Psalm 105 - God and his promise

This psalm is a call to give thanks to God, to pray to him and to witness about him (v.1). They are to sing to him and speak to one another about his amazing activities on behalf of his people (v. 2). Their boast is only to be in the Lord, and it must come from their hearts. The seeking here is not the seeking of lost sinners for a Saviour, but the seeking of saints for his favour, his strengthening and his presence; and they are to seek for this continually because it is always available (vv. 3-4).

What are the wonderful things he has done for them? He chose them and made a covenant with their ancestor Abraham which would last for ever (a thousand generations), a covenant that he does not forget, and he revealed his commitment to it by renewing it with Isaac and Jacob. In that covenant he promised them a special land, even although they were only powerless nomads at the time. Because he protected them, not even powerful rulers could harm them (vv. 5-11).

God continued to keep his covenant by raising up Joseph and did so at an unlikely time – a time of global famine. His way to a position of authority was the opposite of how a promotion is usually achieved, but we are told elsewhere that our ways are not God’s ways. During the imprisonment of Joseph, he was tested by God until what had been revealed to him by the Lord through dreams took place (vv. 12-22).

After their ancestors went to live in Egypt, they increased greatly in number by God’s blessing and became powerful. But it was not God’s intention for them to remain indefinitely in that land. So he worked to bring them to his land; yet it would not be accomplished by their power, but by his. First, he turned the Egyptians against them. Second, he raised up Moses and Aaron and through them performed his campaign against Egypt as expressed in the ten plagues. Third, despite what had been done against the Israelites in Egypt, he arranged for them to leave with a great amount of wealth (vv. 23-38).

On their journey from there to the promised land, he provided them with supernatural signs of his presence and with miraculous provisions to meet their needs because he remembered his covenant promise for them to have the special land. Eventually, they reached the land and obtained it by his help against powerful tribes. He had kept his promise to give it to the seed of Abraham and they knew that they were given it in order to serve him by obeying his requirements (vv. 39-45).

It is obvious that the author does not refer to the failures of Israel during the period covered by his song. The point of the song is not to give a detailed history lesson but to show that God kept his promise to Abraham about the promised land, and to remind the Israelites how God had worked in his providence to get them there. The writer also indicated to them why they had been given the land. It was to be their place of service, where they would be a witness to other peoples about the true God and what he had done for them. Their worship would be about him and others should see that was the case. Did they do so? Sometimes, but often they forgot.