Psalms 105

Psalm 105 calls God’s people to thank him and then retells their early story: the promise to Abraham, Joseph in Egypt, the plagues, the exodus and the wilderness. The thread running through it is that God remembers his covenant and keeps his word. The psalm ends by showing the purpose of it all: a people who obey him.

Psalms 105:1-2

The psalm opens with a string of commands: give thanks, call on his name, make his deeds known, sing. Worship here is not private only. God’s people are to speak of what he has done so that the nations hear it too.

BSA: name (“His identity, honor, and character”): Calling on God’s name means calling on who he really is, not just using a word. wonders (“marvelous works, amazing deeds, things that inspire awe”): These are deeds that leave people amazed, and they are worth telling again.

See also: 1 Chronicles 16:8-9.

Psalms 105:3

Believers are invited to take pride, not in themselves, but in God’s holy name. Those who look for him are promised gladness. Seeking the Lord is not a burden; it brings joy to the heart.

BSA: Glory (“boast, rejoice”): We are to boast in God, finding our pride and delight in him.

Psalms 105:4

Seeking God is to be steady, not occasional. We look for his strength to lean on and his face, meaning his nearness. The word “always” shows that this is a daily way of life.

BSA: always (“continually, constantly, every day”): Seeking God is meant to be ongoing, not a single act. face (“presence, being in front of Him”): To seek his face is to want to be in his presence, not only to receive his gifts.

See also: Jeremiah 29:13.

Psalms 105:5-6

Remembering is the main task of this psalm. Israel is told to recall God’s wonders and his judgments, the rulings he spoke. They are addressed as Abraham’s children and Jacob’s sons, chosen by God, so this history is their own family story.

BSA: Remember (“keep in mind, recall to memory”): This is deliberate recalling, so that past mercies feed present trust. chosen (“elect, select”): Israel’s place rests on God’s choice, not on their own greatness.

Psalms 105:7

The God who acted in history is “our God,” a personal and covenant God. His rulings are not local to Israel. They reach the whole earth, so his authority is over all nations.

BSA: LORD (“Yehovah, the covenant God”): This is the personal name God gave his people, which ties him to his promises.

Psalms 105:8-9

God does not forget a promise. His covenant with Abraham, confirmed by oath to Isaac, stands across “a thousand generations,” a way of saying without limit. The reader can rest on a God whose word outlasts every age.

BSA: remembers (“keeps in mind, recalls”): For God, remembering means acting faithfully on what he promised. oath (“vow, promise”): God bound himself by a solemn promise, which gives the covenant its certainty.

See also: Genesis 17:7; Genesis 26:3.

Psalms 105:10-11

The same promise was repeated to Jacob and became a lasting covenant for Israel. Its heart is the gift of Canaan as an inheritance. The land is a gift, not something earned.

BSA: portion (“cord, measured area”): The picture is of land measured out with a line and given to each family.

Hebrew: חֹבֶל (chevel, H2256) — “cord, measuring line, allotted share.” The Hebrew word is the measuring cord used to mark out land. So the inheritance is pictured as a share carefully measured and handed over.

See also: Genesis 28:13-15.

Psalms 105:12-13

When God made the promise, the family was small and homeless, moving among peoples who owned the land. Their weakness makes the story more striking: the promise did not rest on their strength but on God’s faithfulness.

BSA: strangers (“foreigners, aliens”): They had no rights or land of their own, only God’s promise.

See also: Genesis 34:30.

Psalms 105:14-15

Though helpless, they were guarded. God warned off kings, as he did with Pharaoh and Abimelech in Genesis. He calls the patriarchs his anointed ones and prophets, meaning people set apart and spoken to by him. Those who belong to him are under his protection.

BSA: anointed ones (“Messiah, set apart for God’s purpose”): They were set apart for God’s purposes, so touching them meant touching what was his.

See also: Genesis 12:17; Genesis 20:3.

Psalms 105:16

Famine did not come by accident. The psalm says God summoned it. This sets up the next verses, in which hardship becomes the way God brings his people to safety.

BSA: supplies (“staff, source”): Bread is called a staff, the thing a life leans on, and God removed it.

See also: Genesis 41:54.

Psalms 105:17

Before the famine, God sent a man ahead. Joseph was sold as a slave, yet the psalm says God sent him. What his brothers meant for harm was part of a larger purpose of rescue.

BSA: sent (“beforehand, in advance”): God prepared the rescue before the need arose.

See also: Genesis 45:5; Genesis 50:20.

Psalms 105:18-19

Joseph suffered chains and iron around his neck. His words about the future waited to be proved true, and God’s word tested him, like metal in the fire. The delay was real, but the outcome was certain.

BSA: proved (“tried, refined”): God’s word acted like a refining fire on Joseph while he waited.

Hebrew: צְרָפַתְהוּ (tseraphathu, H6884) — “refined him, tested him.” The Hebrew verb is used for refining metal in a furnace. It pictures Joseph’s time in prison as a purifying fire, not wasted years.

See also: Genesis 40:20-23.

Psalms 105:20-22

In one day Joseph went from prison to power. Pharaoh released him and made him ruler over his house and wealth, and even a teacher to Egypt’s leaders. God lifts up the humbled in his time.

BSA: wisdom (“good judgment, intelligent discernment”): Joseph’s wisdom came from God and was valued even by Egypt’s elders.

See also: Genesis 41:39-41.

Psalms 105:23

Joseph’s rise made room for his whole family. Jacob and his sons came into Egypt, here called the land of Ham, a name from Genesis 10 linked with Egypt. The people of promise became guests in a foreign land.

BSA: Ham (“a son of Noah, often associated with hot southern lands”): Egypt is named for Ham’s family line, showing a foreign land that was not their own.

See also: Genesis 46:6.

Psalms 105:24-25

God made his people grow strong in Egypt, and their numbers frightened the Egyptians, who turned to hostility. The psalm puts even this under God’s hand. Christians read this as showing God’s rule over events, without making him the author of Egypt’s evil.

BSA: fruitful (“to be fruitful, produce something”): This echoes the first blessing at creation, which God kept alive in Israel.

See also: Exodus 1:7-10.

Psalms 105:26-27

God did not leave his people in oppression. He sent Moses and Aaron, both named as servants he chose. The signs they did were not their own power but God’s, shown in the land of Ham.

BSA: servant (“slave, bondservant”): Moses is honored as one wholly given to God’s service.

See also: Exodus 3:10; Exodus 4:14-16.

Psalms 105:28

The plagues begin with darkness, though in Exodus it came ninth. The psalm is telling the story by theme, not order. God spoke and it was so. Even so, Egypt’s rulers did not give way.

BSA: defied (“refused to obey”): Pharaoh and his officials knew God’s word and still resisted it.

See also: Exodus 10:21-23.

Psalms 105:29-30

The Nile, Egypt’s life source, turned to blood and its fish died. Then frogs filled the land, even the king’s private rooms. No place was out of reach of God’s judgment.

BSA: blood (“the liquid that flows through the body”): The river that sustained Egypt became a sign of death.

See also: Exodus 7:20-21; Exodus 8:6.

Psalms 105:31-32

At God’s word swarms of flies and gnats came. Then hail came in place of rain, with lightning. Rain, normally a blessing, became a weapon of judgment.

BSA: insects (“divers sorts of flies, swarms of flies”): The word points to swarming flies, a plague that crowded every house.

See also: Exodus 8:16-24; Exodus 9:23-25.

Psalms 105:33-35

The hail broke vines and fig trees. Then locusts, countless in number, ate what was left. The food of Egypt was stripped away, which echoes the famine of verse 16, now turned on those who held God’s people.

BSA: locusts (“grasshoppers, cankerworms”): A locust swarm could leave a country bare in a day.

See also: Exodus 10:12-15.

Psalms 105:36

The last plague struck the firstborn, called the firstfruits of their strength. This was the heaviest blow, and it ended Pharaoh’s resistance.

BSA: firstborn (“the chief of all their strength, the oldest son”): The firstborn stood for a family’s strength and hope, which made the loss complete.

See also: Exodus 12:29-30.

Psalms 105:37-38

Israel left with silver and gold, and no one stumbled. This means that no one was too weak to travel. Egypt was even glad to see them go, because fear of Israel’s God had fallen on them.

BSA: stumbled (“or was feeble, lost their balance due to weakness”): God carried a whole nation out without anyone failing from weakness.

See also: Exodus 12:35-36.

Psalms 105:39

In the wilderness God gave a cloud to cover them by day and fire to light the night. He guided and sheltered his people, not leaving them to find their own way.

BSA: covering (“a veil, for hiding or protection”): The cloud acted like a sheltering canopy over the camp.

See also: Exodus 13:21-22.

Psalms 105:40-41

When they asked for meat, God sent quail and filled them with bread from heaven. He opened a rock and water flowed like a river. The psalm recalls only his generosity here, not their complaints.

BSA: bread (“food, manna”): This is manna, the daily food God gave from the sky. opened (“split, carved, or engraved”): God split the rock, and from hard stone came a flood of water.

See also: Exodus 16:13-15; Exodus 17:6.

Psalms 105:42

Here is the reason for all these acts: God remembered his holy promise to Abraham. Everything from the plagues to the manna came from his faithfulness, not Israel’s merit.

BSA: remembered (“kept in mind, recalled”): His remembering is active, and it moves him to keep the promise.

See also: Exodus 2:24.

Psalms 105:43

Israel left Egypt in joy, with shouts of gladness. They were God’s chosen, led out of slavery and into his purpose.

BSA: rejoicing (“great joy, celebration”): Their release was a time of celebration, not just escape.

Psalms 105:44

God gave them the lands of other nations, and they inherited what others had worked for. This fulfills the promise of verse 11. The land was a gift, not a prize they earned.

BSA: inherit (“possess, take ownership of”): They received as heirs what they had not built.

See also: Joshua 24:13.

Psalms 105:45

The goal of the gift is obedience. God freed them so they would keep his laws. Rescue and a life of faithful following belong together. The psalm closes with praise.

BSA: keep (“obey, guard, protect”): Keeping God’s statutes means guarding them as something precious.

See also: Exodus 19:4-6.