This is a strange statement, but it is what this verse and numerous others and many facts beside clearly declare. Therefore, that we may the better understand this apparent contradiction, consider -

I. THE MEANING OF THE TERMS EMPLOYED. There are three:

1. "Thou answeredst them." That is, answered their prayers for forgiveness of the people. Moses, Aaron, Samuel, had each this in common - that once and again they were intercessors with God on behalf of Israel who had sinned (Numbers 14:13, etc.; Numbers 16:47; 1 Samuel 12:19, etc.). And their intercession was effectual. Nevertheless, vengeance followed.

2. "Thou forgavest them. What is God's forgiveness? It is not the mere letting off of punishment. That may be done, often is done, but there is no forgiveness. And it is distinctly said here that God did forgive, though he did not forego punishment. It is true that the word though" in this verse should rather be rendered "and;" but this alteration does not really alter the sense, the two seemingly incompatible ideas of forgiveness and vengeance are linked together all the same. But they are not incompatible ideas if we consider what God's forgiveness really is. What is a father's forgiveness of his child? "Let us remember our own childhood, our children, if we have any, and how we do with them. What makes the little face fall, and the tears come to the eyes? Is it your taking down the rod from behind the door, or the grave disapprobation in your face, and the trouble and rebuke in your eyes? It is not only the buffet from the father's hand that makes the punishment, but still more the disturbance and the displeasure of the father's heart that makes the child's punishment. And forgiveness is not complete when the father says, 'Well, go away; I will not hurt you,' but when he says, 'Well, come, I am not angry with you; I love you still.' The taking the child to the father's heart is the forgiveness" (Maclaren). And such is God's forgiveness - the taking back of his sinful child to his heart again. If that were not done, no mere remission of penalty could ever make the soul blessed. The soul of man is so constituted that it would say over and over again, "Never mind the penalty; I can bear that if only I have the love." Forgiveness, therefore, is the putting away of anger from the heart of God towards the sinner.

3. "Vengeance." This does not mean revenge. The punishment of a criminal by the state is not an act of revenge, but the due maintenance of righteous law - a maintenance necessary for the preservation of society, and oftentimes for the reformation of the criminal himself. And so when God allows and, indeed, causes the consequences of the sinner's crime to dog his footsteps, and darken his life, and cause him sore sorrow, he may, he does, do that for reasons altogether consistent with the love which has already led him to forgive the sin and to receive the sinner back into his heart's love again.

II. THE TRUTH THE TEXT DECLARES. That prayers may be answered and forgiveness bestowed, and yet vengeance taken.

1. This is so. See ease of Moses and Aaron; they were forgiven men, beloved of the Lord, yet their penalty - exclusion from Canaan - was never removed. David (2 Samuel 12:10) was forgiven, but the penalty was exacted. All his afterlife testified to the truth here declared. Israel: they were forgiven, but for their unbelief none of them entered into their rest. And it is so still. How many a forgiven child of God is yet bearing in weakened health, in tarnished reputation, in stern poverty, in enfeebled will, in recurring fierce temptation, in shortened and saddened life, the consequences of former sin! But there is no doubt Shut they are forgiven and true children of God; and yet And it probably will be so. Until the ends and purposes for which these penalties are exacted are fulfilled, how can they come to an end? They are inflicted in love, not wrath, and love must hold us down to the endurance of them until that which is desired is attained. Hence:

2. Such retribution is consistent with forgiveness. For though the outward penalty be continued, its character is changed. It is now not a token of anger, but a means of blessing. For such sufferings deepen our hatred of sin, drive us to God in prayer, keep us lowly before God and man in humility, make us ever watchful and compassionate to other tempted ones, enable us to glorify God amid all, maintain the truth of God's holy law of retribution. If along with forgiveness there came at once remission of all penalty, we should think that God did not care much for sin, and certainly we should not. But they will cease when their purpose is accomplished.

III. THE LESSONS IT TEACHES.

1. Hate sin.

2. Rob it of its sting by turning to Christ in repentance, by submission to his will, by careful obedience in the future, and by daily, hourly trust in his grace.

3. Fight against it in others.

4. Exalt the Lord Jesus Christ, who makes us more than conquerors over it. - S.C.

A very great and grave mistake about the whole relations of forgiveness and retribution, and about the whole character of that Divine nature from which they both flow is implied in that word "though"; what the psalm really says is, "Thou wast a God who forgavest them, and Thou tookest vengeance," etc. No antagonism between pardon and retribution; both are regarded as parts of one great whole, and as flowing from the holy love of God.

I. FORGIVENESS IS, AT BOTTOM, THE UNDISTURBED COMMUNICATION OF THE LOVE OF GOD TO SINFUL MEN. We are far too apt to think that God pardons men in the fashion in which the sovereign pardons a culprit who has been sentenced to be hanged. Such pardon implies nothing as to the feelings of either the criminal or the monarch. The forgiveness of God is over and over again set forth in Scripture as being a father's forgiveness. Indeed, I do not remember that we ever read of the pardon of our Judge or of our King, but we read "Your heavenly Father will forgive you your trespasses." Let us keep fast by that. And then, let us remember our own childhood. What makes the little face fall, and the tears come to the eyes? Is it your taking down the rod from behind the door, or the grave disapprobation in your face, and the rebuke in your eyes? It is not only the buffet from the father's hand that makes the punishment, but still more the displeasure of the father's heart that makes the child's punishment. And forgiveness is not complete when the father says, "Well, go away, I will not hurt you," but when he says, "Well, come, I am not angry with you, and I love you still." Not putting up the rod, but taking your child to your heart is your forgiveness.

II. SUCH PARDON DOES NECESSARILY SWEEP AWAY THE ONE TRUE PENALTY OF SIN. What is the penalty of sin? "The wages of sin is death." What is "death"? The wrenching away of a dependent soul from God. How is that penalty ended? When the soul is united to God in the threefold bond of trust, love, and obedience. The two statements that forgiveness is the communication of the love of God unhindered by man's sin, and that forgiveness is the removal of the punishment of sin, are really but two ways of saying the same thing.

III. THE PARDONING MERCY OF GOD LEAVES MANY PENALTIES UNREMOVED. If you waste your youth, no repentance will send the shadow back upon the dial, or recover the ground lost by idleness, or restore the constitution shattered by dissipation, or give again the resources wasted upon vice, or bring back the fleeting opportunities. If you forget God and live without Him in the world, fancying that it is time enough to become "religious" when you "have had your fling" — even were you to come back at last — and remember how few do — you could not obliterate the remembrance of misused years, nor the deep marks which they had left upon imagination and thought, and taste, and habit. The wounds can all be healed indeed; for the Good Physician, blessed be His name, has lancets and bandages, and balm and anodynes for the deadliest, but scars remain even when the gash is closed.

IV. PARDONING LOVE SO MODIFIES THE PUNISHMENT THAT IT BECOMES AN OCCASION FOR SOLEMN THANKFULNESS. The outward act remaining the same, its whole aspect to us, the object of it, is changed, when we think of it as flowing from the same love which pardons. It is no harsh — no, nor even only a righteous Judge, who deals with us. We are not crushed between the insensate wheels of a dead machine, nor smitten by the blow of an inflexible fate, but we are chastened by a Father's hand, who loves us too well to do by us that which He forbids us to do by one another, — suffer sin upon our brother. "When we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned." The stroke of condemnation will never fall upon our pardoned hearts. That it may not, the loving strokes of His discipline must needs accompany the embrace of His forgiveness. And so the pains change their character, and become things to be desired, to be humbly welcomed, to be patiently borne and used, and even to be woven into our hymns of praise.

(A. Maclaren, D.D.)