1 Give thanks to Yahweh! Call on his name! Make his doings known among the peoples.
2 Sing to him, sing praises to him! Tell of all his marvelous works.
3 Glory in his holy name. Let the heart of those who seek Yahweh rejoice.
4 Seek Yahweh and his strength. Seek his face forever more.
5 Remember his marvelous works that he has done; His wonders, and the judgments of his mouth,
6 You seed of Abraham, his servant, You children of Jacob, his chosen ones.
7 He is Yahweh, our God. His judgments are in all the earth.
8 He has remembered his covenant forever, The word which he commanded to a thousand generations,
9 The covenant which he made with Abraham, His oath to Isaac,
10 And confirmed the same to Jacob for a statute; To Israel for an everlasting covenant,
11 Saying, "To you I will give the land of Canaan, The lot of your inheritance;"
12 When they were but a few men in number, Yes, very few, and foreigners in it.
13 They went about from nation to nation, From one kingdom to another people.
14 He allowed no one to do them wrong. Yes, he reproved kings for their sakes,
15 "Don't touch my anointed ones! Do my prophets no harm!"
16 He called for a famine on the land. He destroyed the food supplies.
17 He sent a man before them. Joseph was sold for a slave.
18 They bruised his feet with shackles. His neck was locked in irons,
19 Until the time that his word happened, And Yahweh's word proved him true.
20 The king sent and freed him; Even the ruler of peoples, and let him go free.
21 He made him lord of his house, And ruler of all of his possessions;
22 To discipline his princes at his pleasure, And to teach his elders wisdom.
23 Israel also came into Egypt. Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.
24 He increased his people greatly, And made them stronger than their adversaries.
25 He turned their heart to hate his people, To conspire against his servants.
26 He sent Moses, his servant, And Aaron, whom he had chosen.
27 They performed miracles among them, And wonders in the land of Ham.
28 He sent darkness, and made it dark. They didn't rebel against his words.
29 He turned their waters into blood, And killed their fish.
30 Their land swarmed with frogs, Even in the chambers of their kings.
31 He spoke, and swarms of flies came, And lice in all their borders.
32 He gave them hail for rain, With lightning in their land.
33 He struck their vines and also their fig trees, And shattered the trees of their country.
34 He spoke, and the locusts came, And the grasshoppers, without number,
35 Ate up every plant in their land; And ate up the fruit of their ground.
36 He struck also all the firstborn in their land, The first fruits of all their manhood.
37 He brought them forth with silver and gold. There was not one feeble person among his tribes.
38 Egypt was glad when they departed, For the fear of them had fallen on them.
39 He spread a cloud for a covering, Fire to give light in the night.
40 They asked, and he brought quails, And satisfied them with the bread of the sky.
41 He opened the rock, and waters gushed out. They ran as a river in the dry places.
42 For he remembered his holy word, And Abraham, his servant.
43 He brought forth his people with joy, His chosen with singing.
44 He gave them the lands of the nations. They took the labor of the peoples in possession,
45 That they might keep his statutes, And observe his laws. Praise Yah!
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.