TRV
Study This Verse
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 opened the rock of stone, and the waters flowed out: so that rivers ran in the dry places" [Psalm 105:41]. This fact too is understood as soon as read.
Continue studying Psalms 105:41 across the web’s major study libraries — every link below opens this exact verse, chapter, or book on the destination site.
Read & Compare
BibleGatewayThis verse in more than 200 translations and 70 languages.
Bible.comThe YouVersion reader — hundreds of translations, reading plans, and highlights.
ESV.orgCrossway's official English Standard Version reader.
NET BibleThe NET translation with 60,000+ translators' notes on every rendering decision.
STEP BibleTyndale House's free study tool — original text, vocabulary, and scholarly resources.
BibliaLogos Bible Software's free web reader.
USCCBThe New American Bible (Revised Edition) with the U.S. bishops' study notes.
Commentaries
BibleHub CommentariesDozens of classic commentaries on this verse, gathered on one page.
StudyLightMore than 100 commentary sets — the largest collection on the web.
BibleRefPlain-English commentary on what this verse means, verse by verse.
Enduring WordDavid Guzik's free commentary on this chapter, widely used by Bible teachers.
Bible Study ToolsVerse commentary alongside Greek and Hebrew study aids.
Original Language & Research
- BibleHub InterlinearThe verse word by word — original language, transliteration, and English.
- BibleHub LexiconEvery word's original-language definition and Strong's entry.
Blue Letter BibleDeep-study tools — Strong's numbers, concordance, and word studies.
SefariaThe Hebrew text with Rashi and centuries of Jewish commentary.
Sermons, Hymns & Audio
TrulyRandomVerse is not affiliated with these sites and doesn’t control their content. They’re linked because they’re genuinely useful.
SUMMARY
Psalm 105:41 powerfully recounts one of the most remarkable instances of divine provision for Israel in the wilderness: the miraculous gushing forth of water from a solid rock. This verse is an integral part of a historical psalm that meticulously details Yahweh's unwavering covenant faithfulness and mighty acts, from His promises to the patriarchs through the Exodus and the challenging wilderness journey. It serves as an enduring testament to God's omnipotent commitment to sustain His chosen people against all humanly impossible odds, transforming desolation into abundance.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Psalm 105:41 masterfully employs several literary devices to amplify its impact and convey its profound theological message. The most prominent is Vivid Imagery, which paints a clear, sensory picture of the miraculous event: the unyielding, solid rock yielding life-giving water, the powerful "gushing out" of the liquid, and the water flowing "like a river" through "dry places." This rich sensory language allows the reader to viscerally experience the desperation of the desert and the overwhelming relief of divine provision. The phrase "[like] a river" functions as a powerful Simile, comparing the miraculous, abundant flow of water to a natural, vast, and continuous watercourse, thereby emphasizing the sheer volume, enduring nature, and life-sustaining quality of God's provision in an otherwise barren landscape. This also creates a striking Contrast between the "dry places" and the "river," highlighting God's transformative power to bring life to desolation. Furthermore, the psalm's focus on "He opened the rock" emphasizes Divine Action, attributing the miracle directly and solely to God, underscoring His omnipotence, sovereign control, and His active, personal involvement in the lives of His covenant people.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Psalm 105:41 is a foundational biblical narrative that powerfully illustrates God's unceasing faithfulness and His boundless capacity to provide in the most impossible circumstances. This miraculous provision of water from the rock is far more than a mere historical anecdote; it is a profound theological statement about God's intrinsic character as a loving Sustainer, an Omnipotent Provider, and a steadfast Covenant Keeper. It unequivocally demonstrates that His provision is not constrained by natural laws, human limitations, or the severity of any environment, but flows directly from His boundless power and His unwavering commitment to His solemn promises. This pivotal event became an indelible memory and a foundational truth for Israel, frequently recalled in their hymns, historical accounts, and prophetic declarations as irrefutable proof of God's enduring care, His unique relationship with His chosen people, and His assurance that He would always be their ultimate source of life, sustenance, and hope.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Psalm 105:41 serves as an enduring beacon of hope and a powerful, timeless reminder of God's unfailing, supernatural provision for His people. In our contemporary lives, we frequently encounter our own "dry places"—periods of profound spiritual barrenness, overwhelming emotional desolation, severe financial scarcity, relational brokenness, or seemingly insurmountable challenges that offer no natural or humanly discernible solution. This verse calls us to remember, with profound gratitude and unwavering faith, that the very same God who miraculously opened a solid rock in the desolate wilderness to sustain millions of His people is still active, omnipotent, and supremely capable of providing for our every need, no matter how dire our circumstances may appear. It encourages us to cultivate a deep, abiding trust in His omnipotence and His covenant faithfulness, knowing with certainty that He is not limited by our circumstances, our resources, or the apparent impossibility of our situations. When we face seemingly insurmountable obstacles or feel parched by life's most arduous trials, we are invited to look to Him as our ultimate, inexhaustible source, confident that He can bring forth life, abundance, and refreshing even from the most unlikely and barren sources, transforming our personal deserts into flowing rivers of blessing and spiritual vitality.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
How many times did God provide water from the rock during Israel's wilderness journey?
Answer: The Bible records two distinct and significant instances where God miraculously provided water from a rock for the Israelites during their forty-year wilderness journey. The first occurred relatively early in their travels at Rephidim, as meticulously detailed in Exodus 17:1-7, where Moses was commanded to strike the rock with his staff. The second instance took place much later, near the conclusion of their prolonged wandering, at Kadesh, as recounted in Numbers 20:1-13. In this latter event, Moses was instructed to speak to the rock to bring forth water, but he impulsively struck it twice instead, leading to significant consequences for him. Psalm 105:41 poetically summarizes this consistent and extraordinary divine provision throughout their wilderness sojourn.
What is the deeper spiritual significance of God providing water from the rock?
Answer: Beyond the immediate physical provision, the miraculous water from the rock carries profound and enduring spiritual significance, particularly as interpreted and revealed in the New Testament. The Apostle Paul, in 1 Corinthians 10:4, explicitly states that the Israelites "drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ." This profound declaration reveals that the physical rock in the wilderness was a type or a powerful foreshadowing of Jesus Christ Himself, who is the ultimate and eternal source of spiritual life and sustenance. Just as the physical water quenched their intense thirst and miraculously sustained their lives in the barren wilderness, Christ offers "living water" John 4:10-14 and John 7:37-38 that satisfies the deepest spiritual thirst of humanity and grants eternal life to all who believe in Him.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Psalm 105:41, while recounting a historical miracle of divine provision, finds its ultimate, most profound, and glorious fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus Christ. The "rock" from which life-giving water miraculously gushed forth in the wilderness is revealed by the Apostle Paul to be a powerful prefigurement of Christ Himself, the "spiritual Rock that followed them" 1 Corinthians 10:4. Just as the physical rock had to be struck to provide water for a thirsty people, Christ, the true Rock of our salvation and the very foundation of our faith, was "struck" on the cross—suffering, dying, and being pierced—to provide the living water of the Holy Spirit and eternal life for a spiritually parched and dying humanity. He declared, with divine authority, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink" John 7:37, promising that from within those who believe in Him "will flow rivers of living water" John 7:38. Thus, the abundant, miraculous provision of water in the desert points forward with stunning clarity to Christ's infinite grace, His sacrificial love, and His complete satisfaction of our deepest spiritual needs, transforming our spiritual "dry places" into overflowing springs of eternal life through His atoning sacrifice and glorious resurrection.