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Commentary on Psalms 105 verses 25–45
After the history of the patriarchs follows here the history of the people of Israel, when they grew into a nation.
I. Their affliction in Egypt (Psa 105:25): He turned the heart of the Egyptians, who had protected them, to hate them and deal subtilely with them. God's goodness to his people exasperated the Egyptians against them; and, though their old antipathy to the Hebrews (which we read of Gen 43:32; Gen 46:34) was laid asleep for a while, yet now it revived with more violence than ever: formerly they hated them because they despised them, now because they feared them. They dealt subtilely with them, set all their politics on work to find out ways and means to weaken them, and waste them, and prevent their growth; they made their burdens heavy and their lives bitter, and slew their male children as soon as they were born. Malice is crafty to destroy: Satan has the serpent's subtlety, with his venom. It was God that turned the hearts of the Egyptians against them; for every creature is that to us that he makes it to be, a friend or an enemy. Though God is not the author of the sins of men, yet he serves his own purposes by them.
II. Their deliverance out of Egypt, that work of wonder, which, that it might never be forgotten, is put into the preface to the ten commandments. Observe,
1.The instruments employed in that deliverance (Psa 105:26): He sent Moses his servant on this errand and joined Aaron in commission with him. Moses was designed to be their lawgiver and chief magistrate, Aaron to be their chief priest; and therefore, that they might respect them the more and submit to them the more cheerfully, God made use of them as their deliverers.
2.The means of accomplishing that deliverance; these were the plagues of Egypt. Moses and Aaron observed their orders, in summoning them just as God appointed them, and they rebelled not against his word (Psa 105:28) as Jonah did, who, when he was sent to denounce God's judgments against Nineveh, went to Tarshish. Moses and Aaron were not moved, either with a foolish fear of Pharaoh's wrath or a foolish pity of Egypt's misery, to relax or retard any of the plagues which God ordered them to inflict on the Egyptians, but stretched forth their hand to inflict them as God appointed. Those that are instructed to execute judgment will find their remissness construed as a rebellion against God's word. The plagues of Egypt are here called God's signs, and his wonders (Psa 105:27); they were not only proofs of his power, but tokens of his wrath, and to be looked upon with admiration and holy awe. They showed the words of his signs (so it is in the original), for every plague had an exposition going along with it; they were not, as the common works of creation and providence, silent signs, but speaking ones, and they spoke aloud. They are all or most of them here specified, though not in the order in which they were inflicted. (1.) The plague of darkness, Psa 105:28. This was one of the last, though here mentioned first. God sent darkness, and, coming with commission, it came with efficacy; his command made it dark. And then they (that is, the people of Israel) rebelled not against God's word, namely, a command which some think was given them to circumcise all among them that had not been circumcised, in doing which the three days' darkness would be a protection to them. The old translation follows the Septuagint, and reads it, They were not obedient to his word, which may be applied to Pharaoh and the Egyptians, who, notwithstanding the terror of this plague, would not let the people go; but there is no ground for it in the Hebrew. (2.) The turning of the river Nilus (which they idolized) into blood, and all their other waters, which slew their fish (Psa 105:29), and so they were deprived, not only of their drink, but of the daintiest of their meat, Num 11:5. (3.) The frogs, shoals of which their land brought forth, which poured in upon them, not only in such numbers, but with such fury, that they could not keep them out of the chambers of their kings and great men, whose hearts had been full of vermin, more nauseous and more noxious-contempt of, and enmity to, both God and his Israel. (4.) Flies of divers sorts swarmed in their air, and lice in their clothes, Psa 105:31; Exo 8:17, Exo 8:24. Note, God can make use of the meanest, and weakest, and most despicable animals, for the punishing and humbling of proud oppressors, to whom the impotency of the instrument cannot but be a great mortification, as well as an undeniable conviction of the divine omnipotence. (5.) Hail-stones shattered their trees, even the strongest timber-trees in their coasts, and killed their vines, and their other fruit-trees, Psa 105:32, Psa 105:33. Instead of rain to cherish their trees, he gave them hail to crush them, and with it thunder and lightning, to such a degree that the fire ran along upon the ground, as if it had been a stream of kindled brimstone, Exo 9:23. (6.) Locusts and caterpillars destroyed all the herbs which were made for the service of man and ate the bread out of their mouths, Psa 105:34, Psa 105:35. See what variety of judgments God has, wherewith to plague proud oppressors, that will not let his people go. God did not bring the same plague twice, but, when there was occasion for another, it was still a new one; for he has many arrows in his quiver. Locusts and caterpillars are God's armies; and, how weak soever they are singly, he can raise such numbers of them as to make them formidable, Joe 1:4, Joe 1:6. (7.) Having mentioned all the plagues but those of the murrain and boils, he concludes with that which gave the conquering stroke, and that was the death of the first-born, Psa 105:36. In the dead of the night the joys and hopes of their families, the chief of their strength and flower of their land, were all struck dead by the destroying angel. They would not release God's first-born, and therefore God seized theirs by way of reprisal, and thereby forced them to dismiss his too, when it was too late to retrieve their own; for when God judges he will overcome, and those will certainly sit down losers at last that contend with him.
3.The mercies that accompanied this deliverance. In their bondage, (1.) They had been impoverished, and yet they came out rich and wealthy. God not only brought them forth, but he brought them forth with silver and gold, Psa 105:37. God empowered them to ask and collect the contributions of their neighbours (which were indeed but part of payment for the service they had done them) and inclined the Egyptians to furnish them with what they asked. Their wealth was his, and therefore he might, their hearts were in his hand, and therefore he could, give it to the Israelites. (2.) Their lives had been made bitter to them, and their bodies and spirits broken by their bondage; and yet, when God brought them forth, there was not one feeble person, none sick, none so much as sickly, among their tribes. They went out that very night that the plague swept away all the first-born of Egypt, and yet they went out all in good health, and brought not with them any of the diseases of Egypt. Surely never was the like, that among so many thousands there was not one sick! So false was the representation which the enemies of the Jews, in after-ages, gave of this matter, that they were all sick of a leprosy, or some loathsome disease, and that therefore the Egyptians thrust them out of their land. (3.) They had been trampled upon and insulted over; and yet they were brought out with honour (Psa 105:38): Egypt was glad when they departed; for God had so wonderfully owned them, and pleaded their cause, that the fear of Israel fell upon them, and they owned themselves baffled and overcome. God can and will make his church a burdensome stone to all that heave at it and seek to displace it, so that those shall think themselves happy that get out of its way, Zac 12:3. When God judges, he will overcome. (4.) They had spent their days in sorrow and in sighing, by reason of their bondage; but now he brought them forth with joy and gladness, Psa 105:43. When Egypt's cry for grief was loud, their first-born being all slain, Israel's shouts for joy were as loud, both when they looked back upon the land of slavery out of which they were rescued and when they looked forward to the pleasant land to which they were hastening. God now put a new song into their mouth.
4.The special care God took of them in the wilderness. (1.) For their shelter. Besides the canopy of heaven, he provided them another heavenly canopy: He spread a cloud for a covering (Psa 105:39), which was to them not only a screen and umbrella, but a cloth of state. A cloud was often God's pavilion (Psa 18:11) and now it was Israel's; for they also were his hidden ones. (2.) For their guidance and refreshment in the dark. He appointed a pillar of fire to give light in the night, that they might never be at a loss. Note, God graciously provides against all the grievances of his people, and furnishes them with convenient succours for every condition, for day and night, till they come to heaven, where it will be all day to eternity. (3.) He fed them both with necessaries and dainties. Sometimes he furnished their tables with wild fowl (Psa 105:40): The people asked, and he brought quails; and, when they were not thus feasted, yet they were abundantly satisfied with the bread of heaven. Those are curious and covetous indeed who will not be so satisfied. Man did eat angels' food, and that constantly and on free-cost. And, as every bit they ate had miracle in it, so had every drop they drank: He opened the rock, and the waters gushed out, Psa 105:41. Common providence fetches waters from heaven, and bread out of the earth; but for Israel the divine power brings bread from the clouds and water from the rocks: so far is the God of nature from being tied to the laws and courses of nature. The water did not only gush out once, but it ran like a river, plentifully and constantly, and attended their camp in all their removes; hence they are said to have the rock follow them (Co1 10:4), and, which increased the miracle, this river of God (so it might be truly called) ran in dry places, and yet was not drunk in and lost, as one would have expected it to be, by the sands of the desert of Arabia. To this that promise alludes, I will give rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen, Isa 43:19, Isa 43:20.
5.Their entrance, at length, into Canaan (Psa 105:44): He gave them the lands of the heathen, put them in possession of that which they had long been put in hopes of; and what the Canaanites had taken pains for God's Israel had the enjoyment of: They inherited the labour of the people; and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just. The Egyptians had long inherited their labours, and now they inherited the labours of the Canaanites. Thus sometimes one enemy of the church is made to pay another's scores.
6.The reasons why God did all this for them. (1.) Because he would himself perform the promises of the word, Psa 105:42. They were unworthy and unthankful, yet he did those great things in their favour because he remembered the word of his holiness (that is, his covenant) with Abraham his servant, and he would not suffer one iota or tittle of that to fall to the ground. See Deu 7:8. (2.) Because he would have them to perform the precepts of the word, to bind them to which was the greatest kindness he could put upon them. He put them in possession of Canaan, not that they might live in plenty and pleasure, in ease and honour, and might make a figure among the nations, but that they might observe his statutes and keep his laws, - that, being formed into a people, they might be under God's immediate government, and revealed religion might be the basis of their national constitution, - that, having a good land given them, they might out of the profits of it bring sacrifices to God's altar, - and that, God having thus done them good, they might the more cheerfully receive his law, concluding that also designed for their good, and might be sensible of their obligations in gratitude to live in obedience to him. We are therefore made, maintained, and redeemed, that we may live in obedience to the will of God; and the hallelujah with which the psalm concludes may be taken both as a thankful acknowledgment of God's favours and as a cheerful concurrence with this great intention of them. Has God done so much for us, and yet does he expect so little from us? Praise you the Lord.
"He turned their waters into blood, and slew their fish" [Psalm 105:29].
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SUMMARY
Psalms 105:29 powerfully recounts the first of God's devastating plagues upon Egypt, describing the miraculous transformation of the nation's vital water sources, preeminently the Nile River, into blood. This terrifying divine act resulted in the immediate and widespread death of all fish, rendering the water undrinkable and symbolizing a profound judgment against Pharaoh and the entire Egyptian pantheon. The verse succinctly underscores God's absolute sovereignty, His unwavering commitment to His covenant promises, and His decisive power to deliver His people, Israel, from oppression.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Psalms 105:29 employs several powerful literary devices to convey its profound message. The most prominent is Divine Action, where God is presented as the sole and active subject ("He turned," "He slew"), emphasizing His absolute sovereignty and direct involvement in human history. There is a strong sense of Conciseness and Directness, as the psalm summarizes a complex event from Exodus with powerful brevity, focusing on the core action and its immediate, devastating consequence. The imagery of "waters into blood" is a vivid and stark Metaphor (or perhaps a literal transformation that functions metaphorically), immediately conveying defilement, death, and judgment. The two clauses, "He turned their waters into blood" and "and slew their fish," exhibit a clear pattern of Cause and Effect or Consequence, where the first action directly and inevitably leads to the second, highlighting the devastating impact of the plague. The entire verse functions as a powerful Statement of Fact, declaring God's irrefutable power and righteous judgment.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Psalms 105:29 profoundly illustrates God's absolute sovereignty over creation and His unwavering commitment to justice. The turning of water into blood signifies a direct confrontation between the true God, Yahweh, and the false gods of Egypt, particularly those associated with the Nile. This act demonstrates that God's power transcends all natural phenomena and human authority, serving as a powerful lesson that no nation or ruler can thwart His divine purposes. It foreshadows the ultimate triumph of God's kingdom over all earthly powers and spiritual strongholds, reminding us that God hears the cries of the oppressed and acts decisively on their behalf. This plague, as the first in a series, sets the pattern for escalating divine judgment against rebellion and oppression, ultimately leading to the glorious deliverance of His people.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
The account of the water turning to blood in Psalms 105:29 serves as a timeless reminder of God's unchallengeable power and His active, decisive involvement in human history. It teaches us that God is not a distant, passive deity but one who intervenes directly and powerfully to uphold justice and deliver His people. For us today, this means that no situation, no oppressor, and no obstacle is too great for God's power to overcome. When we face seemingly insurmountable challenges or witness grave injustices, this verse assures us that God is sovereign and will act in His perfect timing and wisdom. It also serves as a solemn warning against defiance and oppression; just as Pharaoh's stubbornness brought severe consequences upon his land, so too does persistent rebellion against God's will invite divine judgment. Conversely, for those who are oppressed or marginalized, it offers profound comfort and hope, knowing that God hears their cries and is a mighty deliverer. Our faith is rooted in a God who acts powerfully on behalf of His covenant people.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Was the water literally turned into blood, or was it a natural phenomenon like red algae?
Answer: The biblical text, both in Psalms 105:29 and the more detailed account in Exodus 7:17-21, describes a literal and miraculous transformation of water into blood. The Hebrew word for "blood" (דָּם, dām) is unambiguous and denotes actual blood. While some modern interpretations attempt to explain it through natural phenomena like red algae blooms or sediment, these explanations fall significantly short of accounting for the immediate, pervasive, and deadly effects on all water sources, the death of all fish, and the specific timing and stated purpose of the plague as a divine judgment against Pharaoh and the Egyptian gods. The text consistently presents it as a supernatural act of God, demonstrating His absolute power over creation and His direct intervention in human affairs.
Why did God kill the fish? Was that necessary?
Answer: The death of the fish was a crucial and necessary component of the plague, serving multiple strategic purposes. Firstly, it highlighted the absolute severity and comprehensiveness of God's judgment. The Nile was the undisputed lifeblood of Egypt, and fish were a primary food source for its populace. Their death caused widespread hunger, economic devastation, and a profound disruption to daily life. Secondly, it intensified the defilement and putrefaction of the water, making it not only undrinkable but also unbearable due to the stench, as explicitly described in Exodus 7:21. Thirdly, and perhaps most significantly, it was a direct assault on Egyptian religious beliefs, as certain fish were considered sacred, and the Nile itself was deified. The killing of the fish demonstrated Yahweh's absolute supremacy over these deities and the utter impotence of Egypt's gods to protect their land or people from His judgment.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Psalms 105:29, detailing the terrifying plague of blood, finds its profound Christ-centered fulfillment in the person and redemptive work of Jesus Christ. The judgment poured out on Egypt's waters, transforming life into death and defilement, foreshadows the ultimate judgment against sin and spiritual darkness that Christ would both bear and decisively overcome. Just as God's power was displayed over creation and the false gods of Egypt, so too does Jesus Christ demonstrate absolute authority over all creation, sickness, demonic forces, and even death itself (Mark 4:39; Colossians 2:15). The blood of the Nile brought death and widespread defilement, but the ultimate "blood" that brings eternal life and perfect cleansing is that of Jesus Christ, the spotless Lamb of God, whose sacrificial death on the cross atones for the sins of the world (John 1:29; Hebrews 9:22). The deliverance of Israel from Egyptian bondage through the plagues, initiated by the turning of water into blood, prefigures the greater spiritual Exodus accomplished by Christ, who liberates humanity from the bondage of sin and death, ushering all who believe into His glorious kingdom (Romans 6:22). Thus, the terrifying judgment of the Nile points forward to the redemptive power of Christ's cross, where divine judgment was fully absorbed, and eternal life flowed for all who trust in Him.