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Psalms

About this book
Psalm 105

1 Give thanks to the Lord. Call on his name. Make known his accomplishments among the nations. 2 Sing to him. Make music to him. Tell about all his miraculous deeds. 3 Boast about his holy name. Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. 4 Seek the Lord and the strength he gives. Seek his presence continually. 5 Recall the miraculous deeds he performed, his mighty acts and the judgments he decreed, 6 O children of Abraham, God’s servant, you descendants of Jacob, God’s chosen ones. 7 He is the Lord our God; he carries out judgment throughout the earth. 8 He always remembers his covenantal decree, the promise he made to a thousand generations— 9 the promise he made to Abraham, the promise he made by oath to Isaac. 10 He gave it to Jacob as a decree, to Israel as a lasting promise, 11 saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan as the portion of your inheritance.”⁠ 12 When they were few in number, just a very few, and resident foreigners within it, 13 they wandered from nation to nation, and from one kingdom to another. 14 He let no one oppress them; he disciplined kings for their sake, 15 saying, “Don’t touch my chosen ones. Don’t harm my prophets.”⁠ 16 He called down a famine upon the earth; he cut off all the food supply. 17 He sent a man ahead of them—Joseph was sold as a servant.⁠ 18 The shackles hurt his feet; his neck was placed in an iron collar, 19 until the time when his prediction came true. The Lord’s word proved him right. 20 The king authorized his release; the ruler of nations set him free. 21 He put him in charge of his palace, and made him manager of all his property, 22 giving him authority to imprison his officials and to teach his advisers. 23 Israel moved to Egypt; Jacob lived for a time in the land of Ham. 24 The Lord made his people very fruitful and made them more numerous than their enemies. 25 He caused the Egyptians to hate his people and to mistreat his servants. 26 He sent his servant Moses, and Aaron, whom he had chosen. 27 They executed his miraculous signs among them and his amazing deeds in the land of Ham. 28 He made it dark; Moses and Aaron did not disobey his orders. 29 He turned the Egyptians’ water into blood and killed their fish. 30 Their land was overrun by frogs, which even got into the rooms of their kings.⁠ 31 He ordered flies to come; gnats invaded their whole territory. 32 He sent hail along with the rain; there was lightning in their land. 33 He destroyed their vines and fig trees and broke the trees throughout their territory. 34 He ordered locusts to come, innumerable grasshoppers. 35 They ate all the vegetation in their land and devoured the crops of their fields. 36 He struck down all the firstborn in their land, the firstfruits of their reproductive power. 37 He brought his people out enriched with silver and gold; none of his tribes stumbled. 38 Egypt was happy when they left, for they were afraid of them. 39 He spread out a cloud for a cover, and provided a fire to light up the night. 40 They asked for food, and he sent quail; he satisfied them with food from the sky.⁠ 41 He opened up a rock and water flowed out; a river ran through dry regions. 42 Yes, he remembered the sacred promise he made to Abraham his servant.⁠ 43 When he led his people out, they rejoiced; his chosen ones shouted with joy. 44 He handed the territory of nations over to them, and they took possession of what other peoples had produced, 45 so that they might keep his commands and obey his laws. Praise the Lord.

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Compare Genesis 17:8 and Psalm 105:11

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Genesis depicts the land of Canaan as a permanent possession promised to Abraham and his descendants, a pledge that Psalm 105 reshapes into communal memory used in worship, restating that the land was given to the patriarchs as their inheritance.

Passages

Genesis 17:8

Hebrew Bible
6 I will make you extremely fruitful. I will make nations of you, and kings will descend from you. 7 I will confirm my covenant as a perpetual covenant between me and you. It will extend to your descendants after you throughout their generations. I will be your God and the God of your descendants after you. 8 I will give the whole land of Canaan—the land where you are now residing—to you and your descendants after you as a permanent possession. I will be their God.” 9 Then God said to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep the covenantal requirement I am imposing on you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. 10 This is my requirement that you and your descendants after you must keep: Every male among you must be circumcised.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis

Psalm 105:11

Hebrew Bible
8 He always remembers his covenantal decree, the promise he made to a thousand generations— 9 the promise he made to Abraham, the promise he made by oath to Isaac. 10 He gave it to Jacob as a decree, to Israel as a lasting promise, 11 saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan as the portion of your inheritance.” 12 When they were few in number, just a very few, and resident foreigners within it, 13 they wandered from nation to nation, and from one kingdom to another.
600–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Psalms

References

"... Ezekiel’s nearer predecessor, Habakkuk, had described the Babylonians as “an eagle swooping down to devour” (1:8). But this eagle is different: he is cast as a genuinely benevolent figure, plucking off a sprig of a cedar (that is about to be cut down?), taking it away to Babylon, and planting it there, apparently in very favorable circumstances. While it is obvious the prophet is speaking of a particular and special bird, it may not have been so obvious to Ezekiel’s audience whom this eagle represented. Could this be YHWH, who both narrative and hymnic tradition says had carried Israel on his eagle’s wings and brought them to himself (Exodus 19:4; compare Deuteronomy 32:11) Or was this some human monarch? In addition to serving as a symbol of strength and terror, in the ancient Near East the eagle was a common military and royal symbol, being attested on ensigns as early as the Old Babylonian city of Lagash and as late as the Persian and Roman periods. Kings were often portrayed as cherub-like figures with eagle’s wings. By having the great eagle fly to Lebanon, where he plucked off the top of a cedar, Ezekiel has adapted and transformed a stock phrase, “cedars of Lebanon.” The association of these cedars with the royal constructions in Jerusalem encourages a connection with the dynasty. However, in an act quite uncharacteristic of eagles, the magnificent bird snipped off the “crown” and carried the shoot of fresh growth off to a foreign land, identified enigmatically as a “land of merchants” and a “city of traders”. On first hearing, one’s impulse is to associate these expressions with Israel’s native land, to which the former expression always refers outside this book (Compare Genesis 17:8; 45:25; Exodus 6:4; 16:35; Leviticus 14:34; 18:3; 25:38; Numbers 13:2, 17; 32:32; 33:51; 34:2; Deuteronomy 32:49; Joshua 5:12; 22:11, 32; 24:3; 1 Chronicles 16:18; Psalm 105:11) ..."
Daniel I. Block, Beyond the River Chebar: Studies in Kingship and Eschatology in the Book of Ezekiel (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2013), 53–54.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Genesis 17:8 and Psalm 105:11

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