08.01.07
The Psalms (6): The Greatest Story Ever Told - Psalm 105
Remember! That’s the message of Psalm 105 – Remember the amazing things God has done for you! God has worked an epic of salvation and deliverance in your life – Remember it and praise God! That is the message of the next different type of Psalm we are looking at – Psalms of Remembrance – like Psalm 105 – Psalms which look back to all the wonderful ways in which God has and is blessing His people. I want to see three things tonight about this epic story of God’s salvation:
[A] Introduction to the Epic (vs. 1-4)
This epic has an introduction comprising the foundation of our history as God’s people, that is the question of who and what it is behind our story and secondly, the response of our worship, a preliminary stab at a response to all God has done for us:
a. The Foundation of Our History - the whole foundation of our history does not rest upon who we are as a group of people, and what we have done - how we have lived such good lives that we have won our own way to heaven - rather, it focuses upon the kind of God we have and the things He has done for us. Here, we are told that His name is Yahweh, or Jehovah - the name He gave to Himself on top of Mount Sinai when He met with Moses at the foot of the burning bush - Yahweh, I am that I am, the God who always keeps His promises; the God of steadfast love and faithfulness. We are fickle, in it for ourselves - but He is ever loving and ever faithful. What other people have a God like unto ours - a God whose faithfulness to His promises means that in the fullness of time He sent His one and only Son to die on a cross at Calvary? A God of infinite love and mercies ever new?
And then we see what He has done - He has done wonderful acts - a reference to His saving work on behalf of His people. The Psalmist will go through these wonderful acts between vs. 5-45, but suffice to say, they are works of salvation and deliverance - works which break the power of Egypt and release them to freedom in Canaan, their very own land. And again, what people have a God like unto ours - a God who frees us and doesn’t chain us up; a God who works miracles in order to win us for Himself? This is our God - a man dying on a cross defeating the power of Satan over a sinful and rebellious mankind.
b. The Response of our Worship - on the basis of who He is and what He is done, the introduction to this epic of Psalm 105 commands us to do certain things. This is the worship God deserves as a function of His being the faithful and loving God who has done wonderful deeds:
Praise Him - we are told that we are to give thanks to Yahweh and we are to sing praises to Him. We are to praise Him with our minds, our lips, our hearts and our bodies. And that is what we do when we sing these psalms - the very word ‘Sing praise to Him’ (one word in the Hebrew) includes within it the Hebrew word for ‘Psalm’. The Psalmist is telling us here, on the basis of the faithfulness of God and His salvation of us, we are to sing Psalms of praise to Him.
Speak of Him - we are told that we are to make what Yahweh has done known among the peoples, and we are to tell of all His wonderful acts. We are not to keep them to ourselves, we are to go from here and tell a needy world that there is salvation to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ - God has reached down into the pit and saved us, and what He’s done for us, He can do for others. We cannot pretend to be grateful to God for His salvation whilst at the same time not telling others about Him.
Depend on Him -we are told to call on His name, another way of saying that we are to find our strength in Him, and we are told to glory in Him, in other words we are to rely on Him. Given that God’s people have found Him to be a faithful, loving and reliable Lord who saves His people in remarkable and often miraculous ways, they are no longer to rely upon themselves - to trust in their own resources of strength or to glory in themselves; rather they are to put their whole trust in Yahweh. How we shall need to remember that this year! ‘Do not put your trust in princes, mortal men who cannot save … Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob … the Lord who remains faithful forever.’
Enjoy Him -we are told to rejoice in Him and to seek Him. Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him for ever - we need to focus more on that enjoyment of God. The Psalmist here encourages us to bask in the presence of God and to seek a closer and deeper walk with Him. He is telling us to be Christian pleasure seekers, finding all our pleasure in the ecstasy of the presence of Almighty God.
All this, and we haven’t even begun to understand just how many things there are for which we are to give the Lord thanks! But that’s the purpose of the Psalm, and by the end of it, we should all be in the position of being able to say along with the Psalmist - Praise Him, Speak of Him, Depend on Him and Enjoy Him because He is the Lord, our wonder-working God!
[B] The Epic Story (vs. 5-44)
The watchword of the epic story is ‘Remember!’ That is why this is classified as a Psalm of Remembrance - that God’s people would remember their history. Remember something - this is not just the history of the Jewish people - although that should be enough for us to take it seriously since our Saviour Jesus was a Jew; but remember that we, who are the spiritual descendants of Abraham by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, this is our history too - this is the history of our forebears in the faith, our ancestors in the redemptive plan of God. When our families get together, we all enjoy listening to the older members telling stories about the things our long gone ancestors did - in my case the bothy ballads of Aberdeenshire and the battle of Omdurman on my father’s side and the Highland herring fisheries on my mother’s side - we all enjoy it because it gives us this sense of roots and belonging. Here we have, in this psalm, God’s people getting together to talk about their family history - remembering, so that they may re-capture their vision for the ever-living and ever-faithful God - their God and the God of their fathers. We can almost imagine the writer of this psalm seated round a hearth in his home, gathered together with fellow villagers and chanting this song of remembrance to them - young people wide-eyed to hear the story of their people for the first time, old people shedding a tear as they have heard it a hundred times but it’s always fresh, perhaps even incomers to the village jealous and wishing that they were part of this family of faith, that these could be their ancestors and that these would be their stories too.
Vs. 5-7 are very much introductory statements regarding this story – summary statements if you like of all that is to follow. For example, in vs. 5 we hear about wondrous works which God has done, miracles and judgements – this is no ordinary story of a the natural development of a nation; it is an epic of how God made them into a nation; how He did wonderful things, saving things, including miracles and the delivery and implementation of judgements – God did everything to make this people into a nation. And then in vs. 6 we read of the recipients of this blessing – those whom God made into that nation – offspring of Abraham, sons of Jacob, chosen Ones. God chose this people, they didn’t earn this honour, it was God who made them special and made them into a nation through the promises He gave to their fathers Abraham and Jacob. And then in vs. 7 we read of the God who made them into a nation – this faithful God of persevering love and compassion – the God whose love would not let His people go – the God who is not just powerful and King among His own people, but the God whose judgements are in all the earth – the God whose sovereign control extends to the four corners of the earth. And so, these introductory comments shed light on the whole story as we have it before us in these three particular elements of how God made them into a nation; who it was He made into a nation and the character of the God who made them into a nation.
Anyway, as we hear the Psalmist’s epic, we are hearing three stories:
1. A Story of God’s People – this is primarily an epic story about the history of the people of God. The story itself can be divided into different sections corresponding to different periods in the history of the Jews.
Vs. 8-15 are concerned with the times of the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – it is concerned with the beginnings of the people of God; how it came about that God chose Abraham and to him made amazing promises, and how, even though at the time these men, like Abraham and Jacob, were refugees, wandering from nation to nation, God did not allow anyone to oppress them or destroy them. The God who had promised these men that they would inherit this land of Canaan as their inheritance was not going to allow tin-pot kings of self-appointed city states to wage war on His chosen and anointed people. And so, the God who reigns supreme over international politics as well as the flight of the birds and the number of hairs on your head, made promises to His people and preserved His people.
Then from vs. 16 to 24 we have the amazing story of Joseph, and how God brought His people down to Egypt to keep them from being starved to death through famine. God worked in miraculous ways to exalt this man Joseph and through him, the nation of Israel prospered and grew strong.
Then in vs. 25 to 45a we have the story of Moses and the people of God making their way to Canaan. From vs. 25-39 we have the story of the Ten Plagues which God sent upon the land of Egypt and the people’s exodus from that land of slavery and bondage; then from vs. 39-43 the story of the journey of God’s people through the wilderness until finally in vs. 44-45a we have their arrival in Canaan.
So we have, beginning in vs. 8 a promise made to Abraham that God would give them the land of Canaan as their very own – and then, for the succeeding 35 verses, the story of how God’s people went from pillar to post, but God, despite the 1,000 years or so that come in between, and the foreign kings and armies which would have loved to annihilate His people, keeping His promise and Canaan is theirs.
Now that’s a family history. You can just imagine the people gathered round their fires chewing over every verse in this psalm – taking whole evenings discussing the life of Joseph, or the Ten Plagues, and all of them becoming more and more aware that they are God’s people, and that they are special because of that – they belong to each other, the land belongs to them, and they belong to God. There’s the family history of Jesus – all the way back from Abraham, through David, through Mary – this is the family history He would have learned from His earthly parents.
But we have a family history too – and this psalm is only part of it; because our family history presses on from here to include the stable in Bethlehem, and the cross at Calvary, and the empty tomb and the day of Pentecost and the growth of the Church. That’s our family history. If you don’t how can you have any sense of belonging to God’s people? Learn and remember the history of your people – of how Jesus, like Joseph, was put in a collar of iron and how He suffered for you on the Tree. Learn and remember how God spoke through the Apostle Paul to our European ancestors and brought them the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Learn of how God worked through men like John Knox and Andrew Melville – learn, remember and belong! Because you see this epic is ongoing – you are part of it – and in a hundred years people will look back and remember you and through you they will worship God for His faithfulness.
2. A Story of God’s Power – who has done these things? Who has made the people into a nation, and who has given the homeless refugees a country of their own? The answer is God. It is He who, at every stage in the story, takes the initiative and works the wonders – 32x between vs. 8 and 44 we read of God doing something – God sends, God guides, God makes a promise, God calls, God chooses, God speaks, God gives, God strikes down, God brings out and so on. 32 different activities of God on behalf of His people – and the world says that our God does nothing? The history of Israel is not primarily the history of what the Israelites did, but the history of what God did in making them into this nation and giving them the land of Canaan. It’s a story about God and His great power – a power no king or nation state can resist – it’s a story about God’s passion for His people linked to His power over the nations so that His people are blessed beyond their wildest imaginations.
How we need to remember that today! Our salvation – what we are and what we are becoming as Christian believers, it’s not primarily a story of our activity and our doing, it’s a story of God’s wonderful acts in our lives. It’s a story of how God so loved us that He sent His one and only Son so that whosoever should believe upon Him should have everlasting life. It’s a story of how Jesus took our sins upon Himself on the Tree at Calvary – it’s a story of how God raised up Jesus from the dead and with Him gave us new life; it’s a story of how God sends His Holy Spirit to dwell within us, giving us the power and ability to live lives of holiness and purity for Him. It’s a story of God’s power to preserve, protect and save His people. If you look through your life, try and figure out how many verbs there would be to describe what God is doing with you – He protects me, He saves me, He guides me, He blesses me, He loves me and so on, and I’m sure you’ll get to a lot more than 32!
3. A Story of God’s Promise - the big question, as far as I can see, is this - why is God so good to His people; why did He send the ten plagues and why did He give them water in the desert; why these 32 different verbs denoting God’s action? We find the psalm bracketed beginning and end with the answer: in vs. 8 and 9 we read of a covenant the Lord God made with Abraham - a commitment God made to Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation that He would be their God and they would be His people - a commitment, we read of in vs. 9, that this is a covenant He purposed to remember to eternity, to a thousand generations of His people. Then in vs. 42, going forward some hundreds of years in the story of God’s people, we have God remembering His holy promise and Abraham His servant. In other words, God’s action on His people’s behalf was all done on the basis of the covenant promise God had made to Abraham right at the beginning of the nation’s history. Everything, from Isaac, Jacob, through Joseph, Potiphar and Pharoah, through Moses, Aaron and the ten plagues; through the column of fire, the quail, the manna and the water in the desert, all the way to the promised land, its all there because of God’s steadfast love and faithfulness to the promise He made to Abraham.
That promise to Abraham still holds, except now, we are the ones who, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, have become his spiritual sons and daughters. Through faith in Christ we are of the blood and line of Abraham and God’s promise still holds good for us. Paul says as much in Romans 8:32 - “He who did not spare His own Son, but gave him up for us all - how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” God moved heaven and earth to save His people of old from slavery in Egypt and to bring them to a place of obedience and service, as we read in vs. 45. God moved heaven and earth by sending His one and only precious Son, Jesus Christ, to die on a cross, in order that our sins may be taken away and that we can obey God and keep His Word. God gave us His Holy Spirit; God gave us the Church; God gave us His Word, the Bible; God gave us prayer; God gave us the Sacraments - He gave us all these things, through Christ, because He is a faithful and loving God who will never break even the least of His promises. God has made you who you are! You have far more to be thankful for than the children of Israel - you have the indescribable love of God demonstrated in Christ Jesus.
[C] Conclusion to the Epic (vs. 45)
Very briefly, there are two concluding remarks I would like to make – commands God gives us on the basis of the people He has made us into as Christians. First, is that obey – we were not saved to obey the laws of this world, but that we may keep God’s Law. Keeping God’s Law marks us out in this world as His people. And I’m not saying here that any of us are perfectly able to keep this law – but what I am saying is that just as God gave His people in the Old Testament everything they needed, the land, his laws, that they may live faithful and loyal lives of service to Him, so in the New Testament God has given us even more – He has given us His Holy Spirit who dwells within us who gives us the energy and strength we need to keep His Law; and He has given us this wonderful promise that if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He gives us a Law of Grace and the Spirit of Grace – and now, in dependence upon Him, we must obey.
Then lastly, basically, simply, we are told to Praise the Lord! Praise Him with our lips in song and in witnessing to others of the wonder of the Lord Jesus Christ. Praise Him with our hearts in devoting ourselves to service and to living consecrated lives to and for Him. Praise Him with our feet by being ready to go forth with the gospel of peace. Praise Him with our minds by thinking through our faith and having our minds renewed. Praise Him with our bodies in laying everything on the line for the Lord Jesus. Praise Him with our futures in offering them up to God for His use. Praise Him! Can there be anything more simple to say than that – to exult in God and shout Hallelujah (which is the Hebrew for Praise the Lord)? God has done so much for us – and the Psalms of Remembrance give us grist for our mills of praise. And so what will your response be to Psalm 105 – will it be to praise Him or to reject Him; will it be to love Him or loathe Him – will it be affection or apathy? AMEN