Read
The Lord Can Be Trusted
1 Praise the Lord
and pray in his name!
Tell everyone
what he has done.
2Sing praises to the Lord!
Tell about his miracles.
3Celebrate and worship
his holy name
with all your heart.
4Trust the Lord
and his mighty power.
5Remember his miracles
and all his wonders
and his fair decisions.
6You belong to the family
of Abraham, his servant;
you are his chosen ones,
the descendants of Jacob.
7The Lord is our God,
bringing justice
everywhere on earth.
8He will never forget
his agreement or his promises,
not in thousands of years.
* 9 God made an eternal promise
10 to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
11when he said, “I'll give you
the land of Canaan.”
12At the time there were
only a few of us,
and we were homeless.
13We wandered from nation
to nation, from one country
to another.
14 God did not let anyone
mistreat our people.
Instead he protected us
by punishing rulers
15and telling them,
“Don't touch my chosen leaders
or harm my prophets!”
16 God kept crops from growing
until food was scarce
everywhere in the land.
17 But he had already sent Joseph,
sold as a slave into Egypt,
18 with chains of iron
around his legs and neck.
19Joseph remained a slave
until his own words
had come true,
and the Lord had finished
testing him.
20 Then the king of Egypt
set Joseph free
21 and put him in charge
of everything he owned.
22Joseph was in command
of the officials,
and he taught the leaders
how to use wisdom.
23 Jacob and his family
came and settled in Egypt
as foreigners.
24 They were the Lord's people,
so he let them grow stronger
than their enemies.
25They served the Lord,
and he made the Egyptians plan
hateful things against them.
26 God sent his servant Moses.
He also chose and sent Aaron
27to his people in Egypt,
and they worked miracles
and wonders there.
28 Moses and Aaron obeyed God,
and he sent darkness
to cover Egypt.
29 God turned their rivers
into streams of blood,
and the fish all died.
30 Frogs were everywhere,
even in the royal palace.
31 When God gave the command,
flies and gnats
swarmed all around.
32 In place of rain,
God sent hailstones
and flashes of lightning.
33He destroyed their grapevines
and their fig trees,
and he made splinters
of all the other trees.
34 God gave the command,
and more grasshoppers came
than could be counted.
35They ate every green plant
and all the crops that grew
in the land of Egypt.
36 Then God took the life
of every first-born son.
37 When God led Israel from Egypt,
they took silver and gold,
and no one was left behind.
38The Egyptians were afraid
and gladly let them go.
39 God hid them under a cloud
and guided them by fire
during the night.
40 When they asked for food,
he sent more birds
than they could eat.
41 God even split open a rock,
and streams of water
gushed into the desert.
42God never forgot
his sacred promise
to his servant Abraham.
43When the Lord rescued
his chosen people from Egypt,
they celebrated with songs.
44 The Lord gave them the land
and everything else
the nations had worked for.
45He did this so that his people
would obey all his laws.
Shout praises to the Lord!
Reflect
Sometimes we miss God’s big picture. This psalm helps us see God in his covenant grace forming and guiding Israel for nearly 600 years from Abraham to Moses.
Once we begin to grasp the enormity of God’s gracious faithfulness we easily respond in joyful praise and singing because of all he has done (vv 1-3). His covenant promises started with Abraham and Jacob but continue to a thousand generations down to us today in Christ (vv 6-10).
In this process he uses flawed people! He used Joseph as an expert governor after much suffering (vv 13-25). He used Moses as a miracle-working leader to liberate his people from Egypt (vv 26-38). He provided protection, food and water for them in their wanderings (vv 39-41).
Even when God’s people turned away from him in various ways – grumbling and idolatry (vv 25-29) – God continued faithful in all things showing his holiness to them in discipline and judgment.
Today we are in an even more privileged relationship with God than Israel was, through the more perfect covenant in Jesus’ blood and the promise of his Spirit. May we as his New Israel, rejoice in Christ and make him known among the nations through the good news we have of total liberation from sin and Satan.
Respond
O Father we praise you that we can know your power and love working in us and using us to make your great grace known among the nations. We pray for your Church in our nation and ask you to strengthen us with power to be a shining light to the nations here and beyond our borders. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
George Anderson
George is a retired Presbyterian minister who resides in Binbrook Ontario, Canada with his wife, Audrey. George & Audrey emigrated from South Africa to Ile Perrot, Quebec, in 1989 with their four daughters all of whom are now married and living in Ontario with their nine grand-children. After teaching high school Math and working in SU in South Africa, George pastored two churches there and four churches in Canada, the last being in the beautiful Muskoka town of Huntsville. The main focus of George’s ministry has been building up congregations through the renewing grace and power of the Spirit of Jesus as expressed in Acts 2 v 42 – teaching, fellowship, eating together and prayer. George enjoys bird-watching and hiking with Audrey and the occasional tennis and golf.