Read Psalm 105. What historical events and their lessons are highlighted in this psalm?

 Psalm 105 recalls key events that shaped the covenantal relationship between the Lord and His people Israel. It focuses on God’s covenant with Abraham to give the Promised Land to him and his descendants, and how this promise, confirmed to Isaac and Jacob, was providentially fulfilled through Joseph, Moses, and Aaron, and in the time of the conquest of Canaan. The psalm gives hope to God’s people in all generations because God’s marvelous works in the past guarantee God’s unchanging love to His people in all times (Ps. 105:1-5, 7, 8).

 Psalm 105 resembles Psalm 78 (see yesterday’s study) in highlighting God’s faithfulness to His people in history, and it does so in order to glorify God and to inspire faithfulness. However, unlike Psalm 78, Psalm 105 does not mention the people’s past mistakes. This psalm has a different purpose.

 Instead, history is retold in Psalm 105 through the lives of Israel’s greatest patriarchs, showing God’s providential leading and the patriarchs’ patient endurance of hardships. The patriarchs’ perseverance and loyalty to God were richly rewarded. Thus, Psalm 105 invites people to emulate the patriarchs’ faith and trustingly wait on God’s deliverance in their time.

 Psalm 105 possesses a hymnal note (Ps. 105:1-7), showing that in order to truly praise God, God’s people need to know the facts of their history. History provides both validation for our faith and countless reasons for praising God.

 The worshipers are addressed as the seed of Abraham and children of Jacob (Ps. 105:6), thereby deeming them to be the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham to make of him a great nation (Gen. 15:3-6). The psalmist underscores the continuity between the patriarchs and the subsequent generations of God’s people. The psalmist stresses that “His judgments are in _all the earth_” (Ps. 105:7, NKJV; emphasis supplied), thereby admonishing the worshipers not to forget that “our God” is also the sovereign Lord of the whole world and that His loving-kindness extends to all peoples (Ps. 96:1, Ps. 97:1). It is, clearly, a call to faithfulness to every generation of believers.