Amen. I invite you to take your copy of Scripture and turn to Psalm 105. We have been working through a series in the Psalms and this morning we come to Psalm 105. Next week we'll look at Psalm 106 and then we will be starting a Easter series for Easter Sunday. I am looking forward to Easter Sunday, and as we'll have the opportunity to be going into the neighborhoods and inviting folks to come and be with us on Easter Sunday, I want to encourage you as well that wherever you work or with family members, you know, individuals who don't know the Lord or don't have a church home, invite them to come and be with us on Easter Sunday. This morning, though, we're going to look at Psalm 105, and if you're using one of the Bibles that we provide for you, you'll find our passage on 503, page 503. This is a longer psalm. It's 45 verses, and I'm going to read the psalm in its entirety, and then we're going to pray, and we'll consider what God has to say to us from His Word. So Psalm 105, beginning in verse 1. Oh, 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 name. Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. Seek the Lord in 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 promises to Isaac, which he confirmed to Jacob as a statute, 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 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 a 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 fetters. His neck was put in a collar 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 the 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 throughout 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 the land, the first fruits 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 by night. They asked, and He brought quail, and 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, and 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 His statutes and observe His laws. Praise the Lord. Amen. This is God's Word. Let's pray. Father, the Psalms are just such a glorious blessing to us, and Lord, we thank you for the way that the Psalms reveal your character and your works to us. Lord, we thank you for how the Psalms invite us into your presence and teach us of your goodness and faithfulness. And Lord, we pray now that as we turn to Psalm 105, that you would teach us by your Spirit, that you would instruct us in your way. And Lord, we pray that we would look to you in faith and that we would walk in your ways. And it's through Jesus Christ, our Lord, we pray. Amen. When a moment of panic, have you ever forgotten what is obvious and important? When I was young, one of my uncles taught me how to drive my grandfather's tractor. And he showed me how to turn it on and off. He showed me how to use the gear shift. He showed me where the accelerator was, and the clutch, and the brake. This is an old tractor. And I did well at first, and then things did not go well at all. I forgot what he taught me. We were, as I recall, I was a young boy, but as I recall it, we were going through a field, and as we came to the end of that field, we were approaching the woods, and for some reason, I could not turn the tractor fast enough to go back in the other direction, and so we were heading towards the woods. And my uncle, who was on the back of the tractor standing up over me as I was seated and driving, he kept saying, push the brake, push the brake. And I kept pushing the clutch and pushing the clutch and pushing the clutch, which meant we were not stopping. So we kept going and going further and further into the woods, ducking under branches and riding over the overbrush and approaching a tree. And he's yelling louder and louder, press the brake, press the brake. And I keep pressing the clutch and pressing the clutch. And so he reaches around over me. and he grabs the key in the ignition and turns the tractor off and finally we stopped and thankfully we didn't hit the tree. Now at that time he told me to go back into my grandfather's house. I don't know how long it took him to get the tractor out of the woods, but it must have taken a while because I never drove the tractor again. Now in that moment of panic, Did I not know where the accelerator was and the clutch and the brake? Well, in many ways, I knew where it was. I knew it. Did I not know that if you turned the key that it would stop the tractor and we would halt and it would prevent us from hitting the tree? Now, I knew that. But in a moment of panic, in a moment of kind of desperation, I forgot what was obvious and important. That's kind of a silly illustration, but it's true in our spiritual lives as well, isn't it? What about times when our prayers seem to go unanswered? What about those times when our singleness is prolonged and the spouse that we long for never appears? What about the times when the cancer won't go away or our marriage doesn't get better? Or the child that we so love and adore continues to pursue a path of foolishness and destruction. In those moments, do we remember God and His promises? Do we remember His faithfulness? In other words, do we remember what is obvious and most important? That God is faithful and that He will be faithful to Himself and His promises. I believe as many scholars affirm that Psalm 105 was written to the people of God when they were in exile. You see, the northern kingdom of Israel fell to Assyria in 722 B.C. And the southern kingdom fell to Babylon in 586 B.C. As a result, many of Israel's leaders and the people of the nation were exiled to Babylon, which was about a thousand miles away from Jerusalem, from their home. There's hints of this in the text in Psalm 105, that this psalm was written to the people of God in exile. And in addition to that, the book of Psalms as a whole is actually divided up into five books. We've been working through book four over the last several weeks. In fact, book four spans from Psalm 89 to Psalm 106. And so next week, we will conclude book four in the Psalms. I don't have a time to elaborate on this this morning, to make a case for this, but I believe each book that we find in the Psalms has its own individual theme and focus. And I believe that the theme of book four in the Psalms is the theme of hope in exile. We can imagine that the exiles and the people of God, as they were in Babylon, were discouraged, that they were disillusioned. And the psalmist is writing to encourage them. He's encouraging the exiles to remember God and to remember God's faithfulness to His covenant. Or we could say it this way, to remember what was most obvious and most important. Before we turn to Psalm 105 and look at the text and work through the passage as a whole, I just want to give you some sense of where Psalm 105 fits in terms of the psalms that have come before it and the ones that will immediately follow, or the Psalm 106 which immediately follows. It's connected to the Psalms around it in various ways. So if you've been here for our series, you might remember that when we looked at Psalm 103 and 104, there was a connection between the two. Both Psalms begin with the admonition, bless the Lord, O my soul. And then Psalm 103 is a call to bless the Lord for his love and salvation. And Psalm 104 is a call to bless the Lord for his creation and for his providence. Now as we look at Psalm 104 and 105 and 106, we see some similarities between them as well. All of them are longer in length. This Psalm 105 is 45 verses. They also all conclude with the word hallelujah. It's a Hebrew word, which I explained a few weeks ago, can be translated, all y'all praise Yahweh. Or as the ESV translates it here, praise the Lord. We also see that Psalm 105, which we're looking at this week, and Psalm 106, which we'll look at next week, represent two different sides of God's relationship with his people. In Psalm 105, what we'll see this morning is that the psalmist emphasizes God's faithfulness to his people. And next week we'll see in Psalm 106 that the psalmist highlights the unfaithfulness of God's people to God. Well, I want us to turn now to Psalm 105, where the psalmist is going to emphasize the faithfulness of God to his people and call us to remember God's faithfulness. And as we do, I want us to see our psalm in three parts. We're going to work through it in these three parts. First of all, we'll see, remember God and rejoice in verses 1 through 6. Secondly, remember God because God remembers in verses 7 through 11. And then third, remember God and obey, which is verses 8 through 45. So first of all, remember God and rejoice. Look there at verses 1 through 6. O 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 in 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. Now one of the really interesting things about Psalm 105 is that actually the first 15 verses of Psalm 105 are also found in 1 Chronicles 16. In fact, it's almost the exact parallel. There's only just a few words that are different. In 1 Chronicles 16, what is happening there is that David, King David, is transporting the Ark of the Covenant from the home of Obed-Edom to Jerusalem. You see, the ark represented the presence of God among His people, that God would dwell among His people in the ark. And prior to David transporting the ark from Obed-Edom to Jerusalem, we could say that the ark had been in exile. It had been removed from the place where it was to reside. And then King David takes the ark and he transports it to its rightful home, to the holy city, to the city of Jerusalem. And what happens in 1 Chronicles 16 is that as a celebration of this event, David writes a psalm. He writes a psalm and he gives it to Asaph and his brothers and tells them to sing this song as a celebration that the ark is being returned to Jerusalem. It seems then that a later psalmist took this psalm that David wrote in 1 Chronicles 16, and he develops it. He adds to it. So we see the first 15 verses of this psalm here, and then this psalmist adds to it. And he adds to it in order to address God's people in exile. You see, the psalmist must have perceived that David's psalm in 1 Chronicles 16 was appropriate for the people of God when they were in exile. You see, David's psalm was a celebration that God had brought the ark out of exile back to its home, to its rightful place in Jerusalem. And this was exactly what the people of God in exile longed for. They longed that God would act, that He would move, that He would bring them out of exile, even as the ark had been brought out of exile, and that they would be returned to their home, to Jerusalem, to the holy city where they could live and worship the Lord. Notice here in these opening six verses that these are not the actions, the responses that you would expect from a people in exile. In verse 1, the psalmist says, give thanks, call upon His name, make known His deeds. Verse 2, sing praises, sing praises, tell of His wondrous works. Verse 3, glory and rejoice. But we learn why the psalmist is calling the people of God in exile to do these things, to rejoice, to celebrate, to sing praises. Because in verse 5 he says, remember. That's a very important word for understanding this psalmist, the Hebrew word zakar. Remember the wondrous works that he has done, his miracles and the judgments he uttered. In other words, the psalmist is calling the people of God to rejoice and to sing and to seek the Lord, not based on their current circumstances, but rather based on God's past faithfulness. He's saying, remember God's past faithfulness and as a result, rejoice and sing. And then the psalmist concludes this section by reminding his readers of who they are. You see it there in verse six. Oh, offspring of Abraham, his servant, children of Jacob, his chosen ones. In other words, what the psalmist is saying here to the exiles is don't only remember what God has done in the past. Remember who you are in the present. You are the offspring of Abraham. You see, God had promised Abraham that he would make him a great nation, that through Abraham he would bring redemption and salvation to the world. And the psalmist is saying here, you are the offspring of Abraham. You are the children of Jacob. Jacob was the grandson of Abraham, and it was Jacob's name that was changed to Israel, from which the nation derived its name. He goes on to say, you are God's chosen ones. Now, in what way is this relevant to us today? Well, it is relevant to us in every way if we are a Christian, if we are a follower of Jesus Christ. Because in the New Testament, the Apostle Paul goes to great lengths to show that all those who place their faith in Jesus Christ are, in fact, the offspring of Abraham. that we are the sons of Abraham through faith in the greater son of Abraham, the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to Paul's words in Galatians chapter 3 verse 7. He says, know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. Or in Galatians chapter 3 verse 9, so then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. Or Galatians 3, verse 14, in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles so that we might receive the promised spirit through faith. Or Galatians 3, verse 29, now listen to this, if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise. This means, my friends, if we have trusted in Abraham's greater son, the Lord Jesus Christ, we have been engrafted into the family of God, and we are offspring of Abraham. We are children of Jacob. We are one of God's chosen ones. And therefore, the story that is recorded here in Psalm 105 is our story. This is the story of our family. It is our history. And so as you read and as you listen and as you remember God's past faithfulness as it is presented to us here in Psalm 105, understand that this is your ancestors. This is your family. This is your history. And rejoice. The psalmist says here in verses 1-6 in our first section of the psalm, remember God and His past faithfulness and rejoice. Secondly though, we see in our text, remember God because God remembers. Remember God because God remembers. Look there in verses 7-11. The psalmist writes, 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 statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant, saying to you, I will give the land of Canaan as your portion for an inheritance. Now in verse 8, you see there that we come across again this very important word, remember. It's the Hebrew word zakar. But this time, notice in verse 8, it's not that the people of God are called to remember, but rather it's God in verse 8 who is remembering. And what does God remember? You see it there in the text, He remembers His covenant. In fact, the word covenant is repeated three times in three verses. In verse 8, he remembers his covenant. In verse 9, the covenant he made with Abraham. In verse 10, an everlasting covenant. A covenant is a promise. It's an oath or a pledge. And here the psalmist is specifically speaking of God's covenant with Abraham. You see it there in verse 9, the covenant that he made with Abraham. Literally, the verse reads, the covenant that He cut with Abraham. Back in Genesis chapter 15, we have a record of this ceremony that took place in which God cut a covenant with Abraham. God told Abraham to bring several animals. Abraham, consistent with the ancient custom of covenantal ceremonies, he took these animals and he cut them in half. And one half of the animals was on one side and one half of the animals on the other side and there was a pathway through the middle of the animals. And then God placed Abraham in a deep sleep. And then what happens in Genesis chapter 15 is that God passes through the middle of those animals, the halves of the animals that are on either side. Now, in a normal covenantal ceremony, what would take place is that both parties who are entering into the covenant would pass through the middle of those animals. And this would symbolize, if I am unfaithful to this covenant, if I break this covenant, then what has happened to these animals, the condition, the dreaded condition of these animals, may it fall upon me. May the curse of the covenant come upon me if I am not faithful to this promise. And yet what we see happen in Genesis chapter 15 remarkably is that God passes through the animals, but Abraham does not. He remains asleep. And what God is communicating in this covenantal ceremony is that he will guarantee the covenant. That even if Abraham and his descendants are unfaithful to the covenant, he will take upon himself the curse of the covenant in order to ensure the promise. And we see this ultimately fulfilled when the Lord Jesus himself takes upon himself our covenantal unfaithfulness and bears the curse of the covenant at the cross so that we might receive the blessing and the promise of the covenant through faith in him. And because God was willing, because God was willing in His Son to secure the covenant by bearing the curse of the covenant on our behalf, you see here in the text that the covenant is described in verse 8 as a forever covenant. In verse 10 as an everlasting covenant. And the psalmist is calling the people of God to remember here that the covenant He made with Abraham is an everlasting covenant. It's a forever covenant. Remember God because God will remember His covenant. He will not forget His promise. He has secured it forever. And what specifically had God promised Abraham in this covenant? If we go back to Genesis, we see that God promised Abraham blessing. He promised him offspring and descendants. He promised him a land. And here the psalmist in Psalm 105 particularly focuses on that promise of land. You see it there in verse 11. Saying, and here he's referring to the covenant, saying, to you I will give the land of Canaan as your portion for an inheritance. And now what we will see in the rest of Psalm 105 is the psalmist is laying out for us the history in which God makes that promise a reality. In which God fulfills this promise to give the land to Abraham's descendants. Now consider how this promise would have applied to God's people in exile. What do we know about God's people when they were in exile? They had been taken from the land, right? They were in exile. Foreign powers now occupied the land, ruled over the land. It was no longer their land. And so this question emerged among the exiles. Does the exile mean that God's promises to Abraham are null and void? Does it mean that God's promises have expired? Does it mean that they're no longer relevant? Because God promised us the land, but obviously we don't possess the land. We've been taken from the land. And the psalmist says, no. The psalmist reminds the people of God that God's covenant with Abraham is a forever covenant, an everlasting covenant, and therefore they can trust that God will be faithful to restore them to the land. In fact, if you look at verse 11, it's really interesting. It makes it even more clear in verse 11 when we consider that there are two second person pronouns used in verse 11, a you and a you. The first one is singular, the second one is plural. Look at verse 11 again. To you, and that's singular, so I believe there he's referring to Abraham, or you could say Isaac or Jacob, but it doesn't really matter. To you, Abraham, I will give the land of Canaan as, and the second you there is plural, your portion for an inheritance. That is, as a portion for the people of God, as an inheritance for Abraham's descendants. The promise was made to Abraham, but it would be fulfilled for all of Abraham's descendants. God would be faithful to His promise. Of course, as we watch the news and track current events today, we continue to see this epic struggle being played out as Israel fights to maintain possession of the Promised Land. And it is one of the great marvels of world history that after thousands of years and many battles and wars, Israel still maintains possession of the land that was promised to Abraham. But there's a greater promise that is present here as well. God promised Abraham the land of Canaan as an inheritance. But then when we go to the New Testament, we see that the Apostle Paul picks up on this idea. God has promised Abraham this land. He's promised Abraham the land of Canaan. And Paul says in Romans chapter 4 verse 23, he says, quote, the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir, and then he doesn't say of the land of Canaan, rather he says the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world. And so what it seems that Paul is picking up on here is that the promise that was made to Abraham And the Abrahamic covenant was like in seed form. But then it would develop, it would mature, and it would be realized in the people of God not only possessing the land of Canaan, but in fact possessing the world. And I believe that this is a reference here to the promise of a new heavens and a new earth. And I think the sense here is that God will, yes, when Christ returns, he will grant the land of Canaan, but the land of Canaan in many ways will just be a beachhead from which the people of God will rule over all the earth. They will rule and reign in a new heavens and a new earth under the lordship of Jesus Christ. And understand, my friends, as the offspring of Abraham, through faith in Jesus Christ, this is our hope. It is a forever hope. It is an everlasting hope because it is based on a forever covenant and an everlasting covenant. We could say today that in many ways the church, the people of God, are in exile. Even this morning, Andy led us in prayer as we prayed for five pastors in Nepal who had been in prison for preaching the gospel. We can look all over the world today and we can see that in many places the gospel is suppressed. The church's values are ignored. Her leaders are mocked. The interests of the people of God are misrepresented or they are vilified. And the psalmist is declaring to us in this psalm this morning, remember God because God remembers His covenant. God remembers His promise to His people. Which means that He will remember us and He will fulfill all His promises until we rest secure in an eternal home in a new heavens and a new earth. So the psalmist says here, remember God and rejoice. Secondly, he says remember God because God remembers. He remembers His covenant. And then third and finally, remember God and obey. Remember God and obey. We see this in verses 8 through 45. Now, back in Psalm 105 verse 5, you see there that the psalmist declared, look at verse 5, you see in verse 5 the psalmist declared, remember the wondrous works that He has done, His miracles and the judgments He uttered. And really, as we come to verse 8 in particular, all the way through verse 45, what we see is now the psalmist does exactly what he commands us to do in verse 5. He's remembering. He's remembering his judgments. He's remembering his miracles. He's remembering his works. And the psalmist is inviting his readers to make a connection between their ancestors, the difficulties they experienced, the deliverance that they enjoyed, and themselves. And of course, as I've stated before, this is an invitation for each of us because through faith in Christ, we are the offspring of Abraham. Now, as we look at these verses, you'll notice that they are broken up, they are divided into five movements. Five movements. And they start, I said verse eight, but I meant verse 12. So this is verse 12 to 45. They start in verse 12. Now, the first movement here is remember God's faithfulness to the patriarchs. So he starts with the patriarchs. Look there in verse 12. 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. So here, these verses are addressing the life of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They were, as we see here in verse 12, few in number, of little account, and sojourners in the land. And during their lives, in verse 13, they wandered from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another. And though at various times kingdoms sought to oppose them, kings attempted to take their wives, the Philistines sought to seize their wells, God protected them. And as verse 14 says, He did not allow them to be oppressed, and He rebuked kings on their account. In verse 15, the Lord declared, which is a reference to Abraham, who is actually referred to as a prophet in the book of Genesis. And by extension, it is a reference to his descendants, Isaac and Jacob. Now think about this again. Who is this psalm being written to? It's being written to exiles, and the exiles find themselves in a similar situation. They also are relatively few in number, of little account, surrounded by nations and kingdoms much greater than themselves. First it was Assyria, then it was Babylon, then it was Persia. And as the Lord protected the patriarchs, here's the sense, as the Lord protected the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, when they were few in number, when they were surrounded by nations and kingdoms, perhaps the Lord will protect His people in exile. Just as the patriarchs were called to trust God's covenant even when they did not possess the land, Now the psalmist calls the exiles to remember God's covenant and to believe God's promise, even though they no longer possess the land. Notice the second movement. It moves from the patriarchs to Joseph in verses 16 to 22. When he summoned a famine, verse 16, when he summoned a famine on the land and broke all supply of bread, he sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave. His feet were hurt with fetters. His neck was put in a collar of iron until he had said, 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." So God struck the land of Canaan with famine. The way this is expressed is in verse 16. He broke all supply of bread. Now as best as I can tell, the only other times that expression is used is in Leviticus 26-26, Isaiah 3-1, and Ezekiel 4-16. And they all refer to the exile. So in Ezekiel 4.16 we read, And what the prophet Ezekiel is forecasting there is that when the city of Jerusalem is conquered, there will be like a famine in Jerusalem. They will long for bread. The supply of bread will be broken and they will be conquered and they will be exiled. And so the psalmist here is calling the exiles to make a connection between the famine they experienced in the conquest of Jerusalem and their exile and the famine that Joseph experienced and the people of God experienced in Joseph's day. Notice you see there in the text that when this famine came, God sent Joseph into Egypt. And in verse 19, he sends Joseph there as a deliverer. In verse 19, we learn that until what he had said came to pass, the word of the Lord tested him. In other words, until the Lord's promise to exalt Joseph came to pass, the Word of the Lord tested Joseph. And oh, we know how Joseph was tested. Betrayed by his brothers, sold into slavery, falsely accused by Potiphar's wife, wrongly imprisoned, forgotten by his friends, until the Word of the Lord came to pass and God exalted Joseph. And what was God doing in all of those testings? He was refining Joseph. He was changing him. He was transforming him so that Joseph becomes a very different man by the end of all those testings. We seem to have an indication that he was kind of petulant with his brothers. He was insensitive to them. He paraded before them his potential future exaltation. But then at the end of his life, Joseph treats them with tenderness and compassion, and he forgives them and he blesses them, even though they do not deserve it. And as the Lord exalts Joseph, what does this look like in his life? Well, the psalmist tells us here the king released Joseph. He set him free, made him lord of his house, ruler of his possessions. And Joseph taught the elders of Egypt wisdom. You remember it was Joseph that laid out before Pharaoh and the elders of Egypt a plan to manage the coming famine that would result in Egypt's prosperity and the saving of many lives. You see the message that the psalmist is communicating here. God was faithful to Joseph when he was in exile. Joseph was removed from the land. He was in Egypt. And God was faithful to him. He delivered Joseph's father and Joseph's brothers from famine and oppression of foreign nations, even when they didn't deserve it. And the sense is, perhaps God, perhaps God would do the same for those who were in exile. The psalmist is calling the exiles to remember God's promise and to be faithful in exile, just like Joseph was faithful in exile. The third movement here goes from Patriarchs, it goes to Joseph, and then it goes to the Exodus. Remember God's faithfulness in the Exodus. Look there in verses 23 to 28. 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 throughout 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." So here the psalmist recalls Israel's bondage in Egypt. You see in verse 24 that they multiplied while they were in Egypt. As a result, the people of Egypt feared the people of God. They feared that they would overwhelm them. And so according to verse 25, they turned against them, they hated them, and they enslaved them. Once again, you see in verse 26 that God sends a deliverer. This time it's Moses. And through a series of signs or miracles, as the psalmist describes them here in verse 27, also known as plagues, God delivers His people. Now the plagues here in verses 29 to 36, they're actually recorded in a different order than we see them in the book of Exodus. So they're presented to us here in the order of plague 9 first, and then 1, 2, 3, then it skips to 5 and 6, and then it goes 7, 8, and 10. I know you may not have gotten all of that. The main point is there's a different arrangement, a different order than the plagues are presented to us in the book of Exodus. It seems, though, many scholars believe that the psalmist is intentionally rearranging the plagues to communicate a particular idea. First of all, the psalmist wants to emphasize that God expressed his superiority or supremacy over the Egyptian gods of the skies and the heavens. That's why he starts with the plague of darkness. And then he bunches the plagues together to emphasize God's superiority over the Egyptian gods of the waters. And then to express God's supremacy over the Egyptian gods of the earth. Of course, the last plague was the most severe. You see it there. He struck down all the firstborn in the land. We know that the Lord's judgment, although this was severe, it was fitting. Especially giving Egypt's earlier edict that all Hebrew boys would be slaughtered. Do you remember that? That's the way the book of Exodus opens. Because they fear that the Hebrews are populating the nation too quickly. Pharaoh determines that every Hebrew boy, when he is born, will be slaughtered. And now, after God sends plague, after plague, after plague, and calls Pharaoh to relent, and he refuses to do so, God's final judgment is that every firstborn boy in Egypt would be killed. What's the result? You see it there in verse 39 and 40. He brought out Israel with silver and gold, and there was none among his tribes who stumbled. That is, none of the tribes were left behind. None of them stumbled along the way and didn't make it out. Every one of them came out by the Lord's power and by His hand. Egypt was glad when they departed, for dread for them had fallen upon it. God delivered Israel. God delivered Israel when they were away from the promised land, when they were in exile in Egypt under the rule and the tyranny of a wicked, hard-hearted king. And here's the sense again, perhaps He will do it afresh. Perhaps once again, this is what the psalmist is saying to the people of God, perhaps once again God will move heaven and earth in order to deliver His people. The psalmist is calling the people of God again to remember God's past faithfulness and salvation and to trust Him for present deliverance. The fourth movement in our psalm is remember God's faithfulness in the wilderness. So the patriarchs, Joseph, the Exodus, and now the wilderness. Look there in verses 39 to 42. He spread a cloud for a covering, and fire to give light by 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, and Abraham His servant." You know, one of the most remarkable things about this section is perhaps not even so much what the psalmist says, but what he doesn't say. The psalmist doesn't mention, as he reflects back on Israel's experience in the wilderness, he doesn't mention Israel's idolatry. He doesn't mention their complaining or their grumbling or their unbelief in the wilderness, which so characterized their experience there. Now, as we turn to Psalm 106 next week, he will remind us of Israel's unfaithfulness. But here, the entire focus of the psalmist is not on the unfaithfulness of the people, but the faithfulness of God. And on his supernatural provision, it's a reminder to us, my friends, that sometimes we need to stop looking at our sins and stop looking at our past failures. And we need to fully focus our minds and our hearts on God's forgiveness and grace and provision in Christ. And notice his supernatural provision. God miraculously led them with a cloud and with fire in verse 39. He miraculously fed them with quail and bread from heaven in verse 40. He miraculously provides for them water from a rock in verse 41. Here the psalmist reminds the people of God of God's supernatural and miraculous provision. And the sense again is that perhaps if God so provided for His people in the wilderness, so supernaturally and miraculously met their needs, He will provide for the exiles and their own wilderness experience. And He will provide for us today in our wilderness experience. And notice there why. Why did God provide for His people in the wilderness? We come full circle here. He takes us, the psalmist takes us here, back to verses 8 and 9 of the psalm. Look back in verse 8 and 9. He remembers his covenant forever, the word that he commanded for a thousand generations, the covenant that he made with Abraham. And then he tells us about God's miraculous provision for the people of God in the wilderness. And we ask, why? Why was God so faithful to them in the wilderness? And he tells us in verse 42, for he remembered, zakar, he remembered his holy promise. What is his holy promise? His covenant. And Abraham, in particular, he remembered his covenant with Abraham, his servant. God remembered his promise and so he met the needs of his people, of Abraham's descendants in the wilderness. And then the fifth movement and final movement is found in verses 43 to 45. So patriarchs, Joseph, Exodus, wilderness, and then remember God's faithfulness in the conquest. Look there at verses 43 to 45. 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 His statutes and observe His laws. Praise the Lord. Here we have, in verse 43, another reference to the exodus, God's deliverance of His people from Egyptian bondage and slavery. You see it there. So He brought out His people with joy, His chosen ones, with singing. He brought them out of Egypt. He brought them out of the wilderness. And then notice what He did in verse 44. And He gave them the lands of the nations, and they took possession of the fruit of the people's toil. Again, we've come full circle. This is the promise in the Abrahamic covenant that the psalmist highlighted way back in verse 11, right? God remembers His covenant. He remembers His covenant to Abraham. And what is it specifically that He remembers in that covenant? He remembers in verse 11, to you I will give the land of Canaan as your portion for an inheritance. And here we see that promise fulfilled. As they come out of the wilderness, they come out of Egypt, they come out of the wilderness. Now in verse 44, He gives them the lands of the nations. And they took possession of the fruit of the people's toil. And this promise we know was fulfilled in the life and the ministry of Joshua. As Joshua led the people of God to take possession of the land of Canaan. And why did he grant them this land? Look there in verse 45. This is why I entitled this section here, verses 12 through 45, Remember and Obey. He brought them out of Egypt. He brought them out of the wilderness. He gave them the land, verse 45, that they might keep his statutes and observe his laws. Now think about the audience again that the psalmist is writing to and think about how these words might have fallen upon their minds and hearts. Who were they? They were exiles. And why were they exiles? Because they had been taken out of the land. They no longer possessed the land. And why did they no longer possess the land? Because they had not kept His statutes. And they had not observed His laws. They had rebelled against Him. And the judgment of God had fallen upon the nation. And so they were in exile. And so the psalmist here in concluding this way, he's concluding with a call of repentance. How is it that they will find themselves back in the land? How is it that they will make their way back to Jerusalem? Well, at least in part, by turning from their sins, by looking to the Lord, by coming to Him with brokenness and contrition and recommitting their lives to Him in faithfulness, that He might show them mercy. If you're a Christian here this morning, understand, my friends, this is the reason why God has saved you. We see it here in Psalm 105, God saves and he redeems and he protects and he provides and he blesses in order that we might be his people and in order that we might glorify his name by walking in his ways. We've been studying 1 Peter in our cohorts on Sunday morning when we meet prior to our worship service. And Peter picks up on this theme in 1 Peter chapter 2 verses 9 through 12. And he uses all this Old Testament language and imagery which we've seen here in Psalm 105. And he applies it to Christians. He says, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession. We could say you're offspring of Abraham. Why? That you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles. to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. God has saved us. He has redeemed us in order to make us His own, that we might keep His statutes and observe His laws. And then notice there in verse 45, the final word of the psalmist is, in Hebrew, it's hallelujah. In other words, all y'all praise Yahweh. Or as the ESV translates it here, praise the Lord. As Spurgeon writes, quote, if this history did not make Israel praise God, what would? My friends, if you are in Christ, this is your history. It is our history. And so in good times, in bad times, in times of rejoicing, and in times of sorrow, in times of blessing, and in times of exile, in wilderness wanderings, let us remember what is most obvious. Let us remember what is most important. Let us remember that God has and He will always be faithful to His covenant promises that He has secured for us in Jesus Christ. Let us remember and rejoice. Let us remember and obey. Let's pray. Father, we are humbled when we think of the glorious history of your redemption and salvation of your people, even going all the way back to Abraham. And Lord, that you have swept us up into this story through your son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, I know that there are many here even this morning who are experiencing difficulty or hardship, grief or sadness, trials or difficulty. Lord, we recognize that sometimes the hardships we experience in this life are not because of any wrong that we have done, but simply a result of Your providential purposes and leading in our lives. Other times, Lord, we realize that we find ourselves, as the people of God did here in Psalm 105, in exile and wilderness, under trials and difficulties because of our own obvious rebellion and sin. Lord, wherever we might find ourselves this morning as it relates to trial and difficulty, Father, I pray that You would give us grace to remember Your promise, to remember You and the covenant that You have made, to remember the salvation and redemption that You have granted us in Christ, and to have hope once again that, yes, You can provide, You can protect, You can bless, You can redeem and save and make new. And Lord, we pray that you would do that in a thousand different ways, in glorious ways, Lord, that we can't even ask or imagine. So Father, come now by your Spirit. Give us faith and renew our hope. And may we rejoice and may we walk in obedience, even perhaps as our hearts are heavy and grieve. And it's through Jesus Christ, our Lord, we ask it. Amen.