Psalm 105 Commentary
“Translate His wonders into music! Keep your eyes open for God. Watch His works.” The Message Bible seems to curve towards a more proactive approach to praise. “Tell everyone you meet what He has done!”
Then the psalmist zooms in on the LORD’s covenant with Abraham. The contract involved, on one part, Abraham’s obligation to walk before the LORD blamelessly. On the other part, the LORD promised Abraham a piece of land.
The ten commandments, as given on Mount Sinai, are an expansion of the definition and the description of what it means to walk blamelessly before the LORD. The promise of land is a direct reference to the promise of restoring errant humanity back to the land we know as the Garden of Eden.
The earth is God’s workshop. He uses real people and real-life events as models for His grand plan for the salvation of humanity. Abraham is living in a real-world of dangers and difficulties. But the LORD rebukes possible threats to Abraham’s wellbeing. The models are safe. The “don’t try this at home” warning doesn’t exist with the LORD. Everything is done in perfection, righteousness, love, and justice.
Now we can understand the sequence of events. The LORD began by calling down famine on the land. Then He sent Joseph ahead of Jacob. Both settle in Egypt under the care of the El-Shaddai God. Think about Joseph’s means of transport into Egypt. How little we know of God’s master plan!
Again, the sending of Moses as the human tool is yet another mind-boggling master plan. The LORD enjoys walking the tightrope! The LORD’s plans unfold amidst great fear, uncertainties, obscurity, cruelty, and the madness of the under-dog circumstances. Humans never plan this way. Regardless, Moses is brought up in the Egyptian palace for clearly defined purposes that no one probably ever guessed.
He becomes the tool that the LORD uses to separate a people to self and for self. The Christian walk is a duplicate of this redemption. We are called to a life that is both separate and connected. It is separate from the world but connected to the LORD of salvation.
The LORD separates them so that they might keep His precepts and observe His laws. Let the saint understand his own salvation from these foundational facts.
At the point of separation, the LORD works mightily to break the powers of darkness. Then the saved must remain separated and keep the laws. Human effort isn’t good enough to bring about salvation. Again, human effort isn’t good enough to sustain the saved soul. So in the middle of everything the LORD is sustaining the community by provisions.
All this time, the LORD is keeping His eyes on His promise to Abraham. To return saved humanity to the Garden of peace and tranquillity is the grand and final finish. We cannot read this psalm without all these thoughts and more popping up everywhere. We see our own Christian walk in it all.
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