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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.
"And did eat up all the grass in their land, and devoured the fruit of the ground" [Psalm 105:35]. Even grass is fruit, as Scripture is wont to speak, which calls even the ripe grain grass; but it wished these two things to harmonize in number with the two which it had spoken of before, that is, the locust and the caterpillar. But the whole of this does belong to the variety of speech, which is a remedy for weariness, not to any difference of senses.
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SUMMARY
Psalms 105:35 vividly depicts the devastating impact of the eighth plague upon ancient Egypt—the plague of locusts. This verse is situated within a sweeping historical psalm that recounts God's miraculous deeds on behalf of Israel, from the covenant with Abraham to their settlement in the Promised Land, emphasizing His unwavering faithfulness, sovereign power, and commitment to delivering His chosen people from oppression. It highlights the comprehensive destruction wrought upon Egypt's agricultural foundation as a direct act of divine judgment.
CONTEXT
Literary Context: Psalm 105 is a magnificent historical psalm, functioning as a hymn of praise that exhorts God's people to remember and declare His mighty works throughout their redemptive history. The psalm commences with an urgent invitation to worship and recount God's wondrous deeds (verses 1-6), then transitions into a detailed review of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (verses 7-15). The narrative subsequently focuses on Joseph's providential story (verses 16-22) and the subsequent oppression of Israel in Egypt (verses 23-25). Verses 26-38 specifically detail the ten plagues God sent upon Egypt to compel Pharaoh to release the Israelites from bondage. Verse 35, situated within this climactic section, provides a powerful description of the plague of locusts, following the summoning of the locusts in Psalms 105:34 and preceding the final, decisive plague and Israel's triumphant departure in Psalms 105:36-38. The psalmist's recounting is not merely a historical chronicle but a profound theological exposition, framing these events as irrefutable demonstrations of God's power and His unwavering faithfulness to His covenant promises.
Historical & Cultural Context: Ancient Egypt's prosperity and very survival were intricately linked to the fertile lands irrigated by the Nile River. Agriculture formed the bedrock of their economy and sustenance, with staple crops like wheat, barley, and various vegetables being indispensable. The land's extraordinary fertility was also deeply interwoven with their polytheistic religious system, with deities such as Min (god of fertility and harvests) and Renenutet (goddess of nourishment and the harvest) holding central positions in their worship. A plague of locusts, while a known natural phenomenon in the region, was catastrophic because it directly attacked the very source of Egypt's prosperity and survival. The biblical account in Exodus 10 meticulously emphasizes the unprecedented scale and totality of this particular plague, distinguishing it from ordinary occurrences. By destroying "all the herbs in their land" and "the fruit of their ground," God not only inflicted immense economic hardship and famine but also directly challenged the perceived power of Egypt's gods and Pharaoh's authority over nature, unequivocally proving Yahweh's absolute supremacy.
Key Themes: This verse, and indeed the broader plague narrative within Psalm 105, powerfully contributes to several foundational themes within the biblical narrative. Firstly, it profoundly underscores Divine Sovereignty, demonstrating God's absolute control over creation and His ability to use natural phenomena as precise instruments of His will. The locusts were not a random disaster but a meticulously timed and orchestrated divine act, highlighting that God is the true ruler of all nations and the natural world, infinitely superior to any human king or pagan deity. Secondly, it exemplifies Divine Judgment, specifically against Pharaoh's stubborn resistance and the cruel oppression of God's people. The thorough destruction of Egypt's agricultural foundation served as a severe and undeniable consequence for their defiance. Finally, and most importantly, the plague of locusts, like all the plagues, served the ultimate purpose of securing the Deliverance of Israel. By devastating Egypt's resources and breaking Pharaoh's hardened will, God meticulously created the circumstances necessary for the liberation of His chosen people, thereby fulfilling His ancient covenant promises made to Abraham, as referenced in Genesis 12:1-3. This monumental act of deliverance is a central, recurring theme throughout the psalm, continually reminding believers of God's unfailing commitment to His people.
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
The psalmist masterfully employs several literary devices to convey the overwhelming magnitude of the locust plague's devastation. Parallelism is prominently featured, with the two clauses of the verse ("And did eat up all the herbs in their land, and devoured the fruit of their ground") serving as a powerful example of synonymous parallelism. The second clause reiterates and intensifies the meaning of the first, emphasizing the completeness and severity of the destruction. This rhythmic repetition creates a powerful, almost hypnotic effect that underscores the totality of the divine judgment. Imagery is also vividly utilized, painting a stark picture of a land utterly stripped bare, devoid of any green life or potential for sustenance. The active, voracious verbs "eat up" and "devoured" evoke a visceral sense of an unstoppable, consuming force, making the abstract concept of a plague concrete and terrifying. Furthermore, there is an element of Hyperbole in the use of "all" and the absolute nature of "devoured," which, while perhaps not literally leaving zero trace of a single blade of grass, effectively communicates the overwhelming and comprehensive nature of the destruction from a human perspective, leaving no hope for a harvest.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Psalms 105:35 stands as a potent reminder of God's absolute sovereignty over creation and His willingness to utilize natural forces as precise instruments of His divine purpose, whether for righteous judgment or covenantal deliverance. The plague of locusts was not merely an ecological disaster but a direct, targeted assault on Egypt's economic and religious infrastructure, unequivocally demonstrating Yahweh's supremacy over Pharaoh and the entire pantheon of Egyptian gods. It powerfully illustrates that stubborn resistance to God's will carries severe and comprehensive consequences, while simultaneously affirming God's unwavering commitment to His covenant people, even when they are in the deepest throes of bondage. This monumental act of judgment against Egypt was a crucial, divinely orchestrated step in God's grand plan to liberate Israel and bring them into the Promised Land, thereby fulfilling promises made generations earlier.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Psalms 105:35, while rooted in an ancient historical event, carries profound and enduring implications for contemporary believers. It compels us to recognize God's unchallengeable authority over all creation and all human powers, regardless of their perceived might. In a world often characterized by human pride, technological hubris, and oppressive systems, this verse serves as a sober reminder that God remains utterly sovereign, capable of intervening decisively in human affairs and bringing down even the mightiest empires. It functions as a stark warning about the inevitable consequences of resisting God's will and oppressing His people, whether individually or corporately. Conversely, it offers immense encouragement: just as God acted with overwhelming power to deliver Israel from physical bondage, He remains eternally faithful to His covenant promises today. When we face seemingly insurmountable obstacles, personal "plagues" of adversity, or societal injustices, we are called to remember God's past acts of power and deliverance, trusting implicitly in His continued faithfulness and His unfailing ability to work on behalf of His people. This historical recounting fosters a deep, abiding sense of trust and hope, knowing that our God is not a passive observer but an active, intervening, and sovereign Lord.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Was the locust plague a natural event or a miracle?
Answer: While locust plagues are indeed a known natural phenomenon in the Middle East, the biblical account in Exodus 10 and Psalm 105 emphatically underscore its miraculous nature. It was not merely a natural occurrence but a supernaturally orchestrated event, distinguished both by its precise timing and its unprecedented intensity and scope. God "brought an east wind" to bring the locusts with unparalleled devastation and a "strong west wind" to remove them completely, demonstrating His direct and absolute control over nature as a potent tool for His divine will and judgment. This divine orchestration, rather than the phenomenon itself, marks it definitively as a miracle.
What was the profound significance of this plague to the Egyptians?
Answer: The plague of locusts was profoundly significant to the Egyptians on multiple, interconnected levels. Economically, it was catastrophic, as it destroyed "all the herbs" and "the fruit of their ground," leading to widespread famine, economic ruin, and the collapse of their agricultural foundation. Egypt's prosperity was built upon its agricultural output, and this plague directly attacked that very foundation. Theologically, it was a direct and humiliating challenge to the entire Egyptian pantheon, particularly deities associated with fertility, agriculture, and nourishment, such as Min and Renenutet. By demonstrating His absolute power over the very forces that sustained Egypt, Yahweh unequivocally proved His supremacy over their gods and Pharaoh, as part of God's broader judgment against all the gods of Egypt mentioned in Exodus 12:12.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
The devastating judgment upon Egypt, vividly described in Psalms 105:35, finds its ultimate Christ-centered fulfillment in the person and redemptive work of Jesus Christ. Just as God's sovereign power was displayed through the plagues to deliver Israel from physical bondage, Christ's ultimate victory on the cross delivers humanity from the far greater spiritual bondage of sin and death. The "eating up" and "devouring" of Egypt's land by locusts can be seen as a profound foreshadowing of the comprehensive judgment against sin that Christ bore in His own body. He became the ultimate Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, enduring the full, consuming wrath of God's judgment so that all who believe might be set eternally free. The barrenness left in Egypt's wake points to the spiritual desolation and death that sin inevitably brings, while Christ's sacrifice brings forth the "fruit" of the Spirit and abundant, eternal life to those who believe, transforming barren lives into fruitful ones, as promised in John 10:10. Ultimately, the passage speaks of God's unwavering faithfulness to His covenant and His absolute power to judge evil and deliver His people—a power fully manifested in Jesus Christ, who will one day return in glory to establish His righteous kingdom and bring final, decisive judgment upon all who oppose Him, as powerfully depicted in Revelation 19:11-16.