Psalm 105
How God freed Israel from Egypt
Brag about God
1 Thank the LORD and tell others about him.Tell people what he has done.
2 Sing him some songs.
Sing good things about him.
Sing about wonderful things he has done.
3 Brag him up for being who he is.[1]
Let everyone who looks for him find joy.
4 Chase the LORD. Latch onto his strength.
Don’t ever lose sight of him.
5 Think back on the miracles he did.
Think about those marvels,
And the judgments[2] God made.
6 You’re from the family of God’s man, Abraham.
You are children of Jacob, his handpicked people.
God’s contract with Abraham
7 The LORD is our God.His word is the law
Everywhere in the world.
8 He’ll never forget the agreement[3] he made.
His vow to a thousand generations.
9 He made the agreement with Abraham first.
And then to Isaac, Abraham’s son
10 He confirmed the agreement to Jacob/Israel,[4]
A contract binding forever.
11 The LORD told Jacob’s descendants,
“I’m giving you the land of Canaan
An inheritance gift to you.”
Israel’s small beginnings
12 There were just a few in the beginning,Nowhere near a nation full of people.
And they were homeless at the time.
13 They wandered from nation to nation,
From kingdom to kingdom they moved.
14 No one hurt them in all those travels.
The LORD wouldn’t allow it.
He put kings in their place with a warning:
15 “Don’t even think
Of laying a hand on my chosen people.
And don’t try to hurt my prophets.”
Joseph rises from slavery
16 God sent a drought that dried the land.Crops died in the fields and food got scarce.
17 He sent a man down before the others arrived:
Joseph, sold into slavery.
18 They shackled his feet in chains.
And his neck in an iron[5] collar.
19 Joseph remained a slave
Until his predictions came true.[6]
And the LORD tested his mettle to refine him.
20 The king released him and called him.
The ruler set him free.
21 The king put him in charge of his household,
In charge of everything he owned.
22 Joseph could send officials into prison
Just to teach those wise elders a lesson.
23 Israel came to Egypt later.
Jacob lived with descendants of Ham.[7]
God frees the Hebrews
24 He gave his people lots of kids,Who grew up stronger than others.
25 God made the locals hate his people
To teach his people some wisdom.
26 He sent Moses to deliver a message.
He picked Aaron[8] to go along.
27 They showed the people God’s miracle power,
Wonders in the land of Ham.
28 God draped the land in darkness.
No one dared to try and defy him.
29 He turned the water blood red,
And the fish died where they swam.
30 He sent frogs to swarm the land,
Even hopping to the king’s bedroom.
31 He gave the order, and flies filled the air,
Then gnats joined with the swarm.
32 For rain, he gave hail,
With fire and lightning in the storm.
33 He pummeled their vines and fig trees.
He busted trees all over the land.
34 He gave the order, and the locusts came,
Grasshoppers countless and creeping.
35 If it grew, they ate it—all vegetation.
They ate it down to the ground.
36 He took the life of the oldest son
Of each of the families there.
The first and the best and greatest hope
Of each of the families there.
37 He brought his people out of the land,
Loaded with silver and gold.
Among all the tribes that left,
Not one of them fell behind.
38 Egyptians were relieved to see them go.
They were terrified by then.
39 He covered their escape in a blanket of fog,
And lit their night trail with a fire.
40 They asked for meat, he delivered quail,
And added heaven’s bread on the side.
41 He cracked open a rock and water gushed out.
It hit dirt like a river on the run.
42 He remembered the sacred promise he made.
The contract with Abraham.
43 And that’s how he gladly freed his people,
When his chosen ones shouted their joy.
44 He gave them the land of the nations he promised.
So they took crops others had planted.
45 Now it was time for their part of the deal:
Obey the laws of the LORD.
Let’s hear it: Hallelujah.
Notes
Literally for “his holy name.” The holiness of God is as unique and distinct as his name, which he revealed to Moses: I Am (Exodus 3:14). The holiness refers to his pure goodness and to his “otherness,” which describes his uniqueness among all life. He is unique and supreme, the only I Am. He’s at the tiptop top of the ladder, as Goodness on guard and Goodness at the end of our climb.
This seems to point to miracles God performed to free the Hebrew ancestors of the Jewish nation from slavery in Egypt. “I will lay My hand on Egypt and bring out My armies, My people the sons of Israel, from the land of Egypt by great judgments” (Exodus 7:4, New American Standard Bible).
The “agreement” is a contract between God and the Jewish nation. It’s often called a “covenant.” When Jewish people talk about their covenant with God, they are often talking about laws preserved in the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The covenant, or contract, between God and the Jewish people was a two-way street. The Jews obey God’s rules, and God gives them land to live on, and he protects them and blesses their families and their work with prosperity. Benefits for obedience and the consequences for breaking the contract were detailed by Moses in a speech shortly before he died (Deuteronomy 27—28).
Jacob. God renamed him: “From now on you won’t be called Jacob. You’ll be called Israel, because you’re a fighter. You have fought with God and with people. And you’ve lived to tell about it” (Genesis 32:28). The Jewish nation adopted his name.
Maybe bronze. The Iron Age in the ancient Middle East wouldn’t arrive until a few centuries after Joseph. He may have lived in about the 1800s BC. The Iron Age in this region appeared in about 1200-1000 BC. David, credited with many psalms in this collection, lived in about 1000 BC.
More literally, “until his words came to pass.” Context clues suggest the writer was talking about young Joseph’s dream of his brothers bowing before him (Genesis 37:5-11).
Ham was one of Noah’s sons. “Egyptians…. All descended from Noah’s son, Ham” (Psalm 78:52; see also Genesis 10:6).
Aaron was the older brother of Moses, who was 80 years old when he confronted the king of Egypt (Exodus 7:7).
Discussion Questions
- Sorry, there are currently no questions for this chapter.
Maps/Guides
