¹Oh give thanks to the Lord, call upon His name; make known His deeds among the peoples. ²Sing to Him, sing praises to Him; speak of all His wonders. ³Glory in His holy name; let the heart of those who seek the Lord be glad.

While the previous psalm (104) was focused on God’s praiseworthy work in creation history, this psalm (105) reflects on His praiseworthy work in salvation history. Creation is God’s first work, and salvation is God’s remedial work after the fall, equally glorious. Some might say that this is the theme of the entire Bible, but we side with those who see salvation as a means to a greater end, namely the glory of God. While the Lord could have fashioned all creation such that a fall would never have occurred, He chose otherwise in infinite and perfect wisdom and unfathomable purposes. We can only conclude that the redemption of a fallen world shows God’s glory more greatly than had salvation not been needed.

This psalm calls us to gratitude and describes ways to express that with a series of imperatives: call upon, make known, sing, speak, glory, let, seek, and remember (vs. 1-5). At the center of what God is doing in the world is the promise made to Abraham four millennia ago, passed on through his grandson Jacob (later renamed Israel), the father of the twelve sons who became the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel. God is known to Israel as “the Lord our God,” His covenant name, in a unique and personal relationship.

Out of all the people on the earth, the creator God of the universe made a formal promise (called a covenant) with Abraham; that promise was and continues to be the cornerstone of God’s plan and purpose to save the world from sin that entered the world in the Garden of Eden. The promise was this: God would save the world from the curse of sin through the descendants of Abraham and return those who believe to a more incredible blessing than in Eden before the fall (Gen. 12:1-3). So, everything God has done since that patriarch is built on His promise with that first man of faith. The psalmist puts it this way:

[God] 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 … (Ps. 105:8–10)

The phrase, “the word which He commanded to a thousand generations,” refers to a specific part of the promise in Gen. 12:3, “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.” All the world events, as history unfolds, fall under God’s sovereign rule and, thus, according to His command. Even in the most dire times, when God’s people fell woefully short of God’s standards, the prophet Jeremiah wrote that God was still in control, chastising Israel:

The Lord has done what He purposed; He has accomplished His word which He commanded from days of old. He has thrown down without sparing, and He has caused the enemy to rejoice over you; He has exalted the might of your adversaries. (Lam. 2:17)

The psalm then lays out the broad outline of God’s dealings with His people up to the time of the author of this psalm. The high points are familiar to the reader of the books of Genesis and Exodus: God took Abraham and his descendants from being nomadic immigrants, brought them into the land of Canaan, and established them as a nation in their own right (vss. 11-13). They remained a relatively small group for the first four generations and endured many hardships—yet God protected them through it all (vss. 14-15). One thinks of the times, for example, that Abraham was threatened in Genesis 12 and 20 by two different kings who tried to steal his wife, with him feeling threatened for his life.

Then God, in His providence, sent a famine to the land but prepared in advance the rescue of Jacob and his family by orchestrating Joseph, the favored son, to be sent as a slave to Egypt. There he suffered false accusations and imprisonment but, in time, rose to prominence and power (vss. 16-22). This led to his father, brothers, and their families all moving to and settling in Egypt (vs. 23).

We know from Genesis that after four hundred years of population growth, the Jews posed a threat to the Egyptians, which resulted in the enslavement of Abraham’s descendants. The psalmist interprets this in terms of God’s sovereign purposes: “He turned their heart to hate His people, to deal craftily with His servants” (vs. 25). However, this set the stage for deliverance: “He sent Moses His servant and Aaron whom He had chosen” (vs. 26). The psalm then follows with a brief overview of the fabled ten miracles demonstrating the power of the God of Israel (vs. 26-36). The exodus from Egypt became the pre-eminent story of redemption, coloring all of Jewish history as the defining illustration of God’s favor, nothing short of iconic and certainly not lacking in drama.

The study of history is the effort to interpret and give meaning to past events and uncover the larger and unifying pieces. This psalm provides the highest level of historical interpretation of the story of Abraham. All was developed, authored, and conducted by the sovereign hand of God, fulfilling His purpose to bless Jews and through them, to be God’s means to rescue people from the curse of sin. While this psalm takes us up to the time of writing, this concept of rescuing His people was ultimately fulfilled in the life and death of Jesus Christ, the perfect Jew descended from Abraham. [Many believe this psalm was written when the ark of the covenant was returned to Israel under King David’s reign, about 1,000 B.C.

God sent His people away from Egypt with much wealth (vs. 37) and continued to provide for them in their wilderness wanderings (vss. 38-41). And finally, we read the divine summation:

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! (Ps. 105:42–45)

The entire focus of God’s redeeming His people from Egypt was to bring them back to the land of Canaan, where they began, small in numbers and humble of life. They returned to the land promised to them more than 400 years earlier, now unimaginably blessed as a large and enduring nation.

Lord, thank You for divine guidance in my life. Just as You protected and led Israel, You are protecting me as You lead me in the way You purposed for me.