John Calvin Commentary Psalms 106:24

"Yea, they despised the pleasant land, They believed not his word," — Psalms 106:24 (ASV)

And they despised. It was an evident demonstration of the unconquerable wickedness of the Jews that, after they had been in the jaws of destruction and while they had scarcely escaped from danger so great and imminent, they rose up in rebellion against God. What was the cause of this rebellion?

The cause was their despising of the Holy Land, which above all things should have been most desired by them. The country of Canaan had been destined for them as the place where they were to be brought up under God’s paternal care, and where, as a people separated from heathen nations, they were to worship Him only. It was also, and especially, a pledge to them of the heavenly inheritance. This country, here and in several other passages, is therefore very properly called the pleasant land.

Was it not, then, the basest ingratitude to despise the holy habitation of God’s chosen people? The prophet refers to the cause of this scorn when he says, they did not believe God’s word.

For if they had taken hold of God’s promise with the faith they were obligated to exercise, they would have been inflamed with such a strong desire for that land that they would have overcome all obstacles that might have stood in their way to it. Meanwhile, not believing his word, they not only refuse the heritage offered to them but also incite a rebellion in the camp, as if they would rise up in arms against God.