God’s faithfulness is the dominant theme of Psalm 105, and His covenant with Abraham provides the evidence. The land of Canaan was promised first to Abraham, then Isaac, then Jacob. Each generation of patriarchs received divine assurance that one day their descendants would receive this prized real estate as their very own inheritance (v 8-11). But this assurance had nothing to do with their own merit. It was all of grace. Scan the whole psalm and notice the repetition of the pronoun “He” as a reference to God. This is clearly a record of the sovereign LORD’s gracious activity on behalf of Israel, not their noble activities for Him. In fact, God’s choice of Israel had nothing to do with their own qualifications. They were not impressive in size, but “few in number.” Neither were they impressive in terms of personal moral integrity, for even Abraham lied about his wife to Abimelech. The psalm doesn’t specifically mention this incident, but it is the background to the Word of God quoted in v 15, “Touch not my anointed ones, do my prophets no harm!” Abraham had deceived Abimelech by saying that Sarah was his sister, out of fear that the king would kill him to take Sarah as his wife. God had to warn Abimelech not to touch Sarah, telling him that Abraham was a prophet. Yet he was a lying prophet! (v 12-15). Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were all prone to such missteps and moral failures. Yet God kept them safe through their wanderings. Biblical heroes are not always presented to us as examples to follow. But as Tim Keller put it, “The Bible is a history of God offering His grace to people who do not deserve it nor seek it nor even fully appreciate it after they have been saved by it.” Jacob had twelve sons but loved Joseph most, so the young man was hated by his brothers. Though they were morally culpable for selling Joseph to slave traders on their way to Egypt, the psalmist recognizes that it was ultimately God who “sent” Joseph there in order to accomplish a divine mission. When first put into Potiphar’s prison he was chained by his feet and neck. For two long years he was forgotten. But God remembered His promise to make Joseph a ruler over princes, and in due time, Joseph was released to become prime minister over Egypt, serving at Pharaoh’s right hand. If he hadn’t been betrayed, sold, and imprisoned for years, Joseph never would have been in place to redeem his own family while saving thousands of people from famine. We never know how God may be at work in surprising ways, using even our troubles for His glory and the good of His people (v 16-22). For further meditation: