He Is The Lord Our God – Part 1
Psalms 105 (1-15)
May 2, 2021
Tonight we study the final Psalm in this trilogy of sorts
Which focuses in on the praise which God deserves.
It is the culmination of the “Bless the LORD, O my soul.” Psalms.
Psalms 105 is often included in this group because many think that
The final two lines of Psalms 104 actually belong in 105.
“Bless the LORD, O my soul. Praise the LORD!”
Perhaps that is true, I don’t know.
But even without that distinction
I still have no problem including 105 with 103 & 104
Because like those two Psalms, 105 is still pure praise.
Like the 2 before it,
• There are no complaints,
• There are no requests,
• There are no expressions of danger
• Or any predicament listed.
Psalms 105 is a reflection upon the goodness of God to His people
And a reflection that should motivate the soul to praise God.
In 103 we heard David tell his soul to “forget none of His benefits”
Things like:
Psalms 103:3-5 “Who pardons all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases; Who redeems your life from the pit, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion; Who satisfies your years with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle.”
David looked inwardly to the spiritual work which God had done personally for him in regard to his soul.
And the question was simple.
How could you not be compelled to praise a God who has been so personal and thorough in saving you from your sin?
• This God who has removed your transgressions as far as the east is from the
west…
• This God who has not dealt with you like you deserve…
• This God whose loyalty to you is from everlasting to everlasting…
How could your soul not be motivated
To bless this great God who saved you?
That was the call of Psalms 103.
In Psalms 104 we said that David moved from looking inwardly at the benefits of his soul and started looking outwardly at the greatness of creation.
David examined the greatness of God
Through the world He made and the way He sustains it
And David once again commanded his soul to bless God.
• He is the God who created light, the heavens, the sea and the dry land, the
sun and moon, vegetation, and all the animals.
• He is the God who sends rain and fills the rivers so that His creation might
drink.
• He is the God who feeds all things.
• He is the God of great creativity in all that He has designed.
And again the question:
How can any living thing not be motivated to bless the God who gives and sustains life?
And so based on God’s greatness in creation
David again called his soul to bless God.
Tonight we move to Psalms 105.
• In 103 David looked inwardly…
• In 104 David looked outwardly…
• In 105 David looks historically…
To put it another way he begins to examine
All that God has done for him and his people throughout history.
And as David takes inventory of
The benefits of God for His people throughout history,
David is again motivated to praise God.
• Perhaps those last two lines of 104 DO FIT here and David again tells his soul to bless God.
• Or perhaps they are rightly placed in 104 and the praise David calls for doesn’t specifically use that phrase.
However, when reading the first 7 verses of this Psalm
We might say that David includes the specifics
Of what it means to “bless the LORD, O my soul.”
We have again a Psalm of total praise
With truth for you to ponder that your soul might also be motivated
To bless and be a blessing to God.
And TONIGHT we want to look at the history
Of who God is and what He has done for His people.
There are 6 points to be made in the Psalm.
#1 GOD’S EXPECTATION
Psalms 105:1-7
Since all Scripture is inspired by God we can accurately say that
THIS IS GOD’S EXPECTATION FOR THOSE HE HAS REDEEMED.
But at face value, it is also David’s expectation for the people of God.
And you actually see 8 commands here.
• All of 8 of these actually expound on the command to “Bless the LORD, O my soul.”
• If you were to ask what a blessing soul looks like, well, it would look like this.
GRATITUDE
(1) “O give thanks to the LORD,”
Based upon what God has done (as we will see in a minute)
The first and most obvious command is that you tell Him “thank you”.
• Acknowledge what He did.
• Acknowledge that He did it for you.
• Acknowledge that it was a benefit for your life.
• And tell Him thank you.
In high school my senior English teacher was Mrs. Johnson.
• She was a mild-mannered and soft-spoken lady.
• But one issue got her fired up like no other.
• Towards the end of the year she would address the senior English class
because she knew we would all soon be receiving graduation gifts from friends and family.
And she would say, “If someone sends you a gift or money for graduation and you do not send them a “thank you” card you are the scum of the earth.”
It sank in, I even wrote Mrs. Johnson a card for teaching me English
Just to make sure I didn’t get labeled.
She understood that if you were a beneficiary of grace
Then you were obligated to be a giver of gratitude.
Certainly that is true in regard to the God of our salvation.
1 Thessalonians 5:18 “in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
Gratitude is important to God.
TRUST
(1b) “call upon His name;”
In our culture sometimes calling upon someone
Is perceived as a nuisance or a bother.
But it is not so to God.
It is in fact a compliment.
It is a declaration that God is capable
Of what we are not capable of and we are in need of Him.
And God desires this.
Psalms 50:15 “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me.”
Even in the New Testament we are promised:
Romans 10:13 “for “WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.”
Over and over and over in Scripture we are commanded
To honor the Lord by calling upon Him and placing our trust in Him.
EVANGELISM
(1c) “Make known His deeds among the peoples.”
Certainly when God does great things for us,
The expectation is that we so honor Him by telling of what He has done.
I actually love the title given to those who do this.
Acts 1:8 “but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”
• Certainly there are those who are teachers.
• Certainly there are those who are preachers.
• And those are specific callings with specific gifts of the Holy Spirit.
But what we are called to be is “witnesses”
In fact many people even refer to evangelism as “witnessing”
What is that?
Acts 4:19-20 “But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge; for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
It is gratitude in the other direction.
When God does great things for us,
First we tell Him thank you and then we tell the world what He did for us.
PRAISE
(2) “Sing to Him, sing praises to Him;”
Why sing?
Why singing?
BECAUSE GOD LIKES IT.
We all understand this.
Years ago I helped Dancie Fulmer unload a trailer while they were moving to Spur,
• As a thank you she gave me some of those peanut batter crackle cookies with the cocoa puffs in them.
I helped Leo remodel his kitchen,
• I got one of Joan’s world famous apple pies.
Because I love those things.
Well, God doesn’t want crackle cookies and God doesn’t want apple pie,
(Though I feel certain that was probably Jesus’ favorite dessert on earth.)
He wants a song.
He wants you to sing praise to Him.
Of all the things He could demand as payment, this one is letting you off easy.
Ephesians 5:18-19 “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;”
He likes singing.
MEDITATION
(2b) “Speak of all His wonders.”
The word “speak” there can also be translated “meditate”
(i.e. speak to yourself)
It is to give deep contemplation to all that He is and all that He does.
• Think on Him.
• Ponder Him.
• Focus on Him.
Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”
There is only One who I know of who fits all of those criteria
It is the opposite of ignoring Him…
It is the opposite of giving Him no thought…
Instead we seek Him out, we read His word, we ponder who He is.
BOAST
(3a) “Glory in His holy name;”
This is actually the result of meditating on Him.
When you grasp who He is and what He has done,
Bragging on Him and boasting about Him is a natural response.
When we catch a glimpse of His majesty the boast is automatic.
• We all in a sense quickly become like those 4 living creatures who gaze upon the Lord and “day and night do not cease to say, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty’”
It’s just the natural response.
We understand this in our day
• As we brag about our kids
• Or we brag about our spouse
• Or some who even brag about their dog.
We get boasting, but the one place our boasting always fits
IS IN REGARD TO THE LORD.
1 Corinthians 1:30-31 “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, “LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD.”
SATISFACTION
(3b) “let the heart of those who seek the LORD be glad.”
Don’t you like it when people enjoy the work of your hands?
• If you clean the house or cook a meal or wash a car or mow the grass or perform any other service…
• Do you like it when the people you did it for turn up their lip or complain?
No, you actually want to see their satisfaction.
You actually want to see their gladness in what you have done.
Well so does God.
Contentment and gladness are great elements of praise to God.
Philippians 4:4 “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!”
DEPENDENCE
(4) “Seek the LORD and His strength; Seek His face continually.”
Here it is a seeking of Him because of who He is and what He can do.
• We seek Him because we need Him.
• We depend upon Him.
• We lean on Him.
This was the heart of Paul regarding Christ.
Philippians 3:10 “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;”
Paul would actually also “boast about his own weakness” because it was then that he was made fully dependent on God and only then was he really strong.
This is an honor God deserves.
(He deserves for you to depend on Him)
If you ever watched Michael Jordan play basketball.
You saw time after time when the game was on the line they put the ball in Michael’s hands.
When it mattered most they depended on Michael.
• Do you think he saw that as a burden?
• Absolutely not, in fact, he would have considered it an offense if they would
have entrusted the game to anyone else.
It was his glory that when it mattered most the team looked to him.
Can you not see that also with God?
Why would you not put it all in His hands at every moment?
Now, that is a quick look at that list,
But these are the expectation of God as you relate to Him.
Gratitude – Trust – Evangelism – Praise
Meditation – Boasting – Satisfaction – Dependence.
These are things that you should give to God.
And if you are having trouble giving God those things
Then David again has the answer.
We saw it back in 103
Psalms 103:2 “Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget none of His benefits;”
David taught us that if a soul needs motivation to bless God,
You provide that motivation through the memory.
• You simply start counting your many blessings.
• You name them one by one.
• And before long, your soul will be blessing God.
Well, David’s methodology hasn’t changed much here in 105.
If you are having trouble with gratitude or trust or evangelism or praise
Or meditation or boasting or satisfaction of dependence
THEN HERE IS THE WAY YOU FIX THAT.
(5) “Remember His wonders which He has done, His marvels and the judgments uttered by His mouth”
In short, if you are having trouble responding to God as He has desired
Then stop and remember the judgments He has rendered
And the miraculous way He has carried those judgments out.
Think about His miraculous works.
• Think about His unfathomable deeds.
• Think about why He did them.
All of that will make more sense in a moment
When David starts listing some of them.
But this is the cure for failing to meet God’s expectation.
And here to give FURTHER EXPLANATION
David actually mentions the TARGET GROUP we are talking about here.
Who is to be grateful and trusting and satisfied and boastful in God?
(6-7) “O seed of Abraham, His servant, O sons of Jacob, His chosen ones! He is the LORD our God; His judgments are in all the earth.”
Who is David talking to?
• Those who are sharers in the covenantal promises to Abraham.
• Those who recipients of all the benefits of the promises God made to Abraham.
• Those whom God has chosen.
• Those who bear the distinction as “God’s people” or even more accurately, “God’s chosen people”
David says, “He is the LORD our God”
Think about that statement for a moment.
“He is the LORD” is alone a marvelous reality.
“LORD” there is the divine name of God – Yahweh
• He is the supreme authority and covenant savior of Israel.
• He can do whatever He wants.
• He acts and none can reverse it.
But He is not some distant unknown being.
He is “our God”
• We are His people.
• He has redeemed us.
• He has saved us.
And when David says “His judgments are in all the earth”
• He is talking about God’s judgments that are made on behalf of His people.
David now after calling Israel to praise God
Is beginning to remind them of their obligation to do so.
You of all people should be eager to praise God
For He has done things for you that He has done for no one.
• He continually works in this world on your behalf.
• He continually makes judgments in the world that benefit you.
Now that’s really just the prologue to the Psalm.
It is God’s expectation.
But, as has been the method for the last two Psalms,
David now will start chronicling all the evidence.
When David wanted his soul to bless God
• He started listing all those personal benefits of salvation.
When David wanted his soul to bless God
• He started listing all the realities of God’s creation.
Now when David wants Israel to join and worship God with all their soul
• He is about to start listing all the benefits God has shown to them as a nation.
Now obviously we are not going to get through all of them tonight,
But I want to start looking at the first one at least.
So you’ve seen God’s expectation, now let’s start talking about all the great things about God that should cause you to worship Him as He expects.
#2 GOD’S LOYALTY
Psalms 105:8-15
The word is not mentioned in these verses,
But the evidence of it drip out of every verse.
We remember that favorite Hebrew word CHECED.
Commonly translated as “lovingkindness”
But it actually speaks of the loyalty of God.
It is different than faithfulness,
• Which David will talk about later in verses 37-44.
Faithfulness is simply a reference to the fact that God always faithfully does what He promises.
If God says He will do it, then He will do it.
Where loyalty is different is that
GOD always seems to keep making the promises.
Regardless of their mistakes, God just never leaves them.
• God keeps working on behalf of Israel.
• God continues to make promises to them when He is under no obligation to do so.
At least when we say God is faithful we understand that
He is obligated to be faithful because He must keep His word.
But what obligates God to continue making promises?
Well that is the loyalty we are talking about.
The loyalty that the God of the universe looked down from heaven
And of all the people of the earth He decided that
He was going to show favor to one man and his descendants.
God looked down at Abraham and His loyalty has never waned.
(8-11) “He has remembered His covenant forever, The word which He commanded to a thousand generations, The covenant which He made with Abraham, And His oath to Isaac. Then He 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 portion of your inheritance,”
It is one of the most peculiar occurrences in Scripture.
Genesis 12:1-3 “Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
And the question we would ask is “WHY?”
What had Abram ever done to warrant such a promise?
• And the answer is nothing.
• Abram was a pagan idol worshiper.
• Abram was a slave owner.
• Abram was a greedy seeker of worldly prosperity.
And Scripture doesn’t say that Abram approached God,
God approached Abram under absolutely no compulsion whatsoever,
God made this wild promise to Abram.
God decided that of all the people on the planet,
Abram would be the one He would bless.
It is the purest expression of grace imaginable.
And you know about the life of Abram.
• You know how God cultivated his faith.
• You know how God forgave his flaws.
• You know how eventually Abram became a man of great faith.
GOD NEVER GAVE UP ON HIM.
But what is even more remarkable is that
Even though He was under no obligation to do so,
God continued making that same promise to his descendants.
Next comes Isaac,
Who if there was a dud among the patriarchs, it is Isaac.
However:
Genesis 26:24-25 “The LORD appeared to him the same night and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham; Do not fear, for I am with you. I will bless you, and multiply your descendants, For the sake of My servant Abraham.” So he built an altar there and called upon the name of the LORD, and pitched his tent there; and there Isaac’s servants dug a well.”
You know what you call that?
Loyalty.
• God just was loyal to Abraham, and so he extended that same favor to his son.
And not just his son, even Jacob his grandson.
• Jacob you remember as a scoundrel.
• A raucous, arrogant, deceptive, conniving, worthless individual.
But…
Genesis 28:13-15 “And behold, the LORD stood above it and said, “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your descendants. “Your descendants will also be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed. “Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
Why?
Again it is unspeakable loyalty.
God just always seems to show loyal commitment
To Abraham and his descendants.
(12-15) “When they were only a few men in number, Very few, and strangers in it. And they wandered about from nation to nation, From one kingdom to another people. He permitted no man to oppress them, And He reproved kings for their sakes: “Do not touch My anointed ones, And do My prophets no harm.”
Do you remember this?
We actually saw it twice.
(Once to correct Abram’s blunder, once to simply protect him)
First when Abram fled the Promised Land because of a famine and went to Egypt and told Pharaoh that Sarai was his sister.
Genesis 12:17 “But the LORD struck Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife.”
That was Abram’s blunder, but God protected him.
Later, Abraham was oppressed, and God protected him again.
This time it was Abimelech.
We don’t have time to outline again the entire chapter,
But the study is available on our website.
Most see Genesis 20 as another mistake by Abraham.
They see it as the old Abraham again passing his wife off as his sister.
• And they think Abraham is blowing it again.
But Genesis 20 never says that.
In fact Abraham never gets rebuked at all in the chapter.
The only rebuke is for Abimelech.
Genesis 20:3 “But God came to Abimelech in a dream of the night, and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is married.”
God again preserved Abraham.
It’s like he was God’s favorite or something.
God was always looking out for him.
I personally love the story about when Abraham sent a servant to go and find a wife for Isaac.
The servant was pretty nervous because
• He was supposed to travel back to Abraham’s land,
• Find a girl,
• And convince her to come back and marry Isaac sight unseen.
That servant thought it was a far-fetched plan,
BUT HE WAS SURE OF ONE THING.
He knew that God was loyal to Abraham.
Genesis 24:12 “He said, “O LORD, the God of my master Abraham, please grant me success today, and show lovingkindness to my master Abraham.”
• We have him praying to God on behalf of his CHECED that He always shows Abraham.
Remember the test was to find a woman
Who would draw water and water all of his camels.
After God honored that request, notice the prayer again of the servant.
Genesis 24:26-27 “Then the man bowed low and worshiped the LORD. He said, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken His lovingkindness and His truth toward my master; as for me, the LORD has guided me in the way to the house of my master’s brothers.”
The servant marveled at how loyal God always was to Abraham.
We are simply talking about the benefit of being God’s children.
We are talking about the blessing
Of being able to say that the LORD is our God.
And David wants Israel to stop and ponder this great loyalty
As a motivation to fulfill God’s expectation of praise.
WE SHOULD TOO.
We also enjoy God’s loyalty.
The pinnacle passage on this is found in the book of Romans.
Romans 8:31-39 “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, “FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED.” But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Do you understand what Paul is saying there?
You are treated by God every bit as well as God treated Abraham.
• You are under His favor
• You have His loyalty
• He causes you to conquer in the face of hostility
• Nothing can separate the bond He has with you
It’s God’s loyalty, just like He showed it to Abraham.
And based on that reality you too should be motivated
To fulfill God’s great expectation of worship and praise.
Gratitude, Trust, Evangelism, Praise,
Meditation, Boasting, Satisfaction, and Dependence.
That is the least we can do
Based upon the great benefit of God in our lives.
That’s all we have time for tonight, next time we’ll continue looking at these great benefits.
