They exchanged the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass.
This psalm shows God's boundless goodness toward His people, yet it confesses that they repaid His kindness with rank ingratitude, idolatry, and rebellion from the very start. The Psalmist begins with praise precisely so that we would dare to ask pardon for such shameful abuse of His covenant mercies.
AI summary
Commenting on Psalm 106:1-48
Thus they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass. They said that they only meant to worship the one God under a fitting and suggestive similitude by which his great power would be set forth to the multitude; they pleaded the great Catholic revival which followed upon this return to a more ornate ceremonial, for the people thronged around Aaron...
They forgot His works so quickly that they denied the conclusions as confidently as if they'd never seen the premises proved. They made haste instead of waiting for His counsel, their expectations outrunning His promises, and so they quarreled with every difficulty in their path.
AI summary
Commenting on Psalm 106:13-33