Psalm 105

1 Oh give thanks to the LORD; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples!

2 Sing to him, sing praises to him; tell of all his wondrous works!

The psalmist calls the people to worship, inviting them to express their praise in many different ways. There are six verbs in these first two verses -- Give thanks, call, make known, sing, psalm, and tell. It begins with a thankful heart, acknowledging what God has done for us. Then, calling upon the name of the LORD is to place one’s trust in him, to seek him for help and favor. Afterall, you are only going to call on someone whom you trust to do what you’ve asked. Next,we are to cause his deeds to be known among the peoples. This is a call to missions. The “peoples” here are the outsiders, non-Jews and non-believers. In New Testament theology it is a call to evangelism. Notice the command is simply to tell what God has done, not debate theology and philosophy but simply focus on God’s actions in history. Tell his story. The thanksgiving and praise are to be done musically with singing and psalming (that is, singing with the accompaniment of a musical instrument). Putting these truths in the context of a song makes them more memorable and emotionally powerful. It helps you to pass them onto others and to remember them yourselves. It is also a way of communicating truth in a pleasing, beautiful way, fitting for the worship of God. Finally, we are to talk about the extraordinary things God has done. Make them the subject of your conversation. Having been a Christian for decades, it’s very easy for me to live in a Christian subculture and rarely engage with the wider world where faith in God is not a given. This psalm calls me to public worship outside of the weekly gathering of the faithful. These verses work well in gathered worship services, but they are not limited to that. There are no qualifiers placed on these commands. They are for all time, every day. 

3 Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice!

4 Seek the LORD and his strength; seek his presence continually!

The imperatives continue as an invitation to affirm the greatness of YHWH. First we are to glory in his holy name. The “name” is a stand-in for the person, so we are to glory in YHWH. The word glory has the root idea of “shine”. We are to be beaming brightly when we think about YHWH, grinning from ear to ear, shining with his goodness. God’s name illuminates us. He is the light by which we see all things more clearly. The following line echoes this sentiment, “let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice. As the mind contemplates the greatness of God, the heart can’t help but join along with joy. The heart is the seat of the emotions and the will, it is the core being of a person. Worship must get down deep. Performative worship is all too common, but YHWH is seeking worshipers whose minds, hearts, and wills are spontaneously moved to elevate Him above all else. The next command is to seek the LORD, his strength, and his presence. To seek the LORD and his strength is another way of saying, put your trust in Him. The very idea of seeking implies a needing. We need something and we are not satisfied until we find it. This is the nature of seeking God, knowing that He is essential to your life and never being satisfied until he is Lord over your life. Seeking his presence in the days of the psalmist may be a reference to corporate worship as YHWH was thought to dwell primarily on earth in his temple. In New Testament theology, God’s presence is within believers as the Holy Spirit. His presence is also in the church, his body, his temple and so we experience him in the gathered community. His presence is also in the world, as Psalm 104 just reminded us. The wind is an illustration of this (John 3). We can’t see it, but we can see what it does. The admonition is to seek his presence continually, so this cannot be merely at corporate worship gatherings. The phrase is literally, “seek his face evermore”. This is describing a life lived in constant awareness of the reality and presence of God. Knowing that God is with us, how should that shape our thoughts and actions? What should we invest our time and energy in doing? How should we spend our money? What are the most important things in life? An unseen guest at every table, next to me as I’m looking at screens (computer, phone, and movies) -- do I consider his presence in all of my choices? Focus on the spiritual discipline of presence, practicing the presence of God, seeking his face continually. 

5 Remember the wondrous works that he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he uttered,

6 O offspring of Abraham, his servant, children of Jacob, his chosen ones!

The final command in this litany of imperatives is to remember, to bring to the front of your find so that you can act on it. Remember his wondrous works, his miracles, and his spoken judgments. These three areas are fruitful for meditation. His works began with the creation and the ordering of the earth and continue with the way he sustains life (Psalm 104). Once mankind had chosen rebellion, he initiated his second type of works -- redemption, taken that which is broken and fixing it, reconciling the irreconcilable, restoring relationships through repentance and forgiveness. Third, think of all that he did for the people of Israel, growing them into a mighty nation then delivering them from slavery and freeing them to live out their lives in the context of God’s wise rule. Think of all the times He delivered them in battle and preserved them through the generations. Then there are his miracles -- the signs that he gave the prophets, the wonders that he performed before the eyes of all -- the plagues in Egypt, the parting of the sea, manna in the wilderness and water from a rock. Finally, consider his judgments, his written commands and laws, the story of humanity recorded in the pages of a book, preserved for us today so that we can live in freedom. All of these are such fantastic gifts to humanity, and we must not forget their source or think that we are wiser and greater than the one who performed these works and gave us this wisdom. The addressee is the people of God, the seed of Abraham and the sons of Jacob. We are the part of that great family even though we were not born of their genealogical lineage. We are born into that family by faith and we share in their promises.

7 He is the LORD our God; his judgments are in all the earth.

8 He remembers his covenant forever, the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations,

We’re reminded of the fact that YHWH reigns as judge, meaning that his justice is woven into the fabric of human society. You see evidence of a universal moral order everywhere in the world, superseding culture. As CS Lewis argues in Mere Christianity while cultures may quibble over how many wives one may have, in no culture is it acceptable to take another man’s wife. And while there are some grey areas of morality, the bulk of humanity agrees upon that which is criminal. These are evidence of God’s justice being written on the human heart. We certainly don’t live up to his standards, but that doesn’t mean there are none. We also see the law of consequence playing out in all the earth. Some call it karma, or what goes around comes around, but it is simply that God has programmed the world in such a way that actions have consequences, and bad actions have bad consequences. We must have a judge, a divine standard by which all things are measured. Otherwise, everyone does what is right in his own eyes and anarchy ensues. The psalmist then narrows in on the promise-making and promise-keeping nature of God who has made a covenant with his people that is without end. He will never break his promise. He commanded and it endured. This truth is stated using the word “remember”, reinforcing the idea that to remember something means to bring it to the forefront of your mind so that you act upon it. YHWH has his covenant with us continually at the forefront of his mind. All else is filtered through it. His faithful promise is the framework of all his actions toward us. When he wants to smite us all, there is the covenant he made with our forefathers, the promises that he will not break. So even though we deserve plenty of smiting, YHWH found a workaround by taking the smiting himself so that he would neither violate his covenant nor his justice. 

9 the covenant that he made with Abraham, his sworn promise to Isaac,

10 which he confirmed to Jacob as a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant,

YHWH made a covenant with Abraham and affirmed it again with his descendants, Isaac and Jacob, and then to every generation of Israel afterwards. The idiom for covenant making was “cutting” because it always involved the cutting of flesh. Usually this was animal flesh for sacrifice or in the case of Abraham in Genesis 15, a solemn reminder that covenant making and keeping was a matter of life or death. Circumcision was a sign of the covenant for males and it also involved cutting the flesh. The fact that God asks us to cut something to make a covenant with him is significant, because God himself participates in that cutting. In Jesus he experienced the cuts that the covenant required, the suffering that Jesus endured in his life and ministry and ultimately in his death. God surely kept his covenant even when we did not. Although God’s judgments are in all the earth and he would be justified in punishing his people, instead he remembers his covenant, the promises he made to individuals and their descendants, and ultimately he takes the punishment that they deserved and places it up on his Son. This is the beauty of the gospel, something that the patriarchs could not have anticipated even though they certainly experienced God’s grace. The psalmist emphasizes that this is an everlasting covenant. This is repeated multiple times in the Old Testament and has significant implications in the New Testament. Paul makes much of Abraham’s faith in the book of Romans and the writer of Hebrews does as well. We are heirs of that faith and of the promise, the everlasting covenant that was cut with the body of Jesus. What is the level of your covenant-making and keeping with God? What are you willing to bleed for? The covenant cost God his son. What has it cost you? 

11 saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan as your portion for an inheritance.”

12 When they were few in number, of little account, and sojourners in it,

13 wandering from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people,

The covenant referred to in the previous verse involved a grant of land (among other things). The promise to Abraham and his descendants is that they would receive ownership of land that was not theirs at that time. The patriarchs wandered from Mesopotamia to Egypt from roughly 2000-1800 BC. All they had were their families, each generation growing a bit larger. They are described as being “of little account”. From the perspective of the great nations and peoples of the ancient near east, they were nothing, insignificant historically, just a homeless family trying to make it in the world. Each generation of patriarchal families did their share of travelling, each of them going to Egypt at various times. Egypt would come to symbolize slavery, sin and death, so their travels there were foreshadowing this experience. However, the land of Canaan that had been promised to them still lay under the control of the Canaanites. All they owned was a parcel of land for burial (Genesis 25:10). The entire family moved to Egypt during a famine during the time of Joseph and there they would live for another 400 years, growing from seventy to several million and becoming enslaved in the process. The patriarchs wouldn’t come close to seeing God keep his part of the deal, but they trusted him nonetheless, believing that their descendants would enjoy the fruit of their faith. So it is with training children in the faith today. We may not live to see what future generations do with the faith that we pass on to them, but it is still our responsibility to do so. Imagine all those years when Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob told their kids and grandkids about God’s unbelievable promise -- they would grow into a mighty nation, and all this land would be theirs. It must have seemed like a dream that would never be fulfilled. This is why the writer of Hebrews devotes a significant portion of chapter 11 to these individuals, commending them for their faith. We must have the same kind of faith today that sees beyond our circumstance and believes in an unbelievable future. In a world that seems increasingly negative and hopeless, we offer a vision of the future that is rooted in the promise of God not human capacities for peace and prosperity. Don’t be deceived into trading the vision of God’s kingdom for a human-created utopia.

14 he allowed no one to oppress them; he rebuked kings on their account,

15 saying, “Touch not my anointed ones, do my prophets no harm!”

These verses refer to the occasions when Abraham and later Isaac lived in the land of Abimelech. Wanted to protect and empower themselves, they pretended that their wives were actually their sisters. This gave them power because men wanted to marry them. However, to do so would have introduced another lineage into the bloodline and God would not allow that to happen. So God intervened and protected the promise, even against the wills of the patriarchs. This is recorded as one of great failures of the patriarchs but also as one of the ways in which God demonstrated his protection of the covenant and his covenant people. Abraham and Isaac should have been punished for lying but instead they were protected as an act of God’s grace. Amazingly the patriarchs lived in the land of Canaan for roughly 200 years and were unmolested. Perhaps this was because they were not threatening at the time, even though there is evidence that they were growing wealthy in terms of livestock and children. There are a couple of interesting things about the language here. In verse 14, the word translated “no one” is literally “adam” (man). While this is a commonly used word for “mankind”, it always reminds me that men are fallen and capable of both great good and great evil. In verse 15, the “anointed ones” is “messiahs” and this is parallel to “prophets.” Thus the patriarchs were considered anointed, set apart for a specific purpose as God’s spokesmen. God protected them through it all, even from themselves. This is not a blanket promise that those who speak for God will always be protected. History proves otherwise. However, it is meant to encourage us to be true to the covenant, regardless of the consequence, knowing that God will keep his word and spare us from ultimate loss. 

16 When he summoned a famine on the land and broke all supply [staff] of bread,

17 he had sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave.

The God who rebuked kings to protect his anointed ones also commanded the weather, summoning a famine on the land by withholding rain. The Hebrew expression is that he broke the staff bread, the staff representing rule or supply. The patriarchs would once again need to be on the move. So God sent someone ahead of them, a slave named Joseph, a favored son who was hated by his brothers, an unlikely hero. These verses illustrate the sovereignty and wisdom of God and how he is playing 4D chess with humans who have a free will. Controlling weather is child’s play compared to manipulating human behavior. God can turn off the rain, but he can’t make brothers hate Joseph and sell him into slavery. The hate was their choice. Joseph’s decisions that kept him alive and ultimately brought him to a position where he could save his own family and many others were his decisions. They were influenced by YHWH, but ultimately it all hinged on Joseph’s obedience and his brothers’ disobedience. What his brothers intended for evil, God intended for good. The faithfulness of Joseph is a major story in Genesis, occupying about a third of the entire book. As a type of Christ, he through his suffering and obedience rescues his family and restores broken relationships. Of all the patriarchs, he is the only one without the blemish of sin (of course he sinned, but it is not in the record). In the Hebrew, the name of Joseph is the final word of verse 17, emphasizing his critical role in the story of patriarchs. Joseph remains a model of faith for us today, trusting God in spite of circumstances, knowing that God is sovereign and has plans deeper and further than we can see. 

18 His feet were hurt with fetters; his neck was put in a collar of iron;

19 until what he had said came to pass, the word of the LORD tested him.

Joseph’s faithfulness is even more remarkable when we consider the injustice that he suffered. He had done nothing wrong, and yet he was sold as a slave as a young man. On his journey to Egypt an iron collar was placed around his neck to control his movement and fetters were on his feet preventing him from running. You can see carved reliefs of prisoners of war treated this way by the Assryians in the 8th century BC. The word “neck” is actually the word nephesh which is usually translated as “soul” or “person”. This gets at the root of the word which is probably “throat”. Joseph would spend 20 years as a slave or prisoner in Egypt. He was faithful as a slave in Potiphar’s house and rose to a position of leadership there until all of that was unjustly taken from him and he was cast in prison. There he languished even after he successfully interpreted dreams, only to be forgotten by the man who benefitted from his interpretation. Rather than get angry and bitter at God for this treatment, he understood it as a test from God, a refining experience. This is a very mature way of looking at injustice and suffering, but that posture seemed to enable Joseph to remain faithful. Perhaps his confidence was rooted in the experience he had as a child, confident that the dreams of his future were given to him by God. He saw his brothers and even his father bowing down to him. A wiser boy might have kept those to himself, but he may have bragged about them, getting him in trouble with his brothers. Still he held onto that dream, believing it to be the word of the LORD. And if that dream was prophetic, the only explanation for his suffering was that it must be a test, preparing him for that future. What fetters are on your feet, limiting your movement in life? What rings of iron are around your throat, pulling you where you don’t want to go? These are but tests to endure for a time. Freedom is the reward of the faithful. Trust in the promises that the LORD has made to you. Believe they will come to pass, and our light and momentary afflictions will become only a memory.

20 The king sent and released him; the ruler of the peoples set him free;

21 he made him lord of his house and ruler of all his possessions,

22 to bind [Septuagint, Syriac, Jerome instruct] his princes at his pleasure and to teach his elders wisdom.

Joseph’s reversal of fortune was quite dramatic, moving from prison to palace at the command of the king. Joseph had done what none of the king’s wisest men could do -- he interpreted the king’s dream and recommended a plan of action to both save and enrich the nation. The king could see that Joseph’s wisdom was otherworldly, and he wisely sought and followed his advice. For a foreigner to rise to the position of second in command of all of Egypt was quite an amazing, unprecedented accomplishment. I’m sure there were many in palace that were not happy about it -- princes who thought they were entitled to leadership by virtue of their birth and wisemen who had put in their time, gotten the education, and scraped and clawed their way to the top -- now they were being taught by this Hebrew slave. How did Joseph gain such wisdom? Perhaps the twenty years of preparation as a slave had something to do with it. In those twenty years of disappointment and waiting, he learned patience and he learned to discern the voice of God -- not just in the dreams, but in the day to day interactions with others. We learn more of Joseph’s character in his dealings with his brothers when they come to Egypt, how he is able to be both just and merciful with them. These were all lessons learned through suffering. No one wants suffering and no one would wish it on another, but it does seem to be the path to wisdom. The sudden reversal in Joseph’s life is not surprising when you think about the great men and women of history who went through lots of hardship before doing great things. We all have to go through the wilderness before we get to the promised land. It is in the wilderness that we learn that God can be trusted, that he is sovereign, and his word will come to pass. Joseph may have wondered if those twenty years of life were wasted. These were the years when he was in his prime wasting away in prison while others married, had children, built things, and made something of their lives. Joseph was robbed of those years, and yet he turned that disappointment into a foundation for success. What disappointments are you facing? Is it possible that what others meant for evil, God means for good? This is one of the lessons from the life of Joseph.

23 Then Israel came to Egypt; Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.

24 And he [the LORD] made his people very fruitful and made them stronger than their foes.

25 He turned their hearts to hate his people, to deal craftily with his servants.

Verse 23 is a good example of synonymous parallelism, the second line adding a bit more information to the first. “Israel came to Egypt” suggests two nations -- Israel and Egypt. “Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham” suggests two people -- Jacob, the grandson of Abraham and second son of Isaac, and Ham the second son of Noah (Genesis 5:32). Ham became the father of the Egyptian and Ethiopian (and African?) people, while Shem, the first son of Noah, became the father of the Semitic people (the Jews and others). The phrase, “land of Ham”, is something of a pejorative because Noah placed a curse on Ham and his descendants. The reason for the curse has been debated over the years, but it’s enough to know that the association with Ham here is not a positive one. The point is that Jacob/Israel is in a place where they do not belong, a place that is cursed in a sense. And yet while there, the opposite happens. They were blessed with fertility. They multiplied from a clan of 70 to a nation of millions. Their sheer numbers made them stronger than their foes and thus a threat to them. Rather than deport them, the king of Egypt opted to enslave them, forcing them to build his cities. The text states this as if the LORD was the one who turned the hearts of the Egyptians against the Israelites. This is a good example of the mystery of free will. I believe the Egyptians were acting of their own volition. They were doing what made logical sense to them. They felt there was an existential threat from this nation that was living among them, these foreigners who had immigrated into their land during hard times and now outnumbered them. They acted rationally to preserve their identity and culture. This was also the sovereign will of God it would seem, to allow his people to be enslaved so that they might ultimately know the joy of freedom. So great is the LORD’s sovereignty that even his enemies find themselves accomplishing his purpose.

26 He sent Moses, his servant, and Aaron, whom he had chosen.

27 They performed his signs among them and miracles in the land of Ham.

The LORD continues to act, now sending Moses and Aaron, a pair of chosen brothers, servants of God. The use of “they” is notable here because the verses before and after indicate God as the agent, first blessing his people then turning the hearts of their neighbors against them. But once he calls Moses and Aaron, they are the ones doing signs and miracles. Of course, it is not actually them. They have no power in themselves, but it is the LORD through them. Here again is one of the mysteries of divine sovereignty. God uses men and women to accomplish his purpose of their own free will. Moses and Aaron could have rejected God’s call. If so, He presumably would have chosen another. When we willinging choose to obey God, we become part of this divine plan. When we willingly choose to disobey God, we are part of his plan as well, even though it’s harder to see. The book of Romans, in chapters 9-11, explores this issue like nowhere else, and while it’s still a little murky to me, it seems that God hardened Pharaoh's heart in order to bring ultimate glory to himself. This doesn’t mean that we should sin so that God’s glory will be on display (God forbid -- Romans 6:1,2). Rather it means that whether we sin or obey, God is ultimately glorified. How much better to choose to obey, to be a servant of God, acting as his hands and feet on earth, rather than choosing to disobey. God is glorified in either case, but the consequences for us are not the same. The Egyptians suffered for their disobedience and the hardheartedness of their king. The Israelites were blessed by the leadership of Aaron and Moses as God performed signs and miracles through them. In doing so, there is a sense in which they also shared in his glory. What signs and miracles could you do today simply through acts of kindness and service? What can you do to change the world through prayer? You can be the agent of change just like Moses and Aaron. 

28 He sent darkness, and made the land dark; they did not rebel [Septuagint, Syriac omit not] against his words.

29 He turned their waters into blood and caused their fish to die.

The psalmist begins a listing of seven of the ten plagues. The number seven is often used symbolically to indicate completeness, so that is the likely reason for shortening the list. They are in order of occurrence with the exception of this first one -- darkness. In the Exodus account darkness was the ninth plague, coming at the end of the plagues that struck the land and livestock. The eight previous plagues had devastated the economy and rebuked each of the Egyptian gods. Re, the sun god, was one of the most important of the Egyptian gods, understood to be the creator and giver of life. The fact that the psalmist begins with this plague is a reminder that this and all of the plagues were meant to display the supremacy of YHWH over each of the gods of Egypt. The darkness may have been from a sandstorm as the Exodus account describes it as a darkness that could be “felt” (Exodus 10:21). It was the culmination of weeks (months?) of misery for the Egyptian people and it was fitting that this experience left them in darkness, every god they believed in had seemed to turn against them. The reality of course is that they were being judged for their actions. They had enslaved and abused fellow human beings for centuries, and the scales of justice were rebalancing. The Hebrew text in verses 28 has the word “not” while the LXX and Syriac omit it (probably because it’s easier to interpret without it). I understand it to mean that they could not resist his words. The Egyptians could not rebel against the plagues; they were helpless, there was nothing they could do about it. Verse 29 describes the first plague in which the Nile River, source of life for the nation, was fouled. This may have been the result of annual flooding which became extreme, additional amounts of silt choking life from the river resulting in massive fish kills and frogs exiting the waters. The plagues begin and end with blood, from the death of the Nile to the death of the firstborn. Reading about the plagues reminds us of the sovereignty and justice of God. The moral arc of the universe is long but it bends towards justice. Justice is woven through the fabric of the universe by a just creator. Actions have consequences. Injustice is punished. Woe to the nation that ignores this reality. 

30 Their land swarmed with frogs, even in the chambers of their kings.

31 He spoke, and there came swarms of flies, and gnats throughout their country.

Beginning with the fowling of the Nile and the death of the fish, the ruination of the land continued naturally. The frogs were forced out of their habit and into the homes of Egypt’s citizens, including her rulers. There was an Egyptian frog goddess that was associated with childbirth, perhaps because of the prolific ways that frogs could multiply. Perhaps this sign of life was only the beginning of a cycle that would lead to death. As the fish and frogs died, flies laid eggs in their carcasses and the maggots began to hatch, swarming the land. Add to that lice or gnats (the actual insect is unknown because the word is only used in this context), and you have misery, diseasel, and death descending on the land. Speculation on the identity of the swarming species has ranged from mosquitoes to ticks, both of which carry disease. The psalmist assigns agency to YHWH again, stating that He spoke and the swarms came. The Egyptian magicians were unable to duplicate these signs and were beginning to acknowledge that YHWH was a god, fulfilling God’s promise that Egypt would know that He is God. While the plagues may have natural explanations, the timing of these calamities makes it clear that YHWH was at work beginning with the excessive flooding of the Nile. The plagues suggest what other texts of the Bible tell us, that God is involved in the weather. The previous Psalm 104 describes God watering the earth, establishing the boundaries of the waters and riding the winds of the storm. This has ramifications for understanding the cause of natural disasters that strike today -- hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, firestorms. These all have natural causes and explanations, but the Bible reveals a God who is actively engaged in life on this planet. The case being made today is that these natural disasters are caused by mankind as an effect of burning fossil fuels. In other words, God isn’t affecting the weather, man is (because man is god). Do we blame God for the natural disasters or do we blame ourselves? Are they the result of judgment for sins committed as a nation? Having seen the devastation of the Joplin tornado (May 22, 2011) and having heard stories of miraculous survival, I can answer the question: Yes, God is in the storm. Interpret that as you will. 

32 He gave them hail for rain, and fiery lightning bolts through their land.

33 He struck down their vines and fig trees, and shattered the trees of their country.

These verses make it clear that God was the cause behind the plagues, here commanding hail and lightning bolts. An extreme storm showered hail rather than rain. Ice falling from the sky is very destructive, especially to tender plants. Entire crops were lost for the season. For people living subsistence lives, this meant chronic hunger. We tend to forget that for most of human history, people have not had the capacity to eat whatever they want whenever they want. Some food could be stored, but then it had to be guarded and rationed. The lightning may have sparked fires that destroyed whatever plants were left alive after the hail, leaving the land utterly barren (and possibly ripe for a future sandstorm). The storm also brought high winds that uprooted trees and broke off branches. Fruit-bearing trees were set back years. The Egyptians understood this to be the work of the gods. Either their gods were angry with them or the Hebrew god was angry with them. Their reactions probably varied -- from offering even more sacrifices to their gods (animal and vegetable offerings that they really could have used to survive) to offering sacrifices and prayers to the god of the Hebrews. In fact, Exodus tells us that many Egyptians went out with the Israelites, converted to faith in YHWH. God’s purposes were being supremely accomplished through trauma. The same is true today. As C.S. Lewis wrote, “We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” Are you listening?

34 He spoke, and the locusts came, young locusts without number,

35 which devoured all the vegetation in their land and ate up the fruit of their ground.

The complete devastation of the agricultural economy is described in these two verses. After the locusts, there was nothing left. The following information from the IVP Old Testament Backgrounds Commentary is helpful in understanding the devastation that the locusts brought. “Locusts were all too common in the ancient Near East and were notorious for the devastation and havoc they brought. The locusts breed in the region of the Sudan and would have been more plentiful than usual in the wet climate that initiated the entire sequence. Their migration would strike in February or March and would follow the prevailing winds to either Egypt or Palestine. The east wind would bring them into Egypt. A locust will consume its own weight each day. Locust swarms have been known to cover as many as four hundred square miles, and even one square mile could teem with over one hundred million insects. Certainly anything that had survived the hail was now destroyed, and if they laid their eggs before being blown out to sea, the problem would recur in cycles. The economy in Egypt was destroyed, but the principal gods had yet to be humiliated.” According to the text, the locusts came and went at the command of YHWH. Their origin may have been a natural occurrence, but the timing was such that it brought another devastating blow to the economy, and yet the pharaoh still would not budge. Like the creation of the world, the locusts came as a result of the word of God -- “He spoke, and the locusts came.” It's a reminder of the power of the word of God, and if you’re an Egyptian, it is a reminder that you are utterly powerless before him. Nothing can stop hordes of locusts descending from the sky and devouring your plants. You can swat them, build fire to generate smoke to keep them away, but it is simply too overwhelming. The thought that they might also be laying eggs is horrifying as you realize that you are likely going to see this again. It’s enough to make you want to quit and die. In light of this, there is a wonderful promise in the book of Joel where the LORD says, “I shall restore to you the years that the locust, the swarming locust, the canker-worm and the caterpillar have eaten— My great army that I sent among you” (Joel 2:25). With God there is the promise of restoration. Some of the Egyptians took YHWH up on the offer and left their homeland and became foreigners living among the Israelites as they left Egypt. They saw him part the waters of the sea, rain bread and meat from heaven and bring water from a rock. If you’re looking at a field that’s been stripped of life, there’s nothing there for you. Follow God to a new place. 

36 He struck down all the firstborn in their land, the firstfruits of all their strength.

37 Then he brought out Israel with silver and gold, and there was none among his tribes who stumbled.

The final plague was the most personally devastating to the Pharaoh and to the Egyptian people. The sun was considered the father of the king, and the ninth plague demonstrated the impotence of the sun god. The final plague is directed at the son of the king, the heir to the throne, the person in whom that father had placed his hope. Even though his kingdom was thoroughly devastated, Pharaoh could hope that his son could raise the nation from the ashes and restore her to glory. And then the plague struck and all hope was gone. A great cry was heard in Egypt as mothers and fathers held the lifeless bodies of their firstborn, while the families of Israel cherished theirs behind blood wiped doors. Not only had YHWH demonstrated his superiority over the gods of Egypt, but the Egyptians not only allowed them to leave, but they encouraged them to do so, sending them with offerings of silver and gold, trying to buy off this unknown god that had ruined the land and taken their children. So while the Egyptians no longer had the “firstfruits of all their strength”, the Israelites were emboldened, none of them stumbled. They had gone from being slaves to being free people and they could hold their heads high and walk straight and tall into their future. The Egyptians were limping along, broken and despairing at what must have seemed like the end of their civilization, and the Israelites were celebrating a victory that they did not win but that they were recipients of. This is a picture of grace. It’s like the football player on the bench who never goes into the game because he’s injured, but he still gets the superbowl ring. The grace that we enjoy today came at a cost, the death of the firstborn of the son of God. It is only because we are under his blood that we have freedom today. Let us go forward, confident of his victory and eager to share this good news. 

38 Egypt was glad when they departed, for dread of them had fallen upon it.

39 He spread a cloud for a covering, and fire to give light by night.

By the last of the plagues, the Egyptians were convinced that the Israelites and their god were the source of all their problems. They were a curse and they needed to be expelled from the land. One wonders if the Egyptians looked within and considered that there is an inherent curse on a people when they sanction an immoral act for generations. This was their moment of repentance but they may have simply seen it as acts of the gods lacking any moral basis. If all of the plagues were just whims of the gods, there was nothing for them to change about themselves. This is the way that some approach tragedy and trauma today, unwilling to recognize that their own choices and worldview may be causal factors in their trauma. Repentance is the solution, but that possibility is often ignored and things are chalked up to luck and fate. The Egyptians just wanted normalcy to return and if that meant they lost a significant portion of their slave labor, so be it. Surely this disaster was only a temporary setback and they could get back to business as usual once the problem people were gone. When trials happen, it’s a good idea to look in the mirror and see if repentance is in order. The psalmist skips over the Red Sea crossing (it will be mentioned in the companion Psalm 106), and reminds the readers of God’s provision in the wilderness. While the Egyptians were suffering from deprivation, God was taking care of the Israelites’ comfort and security. The cloud and fire defy natural explanations. Some have proposed the theory of a distant volcano, but the dates and description don’t line up. Others have said that scouts up ahead of the main body were burning signal fires as they moved (there does seem to be evidence of this in ancient literature in the general context of groups of people traveling). However, based on the description, this seems to most likely be a supernatural phenomenon. God is often represented as fire -- consuming, refining, and warming. His glory and brilliance are so great that they must be covered, hence the cloud. The cloud is described as a covered, so it must have shaded from the sun and the fire was a guide during the day and source of light at night. God was present with his people in the same way that he is with us today in the Holy Spirit - a consuming fire and a presence that like a cloud cannot be contained or touched but is very real and active. You are not alone today. God is a fire and a cloud within you and around you, covering you and lighting the way forward. 

40 They asked, and he brought quail, and gave them bread from heaven in abundance.

41 He opened the rock, and water gushed out; it flowed through the desert like a river.

The miracles for God’s people continued in the desert. While the miracles in Egypt were destructive, these miracles in the wilderness were constructive, material objects appearing out of nothing, the very type of creative act that is described in the first pages of the Bible. For every miracle in the Bible, a natural explanation has been offered, and these are no exception. Quail migrated seasonally and could be downed by heavy winds, water might be held in sedimentary rocks and suddenly discovered, the manna may have been seeds of some kind. However, all of these are quite a stretch when you consider the number of people nourished by them and the timing (40 years?). I have no problem understanding these as miracles because my worldview has room for the supernatural. A naturalistic worldview has no room for them because of their starting assumptions. I start with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If that event is true, every other miracle in the Bible is possible, and in fact, probable. Why wouldn’t a God who wanted to save the world he created intervene in what appears to us as miraculous events? What is interesting about these miracles is that they are not fanciful. They don’t involve unicorns and dragons and demigods. They are made of the stuff of this earth. It is the quantity and timing of the elements involved that defy explanation. The point the psalmist is making is that God provided for the Israelites in the harsh environment of the desert. Each and every time, it was unexpected, surprising, and delightful -- quail falling from the sky, water gushing from a rock, bread appearing with the dew. In the wilderness, God will surprise us with good things if we trust in him. 

42 For he remembered his holy promise, and Abraham, his servant.

43 So he brought his people out with joy, his chosen ones with singing.

These verses summarize the entire psalm. God remembered his promise (which is another way of saying he kept his promise). It was a promise he had made some 600 years earlier to the ancestor of these people, that they would be as numerous as the stars of the sky and they would dwell in the land. Wherever he stepped the land would be theirs. When he brought his people out of Egypt they were exuberant, and this is likely a reference to Exodus 15 and the song of the sea. It’s hard to imagine how one could not be out of his mind joyful given the miraculous moment they had experienced -- walking across a seabed with water piled up on either side only to have it come crashing down on your enemies pursuing you from behind. It was a trap. You were the bait, but now you are free! This same miracle of passing through the Red Sea is reenacted everytime someone is baptized. They pass from death to live, from slavery to freedom, from sin to sanctification. My baptism is recorded on a CD somewhere, but it’s also fresh in my memory -- my reasons, my reaction, the course of my life ever since. Yes there have been wilderness experiences and times when I’ve rebelled, but I keep coming back to that moment when the resurrection of Jesus began to work its way out in my life, when the Holy Spirit fire by night and cloud by day moved into my body to live with me, when I joined a community called the church that for good and bad would disciple me into the image of Jesus. It was a day of joy and celebration, and as I remember it today, it revitalizes my faith, confident that he who began a good work in me will carry it out until completion.  

44 And he gave them the lands of the nations, and they took possession of the fruit of the peoples' toil,

45 that they might keep his statutes and observe his laws. Praise the Lord!

The final move to fulfill his promise to Abraham was to lead the people into the land to possess it. The time for judgment had come to the nations living in the land. Their violence, idolatry and human sacrifice could no longer be tolerated and so YHWH used the invading Israelites as his tool of judgment. Some scholars say it was a gradual assimilation while others trust the biblical account that involved great battles. The archaeological evidence isn’t always clear, but the end result is the same: God’s promise to Abraham is kept and the former slaves experience freedom and prosperity in the land. The story from this point has its ups and downs, but the psalmist is clear that the choice is theirs. The reason God gave them the land was so that they could keep his statutes and observe his laws, to live out the good society that YHWH had laid out for them. Unfortunately, they were not always good to do that (as Psalm 106 will demonstrate). These final verses are further examples of God’s grace. He gave them land that they had not tamed, vineyards they did not plant, cities they did not build. They took possession of the fruit of other people’s toil -- that’s a gift. The second gift from God was the law itself, a way of life that promised blessing for obedience, a structure for society where individuals and families could flourish, where boundaries kept people safe from one another and from hurting themselves. The world has yet to see such a system lived out perfectly because of the nature of sin, but the church is meant to be that place. By the way that we live, may we make the case for this good life of aligning ourselves with the laws and statutes of God. In a world where boundaries are constantly moving, non-existent, or decried as evil, let us show the nations the wisdom of those laws and be the people of God, a light to the nations so that all the peoples would be drawn to worship YHWH.