Psalm CV
1 O GIVE thanks unto the Lord; call upon his name: Make known his deeds among the people.
2 Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him: talk ye of all his wondrous works.
3 Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the
Lord.
4 Seek the Lord, and his strength: seek his face evermore.
5 Remember his marvellous works that he hath done;
His wonders, and the judgments of his mouth;
6 O ye seed of Abraham his servant, ye children of Jacob his chosen.
7 He is the Lord our God: his judgments are in all the earth.
8 He hath remembered his covenant for ever,
The word which he commanded to a thousand generations.
9 Which covenant he made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac,
10 And confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant,
11 Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance.
12 When there were but a few men in number; yea, very few, and strangers
in it.
13 When they went from one nation to another, from one kingdom to another
14 He suffered no man to do them wrong: yea, he reproved kings for their
sakes,
15 Saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.
16 Moreover he called for a famine upon the land: he brake the whole staff
of bread.
17 He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant:
18 Whose feet they hurt with fettei-s: he was laid in iron:
19 Until the time that his word came, the word of the Lord tried him.
20 The king sent and loosed him; even the ruler of the people, and let him
go free.
21 He made him lord of his house, and ruler of all his substance:
22 To bind his princes at his pleasure; and teach his senators wisdom.
23 Israel also came into Egypt; and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.
24 And he increased his people greatly; and he made them stronger than
their enemies.
25 He turned their heart to hate his people, to deal subtilely with his servants.
26 He sent Moses his servant; and Aaron whom he had chosen.
27 They shewed his signs among them, and wonders in the land of Ham.
28 He sent darkness, and made it dark; and they rebelled not against his
word.
29 He turned their waters into blood, and slew their fish.
30 Their land brought forth frogs in abundance, in the chambers of their
kings.
31 He spake, and there came divers sorts of flies, and lice in all their coasts.
32 He gave thejp hail for rain, and flaming fire in their land.
33 He smote their vines also and their fig-trees; and brake the trees of their
coasts.
34 He spake, and the locusts came, and caterpillars, and that without number.
35 And did eat up all the herbs in their land, and devoured the fruit of their
ground.
36 He smote also all the firstborn in their land, the chief of all their strength.
37 He brought them forth also with silver and gold:
And there was not one feeble person among their tribes.
38 Eifypt was glad when they departed: for the fear of them fell upon them.
39 He spread a cloud for a covering; and fire to give light in the night.
40 The people asked, and he brought quails, and satisfied them with the
bread of heaven.
41 He opened the rock, and the waters gushed out; they ran in the dry
places like a river.
42 For he remembered his holy promise, and Abraham his servant.
43 And he brought forth his people with joy, and his chosen with gladness:
44 And gave them the lands of the heathen: and they inherited the labour
of the people;
45 That they might observe his statutes, and keep his laws. Praise ye the Lord.
The first fifteen verses were written at the bringing- up of the Ark, 1 Chron. xvi. They tell that it is sovereign grace that ruleth over all — it is a sovereign God. Out of a fallen world he takes whom he pleases — individuals, families, nations. He chose Israel long ago, that they might be the objects of grace, and their land the theatre of its display. He will yet again return to Israel, when the days of his Kingdom of Glory draw near; and Israel shall have a full share — the very fullest and richest — in his blessings, temporal and spiritual. In these days shall this song be sung again —
“Ogive thanks unto the Lord, call upon his name!
Make known among the Gentiles his ivorkinys,” £c.
Inviting, in such strains (ver. 1-8), all Israel to tell of their redeeming God among the nations; “He, the Lord, is our God” (ver. 7). They recount his benefits, from the days of Abraham onward to their entering in peace upon possession of Canaan — the type of the more blessed rest remaining for them and us under the true Joshua. The Covenant (ver. 8, 9) was the sure foundation of this favour manifested toward them; and that same Covenant (ver. 42) was the Lord’s reason for putting the cope-stone on the work. It is “grace, grace,” from beginning to end. And the repeated call on saints to “make God’s deeds known” breathe a missionary spirit, and should be so felt by us who know the great deeds of Calvaiy and Pentecost. Home, also, well remarks on verse 2, “Sing — talk, — music and conversation are two things by which the mind of man receiveth great good or a great deal of harm.
God’s S’
reitfiity
The contents.
They who make Jehovah the subject of both will enjoy a heaven on earth,”
1. The Psahn, then, selects incidents that may best touch the heart. Thus Israel’s insignificance, teven after becoming a nation, and their weakness, and wanderings (vers. 12-15). They went “from the kingdom,” a land promised to them, (ni)7pDD) “to a foreign people.”
“From kingdom unto kingdom,
Sojourned a little band:
From, place to place compelled to stray — Strangers in a strange land.” (Barclay.)
Yet they are “anointed;” the oil of him who set them apart is on their head; and therefore they are safe (ver. 15). He has separated them for himself, and made them “his prophets” — teachers of his will to other nations of earth.
2. Joseph’s History is next selected as a theme; for there Jehovah is seen casting down and lifting up; using, too, a despised instrument to be a glorious deliverer. There is something graphic in the language of verse 16, “He called for famine,” representing it as his waiting servant, (Home). Scarcely less so is the literal rendering of verse 17, “He sent a man before them” — but hoAV? To man’s eye there appeared no sending; but it was to emerge from this, “Joseph was sold for a servant.” Here again is grace — grace flowing in unthought-of channels (vers. 1 6-2 -i).
3. Egyptian bondage follows, but only as introducing redemption — redemption by power, and redemption that proclaimed Jehovah’s wrath on the rebellious (vers. 25, 26). We see Jehovah removing from the rebellious resisters of his will the blessing of light, the blessing of water for their thirst, the blessing of domestic comfort, the blessing of fertilising rain, the blessing of the increase yielded by the vine and fig, the grass and grain, nay, the blessing of health and of life (27-36). On the other hand, his blessing rests, in sovereign grace, on his redeemed (vers. 37-43) — the blessing that is the reverse of these inflictions on Egypt, besides strength, security from foes, guidance, providential supply of food and water.
“He brought forth his people with rejoicing,
J J is elect with the song of joy.”
But all this — not for their sakes — only because of his holy covenant. “Grace, grace,” pervades his ways; and grace leads them into possession of their inheritance (ver. 44); but leads them thither to glorify their redeeming God, even as shall be the case at their final return —
“For the sake of having his statutes observed,
And his laws preserved.
Hallelujah P’
Whether we consider the sweet singer here to be David, or David’s Son, who sat in the pillar-cloud over Israel’s tents, the theme is the same.
The Lord glorified in his redeeming acts toward Israel.