For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Psalm 105:1-7

1 Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name;
    make known among the nations what he has done.
2 Sing to him, sing praise to him;
    tell of all his wonderful acts.
3 Glory in his holy name;
    let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.
4 Look to the Lord and his strength;
    seek his face always.

5 Remember the wonders he has done,
    his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced,
6 you his servants, the descendants of Abraham,
    his chosen ones, the children of Jacob.
7 He is the Lord our God;
    his judgments are in all the earth.

8 He remembers his covenant for ever,
    the promise he made, for a thousand generations,
9 the covenant he made with Abraham,
    the oath he swore to Isaac.
10 He confirmed it to Jacob as a decree,
    to Israel as an everlasting covenant:

A. Find Out:    

1. What does the psalmist call us to do? v.1,2b,5
2. How is it to be expressed? v.2a,3
3. How does he describe his readers? v.6
4. What does he say about the Lord? v.7
5. On what basis does the Lord work with them? v.8
6. To whom had he spoken it? v.9,10

B. Think:

1. What appears the point of this psalm?
2. Who is it addressed to?
3. What is the basis of what is to come?

C. Comment:

  1 Chron 16:7 tells us that this is a psalm of David. The call is to give thanks to God, call on His name (v.1), sing to Him (v.2), glory in His name (v.3) and rejoice, and to seek God (v.4). Underpinning all this, the reason for it, is the call to remember what God has done (v.1b,2b,5). Our faith is always built on the historical acts of God, the things He has done with His people on the earth. On the basis of that come our beliefs, and from our beliefs we live our lives.

  This psalm is a specific call to Israel to remember and tell others. The call throughout the Old Testament was for Israel to be a light to the nations (e.g. Isa 49:6, 60:3), though it was mostly not expressed like that. See Gen 18:18, 22:18, 26:4, Ex 15:14, Lev 26:45, Num 14;15, Deut 2:25, 4:6, 26:19, 29:24, 1 Kings 4:31, 1 Chron 16:8,24,28,31, 1 Chron 22;5, 2 Chron 32:23, Neh 6:6,16, Psa 9:11, 18:49, 22:27, 44:14, 45:17, 46:10, 57:9, 67:2-4, 79:10, 86:9, 96:3,7,10, 98:2, 102:15, 105:1, 108:3-5, 113:4, 117:1, 126:2, Isa 11:10,12, 12:4, 42:1, 51:4,5, 52:10,15, 56:7, 60:3, 61:11, 62:2,10, 66:19, Jer 1:5,10, 3:17, 4:2,16, 6:18, 31:7, 33:9, 46:12, 50:2, Ezek 5:8,14,15, 16:14, 28:25, 36:23, 37:28, 38:16,23, 39:7,21,23,27, Dan 6:25, Joel 2:17, 3:9,11, Na 3:5, Zep 3:11, Zec 9:10, Mal 1:1, 3:12. Get the message! And it’s all about the covenant He made with Abram, Isaac & Jacob (v.9,10).

D. Application:

1. God wants the world to know about Him.
2. He uses His people to tell them.

Passage: Psalm 105:11-45

11 ‘To you I will give the land of Canaan
    as the portion you will inherit.’

12 When they were but few in number,
    few indeed, and strangers in it,
13 they wandered from nation to nation,
    from one kingdom to another.
14 He allowed no one to oppress them;
    for their sake he rebuked kings:
15 ‘Do not touch my anointed ones;
    do my prophets no harm.’

16 He called down famine on the land
    and destroyed all their supplies of food;
17 and he sent a man before them –
    Joseph, sold as a slave.
18 They bruised his feet with shackles,
    his neck was put in irons,
19 till what he foretold came to pass,
    till the word of the Lord proved him true.
20 The king sent and released him,
    the ruler of peoples set him free.
21 He made him master of his household,
    ruler over all he possessed,
22 to instruct his princes as he pleased
    and teach his elders wisdom.

23 Then Israel entered Egypt;
    Jacob resided as a foreigner in the land of Ham.
24 The Lord made his people very fruitful;
    he made them too numerous for their foes,
25 whose hearts he turned to hate his people,
    to conspire against his servants.
26 He sent Moses his servant,
    and Aaron, whom he had chosen.
27 They performed his signs among them,
    his wonders in the land of Ham.
28 He sent darkness and made the land dark –
    for had they not rebelled against his words?
29 He turned their waters into blood,
    causing their fish to die.
30 Their land teemed with frogs,
    which went up into the bedrooms of their rulers.
31 He spoke, and there came swarms of flies,
    and gnats throughout their country.
32 He turned their rain into hail,
    with lightning throughout their land;
33 he struck down their vines and fig-trees
    and shattered the trees of their country.
34 He spoke, and the locusts came,
    grasshoppers without number;
35 they ate up every green thing in their land,
    ate up the produce of their soil.
36 Then he struck down all the firstborn in their land,
    the firstfruits of all their manhood.
37 He brought out Israel, laden with silver and gold,
    and from among their tribes no one faltered.
38 Egypt was glad when they left,
    because dread of Israel had fallen on them.

39 He spread out a cloud as a covering,
    and a fire to give light at night.
40 They asked, and he brought them quail;
    he fed them well with the bread of heaven.
41 He opened the rock, and water gushed out;
    it flowed like a river in the desert.

42 For he remembered his holy promise
    given to his servant Abraham.
43 He brought out his people with rejoicing,
    his chosen ones with shouts of joy;
44 he gave them the lands of the nations,
    and they fell heir to what others had toiled for –
45 that they might keep his precepts
    and observe his laws.

Praise the Lord.

A. Find Out:

1. What had God initially given Israel ? v.11
2. Yet what happened before that took place? v.12-15
3. How had He provided for them? v.16-22
4. What does he next remember? v.23-38
5. What was the next stage? v.39-41
6. Why did the Lord do all this? v.42-45

B. Think:

1. Why had God done the things listed here?
2. What was covered in His works here?
3. What was the end result?

C. Comment:

  Remember this psalm is a call to remember what God has done and to praise Him for it. It is thus an account of God’s early acts of deliverance of Israel from Egypt .

  The crucial feature of all this is the point that it was all because God had promised Abraham that He would do it (v.9,42) and He had confirmed that promise to Jacob (v.10). It was ultimately so that the Lord could have a people who He could teach and guide to follow His design rules (v.45), for that is what the Law was – the best way for a people to live according to the way God had designed mankind.

  Initially the patriarchs had been wanderers (v.13) but God protected them. Eventually He moved on the world circumstances (v.16) to create a situation where Joseph (v.17) ended up, not in Canaan but in Egypt (v.18-20) as a ruler (v.21,22). The result of this was that Jacob and his family also came there and settled down (v.23) and God blessed them there so they did so well that the Egyptians rose against them and made them slaves (v.24,25). Then He raised up Moses and Aaron to lead the people out of Egypt after the Lord had brought the plagues on Pharaoh (v.26-38). He led them through the desert (v.39-41) and brought them into the Land as promised (v.42-45). This is an amazing glimpse or potted history of God’s early dealing with Israel .

D. Application:

1. God has a plan for His people, that stretches over centuries.
2. We are part of God’s plan today.