For he remembered his holy promise, and Abraham his servant.
Parallel translations
- WEB For he remembered his holy word, and Abraham, his servant.
- BSB For He remembered His holy promise to Abraham His servant.
- NKJV For He remembered His holy promise, And Abraham His servant.
- NASB For He remembered His holy word With His servant Abraham;
- NLT For he remembered his sacred promise to his servant Abraham.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God acted because He remembered His holy promise to Abraham His servant. It matters because all His mighty deeds flowed from His covenant faithfulness.
Overview
The psalmist roots the entire Exodus in God's remembering His covenant with Abraham (Genesis 15:13-14). God did not act arbitrarily but in keeping with His sworn word. His faithfulness to that ancient promise undergirds the whole story of redemption, which finds its goal in Christ, Abraham's promised offspring.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Exod 2:24And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
- Luke 1:72–73To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant;
- Luke 1:54–55He hath holpen his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy;
- Gen 12:7And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.
- Exod 32:13Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever.
- Mic 7:20Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.
- Gen 13:14–17And the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward:
- Ps 105:8–11He hath remembered his covenant for ever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations.
- Gen 15:13–14And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;
- Deut 9:27Remember thy servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; look not unto the stubbornness of this people, nor to their wickedness, nor to their sin:
- Deut 9:5Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that he may perform the word which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 105:42 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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