World English Bible
- Give thanks to the LORD! Call on his name! Make his doings known among the peoples.
- Sing to him, sing praises to him! Tell of all his marvelous works.
- Glory in his holy name. Let the heart of those who seek the LORD rejoice.
- Seek the LORD and his strength. Seek his face forever more.
- Remember his marvelous works that he has done: his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth,
- you offspring of Abraham, his servant, you children of Jacob, his chosen ones.
- He is the LORD, our God. His judgments are in all the earth.
- He has remembered his covenant forever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations,
- the covenant which he made with Abraham, his oath to Isaac,
- and confirmed it to Jacob for a statute; to Israel for an everlasting covenant,
- saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance,”
- when they were but a few men in number, yes, very few, and foreigners in it.
- They went about from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people.
- He allowed no one to do them wrong. Yes, he reproved kings for their sakes,
- “Don’t touch my anointed ones! Do my prophets no harm!”
- He called for a famine on the land. He destroyed the food supplies.
- He sent a man before them. Joseph was sold for a slave.
- They bruised his feet with shackles. His neck was locked in irons,
- until the time that his word happened, and the LORD’s word proved him true.
- The king sent and freed him, even the ruler of peoples, and let him go free.
- He made him lord of his house, and ruler of all of his possessions,
- to discipline his princes at his pleasure, and to teach his elders wisdom.
- Israel also came into Egypt. Jacob lived in the land of Ham.
- He increased his people greatly, and made them stronger than their adversaries.
- He turned their heart to hate his people, to conspire against his servants.
- He sent Moses, his servant, and Aaron, whom he had chosen.
- They performed miracles among them, and wonders in the land of Ham.
- He sent darkness, and made it dark. They didn’t rebel against his words.
- He turned their waters into blood, and killed their fish.
- Their land swarmed with frogs, even in the rooms of their kings.
- He spoke, and swarms of flies came, and lice in all their borders.
- He gave them hail for rain, with lightning in their land.
- He struck their vines and also their fig trees, and shattered the trees of their country.
- He spoke, and the locusts came with the grasshoppers, without number.
- They ate up every plant in their land, and ate up the fruit of their ground.
- He struck also all the firstborn in their land, the first fruits of all their manhood.
- He brought them out with silver and gold. There was not one feeble person among his tribes.
- Egypt was glad when they departed, for the fear of them had fallen on them.
- He spread a cloud for a covering, fire to give light in the night.
- They asked, and he brought quails, and satisfied them with the bread of the sky.
- He opened the rock, and waters gushed out. They ran as a river in the dry places.
- For he remembered his holy word, and Abraham, his servant.
- He brought his people out with joy, his chosen with singing.
- He gave them the lands of the nations. They took the labor of the peoples in possession,
- that they might keep his statutes, and observe his laws. Praise the LORD!
Psalm 104 taught us to see God in wind, sea, beast, and harvest. Psalm 105 turns the page and says: now learn to see him in famine, migration, prison, court politics, and long delays. The Lord is not only the God of nature; he is the God of generations.
What is striking is the psalm’s grammar. Again and again, God is the subject of the verbs: he remembers, he calls, he sends, he turns, he strikes, he leads, he opens. Human beings act, sin, scheme, and suffer—but over the whole story stands the steady agency of God. This is one of the psalm’s deepest comforts: history is not a heap of accidents. It is a field where covenant faithfulness is quietly ripening.
Notice too that our remembering rests on his remembering. “He remembers his covenant forever.” In Scripture, when God “remembers,” he is not recovering lost information. The Hebrew idea is active, covenantal fidelity. He remembers by acting. We are called to remember his works because he first remembers his word.
One phrase Western readers often miss is “Do not touch my anointed ones” (verse 15). Here the “anointed” are not kings on thrones, but vulnerable patriarchs wandering from land to land. In the ancient Near East, small pastoral clans were exposed, politically weak, easy to exploit. Egyptian tomb art from Beni Hasan even shows Semitic migrants entering Egypt during famine conditions—not unlike Abraham’s world. Psalm 105 says something astonishing: God places royal dignity on the precarious. The homeless faithful are his anointed.
Then comes Joseph, and here the psalm becomes almost severe in its wisdom: “until what he had said came to pass, the word of the Lord tested him” (New International Version). The Hebrew carries the sense of refining, as metal in a furnace. The promise did not merely comfort Joseph; it burned away illusion, self-trust, and haste. God’s word sometimes sustains us by wounding our false timelines. Calvin observed that providence is often hidden under events that appear to deny it. Psalm 105 agrees. Joseph’s brothers sold him, yet the psalm dares to say God “sent a man before them.” Providence does not excuse evil; it overrules it.
Even the plagues are presented theologically, not just chronologically. Darkness comes first, as if Egypt is being de-created. The empire that defied the Creator is unmade in reverse. But for Israel, the wilderness becomes a place of re-creation: cloud, fire, bread, quail, water from rock. The God who can unmake a kingdom can also make a table in a desert.
And why the land at the end? Not merely for safety, but “that they might keep his statutes.” Grace is never aimless. We are not rescued simply to feel relieved, but to become holy.
In Christ, the pattern reaches its fullness: the greater Joseph rejected and exalted to save many; the greater Exodus accomplished through his death and resurrection (Luke 9:31).
Suggested cross-references: Genesis 45:5–8; Genesis 50:20; Exodus 7–14; Deuteronomy 8:2–3; Luke 9:31; 1 Corinthians 10:1–4
Hymn suggestion: God Moves in a Mysterious Way
Lord of covenant and centuries, teach me to read my life as part of your faithful story. Refine me when your promises seem slow, keep me from forgetting your works, and lead me through every wilderness into deeper obedience, through Jesus Christ our greater Joseph and Redeemer. Amen.