Monday: Remembering History and the Praise of God

Daily Lesson for Monday 4th of March 2024

Read Psalms 105:1-45. What historical events and their lessons are highlighted in this psalm?

Psalms 105:1-45 recalls key events that shaped the covenantal relationship between the Lord and His people Israel.

Image © Lifeway Collection at Goodsalt.com

It focuses on God’s covenant with Abraham to give the Promised Land to him and his descendants, and how this promise, confirmed to Isaac and Jacob, was providentially fulfilled through Joseph, Moses, and Aaron, and in the time of the conquest of Canaan. The psalm gives hope to God’s people in all generations because God’s marvelous works in the past guarantee God’s unchanging love to His people in all times (Psalms 105:1-5, 7, 8).

Psalms 105:1-45 resembles Psalms 78:1-72 (see yesterday’s study) in highlighting God’s faithfulness to His people in history, and it does so in order to glorify God and to inspire faithfulness. However, unlike Psalms 78:1-72, Psalms 105:1-45 does not mention the people’s past mistakes. This psalm has a different purpose.

Instead, history is retold in Psalms 105:1-45 through the lives of Israel’s greatest patriarchs, showing God’s providential leading and the patriarchs’ patient endurance of hardships. The patriarchs’ perseverance and loyalty to God were richly rewarded. Thus, Psalms 105:1-45 invites people to emulate the patriarchs’ faith and trustingly wait on God’s deliverance in their time.

Psalms 105:1-45 possesses a hymnal note (Psalms 105:1–7), showing that in order to truly praise God, God’s people need to know the facts of their history. History provides both validation for our faith and countless reasons for praising God.

The worshipers are addressed as the seed of Abraham and children of Jacob (Psalms 105:6), thereby deeming them to be the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham to make of him a great nation (Genesis 15:3-6). The psalmist underscores the continuity between the patriarchs and the subsequent generations of God’s people. The psalmist stresses that “His judgments are in _all the earth_” (Psalms 105:7, NKJV; emphasis supplied), thereby admonishing the worshipers not to forget that “our God” is also the sovereign Lord of the whole world and that His loving-kindness extends to all peoples (Psalms 96:1, Psalms 97:1). It is, clearly, a call to faithfulness to every generation of believers.

How should we, as Seventh-day Adventists, see ourselves in this line of people, from Abraham on? _(See Galatians 3:29.)_ What lessons should we learn from this history?