1 Give thanks to Yahweh! Call on his name! Make his doings known among the peoples. 2 Sing to him, sing praises to him! Tell of all his marvelous works. 3 Glory in his holy name. Let the heart of those who seek Yahweh rejoice. 4 Seek Yahweh and his strength. Seek his face forever more. 5 Remember his marvelous works that he has done; his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth, 6 you seed of Abraham, his servant, you children of Jacob, his chosen ones. 7 He is Yahweh, our God. His judgments are in all the earth. 8 He has remembered his covenant forever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations, 9 the covenant which he made with Abraham, his oath to Isaac, 10 and confirmed the same to Jacob for a statute; to Israel for an everlasting covenant, 11 saying, "To you I will give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance;" 12 when they were but a few men in number, yes, very few, and foreigners in it. 13 They went about from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people. 14 He allowed no one to do them wrong. Yes, he reproved kings for their sakes, 15 "Don't touch my anointed ones! Do my prophets no harm!" 16 He called for a famine on the land. He destroyed the food supplies. 17 He sent a man before them. Joseph was sold for a slave. 18 They bruised his feet with shackles. His neck was locked in irons, 19 until the time that his word happened, and Yahweh's word proved him true. 20 The king sent and freed him; even the ruler of peoples, and let him go free. 21 He made him lord of his house, and ruler of all of his possessions; 22 to discipline his princes at his pleasure, and to teach his elders wisdom. 23 Israel also came into Egypt. Jacob lived in the land of Ham. 24 He increased his people greatly, and made them stronger than their adversaries. 25 He turned their heart to hate his people, to conspire against his servants. 26 He sent Moses, his servant, and Aaron, whom he had chosen. 27 They performed miracles among them, and wonders in the land of Ham. 28 He sent darkness, and made it dark. They didn't rebel against his words. 29 He turned their waters into blood, and killed their fish. 30 Their land swarmed with frogs, even in the rooms of their kings. 31 He spoke, and swarms of flies came, and lice in all their borders. 32 He gave them hail for rain, with lightning in their land. 33 He struck their vines and also their fig trees, and shattered the trees of their country. 34 He spoke, and the locusts came, and the grasshoppers, without number, 35 ate up every plant in their land; and ate up the fruit of their ground. 36 He struck also all the firstborn in their land, the first fruits of all their manhood. 37 He brought them forth with silver and gold. There was not one feeble person among his tribes. 38 Egypt was glad when they departed, for the fear of them had fallen on them. 39 He spread a cloud for a covering, fire to give light in the night. 40 They asked, and he brought quails, and satisfied them with the bread of the sky. 41 He opened the rock, and waters gushed out. They ran as a river in the dry places. 42 For he remembered his holy word, and Abraham, his servant. 43 He brought forth his people with joy, his chosen with singing. 44 He gave them the lands of the nations. They took the labor of the peoples in possession, 45 that they might keep his statutes, and observe his laws. Praise Yah!
The author of this psalm is unknown, as is the occasion on which it was composed. It resembles the seventy-eighth psalm in the fact that both are of an historical nature, recounting the dealings of God with his people in their deliverance from the bondage in Egypt. The object of the former psalm however, seems to have been "to recall the nation from their sins," and to vindicate the dealings of God with the Hebrews in his arrangements for their government, or in the change of the administration, by giving the government to the tribe of Judah under David, rather than to Ephraim; the object of this psalm is "to excite the people to gratitude" by the remembrance of the goodness of God to the people in former times. Accordingly this psalm is occupied with recounting the mercies of God - his various acts of intervention in their history - all apppealing to the nation to cherish a grateul remembrance of those acts, and to love and praise him.
The first sixteen verses of the psalm are substantially the same as the first part of the psalm composed by David when he brought up the ark, as recorded in 1-Chronicles 16:8-22. But at that point the resemblance ceases. Probably the author of this psalm found in the one composed by David what was suitable to the occasion on which this was composed, and adopted it without any material change. In the remainder of the psalm, he has simply carried out in the history of the Jews what was suggested by David in the psalm in 1 Chr. 16, and has applied the idea to the other events of the Jewish history, as furnishing a ground of praise. The psalm is a mere summary of the principal events of that history to the time when the people entered the promised land - as laying the foundation of praise to God.
An exhortation to praise God for his wondrous works, Psalm 105:1-5; his goodness to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Psalm 105:6-16; to Joseph in Egypt, Psalm 105:17-22; to Israel in Egypt, Psalm 105:23-25; to Moses in the same land, Psalm 105:26; the plagues sent on the Egyptians, Psalm 105:27-36; the deliverance of the Israelites out of Egypt, Psalm 105:37, Psalm 105:38; how he supported them in the wilderness, Psalm 105:39-43; and brought them into Canaan, Psalm 105:44, Psalm 105:45.
We find several verses of this Psalm in 1-Chronicles 16, from which it is evident that David was the author of the principal part of it: but it was probably enlarged and sung at the restoration of the people from the Babylonish captivity. The hallelujah which terminates the preceding Psalm, is made the title of this by the Vulgate, Septuagint, Ethiopic, and Arabic: but it has no title either in the Hebrew or Chaldee. The Syriac considers it a paraphrase on the words, "Fear not, Jacob, to go down into Egypt; and teach us spiritually not to fear when we are obliged to contend with devils; for God is our shield, and will fight for us." The Psalm is a history of God's dealings with Abraham and his posterity, till their settlement in the promised land.
INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 105
This psalm was penned by David, and sung at the time when the ark was brought from the house of Obededom to the place which David had prepared for it; at least the first fifteen verses of it, the other part being probably added afterwards by the same inspired penman, as appears from 1-Chronicles 16:1. The subject matter of the psalm is the special and distinguishing goodness of God to the children of Israel, and to his church and people, of which they were typical: the history of God's regard to and care of their principal ancestors, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, &c. and of the whole body of the people, in bringing them out of Egypt, leading them through the wilderness, and settling them in the land of Canaan, is here recited, as an argument for praise and thankfulness.
(Psalm 105:1-7) A solemn call to praise and serve the Lord.
(v. 8-23) His gracious dealings with Israel.
(v. 24-45) Their deliverance from Egypt, and their settlement in Canaan.
Thanksgiving Hymn in Honour of God Who Is Attested in the Earliest History of Israel
We have here another Psalm closing with Hallelujah, which opens the series of the Hodu-Psalm. Such is the name we give only to Psalm which begin with הודו (Ps 105, Ps 107, Ps 118, Ps 136), just as we call those which begin with הללויה (Ps 106, Psalm 111:1, Psalm 117:1-2, Ps 135, Psalm 146:1) Hallelujah-Psalm (alleluiatici). The expression להלּל וּלהודות, which frequently occurs in the books of Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah, points to these two kinds of Psalm, or at least to their key-notes.
The festival song which David, according to 1-Chronicles 16:7, handed over to Asaph and his brethren for musical execution at the setting down of the Ark and the opening of divine service on Zion, is, so far as its first part is concerned (1-Chronicles 16:8-22), taken from our Psalm (Psalm 105:1), which is then followed by Psalm 96:1-13 as a second part, and is closed with Psalm 106:1, Psalm 106:47-48. Hitzig regards the festival song in the chronicler as the original, and the respective parallels in the Psalm as "layers or shoots." "The chronicler," says he, "there produces with labour, and therefore himself seeking foreign aid, a song for a past that is dead." But the transition from Psalm 105:22 to Psalm 105:23 and from Psalm 105:33 to Psalm 105:34, so devoid of connection, the taking over of the verse out of Ps 106 referring to the Babylonian exile into Psalm 105:35, and even of the doxology of the Fourth Book, regarded as an integral part of the Psalm, into Psalm 105:36, refute that perversion of the right relation which has been attempted in the interest of the Maccabaean Psalm. That festival song in the chronicler, as has been shown again very recently by Riehm and Kצhler, is a compilation of parts of songs already at hand, arranged for a definite purpose. Starting on the assumption that the Psalm as a whole are Davidic (just as all the Proverbs are Salomonic), because David called the poetry of the Psalm used in religious worship into existence, the attempt is made in that festival song to represent the opening of the worship on Zion, at that time in strains belonging to the Davidic Psalm.
So far as the subject-matter is concerned, Psalm 105 attaches itself to the Asaph Ps 78, which recapitulates the history of Israel. The recapitulation here, however, is made not with any didactic purpose, but with the purpose of forming a hymn, and does not come down beyond the time of Moses and Joshua. Its source is likewise the Tפra as it now lies before us. The poet epitomizes what the Tפra narrates, and clothes it in a poetic garb.
*More commentary available by clicking individual verses.