Psalm 105 is one of the “historical psalms” that recounts certain aspects of Israel’s past. The opening verses (1-6) call me to give thanks and worship God and sing praises to him because of the “wondrous works” and “miracles” he performed in Israel’s history. God’s faithfulness to his covenant with Abraham is recounted in verses 7-11. This reminds me that God keeps his promises. Beginning in verse 12 to the end (verse 45), the song writer recounts God’s activity from the time when Israel was “few in number” and “of little account” until the time “he gave them the lands of the nations, and they took possession of the fruit of the peoples’ toil” (44). What the poet wrote is full of God’s activity to fulfill his promises. Yahweh is a covenant making and keeping God. In order to keep his promise to Abraham, Isaac & Jacob (9-10), God protected them (14-15) and provided for his people all along their painful journey (37, 40, 41). That’s wonderful, isn’t it? But take notice of this, too: it was GOD who summoned a famine in the land and broke all supply of bread” (16). It was GOD who sent Joseph as a slave to Egypt (17), where he suffered painfully as “the word of Yahweh tested him” (18-19). While in Egypt, Yahweh “made his people very fruitful” and “stronger than their foes” (24), but he ALSO “turned [the Egyptians’] hearts to hate his people” and “deal craftily with” them (25). Throughout Israel’s history, God was in the middle of their mess. You can read the rest of the psalm to see exactly WHO was behind all the signs & miracles Moses & Aaron performed to accomplish the great exodus from Egypt (26-28) and beyond (39-41). God did not forget his promises (42-43). Therefore I can joyfully “seek Yahweh and his strength … [and] his presence continually” (4) with confidence that he is with me in my messy life. It’s easy to ask “where was God when …” and then name some terrible event or situation (such as the bombing of the Murrah building in Oklahoma in April 1995 or the terrorist attacks in September 2001 or the coronavirus pandemic in 2020). I have events in my past that I could easily wonder where God was. But this psalm teaches me to sing and give thanks because God was in the middle of every aspect of my past – the good, the bad, and the ugly – to bring me to the point where I, too, can “keep God’s statutes and observe his laws” (45) and live a life of PRAISE and worship and thanksgiving. Take heart, friends! God is with you in your mess, too, if you have the eyes of faith to see it.
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