An overview for Sunday School teachers and Bible study leaders, of Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lesson of Psalm 105:1-11, 42-45 for Sunday, July 20, 2025, with the title, “God’s Faithfulness.” A video overview of this overview is available on YouTube at:

INTRODUCTION:

Mark Twain’s book A Tramp Abroad tells the story of his tour of central Europe in the 1870s. In it he writes of the beauty of Heidelberg Castle (Germany): “There is a saying that if a stranger will pass over the drawbridge and walk across the court to the castle front without saying anything, he can make a wish and it will be fulfilled. But they say that the truth of this thing has never had a chance to be proved, for the reason that before any stranger can walk from the drawbridge to the appointed place, the beauty of the palace front will extort an exclamation of delight from him.” (p. 363)

You might point out that if man-made creations like Heidelberg Castle call forth such expressions of praise, how much more does our God, the Creator of all, deserve every kind of praise we can give Him — and that’s what Psalm 105 talks about!

— And/or another way to open today’s lesson would be to ask your class to write a brief definition of what they think “praise” is — then have a few volunteers share. Or you could just ask them to call out what they think “praise” means.

Then you can transition to the lesson by saying: in today’s lesson from Psalm 105, we’ll see some ways the Bible instructs us to praise God — and why!

CONTEXT:

We’re continuing our summer study in Psalms this quarter with Psalm 105. Unlike some other Psalms, Psalm 105 has no author or historical note given, to help us understand its context. It is found in “Book 4” of the Psalms, which comprises Psalm 90-106. (Remember the Psalms are broken down into 5 “books,” although we are not told WHY. Some believe it mirrors the 5 Books of the Law). It does follow several Psalms of praise:

— Psalm 103 begins with the famous “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name.”

— Then Psalm 104 similarly begins, “Bless the LORD, O my soul” — then adds, “O LORD my God, You are very great” — then goes into a long, glorious song of praise of God as Creator.

It is in this context then, that we find Psalm 105, continuing the theme of praise to God, giving us a list of ways we can praise God — and WHY — because of His faithfulness.

Interestingly, Psalm 106, the very last Psalm in “Book 4,” contrasts Psalm 105’s picture of the faithfulness of God, with a Psalm that portrays the UN-faithfulness of His people! 

OUTLINE:

I. COMMANDS to Praise the LORD (:1-5)

II. WHO is commanded to Praise the LORD (:6)

III. WHY we are to Praise the LORD (:7-11, 42-45)

TEXT: Psalm 105:1-11, 42-45

I. Commands to Praise the LORD (:1-5)

:1 “Oh give thanks to the LORD, call upon His name;
Make known His deeds among the peoples.

2 Sing to Him, sing praises to Him;
Speak of all His wonders.

3 Glory in His holy name;
Let the heart of those who seek the Lord be glad.

4 Seek the Lord and His strength;
Seek His face continually.

5 Remember His wonders which He has done,
His marvels and the judgments uttered by His mouth.”

This section opens “Oh give thanks to the LORD …”

The word “give thanks” here is the Hebrew “yadah,” which, interestingly enough, this word pictures someone throwing up their hand — in an attitude of thanksgiving or praise! 

This is a Hiphil verb in Hebrew, which conveys intensity. My old Hebrew professor said when you have a Hiphil verb, you could say “REALLY”: “REALLY praise/give thanks to the LORD” — thus the NASB translation, “OH, give thanks …”.

So we are commanded here to “REALLY” praise God, in a heartfelt manner: “O give thanks to the LORD”! “Really” praise Him!

HOW do we do that? We see a series of commands in :1-5 that give us a number of ways that we can praise God. 

EXERCISE:

You might post these first 5 verses, or run off a copy of this page from a Bible, and ask your group to CIRCLE/call out all of the COMMANDS in these verses. They would include:

— “give thanks” (:1)

— “call upon His name” (:1) This generally means to PRAY.

— “make known His deeds” (:1) in other words, TELL other people what God has done

— “sing to Him” (:2) 

— “sing praises to Him” (:2)  At first one might think this is the same thing as “sing to Him,” but this is a different word, “zamar,” the same Hebrew word that “mizmor,” or “Psalm” comes from! It means to “pluck,” or play a stringed instrument. So it means not only to “sing,” but to play an instrument, or sing with accompaniment. So there is somewhat of a difference between the two terms here: both “sing,” and “play and/or sing with instruments”!

— speak of all His wonders (:2) (similar to :1’s “make known His deeds”)

— glory in His holy name (:3) To “glory” means to take pride in, rejoice in. We praise God by glorying/taking pride in His name. 

— let your heart be glad (:3)  We praise/worship God, and glorify Him, when we are glad in Him. John Piper came up with the term “Christian hedonism,” and the heart of it is this statement: 

“God is most glorified in you, when you are most satisfied in Him.” (John Piper)

You might consider POSTING THAT QUOTE and discussing it: why might that be true?

(Answers might include something along the lines, that when we are happy in God, it shows the world that He is meeting our needs — and this is especially true when we are in difficult circumstances. When we are satisfied/happy in God even in hard times, it shows how much greater God is than temporal circumstances.)

You might also NOTICE that both of the elements in :3 refer to heart attitudes: 

— “glory” in His holy name

— “let your heart be glad”

Are both not merely “actions” that you can just go through in a rote/routine manner — rather they are HEART attitudes. You “glory” in something in your heart. “gladness” comes from your heart. So the HEART is a vital part of our worship. It’s not merely external “deeds,” but heart attitudes that God seeks from us. 

— “seek” (the LORD, His strength, His face) (:4)

??? WHY would this be an act of worship???

(Because when we seek Him, it shows we need Him, that He has the answers, strength — or in the case of His face, it shows that HE is One we are truly looking for, to satisfy us. Again, these are acts of heartfelt worship.

— remember His wonders, marvels, judgments (:5) 

When we bring to mind the great things that God has done, it honors and praises Him.

So after you identify these qualities (10 or so, depending on how you count them) and discuss each of them for a minute, you might ask your group:

??? DISCUSSION QUESTION???

“Which of these commands is most appealing/significant to YOU???

(Of course this is an opinion question, so there is no “wrong” answer here; each person can share what appeals to them.

I love to sing to the Lord. A good portion of my prayer time every day consists of singing. You/your group can share your answers.)

You might also ask your group:

“Which of these commands do you find the HARDEST/most difficult to obey?”

(Again that will vary by the individual. 

I think :3 might be the hardest: to let your HEART be glad. That’s not just an “outward” act, but has to come from your heart.

You/your group can share your own answers. 

But then you might emphasize: it doesn’t matter which we find easiest/hardest: ALL OF THESE ARE COMMANDS! This is not “pick and choose” or “multiple choice”! ALL of us are to do ALL of these things to praise the Lord. God deserves them all!

+x as we saw in Psalm 96:4, “Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised.” God is so great, He deserves to be praised in ALL of these ways!

You might challenge your members to pick one of these that they have NOT been using/using as much, and encourage them to use this new way to praise God this week. 

— You might point out also, at some point in this section, that it  is the LORD (all caps, = YHWH/Jehovah) who is to be praised. So not just “any” god, but THIS specific God, Yahweh God, the God of Creation, the God Moses knew as “I AM,” the God of the Bible; the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ — THIS God is worthy of all the kinds of praises that this section describes. And we should use all of these different means to praise Him.

II. WHO is commanded to praise the LORD (:6)

6 “O seed of Abraham, His servant,
O sons of Jacob, His chosen ones!”

Here we see two descriptions of WHO should praise the LORD. 

And as you can see, these “two descriptions” are basically the same thing, repeated in a slightly different way, which means that this is an example of Hebrew “synonymous parallelism” — the way they express poetry. 

And what are the two ways that those who are to praise the LORD are described?

— “O seed of Abraham,” and — “O sons of Jacob.”

So it is the descendants of Abraham and Jacob — in other words, the people of Israel — who are to praise God.

This makes sense: these are the people who know Him. As we’ve pointed out, when we see LORD in all 4 capital letters like we do here in Psalm 105, it means in the Hebrew text it is “YHWH”, or “Yahweh/Jehovah,” the personal name of God, which He made known the Moses and His people. So those who are to praise Yahweh, are those who KNOW Him — like Abraham and Jacob and their descendants, to whom He has made Himself known.

And of course this extends to us today too. REMEMBER: the New Testament teaches that those of us who believe in Christ are now the children of Abraham:

— Galatians 3:7 “Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham.”

— Romans 4:16 “For this reason it is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.” 

So the Bible teaches that we Christians TODAY are “the seed of Abraham;” WE are the “sons of Jacob,” through faith in Christ. So these commands to praise God in Psalm 105, are not only for ethnic Israelis or Hebrews, but for ALL of us who know Jesus as our Lord & Savior. ALL of us who know Him, should praise Him! 

It reminds me of the 2nd verse of the hymn, “We’re Marching to Zion”: 

“Let those refuse to sing who never knew our God,

But children of the heavenly king, 

But children of the heavenly King,

May speak their joys abroad,

May speak their joys abroad.”

For years now, when I’ve sung that song I’ve changed the words to “But children of the heavenly King MUST speak their joys abroad”! It’s not just that we “may” do it; we “MUST” do it! We can’t help it. We must sing. We must praise God. We know Him, and we know what He has done for us — and so we must praise Him.   (And of course Verse 1 actually begins: “Come we that love the Lord, and let your joys be known …”. So again, it is “we that love the Lord” who are to praise Him!)

So those who are to praise God, are those who know Him! A  couple of APPLICATIONS here:

1) Each of us should ask ourselves, AM I praising God the ways that these verses describe? If not, we need to ask God to forgive us, and to help us to praise Him the way He deserves.

2) This makes sense that those who know God should praise Him; you can’t praise someone whom you don’t know!  SO this should be a prime motivation for us to evangelize others — we need to lead others to Jesus so that they may come to know God and praise Him the way that He deserves to be from them as well! It should be one of our primary motivators for missions, that people from every tribe, tongue, people, and language may praise Him, just as Revelation says. It is those who know God, who should praise Him!

III. WHY are we commanded to praise the LORD: (:7-11, 42-45)

:7 “He is the LORD our God;
His judgments are in all the earth.

8 He has remembered His covenant forever,
The word which He commanded to a thousand generations,

9 The covenant which He made with Abraham,
And His oath to Isaac.

10 Then He confirmed it to Jacob for a statute,
To Israel as an everlasting covenant,

11 Saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan
As the portion of your inheritance,”

:42-45

:42 “For He remembered His holy word
With Abraham His servant;

43 And He brought forth His people with joy,
His chosen ones with a joyful shout.

44 He gave them also the lands of the nations,
That they might take possession of the fruit of the peoples’ labor,

45 So that they might keep His statutes
And observe His laws,
Praise the Lord!”

BOTH of these sections make the key point that God “remembered”:

— :8 “He has remembered His covenant forever”

— :42 “For He remembered His holy word with Abraham …”

So WHY should we praise God? There are “10,000 reasons,” as a worship song says — but ONE great reason to praise God is because He is FAITHFUL: He remembers the promises that He has made to His people, and KEEPS them! 

— He said in :11 that He would give Israel the land of Canaan

— Then :44 says He gave them the lands of the peoples.

God DID what He said He would do. 

??? DISCUSSION QUESTION???

??? Who is someone on earth, who either DID/DID NOT keep their promise to you???

(FOR EXAMPLE: (and you are free to share this if you’d like)

When I was a boy, someone gave each of the kids in our family a silver dollar. I was afraid I would lose or spend mine, so I gave it to my dad to keep for me. Over the years I totally forgot about it, until one day when I was pastoring in Louisiana I received a little package in the mail from my dad — not a surprise in itself, as he was always sending us little things. But when I opened it, I was very surprised: inside was a little box with a silver dollar in it, with a note from my dad: “You gave this to me to keep for you. I guess it’s time to give it back.”  My dad REMEMBERED what he promised to do for me, and he DID it!)

You/your group can share your own stories, and then you can make the point: there are people on earth who keep their promises, and there are also those who don’t. Men may or may not be faithful. But we can trust that GOD ALWAYS KEEPS HIS PROMISES — just like He did for Israel here. 

It is just as Joshua said after God gave Israel the Promised Land:
“not one word of all the good words which the Lord your God spoke concerning you has failed”! (Joshua 23:14) That would actually a good theme/cross reference verse for this text (As Solomon put it in I Kings 8:56: “Not one word has failed of all His good promise.” 

??? DISCUSSION QUESTION???
“What is a promise that God has made that YOU are counting on today?”

(There could be numerous things:

— that if I believe in Jesus I will have eternal life

— that once I am saved I will always be saved

— that He will provide my needs according to His riches in glory

— that He will not leave me nor forsake me, but be with me always

And on and on.

You/your group can share your testimonies …. and you can make the point: THIS is one of the best reasons we have to praise the LORD: because we can trust Him to keep His promises. “God is the ultimate ‘Promise Keeper.’” So praise Him for that. Maybe there’s even an area in your life in which you’re being tempted to doubt that He is keeping His promise. Praise Him as an act of faith. 

A great song you might reference here, maybe to quote the lyrics in your lesson, or sing if you have an opening assembly, etc., is the hymn: “Great is Thy Faithfulness.”

“Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father,

There is no shadow of turning with Thee;

Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not

As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be. 

2

Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest,

Sun, moon and stars in their courses above,

Join with all nature in manifold witness

To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.

3

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,

Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;

Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,

Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!

(chorus)

Great is Thy Faithfulness, great is Thy faithfulness

Morning by morning new mercies I see.

All I have needed, Thy had has provided.

Great is Thy Faithfulness, Lord unto me.”

And notice one more significant thing: Verse 45 ends this section of God faithfully fulfilling His promise of giving Israel the land by adding: “SO THAT they might keep His statutes, and observe His laws.” This is another example of the Hebrew parallelism, but the point it makes is very significant: God did not faithfully deliver His people so that they could IGNORE His commands, but so that they might KEEP them!
— “Keep” His statutes. The Hebrew word “shamar,” which means “keep, observe, give heed.”

— “Observe” His law. This is the word “natzar,” which means “guard” (like a watchman in a watchtower).

ILLUSTRATION:

Charles Wesley (1707-1788) and author of “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” and others of our favorite hymns, wrote of a problem he saw among some Christians in his time:

“Many here insist that a part of their Christian calling is liberty from obeying, not liberty to obey. The justified, say they, are to be still; that is, not to search the scriptures, not to pray, not to communicate [take the Lord’s Supper], not to do good, not to endeavour, not to desire; for it is impossible to use the means without trusting in them. Their practice is agreeable to their principles. Lazy and proud themselves, bitter and censorious towards others, they trample upon the ordinances and despise the commands of Christ. I see no middle ground whereupon we can meet.”(John R. Tyson, Assist Me To Proclaim: The Life and Hymns of Charles Wesley, Kindle loc. 1142)

Wesley said there was no middle ground on this for him: God has not called us to give us “liberty from obeying.” He’s set us free to give us “liberty TO obey”! That’s a big difference! But I’m afraid that many Christians in American today are like those Wesley warned about in the 1700s. 

So let’s hear this word from Psalm 105. Because of all that God has done for us, we ought to praise Him — in all the ways that :1-5 commands. But it is significant that this Psalm closes with the thought that perhaps the BEST way we can praise Him, is by DOING what He commanded us to do, in His word! In His faithfulness, He’s set us free, to give us liberty to obey!

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