Psalm 105 — Tell of His Wonders

Today’s Passage: Psalm 105

This is a psalm that does one thing, and does it with its whole heart: it tells what God has done. It calls us to give thanks and to tell of His wonders, because He remembers His covenant forever. It walks us back through the long story, from Abraham to Joseph to Moses, through the plagues and the sea and the gift of the land. These are not pretty pictures made up to comfort us. They are things that actually happened, and the psalm names them one by one as the record of God’s faithfulness. It never stops to lay blame, for it is far too busy remembering how good God has been.

As you read, hold this: He remembers His covenant forever.

Psalm 105:1-7 (BSB)

¹ Give thanks to the LORD, call upon His name; make known His deeds among the nations. ² Sing to Him, sing praises to Him; tell of all His wonders. ³ Glory in His holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice. ⁴ Seek out the LORD and His strength; seek His face always. ⁵ Remember the wonders He has done, His marvels, and the judgments He has pronounced, ⁶ O offspring of His servant Abraham, O sons of Jacob, His chosen ones. ⁷ He is the LORD our God; His judgments carry throughout the earth.

Before the psalm tells us a single story, it piles up the invitations: give thanks, sing, tell, remember. It calls us the offspring of Abraham, the children of the promise, and it asks us to praise first, as though the remembering itself were already a kind of worship.

Psalm 105:8-15 (BSB)

⁸ He remembers His covenant forever, the word He ordained for a thousand generations— ⁹ the covenant He made with Abraham, and the oath He swore to Isaac. ¹⁰ He confirmed it to Jacob as a decree, to Israel as an everlasting covenant: ¹¹ “I will give you the land of Canaan as the portion of your inheritance.” ¹² When they were few in number, few indeed, and strangers in the land, ¹³ they wandered from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another. ¹⁴ He let no man oppress them; He rebuked kings on their behalf: ¹⁵ “Do not touch My anointed ones! Do no harm to My prophets!”

Here is the heart of it: He remembers His covenant forever. He made it with Abraham, swore it to Isaac, and confirmed it to Jacob, promising them the land of Canaan back when they were only a handful of wanderers. They were few, and they were strangers in the land, and still He kept His word over them, let no one lay a hand on them, and warned kings not to touch His anointed (מָשִׁיחַ) mashiach, pronounced mah-SHEE-akh. Strong's H4899, anointed one, Messiah. The word rests here on Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They were set apart not for anything in themselves but because God had claimed them as His own. The great name Messiah, the Anointed One, would grow much later out of this same older claim. It is one small word, and it carries the whole story inside it: the same God, keeping the people He has chosen. ones or harm His prophets.

Psalm 105:16-22 (BSB)

¹⁶ He called down famine on the land and cut off all their supplies of food. ¹⁷ He sent a man before them—Joseph, sold as a slave. ¹⁸ They bruised his feet with shackles and placed his neck in irons, ¹⁹ until his prediction came true and the word of the LORD proved him right. ²⁰ The king sent and released him; the ruler of peoples set him free. ²¹ He made him master of his household, ruler over all his substance, ²² to instruct his princes as he pleased and teach his elders wisdom.

A famine comes, Joseph is sold into slavery, his feet are bruised with shackles and his neck put in irons, and then, in God’s own time, he rises to become master of the whole house. The psalm sets that long ordeal inside what God was quietly doing through all of it. It does not pretend the betrayal never happened, for the brothers truly sold him. It simply insists that God was at work the whole way down and the whole way back up.

Psalm 105:23-27 (BSB)

²³ Then Israel entered Egypt; Jacob dwelt in the land of Ham. ²⁴ And the LORD made His people very fruitful, more numerous than their foes, ²⁵ whose hearts He turned to hate His people, to conspire against His servants. ²⁶ He sent Moses His servant, and Aaron, whom He had chosen. ²⁷ They performed His miraculous signs among them, and wonders in the land of Ham.

Israel goes down into Egypt and grows into a great people there, so many that the Egyptians come to fear and hate them. So God sends Moses His servant, and Aaron whom He had chosen, and through them He begins to work His signs. The next lines will name those signs one by one.

Psalm 105:28-36 (BSB)

²⁸ He sent darkness, and it became dark—yet they defied His words. ²⁹ He turned their waters to blood and caused their fish to die. ³⁰ Their land teemed with frogs, even in their royal chambers. ³¹ He spoke, and insects swarmed—gnats throughout their country. ³² He gave them hail for rain, with lightning throughout their land. ³³ He struck their vines and fig trees and shattered the trees of their country. ³⁴ He spoke, and the locusts came—young locusts without number. ³⁵ They devoured every plant in their land and consumed the produce of their soil. ³⁶ Then He struck all the firstborn in their land, the firstfruits of all their vigor.

Watch how every line begins with God Himself: He sent, He turned, He spoke, He struck. Darkness, then blood, then frogs and gnats and hail and locusts, and at the last the firstborn. This is not a gentler poem written to soften the plagues. It is the plagues themselves, the very same judgments, now lifted up and sung back to God as praise.

Psalm 105:37-45 (BSB)

³⁷ He brought Israel out with silver and gold, and none among His tribes stumbled. ³⁸ Egypt was glad when they departed, for the dread of Israel had fallen on them. ³⁹ He spread a cloud as a covering and a fire to light up the night. ⁴⁰ They asked, and He brought quail and satisfied them with the bread of heaven. ⁴¹ He opened a rock, and water gushed out; it flowed like a river in the desert. ⁴² For He remembered His holy promise to Abraham His servant. ⁴³ He brought forth His people with rejoicing, His chosen with shouts of joy. ⁴⁴ He gave them the lands of the nations, that they might inherit the fruit of others’ labor, ⁴⁵ that they might keep His statutes and obey His laws. Hallelujah!

Then comes the great deliverance. They walk out of Egypt laden with silver and gold, not one of them stumbling, with a cloud spread over them by day and a fire to light the night. He feeds them with quail and with bread from heaven, and He opens a rock so that water runs like a river through the desert. And the reason is given plainly: He remembered His holy promise to Abraham His servant. He brought them out with shouts of joy and gave them the land, that they might keep His statutes and obey His laws. Hallelujah.

He remembers His covenant forever.