Why read Psalm 105?
Read Psalm 105 to acknowledge repeated wrongdoing and ask for mercy. Confession of the people's disobedience is joined to remembrance of God's patience and a plea for restoration.
You can read this psalm when its themes speak to your circumstances, or as part of your regular reading of the Psalter. This explanation draws on the text itself; the psalm is not reserved for one particular need.
Psalm 105 — “Praise the Lord, for He is good,...” — is the prayer through which the Psalmist lays before God the experience of an entire hour of life. It belongs to Kathisma 15 and has 48 verses, which you will find below in full.
Text of Psalm 105
1. Praise the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy is forever.
2. Who will tell of the powers of the Lord, and who will make all His praises heard?
3. Blessed are those who keep judgment and do justice at all times.
4. Remember us, Lord, in Your goodwill toward Your people; visit us with Your salvation,
5. That we may see Your chosen ones amid good things, rejoice in the gladness of Your people, and boast in Your inheritance.
6. We have sinned like our fathers; we have acted lawlessly and done injustice.
7. Our fathers in Egypt did not understand Your wonders, did not remember the abundance of Your mercy, and grieved You when they went up to the Red Sea.
8. But He saved them for His name's sake, to make His power known.
9. He rebuked the Red Sea and dried it up, and led them through the depth of the sea as through a wilderness;
10. He brought them out of the hand of those who hated them, and delivered them from the enemy's hand;
11. And the water covered those who oppressed them; not one of them remained.
12. And they believed His words and sang His praise;
13. But they quickly forgot His works and did not bear His counsel;
14. Instead, they were seized by great craving in the wilderness, and tempted God in a place without water.
15. And He fulfilled their request and satisfied their souls.
16. And they angered Moses in the camp, and Aaron, the Lord's holy one.
17. The earth opened and swallowed Dathan, and covered the assembly of Abiram.
18. And fire was kindled in their assembly; a flame burned the sinners.
19. And they made calves in Horeb and worshiped the idol.
20. And they exchanged His glory for the likeness of a calf that eats grass.
21. They forgot God, who had delivered them, who had done great things in Egypt,
22. Wonderful things in the land of Ham, and fearsome things in the Red Sea.
23. Then He said He would destroy them, and would have destroyed them if Moses, His chosen one, had not stood before His face to turn away His anger so that He would not destroy them.
24. Then they despised the desired land and did not believe His word,
25. But grumbled in their tents and did not heed the voice of the Lord.
26. Then He raised His hand against them, to strike them down in the wilderness
27. And to strike down their offspring among the nations and scatter them in all directions.
28. They sacrificed to Baal-Peor and ate the sacrifices of the dead
29. And provoked Him by their deeds, and many of them died.
30. But Phinehas stood and appeased Him, and the affliction ceased
31. And it was reckoned to him as righteousness, from generation to generation forever.
32. Then they angered Him at the water of contention, and Moses suffered on their account,
33. For they grieved his spirit, and he spoke thoughtlessly with his lips.
34. They did not destroy the nations that the Lord had mentioned to them;
35. Instead they mingled with the nations and learned their works
36. And served their idols and stumbled.
37. They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to idols,
38. They shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and their daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the earth was defiled with blood.
39. They were polluted by their works and committed debauchery through their deeds.
40. Then the Lord burned with anger against His people and hated His inheritance
41. And gave them into the hands of the nations, and those who hated them ruled over them.
42. Their enemies oppressed them, and they were miserable under their hands.
43. Many times the Lord delivered them, but they grieved Him with their counsel, and He humbled them for their lawlessness.
44. But the Lord saw them when they were afflicted and heard their prayer,
45. And remembered His covenant, and relented according to the abundance of His mercy;
46. And He caused them to find mercy before those who had taken them captive.
47. Deliver us, Lord our God, and gather us from the nations, that we may praise Your holy name and boast in Your praise.
48. Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Let all the people say: Amen. Amen.
When Psalm 105 is read
- for remembering history and the mercy of God.
- At the end of each psalm, the tradition adds: "Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, both now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen."
Neighboring psalms
The numbering follows the Orthodox Psalter (Septuagint). The same psalm may have a different number in other Bible editions.
