Psalm 105 - Remember Wonders (Part 1)

Psalms 105 and 106 tell the history of the wonders of God with His people. Psalm 105 takes us from Abraham through the Exodus and Psalm 106 from the Exodus to the Canaan occupation. Thus, they form a pair and appear together as the last two psalms of book 4.

These two psalms give thanks and praise for the Lord's provision and remind His people of the journey that brought them to the land of blessing.

Oh give thanks to the Lord, call upon His name;

Make known His deeds among the peoples. (Psalm 105: 1, NASB)

Why is it necessary to remind people to give thanks and praise? Precisely because we forget to do that. When we wake up in the morning, we get started on our day, and the things which require our attention are numerous. We immediately get to work in fulfilling our responsibilities, and personal time with God can get squeezed out. We might offer quick and casual prayer - sincere prayer - but making time to be quiet before the Lord and to meditate on Him and His revealed Word takes a special effort and commitment.

The second purpose is to make His deeds known among the people of the earth. Each generation must learn because no one is born with knowledge. All knowledge is gained by learning.  Teachers and mentors guide us, and we also learn on our own. But without education, there is no knowledge. Each person must learn. Every generation faces the same challenge - to communicate the works of God. The job never finishes - it is a continuous action as people grow. God's story of wonder always repeats so that everyone has an opportunity to learn what God has done.

When Jesus met with his disciples in the upper room on the night that He was betrayed, they shared the Passover dinner, the Seder. The feast was instituted by God explicitly to remind the people of the events of God’s deliverance of His people from Egypt - the Exodus. The meal, which is still celebrated today in Jewish homes around the world and also in many Christian homes, follows the pattern in the book placed at each plate, the Haggadah. The traditional foods and drinks symbolize the story of God’s deliverance of His people. When Jesus said, “when you eat this bread and drink this cup," there may well have been an expectation that the Passover was to continue in perpetuity. Why would it ever stop? Although most churches do not celebrate the Passover in the same way, the church participates in that storytelling when it takes the bread and the cup in the Eucharist, also called Communion or the Lord’s Table. As the church remembers the work of Christ on the cross, it participates in the deliverance work of God, which began with the promise to Abraham and then the Exodus.

The Call to Worship and to Remember (v. 1-7)

Oh give thanks to the Lord, call upon His name;

Make known His deeds among the peoples.

Sing to Him, sing praises to Him;

Speak of all His wonders.

Glory in His holy name;

Let the heart of those who seek the Lord be glad.

Seek the Lord and His strength;

Seek His face continually.

Remember His wonders which He has done,

His marvels and the judgments uttered by His mouth,

O seed of Abraham, His servant,

O sons of Jacob, His chosen ones!

He is the Lord our God;

His judgments are in all the earth. (Psalm 105: 1-7, NASB)

Note the tone of this opening call - it is positive. We are encouraged to sing to the Lord to bring our praise to Him. We are to speak of His wonders. In American society today, many people find it difficult to talk about God because of a fear of being politically incorrect and not offending others by expressing their own beliefs. The funny thing is that often those who are most vocal about the need to be politically correct are the ones who are most vocal about their politics, especially in expressing contempt for those politicians which they do not like.  And yet, we are not to feel any shame in expressing the good things which God has done and continues to do. Just the opposite - we are encouraged to “speak of all His wonders." Helping people understand who God is, what He has done, and what He continues to do today is necessary for us to make known His deeds to all peoples. There is no political incorrectness in doing this. Some may ridicule us and want us to feel shame, but there is no shame in proclaiming the good news of what God has done. We are not wrong to do it - assuming that we are gracious as we do - and if others persecute us for proclaiming that message, we are not alone in the history of the people of God. Moses was probably not precisely Pharaoh’s favorite visitor.

Instead, there is glory in remembering God. There is a peace available to those who put their trust in Him. The heart of those who seek the Lord can be glad, even in the face of struggle. Paul reminded the Romans of the joy and peace which were available to them,

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13, NASB)

This verse is a great one to memorize and repeat to God in prayer when we are stressed. Another is the encouragement which Paul gave to the church at Philippi,

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4: 6-7, NASB)

The Lord can and does provide these things, which we need daily - joy, peace, and hope. 

The Lord is strong, and thus we can call upon His strength to work in situations. A funny prayer revolves upon the “God who owns the cattle upon a thousand hills." The prayer, “Lord, please sell a couple and send the proceeds our way!” We might chuckle, but this is not an inaccurate prayer. The Lord has no limit on the resources which are available to Him in any situation. And yet, He has created the world and its people to operate according to the rules of that creation. Physical laws apply, as do moral laws. Tornados happen because of the physics of large warm, and cold air masses. We have to learn to live with storms. If we should pray, “Lord, please stop all tornados," the answer to our prayer will be, “No." Instead, we must learn to live with the reality of tornados - or earthquakes - or floods -  whatever the natural calamity is in our area. God can and will work when those tragedies occur. He will allow them for His purposes and will help us when they come. Sometimes He has higher reasons for how He will use those tragedies. Not all things are good, but God can cause all things to work together for good.

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. (Romans 8: 28, NASB)

“He is the Lord our God," the psalmist reminds us. God has worked in history, and He continues to work today. Our desire then should be to walk with Him each day. We must purpose and resolve to orient our lives this way. We must plan to pray and meditate, willingly connect with Him, and submit to His leadership and guidance. Then we are to be His people and work hard to accomplish the things which we have become convinced in prayer are the things that God would want us to do. We must see the big picture of our lives and see the daily view of our regular activities in light of His lordship.

The psalmist now wants us to remember the acts of God in history. 

Remembering Abraham (v. 8-15)

Remembering Joseph (v. 16-24)

Remembering Moses (v. 25-36)

Remembering the Exodus (v. 37-45)

Psalm 105 ends with the people still in the desert, and Psalm 106 will continue the story in the desert to their entrance into the land promised to Abraham and the people of God.

Remembering Abraham (v. 8-15)

He has remembered His covenant forever,

The word which He commanded to a thousand generations,

The covenant which He made with Abraham,

And His oath to Isaac.

Then He confirmed it to Jacob for a statute,

To Israel as an everlasting covenant,

Saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan

As the portion of your inheritance,”

When they were only a few men in number,

Very few, and strangers in it.

And they wandered about from nation to nation,

From one kingdom to another people.

He permitted no man to oppress them,

And He reproved kings for their sakes:

“Do not touch My anointed ones,

And do My prophets no harm.” (Psalm 105: 8-15, NASB)

The book of Genesis begins at the Creation Event and takes us through Adam and Eve in the garden, Noah in the flood, and then Abraham and the patriarchs. Genesis is not a theology textbook, like one of the books we studied in seminary for our classes. It is a collection of stories that focus on people and their choices—the book's primary message. God makes choices, and God gives His creation the ability to make choices. Some decisions are good, and some are not. Each story of Genesis depicts characters who are presented with challenges and opportunities and make choices in their responses.

The history of the people of God, the Jews, begins with God’s call upon Abraham. He left his people in Ur and traveled to a foreign land to start a life of faith. Abraham believed God and responded faithfully, going first to Haran, where he stayed until his father died, then moving on to Canaan with his wife Sarai and nephew Lot. God made a promise to Abraham, called the Abrahamic Covenant. 

Now the Lord said to Abram,

“Go forth from your country,

And from your relatives

And from your father’s house,

To the land which I will show you;

And I will make you a great nation,

And I will bless you,

And make your name great;

And so you shall be a blessing;

And I will bless those who bless you,

And the one who curses you I will curse.

And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” (Genesis 12: 1-3, NASB)

God cannot break a promise. The promises He makes are called covenants. They are legally binding agreements. God used a contemporary covenant methodology to seal the deal when he passed between the two halves of the animals sacrificed for the contract. (Genesis 15). This covenant agreement at the time is now known as a “Suzerain-Vassal Treaty." The Suzerain (landowner) made a contract with his vassals (renters) that would be binding, and this ceremony would seal the agreement. 

Since there is no equal with God, God made the contract with Himself, thus also signifying that the agreement could never be broken since He would never break it. In this sense, it is an unconditional covenant, meaning that it is not dependent upon humans to fulfill conditions to receive the covenant's blessing.

God's promise to Abraham became the basis for the relationship between God and His covenant people, the Jews, for all time.

In Romans, the Apostle Paul points out that the church (all believers) that the church is grafted into the people of God, not the other way around. The church's grafting into the roots allows the church to participate in the blessings of the unconditional covenant. The promise to Abraham and his descendants thus extends to non-Jews.

But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches; but if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you. (Romans 11: 17-18, NASB)

And so the psalmist begins the story of Abraham by focusing on the covenant promise of God. For how long is the covenant in force? The psalmist writes, “to a thousand generations." This expression is probably hyperbole for a long time, but even if taken literally, if a generation is 40 years, then a thousand generations are 4000 years. Abraham lived about 1000 years before King David, who reigned near the year 1000 BC. So from Abraham to our time today is about 4000 years. Amazingly, we may be experiencing the grand fulfillment of that promise in the formation of the nation of Israel in 1948, which might mark 4000 years from the point when God ratified the covenant with Abraham. This interpretation is not out of the realm of possibility, but such a specific reference was probably not intended.

Remembering Joseph (v. 16-24)

And He called for a famine upon the land;

He broke the whole staff of bread.

He sent a man before them,

Joseph, who was sold as a slave.

They afflicted his feet with fetters,

He himself was laid in irons;

Until the time that his word came to pass,

The word of the Lord tested him.

The king sent and released him,

The ruler of peoples, and set him free.

He made him lord of his house

And ruler over all his possessions,

To imprison his princes at will,

That he might teach his elders wisdom.

Israel also came into Egypt;

Thus Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.

And He caused His people to be very fruitful,

And made them stronger than their adversaries. (Psalm 105: 16-24, NASB)

The book of Genesis continues through the lives of the patriarchs, from Abraham through Isaac and Jacob to Joseph, who ends up in the land of  Egypt. The familiar story of Joseph's imprisonment ends with his subsequent rise to a high position of leadership in Egypt.  Then deceit, treachery, and surprise, end with the family of Jacob moving to Egypt to escape the threat of the famine and establishing a presence there which would last 400 years until the time of Moses.

Remembering Moses (v. 25-36)

He turned their heart to hate His people,

To deal craftily with His servants.

He sent Moses His servant,

And Aaron, whom He had chosen.

They performed His wondrous acts among them,

And miracles in the land of Ham.

He sent darkness and made it dark;

And they did not rebel against His words.

He turned their waters into blood

And caused their fish to die.

Their land swarmed with frogs

Even in the chambers of their kings.

He spoke, and there came a swarm of flies

And gnats in all their territory.

He gave them hail for rain,

And flaming fire in their land.

He struck down their vines also and their fig trees,

And shattered the trees of their territory.

He spoke, and locusts came,

And young locusts, even without number,

And ate up all vegetation in their land,

And ate up the fruit of their ground.

He also struck down all the firstborn in their land,

The first fruits of all their vigor. (Psalm 105: 25-36, NASB)

It is possible to construct a spreadsheet using only Biblical data of ages to determine relative dates. If one uses the ages written in the text, it is possible to calculate relative times.

Noah was born 1056 from Adam

Abram was born in 1953 from Adam

Joseph was born 2190 from Adam

Joseph died in 2283 from Adam.

[Note: see the charts in the Appendix which calculate these dates from the Biblical data.]

Exodus 12: 40-41 tells us 

Now the time that the sons of Israel lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years. And at the end of four hundred and thirty years, to the very day, all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. (Exodus 12: 40-41, NASB)

Jacob and his sons arriving in Egypt and the death of Joseph overlapped by about 60 years. Therefore, the Exodus began in 2663 from Adam.

The point of this exercise is simply to demonstrate the relative time from Abram (Abraham) to the time of the Exodus. 2663 - 1953 is 710 years. 

If Abraham lived to be 175 years old (Genesis 25:7) then he died in 2128 from Adam.

If Moses was born 80 years before the Exodus, then he was born in 2583 from Adam.

So the time from the death of Abraham to the birth of Moses was 460 years.

Think back in the history of the world 460 years from 2020 AD. What was the world like in the year 1560 AD? It was completely different. Four hundred and sixty years is a very long time. If the covenant given to Abraham occurred when he was a young man, before he left Ur, then one could easily add another 100 years or more to the length of time between the giving of the covenant to Abraham and the Exodus. 

The point being - it was a very long time to remember the covenant. But God cannot break the covenant which He made with Himself, and God promised the land to His people. Thus, as the Exodus events began to unfold with the plagues, the psalmist writes that these were the "wonder workings of God" because of His covenant promise. 

Remembering the Exodus (v. 37-45)

Egypt was glad when they departed,

Then He brought them out with silver and gold,

And among His tribes there was not one who stumbled.

For the dread of them had fallen upon them.

He spread a cloud for a covering,

And fire to illumine by night.

They asked, and He brought quail,

And satisfied them with the bread of heaven.

He opened the rock and water flowed out;

It ran in the dry places like a river.

For He remembered His holy word

With Abraham His servant;

And He brought forth His people with joy,

His chosen ones with a joyful shout.

He gave them also the lands of the nations,

That they might take possession of the fruit of the peoples’ labor,

So that they might keep His statutes

And observe His laws,

Praise the Lord! (Psalm 105: 37-45, NASB)

When the Lord brought the Israelites out of Egypt, the Egyptians were so glad to be rid of them that they willingly gave their gold and silver so that God's plagues would stop. God illuminated their way and guided them. He gave them manna and quail and caused water to pour out of the rock. Why did He do all of this?

Look at verse 42, 

“For He remembered His holy word

with Abraham His servant.”

The unconditional covenant was the promise of God. God never forgot His promise because He can’t. God makes an unconditional covenant with us as well - our salvation. There were other covenants by God: a conditional covenant with Moses and the people of Israel, which was the basis for the Law, and a covenant with David for a line of kings fulfilled in Jesus. But the new covenant would be unlike any of the others.

 The prophet Jeremiah foretold the New Covenant, 

“Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the Lord, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” (Jeremiah 31: 31-34, NASB)

This New Covenant came in Jesus. 

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16, NASB)

We partake in the promises of God. The church is not Israel but is grafted in to Israel. As such, it shares in the covenant promises as beneficiaries. And as God made promises to Abraham, Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. 

Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:6)

So then, does He who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?

Even so Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the nations will be blessed in you.” So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer. (Galatians 3: 5-9, NASB)

God continues to bless those who place their faith and trust in Him. The atonement of Jesus pays our sin, and we are part of His family.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. (Ephesians 2: 4-10, NASB)

So as the psalmist encourages us to praise and sing for the wondrous works which God has done. Even more, we praise and sing as we see what God did 1000 years after the psalm writer wrote when Jesus opened the door of salvation. And 2000 years after His death on the cross, and 4000 years after God's promise to Abraham, we still see the promises of God working in our lives.

Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!)