Reflections on Psalms 105

 Psalms 105(Contemporary English Version)

1. Praise the LORD and pray in his name! Tell everyone what he has done.
   
2. Sing praises to the LORD! Tell about his miracles.
   
3. Celebrate and worship his holy name with all your heart.
   
4. Trust the LORD and his mighty power.
   
5. Remember his miracles and all his wonders and his fair decisions.
   
6. You belong to the family of Abraham, his servant; you are his chosen ones, the descendants of Jacob.
   
7. The LORD is our God, bringing justice everywhere on earth.
   
8. He will never forget his agreement or his promises, not in thousands of years. *
   
9. God made an eternal promise
   
10. to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
    
11. when he said, "I'll give you the land of Canaan."
    
12. At the time there were only a few of us, and we were homeless.
    
13. We wandered from nation to nation, from one country to another.
    
14. God did not let anyone mistreat our people. Instead he protected us by punishing rulers
    
15. and telling them, "Don't touch my chosen leaders or harm my prophets!"
    
16. God kept crops from growing until food was scarce everywhere in the land.
    
17. But he had already sent Joseph, sold as a slave into Egypt,
    
18. with chains of iron around his legs and neck.
    
19. Joseph remained a slave until his own words had come true, and the LORD had finished testing him.
    
20. Then the king of Egypt set Joseph free
    
21. and put him in charge of everything he owned.
    
22. Joseph was in command of the officials, and he taught the leaders how to use wisdom.
    
23. Jacob and his family came and settled in Egypt as foreigners.
    
24. They were the LORD's people, so he let them grow stronger than their enemies.
    
25. They served the LORD, and he made the Egyptians plan hateful things against them.
    
26. God sent his servant Moses. He also chose and sent Aaron
    
27. to his people in Egypt, and they worked miracles and wonders there.
    
28. Moses and Aaron obeyed God, and he sent darkness to cover Egypt.
    
29. God turned their rivers into streams of blood, and the fish all died.
    
30. Frogs were everywhere, even in the royal palace.
    
31. When God gave the command, flies and gnats swarmed all around.
    
32. In place of rain, God sent hailstones and flashes of lightning.
    
33. He destroyed their grapevines and their fig trees, and he made splinters of all the other trees.
    
34. God gave the command, and more grasshoppers came than could be counted.
    
35. They ate every green plant and all the crops that grew in the land of Egypt.
    
36. Then God took the life of every first-born son.
    
37. When God led Israel from Egypt, they took silver and gold, and no one was left behind.
    
38. The Egyptians were afraid and gladly let them go.
    
39. God hid them under a cloud and guided them by fire during the night.
    
40. When they asked for food, he sent more birds than they could eat.
    
41. God even split open a rock, and streams of water gushed into the desert.
    
42. God never forgot his sacred promise to his servant Abraham.
    
43. When the Lord rescued his chosen people from Egypt, they celebrated with songs.
    
44. The Lord gave them the land and everything else the nations had worked for.
    
45. He did this so that his people would obey all of his laws. Shout praises to the LORD!

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Those who seek the Lord have reason to rejoice. Why? Because He remembers His promises to those who seek Him. The fulfillment of His promises are accompanied with wonderful works that demonstrate His power to accomplish anything on behalf of His people. He has redirected the course of nations and nature on behalf of His people.

The writer of this psalm was addressing Israel and his example of God's faithfulness to His promises was the common recounting of God leading Abraham and his offspring throughout the fulfillment of His promise of a land and a special relationship. Does that mean, then, that this is not relevant for non-Jews? Not at all, for their history is also the history of the Christian and the fulfillment of God's promises to them a fulfillment for us. Especially God's fulfillment of His promise of a Messiah who is our Savior. So all who seek God can read this psalm with the hope that the God who fulfilled His promises to Abraham will also fulfill His promises to us, for "He is the LORD our God; His judgments govern the whole earth." (105:7)

Beginning with verse 8, read through the recounting of God's fulfillment of His covenant with Abraham and reflect on its meaning to you personally. God made a covenant with Abraham that promised certain things to Abraham on the condition that he continue to follow God. The verses of this psalm describe how God's promise grew and grew until a large nation of Abraham's descendents had possession of the land God promised to Abraham. The path leading to this fulfillment had many twists and turns in it, often appearing that it had gotten off-course completely. But each twist and turn was actually a means of putting in place another necessary piece in the accomplishment of the promise. But we must not lose sight of the fact that this promise to Abraham was not just for him and his descendents, but that all people might know of God and His greatness and might also follow Him. Likewise, His promises to each of us of Abundant life in Christ, are not just for our benefit, but for the benefit of others. And He is faithful to fulfill these promises.

The psalmist concluded that, "All this happened so that they might keep His statutes and obey His laws. Hallelujah!" (105:45) And so it is with us. Keeping God's statutes and obeying His laws are not merely a condition for the fulfillment of His promises, they are also the means. For He can only do for us what we will allow Him to do by opening our lives to follow where His promise leads.