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The Lord’s Wonderful Works in Behalf of Israel.

105 O give thanks to the Lord, call upon His name;
Make known His deeds among the people.

Sing to Him, sing praises to Him;
Speak of all His wonderful acts and devoutly praise them.

Glory in His holy name;
Let the hearts of those who seek and require the Lord [as their most essential need] rejoice.

Seek and deeply long for the Lord and His strength [His power, His might];
Seek and deeply long for His face and His presence continually.

Remember [with awe and gratitude] the wonderful things which He has done,
His amazing deeds and the judgments uttered by His mouth [on His enemies, as in Egypt],(A)

O you offspring of Abraham, His servant,
O you sons of Jacob, His chosen ones!

He is the Lord our God;
His judgments are in all the earth.


He has remembered His covenant forever,
The word which He commanded and established to a [a]thousand generations,

The covenant which He made with Abraham,
And His sworn oath to Isaac,(B)
10 
Which He confirmed to Jacob as a statute,
To Israel as an everlasting covenant,
11 
Saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan
As the measured portion of your inheritance.”
12 
When there were only a few men in number,
Very few [in fact], and strangers in it;
13 
And they wandered from one nation to another,
From one kingdom to another people,
14 
He allowed no man to oppress them;
He rebuked kings for their sakes, saying,(C)
15 
“Do not touch My anointed ones,
And do My prophets no harm.”(D)

16 
And He called for a famine upon the land [of Egypt];
He [b]cut off every source of bread.(E)
17 
He sent a man before them,
Joseph, who was sold as a slave.(F)
18 
His feet they hurt with shackles;
[c]He was put in chains of iron,
19 
Until the time that his word [of prophecy regarding his brothers] came true,
The word of the Lord tested and refined him.
20 
The king sent and released him,
The ruler of the peoples [of Egypt], and set him free.
21 
He made Joseph lord of his house
And ruler of all his possessions,(G)
22 
To imprison his princes at his will,
That he might teach his elders wisdom.
23 
Israel also came into Egypt;
Thus Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.(H)
24 
There the Lord greatly increased [the number of] His people,
And made them more powerful than their enemies.

25 
He turned the heart [of the Egyptians] to hate His people,
To deal craftily with His servants.
26 
He sent Moses His servant,
And Aaron, whom He had chosen.
27 
They exhibited His wondrous signs among them,
Great miracles in the land of Ham (Egypt).
28 
He sent [thick, oppressive] darkness and made the land dark;
And Moses and Aaron did not rebel against His words.(I)
29 
He turned Egypt’s waters into blood
And caused their fish to die.(J)
30 
Their land swarmed with frogs,
Even in the chambers of their kings.(K)
31 
He spoke, and there came swarms of flies
And gnats in all their territory.(L)
32 
He gave them hail for rain,
With flaming fire in their land.(M)
33 
He struck their vines also and their fig trees,
And shattered the [ice-laden] trees of their territory.(N)
34 
He spoke, and the [migratory] locusts came,
And the young locusts, even without number,(O)
35 
And ate up all the vegetation in their land,
And devoured the fruit of their ground.
36 
He also struck down all the firstborn in their land,
The first fruits and chief substance of all their strength.(P)

37 
He brought the sons of Israel out [of Egypt] with silver and gold,
And among their tribes there was not one who stumbled.(Q)
38 
Egypt was glad when they departed,
For the dread and fear of them had fallen on the Egyptians.(R)
39 
The Lord spread a cloud as a covering [by day],
And a fire to illumine the night.(S)
40 
The Israelites asked, and He brought quail,
And satisfied them with the bread of heaven.(T)
41 
He opened the rock and water flowed out;
It ran in the dry places like a river.(U)
42 
For He remembered His holy word
To Abraham His servant;(V)
43 
He brought out His people with joy,
And His chosen ones with a joyful shout,
44 
He gave them the lands of the nations [of Canaan],
So that they would possess the fruits of those peoples’ labor,(W)
45 
So that they might observe His precepts
And keep His laws [obediently accepting and honoring and valuing them].
Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!)

Footnotes

  1. Psalm 105:8 There were twenty-six recorded generations from Adam to Moses. The ancient rabbis took “thousand” here very literally and maintained that God originally planned to give the Law to the thousandth generation, but He foresaw that they would be wicked, so He declined to create 974 generations and gave the Law to the twenty-sixth generation (Moses) instead.
  2. Psalm 105:16 Lit broke the whole rod of, referring to the fact that bread was stored as ring-shaped loaves on a rod. If the rod was broken, the loaves fell off and were lost or ruined.
  3. Psalm 105:18 Lit his soul came into.

105 Thank the Lord for all the glorious things he does; proclaim them to the nations. Sing his praises and tell everyone about his miracles. Glory in the Lord; O worshipers of God, rejoice.

Search for him and for his strength, and keep on searching!

5-6 Think of the mighty deeds he did for us, his chosen ones—descendants of God’s servant Abraham, and of Jacob. Remember how he destroyed our enemies. He is the Lord our God. His goodness[a] is seen everywhere throughout the land. 8-9 Though a thousand generations pass he never forgets his promise, his covenant with Abraham and Isaac 10-11 and confirmed with Jacob. This is his never-ending treaty with the people of Israel: “I will give you the land of Canaan as your inheritance.” 12 He said this when they were but few in number, very few, and were only visitors in Canaan. 13 Later they were dispersed among the nations and were driven from one kingdom to another; 14 but through it all he would not let one thing be done to them apart from his decision.[b] He destroyed many a king who tried! 15 “Touch not these chosen ones of mine,” he warned, “and do not hurt my prophets.”

16 He called for a famine on the land of Canaan, cutting off its food supply. 17 Then he sent Joseph as a slave to Egypt to save his people from starvation. 18 There in prison they hurt his feet with fetters and placed his neck in an iron collar 19 until God’s time finally came—how God tested his patience! 20 Then the king sent for him and set him free. 21 He was put in charge of all the king’s possessions. 22 At his pleasure he could imprison the king’s aides and teach the king’s advisors.

23 Then Jacob (Israel) arrived in Egypt and lived there with his sons. 24 In the years that followed, the people of Israel multiplied explosively until they were a greater nation than their rulers. 25 At that point God turned the Egyptians against the Israelis; they hated and enslaved them.

26 But God sent Moses as his representative, and Aaron with him, 27 to call down miracles of terror upon the land of Egypt. 28 They[c] followed his instructions. He sent thick darkness through the land 29 and turned the nation’s water into blood, poisoning the fish. 30 Then frogs invaded in enormous numbers; they were found even in the king’s private rooms. 31 When Moses spoke, the flies and other insects swarmed in vast clouds from one end of Egypt to the other. 32 Instead of rain he sent down murderous hail, and lightning flashes overwhelmed the nation. 33 Their grapevines and fig trees were ruined; all the trees lay broken on the ground. 34 He spoke, and hordes of locusts came 35 and ate up everything green, destroying all the crops. 36 Then he killed the oldest child in each Egyptian home, their pride and joy— 37 and brought his people safely out from Egypt, loaded with silver and gold; there were no sick and feeble folk among them then. 38 Egypt was glad when they were gone, for the dread of them was great.

39 He spread out a cloud above them to shield them from the burning sun and gave them a pillar of flame at night to give them light. 40 They asked for meat, and he sent them quail and gave them manna—bread from heaven. 41 He opened up a rock, and water gushed out to form a river through the dry and barren land; 42 for he remembered his sacred promises to Abraham his servant.

43 So he brought his chosen ones singing into the Promised Land. 44 He gave them the lands of the Gentiles, complete with their growing crops; they ate what others planted. 45 This was done to make them faithful and obedient to his laws. Hallelujah!

Footnotes

  1. Psalm 105:7 His goodness, literally, “His judgments.”
  2. Psalm 105:14 he would not let one thing be done to them apart from his decision, literally, “he suffered no man to do them wrong.”
  3. Psalm 105:28 They, implied.