Psalms 105

Psalms 105:1-7

In the foregoing plains 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. Here is the preface, ver. 1—7, and the history of the church in general articles. 1. God’s covenant with the patriarchs, ver. 8—11. 2. His care of them while they were strangers, ver. 12—15. 3. His raising up Joseph to be the purport and stone of Israel, ver. 16—22. 4. The increase of Israel in Egypt, and their deliverance out of Egypt, ver. 23—38. 5. The care he took of them in the wilderness, and their settlement in Canaan, ver. 39—45.

1. O give

2. O Give thanks unto the LORD: call upon his name: “make known his deeds among the people, 2. Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him: “talk ye of all his wondrous works. 3. Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the LORD. 4. Seek the LORD and his strength, seek his face evermore. 5. Remember his marvelous works that he hath done, his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth. 6. O ye seed of Abraham his servant, ye children of Jacob his chosen. 7. He is the LORD our God, his judgments are in all the earth.

Before the Psalms enters on his subject, he prefaces his discourse with an exhortation to all around him. 1. To exalt and magnify the great and glorious God, and this in a variety of ways. Give him thanks for all his mercies past and present, and all his promises to rich and gracious. Call you for some in humble faith, assured of being heard and answered: make known his deeds, what great things he hath done for your souls and bodies, to encourage the hopes, and excite the praises of all the faithful: talk of all his wondrous works, let it be the delightful daily subject of your conversation. Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him, in tongue as well as heart rejoice, ye that seek the Lord, as the grand object of your desires, and the rock of your hopes. Yea, glory is for holy name, renouncing all glorying in yourselves, to make mention only of his inestimably precious righteousness and grace. Seek the Lord and his strength, who alone can enable you to stand against your spiritual love, and overcome them: seek his face evermore in ceaseless prayer in this world, that you may behold the light of his countenance for ever in a better.

2. Abundant reason there is why we should thus do, if we consider, (1.) His past mercies, v. 5, works of providence and grace, wonderful and great, such as Israel experienced in Egypt and the detest, and is the people of God daily find in their journey through this world’s wilderness; and the judgments of his mouth, his revealed word, according to which we must finally be judged, and which will bring upon us the heaviest condemnation, if we forget or neglect the great salvation therein committed. (2.) Our relation to him, as the God of Abraham his servant, peculiarly honoured in that title, and whose potency should copy his bright example: the children of Jacob his chosen; elect, according to the fore-knowledge of God, as Jacob was, and thereby obliged, as obedient children, to approve ourselves to him, who hath chosen us from the beginning unto salvation. (3.) Our interest in him, as the Lord our God, our Jehovah, all, sufficient to supply every want of his people, worthy their most enlarged praise, and to engage them thereunto, offering himself to be their portion and exceeding great reward. (4.) His universal government; his judgments are in all the earth, and as the God of all the earth, he is most worthy to be obeyed and adored by all, and for ever: or it may refer to the judgments of his vengeance on the wicked, in the flood, in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, or the plagues of Egypt, the fame of which were spread abroad, and God’s justice and holiards therein manifested, for which praise should be ascribed to him.

3. He hath remembered his covenant for ever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations. 9. Which covenant he made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac: 10. And confirmed the fame unto Jacob for a law, and to 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 but a few men in number: yea, very few, and strangers in it. 13. When they went from one nation to another, from one kingdom to another people. 14. He suffered no man to do them wrong: yea, he reproved kings for their fakes: 15. Saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm. 16. Moreover, he called for a famine upon the land: he brake the whole staff of bread. 17. He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant. 18. Whoe feet they hurt with fetters: he was laid in iron. 19. Until the time that his word came: the word of the LORD tried him. 20. The king sent and looted him: even the ruler of the people, and let him go free. 21. He made him lord of his house, and ruler of all his substance. 22. To bind his princes at his pleasure: and teach his senators wisdom. 23. Israel also came into Egypt: and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham. 24. And he increased his people greatly: and made them stronger than their enemies.

Psalms 105:6-33

We have here an account of God’s mercies, and Israel’s rebellions, which in their history was before at large recorded, and need be often brought to remembrance, both for a warning against their sins, and an encouragement still to hope in God’s mercy.

1. With humbling confessions the people of God acknowledge their own and their fathers transgressions: their fathers had done bad, very bad; and they, too prone to copy their examples, have added to the immense account, and farther augmented the fierce anger of the Lord. Note, (1.) We have all reason to lament our first father’s sin as our own, for in him we fell. (2.) We cannot upbraid the sinners before us; we are, if we know ourselves, in just the same condemnation. (3.) True penitents never seek to palliate, or excuse their provocation, but with holy indignation against themselves, desire to take utter shame to themselves for their transgressions.

2. The sins of their forefathers are here set forth, and they were many, great, and aggravated.

They were frankly infallible, and fearfully forgetful, v. 7. they understood not the designs of God in the miracles they saw, which were intended, not merely to rescue them from their bandage, but to fix them in his worship; and remembered not to-day the mercies of yesterday, but the moment now difficulties arose, all their doubts returned, as at the Red sea, when though so lately refused by God’s mighty arm, they questioned his power, and discredited his faithfulness. Justly might he have lost them to perish there, but for his own glory, to make his power and his faithfulness known, v. 8. Though they deserved nothing at his hands, he opened a passage for them that the divided waters, and lately as on the dry ground led them through the depths of the sea, v. 9. He interposed his cloud between them and their perusing enemies; and the hatred Pharaoh and his hell bore them, only haltered their ruin, whilst during the past year, they were not to be a man, and they were not to be a man, and they were not to be a man, and they were not to be a man, and they were not to be a man, and they were not to be a man, and they were not to be a man, and they were not to be a man, and they were not to be a man, and they were not to be a man, and they were not to be a man, and they were not to be a man, and they were not to be a man, and they were not to be a man, and they were not to be a man, and they were not

They were defunters with God’s provision; though he fed them with bread from heaven, they lashed after food, and whilst their inordinate appetite was raging, their unbelief bore equal pace with it, disfrusting his power to satisfy their cravings, v. 14. But as displeasure he granted their requests, and therewith few leavings instead into their soul, the curse of God was upon their opines, mercies in their confessions, and their delicious morals surfaced instead of satisfying. Thus inordinate appetites great

food, bring their plagues along with them, and the gifts God bellows in anger, prove the most fond shame to the soul.

Relatives; they rejected God’s government, refusing to obey their divinely-appointed generals Moses and Aaron, envying the dignity to which they were advanced, the one as the captain, the other as the high-priest of God’s people. But God espoused their cause; the arch-rebels Datham and Abiram, with their families, fell alive from the eminence to which they abjured, into the gaping pit, swallowed up by the earth, whilst the iron God devoured their wicked adherents, and scattered their unhallowed centers, v. 16, 17, 18. Note, (1.) To be envied is the tribute merit and greatest; much expect to pay. (2.) Resistance against the powers ordained of God, is rebellion against himself, and will be punished accordingly.

Relatives: nonwithstanding all the warnings they had received, and the wonders they had seen in the plagues executed on those who thus offended in Egypt, they copied their manners, and those their Gods; even before Horeb, where God’s visible presence appeared in their view on the mountains’s top, there did the golden call near his hateful head, and received their shameful and impious adorations, paying the glory due to the incorruptible God, to a fenshield idol, even to the half image of an ox that eateth hay, v. 19—22. Fierce wrath arose, destruction utter and everlasting threatened them, had not Moses, their advocate, pleased earnestly for them, and stayed the descending arm of vengeance. Behold the mighty efficacy of fervent prayer: if Moses thus prevailed, shall not that advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, whom God heareth always, effectually secure his redeemed people, notwithstanding all their provocations, from the wrath they have deserved! Allorally.

Mercurers and infidels; they gave no credit to God’s word, hearkened to the misrepresentations of the wicked spies, and neither believed the country worth the pains of conquest, nor themselves able to cope with the children of Anak. With in-plant effrontery, they charged God with the bahtal intentions. Nam. xiv. 2, 3, and when remonstrated his power and promise, were ready to stone their faithful monitor. Justly provoked, he swore in wrath they should not enter into his cell, and with his mighty arm flew all the rest of that generation in the wilderness; and though he brought in their potteries into the land they had despised, yet wrath was upon them, and they were scattered by repeated captivities, and to thus day contrious evidences of the truth of this prophecy in their pretext objections. Note, (1.) Unbelief is among the most mortal sins. (2.) God’s people have a goodly heritage, and they who have neglected and despised it, will shortly wonder and perish. (3.) They who murmur against God, and his dispositions, bring his fierce wrath upon their souls.

Adulterers, corporally and spiritually; they joined themselves to Baal-poor, partaking in all the infamous rites of that obliqua and filthy idol: feasting on the sacrifices offered to the fenshells idol, or their deceased and desired heroes, provoking most highly the Divine displeasure, by such contempt for his institutions, v. 28, 29, and soon they felt the scourge, the dreadful plague made havock through their hell, till Phinehas, filled with zeal, by one great act of justice on the most distinguished sinners Zinati and Coabi, obtained a collation of the judgment, and the plague was stayed; an achievement, the fame of which will descend to latest ages, and for which the dignity of the priesthood was conferred upon himself and his descendants. Note, (1.) The saints of God are jealous of God’s honour, and zealous to oppose the progress of iniquity. (2.) Those who honour God, he will honour.

Finally, by their perverfenees at the waters of thrift, Nam. 2. 3—5. they angered God, and by exasperating the spirit of the meekest of men, with their repeated provocations, drew him into sin, which excluded him from the promised land, Nam. xx. 10—12. Note, (1.) When aggravated provocations urge us, it is hard, very hard, to restrain our lips from speaking unadvisedly. (2.) They who draw others to sin, are chargeable with the guilt they bring upon them. (3.) It will be no excuse for sin at God’s bar, to plead the provocations or temptations which led us into it. (4.) They who ungratefully abode their best friends, by their fretfulness and perversion, are justly punished by their removal, that they may feel the loss of the blessing they so little knew how to value.

34. They did not defray the nations, concerning whom the LORD commanded them: 35. But were raingled among the heathen, and learned their works. 36. And they served their idols: which were a inarc-ante them. 37. Yes, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils. 38. And the innocent-blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan: and the land was polluted with blood. 39. Thus were they defiled with their own works, and went a whoring with their own inventions. 40. Therefore was the wrath of

the LORD kindled against his people, inasmuch that he abhorred his own inheritance. 41. And he gave them into the hand of the heathen; and they that hated them ruled over them. 42. Their enemies also oppressed them, and they were brought into subjection under their hand. 43. Many times did he deliver them, but they provoked him with their counsel, and were brought to her for their iniquity. 44. Nevertheless, he regarded their affliction when he heard their cry. 45. And he remembered them for his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his mercies. 46. He made them also to be piled of all those that carried them captives. 47. Save us, O LORD our God, and gather us from among the heathen, to give thanks unto thy holy name, and to triumph in thy praise. 48. Bleffed of the LORD God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting: and let all the people say, Amen. Praise ye the LORD.

Psalms 105:8-24

The grand subject of the Psalms’s thanksgiving is the everlasting covenant established in Christ Jesus, from exer-

nity, and sure to all his spiritual seed to the latest ages, even to a thousand generations, v. 8.

1. He revealed it to Abraham, confirmed it with an oath to him and his seed Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promises; and as the type of the eternal inheritance designed for his spiritual children, assured him of the possession of the land of Canaan, as the inheritance of his natural potency.

2. He fulfilled the promise in opposition to all human appearances, notwithstanding the difficulties which seemed infirmable. They were few, very few; strangers, not possessed of a foot of land: driven from place to place, sojourning sometimes in Egypt, sometimes in Phils, on account of the famine; but in all their wandings, still Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob experienced the Divine protection, refrained by Divine power, none dared lift their hand to hurt them, and even kings are reproved, Gen. vii. 17. xc. 6. and warned how dangerous it would be to touch God’s anointed ones, or harm his prophets. Note, (1.) Whatever difficulties oppose God’s promises they will vanish; when God will work, none can let it. (2.) Few, very few, in every age are the faithful; yet is it the Father’s good pleasure to give them the kingdom. (3.) The people of God are indeed strangers and pilgrims upon earth, but God hath prepared for them a city: when their wandings here below are ended, there remaineth for them an eternal rest. (4.) God’s prophets are his peculiar care; he that toucheth them, toucheth the apple of his eye, to jealous is he to vindicate their wrongs.

3. In the extraordinary case of Joseph, God, in a most astonishingly providential manner, opened a way for the accomplishment of his designs of mercy towards them. He sent a famine on the land of Canaan, and made the stuff of bread, etc. 17. So that infant death and utter destruction seemed to threaten the holy seed; but he had made provision for their fortresses, by means of Joseph, whom though his envious brethren had wickedly sold for a slave, God had designed to send as their deliverer, after having experienced the deepest distress, under the most cruel and unjust accusations of an enraged mistress, whose embraces he rejected, doomed to the lowest slungmen, bound in fetters of iron, and loaded with the most ignominious reproaches, but all wrought together for his good; when his faith and patience had been tried, God’s word came to him, and divinely taught to interpret the dreams of his fellow-prisoners, the same reached Pharaoh’s court, and he fought the inspired prisoner. Convinced by his interpretation to his dreams, that God’s spirit dwelt in him, Gen. xli. 38. he looked his hands, and vindicated his injured innocence from the accusations laid against him, v. 20. advanced him to the highest part in his kingdom: delegated to him the exercise of his royal power to enact laws which all, even the greatest must obey; and, wiser than the aged senators, appointed him their teacher, whence probably flowed the superior wisdom of the Egyptians. By him, his aged father and all his family were brought to Egypt, and in the land of Godson richly provided for during the days of famine; where they increased exceedingly, and God’s promises began to take effect. Note, (1.) Mysterious are the ways of Providence. When all things seem most against us, they are often really working for our good. (2.) Joseph in his humiliation and exaltation in the type of Jesus, exiled sufferings far exceeded, and whose glory infinitely excellent. (3.) In every advancement we must remember whose hand hath raised us, and that we only then adorn our stature, when we seek to make it subservient to the advancement of his kingdom and glory. (4.) Whatever calumnies and sufferings the tours of God endure, when their faith is tried, they shall be discharged with honour. (5.) God’s church will never want a friend; he can raise them protection where they shall expect to find favour. (6.) We are sojourners on earth, as Jacob in that strange land; this is not our home nor our rest; nay, though never so much increased in worldly goods, we would not fit here below, but look for our promised Canaan, and long for our heavenly inheritance.

4. He turned their heart to hate his people, to deal with the sinfuls with his servants. 26. He sent Moses his servant, and Aaron whom he had chosen. 27. They shewed this signs among them, and wonders in the land of Ham. 28. He sent darkness, and made the dark: and they rebelled not against his word. 29. He turned their waters into blood, and shew their fish. 30. Their land brought forth frogs in abundance, in the chambers of their kings. 31. He spake, and there came divers sorts of flies, and lice in all their coasts. 32. He gave them hail for rain: and flaming fire in their land. 33. He fenced their vines also and their fig trees: and brake the trees of their coasts. 34. He spake, and the locusts came: and caterpillars, and that without number. 35. And did not up all the herbs in their land: and devoured the fruit of their ground.

a. Paul. 1. 8. 36. Palan iCMI:

And the waters covered their enemies: there was not one of them left. 12. Then believed they his words, they sang his praise. 13. They soon forgot his works, they waited not for his counsel: 14. But I lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert. 15. And he gave them their request, but sent Jeannets into their soul. 16. They envied Moses also in the camp, and Aaron the faint of the LORD. 17. The earth opened and swallowed up Datham, and covered the company of Abiram. 18. And a fire was kindled in their company; the flame burnt up the wicked. 19. They made a call in Horth, and worshipped the molten image. 20. Thus they changed their glory into the shinitude of an ox that eateth grafs. 21. They forgot God their Saviour, which had done great things in Egypt: 22. Wondrous works in the land of Hams, and terrible things in the Red sea. 23. Therefore he said that he would destroy them, had not Moses had cholen blood before him in the breach: to turn away his wrath, left he should destroy them. 24. Yes, they defended the pl其中有 land: they believed not his word: 25. But murmured in their texts, and hearked not unto the voice of the LORD. 26. Therefore he lifted up his hand against them, to overthrow them in the wilderness: 27. To overthrow their food also among the nations, and to scatter them in the lands. 28. They joined themselves unto Baal poor, and are the sacrifices of the dead. 29. Thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions: and the plague brake in upon them. 30. Then stood up Phinehas, and executed judgment: and the plague was stayed. 31. And that was counted unto him for righteousness, unto all generations for evermore. 32. They angered him also at the waters of thrift, so that it went ill with Moses for their fakes: 33. Because they provoked his spirit, so that he spake unadvisedly with his lips.

Psalms 105:34-48

Their rebellions and disobedience against God ended not in the wilderness; the land of promise was a witness to the same provocations.

1. They repeated the iniquities of their fathers, by disobedience to God’s word, in not extirpating the people of Canaan, as he had enjoined them, Deut. viii. 1. 2. by wicked manslaws with them, not only suffering them to live, but making them their friends, contracting marriages, and mingling among the heathen. And as evil communication must ever necessarily corrupt the best manners, they learned all their wicked works; enfarred herding, they soon fared into idolatry, forsook God to serve the idols they should have destroyed; and now become brutish and unnatural, they who would not offer a lamb at God’s altar, shed the blood of innocents, and decrydled their fear and daughters unto devils, flocking to tell! polluting the land with human gore, and that even of their own children; their confidence, disbelief, enslaved by their adulterous and idolatrous hearts, and madly set upon their own horrid inventions. Note, (1.) The way into sin is headlong; one compliance makes way for a greater, till the soul is plunged into perdicion and destruction. (2.) There is nothing in unnatural, barbarous, and inhuman, but the heart of man is capable of it, when hardened in sin, and enslaved by superstition.

2. God’s anger was kindled for their wickedness; his once chosen people became his abhorrence, v. 40. and in the punishment of their abominations, he made them slaves to those who go to the same place; they who hated them ruled over them, and with a rod of iron oppressed them. And though in pity he often mitigated their sufferings, and gave them temporary deliverance by the hands of the judges, yet they returned to their provocations; and, as the natural consequence, were again enslaved, and brought low by their iniquities. Note, (1.) Sin is ever God’s abhorrence, and when his own people provoke him, he will visit iniquities with the rod. (2.) God justly makes our tempers to sin the instruments of our sufferings. (3.) Where one stroke is ineffectual, God will, if he has love to the soul, lay on a heavier scourge, till he has brought his people into the dust of humiliation.

3. Their troubles drove them in prayer to God, and he who wished to be gracious, no sooner heard the groans of penitence, than he regarded with the tenderest compulsion their sufferings, remembered his covenant with their fathers, and, according to the riches of his grace and the multitude of his mercies, repented, or altered his method of dealing with him; he gave them to find pity in the eyes of their conquerors, and their yoke was broken. Note, (1.) God hath in his hands the hearts of all men, and can turn foes into friends. (2.) Whenever a finner returns unto God in penitent prayer, he will dread an answer of peace. (3.) All the mercies we receive from God, are in consequence of that everlasting covenant of grace established with Jesus our Redeemer, whom we must ever plead, as the foundation of all our hopes.

4. The Psalmist prays in the person of the captive people for speedy deliverance, Satie us, O Lord our God, to whom we cannot renounce our relations, and who art able to save to the uttermost, and gather us from among the heathen, where we are dispersed, to give thanks to thy holy name, when we return once more to Zion, and to triumph in thy praise, exulting in his salvation, and giving him the glory of their redemption.

5. He concludes with birthing God, the God of Israel, who, as faithful to his promises from everlasting to everlasting, delivered his and their everlasting praise; and he calls on all God’s redeemed ones to aid their joyful Amen, Hallelujah, to the benediction.