Give ye thanks unto Jehovah, call upon his name; make known his acts among the peoples.
Psalm 105 tells how God dealt with Israel, from Abraham to the land He promised them. It opens with three commands — thank, call, tell — and the rest of the psalm gives the reasons.
The three commands do more than order a song. They shape the people who obey them:
Restored Israel are to be a praising people, a dependent people and a witnessing people.
Thanks here is not vague gratitude. The psalm says what it is thankful for, and the answer comes a few verses later:
Psalm 105 gives thanks to Jehovah. It calls the descendants of Abraham and Jacob to remember Him and glory in His name. Verses 7, 8 give the occasion. He is Jehovah, their God. His judgments are in all the earth. And He has remembered His covenant for ever. It was to be permanent. He commanded it to a thousand generations. ... All their later failure is not touched on. Now again He had remembered His covenant with Abraham, and had delivered His people by judgments; this is promise being fulfilled.
The psalm leaves out more than that:
Psalm 105 shows the supremacy of pure grace. It takes up the facts between the Red Sea and Sinai, and leaves out everything from Sinai onward.
The second command sits between praise and telling. To call on His name is to admit you are weak:
They are to call upon Him, or "seek the Lord," because they are weak and "strength" is with Him. This dependence must be constant: they must "seek his presence continually" [ESV; older versions read "seek his face"] (compare John 15:5).
The third command points outward. The hearers are the nations outside Israel. Only those who have received God's blessing are fit to speak of His works:
We should make His deeds known among the peoples, the Gentile nations (v. 1). The psalm also advises singing (v. 2), for singing is the language of a redeemed people (Ex. 15). And it is only fitting to speak of His wonderful works when we have received the blessing of those works.
Which deeds? The psalm answers by what it dwells on: not a nation's power, but one man called by grace:
This psalm celebrates grace and election, which fulfil the promise of giving Israel their inheritance. Compare the first fifteen verses with 1 Chronicles 16:8-22, and you see that these are the acts and works that make His name known among the peoples. The change from "Israel," the national name of power, to Abraham in the psalm (v. 6) is very marked. Abraham is the lone pilgrim of grace, calling, and election.
These words were not left on a page. When David brought the ark up to Jerusalem, Israel sang this very opening:
They began with part of Psalm 105, verses 1-15. David tied that day's ceremony to God's promise to Israel's forefathers, that He would give their descendants the land. So they sang the first fifteen verses of it, and there stopped.
Restored Israel will sing this psalm in a coming age. Its call reaches believers now too, for "if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise" (L. M. Grant).
- Thank — the psalm starts with gratitude, not duty. Verses 7 and 8 give the reason: God remembered the covenant He commanded to a thousand generations.
- Call — calling on His name is constant dependence: we are weak, and strength is with Him.
- Tell — the deeds made known to the nations are acts of grace, calling and election, shown to one wandering man, Abraham.
- Grace — Psalm 105 is pure grace. It takes up the facts between the Red Sea and Sinai, and leaves Israel's later failure out.
- Sing — David chose verses 1-15 for the day the ark came home. Singing is the language of a redeemed people, and we speak of His works because we have received their blessing.
Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him; meditate upon all his wondrous works.
Psalm 105 opens with a burst of commands to praise, and this verse adds three more. Two questions follow: who are the singers, and what are the "wondrous works" they tell of?
God's people do not praise a stranger. They praise a God they have watched act, and His own words tell them what those acts mean.
The first section, in seven verses, calls for the celebration of the Lord their God, known by His glorious deeds. His Name is holy. Human weakness needs His power. The "judgments of His mouth" explain His acts, and make them a picture of His perfect ways.
So what are these wondrous works? The first fifteen verses point to a promise God made to Abraham — and to something the psalm never mentions.
The first fifteen verses of Psalm 105 are an appeal to celebrate the Lord because of His covenant. It is the covenant "which He made with Abraham, and His oath to Isaac; and He confirmed it 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." This is a covenant of pure grace, God's faithfulness to His promises, unlike the covenant of Sinai, which rested on the people's responsibility... We do not find a single word about Israel's oppression by the nations as a result of their disobedience. All is free grace in this passage.
The command to sing assumes something has happened first. One writer traces every song in Scripture back to one source.
Here is the first thing to notice about this outburst of joy. Scripture never mentions singing except in connection with redemption. Angels are never even said to sing... It is therefore only redeemed ones who can sing, and from this we learn the true character of Christian song. It should express the joy of salvation — the praise and gladness that the knowledge of redemption produces in the soul. "Is anyone cheerful?" says James. "Let him sing praise." In other words, if anyone is overflowing with true joy — joy that follows from known redemption, joy in the Lord as the Redeemer — that joy should come out in psalms of praise to God.
This praise is not private. It goes out to the nations — though the one who speaks must have something to speak of.
We should certainly make His deeds known among the peoples, the Gentile nations (v. 1). Singing is also advised (v. 2), for singing is the language of a redeemed people (Ex. 15). Speaking of His wondrous works is only fitting when we are the recipients of the blessing of those works.
This writer quotes an older wording of the verse — "talk of all His wondrous works," where the ESV has "tell of." He finds a privilege in that one word, and then adds a warning.
We read in the Psalms, "Let us talk of all His wondrous works." And that is indeed a privilege, a privilege within the reach of all who know Him. Notice that it does not say, "Let us preach." If it did, we might feel the call was beyond us. But it says let us talk — talk about Him. A child talks of his father this way, saying to his playmates, "I wish you knew my father, he is the best in all the world." But here it is not talking about Him, but talking with Him. He appreciates our talk about Him; but if we only talk about Him and neglect to talk with Him, we rob Him of what His love prizes so highly.
David chose these words for a public day in Jerusalem. The psalms he picked were not his own.
The king selected three Psalms — 105, 96, and 106. All come from the fourth book of the Psalms, and none of them is ascribed to David. They gave fitting expression for everyone on that occasion. They began with Psalm 105, verses 1-15; for David linked that day's ceremony with the fulfilment of God's promise to the patriarchs, to give their descendants the land. They sang those fifteen verses, and stopped there. Next they sang Psalm 96; for the ark's entrance into Jerusalem was the pledge of the coming day of glory, when God's supremacy over the nations will be shown and owned.
- Redeemed first. Scripture never mentions singing apart from redemption. Angels are not said to sing, so this song belongs to people God has rescued.
- Then sing. Song is the language of a rescued people. The psalm's subject is God's covenant with Abraham — free grace, not a reward for obedience.
- Then speak. Telling of His wondrous works fits those who have received their blessing. God's own words explain His acts and show His perfect ways.
- Anyone can. The call is to talk, not to preach — the ordinary conversation of a child bragging about a good father.
- But talk with Him too. He values our talk about Him; leaving out talk with Him withholds what His love prizes most.