Psalm 105:5

These verses open a long psalm about God keeping his covenant with Israel. After the call to worship it traces his promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Psalm 105:7–15), Joseph’s trials and rise in Egypt (Psalm 105:16–22), Israel’s oppression and deliverance through the plagues and the going out from Egypt (Psalm 105:23–38), and God’s care in the wilderness until he gave his people the land (Psalm 105:39–45). The oppression is the story Exodus opens with (Exodus 1). Everything verses 1–6 ask of God’s people answers to that history.

The opening of this psalm is sung in 1 Chronicles 16, David’s song of thanksgiving when the ark of God was brought to Jerusalem. There, 1 Chronicles 16:8 begins with the same call as verse 1. So these words belonged to Israel’s worship, sung by a people who passed the story of God’s faithfulness from one generation to the next by singing it and telling it together.

The psalms on either side belong with this one. Psalm 104 praises God’s greatness in creation, Psalm 105 his faithfulness in Israel’s history, and Psalm 106 Israel’s repeated unfaithfulness and his mercy to them. Read together, they show God steadfast even when his people fail.

Verse 1 gives three commands, and they move outward. The first turns to God in thanks, the second calls on him by name, and the third carries what he has done to other people. Together they describe worship that is grateful, dependent on God and open to the world.

“O give thanks” is yâdâh, which means to praise, to give thanks or to confess. The verb is tied to the Hebrew word for the hand, and it pictures worship with hands held out. To give thanks in this sense is to say aloud, often with the gathered people of God, that he is good and has kept faith. Thanks stands first in a psalm of history because it sets how the history is to be heard. The account of God’s acts that follows is told so that remembering ends in praise. Another psalm keeps the same order when it calls God’s people to enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise (Psalm 100:4).

“Call upon his name” joins qârâʼ, to call out to, to address by name or to proclaim, with shêm, name. To call on God’s name is to appeal to him as he has made himself known, praying in trust of his character and his covenant promises and relying on him for help, guidance and his presence. Abraham did this as he walked with God, when he “called upon the name of the LORD” (Genesis 12:8).

“Make known his deeds among the people” sends the praise outward. The word for deeds, ʻălîylâh, means God’s acts or doings, his exploits in history, and here it means the very acts this psalm goes on to tell. Isaiah gives the same call to make the LORD’s deeds known among the peoples (Isaiah 12:4).

Verse 2 names two ways of doing what verse 1 asks, song and speech. “Sing unto him” is shîyr, the ordinary word for singing, to utter words to a tune, whether set or improvised. “Sing psalms unto him” is zâmar, to sing praise or make music in praise of God, with or without instruments and dancing. Both verbs are aimed at God, and each is followed by “unto him”.

“Glory ye” is hâlal, the verb from which “Hallelujah” comes. Its range takes in shining, boasting, celebrating and even raving, and here it means to boast. God’s people are to make his holy name the thing they boast in, finding their honour and their delight in who he is. In Israel a name stood for a person’s character, authority and reputation. God’s name, shêm, the same word as in verse 1, stands for all that he has shown himself to be, and holiness, qôdesh, marks that name as set apart, pure and above every other.

So our boast moves away from ourselves, our achievements and our possessions and comes to rest on God. Paul says the same when he speaks of believers who rejoice in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:3) and quotes the rule, “He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:30–31). Another psalm calls us to give the LORD the glory due to his name (Psalm 29:2).

Verse 4 takes the seeking of verse 3 and makes it a command. The English “seek” comes twice in the verse, and it translates two Hebrew verbs. The first is dârash, to seek, inquire of, require or care for. Seeking the LORD in this sense means resorting to him, consulting him and asking his will, as the one whose word is final. The second is bâqash, the same verb as in verse 3.

“His strength” is ʻôz, strength or might, and also a stronghold. To seek God’s strength is to own our weakness and lean on his power, for courage, for endurance and for the ability to live rightly and to stand in hard times. He is “our refuge and strength” (Psalm 46:1). Israel had seen that power in their deliverance from Egypt and in the conquest of Canaan, where it was the LORD’s might that brought them through.

Verse 5 calls God’s people to remember. The verb, zâkar, means to remember or bring to mind, and in one of its forms to mention. In this psalm remembering goes together with the thanks, song and telling of verses 1–2, and calling God’s acts to mind shapes the trust, gratitude and obedience of those who remember. Israel was told to remember the LORD’s dealings with them (Deuteronomy 8:2), and to keep in mind all that their eyes had seen and teach it to their children (Deuteronomy 4:9).

The verse names three things to remember.

• “his marvellous works that he hath done”: the word is pâlâʼ, the same word as the “wondrous works” of verse 2. These are extraordinary, awe-inspiring acts of God, such as the parting of the Red Sea, and “that he hath done” fixes them in real history.
• “his wonders”: môwphêth, a wonder, miracle, sign or token. The word can mean a sign that reminds or confirms, and also a miracle done by God or in his name. In the Exodus the plagues were such signs, to Pharaoh and to Israel, that the LORD is supreme.
• “the judgments of his mouth”: mishpâṭ, a verdict, a sentence, a decree, and justice itself. These are God’s righteous decisions and the carrying out of them. The plagues were his judgments on Pharaoh and on the gods of Egypt (Exodus 7–12), and the decrees he gave at Sinai are judgments of his mouth as well.

“Of his mouth” means that these judgments came from God’s own spoken word. His word accomplishes what he sends it to do (Isaiah 55:11), so his justice is the outworking of what he has said, and every judgment he gives is right. Together the three phrases take in the whole of God’s mighty and righteous acts in history.

Verse 6 names those who are called. They are addressed by their descent, and the two halves of the verse say the same thing in two ways. The names recall the covenant promises God made to the fathers of Israel.

The word for seed, zeraʻ, means seed or grain and also offspring. God promised Abraham that his seed would be many, that they would inherit the land, and that through them all the families of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 12:1–3). To be the seed of Abraham was to stand in the line that carried those promises.

Abraham is called God’s servant, ʻebed. The word means a servant, and here it names Abraham as one God trusted and called for his purposes. His children inherit his calling to serve God faithfully.

Jacob, whose name God changed to Israel (Genesis 32:28), is called God’s chosen, bâchîyr, a word that speaks of God’s choosing. God chose Jacob and his descendants by his own free grace and for his own purposes, apart from any merit or strength of theirs. Moses told Israel that the LORD chose them as a people special to himself out of his own love (Deuteronomy 7:6–8).

This is the ground of the whole psalm. The God who chose the fathers keeps his word to their children, and a few verses on the psalm says that he remembers his covenant for ever (Psalm 105:8). The people are called to remember because God himself remembers, and every event the psalm tells shows him keeping faith.

The greatest of God’s deeds to make known is the coming of his Son. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). God gave his Son because he loved the world (John 3:16), and Christ died for our sins and was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3–4). He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29), and in him we have redemption through his blood (Ephesians 1:7). His miracles, wonders and signs showed him to be sent by God (Acts 2:22). At the cross God set forth his righteousness, dealing justly with sin and justifying those who believe in Jesus (Romans 3:25–26). Through Christ all things were made, and in him they hold together (Colossians 1:16–17).

Each command of the passage has its New Testament form. Believers give thanks by offering God the sacrifice of praise through Jesus, the fruit of lips giving thanks to his name (Hebrews 13:15). Calling on his name now means calling on the Lord Jesus, and whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved (Romans 10:13). Making known his deeds among the peoples became the commission Jesus gave his disciples: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations” (Matthew 28:19–20).

Glorying in his holy name finds its centre in the name of Jesus, the name above every name, at which every knee shall bow (Philippians 2:9–11). In him all the fulness of God dwells (Colossians 1:19, Colossians 2:9), and believers do all they do in his name (Colossians 3:17). Jesus promised that his joy would remain in his disciples and that their joy would be full (John 15:11).

Seeking the LORD leads to Christ, who is the way, the truth and the life, the one through whom we come to the Father (John 14:6), and through him believers have access to the Father (Ephesians 2:18). He is “the power of God, and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:24), and Paul could do all things through Christ who strengthened him (Philippians 4:13). God’s glory shines in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6), and the seeking of “evermore” ends when we see him as he is (1 John 3:2).

Remembering his works now means, above all, remembering Christ’s finished work, his rising and his reign, looking to Jesus (Hebrews 12:2). His own words carry the weight of the judgments of God’s mouth, for the word he has spoken will judge on the last day (John 12:48). And Christ is the chosen servant in whom God delights (Isaiah 42:1), the living stone chosen of God (1 Peter 2:4). He is the true Israel and the obedient servant of God, and through him the blessing promised to Abraham reaches all nations.

These six verses show a God who has acted in history and wants his acts known. He has made himself known by name, so he can be called upon. He has done wonders and spoken judgments, so his people have something to remember and to tell. He chose Abraham and Jacob and remembered his covenant with them, so that their children could sing of his faithfulness generations later.

The passage gives God’s people a full way of answering him: thanks, prayer, witness, song, talk, glory in his name, joy, seeking and memory. All of it is turned toward him and rests on what he has done. Those who seek him are promised a glad heart. The same God gave his Son, and through Christ this call to worship reaches everyone who belongs to him by faith, from every nation.