For he remembered his holy word, and Abraham, his servant.
Parallel translations
- KJV For he remembered his holy promise, 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 2:24God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
- Luke 1:72–73to show mercy towards our fathers, to remember his holy covenant,
- Luke 1:54–55He has given help to Israel, his servant, that he might remember mercy,
- Gen 12:7Yahweh appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your offspring.” He built an altar there to Yahweh, who had appeared to him.
- Exod 32:13Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of the sky, and all this land that I have spoken of I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’”
- Mic 7:20You will give truth to Jacob, and mercy to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old.
- Gen 13:14–17Yahweh said to Abram, after Lot was separated from him, “Now, lift up your eyes, and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward,
- Ps 105:8–11He has remembered his covenant forever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations,
- Gen 15:13–14He said to Abram, “Know for sure that your offspring will live as foreigners in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them. They will afflict them four hundred years.
- Deut 9:27Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Don’t look at the stubbornness of this people, nor at their wickedness, nor at their sin,
- Deut 9:5Not for your righteousness, or for the uprightness of your heart, do you go in to possess their land; but for the wickedness of these nations Yahweh your God does drive them out from before you, and that he may establish the word which Yahweh swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to 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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