Psalm 105. We've kind of gotten to do some long
psalms. We hit a few off and on here and there.
Most of the ones we've gone through to this point
have been pretty short, but now we've kind of
got into some that are a little bit longer, so
we won't be able to do the whole psalm on these.
We'll just do a little piece of it. We'll work
our way through some of these next few psalms.
Psalm 105. We'll start in verse 1. It's taken
us a lot of years, but we're two -thirds of the
way through the book of Psalms. We're over the
two -third mark, so we're going to finish it
up one day. By the time we get through, you go
back and listen to the ones online from Psalm
1. I'm going to sound a lot younger than I did
when we get on Psalm 50. Years have passed. All
right, Psalm 105. We'll pray, and then we'll
get started. God, we come to you. We thank you
for a good day. I pray that you would help us
just to look at these words, that we would just
recall the blessings that you have poured out
in our life and the promises that you have kept
and that we are reminded of how faithful you
have been, not just to the people in Scripture,
but to us, dear Lord, and to those we know. And
I pray that we too would just praise you as well,
just as we see in this psalm. And I ask these
things in Jesus' name. Amen. Now, it is believed
that David wrote this psalm, and for good reason.
If you look in 1 Chronicles chapter 16, starting
in verse 7, you'll see that from verse 7 to verse
22, that those 15 verses are the same as the
15 verses that we're going to look at tonight.
And so we see that psalm of praise taking place
when the Ark of the Covenant is being brought
back to Jerusalem. And David leads that psalm,
leads that praise in 1 Chronicles chapter 16.
And so that gives us a little context of what
was going on, at least when this first part of
the psalm was written. Psalm 105 verse 1 says,
Give thanks to Yahweh, call on His name, proclaim
His deeds among the peoples. Sing to Him, sing
praise to Him. Tell about all his wonderful works.
Now, I just mentioned that what we see in 1 Chronicles
16 is just a praise in the Lord, the Ark of the
Covenant, just praise in the Lord for all he's
done, that there was something that had taken
place that was worthy of praising God. But what
about in our life? Is there anything that takes
place that's... worthy of praising God well I
suspect that there is there's probably a lot
more things in our life that we should praise
God for than we do we ask God for a lot of things
and we seek God for strength and help and that's
great we should do that God is there for us to
do that but but maybe we should we should pay
attention to these psalms because we kind of
see this same idea. A lot of the things that
we see are just kind of repeats. A lot of the
things that I say are repeats because we kind
of see this theme bounces back up from time to
time of praising the Lord. We see that a lot
in the Psalms. Now, we see a lot of beautiful
things in the Psalm. We see cries for help and
pleas for God to hear us and not abandon us in
our sinfulness. We see those kind of things,
but we also see praise. And I think that... We
see a good balance of that in the Psalms, and
we should see a good balance of that in our lives
too. And maybe that's good medicine for us. Maybe
that is something that will kind of cheer us
up. When we start to focus on the things that
overwhelm us, it's easy for us to just kind of
forget about everything else that's going on.
And under the weight of the world and our stress,
I think sometimes we forget to praise God. Not
that we don't thank God as good and we're not
appreciative for what he does, but maybe it's
good for our heart to just pause for a moment
and just thank God. Say, okay, God, you know
what? There are some bad things and things could
be worse, but even in the bad things, maybe there's
praise. Maybe whatever situation it is, maybe
it could be a lot worse or whatever. there's
lots of opportunities for us to just pause and
think, you know, God, you have blessed me in
a lot of ways. And maybe there are some things
that I desire or some things that are harder
than what I really want to go through. But God,
you have been good to me and you've blessed me.
You've blessed me with a job, even if it's a
job I hate. You've blessed me with this, even
if it's something that's difficult. You've blessed
me in this way or in that way or whatever it
is. There's lots of ways that God blesses us
that... that even in the bad ways sometimes we
need to realize that, you know what, we got it
pretty good. Sometimes maybe we eat food that
we don't really like, but even in that we should
praise the Lord because there's a lot of people
that ain't got food to eat at all. So even when
we have to eat something we don't like or do
something we don't enjoy, maybe even in those
things we can see some blessing, and maybe that
changes our mindset and our heart. And so we
see in the psalm this idea of, Praising God because
he's good, because of all he's done, because
he's worthy of our praise. And maybe we need
to do that in our lives as well. Verse 3. Honor
his holy name. Let the hearts of those who seek
Yahweh rejoice. Search for the Lord and his strength.
Seek his face always. Boy, that's a good command
for us there. Search for the Lord and for His
strength. Seek His face always. Oh, that's good
advice. Are we searching for the Lord in our
life? Are we seeking the Lord? Are we seeking
His strength? Are we seeking His face? What are
we looking to? Now, there's a lot of things in
this world that we may be tempted to look to
for strength, but it's the Lord who is our source
of strength. We need to make sure that we are
those who search for the Lord, that we're always
looking for the Lord, that we're looking to grow
in the Lord, and we're looking for the Lord to
work in our heart. That's good instruction for
us. Verse 5. Remember the wonderful works he
has done, his wonders and the judgments he has
promised. Again, I call to remembrance here,
okay? Why is David... praising the Lord? Well,
because he remembers the Lord. He knows that
the Lord is good. Now, David's life wasn't always
good, and a lot of that was his own fault, so
we can kind of relate to that. Our life isn't
always good, and it's not necessary that everything
that happens is our fault, but sometimes we may
be like David, get ourselves in some bad situations,
but Even then, we see that David gets to experience
the grace and the mercy of God, and David is
delivered from situations that weren't any of
his doing, but just enemies that were coming
against him in hard times, and he saw God work.
David had experienced the grace and the mercy
of God. He had seen him work. been delivered
by him. He had seen all the mighty things that
God had done. He had seen enemies defeated, and
David knew the stories of God of the Old Testament
before David even came onto the scene. And so
we see in this passage a call to remember what
God has done. We need to do that. Sometimes we
need to not just thank God for the blessings
that we see now, but maybe we just need to take
a moment and just... And just remember that God
is good, that God cares. And think about the
times in the past that God has been with us,
the times in the past that we thought, man, this
is too hard, this is too stressful, I don't know
how I'm going to get through this. And somehow,
God gets us through it. And looking back at it
now, we say, man, that wasn't so bad. But in
the moment, things do seem bad. And so if we're
in the moment of something that seems bad today,
then maybe we need to remember the things that
God has done in the past. He's delivered us in
the past and delivered many we know in the past
and delivered countless people throughout the
scripture so we can remember that we serve a
good God who keeps his promises. Continuing on
in verse 6. You offspring of Abraham, his servant,
Jacob's descendants, his chosen ones, he is the
Lord our God. His judgments govern the whole
earth. He remembers his covenant forever. the
promise he ordained for a thousand generations.
The covenant he made with Abraham swore to Isaac
and confirmed to Jacob as a decree and to Israel
as an everlasting covenant. I will give the land
of Canaan to you as your inherited portion. Okay,
so he's going to start kind of going back through,
and he's starting with Abraham here, and we're
not going to get to it tonight, but eventually
we're going to move into Moses. But he begins
to not just say, remember the Lord, but he starts
to give examples of how we can trust the Lord.
And he starts with Abraham. And what did God
say to Abraham? He said, I'm going to bless you,
and all nations are going to be blessed through
you. Now, that was the promise. And part of that
promise was Israel was going to get the land,
and they did. They certainly got the land, and
God blessed them. But the bigger part of the
promise was further looking than just the bloodline
of Abraham. What God was really going to do was
bless all nations through Abraham. And we see
that clearly spelled out for us when we get to
the New Testament, that it tells us who the sons
of Abraham are. Now, God promises that the descendants
of Abraham, the sons of Abraham, are going to
be blessed. And by the time we get to the New
Testament, when we get to Galatians, it tells
us that the sons of Abraham are those who have
faith in Jesus Christ, that those are the children
of God, that those are the people of God. It's
not a people with a certain bloodline. It's not
just descendants of Abraham. But the New Testament
explains for us that the promises of God are
yes and amen in Jesus Christ. And everything
was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. All that was talked
about, that the nations were going to be blessed,
that the descendants were going to be blessed,
that all of this was going to happen, this promise
to Abraham, all of this was fulfilled. All of
this has already been accomplished through Jesus
Christ. And so we know that God... is a God who
keeps his promises. He had promised in the Old
Testament to give his people the land, and he
did. And when we get to the end of the book of
Joshua, it says that every promise that God had
made to the people, he had kept those promises.
But there was a further reaching promise. It
was not just for the people going to the land
at that time. It was pointing us toward Jesus
Christ, the Messiah who was going to come through
the bloodline of Abraham. But the real sons of
Abraham are those who trust in Jesus Christ.
And we see that spelled out throughout the Old
Testament because there were many of the Pharisees
and those who were against Jesus, and they thought
it was something special. Well, we're Jewish,
and Jesus said, well, look, you're not really
sons of Abraham because you're not following
God like Abraham did. Abraham was a man of faith,
and so the sons of Abraham are those who have
faith in Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ is the
one who brings forth the promises of God. For
the promises of God are yes and amen in him,
Paul says in the New Testament. And so David
says here, hey, we can start and we can go all
the way back to the beginning at Abraham. Now
in David's day, he hadn't seen the fulfillment
of all those prophecies and the promises of Jesus
Christ. He had seen the fulfillment to some extent.
but he hadn't seen the ultimate fulfillment that
came through Jesus Christ. But even still, David
is rejoicing. If David is rejoicing over the
things that he saw in his life, and he only got
to see a few things, how much more so should
we rejoice now that we have got to see all of
God's promises fulfilled in Jesus Christ? That
we have got to see all these things in the Old
Testament, they're accomplished, they're done,
even in things in David's life. Even the things
that were prophesied about him, we see fulfilled
in Jesus Christ. That Jesus, the son of David,
was going to be the Messiah. And so we see that
God is faithful and true to his promises. And
for that, David says, we need to be those who
rejoice. We need to remember what God has done
so that we can know what God will do. He will
be with us. He will strengthen us. And David
says he's worthy of being praised. And we need
to do that. Maybe that's a good homework for
us this week. Is to say, you know what, if I
don't already, and maybe you do, but if you don't
already, just set aside some prayers this week
to say, I'm just going to praise the Lord. I'm
just going to praise Him for being good. I'm
just going to thank Him. I'm just going to go
through the list of all the things that are...
that are good in my life. I'm going to go through
it. I'm going to thank Him because He's worthy
of praise because He's blessed me and He's good
to me. And man, that may be the difference in
changing our heart from a good day to a bad day.
Because life is hard and life is stressful, but
man, just a minute, just pausing for a minute
in the presence of God and just praising Him,
maybe we don't do it enough. Maybe all of our
attitudes would be better if we did. And I think...
That's what we see in the Psalms. I think that's
what we see here in Psalm 105. Let's pray. God,
we thank you for your good words, and we thank
you for being good. And God, your word is full
of examples of you being good and faithful, of
you making promises and keeping promises and
even fulfilling the greatest promise, that is
Jesus Christ, dear Lord. You promise you won't
leave us. You won't forsake us. You promise to
be our strength. You promise to carry our burden,
dear Lord, if we'd bring them to you. And so,
dear Lord, I pray today that we would hold on
to your promises, that we know that you're a
God we can trust, that we recall the things that
you've done in our life and throughout Scripture,
and help us just to see the blessings that we
have, dear Lord, even in the midst of all the
tough things that may go on in our life. Let
us rejoice in the blessings. And I ask these
things in Jesus' name. Amen.