Looking back on the year (Psalm 105)

The end of a year is often a time of stocktaking, of looking back. What was the year like for you? Much the same as the year before? Lots of change and transition? And where was God in your year? While there is a place for reflecting on the past to learn from it and repent where we have sinned, Psalm 105 gives us another approach that is also helpful to do from time-to-time. The psalm’s focus is, at first glance, on the events of Israel’s history from the covenant with Abraham and the promise of land (Ps 105:8-15), through the family’s move to Egypt in Joseph’s time (Ps 105:16-24) to the plagues (Ps 105:25-36) culminating in the exodus, desert wanderings and arrival in the Promised Land (Ps 105:37-45). However, this historical review is unusual in what it leaves out. Joseph’s brothers selling him into slavery is not mentioned, nor the Sinai covenant, when God gave His law and the people committed to keep it, nor Israel’s disobedience in the desert. It is a selective history that focuses on God’s faithfulness. Central to this is the covenant with Abraham because it is based on God’s commitment rather than on anything His chosen people had done. May we take encouragement from God’s faithfulness even when we do not deserve it.

What picture of God emerges from this recital of Israel’s history? First, He is a promise-keeping God. Despite numerous obstacles, God has made Abraham’s descendants fruitful (Ps 105:24) and gave them a land of their own (Ps 105:44). Secondly, God was sovereign in the events that unfolded in their lives from the famine that came on the land, which forced the family to relocate to Egypt (Ps 105:16, 23), through the plagues that He brought, to the events in the desert (notice the emphasis on God’s agency: ‘He sent’, ‘He spoke’, ‘He brought’, etc. Ps 105:26-41). Thirdly, He protected the patriarchs when they were strangers in a land without extensive kinship links to help defend them from exploitation (Ps 105:12-15). Finally, He guided Israel through the pillar of cloud and fire (Ps 105:39) and provided for them in the desert (Ps 105:40-41). As you look at the year just passing, can you see these character traits of God displayed through the events of your life? This is a good reminder of the God we serve.

Some might feel reading this, however, that it is too rosy a picture and all very well for those whose year was a happy one, but what about others who experienced pain and loss? The psalm does not gloss over those darker aspects of what it means to be chosen and belong to God. God’s call can put us into places of uncertainty and vulnerability as in Abraham’s case, who left security behind when he followed God’s call into a new land. Likewise, many who make themselves available to God live with financial insecurities and often without a rootedness in a particular culture they can call their own. Neither are God’s people exempt from injustice and hatred as the story of the exodus demonstrates (Ps 105:25). Perhaps the most striking example that serving God is no cushy job is the life of Joseph in the central section of the psalm (Ps 105:16-24). God’s servant (same word in Hebrew as slave, Ps 105:6), sent by Him to Egypt, is enslaved. One can imagine how Joseph’s prophetic dreams of honour must have taunted him in prison. God’s word (i.e. promise) tested him (Ps 105:19). The Hebrew evokes precious metal being forged in the crucible (cf. Ps 66:10). God’s faithfulness is displayed not in the absence of difficulty but through it.