Psalm:105, Admonished to the people of Israel, and all of us, to worship the God of the Holy Bible and to place their trust in him. To always remember his great acts of deliverance and salvation and his faithfulness to fulfill his word to Abraham and to each and all.
Psalm:105 recounts the acts of God in the
life of the Children of Israel reminding them never to forget their God
and his faithfulness to them.
It is also possible that , Psalm:105 was
used during one of the Holy Days of the Old Covenant. Some Biblical
Scholars believe that it was associated with the Feast of Tabernacles, or
called Feast of Booths or Sukkot which
recalled the people of Israel's wondering in the Wilderness, and believed by
some, to look forward toward the Messianic Kingdom; or the Feast of Weeks, called the Feast of First Fruits also
called Shavuot, which was when the Law was
given from the top of Mt.Sinai.
Admonish to Worship
Psalm:105 encourages the people
of Israel, and again, all of us, to worship the Great God. The very God, who
was, and is faithful to fulfill his word to Abraham to us all. To recall all of
God's great acts of Salvation and to worship him for all that he is and all
that he does.
"Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name;
make known among the nations what he has done.
Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts.
Glory in his holy name; let the
hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.
Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always.
Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced, you his
servants, the descendants of Abraham, his chosen ones, the children of Jacob"Ps:105:1-6
If we truly could grasp who the great
God is and the salvation that he has even now provided for each and all who
will but freely receive it, if we could, just catch a glimpse of it, we would fall
to our knees and thank him and honor him.
Assurance of Life
Psalm:105 records for Israel how
God, even before Israel was a nation, worked to assure that they would be his
people. That God worked through the Patriarch Joseph to preserve life and to
provide for the decedents of Abraham and to show an example of his faithfulness
to they and believers throughout the ages and we today.
God moved in the life Joseph to shown himself
faithful, even though Joseph was sold into slavery was made a slave and then
was falsely accused and found himself alone in the dungeons of Egypt
Even in these difficulties God never departed
from Joseph. The Lord was with Joseph through and in it all. God was preparing
Joseph to be used for great things which would impact all humanity for
generations to come and sustain the family line from which Jesus Christ himself
would emerge in human history manifesting the deliverance and salvation.
"He called down famine on the land
and destroyed all their supplies of food;
and he sent a man before them— Joseph, sold as a slave.
They bruised his feet with shackles, his neck was put in irons,
till what he foretold came to pass, till the word of the Lord proved him true.
The king sent and released him, the ruler of peoples set him free.
He made him master of his household, ruler over all he possessed,
to instruct his princes as he pleased and teach his elders wisdom".(16-22)
Joseph, Jesus and Us
When we read these verses, they speak to each and all of us, not just regarding
Joseph but about our Lord Jesus Christ and all of us as well.
As Jesus came and sheared in our humanity in the incarnation. The Great God
assumed us all up and joined us in a unique way to himself. This means that
Jesus became like us making us his brethren and he ours.
"Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in
their humanity" Heb:2:14
Jesus, the eternal Son of God, the second
person of the Holy Trinity, is through the incarnation , one of us. Jesus looks
upon us all as his brothers and sisters, yet he still is and eternally the Son
of God.
Yet, Jesus like Joseph who, in the providence
of God was despised and rejected by his own brothers who were motivated by
jealousy and dislike for the divine revelation that Joseph spoke regarding his
dreams and the favor that their father showed Joseph, they then and dropped
Joseph into a well then sold by those brothers into slavery for the deliverance
and salvation of the people, so was Jesus.
Jesus we are told came to his own, the Jews,
who rejected him and did not want the divine revelation that Jesus spoke to
them. The religious establishment motivated by jealousy moved to have Jesus
arrested and put to death on the Cross, this happened ultimately for the
deliverance and salvation of us all.
"He came to that which was his own, but
his own did not receive him."Jhn:1:11
Delivered
Joseph, we understand from the Biblical
narrative, was ultimately delivered and lifted high in the land of Egypt. God
was faithful not to abandon Joseph in the darkness and suffering of the dungeon
and never forsaking the promises which the Lord had made to Abraham and all his
decedents.
Through his place of authority Joseph acted to
deliver his family and the people of the land and in doing so preserved the
promises of the Messiah.
"till
what he foretold came to pass, till the word of the Lord
proved him true. The king sent and released him, the ruler of peoples set him free. He made him master of his household, ruler over all he possessed, to instruct his princes as he pleased and teach his elders wisdom"
Jesus was through the resurrection delivered from the dungeon of death
and the grave and lifted to the highest place by the Great God.
" So it is also stated elsewhere: "'You will not let
your holy one see decay." Acts:13:35
"Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him
the name that is above every name," Phip:2:9
From this exulted place Jesus delivers us and preserves our lives, not
just for the here and now but through all eternity.
This deliverance is for each and all of us , it speaks of God's faithfulness to and for us, we can like Joseph, and even our Lord Jesus , find ourselves in circumstances when it seems that we are bound by fetters of iron and taken the slavery of conditions and into the dungeons of despair. We may feel abandoned and forgotten. The situation that we are in my seem as if it will never change and we are lost without hope of deliverance.
It is in time like these that Scriptures witness to us of the faithfulness of
God that he faithful and will ultimately act on our parts and deliver us as he
did for Joseph and he did for his Son Jesus Christ.
St. Paul , speaking about his own deliverance from circumstance beyond his
ability to change tells us that this experience was so that we learn to look
only to Jesus to release us from the difficulties that we might face in this
life.
"We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters,
about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great
pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life
itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this
happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.He
has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him
we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us" 2Cor: 1:8-10
To Set the Prisoner Free
Jesus came to deliver us and set us free, he
frees us from sin, death, fear, disenfranchisement, whatever the dungeon is
that we might find ourselves locked away in.
"The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the
prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free," Lk:4:18
If you, today are facing hardships and feel that there is no hope, and
that you are abandoned take courage and be encouraged for the Lord is faithful
and will not forsake you.
God will, in his timing, act to bring you out of the dungeon you or any
of us may find ourselves bounded and chained within. Our God is faithful and we
will, in the end praise and worship the Great God, for we will be delivered.
Benediction: May we each and all look
only to our God who delivers us thru his Holy Son Jesus Christ, today, tomorrow
and forevermore. Amen.
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Rev.Todd Crouch, Norman, Oklahoma
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