psalm 106:31
Robert
Bellarmine, who produced a lot of solid work refuting the various blasphemous
teachings of Protestantism (which, sadly, still persist today), such as Sola
Scriptura and Sola Fide, wrote the following about this text:
David now alludes to another sin committed by
the Jews, the history of which is to be found in Numbers 25. We read there that
the children of Israel, seduced by the daughters of Moab, began to commit
fornication with them, and to worship an idol of heir’s, called Beelphegor,
which incensed God so much that he ordered all the princes of the people to be
hanged on gibbots; but when Phinees, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, in
his zeal slew an Israelite in the act of fornication with a Madianite woman,
God was so pleased with his zeal, that he forgave the whole people of it. “They
also were initiated to Beelphegor;” to their other sins the Israelites added that
of becoming disciples of Beelphegor, the idol of the Madianites; “and ate the
sacrifice of the dead;” the sacrifices that were offered to their dead gods,
such as Apis and Serapis with the Egyptians, Jupiter and Apollo with the
Greeks, instead of sacrificing to the one, true, and living God. “And they
provoked him with their inventions.” They naturally provoked God by the worship
of new gods invented by them; not that they were the first to set up
Beelphegor, but that they were the first to learn his worship from the
Moabites, and introduce it to the Israelites. “And destruction was multiplied
among them,” in consequence of that sin destruction set in upon them, numbers
of them having miserably perished. “Then Phinees stood up, and pacified him;
and the slaughter ceased.” Phinees, full of zeal for the glory of God, stood up
courageously against the impious deserters of the old religion, and by his zeal
so appeased God, that “the slaughter ceased.” “And it was reputed to him unto
justice.” God, who searcheth the heart, and well knew the good dispositions of
Phinees, did not look upon such slaughter as a sinful act, or one worthy of
punishment, but, on the contrary, as a good and a meritorious act, “and that to
generation and generation forevermore;” in allusion to the promise made by God
to Phinees, that in consideration of what he did so nobly, the priesthood
should remain in his family as long as the Jewish dynasty should hold. (Robert
Bellarmine, A Commentary on the Book of
Psalms [trans. John O’Sullivan; Dublin: James Duffy and Co., 1866; repr.,
Aeterna Press, 2015], 505-6)
