Promises to the Patriarchs…and to Us

“Seek the Lord and His strength; seek His presence continually!  Remember the wondrous works that He has done, His miracles, and the judgments He uttered, O offspring of Abraham, His servant, children of Jacob, his chosen ones!  He is the Lord our God; His judgments are in all the earth.  He remembers His covenant forever, the word that He commanded, for a thousand generations.” –Psalm 105:4-8 (ESV).

Psalm 105 is another historical psalm, and a long one, with 45 verses.  Of course we realize that division into verses was a later addition for convenience in reference, not an original feature when our Bible was written.  This hymn celebrates God’s faithfulness in dealing with His people and remembers times from the Pentateuch when Israel was dealing with powerful foreigners who could have annihilated them had God not intervened and saved them.  The tone of Psalm 105 is remembrance and gratitude.  As promises to the patriarchs of old—Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses—are recounted, the people are reminded to be faithful to God and He will reciprocate by blessing them.  “Seek the Lord and His strength; seek His presence continually! are both a strong reminder of past actions and a call to present commitment to God.  Even for a thousand generations (and more!) God has extended His faithfulness to His people.  This is the only one of the 150 Psalms to recall explicitly the promises to the patriarchs.  Following in Psalm 106 the psalmist is less kind to the people, because he recalls how Israel rebelled and failed to believe God’s promises, and how chastening resulted.  But in Psalm 105 the focus is on precious promises to the patriarchs and the people seeking, following and continuing to trust in God.

No author is given for this psalm (as for those attributed to David).  It is interesting that scholars believe this is a psalm of the post-Babylonian exile because it does not go beyond the conquest of Canaan with a clue given in verses 44 and 45:  “And he gave them the lands of the nations, and they took possession of the fruit of the peoples’ toil, that they might keep His statutes and observe His laws.  Praise the Lord!”  No mention is made in the hymn of David or his kingdom nor of the temple (which came even later under Solomon’s rule).  For authorship, then, scholars think it may have been one of the Levites who returned to Judah with the Jewish remnant from Babylon and that the psalm was written to uplift and encourage the remnant, allowing them to hope again that God would visit them with His favor and restore strength to their struggling nation.

With those thoughts in mind, what does the psalm teach us in this day when we are seeing our own country in great distress and the bedrock of our beliefs in God in great jeopardy?  Psalm 105 encouraged the people to remember.  Like those of old we need to review and remember how America came to be a great nation.  We had patriarchs, too—only we called them patriots—those who were willing to stand firmly for what was right and good, even though it might not have been popular to do so.  In reviewing our nation’s founding documents, we see evidence of our patriots’ dependence on God and their definitely seeking after justice and freedom.  Have we gone too far in the opposite direction to return?  Like the Psalmist, we can sound a clarion call to the people to remember God’s promises, to seek His face and to return to basic principles of righteousness.  Voices crying in the wilderness were heard by the faithful in the past.  This age has opportunity to turn, too.  May our earnest prayer be that we will.