The Unbreakable Word: God's Covenant Faithfulness Text: Psalm 105:7-15
Introduction: History with a Point
We live in an age that is profoundly allergic to history. Or, if it pays any attention to the past, it does so only to plunder it for grievances. Modern man sees history as a random, meaningless series of events, a long string of unfortunate oppressions from which we are now, thankfully, enlightened and liberated. But this is a lie from the pit. History is not random; it is a story. And like any good story, it has an author, a plot, and a purpose. The author is God, the plot is redemption, and the purpose is His glory.
Psalm 105 is a history lesson, but not the kind you get in a secular university. It is not a detached, "objective" recitation of facts. It is a sermon. It is a call to worship, grounded in the mighty acts of God. The psalmist is not just saying, "Remember these things happened." He is saying, "Remember what God did, who He is, and therefore, who you are." He is reminding Israel that their identity is not rooted in their own strength, their own wisdom, or their own numbers, but solely in the covenant-keeping character of their God.
This is a truth our generation desperately needs to recover. We are constantly tempted to find our identity in our politics, our ethnicity, our feelings, or our accomplishments. But a Christian's identity is found in a historical reality: God made a promise. He cut a covenant. And He has never, not once, failed to keep His Word. This psalm is a recital of God's faithfulness, designed to produce faithfulness in His people. It is a recounting of God's sovereign protection in the past in order to fuel our confident trust in Him for the future. As we walk through these verses, we are not just looking at a dusty photo album of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We are looking at the foundational charter of our own salvation. For if God was faithful to them, when they were few and weak, how much more will He be faithful to us, who are in Christ, the final and perfect seed of Abraham?
The Text
He is Yahweh our God;
His judgments are in all the earth.
He has remembered His covenant forever,
The word which He commanded for a thousand generations,
Which He cut with Abraham,
And His oath to Isaac.
Then He confirmed it to Jacob for a statute,
To Israel as an everlasting covenant,
Saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan
As the portion of your inheritance,”
When they were only a few men in number,
Of little account, and sojourners in it.
And they wandered about from nation to nation,
From one kingdom to another people.
He permitted no man to oppress them,
And He reproved kings for their sakes:
“Do not touch My anointed ones,
And to My prophets do no evil.”
(Psalm 105:7-15 LSB)
The Global God and His Forever Word (vv. 7-8)
The psalmist begins with a thunderous declaration of God's identity and authority.
"He is Yahweh our God; His judgments are in all the earth." (Psalm 105:7)
This is the foundation. He is Yahweh, the covenant-keeping God, the great I AM. But notice the immediate tension: He is "our" God, the God of Israel, and yet His judgments, His authoritative rulings, are "in all the earth." This is not some petty tribal deity, like the gods of the Canaanites. This is the God who owns the cattle on a thousand hills because He made the hills. His authority is not limited to the borders of Israel; it is universal. This is a profoundly postmillennial sentiment. The psalmist understands that the God of this tiny, wandering family is the rightful King of the entire planet. His law-word applies everywhere, to everyone, whether they acknowledge it or not. The nations are His inheritance, and the ends of the earth are His possession (Psalm 2:8).
Because He is this kind of God, His word is a certain kind of word.
"He has remembered His covenant forever, The word which He commanded for a thousand generations," (Psalm 105:8)
When the Bible says God "remembered," it doesn't mean He was getting forgetful and had to jog His memory. It means He began to act on the basis of a promise He had made. God's memory is His faithfulness in action. And this faithfulness is not temporary. It is "forever." His covenant is an everlasting covenant. The word He "commanded" is not a suggestion; it is a sovereign decree. And it is good for "a thousand generations." This is not a literal number, as though on generation 1,001 the warranty expires. It is biblical language for "as long as it needs to be," for perpetuity. This is the basis of our confidence in raising covenant children. We are not starting from scratch with each new baby. We are standing on a promise that has a very long tail. God's faithfulness extends to our children and our children's children.
The Unilateral Promise (vv. 9-11)
The psalmist now specifies which covenant he has in mind. It is the great foundational promise made to the patriarchs.
"Which He cut with Abraham, And His oath to Isaac. Then He confirmed it to Jacob for a statute, To Israel as an everlasting covenant," (Psalm 105:9-10)
Notice the progression. God "cut" a covenant with Abraham. This refers to the solemn ceremony in Genesis 15, where God alone passed between the pieces of the sacrificed animals, taking the curse of the covenant upon Himself. This was a unilateral promise. Abraham was asleep. He contributed nothing. Salvation, from the very beginning, is by grace alone. God then confirmed this promise to Isaac with an "oath," adding His own divine integrity as the guarantee. He then established it for Jacob as a "statute," an unchangeable decree. The promise is hammered down, reinforced, and locked in at every stage. It does not depend on the patriarchs' spotty performance, but on God's unshakeable character.
And what was the tangible, historical substance of this promise?
"Saying, 'To you I will give the land of Canaan As the portion of your inheritance,'" (Psalm 105:11)
The promise was concrete. It was about a specific piece of real estate. This was not some ethereal, spiritual sentiment. God promised them a place. But we must understand this as Christians. The writer to the Hebrews tells us that Abraham was looking for a city whose builder and maker is God (Hebrews 11:10). The promise of Canaan was always a down payment, a type, a shadow of a greater reality. As Paul says, the promise to Abraham was that he would be the heir of the world (Romans 4:13). The land of Canaan was the beachhead for the conquest of the entire globe by the gospel. The inheritance expands from a strip of land in the Middle East to the whole earth, which the meek in Christ will inherit (Matthew 5:5).
The Weakness of Man and the Power of God (vv. 12-13)
The psalm now sets up a stark contrast between the grandeur of the promise and the pathetic condition of the promisees.
"When they were only a few men in number, Of little account, and sojourners in it. And they wandered about from nation to nation, From one kingdom to another people." (Psalm 105:12-13)
God made this world-encompassing promise to a handful of nobodies. They were "few," "of little account," and "sojourners." They didn't own the land; they were renters, nomads, resident aliens. They wandered from place to place, from one pagan king's territory to another. From a human perspective, this was the most ridiculous foundation for a global kingdom imaginable. Abraham's army was his household staff. Jacob's sons were a dysfunctional band of shepherds. They had no political power, no military might, no cultural influence. They were utterly vulnerable.
And this is precisely the point. God loves to work this way. He chooses the weak things of the world to shame the strong (1 Corinthians 1:27). He does this so that no flesh can glory in His presence. The power is never in the instrument; it is always in the hand of the One who wields it. The story of our salvation is the story of God's strength being perfected in our weakness. When we are tempted to despair because our church is small, our resources are few, and the culture is hostile, we must remember Abraham. God's math is different from ours. With God, the minority is always the majority.
The Politics of God's Providence (v. 14-15)
Because the patriarchs were so weak, they required a potent protector. And they had one.
"He permitted no man to oppress them, And He reproved kings for their sakes:" (Psalm 105:14)
God Himself was their bodyguard. He was their foreign policy. He personally intervened in the affairs of nations to protect His chosen. He "permitted no man to oppress them." This doesn't mean they never faced hardship, but that no one could ultimately thwart God's purpose for them. When Pharaoh took Sarah, God sent plagues on his house (Genesis 12). When Abimelech did the same, God confronted him in a dream and told him he was a dead man (Genesis 20). God "reproved kings" for their sakes. This is a stunning statement. The God of the universe involved Himself in high-level international politics on behalf of a few wandering shepherds. He stared down the most powerful men on earth and told them to back off.
And what was His specific warning?
"'Do not touch My anointed ones, And to My prophets do no evil.'" (Psalm 105:15)
He calls them His "anointed ones" and His "prophets." Anointed here means set apart for a special purpose. A prophet is one who speaks for God. These patriarchs were the bearers of the promise, the living vessels of God's redemptive plan. To touch them was to touch the apple of God's eye. This principle extends to all of God's people. In Christ, we are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation (1 Peter 2:9). We are all anointed in Him. We are all prophets in the sense that we bear the prophetic word of the gospel to the nations. And God's warning still stands. He says to the kings and presidents and prime ministers of the earth, "Do not touch my anointed ones." He who persecutes the church will find that he is kicking against the goads (Acts 9:5). God's protective custody of His people is absolute.
The Covenant Fulfilled
This entire passage is a celebration of God's unwavering faithfulness to His covenant promise. But we read this psalm on this side of the cross, and so we see its fulfillment with even greater clarity. The covenant with Abraham was always pointing to one man: the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the true seed of Abraham (Galatians 3:16).
Jesus is the ultimate sojourner, who left His heavenly home and wandered in a land that was His own, but that did not receive Him. He was, in the eyes of the world, "of little account," a carpenter's son from a backwater town. He was oppressed by men and reproved by kings like Herod and Pilate. They did more than touch Him; they crucified Him. But in this, the ultimate act of evil, God was working His ultimate good. God permitted them to do their worst so that He could accomplish His best.
Because Jesus is the true anointed one, the great prophet, and the perfect King, all the promises of the covenant find their "Yes" and "Amen" in Him (2 Corinthians 1:20). The inheritance of the land of Canaan has become the inheritance of the new heavens and the new earth. The promise to a "few men in number" has become a promise to a great multitude that no man can number, from every nation, tribe, people, and tongue (Revelation 7:9). God's protective warning, "Do not touch My anointed ones," is now backed by the resurrection power of Christ. He is building His church, and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.
Therefore, we are to read this history and take heart. The God who remembered His promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is our God. The Word that was good for a thousand generations is the same Word that sustains us today. He is faithful. His plan cannot be derailed by powerful kings or by our own pathetic weakness. Our task is simply to believe His promise, just as Abraham did, and to walk in the world as confident sojourners, knowing that the God who owns the earth has given it as an inheritance to His Son, and we are co-heirs with Him.