1 Give ye thanks unto Jehovah, call upon his name; make known his acts among the peoples.
2 Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him; meditate upon all his wondrous works.
3 Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek Jehovah.
4 Seek Jehovah and his strength, seek his face continually;
5 Remember his wondrous works which he hath done, his miracles and the judgments of his mouth:
6 Ye seed of Abraham his servant, ye sons of Jacob, his chosen ones.
7 He, Jehovah, is our God; his judgments are in all the earth.
8 He is ever mindful of his covenant, -- the word which he commanded to a thousand generations, --
9 Which he made with Abraham, and of his oath unto Isaac;
10 And he confirmed it unto Jacob for a statute, unto Israel for an everlasting covenant,
11 Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance;
12 When they were a few men in number, of small account, and strangers in it.
13 And they went from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people.
14 He suffered no man to oppress them, and reproved kings for their sakes,
15 [Saying,] Touch not mine anointed ones, and do my prophets no harm.
16 And he called for a famine upon the land; he broke the whole staff of bread.
17 He sent a man before them: Joseph was sold for a bondman.
18 They afflicted his feet with fetters; his soul came into irons;
19 Until the time when what he said came about: the word of Jehovah tried him.
20 The king sent and loosed him -- the ruler of peoples -- and let him go free.
21 He made him lord of his house, and ruler over all his possessions:
22 To bind his princes at his pleasure, and teach his elders wisdom.
23 And Israel came into Egypt, and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.
24 And he made his people exceeding fruitful, and made them mightier than their oppressors.
25 He turned their heart to hate his people, to deal subtilly with his servants.
26 He sent Moses his servant, [and] Aaron whom he had chosen:
27 They set his signs among them, and miracles 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 caused their fish to die.
30 Their land swarmed with frogs, -- in the chambers of their kings.
31 He spoke, and there came dog-flies, [and] gnats in all their borders.
32 He gave them hail for rain, [and] flaming fire in their land;
33 And he smote their vines and their fig-trees, and broke the trees of their borders.
34 He spoke, and the locust came, and the cankerworm, even without number;
35 And they devoured every herb in their land, and ate up the fruit of their ground.
36 And he smote every firstborn in their land, the firstfruits of all their vigour.
37 And he brought them forth with silver and gold; and there was not one feeble among their tribes.
38 Egypt rejoiced at their departure; for the fear of them had fallen upon them.
39 He spread a cloud for a covering, and fire to give light in the night.
40 They asked, and he brought quails, and satisfied them with the bread of heaven.
41 He opened the rock, and waters gushed forth; they ran in the dry places [like] a river.
42 For he remembered his holy word, [and] Abraham his servant;
43 And he brought forth his people with gladness, his chosen with rejoicing;
44 And he gave them the lands of the nations, and they took possession of the labour of the peoples:
45 That they might keep his statutes, and observe his laws. Hallelujah!
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 105
Commentary on Psalms 105 Matthew Henry Commentary
Psalm 105
Some of the psalms of praise are very short, others very long, to teach us that, in our devotions, we should be more observant how our hearts work than how the time passes and neither overstretch ourselves by coveting to be long nor over-stint ourselves by coveting to be short, but either the one or the other as we find in our hearts to pray. This is a long psalm; the general scope is the same with most of the psalms, to set forth the glory of God, but the subject-matter is particular. Every time we come to the throne of grace we may, if we please, furnish ourselves out of the word of God (out of the history of the New Testament, as this out of the history of the Old) with new songs, with fresh thoughts-so copious, so various, so inexhaustible is the subject. In the foregoing psalm we are taught to praise God for his wondrous works of common providence with reference to the world in general. In this we are directed to praise him for his special favours to his church. We find the first eleven verses of this psalm in the beginning of that psalm which David delivered to Asaph to be used (as it should seem) in the daily service of the sanctuary when the ark was fixed in the place he had prepared for it, by which it appears both who penned it and when and upon what occasion it was penned, 1 Chr. 16:7, etc. David by it designed to instruct his people in the obligations they lay under to adhere faithfully to their holy religion. Here is the preface (v. 1-7) and the history itself in several articles.
In singing this we must give to God the glory of his wisdom and power, his goodness and faithfulness, must look upon ourselves as concerned in the affairs of the Old-Testament church, both because to it were committed the oracles of God, which are our treasure, and because out of it Christ arose, and these things happened to it for ensamples.
Psa 105:1-7
Our devotion is here warmly excited; and we are stirred up, that we may stir up ourselves to praise God. Observe,
Psa 105:8-24
We are here taught, in praising God, to look a great way back, and to give him the glory of what he did for his church in former ages, especially when it was in the founding and forming, which those in its latter ages enjoy the benefit of and therefore should give thanks for. Doubtless we may fetch as proper matter for praise from the histories of the gospels, and the acts of the apostles, which relate the birth of the Christian church, as the psalmist here does from the histories of Genesis and Exodus, which relate the birth of the Jewish church; and our histories greatly outshine theirs. Two things are here made the subject of praise:-
Psa 105:25-45
After the history of the patriarchs follows here the history of the people of Israel, when they grew into a nation.