Psalm 105, Remember God’s Marvelous Works
1. Respond To God’s Marvelous Work (v1-6)
2. God Keeps His Promises To You (v7-15)
3. God Prepares For Your Future (v16-22)
4. God Works Miracles For You (v23-36)
5. God Provides For You (v37-45)
Psalm 105, Remember God’s Marvelous Works
Did you enjoy this teaching?
Let others know!
VIEW TRANSCRIPT
Here, as we look at Psalm 105, we are looking at a Psalm that is calling God people to give thanks and to remember all the good things that God has done.
And so I've titled the message. Remember God's marvelous works. We don't know who the author of this Psalm is. It's not stated here.
There is some of the, well, the like the first part of the Psalm is also quoted in chronicles and attributed to David, so it's likely that David is the author of the Psalm, or at least the 1st 15 verses or so of the song.
But here the psalmist is looking back over the history of Israel and calling the people of Israel to give things to God as a result of their review and a refresher of the things that God had done in their history and the way that he had worked in them as a nation and in their lives, and.
As we look at this, of course.
We are familiar with the accounts going back through Genesis and Exodus, and those things that will be referred to here, and so we can identify a lot of what's being referred to here and recognize that and.
Understand the meaning and purpose of it for reminding the Jewish people of their history.
But of course, as we also look at these things, it should cause us to look forward a bit and reflect the Christ that is represented in so much of the Old Testament accounts and the way that God foreshadowed.
The provision for the Lord and for us in the Lord, and so there is a great reason for us to give thanks in parallel to this call to the Jewish people, to give things.
Thanks and then I would also encourage you to think about in light of our own lives.
Personally, I think we can all experience or we all have experience of God working and we can look back and review.
Perhaps some of the history of our own lives, you know, over our time here on this Earth and have reason to give thanks to remember and.
Praise God for his marvelous works.
Pastor Thomas Constable says God's people profit from reviewing history because it reminds us of God's faithfulness.
This reminder encourages us to trust his promises to us.
We see that he has been consistently faithful to his word throughout history, and so we can be encouraged this evening to continue to trust the Lord as we see his faithfulness to his people.
We are his people also, and we can trust.
So he will be faithful to us.
He has been faithful to us, and so we can review those things and take heart and take courage to continue to trust God for his faithfulness.
And so it's valuable and important for us to remember God's marvelous works. So five points will work through as we look at this Psalm. Psalm 105.
It's kind of a lengthy sum, so we won't go into depth in a lot of these verses, but kind of hit the highlights here of some of the things that we need to give.
Thanks for and remember about God.
Well, the first point is found in verses one through.
6 and that is, we need to respond to God.
Marvelous work as we remember God.
Marvelous work.
The psalmist, hearing verses one through 6, is throughout each verse.
Really calling the people to take action to remember, but that that memory should stir up some some action on our part.
And so we'll see that as we dive into these verses, but I want to start out just by hitting verse 6 briefly for a moment.
Here it says, oh, seed of Abraham, his servant, you children of Jacob, his chosen 1.
And so the.
Author, probably David.
Is specifically addressing this to the seed of Abraham and the descendants of Abraham are.
The Jewish people.
Abraham is servant.
You children of Jacob, Jacob, you know, was then named Israel and.
His sons became the fathers of the 12 tribes of Israel, and so you see the the real clear and direct reference to the nation of Israel.
In this, the tribes of Israel and the descendants of Abraham.
But as we get started, it just a quick refresher.
I think you know this and.
Probably are already making the connection in your head, but Galatians Chapter 3.
Paul gives us a little bit of insight on the seed of Abraham. He says in Galatians 37 therefore know that only those who are of faith are the sons of Abraham.
And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham, beforehand, saying, and you all the nations shall be blessed.
So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham, and so here in Galatians Chapter 3, Paul is making the case and pointing out there is of course the biological descendants of Abraham, and those are the Jewish people, that is their heritage, that is there.
Genealogy right, but for us as believers today, Paul is pointing out it was really set up to be a father hood of faith with Abraham because.
God foreshadowed and foretold that he would justify the Gentiles by faith when he said all nations shall be blessed in you.
So the the message of you know God promises to Abraham and God's faithfulness to Abraham. The message of Psalm 105 is not.
Just limited to.
The seed of Abraham biologically, but the seed of Abraham spiritually those who by faith receive what God is provided in salvation and forgiveness by his son.
We are the children of Abraham as well, and so Father Abraham had many sons, many sons.
And I am one of them.
And you are sorry you and it's been a long time so I can't even quote the song.
But we are children of Abraham, and so again, this all applies to us.
This is not just some ancient history, but but.
This is cause for us to reflect and celebrate God's marvelous works as we look at these things, and so let's look at the response that.
The psalmist calls for here in verses one through 5 and verse one, he says, oh, give thanks.
To the Lord.
Call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples.
Sing to him, sing psalms to him.
Talk of all his wondrous works.
Glory in his holy name let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord.
Seek the Lord and his strength.
Seek his face for evermore.
Remember his marvelous works, which he has done his wonders and the judgments.
Of his mouth.
Over and over again.
The psalmist is calling us to take action and it's kind of like a summary of the Psalm beforehand because as he goes on, he's going to call out different things that God has done and the idea here is in light of all that God has done, I'm going to remind you of those things, but even before I get there, the psalmist is saying I'm going to.
Give you the things that you should be doing in response.
As you remember, all these things that God has done.
Here's how you should be responding.
Here's how you should be reacting and and I'll tell you why in the coming verses as we remember those things.
But, but here's the action to take, and here's the action that we should be.
Involved in and so respond to God's work, and so I want to encourage you to consider these things.
Thanks now by my count, there's nine actions that we can take here from these verses, depending on how you break it up and how you work it out, I'm sure you could come up with a different number, but the first thing he says we should do to in our response for what God has done for us is to give.
And you know it was our tradition for many years we.
Kind of have.
For various reasons over the past couple of years, not really done it, but on the thing.
The Wednesday before Thanksgiving we would take time to kind of reflect on the year as a church and we would give everybody an opportunity to share and give thanks and and it's a good thing appropriate thing to do.
And it's really what the psalmist is calling us to do here.
Give thanks to the Lord.
That that there should be this Thanksgiving and.
You know, maybe it's a good encouragement for us.
Sometimes we have Christmas in July.
Sometimes we have Thanksgiving in me, right that that we'd have.
To wait till the.
End of the year.
But but it is appropriate for us to express gratitude and thanks to the Lord.
Giving of things here is not just.
Kind of a general acknowledgement of yeah, I guess I'm thankful, but but it's a deliberate.
Giving of things to God.
It's a thank you Lord as you reflect on who he is and what he has done.
It is important and appropriate for us to give things to deliberately say, you know, just like we teach kids like you know, don't just have an appreciative heart quietly, like say, thank you when you're blessed with something.
When someone gives you something that.
That there needs to be this express giving of things by us to the Lord as we remember the goodness that he has shown towards us.
Well, the next thing he calls us to do is to call upon his name.
Call upon his name and and calling upon his name is a little bit different than giving up things.
Calling upon his name is more of a reliance upon the Lord.
It's asking the Lord for help.
It's asking the Lord for direction.
It's calling upon him, you know, because we need him, and so it's submitting ourselves to God.
It's surrendering ourselves to God.
It's laying ourselves before God.
And inviting God to work in our lives.
And so it there is the the giving of things that we give.
But also what I need help and and I'm calling upon you and I'm invoking your name.
I'm your child.
Would you work in my life?
And that is part of our response to.
What God has done previously, it should provoke us to call upon him again to call upon him more, and to rely upon him in our lives.
Then he goes on to say, make known his deeds among the peoples.
Share your testimony is the way we might typically say this right?
Make known his deeds talk about what God has done.
Among the peoples and the idea here of the people is not necessarily, you know, the temple gathering or the Tabernacle gathering, or the church gathering.
But the peoples, the the nations, all of the people around.
We had to make known his deeds to talk about and so again as we go through, he's going to say, like remember when God to this remember when God did this?
Remember when God did that and the idea for the Jewish people was as they were around with whoever they were around, whether it was other Jewish people or other nations around them that that they would be talking about the things that got us.
Done, have you heard about what our God has done for us and and, uh, a declaration.
A testimony of the work of God in their lives.
Well, the next thing he goes on to say is our response to the Lord is.
To sing to him.
Sing to him, sing songs to him.
There's different kinds of singing and different kinds of worship.
Sometimes we are singing about God.
Sometimes we are singing and expressing you know ourselves to the Lord, and so it it is kind of different directions and and the the words that we choose and our songs kind of have a different impact.
But but here notice.
It's it's specifically singing to him and seeing psalms too.
Him that it's not just seeing about the Lord that's appropriate and we need.
To do that, that's part.
Of our worship, but in response to the things that we have done.
There is this responsibility that we have this obligation that we have to sing to the Lord, and you know, I want to encourage you to consider that that there is a.
Something special about worship and praise for the Lord.
The scriptures tell us the Lord inhabits the praises of his people.
He blesses times of worship and times of singing and and it's important for us to engage in that and.
You know, socially that's not necessarily the norm, right?
And maybe there are those who sing because they're good at singing.
Maybe there are those who sing because you know they're just having fun and having a good.
Time, but but the idea here is that that we are too seeing and, and you may not be comfortable with that.
You may not be excited about the idea of singing, and you may not feel like you're capable or qualified or anything like that to sing, but.
But here the.
The psalmist puts it this way for us that that it is.
He's calling all of Israel, right?
It's not just hey singers sing to him it's it's all of you have experienced.
God's work in your life.
There's a need for you to sing to him.
You know, for me, I am not a great singer and I'm not a you know musician.
It's not my talent or gift.
I I do it just enough to kind of get by right?
And and I know Van Gelina wrestles with me with this a little bit.
But you know, I'm the backup for worship.
Like so Wednesday nights nobody here to do worship I'm the one to do worship Sunday morning nobody here.
Leadership, I'm the backup and and one of the reasons why I have that position, and I've I've believed that so strongly is 'cause the Lord showed me a while back.
It's good for me, although I'm not good at.
It and it's.
Not necessarily.
You know my favorite or my gift or anything.
Like that, but it's good for.
I need to sing.
The Lord.
And and it's a.
It's an essential component for me, and if I don't sing to the Lord, I will be lacking.
And my spiritual life will be deficient.
And and I share all that to simply say, you know, sometimes I know.
It's difficult for people, or there's just maybe a lack of enthusiasm to sing to the Lord, but I want to encourage you to meditate on God.
Marvelous works and.
Theme to him.
As we gather together, believers sing to him, open your mouth, lift up your voice, and sing to the Lord while you're on your own, in the car, in the shower, wherever you might be seen to the Lord.
And it's it's good for your heart's need that connection to the Lord and that expression to the Lord of our gratitude of our awe.
Of our blessing him and his name with our voice and with a melody.
Even if you can't carry a tune, God still receives it and honors it, and it's good for you.
Well, going on, he goes on to say talk of his wondrous works, see in diversity here talk of all his wondrous works.
Again, the idea is to bring it up to say, out loud.
Here's what God is done, and here's some of the things that God is you know accomplished in my life and the way that he's moved and spoke and worked.
And and and the things that got us.
Done, we see in the Scriptures we can, you know, talk about his wondrous works.
There we can talk about the cross and the the gospel message.
And that's a wondrous work to discuss and to talk about, but but our lips are to be filled.
With the things that God has done and then he says, glory in his holy name, it's a glory in the name of God is the idea of celebrating and and and it's like as it goes along and says to rejoice, let to let your heart rejoice.
There's a there's a joyfulness.
A celebration in the name of God and over.
The Lord and what he has done.
Seek the Lord.
He goes on to say in verse four, seek the Lord and his strength.
Seek his face forever.
More as we reflect and remember on the things that God has done, our response should be to pursue God even to a greater degree to keep our hearts and minds aligned with him and to seek him to desire to know him more.
To desire for greater revelation and understanding of him.
So we're celebrating his name.
We're rejoicing and taking joy in our hearts.
We're looking to him and and seeking to know him more.
And then finally, remember his marvelous works, which he has done his wonders and the judgments of his mouth.
Remember all of these things.
His works, his word, the the way that he has accomplished miracles, that the the wonders, the judgments remember.
His marvelous works.
There is a call here too deliberately.
Take time to take account.
Of what God has done.
Pastor Damien Kyle said as he was teaching through this passage, he said, look, there's no better use of your memory than remembering God works in your life and it's interesting to consider right.
Sometimes it's fun to sit down and reminisce with people.
I know Lisa likes to talk about those days when I was just a kid, my head was bobbing around full air, right?
It's fun to reminisce.
To reminisce on those days and and consider and reflect and we can remember you know old cartoons.
We used to watch.
We can remember the old songs and the days in high school we can remember, you know so many things that we can spend a lot of time reflecting on various things in our life that you know we're good times.
Or maybe challenging times or whatever it might be.
But but apart from the Lord, those those have a real temporary and not so lasting value in in that time of remembrance, right?
But to remember his marvelous works, there's no better use of stirring up your mind of of you, know the energy, the mental capacity to go back and reflect and and to.
Deliberately think about things that God has done previously, again through the history of Israel through the cross and the the accounts that we find in the New Testament, and then in our own lives as well.
We need to be remembering his marvelous works and so all of these things are the appropriate response.
To God's marvelous work as we remember what he's done as we reflect on it, these are the kinds of things that we should be doing in response to be giving of things to be calling upon his name and be declaring his deeds and letting other people notice. That says make known, his deeds right, that the implication there is they don't know ahead of time.
But now, after we've encountered them, they know his deeds make known his deeds sing to him, talk of his wondrous works, glory in his holy name.
Rejoice, seek the Lord and remember.
Remember Remember his marvelous works.
Pastor David Guzik says there is a constant danger that God people would forget his marvelous works.
They don't.
It dishonors God when.
We forget his great works.
And we will always drift to forgetfulness if we do not actively remember.
We will always drift to forgetfulness if we do not actively remember if we're not actively responding.
Praising, thinking, declaring.
Singing, you know all of those appropriate like it's that's the actively remembering and and purposefully keeping those things in mind.
My memory is easy to forget like I'd drift to forgetfulness about everything and and that's you know, the default state and so this is a great reminder for me that there needs to be this active and deliberate.
Reminding myself of the things that God.
Has done and so respond to God's marvelous work.
Well, we'll move on now to verses 7 through 15 point #2.
God keeps his promises to you, so through the rest of the song the Psalmist is going to be reminding us about some of those marvelous works.
And again, there's a lot of verses here.
A lot of detail that we're not going to get into, but summing up versus 7 through 15, it really gives us the the look at God promises he keeps his.
Promises to you, and so that's something to remember.
That's a marvelous work of God to take hold of in your mind, to hold onto and then to respond to you appropriately.
But let's read verses 7 through 15.
And then we'll talk about this a little bit.
Verse seven says.
He is the Lord our God.
His judgments are in all the Earth.
He remembers his covenant forever, the word which he commanded for 1000 generations.
The covenant he made which he made with Abraham.
And his oath to Isaac, and confirmed it to Jacob for a statute.
To Israel as an everlasting covenant.
Saying to you, I will give the land of Canaan as the allotment of your inheritance.
When they were few in number, indeed, very few, and strangers in it.
When they went from one nation to another from one Kingdom to another, people.
He permitted no one to do them wrong, yes.
You rebute kings for their sakes.
Saying, do not touch my anointed ones.
And do my prophets no harm?
The psalmist begins looking back at the history of Israel and really the earliest history, the wanderings of Abraham in the land of Canaan, and then his son Isaac, and and then Jacob, right?
So he is remembering those beginning days.
When God called Abraham out of ur into the land of Canaan and God gave him promises that his descendants would inhabit the land of Canaan, that God was going to give that whole region too.
10 by which we call the Nation of Israel today, that's the land of Canaan, that God had promised.
To Abraham and so here.
In the first couple verses here, he really makes it clear that this was a promise of God.
He calls it.
In verse eight, a covenant, and he says he remembers his covenant forever.
He made a covenant with Abraham.
It was a commitment.
It was an agreement.
It was a promise to Abraham.
And it's a promise that will not be forgotten.
He remembers his covenant forever.
When God makes a promise.
It is forever and he will be faithful to his word.
There are of course some promises that God makes that are conditional that are contingent upon.
If you do this, if you fulfill your part and here's my pardon and so then there's promises of blessings and.
Things that God has give.
Even that are in conjunction with our response and behavior and walk with him as well.
But there are many promises of God that are just promises that he makes by himself of his own nature and this promise promise to Abraham is one of them.
In fact, as you go back there and I'm not going to get into the details.
Of the covenant that he made, but but the covenant ceremony that they practiced in that day, God practiced God, did that, but he did it himself.
He put Abraham to sleep, and he fulfilled that covenant ceremony.
By himself, making that covenant reliant upon him only, and not upon Abraham, and so he remembers his covenant forever.
The word which he commanded for 1000 generations, that that this is a steadfast promise that God has made to Abraham, and this is the way that God promises are.
This is the way that.
God's word is in verse nine. He talks about it as a covenant again he made with Abraham, but then notice it goes on to say his oath.
To Isaac, so he swore an oath to Isaac.
That was the same.
Promise that he had given to Abraham in the covenant.
Now he promises to Isaac.
And then he confirmed it to Jacob for a statue.
And so we have these.
Repeated over and over again in different ways, all just emphasizing the reality of God, has said something he's promised it.
It's his word and it will stand in verse 10, he says, as an everlasting covenant.
And so it's an ongoing everlasting, never ending for thousands of generations.
It's his word and.
God keeps his.
And Matthew chapter 24.
Jesus talking about the end times and all of the calamities that will happen.
The signs of the end times, he says when you see all these signs, you know that it's near that.
It's at the door.
And he encourages the people in that passage saying heaven and Earth will pass away.
But my words will by no means pass away.
The things that happened, the signs that.
Lead up to the tribulation period and on into the Tribulation period leading up to the return of Jesus.
They're going to be so incredible like we think we've seen days like never before, you know, just with COVID and over the past few years.
And the things that we've seen with the politics and everything it's like, whoa, like never before, right? But but the things that will be happening in those days, the signs that will be happening. People are going to be wondering, is God's word going to be true?
I mean, it seems like heaven and earth may pass away and God's word won't be fulfilled.
But here the Lord says, in Matthew 2435 heaven and Earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away.
Now that's good comfort for us.
It's good comfort for those who are experiencing and watching the signs unfold in those those last days.
But but the point is, no matter what, even if everything else is gone.
On the word of God and the Covenant of God, the promises of God are so sure they will not be diminished no matter what happens in this life or what happens around us.
Now, in some ways, this is a surprising covenant.
It's a covenant that was made to Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob, and these guys were guys and they messed up.
And they made mistakes and they didn't trust God all the time.
And they took matters into their own hands.
And on and on and on.
You can go this.
This promise is a demonstration of the grace of God.
Abraham was chosen by God just as a matter of grace.
Just God chose him, not because.
So much of Abraham, but because so much of God that that God chose him and decided to demonstrate his grace and selected him to be the one who would be the father of the Nation of Israel and the.
Promise of Messiah would come through Abraham, many nations or all the nations will be blessed as a result of him, and so it's surprising because these were just guys.
There was nothing like wow.
Of course.
You know if you were in that day, it's like of course God would use Abraham 'cause.
It's the obvious.
Choice no.
Abraham was just a guy.
And then this promised to inherit.
The land of Canaan.
Notice it says in verse 12 when they were few in number.
Indeed, very few and strangers in it.
I was kind of thinking about that today.
So it's this Abraham and his family.
Later on with Isaac, you know they they are 70 people and they finally moved to Egypt.
We'll talk about that in just a moment as well, but but they're.
They're not a big family, they're a regular family.
And they're there in the land.
And God says, I'm going to give you the land of Canaan.
To this family.
Now the land of Keenan, the borders that God gave them.
If you add up kind of the square miles, it's roughly equivalent to.
San Bernardino County, so just imagine.
If your family.
And maybe you have a huge family, so this isn't really a relevant, you know.
Illustration for you, but.
Imagine if your family owned all of San Bernardino County.
Like if God said, I'm going to give you like I'm not just going to give you a house, I'm going to give you a county and that that that whole area is going to be your land.
When there are very few in number, right like.
They didn't need that much space at the time that God gave this promise.
And there was no indication that they ever.
Would need that much.
Space, right?
Like like that wasn't the normal thing.
Every family didn't become a nation that that wasn't the normal thing, right?
But but here when they were few in number, God promised.
I'm going to give you this.
Lens kind of surprising.
The Grace of God the foresight of God.
To give this promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and he fulfilled it.
And he brought them out of Egypt, and they populated the land they were kicked out.
Later they went back in.
They were kicked out.
Later they went back in, you know, but but it's an everlasting covenant that is the land that God is.
Given to his people.
And he's promised to protect them in the midst of it.
Verse 13 through 15.
Gives us a little bit of reminder of the protections when they went from one nation to another from one Kingdom to another.
People he permitted no one to do them wrong.
Yes, he rebuked kings for their sakes.
Saying, do not touch my anointed ones and do my prophets no harm.
At various times, Abraham didn't stay in the land of Canaan.
There was different reasons for moving about, and so he would move about and you might remember he instructed Sarah.
He just tell people you're my sister, 'cause that way they'll treat me well and they won't kill me to marry you and and so that got Abraham and a little bit of trouble.
With the surrounding authorities, right, but but God protected him in the midst of that, and then his son Isaac did the same thing and and you know, the.
The idea here.
Is that even though they made mistakes?
God kept his promise and protected them and gave them the land that he.
Had promised to them.
And so God keeps his promises to you.
Remember God, marvelous works.
He keeps his promises and we can see that in his word and the history that's been recorded for us, we can see that and look at the many promises that have been fulfilled in Jesus Christ and the the benefits and blessings that we have in him.
Of course, we can look at the.
Promises that have yet to be fulfilled.
And in comparing that to all the promises that have been fulfilled, we can take heart and trust God for those promises and know they will be fulfilled.
Heaven and Earth will pass away, but not the promises that God has given to us.
And I would also encourage you to think about.
Promises that God has given to you personally.
How has God fulfilled his word and shown himself to be faithful to his word in your life?
Again, verse two says talk of all his wondrous works and and maybe it be appropriate for you to sing a song to the Lord because he has kept his promise in your life that he's done.
Uh, fulfillment of something that just you know, really causes you to praise him because he has been so good and faithful.
Even if we've wandered a bit and got into Egypt and lied about our spouse, and you know all of that stuff that that he is faithful to us in in fulfilling his promises towards us.
I was thinking about this and there's a number of things that I could consider in my own life.
But one thing that I kind of kept coming back to was there was a a period in life where Kim and I were in a place where we had to make a decision about work and church balance and things like that.
And after wrestling with it and praying about it, we decided the right course was for us to go forward in this direction that we had planned, which would require that we do not have health insurance for a time.
Now later on, the government heard about our decision to do this and then they made it illegal to do that, and so we have to have health insurance now.
But but there was this year or so that we.
Went without health insurance and it was a risk.
It was like dangerous, right?
But but we were.
Confident in what the Lord had been saying to us.
And so you know, adding up the things that God was saying is like.
I guess like we just have to trust God during this time and we knew it was temporary.
It wasn't meant to be permanent, but we're going to just have to trust God in the midst of this time.
And the Lord was faithful.
You know, it's kind of a risk because health matters can just cripple and destroy the rest of your life.
Sometimes if you're not insured or prepared for that right.
And so.
We we knew that that was a risk and yet we had God instruction to us, and so in walking in that we got to see the fulfillment of God provision in the midst of that doesn't mean we never had any medical things, but God provided and worked in the midst of that time even without the the health insurance and so.
I can look at that back on that and remember God promises and how he?
Has been faithful and fulfilled that.
To me personally, I encourage you to.
Kind of stir up some memories of things that God has spoken to you in ways that he has shown himself to be faithful to his word in that well verses 16 through 22 gives.
Us point #3
As we remember, God's marvelous works, remember that God prepares.
Is for your future God prepares, he goes ahead of you. He lays out the path ahead for the things to come. Verses 16 through 22 says this. Moreover, he called for a famine in the land.
He destroyed all the provision of bread.
He sent a man before them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave.
They hurt his feet with fetters.
He was laid in irons.
Until the time that his word came to pass.
The word of the Lord tested him.
The king sent and released him, the ruler of the people.
Let him go free, he made him Lord of his house and ruler of all his possessions, to bind his Princess at his pleasure and teaches elders wisdom.
Here the psalmist continues on the history of the nation of Israel, starting out with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
In the previous verses.
Now Jacob also named Israel his twelve sons.
They're inhabiting the land.
But then there's this severe famine in the land.
And everybody around them is suffering as a result.
Of the famine.
But God had sent out one of.
Israel's sons named Joseph.
How did God send him out?
Well, the brothers hated him were jealous of him when they saw their opportunity, they sold him into slavery and Joseph went into Egypt in slavery and.
I'm sure you're familiar.
With the accounts here in slavery, he rises to prominence, but then he's falsely accused.
He's put in prison in prison.
He rises to prominence. He's running the prison until finally the Pharaoh is aware of him and the Lord's work in his life and the interpretation of the dreams is necessary. So they bring Joseph out, he becomes.
2nd in command of.
All Egypt and the way the psalmist is talking about this here is not from Joseph's perspective as much.
There's a lot to consider there, right?
But but here he's talking about the nation.
He's talking about the family.
And so from the families perspective, there was this severe famine.
They're desperate for food.
They were able to get food from Egypt.
Because God sent a man before them.
God knew about the famine many years before and so 20 years earlier when Joseph was sold into slavery.
There's a 20 is at 13, I forget, but you can go back and do.
The math if you want to do that, but.
Many years earlier is the point right that that God sent Joseph into the region to position him so that you know it was Joseph planning and insight from the Lord that caused Egypt to store up grain so that the rest of Egypt and also the communities around them.
To be able to.
Have grain in the time of.
Famine, right?
So so God prepared.
Had to be 20 years now.
I think about it 'cause there's seven good years.
7 right?
So OK so 20 years earlier.
I'm just doing math in my head and it slows me down OK.
But but so 20 years.
Earlier, God sends the guy in.
To prepare so that the family would.
Be taken care.
Of he prepared for their future, he provided for them in advance.
He was setting things in place so that when all this unfolded.
They would have what they needed because the Lord had seen what was coming and prepared for.
That was true for Joseph.
God prepared him.
You know in.
His future and all of that, but true for the family as well.
In verse 19 it says until the time that his word came to pass the word of the Lord tested him.
God had given Joseph a dream, a little couple of dreams about what he would do and how his brothers would bow down before him.
But there was a long time of testing until that word was fulfilled. Going back to point #2, God keeps his promises.
He kept his promise to Joseph.
He gave him that vision.
He gave him his word and then God fulfilled it.
It was many years later, but Joseph held on to that.
And during all of that time of slavery during all that time of imprisonment.
The lubas, the word of the Lord tested him.
He held on to that, and it was all good preparation.
And at the end Joseph would be able to say, hey, brothers, you meant this for evil, but God did something good.
It was worth it.
And God did something.
Good through it.
And so in the end, the King released him.
He was set free.
He was ruler over all of Egypt, second only to Pharaoh.
Teaching his elders, instructing the people.
Because God had prepared.
The family and Joseph for that future.
And so we can look at the history.
We can look at how God is prepared for our future in Christ, and we have an inheritance that's incorruptible.
It's undefiled that feed is not away, right?
He's prepared for our future by sending Christ well in advance, long before you and I were on this Earth Christ came. He died, and there's great things to remember and marvel at God's work in that.
But also, I would encourage you think about your own life and what what marvelous.
Works has got prepared in advance.
This caused me to think about.
Going back to probably 2007 Ish, Kim and I were living in Pastor Toms House. We're still like renting out Toms house from when he moved Okinawa we moved into to the house that him and Joanna were living in and renting it from them and back. In those days 2006, 2007.
We were just in the position of, you know, this is our life we're gonna.
Rent this house and till ministry at living water is done and then you know we'll be in heaven and everything will be glorious.
And that was kind of the thing, except for the Lord began to stir up some things in Kim's heart and not mine.
Just kids heart.
And so she began to think.
Well, what if we were able to buy a?
House and she brought up to me and I shut her down.
I said there is no.
We we're just never going to be able to.
That's just there's just.
It's just impossible, it's expensive and we make nothing.
And so how?
It's just not going to have.
It's never going to happen.
We have to kind of just settle that.
That's that's never going to be in.
Our future.
But the Lord continue to stir it up in Kim's heart and so.
Being a man of great wisdom, I went along with what dollar was moving up on her heart and we took the steps to move out to save a few $100 a month.
Now, when you're trying to buy a house, how much benefit is $200 a month right? Not great, but.
It was the.
Step that we took because that was what the Lord had put upon Kim.
Sorry, OK, so we moved out.
We're saving now a couple $100 a month and living in an apartment and then you know that was the just the right exact time for when the housing market crashed 2008 and everything just went crazy.
And all of those really high prices dropped and.
Like there is no way, even as wise as Kim is, that she could have foreseen and timed everything.
Just so right?
But then but then so the the markets going crazy.
Now all of a sudden, whoa, it is within reach like maybe we can own a house and and so we're looking all over the place and we're you know it's crazy in those times trying to put bids on houses was impossible because you put a bid on a house and then the next day someone offers cash and then just takes it right out from under you.
And it was just like over and over.
I think we put bids on. I don't know like 20-30 houses, something like that. It was like crazy. We tried so many times.
Times and then it was just at the right time.
The house that we live in now opened up and I'm just telling this story because again, like telling the story of Joseph, right like like this is something that God did in our lives.
And it we gave the house that we purchased.
Had been in escrow for I think like over 6.
Months but it.
Kept not going through and then finally it was out of escrow like you know that it was a done deal.
Wasn't going to.
Happen and the house was about to go into foreclosure, but the house happened to be represented by a real estate office that Janine worked in, so she became aware of that.
It fell out of escrow that was about to go into foreclosure.
She called us up and said, hey.
There's a house right down the street from the church.
Do you want to see it?
And we're like, OK, and so we go see it.
That day, and it's just.
At the very top of our price range.
We have to make a decision we didn't know is about to go into foreclosure, but we pray about it.
We work on it a couple of days.
We give the bid back and put it in.
I think it was on a Thursday and they told us afterwards if we had not put that in on Thursday then on Friday it would have gone into foreclosure.
It would have been off the market.
Four months out of reach and you know when it finally came back on the market, we would have been.
Long gone so.
Just this timing of moving out at the right time timing of the housing market.
Timing of that house being, you know, held in escrow just for the right time for us.
God aligned all of these things just for that and this and the big scheme of thing is in internal perspective.
The house it's such a little tiny thing, right?
Like it's a huge blessing for us and and it's a great a great thing for us here in this life, but it's such a little thing.
But but oh man, to reflect on and recount how God prepared and advance those things.
It causes this appropriate.
Once of thanks and praise and I should talk about his wondrous works and tell people about how God has done these kinds of things for me and you should too and so remember God.
Marvelous works well. We gotta keep moving verse or point. #4 God works miracles for you. Let's read verses 23.
Through 27 it says Israel also came into Egypt, and Jacob dwelt in the land of Ham. He increased his people greatly and made them stronger than their enemies.
He turned their heart to hate his people, to deal craftily with the servants.
He sent Moses his servant and Aaron, whom he had chosen.
They performed his signs among them and wonders in the land of him.
So now we're moving along in Israel history.
Joseph was sent into Egypt and then the family, Isaac and Isaac, but.
Israel, Jacob and the whole family. All Joseph's brothers moved into Egypt and God kind of fostered them there in Egypt for a little bit.
Sequestered them, and they grew into a mighty nation, really in the land of Egypt, and not in the land of Canaan.
And so it was during that time that they became really solidified as a nation.
But then the land of Egypt was fearful of them because they increased so greatly.
And so that's when it led to the persecution, the slavery, the enslavement of the Hebrew people by the Egyptians.
But then God sent Moses and Aaron to bring them out, and he performed signs and wonders among them, and verses 28 through 36 recount the plagues of Egypt, as God led his people out of Egypt. Verse 28, he sent darkness and made it dark.
They did not rebel.
Against his word, they turned their or he turned their waters into blood.
And killed their fish, their land abounded with frogs.
Even in the Chamber of their kings.
He spoke and there came swarms of flies and lice in all their territory.
He gave them hail for rain and flaming fire in their land.
He struck their vines also, and their fig trees.
And splintered the trees of their territory.
He spoke, and Lucas came young locusts, without NUM.
And eat up all the vegetation in their land and devoured the fruit of their ground.
He also destroyed all the first one in their land, the first of all their strength.
And so here the psalmist is making reference to those 10 plagues.
Of Egypt, and in those ten plagues, God was making a clear statement to the Egyptians that he was King of Kings.
And Lord of Lords.
Above all, the other gods that they.
Worshipped these incredible signs that took place.
Positioned him as the one true and living God for sure.
And so this was a very clear war against the Egyptian gods.
But also it was a testimony to the Hebrew people that God was with them and on their side and he worked miracles on their behalf.
Incredible signs and wonders.
And again, we're not going to get into these details here, but you can go back into Exodus Chapters 7 through 12 if you want to spend some time in that.
It's interesting he doesn't actually list all 10 plagues here in Psalm 105, and he doesn't exactly list them in the same order.
Not sure if there's some meaning or purpose in.
That, but you can explore.
That if you want to and.
Come up with some ideas.
But here again, the point is the author of the Psalm is reminding the people God worked these incredible signs for us.
He did miracles, he did wonders and signs that cause people to to take note and to stand in awe and and God has done that for his people throughout the ages.
And so again, we can think about the biblical accounts we can think about the Lord and the miracles that he's provided for us in Christ and in the forgiveness that he offers.
But then also, I would encourage you to think about your own life and what kind of miracles has God done for you.
That should cause you to.
Praise him and thank him and sing to him and talk of his wondrous works and and you know.
Remember those things that God has done for you.
I was trying to remember what kind of miracles have you done in my life and.
Again, there's many things, perhaps that I could consider or that could come to mind, but a lot of it falls out of my mind, so I can't conjure it up, but the one that.
Came to mind was that day that I was driving down to Orange County, Costa Mesa and clear as day.
The Lord spoke to me.
You're going to see the one you'll marry tonight.
And I was like wow, I was on my way to Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa and so I.
Thought OK, Lord.
This is going to be great great church.
Service tonight and that was back in the days of worship generation.
It was brand new and so I was going to check it out.
And so I sit down and I'm I'm early so I'm like, OK, that's perfect because I don't want to like have a hand in this and try to manipulate God hand like OK Lord, I choose that one like I didn't want to do that so I was like OK Lord, I found an empty Pew.
I sat down.
I just leaned forward, closed my eyes and waited until we were well into the worship set before I decided to peek at the one that God had provided for me.
And so I looked over and.
There's this old lady there and I was like whoa not hurt.
OK, so we'll.
Go over next.
To me I know how did 2.
Old ladies sit next to me.
In the worship generation, which was a, you know, a service that was really focused on the like the college age people and you know two grandmas come sit next to Jerry in in the midst of that.
Well, God was protecting me from misunderstanding what he wanted to do, and so I was like, OK, Lord.
You know, I thought I heard your voice.
I thought it was really like, you know, I just, you know, had a funny thought and I just attributed it to you but must not have been.
So I'm driving home and Pastor Tongue had talked to me at a time.
He said, hey, you know if you're going to check out worship general generation, I'd love to hear about it.
So come by.
My house and tell me afterwards so I'm making my way back.
It's kind of on my way home anyway, so I'm heading down the 91 I get off at Surface Club. I'm heading up the street to Tom's house.
And then all of a sudden I see.
Kim's car and I stop in the middle of the road and the Lord says again, getting clear as Dixon for that time is night. So clear is.
Right?
You will see.
The one that you will marry tonight and I.
Was like are you serious Lord heard like?
We just met last night and Kim always tries to correct me and say we met a week before, but I don't remember that we met the night before and and now this is this really and so you know, that that's the beginning of.
A story that is.
Too long to tell right now, but.
A miracle like seriously like, I mean the lettuce.
Directed me and lead me and guide me and spoken to me in.
Many ways throughout my life.
But the most clear word from the Lord I've ever received is that one I received that day.
It was a.
Miracle it was something that causes me to take note and to stand in.
Remember God's marvelous works. I'm sure that you have. If you're walking with the Lord.
Some experiences and maybe you need to work on some of those memories to to pull him out to to remember and refresh your mind.
But remember God's marvelous works. He works miracles for you. He prepares for your future. He keeps his promises to you.
Finally, verses 20 or 37 through 45.
God provides for you, verse 37 says.
He also brought them out with silver and gold and there was none.
Feeble among his tribes.
Egypt was glad when they departed for the fear of them had fallen upon them.
He spread a cloud for a covering and fired to give light in the night.
The people asked and he brought quail and satisfied them.
With the bread of heaven.
He opened the rock and water gushed out.
It ran in the dry places like a river.
For he remembered his holy promise, and Abraham his servant.
He brought out his people with joy, his chosen ones with gladness, he gave them the lands of the Gentiles, and they inherited the labor of the nations, that they might observe his statutes, and keep his laws praise the Lord.
Here, the psalmist recounts some of the provision that God gave to Israel, so God took them into Egypt.
They became a nation.
He provided all these signs and.
LED the people out as they.
Were led out of Egypt.
They were repaid for all their years of suffering as the Egyptians ushered them out with gold and silver and said yes, please.
Take it all.
Take all of our money and get out of here. There was a you know, 400 years of enslavement, but then there was at the end of that much compensation.
For those years of servitude.
God provided in the wilderness and verse 39 a cloud over them to protect them from the sun by day, and to give them light in the night.
It turned into a fire, and so God provided that direction, that protection in that way got provided food.
Quail and the the manna from heaven he provided.
Water in verse.
41 When he opened up the.
Rock and and.
Satisfied their thirst and met them in the wilderness for 40 years, providing food and water throughout the whole time he provided them land in verse 44 they landed the Gentiles. They inherited the land of Canaan. He took them in.
And God provision for them was abundant as he just led them forward and took care of them.
And again he reminds us he kind of.
Takes us back to how we started this Psalm. Verse 42 for he remembered his holy promise.
He remembered his promise, and now they're experiencing the fulfillment of that promise given to Abraham.
God leads them into the promised land.
They take inheritance.
They take the land and begin to inhabit.
In fulfillment to the things that God had said in his word, his promise was.
Fulfilled he gave them the land of the Gentiles and they inherited the labor of the nations.
Then notice verse 45 that they might observe his statutes and keep his laws.
So the fulfillment of this promise was to fulfill the promise I gotta give and he brings them into the land.
But there's a little bit of a purpose that's inserted there in verse 45. Also, God didn't take them into the land so that they can live however they want to. And you know, just ignore him and move on with their lives.
He brought them into the land he provided for them in that way and took care of them in that way so that they might observe his statutes and keep his.
You and I as believers we are forgiven.
We are set free, but as Paul encourages us to not use our freedom as a cloak for sin to not use our forgiveness and the grace of God as a an excuse to just continue on and do what we want to do.
You God provides for you should be an encouragement and an exhortation than to respond with obedience and to honor him with how we live and what we do.
So remember God's marvelous works.
A lot to digest a lot to consider here because God has done so much.
In our history in the history of the Scriptures and what God has done with the Jewish people in the history of salvation and what God has done through Christ in the history of our own lives, lots that God has done because he's continually working and he's continually good, his marvelous works are abundant.
So respond.
Sing give thanks praise remember talk about it.
There is so much that we can do and should do to actively engage and respond to what God has done for us.
He keeps his promises.
He prepares for our future.
He works miracles for us, and he provides for us and we can look back and see how he has done that and then right now we can look forward and where we can't see all of the.
Things satisfied that we know we need or the situation, like when we're Joseph and we're in prison and we don't see the resolution.
We don't see the end of the story.
We can look back on those things and take heart and trust God he will.
He's maybe.
You know, allowing us to experience this to prepare us for the future, that there is something to come and he is going to give us an opportunity to look back and remember his marvelous works.
And we'll look back and go. Wow, God is so good. So remember God's marvelous works. Let's pray, Lord, we thank you.
That you are so gracious to us.
And that you.
Keep continuing to work in our lives above and beyond, but well above and beyond what we could ever deserve or earn.
And so.
You're just good to us and Lord, we thank you for that.
Help us Lord to stop trying so hard to take care of things ourselves and to take matters into our own hands.
But Lord help us to more and.
More learn to rely upon you to trust in you, to hear from you, and take the steps that you set before us.
As you light the way, and so Lord.
Lead us in God's thank you.
For all of your work on our behalf and help us learn to respond appropriately.
To sing, to praise, to tell others about you and what you've done for us purse.
Lord me, our lips and our mouths, and our minds, being just constantly focused on you and your good work in our lives, we pray this in Jesus name.