He sent Moses his servant, [and] Aaron whom he had chosen
Psalm 105 retells Israel's story, and here it reaches the darkest point: a people enslaved in Egypt. At that moment the psalm names two men. It credits both to God's sending and God's choosing, not to Israel's planning.
Israel's history holds plenty of failure. This psalm still tells it as a story of grace:
In Psalm 105, God reviews His people — all that they were and all that they had done lay before His eyes. And right through that Psalm, whatever He may have to say, grace triumphs.
Here is the history packed into that one line:
Then the Lord sent Moses, who had been born in Egypt, back to that country to deliver His people from their bondage. Aaron, his older brother, was chosen to support Moses.
God sent Moses when the pressure on Israel was at its worst:
In Egypt, the burdens of the Israelites had grown to their highest, just when the Lord was preparing Moses's deliverance for them… As has been said, the hour of preparation for a better order of things is not a time when things look promising. It is the opposite.
Another writer points to where the call was given, and whose cry it answered:
Alone with God in the distant desert of Horeb, Moses received his commission of deliverance. He was sent to break the iron yoke of those whose groan of helpless misery had come into the ears of Israel's God.
Aaron's place at Moses's side began with a failure in Moses himself:
This is how one of the very greatest of God's servants grieved God. He was angry at the unbelief. But in mercy He stooped to the weakness of His servant. He joined Aaron with him to carry out the deliverance He had planned for Israel.
The psalm attaches the word "chosen" to Aaron, the man who would later hold the priesthood. That office never rested on popular support or personal ambition:
Aaron was not the people's choice, just as the need for priesthood was not something the people discovered for themselves. Nor did he elect himself. His fitness for the office came from the God who called him, and who laid down the pattern of his consecration and the order of his ministry.
God did not send the two men without backing. The verses that follow supply the proof:
Moses is sent, and Aaron too. Signs and wonders clearly show the broad seal of their commission.
Moses led the people out; Aaron stood as priest between God and the people. Commentators see the two offices meeting in one Person:
The separate ministries of Moses and Aaron come together, in the fullness of divine perfection, in the Person of the Son of God… The heavenly Deliverer was sent in the same way. He had come from the secret of the Father's bosom to do His bidding as the Saviour of His people. They lay without any strength, in hopeless bondage under sin and death.
- Sent, not self-starting. Moses went back to Egypt because God sent him. The psalm keeps the whole rescue in God's hands, where "grace triumphs" from start to finish.
- Sent at the worst hour. The burdens had "grown to their highest" just as God was preparing the deliverance. The hour of preparation does not look promising.
- Sent with help for weakness. Moses met God's call with unbelief. God did not drop him. He "stooped to the weakness of His servant" and gave him Aaron.
- Chosen, not self-elected. Aaron held his place only because God called him. His fitness "came from the God who called him," not from anything in himself.
- Sealed, and pointing beyond. Signs and wonders were "the broad seal of their commission." The two ministries they carried — deliverer and priest — meet in the Son, sent from the Father's bosom to free people from a deeper bondage.
They set his signs among them, and miracles in the land of Ham.
Psalm 105 is a song of thanksgiving. Here the singer reaches the moment when two men stand before the king of Egypt and the wonders begin. Three questions follow. Whose power was at work? Why does the psalm call Egypt the land of Ham? And why does a song of praise dwell so long on disasters?
The same events carry two names, depending on who is watching.
In relation to Egypt, God's dealings were plagues. Each one displayed the wrath and power of God. Through them God made His name known throughout all the earth, and He overthrew Pharaoh, whose stubborn resistance was useless. Yet Pharaoh's spirit remained unchanged. But to the people of God these "great judgments" were signs and wonders. By them God would bring His people out of the enemy's power, out of the house of slavery.
Two men perform the signs, but the rod is God's.
The whole land of Egypt trembled under the repeated strokes of the rod of God. God made everyone feel the terrible weight of that rod, from the king on his throne to the servant at the mill.
The psalm's name for Egypt reaches back to the family lists in Genesis. The old Egyptian word for the country also has a meaning.
The family record of the nations in Genesis 10 lists Mizraim as the son of Ham. In the Psalms, Egypt bears the name "the land of Ham" (Ps. 105:23, 27). Chem or Khem is surely the same word. It is the name for Egypt in the hieroglyphic inscriptions. Its meaning is "black," or "sun-burnt" — darkened by the light. And this is what the "natural state," as we call it, really is. It is not a darkness that comes from the absence of light. It is the effect of the light itself on someone like man.
The plagues were not only punishment. They carried a lesson, and it had two audiences.
The plagues were signs as well as judgments. God sent them to prove who Jehovah was. Egypt once knew enough of God to stay clear of idolatry, but it did not want to hold on to that knowledge of God, and so it sank into the worst idolatry. Above all, God sent them to teach Israel that Jehovah alone is God.
Each plague took a particular shape, and God chose the shape with care.
The character of the plagues shows the wisdom of God. They were suited to humble Egypt and its king. It was not only a blow on the land, with all the pain and anguish it brought the people. It was a solemn contest between Jehovah, the true God, and the false gods of Egypt. God aimed His judgment at the false gods the Egyptians worshipped. He stained the glory they boasted in and made them something to loathe.
God chose the setting with care.
Egypt was both the chief centre of civilization and the country with the most animal gods. There God showed Himself in judgments that humbled their king and their many gods at the same time.
This psalm never mentions Israel's failures. The next psalm is full of them.
Psalm 105 shows only God's goodness to Israel, along with His judgments on their enemies, and it ends in Hallelujah. Psalm 106 begins and ends with Hallelujah too. But there we have only Israel's evil ways confessed, and divine mercy in answer to their cry.
One detail stands out to anyone who knows the story. The plagues here are not in the order they happened.
God also led them in performing signs and wonders that proved God had sent them. The psalm mentions darkness first (v. 28). That was not the first of the plagues but the ninth. Yet from the very beginning the darkness in the hearts of the Egyptians was clear... We may be sure that God has good reason for changing the order of these plagues here, even if we understand little of it.
- Sent — Moses and Aaron do the work, but the psalm calls the wonders His. The servants hold the rod. God swings it, and it lands on king and servant alike.
- Signs — the same events are plagues to Egypt and signs to Israel. They judge one nation and teach the other.
- Sun-darkened — "the land of Ham" names Egypt by its ancestor. The word means black, or sun-burnt. Man's natural darkness is not missing light; it is what light does to him.
- Showdown — each blow was aimed. The whole was a contest between the living God and Egypt's gods. It humbled king and gods together in the most civilized nation on earth.
- Song — this psalm remembers it all as pure goodness, and even rearranges the order of the plagues. Confession waits for the next psalm. Here praise stands alone.
He sent darkness, and made it dark; and they rebelled not against his word.
Psalm 105 is a song of thanksgiving. It retells Israel's story from Abraham's wanderings to the gift of Canaan. Verse 28 opens its account of the blows that fell on Egypt. Two questions press on the reader. Why does the psalm open the plagues with darkness, which came ninth in Exodus? And who are the "they" who did not rebel?
The plagues sit inside a larger argument: God had made a promise, and He kept it.
Psalm 105 offers thanksgiving to Jehovah, and calls on 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... The psalm then tells how God had cared for the fathers, and judged Egypt to deliver His people. And despite their slavery, there was not one weak person among their tribes.
Exodus fills in what those three days were like. One writer retells them, and admits the cause is beyond us.
And first, the supernatural darkness. Without any warning to Pharaoh it spread over the land; a mysterious, dense darkness, which people on earth had never known. We cannot say what caused it. "He sent darkness," we read, "and made the land dark" (Ps. 105:28). That continued for three days. The morning light did not spread over the land. The noonday sun did not scatter the thick covering of darkness. Nothing could pierce it... He who long before divided the light from the darkness (Gen. 1:4) sent darkness on Egypt, while light shone in Goshen... How it subdued the people! They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days (Exodus 10:23).
This plague struck at the heart of Egypt's religion. It also carried a purpose beyond punishment.
Egypt worshipped the sun as the source of light... Suddenly a darkness you could feel came over Egypt. Pharaoh and all Egypt learned now that their idols were helpless. Darkness is the withdrawal of light. It stands for the solemn truth of being forsaken by God... God was about to abandon Egypt; the darkness was the herald of it. The severest judgment of all was about to fall on Egypt: the death of the firstborn. This darkness was God's final appeal to repentance. For three days it shut them in, and all business stopped. Rich and poor, king and beggar, the learned and the ignorant — that dreadful darkness covered every class... God waited, and in that silence and darkness appealed to their conscience.
The psalm's order of the plagues does not match Exodus. One writer finds a deliberate grouping behind the change, and ties the place of darkness to the second half of our verse.
The psalm gives the miracles in a different order from the history. There must, of course, be a reason for this. It seems they fall into two groups. First come the signs proper, whose force lay mostly in their testimony to the conscience. The second group holds those that flattened the land — miracles of destruction that left Egypt desolate. Among the signs proper, darkness stands at the head, the light of heaven withdrawn... In fact, they did not move from their seats during the three days it lasted. That is what the psalmist refers to here when he says, "they did not rebel against His words."
Commentators differ over the closing words. The same writer sets aside the reading most others take, and applies the words to the Egyptians in the dark.
Most interpreters apply this to the Israelite leaders, contrasting it with how they behaved at the waters of Meribah. That seems quite against the flow of the passage. It cannot refer to the Egyptians' final surrender either. Here terror held them perfectly still — only for the moment, no doubt. But that made their later attitude all the more solemn.
Another writer points to a detail of the ninth plague. Unlike the others, it came with no warning to Pharaoh.
The psalm mentions the ninth plague first. It stands out because no warning came beforehand, so that "they did not rebel against His words," as before. (v. 28.)
- Sent. The darkness was not weather. God sent it, and no one can say what caused it.
- Exposed. Egypt worshipped the sun, so withdrawing the light showed their idols to be helpless.
- Stilled. For three days nobody moved from his place. One writer reads that frozen silence as the non-rebellion the verse names.
- Warned. The stillness was God's last appeal to conscience before the firstborn died. Patience came before the final blow.
- Remembered. All of it sits inside a song of thanks. God judged Egypt because He had remembered His covenant with Abraham.
He turned their waters into blood, and caused their fish to die.
Psalm 105 calls Israel to remember what God has done. Here the memory turns to Egypt, where the first blow fell on the water that kept the whole country alive. Why does a song of thanksgiving stop to describe a river of blood and dead fish?
The verse gives no second cause. God is the subject of both halves. One writer sets this act beside Cana, where He also changed water.
A terrible infliction this must have been. Blood in every vessel, and the river literally running blood! Who was working? The magicians did the same, though no doubt in a very limited sphere. But divine power was at work. At Cana He turned the water into wine to cheer His creatures. The same One turned the water of the Nile into blood in His judgment on the Egyptians. All the fish dead. Men and animals who depended on water found it turned into blood. Who had known such a thing before?
The waters here are the Nile. Egypt lived off that river and worshipped it.
We now consider the first plague, the turning of the Nile and its branches into blood. The river was the very life of Egypt. The food, the wealth, and the beauty of the land all came from it. The first judgment of God fell upon Hapi, or Nilus. All Egypt owes its existence to this generous river. But the Egyptians did not own the fruitful Nile as made by God. They took it as the product of the Sun's impulse and of Creative Power, a stream produced, as it were, by nature out of nature. Now it was to be a river of death in the middle of the land.
The dead fish were a loss every household in Egypt could measure. Israel remembered them later in the wilderness.
The water of the Nile and of the canals and pools was turned into blood. The water stank, and the fish died. This was a real punishment, for it was the water they all drank, and they prized it. The fish too was plentiful: the Israelites in the wilderness could not forget the fish they had eaten freely, or "for nothing."
The psalm does not follow the order of Exodus.
Darkness is mentioned first (v. 28), though it was not the first of the plagues but the ninth. Yet from the very first, the darkness in the hearts of the Egyptians showed itself. The turning of the waters into blood was the first plague, followed by the infestation of frogs (vv. 29-30). Flies are then mentioned here, and lice afterward (v. 31), though Exodus 8:16-20 has the reverse order.
Another writer sees the order as deliberate. He asks what those two plagues would have done to Egypt:
The psalm mentions two plagues first: the darkness and the water turned to blood. They touched the two main sources of Egypt's existence and prosperity. The sun went dark and the water of the river turned into blood. This, if continued, would have brought the country to speedy ruin.
This plague was not only against Egypt. It was part of what God did for His people.
Next comes the history of Israel in Egypt. It shows not only God's care for His people, but His judgment on all who oppose and oppress them. The psalm names eight of the plagues that fell on Egypt. They are grouped together, not in historical order. The grouping brings out the devastating character of these judgments.
Israel later longed for the fish that died in this plague. One writer traces how fast the plagues dropped out of their memory.
It was all very well to escape out of Egypt when the terrible judgments of God were falling on it one after another. At such a moment the meat pots, the leeks, the onions and the garlic held little attraction. They were bound up with the heavy plagues sent from the hand of an offended God. But now they have forgotten the plagues, and they remember only the meat pots.
- He turned. The verse names no natural cause. The same power that made water into wine at Cana made the Nile into blood, and the verse calls it His own act.
- He struck the source. Egypt's food, wealth and beauty all came from that river, and Egypt worshipped it. The blow fell on the nation's life supply and on its god at once.
- He killed the fish. The loss was measurable: the drink of every household and the food eaten for nothing were both gone.
- He reordered the telling. Blood comes second here, not first. The psalm groups the plagues for effect, not in the order of Exodus.
- He meant it to be remembered. This is a thanksgiving psalm, and the plague belongs in it. Yet Israel later cried for the very fish God had destroyed. Forget the judgment, and the old food looks good again.
Their land swarmed with frogs, -- in the chambers of their kings.
Psalm 105 retells Israel's history, and this line reaches the plagues in Egypt. The frogs filled the land — and they even reached the private rooms of the kings, where Egypt's power should have kept them out.
The psalm lists the plagues as a group, and not in the order they happened.
The psalm now brings the history of Israel in Egypt before us. It shows not only God's care for His people, but also His judgment on all who oppose and oppress them. It refers to eight of the plagues that fell on Egypt. It groups them together, not in historical order, but in a way that brings out the devastating character of these judgments.
Three of these plagues, the frogs among them, hit the Egyptians themselves.
The next three plagues — the frogs, the flies and the lice (or 'gnats') — touched the persons of the Egyptians, humbling their pride and making life unbearable.
Even the Hebrew word for frogs points to how lowly the instrument was.
Here the order differs from the order in Exodus, and two miracles stand together to make the lesson clear. Two of the lowliest instruments bring down the pride of Egypt: the "swarms" (no doubt, of insects) and the "croakers of the marsh." That is what the word for frogs seems to mean in Hebrew.
The frogs did what frogs do not do. At God's word they left the water and took over the land.
At the word of the Lord the frogs swarmed over the country in huge numbers, against the ordinary instinct of the creature. They afflicted all things — houses, bedrooms, beds, ovens or dough. They afflicted all persons, whether the king or the people. Nothing and nobody was exempt from their slimy presence, their loud croaking and yelling.
Egypt honoured the frog. That is what made the plague humiliating as well as unbearable.
The Egyptians counted frogs among their sacred animals. How humbling this second judgment must have been to them — to see these objects of disgust crowd their houses, and beds, and ovens, and kneading bowls! These animals never trouble the Egyptians at the beginning of the year. Still less do they come and go at the command of a man like Moses.
Egypt even had a goddess whose job was to keep frogs away.
Egyptologists tell us the Egyptians believed a special goddess presided over the frogs and protected the land from them. Her name was Heki, and the monuments sometimes show her with the head of a frog. The Egyptians had to learn that Heki was nothing before the Lord. It illustrates the word, "on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments" (Exodus 12:12).
The magicians could produce frogs. Nobody but God could take them away.
When had anyone known such a plague before? The Lord, the God of Israel, brought the frogs. The gods of the Egyptians could not guard their worshippers against them. The magicians brought up frogs too. But could they take them away? … Pharaoh knew then that the God of the Hebrews was more powerful than all the gods of Egypt. So he turned to Moses to plead with the Lord for him. Frogs crawled over the proud king's body, and he had to ask Moses to intercede for their removal. He did not appeal to the magicians, nor to those frog-shaped idols. He knew they could not help him.
One writer reads a moral meaning in the creature God chose.
The first plague taught the serious lesson of death. The second signifies uncleanness (Rev. 16:13-14). It pictures a far more revolting pollution — the moral and spiritual kind that infects every level of society when people refuse the Word of God. … God had done this to discipline Egypt. He wanted to expose to them the real state of moral uncleanness that spread through their nation.
- Remembered. The psalm retells the plagues to show two things at once: God's care for His people, and His judgment on those who oppress them.
- Lowly. He used "croakers of the marsh" — one of the lowliest instruments — to bring down the pride of a world power.
- Everywhere. Houses, beds, ovens, dough; king and commoner alike. Nobody was exempt, which is the force of "the chambers of their kings."
- Exposed. The creature Egypt held sacred became its torment. The goddess said to control frogs proved to be nothing.
- Owned. With frogs crawling over him, Pharaoh turned to the Lord, not to magicians or idols. Judgment had taught him where the real power lay.
He spoke, and there came dog-flies, [and] gnats in all their borders.
Psalm 105 is a song of thanksgiving that retells Israel's story. Here the psalmist reaches the plagues that fell on Egypt. One short line covers two of them, and it raises two questions: how did they come, and why are they listed in this order?
The psalm names no rod, no messenger, no natural cause. God spoke, and that was all. One writer draws out what such words mean:
"For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast" — these mighty and stable powers came into existence by His mere command. He who brought them into being clearly still has them under His control.
Older English Bibles did not translate the word behind "swarms of flies" the same way twice:
arob, the dog-fly. In Psalm 78:45 and Psalm 105:31 the King James Version translates this word as "divers sorts of flies," referring to one of the plagues in Egypt. In Exodus 8:21-31 it translates the same word as "swarms [of flies]." So more than one kind may have been meant.
The second creature is no clearer. One writer notes how suddenly it came, and how uncertain its name still is:
There was no warning. The rod was lifted, the dust struck, and at once Egypt was filled with lice, or mosquitoes — the exact meaning of the word translated "lice" is not at present known.
The creatures God sent were small. Grouped with the frogs, they struck the Egyptians in person:
The next three plagues were the frogs, the flies and the lice (or "gnats"). They touched the persons of the Egyptians, humbling their pride and making life unbearable.
The source of these pests carries its own lesson. What Egypt depended on for its prosperity became the very thing that tormented it:
The very dust, the soil that yields rich crops, produces lice — the disgusting corruptions that flourish alongside the world's prosperity (Exodus 8:16). The plague of flies is similar (Exodus 8:20). It shows how all that the world values, if separated from God, will turn into plagues in the end.
The verse says the swarms reached every part of Egypt's territory. What it does not say is where they stopped — at the border of Goshen, the region where Israel lived:
Was there no limit to this plague? There was. The limit was territorial: not one of these insects found its way to the land of Goshen. God kept the Israelites free from them, while the insects tormented the Egyptians. The Lord plagued the Egyptians; the Lord sheltered His people… Here His power was on display. His directing hand could be seen keeping the insects within the set limits, and His mercy would be seen in removing them from the Egyptians.
Read this psalm beside the book of Exodus and the plagues come out of sequence. This verse is part of that pattern:
Flies are mentioned here, and lice afterward (v. 31), though Exodus 8:16-20 has them in reverse order… We may be sure that God has good reason for changing the order of these plagues in this report. We may understand little of it.
Commentators differ on the reason. One leaves it with God; another sees the plagues sorted into two classes:
It would seem that we have a classification of them in two divisions. First come the signs proper: those whose force lay for the most part in their testimony to the conscience. The second division consists more of those that really laid the land low — miracles of destruction that made Egypt desolate.
This is a psalm of praise. It calls people to remember the plagues — even people born long after, in the millennium:
Those in the millennium were not present when God freed Israel from Egypt by His marvellous works. Yet they are still told to "remember His marvellous works." They can do this just as we can remember the whole history of the Lord Jesus… We can remember because we have God's Word for all this.
- Spoken — God spoke, and the swarms came. The One who brought all things into being still controls them.
- Small — He used insects. Egypt's own dust and prosperity turned against it, humbling the nation's pride and making daily life unbearable.
- Sweeping — The swarms filled the whole country. Writers still debate which creatures the words "swarms" and "gnats" name.
- Stopped — Goshen was untouched. The same hand that sent the swarms drew the line they could not cross, sheltering His people.
- Sung — These judgments sit in a song, out of their historical order. People who never saw them can still remember them from God's Word.
He gave them hail for rain, [and] flaming fire in their land;
Psalm 105 looks back over God's dealings with Israel — from the patriarchs to the wilderness — as proof that He keeps His word. The verse sits inside a list of the blows that fell on Egypt. It raises two questions. Why does a storm of ice and fire belong in a song of praise? And why does the psalm list the plagues out of their historical order?
The psalm reviews Israel's past, and one writer points out what it leaves out:
In all these dealings with His people — in the days of the patriarchs, in the days of Israel's slavery, or on their journey through the wilderness — there is no mention of their sins, their complaining and their rebellions. The psalm recounts it all to remind us of Jehovah's wonderful works, and of His faithfulness to His covenant.
So the psalm does not tell the hail as a horror story. It tells it as proof that God had not forgotten His covenant.
Psalm 105 reviews the special dealings with Israel in past times. The psalm also has a present deliverance by judgment in view, but it looks at that deliverance as His faithfulness to His promise and grace. Here a present display of goodness awakens the memory of all God's past ways. That is what He is, what He always was.
Anyone who compares this list with Exodus finds the plagues in a different order. One writer explains why:
The psalm next sets Israel's history in Egypt before us. It shows not only God's care for His people, but His judgment on all who oppose and oppress them. It mentions eight of the plagues that fell on Egypt. The plagues are grouped together, not in historical order, but in a way that highlights how devastating these judgments were.
Another writer notes the same change and leaves the reason with God:
Hail and flaming fire come next (v. 32), though two other plagues came in between before God sent these. Then come locusts beyond counting (v. 34), which ate up the plants of the land. We may be sure that God has good reason for changing the order of these plagues in this report, however little we understand it.
What should have come down as water came down as ice. The gift became the weapon:
If the earth, away from God, is turned into a scene of corruption and ruin, heaven will frown on it as well. In the plague of hail we see the result of this contempt for God. Hail is rain chilled into ice. The very mercies of heaven, when despised, become pitiless judgment.
The second half of the verse has lightning striking the ground itself. One writer describes the storm and what it proved:
The storm was terrifying. It thundered; it hailed; and the lightning fire ran along the ground. There was hail, and fire mixed with hail, such as no one had ever seen. He who had power over the waters, the dust, and even over people's bodies, had power over the air as well. The God of the Hebrews was almighty.
The hail also struck at what the Egyptians owned:
The next two plagues — the hail and the locusts — destroyed their possessions and left them with nothing.
The hail did not fall without notice. God warned first, and some acted on the warning:
These judgments reveal Jehovah's holiness, His almighty power and His justice, as well as His patience and longsuffering. They point forward to all the judgments still to come on this earth. The advice God gave through Moses was loving and gracious (verse 19). No doubt there were many Egyptians who believed and escaped. The unbelieving suffered. Divine mercy still lingered.
This storm appears again in Revelation, and Pharaoh's response carries its own warning:
Fire (lightning) came with the fearful hail and ran along the ground, and there was thunder too. The Hebrew calls these "the voices of God." The storm is a picture of God's wrath in judgment. Revelation mentions hail again and again, and there it is called "the plague of hail" (Rev. 8:7, 11:19, 16:21). The plagues of Egypt will come on this earth again during the great tribulation. Notice Pharaoh's confession. It shows what a deep impression this plague made on him (verse 27)... What a desperately wicked thing the human heart is. He sinned more after this than before.
- Remembered — the psalm lists Egypt's plagues but never Israel's sins. Its subject is God's faithfulness to His covenant.
- Rearranged — the psalm groups the plagues to show how devastating they were, not to give the order in which they fell.
- Reversed — hail is rain chilled into ice; the mercy of heaven, despised, comes back down as judgment.
- Reaching — the God who ruled the water, the dust and men's bodies ruled the sky as well.
- Repeated — God warned first, and some Egyptians believed and escaped. Pharaoh was shaken, then sinned worse. The plague of hail returns in Revelation.
And he smote their vines and their fig-trees, and broke the trees of their borders.
Psalm 105 is a song of thanksgiving. It retells Israel's history, and this line sits inside its account of the plagues on Egypt. The line just before it names hail and lightning. Here the blow falls on Egypt's vines, fig trees and forests.
The psalm says in one line what Exodus tells at length. One writer retells that storm:
It thundered; it hailed; and the lightning fire ran along the ground. There was hail, and fire mixed with hail, such as no one had ever seen. He who had power over the waters, the dust, and even over men's bodies, had power over the atmosphere as well. The God of the Hebrews was almighty. Man and beast must bow under His hand. "The hail struck down every plant of the field and broke every tree of the field." Never before had such a storm struck the land. Never since has one matched it. Yet mercy appeared. The hail struck the flax and the barley, and those crops, we conclude, spoiled for that year. But the wheat and the rye escaped, because they had not yet sprung up. So there would be food for the year from these crops.
Grain can be replanted next season; a vine or a fig tree takes years to grow back. The psalm names the plagues in groups, and this pair belongs to the group that emptied Egypt's storehouses:
The next two plagues — the hail and the locusts — were destructive to their possessions, reducing them to destitution.
The trees mattered for more than food. Egypt held them sacred:
The plague of the locusts, together with that of the hail, destroyed the sacred trees of the land. These were especially prayed to at harvest time, and to the sycamore, people of every rank gave homage and offerings from the fruits of the earth.
One writer finds the meaning of this plague in what hail is:
If the earth away from God becomes a scene of corruption and desolation, heaven will frown on it too. In the plague of hail we see the result of this despising of God. Hail is rain chilled into ice. The very mercies of heaven despised are changed into pitiless judgment.
The psalm does not list the plagues in the order Exodus gives. Hail comes before two plagues that in fact came earlier. One writer leaves the puzzle open:
Hail and flaming fire are next noted (v. 32), though two other plagues actually came before these were sent. The locusts without number are mentioned (v. 34), which ate up the vegetation of the land. We may be sure that God has good reason for changing the order of these plagues in this report, little as we may understand it.
Another suggests the grouping itself is the point — that the plagues are arranged to show how total the ruin was: they are set out "not in historical order, but in a way that brings into prominence the devastating character of these judgments."
Why does a song of thanks list the ruin of another nation? One writer sets this psalm beside the next:
In Psalm 105 only divine goodness appears to Israel, and His judgments on their enemies, ending in Hallelujah. In Psalm 106, which begins and ends with Hallelujah, we have only Israel's evil ways confessed, but divine mercy on their cry.
Hail appears again in Scripture, in past judgments and in judgments still to come:
Though hail is usually formed by natural causes not yet perhaps well understood, it is often referred to in Scripture as one of the judgments of God. It formed one of the plagues in Egypt. Ex. 9:18-34; Ps. 78:47-48; Ps. 105:32… It will also form a notable part of the judgments of God in His future dealings with this guilty world. Rev. 8:7; Rev. 11:19; Rev. 16:21.
- Struck — The storm broke every tree of the field. Yet mercy appeared: the wheat and rye had not yet come up, so there was still food for the year.
- Stripped — Hail and locusts took Egypt's possessions and left the nation destitute. They also felled the trees Egypt prayed to at harvest.
- Reversed — Hail is rain frozen; heaven's despised mercies came back as judgment.
- Rearranged — The psalm lists the plagues out of order, and one writer trusts God's reason for it even where we cannot see it.
- Remembered — Israel sang all of this as thanks. Psalm 105 tells of God's goodness to Israel and His judgment on her enemies, and it ends in praise.
He spoke, and the locust came, and the cankerworm, even without number;
Psalm 105 is a thanksgiving song. It retells Israel's story — the promise to Abraham, the slavery in Egypt, and the blows by which God forced Egypt to release His people. Verse 34 records one of those blows in the fewest possible words.
The plague list sits inside a call to give thanks. One writer ties it to God keeping His covenant with Abraham.
Psalm 105 offers thanksgiving to Jehovah. It calls on 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... The psalm then recites how God had cared for the fathers, and judged Egypt for the deliverance of His people.
Another writer marks how narrow the focus is — this psalm is not the whole account of God's government of Israel:
The hundred and fifth psalm is not the story of God's governmental ways with Israel as a whole, but simply of that which has to do with His action on their behalf, mainly in the deliverance in Egypt, and ending with their possession of the land.
The whole event hangs on two words: He spoke. No weapon, no army, no delay. One commentator points to what bends when God speaks:
Notice the stress laid on the word of God here. The natural system must bend to His will. Even His enemies set up fixed laws to shut Him out of sight and hearing. Again and again those laws have bowed to His word — not only in a small sphere, but on the largest scale... But His word He exalts above all His name. It is the expression of His mind, purpose and love, as well as His majesty in judgment.
The verse stresses quantity, not size. One small insect becomes overwhelming in vast numbers. The order inside the swarm shows whose command it obeys:
Man may have turned away from God and become hostile to Him. But nature, in its whole framework, is obedient and serves Him still. So the sinner finds himself in a stream of hostile forces — the hosts of the Lord. The army of locusts gives us a vivid picture of them. "The locusts have no king," says Agur, "yet all of them march in rank" (Prov. 30:27)... They keep this discipline by instinct, with an invisible king. It shows whose hosts they are, and who marshals them: "His army," the Lord calls them (Joel 2:11).
The same writer states the conclusion plainly: nature is not neutral ground.
So nature, with its laws, serves the Law-giver, and woe to those who contend against their God. They are hopelessly in the grasp of destructive forces which fully own the One they do not.
This blow came last in a series, and its work was to finish what earlier ones had started:
Horses, donkeys, camels, oxen and sheep had died of the disease. The hail had killed cattle too. It struck every plant of the field and broke every tree, and the flax and the barley with them. The desolation was indeed widespread. Now the locusts would complete it. Every green thing would be eaten.
Yet God announced it in advance and left one door open:
Even in those days locusts were well known as a serious plague. This one was announced as worse still: it would destroy all that was left in the land... Only one way of escape was pointed out: Pharaoh humbling himself before the Lord, and letting Israel go.
Psalm 105 does not list the plagues in the sequence Exodus gives. One writer notes this and does not force an explanation:
The psalm notes hail and flaming fire next (v. 32), though two other plagues came before them. Then it mentions the locusts without number (v. 34), which ate up the plants of the land. We may be sure that God has good reason for changing the order of these plagues in this report, little as we may understand it.
Locusts stand for God's judgment right across Scripture. One writer also notes which Egyptian god this plague exposed:
Locusts covered the face of the whole earth and destroyed every green thing. On the ravages of the locusts we find a vivid description in the book of Joel. Locusts are typical of God's punitive judgments. The locust plague was aimed at showing the powerlessness of the Egyptian god Serapis. The Egyptians trusted him as their protector against locusts. Locusts are likewise mentioned in a symbolic way in Revelation 9:1-12.
And the record speaks to readers now, not only to Israel then:
These things are pictures for us, and the God of Israel is as full of power today as ever He was: these very locusts may remind us of that.
- He spoke — the verse has no machinery in it. God's bare word sets the created order moving, and that same word is "the expression of His mind, purpose and love, as well as His majesty in judgment."
- They came — the locusts arrive as an army with an invisible king. Nature "serves the Law-giver," so those who resist God are already inside the forces that obey Him.
- Without number — the smallest creature, multiplied, is enough. God needs no great instrument to finish what earlier blows had begun.
- Nothing green — God announced the plague in advance and left one way out: Pharaoh humbling himself. Judgment declared in advance is judgment that still offers escape.
- Remembered — the whole list stands inside a thanksgiving psalm. God judged Egypt to keep His promise to Abraham, and the power He showed there is unchanged today.
And they devoured every herb in their land, and ate up the fruit of their ground.
Psalm 105 is a song of thanksgiving, yet here it pauses over ruin. Why does praise dwell on a land picked clean, and what has that to do with God keeping His promise?
This plague sits inside a psalm built on God's promise. One writer traces where the psalm's praise rests:
Psalm 105 takes up the simple purpose of promise, and that God has remembered His covenant. His judgments are now in all the earth, and He is Jehovah their God. The Lord has acted in their favour, according to His promise, to give them the land of promise. So their story is traced out: judgment on Egypt, and pure faithfulness of grace towards them... for the praise and blessing rest on Abraham, not on Sinai, and end in hallelujah.
The psalm does not list the plagues in the order Exodus gives them. That rearranging is deliberate:
The psalm next brings the history of Israel in Egypt before us. It shows God's care for His people, and also His judgment on all who oppose and oppress them. The psalm mentions eight of the plagues that fell on Egypt. It groups them not in historical order, but in a way that brings out how devastating these judgments were.
The hail and the locusts form one pair with one target:
The next two plagues — the hail and the locusts — destroyed their possessions and left them with nothing.
Locusts were no strange sight in that part of the world:
Several species of locusts visit Palestine; the wind brings them, and the wind carries them away... Huge numbers swarm over a district all at once, and in a very short time they strip its plants bare. As the prophet says, the land in front of them may be like the Garden of Eden. Behind them it is a desolate wilderness. Nothing escapes them.
The swarm did not arrive by chance. Someone was directing it:
Man may have left God and turned hostile to Him. But the whole framework of nature still obeys Him and serves Him. So the sinner stands in a stream of hostile forces, the hosts of the Lord, and the army of locusts pictures them for us. "The locusts have no king," says Agur, "yet all of them march in rank." One observer says nothing in their habits is more striking than the way they all keep the same line of march, like a disciplined army. This built-in discipline, under a king no one can see, shows whose hosts they are and who is marshalling them. The Lord calls them "His army." ... To fight them is hopeless, and the destruction they cause is total.
Egypt trusted a god to keep locusts away:
Locusts covered the face of the whole earth and destroyed every green thing... Locusts are typical of God's punitive judgments. This plague aimed to show how powerless Serapis was. The Egyptians trusted that god to protect them from locusts.
Two peoples came out of the same day in opposite conditions:
The people of Egypt suffered the destruction of their land. But God delivers His people, and despite the oppression they had endured, He brings them out with gold and silver. Not one feeble person is found among their tribes.
One writer pictures what was left of the land, including Goshen, the district where Israel lived:
Every juicy green plant fell before them. They took all that the hail had left. As far as the eye could reach, the land of Egypt was a wilderness, as barren as the yellow deserts on its borders. Goshen — the garden of Egypt — also fell under the plague, because its fruits and its crops were no longer needed for Israel.
- Promise first. The psalm sets these plagues inside praise that rests on God's covenant with Abraham, not on Sinai, and it ends in hallelujah.
- Grouped for effect. The psalm lists the plagues out of order to press home how devastating they were. Hail and locusts together stripped Egypt's possessions.
- Nothing escapes. Locusts leave total destruction: a garden in front of them, a wilderness behind them.
- An obedient army. These insects march in rank under a king no one can see. Anyone who fights God finds nature itself still serving Him.
- Emptied and enriched. Locusts stripped Egypt's fields, and the god Egypt trusted proved powerless. God's people walked out with silver and gold, and not one weak person among them.
And he smote every firstborn in their land, the firstfruits of all their vigour.
Psalm 105 is a song of thanks that walks back through Israel's story and praises God for keeping His covenant. Verse 36 names the last plague, and raises two questions: why the firstborn, and why call them a nation's strength?
Within the psalm's list of wonders, this one stroke does something the others do not.
The psalmist then recalls His ways as the Deliverer of His people in Egypt, and right on into the land. The striking of the firstborn was the blow that broke their chains off them. Yet it was only part of a long series of signs and wonders in which He had shown Himself for their deliverance.
One writer weighs what this last blow would have cost Egypt in the end.
The last plague fell on their children. If it had gone on, it would have wiped out the whole people.
Older translations read "the chief of all their strength" where the ESV has "the firstfruits of all their strength." Either way, the phrase is not about age or birth order. It names what a nation counts as its best.
The firstborn was the chief of their strength, all that man would glory in, the fulfilment of his hopes and desires. He struck down what stood for the "excellency of dignity" and the "excellency of strength" by human standards... Egypt pictures the world in its opposition to God. Pharaoh is its god and prince, and his spirit drives those he rules — not by right, but by seizure. So it is of the greatest importance for the children of God to realise that everything man glories in lies under the judgment of God. Death is on everything here, and all is shut up under death.
The same pattern runs back through Genesis. There the firstborn sons keep losing their place.
The firstborn are pictures of human excellence. They were the sons with a natural claim to the birthright — the place of honour and rule. "Reuben," says Jacob on his deathbed, "you are my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity and the excellency of power." Yet he had to add, "Unstable as water, you shall not excel." So the firstborn sons in the book of Genesis lose the place of blessing. Cain — what is he? Ishmael gives place to Isaac; Esau to Jacob; Reuben to Joseph. "That which is first is natural, and afterwards that which is spiritual."
God named this judgment at the very start. It answered what Pharaoh had refused.
At the start of Moses' mission the LORD said to Pharaoh: "Israel is my firstborn son, and I say to you, 'Let my son go that he may serve me.' If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son" (Ex. 4:22-23)... There was no respect of persons. Every country shields its royal palace as far as it can from the disasters that fall on the poor. That night the palace was no safer than the prison cell or the stable. Anguish tore the king's heart just as it tore the heart of the poorest of his subjects.
Israel's own firstborn were no better in themselves. What separated them was something God supplied.
It is the Lord alone who can "put a difference" between those who are His and those who are not... in the case before us, we see it to be a simple question of life or death. This is God's great "difference." He draws a line. On one side of it is "life," on the other "death." Many of Egypt's firstborn may have been as fine and attractive as those of Israel, and much more so. But Israel had life and light, founded on God's purposes of redeeming love and established by the blood of the lamb.
The psalm does not stop at the judgment. It turns the whole story into praise.
Psalm 105 offers thanksgiving to the LORD, and calls on the offspring of Abraham and Jacob to remember Him and glory in His name... He is the LORD, their God. His judgments are in all the earth. And He has remembered His covenant for ever... The psalm then recounts how God had cared for the fathers, and judged Egypt for the deliverance of His people... All their later failure is not touched on.
- Strength. The firstborn were Egypt's strength — its dignity, its power, its hope.
- Struck. God's judgment landed right there. No rank escaped: palace and prison lost alike.
- Shackles. That one stroke was the blow that broke Israel's chains, the last in a long series of wonders.
- Sheltered. Israel's firstborn were no finer in themselves. God drew the line between life and death, and the blood of the lamb marked it.
- Sung. The psalm turns all of it into thanksgiving. It rests on the covenant God remembered, and leaves Israel's later failures out.