Psalm 105:43-44 ”He brought out His people with rejoicing, His chosen ones with shouts of joy; He gave them the lands of the nations, and they fell heir to what others had toiled for…”
Observation: Psalm 105 is a remarkable record of God’s fulfillment of His covenant with Abraham. It is a clarion call to praise and worship in recognition of God’s faithfulness to Israel from their earliest history. He reminds them of the famine in Canaan and His preparation of Joseph to be their deliverer as Egypt’s prime minister. He recounts the signs and wonders performed through Moses and Aaron to deliver them out of Egypt, and speaks of His watchcare during their years in the desert. The chapter closes as it began, with a reminder of His covenant with Abraham (Verse 42) which He says He remembers forever (Verse 8). As a result, God says He gave them the lands of the nations, and they fell heir to what others had toiled for.
Application: This psalm is like a love letter tenderly written by a father who wants his children to remember their family heritage. We all long to know our roots, to have some sense of the characters and events that formed us. “What were their struggles, their victories?” we wonder. “What sort of demons did they have to face down for me to be here today?” We give our parents blank legacy books and hope they would fill them with remembrances that might paint a fuller picture of the family’s heritage.
Psalm 105 is God’s legacy letter. He focuses primarily on His divine initiatives rather than on the people’s shortcomings, and He closes by pointing out that they fell heir to what others had toiled for.
Think about the implications of that statement. There are some who toil and some who reap. Some spend backbreaking lives working in their own strength to build their kingdom upon the earth, only to see it slip through their fingers in the end as God rewards those who have “kept His precepts and observed His laws” (Verse 45). How futile are my best efforts outside the will of God. He says that in the end, the fruit of such toil will bless others. In this I glimpse the truth of Proverbs 13:22, “…a sinner’s wealth is stored up for the righteous.”
Just as for Israel, God has had a plan for me from the beginning. I, too, have a promised land where His reward awaits. It is my choice to end my personal desert wanderings, pursuing rewards I hope to create for myself. Ultimately, my desire is to be God’s heir; only in His inheritance will I find “rest from my enemies…and (live) in safety” (Deut. 12:10). Everything else is just “stuff”.
Prayer: Lord, You have promised an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. Bring my heart into alignment with Yours. I don’t want to waste another minute pursuing less than Your best.