Psalm 105:28-36

Psalm 105:28-36

The Plagues!

I’m not sure that I can produce a commentary on each of the plagues that came upon the land of Egypt (or Ham) and its inhabitants. Each plague is self-explanatory and the listing here is not dissimilar to the accounts in Exodus chapters 7-11, although there are some differences. Maybe it will be helpful to just point these out and explain why it seems that the psalmist tweaks the account a little bit! 

Firstly, we should note that only seven plagues are listed here in the Psalm whereas Exodus tells us that there were ten. Seven is always the number of completeness so I suspect that the psalmist is reminding his readers / singers that God’s vengeance and wrath against Egypt was complete. We do not read here of the death of the livestock or the plague of boils and in this psalm, the gnats and flies are combined but in the reverse order to the Exodus account. One of the most obvious differences is that the plague of darkness comes first here, in verse 28, although it was the ninth plague to hit Egypt. Perhaps this was to frame all these judgements with the two that that came last, and thus demonstrating God’s power over two of the most formidable forces in Egyptian worship. Darkness blew apart the idea that Pharaoh had control over sunrise and sunset and the light of the sun; the death of the firstborn struck at the very heart of Egyptian manhood. 

The outstanding inference here is not just the Lord’s superiority over the Egyptian gods but that every aspect of normal life in Egypt was hit. Nothing was untouched, the judgements entered the bedrooms of the people, all their crops and produce were ruined, even the sacred River Nile was no longer safe for drinking or bathing. No one escaped these plagues, every man, woman and child were affected, when God judges no one escapes! 

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