November 28, 2012 - Psalms 105     

A Psalm of history, from the wondering group to the establishment of the law with Moses, we see the ups and downs and God’s hand throughout.  I was trying to think if having the whole story shortened like this makes it easier or harder to understand God’s thought process.  You have this group, but they aren’t really following you.  So, you need them to rely on you.  You bring a famine, but before you do, You establish a way for them to be protected from the famine.  Then you bring them into a foreign land where they grow in number, only to be enslaved.  The famine did not fortify their faith in you because in enslavement they turn to the foreign gods.  So, You bring them out of slavery and destroy the other gods to show Your power and might and to show them they must rely on You.  But they continue to turn away or long for the former way of life, so You keep them in the wilderness and force them to rely on You until they are ready for the Law.  This is the sense that you get in reading a shortened version.  You see right away that God is trying to prepare them for the law.  It makes it easier to see that the entire Old Testament is preparing them for Christ.  We should follow that and see that what happens after Christ is preparing us for what is to come in the End.