Psalm 106:20 describes Israel’s great mistake at Mount Horeb, where the people gave up the glory of the living God for a golden calf, a statue of a bull that can do nothing but eat grass. In plain terms, the verse says they traded something infinitely valuable for something worthless. The writer of the psalm is recalling Israel’s history, speaking to the people of Israel as a whole so they will remember how quickly their ancestors turned away from the one who had rescued them.
Thus they exchanged their glory for an image of a bull that eats grass.
Psalm 106:20 (WEB)
What Psalm 106:20 Means
The phrase “exchanged their glory” is a word picture from the marketplace. The people had something precious, the splendor and presence of God that had been displayed to them, and they handed it over in return for a cheap substitute. The writer is not describing a small slip. He is describing a deliberate swap, the kind of bad bargain a person makes when they stop seeing what they actually hold.
The “image of a bull that eats grass” is intentionally unimpressive. A bull is a symbol of strength, but this bull is a statue that only eats grass, which is to say it has no power, no voice, and no ability to act. The contrast between the living God who acts in history and a lifeless animal made of metal is the heart of the verse. The psalm does not promise anything here. It simply names the foolishness of exchanging the Lord for idols that cannot save.
The Context of Psalm 106:20
Psalm 106 is a long hymn of confession and remembrance, and it belongs to the wisdom and poetry section of the Old Testament. It is traditionally associated with the wider Psalter’s worship life, and the psalm is usually read as a communal prayer that recounts Israel’s repeated failures alongside God’s repeated mercy. Its audience is the covenant community, the people who sing it and must learn from the past.
The verses just before and after Psalm 106:20 widen the picture. Verses 17 and 18 recount judgment falling on rebels who rose against Moses and Aaron, and verses 21 through 23 describe how the people forgot the God who had done great works in Egypt and by the Red Sea, and how Moses had to stand in the breach to turn away divine anger. Read in that setting, the golden calf is not an isolated lapse but one more chapter in a pattern of forgetting, which is why the verse carries such weight.
Key Phrases in Psalm 106:20
Isaiah 44:9
Everyone who makes a carved image is vain. The things that they delight in will not profit. Their own witnesses don’t see, nor know, that they may be disappointed.
(WEB)
This verse continues the theme of idol-making with a sharp critique of those who shape images and then depend on them. It helps readers see that the golden calf was not a neutral object but a human creation that could never meet the needs its makers projected onto it.
Psalm 115:4-5
4 Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. 5 They have mouths, but they don’t speak. They have eyes, but they don’t see.
(WEB)
These verses describe idols with the same blunt honesty, showing how they have mouths and eyes yet cannot speak or see. Placed beside Psalm 106:20, they reinforce the contrast between the living God and the silent, lifeless substitutes that tempt his people.
A Short Prayer From Psalm 106:20
Lord, you have shown yourself faithful to your people again and again, and still my heart drifts toward things that cannot hold me. Forgive me for the times I have traded your glory for approval, comfort, or control. Help me see clearly what is worthless and what is truly good, and teach me to return to you each time I notice that I have wandered. Keep my eyes fixed on your presence, the only glory worth giving my life to. Amen.
