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Psalm 105 · a question people ask

"They didn’t rebel against his words" (105:28). Who didn't?

In the text

The verse doesn't name them: "He sent darkness, and made it dark. They didn’t rebel against his words" (105:28). The last people the psalm names are Moses and Aaron: "He sent Moses, his servant, and Aaron, whom he had chosen" (105:26). The next verse says, "They performed miracles among them, and wonders in the land of Ham" (105:27), and then comes 105:28. In Hebrew rebel is marah (Brown-Driver-Briggs: "be contentious, refractory, rebellious"). The Psalms have it ten times in Hebrew, and each of the other nine speaks of rebelling that was done, as in "How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness" (Psalm 78:40); only here does it come with not. The psalm doesn't say more, and these notes don't choose who "They" are.

The verses

“He sent Moses, his servant, and Aaron, whom he had chosen. They performed miracles among them, and wonders in the land of Ham. He sent darkness, and made it dark. They didn’t rebel against his words.”
Psalm 105:26-28 · World English Bible
“How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness, and grieved him in the desert!”
Psalm 78:40 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Psalm 105

Psalm 105: He has remembered his covenant forever

Psalm 105 tells Israel's story from Abraham to the land without one sin of Israel's in it: even the quail come because "They asked" (105:40). And God remembers at both ends: "He has remembered his covenant forever" (105:8), and "For he remembered his holy word, and Abraham, his servant" (105:42).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions