Psalms — Chapter 105

0:00 --:--
1 O give thanks unto the LORD; call upon his name: make known his deeds among the people.
2 Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him: talk ye of all his wondrous works.
3 Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the LORD.
4 Seek the LORD, and his strength: seek his face evermore.
5 Remember his marvellous works that he hath done; his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth;
6 O ye seed of Abraham his servant, ye children of Jacob his chosen.
7 He is the LORD our God: his judgments are in all the earth.
8 He hath remembered his covenant for ever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations.
9 Which covenant he made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac;
10 And confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant:
11 Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance:
12 When they were but a few men in number; yea, very few, and strangers in it.
13 When they went from one nation to another, from one kingdom to another people;
14 He suffered no man to do them wrong: yea, he reproved kings for their sakes;
15 Saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.
16 Moreover he called for a famine upon the land: he brake the whole staff of bread.
17 He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant:
18 Whose feet they hurt with fetters: he was laid in iron:
19 Until the time that his word came: the word of the LORD tried him.
20 The king sent and loosed him; even the ruler of the people, and let him go free.
21 He made him lord of his house, and ruler of all his substance:
22 To bind his princes at his pleasure; and teach his senators wisdom.
23 Israel also came into Egypt; and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.
24 And he increased his people greatly; and made them stronger than their enemies.
25 He turned their heart to hate his people, to deal subtilly with his servants.
26 He sent Moses his servant; and Aaron whom he had chosen.
27 They shewed his signs among them, and wonders in the land of Ham.
28 He sent darkness, and made it dark; and they rebelled not against his word.
29 He turned their waters into blood, and slew their fish.
30 Their land brought forth frogs in abundance, in the chambers of their kings.
31 He spake, and there came divers sorts of flies, and lice in all their coasts.
32 He gave them hail for rain, and flaming fire in their land.
33 He smote their vines also and their fig trees; and brake the trees of their coasts.
34 He spake, and the locusts came, and caterpillers, and that without number,
35 And did eat up all the herbs in their land, and devoured the fruit of their ground.
36 He smote also all the firstborn in their land, the chief of all their strength.
37 He brought them forth also with silver and gold: and there was not one feeble person among their tribes.
38 Egypt was glad when they departed: for the fear of them fell upon them.
39 He spread a cloud for a covering; and fire to give light in the night.
40 The people asked, and he brought quails, and satisfied them with the bread of heaven.
41 He opened the rock, and the waters gushed out; they ran in the dry places like a river.
42 For he remembered his holy promise, and Abraham his servant.
43 And he brought forth his people with joy, and his chosen with gladness:
44 And gave them the lands of the heathen: and they inherited the labour of the people;
45 That they might observe his statutes, and keep his laws. Praise ye the LORD.
Abrahamic Catechism
Bible Study
Psalms — Chapter 105
◈ Zohar

• The Zohar (II, 116b) teaches that "call upon His Name" (Kir'u ViShmo) is the invocation of the divine Name as a weapon. Calling the Name summons the full presence of the Sefirot into the battle. The Sitra Achra's counterstrategy is to make the Tzaddik forget the Name — spiritual amnesia is the Klipot's most insidious weapon. This psalm is a mnemonic that preserves the Name against forgetting.

• "Seek Hashem and His strength; seek His face continually!" — the Zohar (III, 55a) identifies strength (Uzzo) as the Sefirah of Gevurah and face (Panav) as the inner essence of Tiferet. Seeking both simultaneously creates a complete spiritual orientation: Gevurah for battle and Tiferet for guidance. The Sitra Achra wants the Tzaddik to seek one without the other — all fight and no direction, or all direction and no fight.

• "He spread a cloud for a covering, and fire to give light by night" — the Zohar (I, 210a) identifies the cloud as the Sefirah of Chesed (which conceals and protects) and the fire as Gevurah (which illuminates in darkness). Together they are the Tzaddik's bivouac — the camp that provides both concealment from enemies and visibility for navigation. The Sitra Achra attacks travelers who camp without these protections.

• "He opened the rock, and water gushed out; it flowed through the desert like a river" — the Zohar (II, 64b) reiterates the splitting of the rock as the liberation of Chesed trapped within the hard shell of Gevurah. The desert (the Sitra Achra's territory) is irrigated against its will — divine abundance flowing through enemy territory transforms the landscape itself, turning hostile ground into fertile land.

• "For He remembered His holy promise, and Abraham His servant" — the Zohar (III, 130a) identifies the holy promise (Davar Kodsho) as the covenant of Chesed made with Abraham, which is the root of all divine favor toward Israel. The Sitra Achra's entire legal strategy is to void this covenant through Israel's sin. This verse declares the covenant irrevocable — no amount of sin can undo what was sworn at the level of Keter.

✦ Talmud

• Pesachim 117a records that this psalm and Psalm 106 were sung at the Ark's installation — the recounting of covenant history is a liturgical weapon, because remembering what God did to Pharaoh and to the nations who resisted Israel de-legitimizes every subsequent adversarial claim.

• Shabbat 89b teaches that the patriarchs received the covenant as seeds of divine strategy — the Talmud reads Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (verse 9) as the three roots of a covenant tree that no adversarial force can uproot.

• Sanhedrin 91a links the plagues on Egypt (verses 28-36) to the Talmudic tradition of the ten plagues as a systematic dismantling of Egyptian theology — each plague targeted a god that Egypt worshipped, and through them the Sitra Achra's national franchise was destroyed.

• Yoma 75a notes the provision of quail and manna (verse 40) as a wilderness supply chain — the Talmud interprets God's provision in the wilderness as proof that the Sitra Achra's strategy of starvation and despair will always be countered by divine supply.

• Sotah 36b closes with the granting of the nations' lands (verse 44) — the Talmud frames this as the payoff of the covenant campaign, the moment when the long spiritual warfare of the patriarchal and Mosaic periods arrives at territorial victory.