November 05 2023
Today, Sunday November 05
God Keeps His Promises
Psalm 105:42-45
42 For He remembered His holy promise, And Abraham His servant.
43 He brought out His people with joy, His chosen ones with gladness.
44 He gave them the lands of the Gentiles, And they inherited the labor of the nations,
45 That they might observe His statutes And keep His laws. Praise the LORD!
Maybe today you are feeling like your whole world is falling apart and no one is there to help you, or even cares about you. You might be saying like the psalmist in Psalm 142:4; “Look on my right hand and see, For there is no one who acknowledges me; Refuge has failed me; No one cares for my soul.” Well, my friend, if that’s the case, it would be a good time for you to remember that the God who created you, who created the heavens, the earth, and the universe, is a God who remembers His promises and always keeps them.
Psalm 105 is a testimony and a witness to this great truth! The psalmist recalls the history of Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation, and how God made specific promises to him and kept every one of them. In the first 15 verses, the psalmist mentions the covenant promise that concerned Abraham’s seed, Isaac and Jacob and all their descendants (vv. 8-10). This promise also included a piece of land called Canaan, that was given to them as an inheritance (v. 11).
The middle section of this great chapter, he then recounts the Genesis account of Joseph and how God kept His promise by preserving their seed through him and by their going down into Egypt during the famine. This is actually another fulfilment of specific promise that God made to Abraham in Genesis 15:13-14; “Then He said to Abram: "Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions.”
In verses 26-41, the psalmist goes on to share the great testimony of God’s servant Moses and the judgments that He sent on Pharoah and Egypt in fulfilling His promise to deliver His people after being “afflicted 400 years”.
Now in our closing verses 42-45, the psalmist moved immediately from the Exodus to the conquest of Canaan. It is interesting that he wrote nothing about Israel's failures at Sinai (the golden calf), in the wilderness (repeated complaining), and at Kadesh Barnea (refusing to enter the land). After all, the purpose of the psalm was to magnify God's great works, not to expose man's great failures. God kept the promise He made to Abraham and gave his descendants the land, helping Joshua and his army defeat the enemy on every side. The people of Israel claimed their inheritance, including the wealth they took from the former inhabitants (v. 44b).
Twice in the book of Joshua, after the conquest of Canaan we read; "Not a word failed of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass" (Joshua 21:45, 23:14). In one of the longest prayers recorded in the Old Testament in Nehemiah, the Levites also recalled this history (Nehemiah 9:7-15).
God's people live on promises, not explanations, and it is "through faith and patience" that we see these promises fulfilled (Heb. 6:12). But God's keeping His promise meant much more for Israel than victory over the enemy and the acquisition of riches. It meant accepting the responsibility of obeying the God who had been so faithful to them. “That they might observe His statutes And keep His laws” (v.45).
Today, we should not only remember that God keeps His promises as we consider all that the Lord has done for us, but we should also determine to love Him and obey His Word!
God bless!