He is ever mindful of his covenant, -- the word which he commanded to a thousand generations, --
Psalm 105 is a song of thanksgiving. It walks through Israel's history from Abraham to the land. Verse 8 gives the reason for the song: God has not forgotten what He promised. The verse raises two questions — which covenant is in view, and what it means for God to "remember" at all.
Verses 7 and 8 supply the ground on which the whole psalm rests. One writer traces the line from God's judgments in the earth to a gift He never takes back.
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. He had now remembered it… Now again (v. 8) He had remembered His covenant with Abraham, and He had rescued His people by His judgments. This is the promise being carried out. And God's gifts and calling are never taken back.
The covenant here is not the one given at Sinai, where blessing depended on Israel keeping the law. The difference matters. A covenant that lasts forever cannot rest on people who broke their side of it at once.
"He remembers His covenant forever" (v. 8). This is not the covenant of Sinai. That covenant demanded the obedience of the people, and the people broke it the moment they came under it… It is the covenant God made with Abraham. It was unconditional, not in the least conditional on the obedience of Israel (v. 9). He affirmed the same covenant again to Isaac, and confirmed it to Jacob, despite Jacob's wandering away. It was an everlasting covenant (v. 10), so it depended only on the faithfulness of God.
You cannot work this number out on a calendar. It means "as many generations as there will ever be." The verses that follow use two names, Jacob and Israel, and the covenant takes a different shape with each one.
He has commanded it to a thousand generations — a round number, as it would seem, for as many as may be. He made it with Abraham; and with an oath to Isaac, He confirmed it to Jacob as a decree that cannot be changed, and to Israel as an everlasting covenant. To Jacob, with all the frailty and sinfulness that the name implies, it still takes the form of a decree, the fixed expression of His absolute will. With Israel, the name in which His transforming power has done its work, it is an everlasting covenant.
Read the whole psalm and something is missing: Israel's failures. Verse 8 sets the tone and the closing verses repeat it. God's memory frames the history at both ends, not their failures.
In all these dealings with His people — in the days of the patriarchs, in the days of Israel's bondage, or in their wilderness journey — there is no mention of their sins, their murmurings and their rebellions. The psalm tells it all to bring to mind Jehovah's wonderful works, and His faithfulness to His covenant. This leading thought opens the review of Israel's history, as we read in verse 8, "He remembers his covenant forever."
One writer looks at a song that takes in part of Psalm 105. He finds meaning in what it stops short of saying.
There is, to begin, a part of Psalm 105. He shows how He kept Abraham. He recalls the faithfulness of God toward them until then and bids them recollect it. Only He bids Israel be mindful always of His covenant without saying yet that He remembers it, because it is not yet the full blessing.
Israel did live in Canaan. Yet two writers say the promise of verse 8 still waits for its fulfilment.
The conditional and temporary possession enjoyed by Israel is not, therefore, the fulfilment of the covenant with the fathers.
Psalm 105 is prophetic of this… Looking back at the past history of the nation, we saw that these promises have never yet been fulfilled. The people took their inheritance under law, and lost it. God will make these promises good to them in sovereign grace.
- He remembers. The praise of the whole psalm rests on one fact stated in verse 8 — God has called His own promise to mind and acted on it.
- Not Sinai. He remembers the covenant with Abraham. It asked nothing of Israel's obedience, so it stands on His faithfulness alone.
- Forever. "A thousand generations" means as many as there will ever be. The promise is a fixed decree, not a temporary arrangement.
- No record of sin. The psalm reviews Israel's whole history and never names their murmuring. His memory fills the space their failure would take.
- Still ahead. Israel's short, conditional hold on Canaan was never the fulfilment. Commentators read verse 8 as a promise God will make good in grace.
Which he made with Abraham, and of his oath unto Isaac;
The psalm calls Israel to praise. The ground of that praise is not Israel's record. It is a promise God made to one family and never let go. It reaches back to Abraham and Isaac. What covenant can survive centuries of failure?
Israel had two very different arrangements with God. Only one of them lasts forever.
"He remembers His covenant forever" (v. 8). This is certainly not the covenant of Sinai. That covenant demanded obedience from the people, and they broke it at once when God placed them under it. This covenant is instead "the word that He commanded, for a thousand generations." It is the covenant God made with Abraham. It was unconditional — not in the least conditional on Israel's obedience (v. 9). He again affirmed the same covenant to Isaac, and confirmed it to Jacob, despite Jacob's wandering away. It was an everlasting covenant. So it depended only on the faithfulness of God.
The verse sets a promise beside an oath. That oath belongs to Mount Moriah, where God told Abraham to offer Isaac and then gave him back.
We now learn a lesson from Abraham's steadfast endurance, and from God's gracious way with him on Mount Moriah. Abraham released Isaac from the altar and offered up in his place a ram that God provided. Once that day the angel of the Lord called out of heaven to Abraham, telling him to spare his son. Then the angel's voice came a second time. This time God not only spoke, but bound Himself by an oath to fulfil what He would say. Never before had God been said to swear.
Why would God add an oath to His word? Writers point to how easily human faith wavers.
What a beautiful glimpse this gives us of God! He stoops to consider the feebleness and weakness that mark even the best of His creatures. Here are Abraham and the later heirs of the promises. How easily their faith may waver! How full of uncertainties is the world in which they find themselves! So God comes down to their weakness. He backs up His Word with His oath, saying, "By Myself I have sworn, declares the LORD."
Does an oath sworn to one man long ago touch anyone else?
It was not for Abraham's sake only that God gave this twofold guarantee, His Word and His oath. God applies to the children of faith now the same principles by which He acted towards the fathers of old, so that "we might have a strong encouragement." He could swear by no one greater, so He swore by Himself. There are two unchangeable things, His Word and His oath, and in both it was impossible for God to lie. By them He gives strong encouragement to all who have fled to Christ for refuge from judgment. They can lay hold on the hope set before them, instead of turning back because of the difficulties on the way.
Commentators notice a pattern in Scripture. Whenever Israel's hope is in view, the appeal runs back to this covenant, not to Sinai.
The Spirit of God, in all references to the true hopes of Israel, refers to the unconditional covenant made with Abraham. So we have seen Moses saying, "Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self." Such was the hope of Zacharias, filled with the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:72-73); such also the prophetic song in Psalm 105:6-9, 42.
The two words this verse turns on — remembered and sworn — surface again at the birth of Christ, hidden in the names of the parents of John the Baptist.
The names of two people who come before us here are very significant. The first is Zacharias, which means "Jah has remembered." His wife's name is Elisabeth, the same as Elisheba, which means "God has sworn." And in his song of praise Zacharias puts these two things together: "Blessed be the Lord" — that is, Jehovah, of which Jah is a shortened form — "God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed His people… to remember His holy covenant, the oath that He swore to our father Abraham."
Commentators also read the psalm forward. They hold that these promises are still waiting.
The unconditional promises to the fathers will be fulfilled in grace. Psalm 105 is prophetic of this. When we looked at the nation's past history, we saw that these promises have never yet been fulfilled. The people took their inheritance under law and lost it. God will make the promises good to them in sovereign grace.
- Promise — the covenant remembered here is the one God made with Abraham, not the law given at Sinai. It asked nothing of Israel, so Israel could not break it.
- Oath — God added a sworn word at Moriah, after Isaac was spared. Commentators note this was the first time God is said to swear.
- Reason — God swore because human faith wavers in an uncertain world; He stoops to our weakness.
- Reach — His Word and His oath are two unchangeable things. They bring strong encouragement to everyone who has fled to Christ for refuge.
- Result — Scripture keeps returning to this covenant for Israel's hope. Commentators hold these promises are still future, to be made good in sovereign grace.
And he confirmed it unto Jacob for a statute, unto Israel for an everlasting covenant,
Psalm 105 is a song of thanks, and verses 8 to 11 give the reason for it: God has kept His word. Verse 10 is where God fixes that promise in place with Jacob and calls it "everlasting."
The verse does not say God made a covenant with Jacob. It says He confirmed one. The timing matters: this came 430 years before the law was given, and God knew all that lay ahead when He gave His word.
This unconditional covenant of God (unconditional because it is "in Christ") was first given to Abraham, and God confirmed it 430 years before He gave the Law. He did not confirm it to Abraham — the dates do not fit — but to Jacob, as Psalm 105:10 says. God wants us to see that when He pledged His word, He acted with full deliberation and perfect knowledge of every circumstance, past, present and future.
The years between the promise and its confirmation were not empty. They showed what kind of people God had tied Himself to.
The time between the giving of the covenant and its confirmation was long enough to expose how unworthy the people of the promise were. Of course, God's Word is enough for faith: it stands forever. But how kind He is to confirm the covenant, so that His undeserving people could be sure of it.
The verse uses two names for the same man and two terms for the same covenant. One writer reads that pairing as deliberate: one name carries the man's weakness, the other what God makes of him.
He made it with Abraham, swore it to Isaac, and confirmed it to Jacob as a decree that cannot be changed, and to Israel as an everlasting covenant. The double name is used here, and it clearly points to the people as well as to the father of their twelve tribes. As always, that has meaning. To Jacob, with all the weakness and sinfulness that the name implies, it still takes the form of a decree, the fixed expression of His absolute will. With Israel, the name that marks His transforming power at work, it is an everlasting covenant. So He works in perfect sovereignty, and in keeping with the holiness of His own nature.
after_note: DO NOT USE
So "statute" here means a decree of God's own will. It rests on Him, not on the character of the man who received it.
This covenant is not the law given at Mount Sinai. Commentators mark the difference sharply.
This is not the covenant of Sinai, which demanded obedience from the people, and which the people broke as soon as they were put under it. This covenant in verse 8 is "the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations" — so it lasts through the ages. It is the covenant God made with Abraham, and it was unconditional, not in the least dependent on Israel's obedience (v. 9). He affirmed the same covenant again to Isaac, and confirmed it to Jacob, despite Jacob's wandering away. For it was an everlasting covenant (v. 10), and so it rests only on the faithfulness of God.
That difference shapes the tone of the whole passage.
This is a covenant of pure grace — God's faithfulness to His promises. It stands in contrast to the covenant of Sinai, which rested on the people's responsibility... There is not one word here about the nations oppressing Israel because of their disobedience. All is free grace in this passage.
The covenant is called "everlasting." Yet Israel's history in Canaan was neither permanent nor unbroken.
Israel held the land on conditions, and only for a time. So their possession of it is not the fulfilment of the covenant made with the fathers.
Commentators read the psalm as looking forward as much as backward.
These promises have never yet been fulfilled: the people took their inheritance under law, and lost it. God will make them good to Israel in sovereign grace.
The praise in this psalm rests on one thing: God remembered.
He has remembered His covenant for ever. It was to be permanent. He commanded it to a thousand generations. He had now remembered it... None of their later failure is mentioned... And God never takes back His gifts and His calling.
- Promised — the covenant was first given to Abraham and sworn to Isaac; verse 10 is the third link, not a new agreement.
- Confirmed — God confirmed it to Jacob 430 years before the law was given, so the promise never rested on the law.
- Decreed — a "statute" is a fixed decree of God's own will. It stands on His faithfulness, not on Jacob's worthiness.
- Everlasting — Israel's hold on Canaan was temporary and conditional. Commentators say the promise still waits for its true fulfilment in grace.
- Remembered — the psalm praises God because He remembered His covenant. He never takes back His gifts or His calling.
Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance;
Here the psalm quotes the promise itself — God's own words granting Canaan to Abraham's family. Two questions follow: was the gift conditional, and has it ever been fully received?
One writer traces how the same promise takes a different shape for each name — Abraham, Isaac, Jacob — and when God made the land sure.
He made the covenant with Abraham, and swore it to Isaac. He confirmed it to Jacob as an unalterable decree, and to Israel as an everlasting covenant. Here the double name is used of the people as well as of the father of their twelve tribes, and (as always) it carries meaning. To Jacob, with all the weakness and sin that the name implies, it still takes the form of a decree — the fixed expression of His absolute will. With Israel, in whom His transforming power is made real, it is an everlasting covenant. He works in perfect sovereignty, and according to the holiness of His own nature. By this covenant the land is made sure to them. He made it sure while they were still only strangers there, a few people whom men counted as nothing.
Two very different agreements shaped Israel. One writer says plainly which one this promise belongs to.
This is certainly not the covenant of Sinai. That covenant demanded the obedience of the people, and they broke it at once when God placed them under it... It is the covenant God made with Abraham, which was unconditional, not in the least conditional on the obedience of Israel. He again affirmed the same covenant to Isaac, and confirmed it to Jacob, despite Jacob's wandering away. It was an everlasting covenant, so it depended only on the faithfulness of God. He promised to give Israel the land of Canaan at a time when they were strangers in the land, and very few in number.
The psalm tells Israel to remember. One writer notes what it does not tell them to remember.
Israel is called to remember — not Moses and the conditional promises given to the people through him, but the covenant made with Abraham unconditionally. It was an everlasting covenant to give the land to his seed. The psalm reminds Israel how God preserved those heirs of promise as they went from nation to nation.
The same writer points to what the psalm leaves out.
All their later failure is not touched on. For now again He had remembered His covenant with Abraham, and had delivered His people by judgments. It is the fulfilment of promise. And God never takes back His gifts or His calling.
Israel did hold Canaan for a time. One writer weighs the word "for ever" against what that holding turned out to be.
The land was given to the descendants of Abraham "for ever," or as it is put elsewhere, "for an everlasting possession." Israel's possession of Canaan was certainly not like that. But has the Lord forgotten His promise? Far from it... So the conditional, temporary possession that Israel enjoyed is not the fulfilment of the covenant with the fathers.
Another writer sees the promise still waiting for its day.
God will then fulfil the unconditional promises to the fathers in grace, brought in, as we have seen, by judgment... Looking back at the nation's history, we saw that these promises have never yet been fulfilled: the people took their inheritance under law — and lost it. They will be made good to them in sovereign grace.
"I will give" implies an owner. One writer shows that God still calls that land His own.
God has marked off one spot of land to be the centre of the blessing to the earth... He still has a piece of land He calls His own. "I lent it to you," He says to Israel; "but I have cast you out of it for your disobedience." But the land is the object of God's heart now, even though men fight over it today.
A gift of land marks out a people blessed on earth. Another writer adds that God calls Israel, in turn, His own inheritance.
The land of promise is constantly spoken of as the inheritance of Israel... So when Israel returns to take possession of the land in a future day, it is still called their inheritance. This all shows that they were and will be an earthly people, but God blessed them on earth in relationship with Himself... In connection with this God calls Israel His inheritance: He has chosen them for His own inheritance.
- Given — God made the land sure to Abraham's family by an oath and a decree, while they were still strangers there, few and small in men's eyes.
- Given freely — not the Sinai agreement, which demanded obedience, but a promise resting only on God's faithfulness.
- Given to remember — the psalm calls Israel to recall the promise, not the law, and says nothing about their failure.
- Given for ever — their short, forfeited hold on the land was never the fulfilment. Writers read the promise as still waiting, to be made good in grace.
- Given by an Owner — the One who says "I will give" still calls that land His own, which is why He can give it again.