Psalm one hundred and four. This is a psalm that actually extols God for his creative acts and powers.
BLESS the LORD, O my soul (104:1).
The word bless is to praise with adoration. Now the psalmist begins to talk about God.
O LORD my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honour and majesty. Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain: (104:1-2).
So he turns his heart and mind towards God, to begin to praise the Lord with adoration. “Bless the Lord, O my soul” (104:1) praise the Lord with adoration, my soul for the greatness of God. God has clothed himself with honor and majesty. He has surrounded himself with light. The Bible tells us that God dwells in a light that is unapproachable by man. The Bible says that God is light. God stretched out, in a beautiful picturesque kind of speech, he just stretched out the heavens like a curtain.
We look at the vast universe and we are enthralled or overawed when the astronomers start to talk about distances of galaxies and sizes of galaxies and distances in the universe, our minds just sort of sputter because we can’t really comprehend it. I can’t comprehend a light-year. I can understand what it means but to really fathom or comprehend that distance is just beyond me. Multiply it by a hundred thousand times and it’s only that much more difficult for me to grasp. Talking of the universe, the astronomers as of last spring are talking now about fifteen billion light years. Amazing, who can comprehend?
The psalmist said God stretched them out like a curtain. “When I consider the heavens the psalmist said, “the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you’ve ordained”. We see these vast stars in their orbits traveling at phenomenal speeds we wonder the thrust, the power, that put them into orbit and the thrust that put the earth into orbit and then we think about God. I love that scripture in Isaiah that said “And God measured the heavens with span of his right hand”. Now I’m certain that all of our concepts of God definitely limited. We think of God in the terms, almost, of man yet he’s so vast. Can you imagine anything as big as the universe? Can you imagine someone so big that he could measure the whole universe by just the span of his right hand? He’s beyond and above anything our minds can possibly conceive.
I often wonder what an ant thinks of me. I must appear awfully big and powerful to a little ant and yet you don’t even really have any kind of a degree of comparison when you go from man to God. The jump is so much more that it’s not really proper to even try and make that kind of a comparison. The vastness and the greatness of God.
Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters: (104:3).
The Bible spoke about the waters above the firmament and the waters below the firmament when God created the earth and the beams for his habitation above the waters, that is the upper waters of the firmament.
who maketh the cloud his chariot: (104:3).
Of course, this is just beautiful figurative kind of speech as we look at nature and nature brings us into a consciousness and awareness of God. The clouds, chariots of his feet, another scripture talks about them as the dust of his feet. I like that.
who walketh upon the wings of the wind: Who maketh his angels [messengers] spirits; (104:4).
The Bible speaks about the angels being spirits, spirit beings.
his ministers a flaming fire: Who laid the foundations of the earth, (104:4-5).
The basis for the earth,
that it should not be removed for ever (104:5).
He set the earth in its orbit around the sun to continue in that orbit. It’s an amazing thing in itself.
Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment: the waters stood above the mountains (104:6).
Now you have the description of the earth in its form that we find it in Genesis, the first chapter.

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and the earth was without form and void. Darkness covered the face the deep and the spirit of God moved over the face of the waters.”

When the earth was covered by water. Today, if there were no valleys and no mountains the entire service of the earth would be covered six thousand feet deep with water. It was in the early stages of creation that God said, “Let the dry land appear” so God raised up the mountains from under the oceans. That sounds like a rather far-fetched kind of a thing that the waters once covered the earth, that the Himalayas were once covered by the oceans. Isn’t that a little difficult to really believe? Surely if that were so you would find fossil deposits of shells up on the top of the Himalayas, which indeed they have. So a confirmation of what the scripture said that the entire surface of the earth was once covered with water. On the south rim of the Grand Canyon there at the seven thousand foot level you see these fossilized oceans shells there on the Grand Canyon. So God raised it up. First of all he is describing the earth as it is covered with water “you covered it with a deep as with a garment” (104:6).
Immanuel Velikovsky and his book Worlds in Collision suggest that the last great ice age was perhaps less than ten thousand years ago. He offers a great amount of evidence to prove his point. In his book Earth in Upheaval he also devastates the theory of uniform materialism showing the monumental geographical changes that have taken place upon the earth.
One of the things he points out in Earth in Collision as far as the time since the last ice age is the canyon that is being carved out by the Niagara Falls. In the two hundred years or so that we have been aware of the Niagara Falls we are that it is by erosion eating away at that great cliff at the rate of approximately one foot a year. So that the Canadian Hotel that was built on the edge of the Falls a hundred years ago is now a hundred feet away as the Falls have been gradually eroding and creating this canyon. The canyon that has been created by Niagara Falls is seven thousand feet long. If the Niagara Falls has been in this process of eroding away for four million years then theoretically you would have a canyon four million feet long.
The fact that it is only seven thousand feet long certainly indicates that since that last glacial recession of the last ice age that not that much time has elapsed. In the beginning of the glacial ice recession there probably would have been a greater volume of water going over the Niagara Falls than there is now. So the erosion rate could have been greater in those years when there was a greater amount of water coming over.
There are several kinds of time indicators. The magnetic fields that surround the earth are reducing at a constant rate that has been measured over the last hundred and forty-five years. First measured by a Dutch scientist about a hundred and forty-five years ago. This magnetic field is gradually receding in its power.
They feel that in the earlier stages when the magnetic force around the earth was much greater, it probably was reflecting away much more of the cosmic radiation that constantly bombards the earth. It would have allowed a greater, more lush growth upon the earth. Man’s life span would have been a lot longer as the radiation would have been shielded. Of course it’s the radiation that causes the mutations of cells and the aging process and other cancers and things of this nature, mutant cells. We know the suns affect upon the skin can create the skin cancer and so forth, we hear so much about that lately.
If you extrapolate backwards we know that for the last one hundred and forty years there has been a constant decay. We are able to measure it and we are able to predict what it will be next year, ten years from now and a hundred years from now. Taking that backwards, twenty-five thousand years ago the magnetic force around the earth would have been so powerful that the earth would have been in a molten state. Of course no life could have possibly existed upon it in that molten state.
Dr. Barnes from the University of Texas has written an interesting paper on this magnetic field that surrounds the earth. He has shown that this force, this field, reducing as it is in a measurable way and taking it backwards to what it would have been, say twenty-five thousand years ago, shows that life could not have existed. Now the scientist, having to acknowledge this because it’s evidence that they can’t deny, they know that we have been measuring the force of this field for a hundred and forty years so they have come up with a theory that every once in a while the thing just recharges itself. They don’t know how yet but someday they’ll find the giant battery charger, I suppose, by which the magnetic field after it gets so low it sort of regenerates and recharges itself.
It is interesting as the psalmist speaks of the creation, “God covered it with the deep as with a garment” (104:6), that is he just sort of put the earth in cold storage for a while. I believer personally that the earth, as far as its age, is something that we cannot determine precisely from the Bible. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” and when that beginning was I don’t know. The Bible doesn’t state it. It could have been four billion years ago, I don’t know but the earth became “wasted and desolate” as though God just sort of put it into cold storage for a long period of time. It is that earth that we find in Genesis chapter one, verse two when God began the recreative processes to make the earth a place inhabitable for man after our sort; man made in the image of God. That, I believe, was something like six thousand years ago.
Thou coverdst it with the deep as with a garment: the waters stood above the mountains (104:6).
So the mountains were covered by water. Not a reference to the flood here but to the earth as God began his recreative acts in the book of Genesis.
At thy rebuke they [the waters] fled; at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away (104:7).
God said, “Let dry land appear”. Up shot the mountains, the Himalayas the Andes, the Alps and so forth. The tremendous water ran down and formed the valleys and all, Grand Canyon was formed by water coming rushing down in that area; the dry land appeared. The voice of his thunder, they hurried away.
They go up by the mountains; they go down by the valleys unto the place which thou hast founded for them (104:8).
God caused this change of the earth’s structure, the mountains were thrust up and other areas where there were indentations so that the water came rushing into the great valleys that were formed that are now the ocean beds. Of course we know that they go down some thirty-five thousand feet off of the Philippines. The place that God dug out and founded for them.
Thou hast set a bound [the boundaries of the ocean] that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth. He sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run among the hills. They give drink to every beast of the field: the wild asses quench their thirst. By them shall the fowls of the heaven have their habitation, which sing among the branches (104:9-12).
Around the springs there is always vegetation growing and the birds surrounding the springs, so the picture of it.
He watereth the hills from his chambers: the earth is satisfied with the fruit of thy works (104:13).
God’s creative acts, the setting of it into motion, the rain cycles and the watering of the hills.
He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth; (104:14).
Again, this whole marvelous food chain and how God has provided for man the earth to bring forth fruit. We’ve learned how to till the soil, we’ve learned how to plant and we’ve learned how to cultivate in order that we might develop our food from the earth. He causes the grass to grow for the cattle.
And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man’s heart (104:15).
“The wine that makes glad the heart of man” and of course we know how obliviously glad someone can get if they spend too long in the wine. In our culture, the subject of wine in the church is more or less taboo. I do believe that it is definitely prohibited for a person who is offering his life in service to God. It was prohibited for a man who was to be an overseer in the church, he was not to be given to wine. It was not for kings, Proverbs tells us that wine is not for kings because it can impair judgement. In the Old Testament the priests were not to drink when they were serving God in the temple, “Tell Aaron that he and his sons are not to drink wine when they approach God in their service”.
A part of the Nazarite vow, which was the vow or consecration of one’s life to God, a part of that vow was not to drink wine. You remember when Samson was announced by the angel to his mother, she wasn’t to drink wine during the pregnancy. Of course our California State Legislature has recognized that alcoholic beverages can be harmful to the unborn child. So you see all of the little announcements in the store where they sell alcoholic beverages warning women who are pregnant that if they drink it could damage the fetus of an unborn child. God knew that and warned Manoah’s wife of that several thousand years ago and we have recently have found it out and are now warning women today. I’m glad that we are catching up with God in a few areas. But that was a part of the vow of the Nazarite.
We do know that Jesus turned the water into wine at the marriage feasts in Cana of Galilee. Someone says “I bet you couldn’t have gotten drunk on that wine” that I don’t know. We do read a warning concerning wine in the book of Proverbs, it tells us that

“Wine is a wine mocker and strong drink is raging and a person who is deceived by it is not wise”. Then in Proverbs twenty-three, twenty-nine he says, “Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who hath contentions [fights]? Who has babbling? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine, they that go to seek mixed wine. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red and when it giveth its color in the cup, when it moves itself aright”

Some interpret that as when it has gone through the fermentation process.

At the last it bites like a serpent and it stings like an adder. For if you are prone to drink your eyes will behold strange women and your heart will utter perverse things. You shall be as the one that lies down in the midst of the sea or lieth on top of a mast. They have stricken me you will say and I was not sick, they’ve beaten me and I did not feel it. When shall I wake up? I will seek it yet again”.

So kind of the proverb to the alcoholic. I personally do not drink, I would not drink and I have not drunk any alcoholic beverage. That’s a part of my consecration and commitment of my life to the Lord. It’s part of being a spiritual leader and an overseer in the church.
“Bread which strengtheneth man’s heart” (104:15). An interesting thing, they have found that the vitamin E that in the wheat germ is very good for your heart. In those days their breads were whole grain bread, they didn’t have this highly refined flower that we have today. They had the whole goodness of the wheat, which is good for a person’s heart.
The trees of the LORD are full of sap; (104:16).
The words of sap there are just an addition. It’s just that they are full. That is, they drink up the water.
the cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted; (104:16).
We were back in North Carolina just a couple of weeks ago and you talk about trees that God has planted. All of those hills back there are just covered with dense forests. They are absolutely gorgeous. God plants, waters and takes care of the forest, man cuts them down. We are quite concerned right now with the forests of the Amazon that are being cut down, not by godly Christian people; don’t blame the Bible for the denoting of the Amazon rain forest. That’s greed. Man is down there to take the wood and profit of it with out caring what happens. The environmentalists are rightfully concerned about this whole chain that God has created. The oxygen and the carbon monoxide kind of a chain where the trees take in the carbon monoxide and give off the oxygen and man takes in the oxygen and this balance that is necessary. They are actually fearing in dire consequences from the ecological balances actually in destroying so many of the forests.
Where the birds make their nests: (104:17).
God has placed the trees so the birds can nest in them.
as for the stork, the firtrees are her house. The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats; (104:17-18).
For their environment the wild goats.
and the rocks for the conies [hyrax]. He appointed the moon for the seasons: (104:18-19).
They had lunar months so they measured their time by the moon.
the sun knoweth his going down. Thou makest darkness an it is night: wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth. The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God (104:19-21).
God provides for his creation.
The sun ariseth, they gather themselves together, and lay them down in their dens. Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour until the evening (104:22-23).
So the nighttime for the animals to prowl and the daytime for man to prowl. Man got mixed though, he’s beginning to prowl at night and he’s getting more like an animal too.
O LORD, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches (104:24).
The psalmist talks about this creative genius of God looking around at the universe and looking especially here at the world. He’s seeing how God has set the order and established the order. He says, “Lord, in wisdom you’ve made them all and the earth is full of your riches”.
Paul the apostle tells us in Romans chapter one that God actually is knowable and has revealed himself in his creation. In verse nineteen he said,

“Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them for God has showed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world”.

The invisible God reveals himself in the creation of the world and they have clearly seen the invisible things of God, the wisdom, the power and the might. Being understood by the things that he has made, even the eternal power of God so that men are without excuse. God has revealed his power, he’s revealed his wisdom in creation so that, as a man looks at the world and he sees how the laws have been established, the laws of nature but who is nature? They are the laws that God has established and we see what an orderly universe it is, we see the balances, we see the cycles and marvel at the wisdom of the way it was all put together. It should bring you into a consciousness of the existence of God.

“The heavens declare the glory of God, the earth shows his handiwork. Day unto day they are speaking to you, night unto night their voice is going forth”.

It’s a universal language, there is not a speech or language where their voice is not heard. So we can know God just by nature but there is a part of God that is not revealed by nature because you don’t observe nature in its original form. You observe even fallen nature, the curse of God because of sin. “Cursed be the ground. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth”. If you only understand God by nature you may look at the tall Redwood and say, “My he’s marvelous, stately, powerful and strong” but then if you fall into a cactus you say, “Oh it’s sharp. He’s hurting me. Painful”. The love of God revealed to us in the word through Jesus Christ, an important revelation of God.
He turns now again to the Mediterranean sea.
So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts (104:25).
The innumerable things, the untold billions of small little shells and shell life, great deposits of these shells all over the world. The innumerable, surely you couldn’t number them, of creeping things in the ocean.
[on the surface] There go the ships: there is that leviathan [whale], whom thou hast made to play therein. These wait all upon thee; that thou mayest give them their meat in due season (104:26-27).
God takes care and provides in the food chain even for the whales, the porpoises, and the dolphins.
That thou givest them they gather: thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good. Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust. Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: (104:28-30).
God breathed into man and he became a living soul.
and thou renewest the face of the earth (104:30).
Of course every spring we see the renewing of the face of the earth. Isn’t it glorious the way the flowers come out in the spring and all?
The glory of the LORD shall endure for ever: the LORD shall rejoice in his works. He looketh on the earth, and it trembleth: he toucheth the hills, and they smoke (104:31-32).
The volcanoes.
I will sing unto the LORD as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have my being (104:33).
As long as I live, when I’m still here I’m just going to be just singing praise to God.
My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the LORD (104:34).
The proper response to the recognition of God’s power, of God’s glory and of God himself as we see him revealed in nature. It should cause us just to pray to the Lord, to meditate upon him in sweet meditation being glad in the way God has provided for all things.
Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more (104:35).
That day is coming when God will consume the wicked out of the earth.
Bless thou the LORD, O my soul. Praise ye the LORD (104:35).
In the Hebrew its Hallelujah, translated properly Praise ye the Lord.
Psalm one hundred and five. Did you practice it today? I hope some of you did.
O GIVE thanks unto the LORD: (105:1).
The other psalm he called his soul to bless the Lord, here he begins with giving thanks unto the Lord and in the next psalm he begins it by praising the Lord. You see all of them are directed towards the Lord in thanksgiving and in praise. Over and over the psalms exhort us to praise the Lord they sort of bemoan the fact that we don’t praise the Lord more. “Oh that men would praise the Lord for his marvelous works and his goodness unto the sons of men.” We praise the Lord far too little.
call upon his name: make known his deeds among the people (105:1).
Prayer, witnessing and giving of thanks.
Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him: talk ye of all his wondrous works (105:2).
“They that love the Lord” the scripture says “spoke often one to another about him and God listened and he made a record of it and they shall be accounted as his jewels in that day.” God loves to have you talk about him, he likes to listen in and eavesdrop to see what you’re saying about him “and the Lord hearkened unto them and he kept a record and they shall be accounted as his jewels in that day”. We used to sing a chorus, “Let’s talk about Jesus, the King of kings is he”. What a glorious saying it is to just talk about the Lord.
My granddaughter the other day we were driving together said, “Grandpa let’s just talk about God” and I said, “Oh that’s so neat”. So we just talked about God all the way down from the conference center. It was just a blessed time talking of all his wondrous works.
Glory ye in his holy name: (105:3).
The name of God, YAWEH, the becoming one. What a marvelous thing that God would reveal himself to you as one who will become whatever your need might be. You need love, God will become your lover. If you need peace, God will become your peace. If you need joy, God will become the joy of your life. God becomes to you whatever your need might be. If you’re sick and need healing he will become your healer. The becoming one, glory in his holy name.
let the heart of them rejoice that seek the LORD (105:3).
I believe that Christians ought to be the happiest people on the face of the earth. I believe that God intends that we have fun, that we be joyful, “that our joy might be full” the scripture says. God wants you to have a very happy and joyful life.
I think that it was a very tragic time in church history when they got some kind of a crazy attitude that you shouldn’t smile and you shouldn’t laugh and the more sober and somber you were you were the more spiritual you were. It was a sign of spirituality. There were all of these affectations of serious, sober, somber kind of almost ready to die attitude. Where even the way they would hold their hands and tilt their head and just speak with sort of that funeral director kind of a voice. “Yes, friends” O man I don’t think that drew very many people to Jesus Christ. “You need to have what I have so you can be like I am” it just doesn’t work that way.
Seek the LORD, and his strength: seek his face evermore (105:4).
Jesus said, “Ask and you shall receive, seek and ye shall find”. Seek the Lord’s strength when you feel your own weakness, when you feel like you can’t cope and when it’s too much. Seek the Lords strength for he will strengthen you, seek his face forevermore.
Remember his marvellous works that he hath done; (105:5).
This is actually always the thing that builds the faith and the hope for the future in looking back at what God has done. Paul said, “Who has delivered us from so great a death and who does now deliver us and I am confident that he shall yet deliver us”. I have confidence towards the future because the past as I remember God’s faithfulness, as I remember God’s work, it gives me that assurance, that faith and confidence that God’s not going to let me go now. He’s not going to let me go now, he didn’t bring me this far to dump me. The Lord is going to perfect those things that concern me.
Remember his marvellous works that he hath done; his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth; (105:5).
The things that he taught us of how we should live.
O ye seed of Abraham his servant, ye children of Jacob his chosen. He is the LORD our God: his judgements are in all the earth. He hath remembered his covenant for ever, the word, which he commanded to a thousand generations (105:6-8).
God’s word is good to a thousand generations.
Which covenant he made with Abraham, (105:9).
So he says to remember God’s works, remember God’s wonders and his judgements, the words that he spoke. Now he’s going to remind them that they are a special people, they are descendents of Abraham with whom God made the covenant and his oath he confirmed it to Isaac that they should be the possessors of that land.
And confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, (105:10).
God established it “unto thee and to thy seed I shall give this land as a possession”.
and to Israel for an everlasting covenant: Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance: (105:10-11).
The lot is casting lots so this parts for you. So the land of Canaan was to be given to the descendents of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, unto Israel. God gave them that promise.
When they were but a few men in number; yea, very few and strangers in it (105:12).
Though Abraham was promised all the land he just sojourned there as a stranger. The only part he owned was the field that he bought to bury his wife. Jacob and his sons dwelt in that land but they dwelt there as strangers in the land, not as citizens of the land. When Jacob went down to Egypt there were only seventy descendents of Abraham at that time, a very few in number and yet God says, “Hey this whole land is going to be yours. I’m going to give it to you”.
When they went from one nation to another, from one kingdom to another people; (105:13).
From Babylon to Syria on into the land to Polistia down into Egypt and back into Canaan. They were sort of as Bedouins, strangers and pilgrims as they journeyed looking for the city that God had promised.
He suffered no man to do them wrong: (105:14).
God protected them. There were those who have plotted against them but God protected them.
yea, he reproved kings for their sakes; (105:14).
Rebuked the Pharaoh in Egypt as the result of Abraham and also later Abimelech the king of the Philistines.
Saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm (105:15).
Now David took this word of God very literally when Saul was king and was trying to kill David. David had the opportunity to get revenge, David’s cohort Aziel said “David, look God’s delivered him into your hands let me just smite him through the heart. I promise I won’t have to hit him twice, only once”. David says “No, you don’t touch God’s anointed” and David was referring back to this incident when God protected Abraham and said, “Touch not my anointed, do my prophets no harm”.
Moreover he called for a famine upon the land: (105:16).
That is the land of Israel, the land of Canaan.
he brake the whole staff of bread (105:16).
The famine was so great they ran out of wheat.
He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant: (105:17).
God knowing that the famine was going to come, preparing in an advance to provide for Jacob and the family sent Joseph ahead to Egypt. The ways of God, God knows what the future holds, he knows what is going to come across our paths ten years from now, fifteen years from now. As God is working tonight and today in our lives much of that work of God is not understood because God is setting things up for us down the road some fifteen years hence.
Right now it doesn’t look too pleasant when Joseph was sold by his brothers to the slave traders heading for Egypt. Joseph thought that was the end of the world. When he was put into the irons of Egypt he thought “this is horrible, it’s all over”. Of course his brothers, in this dastardly deed, thought that had gotten rid of a nuisance and Jacob bereaved thinking that he had lost his favorite son.
In all of these things and everyone looking at it from different directions having a different interpretation of it and yet none of them really knew what was going on; God was in control and God was working out a plan. He was setting things up in advance. He sent Joseph before them, a very unusual way to do it creating that jealousy in his brothers heart, the plotting to kill him and throwing him at Ruben’s suggestion into the cave and then selling him as a slave to the slave traders heading for Egypt. In looking at it, it surely wouldn’t appear that God’s hand is in this thing and yet it was. It appeared to be tragic and yet God was working. So many times those things in our lives that look to be tragedy are God working in us. God is working in advance to prepare us for what lies ahead that we’re not even aware of at this point.
God, speaking to the children of Israel concerning their forty years of wandering in the wilderness said “I went before thee and I prepared the places for you to pitch your tent”. That’s true of us as we make our pilgrimage through life, God always goes before us and he prepares the place before we get there. He prepares the place for us to pitch our tent but not only that, he prepares us for the place. God is not only preparing a place for you, he’s preparing you for the place. In God’s timing he brings everything together. We look and say “Isn’t that an interesting coincidence. How fortunate that things could happen that way” when all the while God’s been working out this master plan in our lives.
When we’re in that state where he’s working far in advance and we don’t understand we do a lot of complaining, “If you only told me you could have saved yourself a lot of gripping that you had to put up from me. If you would just let me know I wouldn’t have nearly been as abusive in the way that I reacted and responded to you Lord”, as God was preparing me for a work he wanted me to do and as God was preparing the work. So God’s putting it all together in that marvelous way in which he works.
He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant: Whose feet they hurt with fetters: he was laid in iron: (105:17-18).
There in Egypt of course accused falsely of raping his masters wife and thrown into the prison.
Until the time that his word came: (105:19).
That is, came to pass. His word to the Pharaoh concerning the interpretation of the Pharaoh’s dream.
the word of the LORD tried him (105:19).
He went through a trial, a testing.
The king sent and loosed him; even the ruler of the people, and let him so free (105:20).
More, than that.
He made him lord of his house, and ruler of all his substance: To bind his princes at his pleasure; (105:21-22).
He had rule over the country, he could imprison those that he wanted.
and teach his senators wisdom (105:22).
He was put second in command over Egypt.
Israel (105:23).
That is his father Jacob with the sons, the family.
also came into Egypt; and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham (105:23).
The son of Noah who populated the African continent.
And he increased his people greatly; (105:24).
In the four hundred years that they were there they went from the seventy to a million and a half adult males.
and made them stronger than their enemies. He turned their heart [the Egyptians] his people, to deal subtly with his servants. He sent Moses his servant; and Aaron whom he had chosen. They shewed his [God’s] signs among them, and wonders in the land of Ham. He sent darkness, and made it dark: and they rebelled not against his word (105:24-28).
The word “not” is not in some of the ancient text. If it is in the text then it would be a reference to Moses and to Aaron. So you can read it in and make it apply to Moses and Aaron or you can read it out and make it apply to the Egyptians. When God sent the darkness they rebelled against his work.
He turned their waters into blood, and slew their fish. Their land brought forth frogs in abundance, (105:29-30).
The frogs even got into the kneading troths of the women, into the dough when they were baking their bread.
in the chambers of their kings (105:30).
Even the king crawled into a bed full of frogs.
He spake, and there came divers sorts of flies, (105:31).
Various kinds of flies and the word lice is perhaps better translated as gnats.
and lice in all their coasts (105:31).
Have you ever been around gnats that just bug you. They just try to get into the moisture in your eyes or in the moisture of your nostrils, they just are horrible. God sent these gnats.
He gave them hail for rain, and flaming fire in their land (105:32).
These fireballs rolling along the ground.
He smote their vines also and their fig trees; (105:33).
Let me just make mention here that at one time this particular verse was used by Bible critiques to try to disprove the Bible. That is to prove that it wasn’t the word of God. This is one of those scriptures that they had chosen because they said that the Egyptians didn’t have grape vines. Well they found an old papyrus or something that spoke about the vineyards and so they got blown out of the water. As we were talking about this morning, people try to disprove the Bible and they hammer away and have been doing it for centuries. They’ve worn their hammers out but the Bible stands.
He spake, and the locusts came, and caterpillars, and without number, And did eat up all the herbs in their land, and devoured the fruit of their ground. He smote also all the firstborn in their land, the chief of all their strength. He brought them forth also (105:34-37).
That is the descendents of Jacob.
He brought them forth also with silver and gold: and there was not one feeble person among their tribes (105:37).
Now that’s quite a witness; a million and a half men and not a feeble person among their tribes.
Egypt was glad when they departed: for the fear of them fell upon them (105:38).
They were saying, “Get rid of these people. Get them out of here”. Then coming through that hot wilderness what did God do?
He spread a cloud for a covering; (105:39).
He sent the cloud by day. Everyday was a cloudy day, the cloud covered the camp of Israel and they lived in the shade.
And fire to give light in the night (105:39)
At night, because they had to do traveling at night at times, he sent the pillar of fire to light up the wilderness at night.
The people asked, and he brought quails, (105:40).
Can God provide meat? A table in the wilderness.
and satisfied them with the bread of heaven (105:40).
The manna that fell every morning on the camp.
He opened the rock, and the waters gushed out; they ran in the dry places like a river. For he remembered his holy promise, and Abraham his servant (105:41).
Now this promise was made to Abraham over four hundred years earlier but God had not forgotten his promise. The Bible says “God is not slack concerning his promises”. He’s faithful. In the last days the Bible says there will be scoffers that will say, “Where is the promise of the coming again of Jesus Christ?” Since our fathers have fallen asleep all things have continued as they were from the beginning. The Lord is not coming. Where is the promise of his coming. “God isn’t slack concerning his promise”. He remembered his promise that he had made to Abraham his servant.
And he brought forth his people with joy, (105:43).
Miriam the sister of Moses leading the ladies with the tambourine and their dances and joyful songs unto the Lord.
and his chosen people with gladness: And gave them the lands of the heathen: [the Canaanites] and they inherited the labour of the people; (105:43-44).
The people, they took over the vineyards, they took over the houses, and they took over the fields that have been cultivated.
That they might observe his statutes, and keep his laws. Praise ye the LORD (105:45).
Again, Hallelujah.
So the psalmist, he thinks of all these things. In psalm one hundred and four he thinks of all of God’s creative acts and he says, “Hallelujah”. In psalm one hundred and five he thinks of God’s promises and the faithfulness and keeping his promises to his people and how God works in the preservation and the watching over of his people and he says, “Hallelujah”. So it is good to give thanks unto the Lord.
Father, we thank You for Your goodness as You have manifested that power and nature in Your creative acts. You have demonstrated Your faithfulness in keeping Your covenant with Your people. Thank You Lord for that covenant that You have made with us through the blood of Jesus Christ. Lord we thank You that You are faithful in keeping Your covenant. Lord, we stand assured in our salvation because You have made a covenant with us, a covenant that cannot be broken and we rejoice in Your promise through Jesus, Amen.

Edited & Highlighted from “The Word For Today” Transcription, Pastor Chuck Smith, Tape #7200
PAGE 11

EMBED MS_ClipArt_Gallery.2