Passage Study
Psalm 105: Remembering the Covenant-Keeping God
Psalms 105:1–105:45
Psalm 105 calls God’s people to give thanks by remembering His covenant faithfulness from Abraham through Joseph, Moses, the exodus, wilderness provision, and entrance into the land. Israel’s history is not driven finally by rulers, famine, or slavery but by the Lord who remembers His promise. Jesus fulfills God’s covenant purpose by bringing the promised blessing to the nations and creating a people who obey Him in grateful faith.
- In this study
- 45 verses · 5 movements
Psalms 105
105:1Give thanks to the LORD! Call on his name! Make his doings known among the peoples.
105:2Sing to him, sing praises to him! Tell of all his marvelous works.
105:3Glory in his holy name. Let the heart of those who seek the LORD rejoice.
105:4Seek the LORD and his strength. Seek his face forever more.
105:5Remember his marvelous works that he has done: his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth,
105:6you offspring of Abraham, his servant, you children of Jacob, his chosen ones.
105:7He is the LORD, our God. His judgments are in all the earth.
105:8He has remembered his covenant forever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations,
105:9the covenant which he made with Abraham, his oath to Isaac,
105:10and confirmed it to Jacob for a statute; to Israel for an everlasting covenant,
105:11saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance,”
105:12when they were but a few men in number, yes, very few, and foreigners in it.
105:13They went about from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people.
105:14He allowed no one to do them wrong. Yes, he reproved kings for their sakes,
105:15“Don’t touch my anointed ones! Do my prophets no harm!”
105:16He called for a famine on the land. He destroyed the food supplies.
105:17He sent a man before them. Joseph was sold for a slave.
105:18They bruised his feet with shackles. His neck was locked in irons,
105:19until the time that his word happened, and the LORD’s word proved him true.
105:20The king sent and freed him, even the ruler of peoples, and let him go free.
105:21He made him lord of his house, and ruler of all of his possessions,
105:22to discipline his princes at his pleasure, and to teach his elders wisdom.
105:23Israel also came into Egypt. Jacob lived in the land of Ham.
105:24He increased his people greatly, and made them stronger than their adversaries.
105:25He turned their heart to hate his people, to conspire against his servants.
105:26He sent Moses, his servant, and Aaron, whom he had chosen.
105:27They performed miracles among them, and wonders in the land of Ham.
105:28He sent darkness, and made it dark. They didn’t rebel against his words.
105:29He turned their waters into blood, and killed their fish.
105:30Their land swarmed with frogs, even in the rooms of their kings.
105:31He spoke, and swarms of flies came, and lice in all their borders.
105:32He gave them hail for rain, with lightning in their land.
105:33He struck their vines and also their fig trees, and shattered the trees of their country.
105:34He spoke, and the locusts came with the grasshoppers, without number.
105:35They ate up every plant in their land, and ate up the fruit of their ground.
105:36He struck also all the firstborn in their land, the first fruits of all their manhood.
105:37He brought them out with silver and gold. There was not one feeble person among his tribes.
105:38Egypt was glad when they departed, for the fear of them had fallen on them.
105:39He spread a cloud for a covering, fire to give light in the night.
105:40They asked, and he brought quails, and satisfied them with the bread of the sky.
105:41He opened the rock, and waters gushed out. They ran as a river in the dry places.
105:42For he remembered his holy word, and Abraham, his servant.
105:43He brought his people out with joy, his chosen with singing.
105:44He gave them the lands of the nations. They took the labor of the peoples in possession,
105:45that they might keep his statutes, and observe his laws. Praise the LORD!
CONTEXTUAL OVERVIEW
Psalm 105 is worship through remembered history. Its opening commands—give thanks, call on His name, sing, seek His face, remember His wonders—tell Israel what kind of memory it needs. The people are not invited to celebrate their own resilience; they rehearse the Lord’s deeds so that present faith is shaped by His covenant faithfulness.
The supplied note on berit, “covenant,” gives the psalm’s controlling claim. God remembers His covenant forever, the word He commanded for a thousand generations. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob receive the promise before Israel has land, power, or stability, and every later event in the song is interpreted as God moving His pledged purpose forward.
HISTORICAL AND LITERARY CONTEXT
The psalm retells a large portion of Genesis through Joshua in a selective way. It follows the promise to the patriarchs, Joseph’s descent into Egypt and rise there, the plagues and exodus, wilderness food, and the gift of the land. It is not a complete chronicle; it is a confession that the Lord’s word governs the story.
Unlike Psalm 106, which emphasizes Israel’s rebellion, Psalm 105 concentrates on God’s preserving initiative. That difference does not deny Israel’s sin elsewhere in Scripture. Here it serves the purpose of praise: the descendants of Abraham are called to see that their survival and inheritance arose from God’s remembered promise rather than their worthiness.
SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS
- Verses 1–15 · Psalms 105:24God’s people seek and remember Him because His covenant protected the vulnerable patriarchs and promised them a home.
- Verses 16–25 · Psalms 105:7Joseph’s suffering and rise in Egypt show God preserving the covenant family through events no human could control.
- Verses 26–45 · Psalms 105:23Exodus rescue, wilderness provision, and land fulfill God’s promise and call the redeemed people into obedient praise.
CHRIST IN THIS PASSAGE
Psalm 105 does not name Jesus, but it follows the covenant promise that reaches its fullness in Him. God promised Abraham that all families of the earth would be blessed through his offspring, and the New Testament identifies Christ as the promised descendant through whom that blessing comes. This is a strong canonical fulfillment, not a vague association with religious history.
The exodus memory also gives the gospel a central pattern: God rescues a people from bondage so that they may belong to Him and walk in His ways. Jesus accomplishes a greater deliverance from sin and death, gathers Jews and Gentiles into His people, and teaches the redeemed to obey from grace rather than trying to earn the covenant promise.
REFLECTION
Psalm 105 helps when circumstances make God’s promises seem delayed. Joseph’s chains, Israel’s slavery, and the wilderness all appear in the song, but none has the final word over God’s covenant. Remember specific ways the Lord has carried you, and resist reading a hard season as proof that He has forgotten His people.
Use remembered mercy for obedience rather than nostalgia. Jesus has rescued you to belong to Him, so ask where gratitude should become visible—in worship, reconciliation, generosity, or patient endurance. Tell the next generation not only what happened to you, but what God has done through Christ.
Original Hebrew Word Study
Psalm 105:8
בְּרִית
berit · H1285
Usually translated: covenant
Berit means covenant. The psalm reads Israel’s history as the unfolding of the promise God remembers across generations.
Follow the Scripture trail
Psalm 105: Remembering the Covenant-Keeping God in the larger story
The connection: Psalm 105 remembers God preserving His covenant promise through patriarchs, slavery, exodus, and wilderness. Jesus is the promised offspring through whom God brings Abraham’s blessing to the nations and rescues a people to live in thankful obedience.
Respond to the passage
Write down one season in which God sustained you through what you could not control. Thank Jesus for it, then let that remembered mercy shape one act of obedient service, reconciliation, or witness this week.
- Why does Psalm 105 begin with commands to seek and remember before retelling Israel’s history?
- How does Joseph’s place in the psalm challenge the idea that suffering proves God has forgotten His promise?
- Why does the psalm end with obedience after recounting so much undeserved rescue?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, You are the fulfillment of God’s covenant mercy. Keep me from forgetting Your rescue, strengthen me in delayed and difficult seasons, and make my grateful obedience tell the next generation of Your faithfulness. Amen.