Recalling to Retell God's Wondrous Works

Psalm 105, let me pray before I read God's Word.

God, thank you for this opportunity to get together as your people,

people whom you have gathered as your special possession,

people whom you have redeemed for yourself,

so that we might obey you, so we might worship you.

We ask God that as we go through this psalm together,

that you would remind us of the wondrous works that you have done

in our lives and in the history of your people,

so that we might be spurred on to praise and a life of worship.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Psalm 105.

We'll give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name,

make known his deeds among the peoples,

sing to him, sing praises to him,

tell of all his wondrous works.

Glory in his holy name,

let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.

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.

The covenant that he made with Abraham,

his sworn promise to Isaac,

which he confirmed to Jacob as a statue,

to Israel as an everlasting covenant,

saying,

To you I will give the land of Canaan

as your portion for an inheritance.

When they were a few in number,

of little account and sojourners in it,

wandering from nation to nation,

from one kingdom to another people,

he allowed no one to oppress them.

He rebuked kings on their account,

saying,

Touch not my anointed ones,

do my prophets no harm.

When he summoned the famine on the land

and broke all supply of bread,

he had sent a man ahead of them,

Joseph, who was sold as a slave.

His feet were hurt with feathers,

his neck was put in a color of iron,

until what he had said came to pass.

The word of the Lord tested him.

The king sent and released him.

The ruler of the people set him free.

He made him lord of his house

and ruler of all his possessions,

to bind his princes at his pleasure

and to teach his elders wisdom.

Then Israel came to Egypt.

Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham,

and the Lord made his people very fruitful

and made them stronger than their foes.

He turned their hearts to hate his people,

to deal craftily with his servants.

He sent Moses, his servant,

and Aaron, whom he had chosen.

They performed his signs among them

and miracles in the land of Ham.

He sent darkness and made the land dark.

They did not rebel against his words.

He turned their waters into blood

and caused their fish to die.

Their land swarmed with frogs,

even in the chambers of their kings.

He spoke, and there came swarms of flies

and gnats through their country.

He gave them hail for rain

and fiery lightning bolts through their land.

He struck down their vines and fig trees

and shattered the trees of their country.

He spoke, and the locusts came,

young locusts without number,

which devoured all the vegetation in their land

and ate up the fruit of their ground.

He struck down all the firstborn in their land,

the firstfruits of all their strength.

Then he brought out Israel with silver and gold,

and there was none among his tribes who stumbled.

Egypt was glad when they departed,

for dread of them had fallen upon it.

He spread a cloud for a covering

and fire to give light to night.

They asked, and he brought quail,

and he gave them bread from heaven in abundance.

He opened the rock, and water gushed out.

It flowed through the desert like a river,

for he remembered his holy promise

in Abraham his servant.

So he brought his people out with joy,

his chosen ones with singing,

and he gave them the lands of the nations,

and they took possession of the fruit

of the people's toil,

that they might keep statutes and observe his laws.

Praise the Lord.

I don't know if you guys have ever

heard someone tell a story

in a very halting and fragmented way.

Or maybe you've told such a story before.

You start to tell a story,

and then you're hazy on the details,

so you wonder out loud

whether it happened on this occasion

or that occasion,

or whether it was this guy or that guy

that said this or that.

And soon enough, you've lost all the momentum,

and the story never gets off the ground.

And you probably also know a few people

that know how to tell stories

exceptionally well.

They tell really good stories.

And usually, good storytellers

have a couple things in common.

One is that they tend to talk a lot.

And two is that they tend to repeat themselves a lot.

They tell the same stories

in different contexts often.

And that's because that's the reason

why they're good,

because they're practiced.

They've been telling the stories,

and because they've repeated the stories

over and over again to different people,

the details are fresh for them,

and that's why they're able to retell it

in an engaging way.

So in order to retell a story well,

you need first to recall it well.

And Psalm 105 is really teaching us

to recall the wondrous works of God

so that we can retell it to others.

It's telling us to rehearse

the wondrous works of God

so that we can retell it to other people.

So the first part, 1 to 11,

verses 1 to 11 is about

retelling God's wondrous works,

the command to retell God's wondrous works.

And then verses 12 to 45

is the command to recall God's wondrous works,

what he's done in the past.

And you can see in verses 1 to 5

a series of commands.

Give thanks, call upon God's name,

make known his deeds,

sing, sing praises,

tell of all his wondrous works,

glory in his holy name,

rejoice, seek the Lord,

seek his presence,

remember.

So these are the commands

to retell God's wondrous works

to those around us.

And then that hinge command,

remember,

connects it to the rest.

Verses 5 to 11

describe our part of the covenant

to God,

our relationship to God,

and God's part of the covenant

to us

in a mirroring structure,

verses 5 to 11.

So verse 5a tells us

to remember the wondrous works

that God has done.

And then verses 8 to 11

tell us that God himself

remembers his covenant forever.

Verse 5b tells us

to remember the judgments

that God ordered.

Verse 7b tells us

that God's judgments

are in all the earth.

And then verse 6

tells us who we are

in this covenant relationship,

the offspring of Abraham,

God's servant,

children of Jacob,

God's chosen ones.

And then verse 7a

tells us who God is.

He's the Lord.

That's the proper name

for God, Yahweh.

He's the Lord, our God.

So there's this mutuality

in our relationship with God.

God is our Lord.

We are his servants.

God remembers his covenant

with us,

and we are to remember

how he's kept his covenant

and praise and worship him.

And verse 11

closes this section,

first section of the psalm,

by telling us,

reminding us of God's promise.

To you,

I will give the land of Canaan

as your portion

for an inheritance.

And the rest of the psalm

is really about recalling

those wondrous works

that God did

in giving his people

the land of Canaan

as their inheritance.

There are three major

geographic movements

in that next section,

verses 12 to 45.

So 12 to 22,

recall God's wondrous works

from the wilderness

to Egypt.

And then 23 to 36,

about God's wondrous works

from Egypt

back out to the wilderness.

And then verses 37 to 45

is about from the wilderness

to the promised land.

And because this redemptive outline

of the old covenant people of God,

it's a shadow of the redemptive realities

that we've experienced through Christ.

It's the shadow of the new covenant people.

And there is an application

for all of us as well

as we're reading this psalm,

even though it's about something

that happened in the past to Israel.

Twice in this psalm, for example,

God's people are described

as sojourners.

Look at verse 12 and verse 23.

So sojourners in the wilderness

and sojourners in Egypt.

And 1 Peter chapter 2, 11

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

describes us Christians this way.

Beloved, I urge you as sojourners

and exiles to abstain

from the passions of the flesh

which wage war against your soul.

So Israel's sojourning

in the wilderness

and in Egypt foreshadows

our sojourning in the world.

And Israel's possession

of the promised land

foreshadows our eventual

full possession of the kingdom of God

and the new heavens

and the new earth.

So we could relate

all of these things

to our circumstances as well.

So so let's first look at

the faithfulness of God

to his people

from the wilderness to Egypt

in verses 12 to 22.

Verses 12 to 15 say this,

when they were few in number

of little account

and sojourners in it

wandering from nation to nation

from one kingdom

to another people.

He allowed no one

to oppress them.

He rebuked kings

on their account

saying,

touch not my anointed ones

do my prophets no harm.

I think because we've rehearsed

or heard this story

so many times

of God's,

of the exodus

and that redemption

of his people

that it's,

we sometimes forget

how far fetched

it really is.

You know,

that how unlikely

it was for this

to actually happen to them.

You know,

I mean,

it began with God

promising Abraham,

right,

a people,

a nation

and a place

for them to dwell in

with the presence of God.

A people,

a place

and the presence of God

with them.

The only thing that he

really had going for him

was the presence of God

because he didn't even

have a single child

to his name

at the time

God gave him the promise,

right?

And he didn't have any

parcel of land

that he could call his own.

And so he was a sojourner,

a wanderer

in foreign nations

with no place

to call his own

and yet God

protected him

and his family

and he even rebuked

kings on their account,

he says.

So this is an allusion

to Genesis 12, 17

and Genesis 23,

20,

chapter 20,

verse 3,

where God rebukes

Pharaoh,

king of Egypt

and Abimele,

king of Gerar,

respectively,

on account of Abraham

and his wife Sarah.

So it's just,

it's kind of crazy

to think about,

right?

This little man

in this big country

and God rebukes

kings

on account of him.

Likewise,

Joseph began

as a slave

in fetters,

so how unlikely

is it that he,

that the pharaoh,

king of Egypt,

will himself

free this slave

and make him

the lord over his house

and the ruler

over his possession.

So like,

all these things show

that God literally

orders the kings

of earth

to do the bidding

of his people

who are few in number

and of no account.

And if we were to

apply that to our lives,

then why do we worry

and fret so much

that God's plan

for us

might not unfold,

right?

That we might,

that we,

that God's plan for us

might be frustrated

by our circumstances

or whatnot

because it doesn't matter

if you look at

the story of Israel

how much the odds

are stacked against us

because God's promises

will be fulfilled

because God can order

even the kings of earth

to do our bidding

whenever he wants.

And the phrase

that God's people

were few in number

and of little account

is reminiscent

of Deuteronomy 7,

6 to 8.

It says this,

For you are a people

holy to the Lord your God.

The Lord your God

has chosen you

to be a people

for his treasured possession

out of all the peoples

who are on the face

of the earth.

It was not because

you were more in number

than any other people

that the Lord

set his love on you

and chose you

for you were the fewest

of all peoples

but it is because

the Lord loves you

and is keeping the oath

that he swore to your fathers

that the Lord

has brought you out

with a mighty hand

and redeemed you

from the house of slavery

from the hand of Pharaoh

king of Egypt.

That's the,

and that logic of salvation

applies to us as well.

So why do you think

you are a Christian?

Why do you think

that you are saved?

Because if our beginning point

of our answer

is our merit

instead of God's grace,

if we start with

our deservingness,

whether it's our morality

or our sincerity,

our good works,

if we start there

instead of starting

with God's prior love for us,

then we have

the sequence backwards.

God didn't choose

his people

because they were numerous.

He chose them

while they were the fewest.

Likewise,

God chose us

while we were still dead

in our trespasses and sins.

So secondly,

let's look at

God's faithfulness

to his people

from Egypt

to the wilderness

in verses 23 to 36.

Jacob came to Egypt

with his relatively small

extended family,

but as verse 24 says,

the Lord made his people

very fruitful

and made them stronger

than their foes.

So stronger than Egypt,

which was arguably

the most powerful nation

in the world at the time.

And you can see

God's sovereign hand

through all of history,

right?

Verse 25 tells us

that it was God

who turned their hearts

to hate his people

to deal craftily

with his servants.

So even though

we could look at that

and see Egypt

turning against Israel

and think that

they were subject

to the whims

of the Egyptians,

their hatred,

their power.

But it was actually

God who turned

the Egyptians

against Israel

because that was

his way of bringing

about their redemption

and liberation.

So it's really,

it's a powerful,

far-reaching statement

about the sovereignty

of God.

So likewise,

then,

we can be assured

that nothing happens

to us,

even things that

seem bad,

even things that

seem so opposed

to God's will,

things that happen

to us,

that they're not

happening apart

from God's

sovereign control.

It happens,

it's part of his plan

to redeem his people

and bring glory

to his name.

And then,

verses 26 to 36,

we count how

God demonstrated

his power

through the plagues

that he unleashed

upon Egypt.

These plagues

are really quite amazing

because each plague

kind of represents

a subjugation

and a repatriation

of the gods

Egyptians worshipped.

So it's like

you could

turn the world

dark,

for example,

is a repudiation

of the Egyptian

sun god,

Ra,

right?

And turning

the Nile into blood

is a repudiation

of the Egyptian

god of the Nile,

Hapi,

right?

So it's like

making the land

swarm with frogs

is a repudiation

of the Egyptian

god of fertility,

Heket,

who was depicted

in the Egyptian art

with the face

of a frog,

right?

So it's like,

and so on.

So basically,

like,

the very,

very things

that the Egyptians

turned to

for their security

and the very things

that they boasted of

are the very points

at which God

exposed them

and defeated them,

right?

It's like so,

it's like so satisfying,

right?

But the,

I mean,

you could think of,

I don't know,

I was trying to think

of an illustration,

like how demoralizing

that is,

if you're,

like one that's

opposing God,

right?

Like think of,

I think of someone

like Simone Biles,

you guys know who that is?

She's like an American gymnast,

right?

Arguably the most dominant athlete

in the history of modern sports,

the way she's dominating

the sport that she's in.

And so she's,

because usually gymnasts

have like a specialty,

every gymnast has like their own,

the thing that they're the best at,

right?

So if it's like the floor exercise

or a balance beam,

like usually you're weaker

than one,

stronger than the other,

or evolved.

When you fall behind

in one of those events,

you hope to make it up

in the event

that's your strength,

but then when you compete

against Simone Biles,

it's completely demoralizing

because you're weak on one

and then you think

you'll make it up

but then you actually

lose more ground

and lose by a significant margin

because she's just

that much better than you

at everything

that you're good at,

right?

It's like,

that's like what,

it's like kind of like

what happens,

like except in a far more

drastic and dramatic way,

right?

That God takes all these things

that Egyptians boasted about

and found their strength

in and then shows them,

you just got nothing

on me,

right?

And that's how powerful

God is.

And if that's what the Lord

does for his people,

like if,

then of course for us,

even though we might feel weak

in the presence

of the Egyptians,

we might feel weak

in our battle

against the world

of flesh and the devil,

right?

That kept us imprisoned

formally.

They're no match

for the Lord God

who redeems his people

from their slavery.

and that's the,

God,

and Christ,

as Ephesians 2

talks about,

defeats each of those things,

the world,

flesh,

and the devil.

He unites us with him

so that we have his resurrection

power and life in us.

Even after the Exodus,

the odds of Israel

surviving in the wilderness

and capturing the land

of Canaan are long,

right?

I mean,

they're just,

they just left their homes

and now they're in the wilderness.

The desert.

And as verses 37 to 45

tells us,

however,

God leads them safely

through the wilderness

and into the promised land.

It says that he gave them

bread from heaven

and water from the rock,

gave them the land

of the nations.

And this journey

of Israel

from the wilderness

to the promised land

foreshadows our journey

from our present exile

to the kingdom of God,

to dwell in place with God.

And that's why

in John 6,

32,

35,

Jesus says,

truly,

truly,

I say to you,

it was not Moses

who gave you

the bread from heaven,

but my Father

gives you the true bread

from heaven.

For the bread of God

is he who comes down

from heaven

and gives life to the world.

I am the bread of life.

Whoever comes to me

shall not hunger

and whoever believes in me

shall never thirst.

So Jesus is explicitly

taking this account

in the wilderness

of God providing

for his people

and saying,

I am that provision

to you from God

to sustain you

in this wilderness

and to bring you

into the promised land.

Similarly,

that's why

in 1 Corinthians 10,

3,

4,

Paul writes

that in the wilderness

all of God's people

ate the same spiritual food

and all drank

the same spiritual drink

for they drank

from the spiritual rock

that followed them

and the rock

was Christ.

So this is not

kind of an inappropriate

allegorization

of the passage.

Israelites did literally

drink from water

coming from a rock,

a literal rock.

But since the Old Testament

frequently uses

the image of rock

to describe God,

God is our rock,

Paul's making

a theological connection

that ultimately

God is the rock

who provided water

for his people

and that in this

new covenant era

that Christ is the rock

from which living water flows

as John 4 talks about.

So it's through

the broken body

and poured out blood

of Jesus Christ

through his death

from the cross

for our sins

that we receive forgiveness

and new life

so that we can enter

into the kingdom of God.

And that brings us

to the end of the psalm

which gives us

the purpose

of this salvation.

Why does God

redeem a people

for himself?

Verse 45 says,

That they might

keep his statutes

and observe his laws.

Praise the Lord.

Isn't that interesting?

Right?

God doesn't save them

because they kept his laws.

He saves them

so that they will

keep his laws.

And that logic

is the same for us,

for Christians.

Ephesians 2, 8-10

says,

For by grace

you have been saved

through faith

and this is not

your own doing.

It is the gift of God,

not a result of works

so that no one

may boast

but we are his workmanship

created in Christ Jesus

for good works

which God prepared

beforehand

that we should walk

in them.

Just as Israel

was delivered

and brought

into the promised land

so that they might

keep God's statutes

and observe his laws,

the church is delivered

from its slavery

to sin

and brought into

the kingdom of God

so that,

not because of the good works

but so that

we might do good works.

And so this is

this

recalling the wondrous

works of God

not only are we able

to tell his works

to others

it's what enables us

to persevere

in obedience

in faith

and to continue

to live in this

state of exile

until we come

to God.