Psalm 105:16–22

Context

Psalm 105 is a historical psalm that traces Israel's history in praise of God, who remembered and kept the covenant He made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Verses 1–15 closely parallel the song David sang after bringing the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem, recorded in 1 Chronicles 16. Verses 16–22 condense the story of Joseph in Genesis 37–41. Before the famine came, God "sent a man before them" (Psalm 105:17); Joseph was sold as a servant and imprisoned, then released by the king and raised to rule over the land. Beginning with verse 23, the narrative moves on to the migration of Jacob's family to Egypt and the Exodus. The focus of the psalm as a whole is not Joseph's personal success but God, who kept His promise and preserved His people.

Interpretation

• Providential reading: Drawing attention to the statement that God "called for a famine upon the land" (Psalm 105:16), this reading holds that even the brothers' wrongdoing and Joseph's unjust imprisonment lay within God's plan (providence). It follows the same line as Joseph's own interpretation of events in Genesis 45 and 50.
• Refinement reading: The word rendered "tried" in verse 19 ("the word of the LORD tried him") refers to melting metal in fire to separate out impurities. Focusing on this term, this reading understands the time leading up to the fulfillment of the promise as a process by which faith is refined.
• Typological reading: Typology is a method of interpretation that sees Old Testament persons or events as figures foreshadowing Christ. Christian tradition has long regarded Joseph as a type of Christ, reading his rejection and suffering, followed by his exaltation and the saving of many lives, as parallel to the path of Christ.
• Communal reading: Many Old Testament scholars hold that the psalm was intended to give the postexilic community, which had lost its nationhood, the hope that God does not forget His promises.

Debates and Issues

• Translation questions: In verse 18, the phrase rendered "he was laid in iron" contains the Hebrew word nephesh (life, neck, self). It is therefore also translated "his neck was put in iron." The Latin Vulgate is known to have rendered it "the iron pierced his soul." In the first half of verse 19, the original reads simply "his word" ("Until the time that his word came"), so interpreters differ over whether it refers to the fulfillment of Joseph's dreams or his interpretation of dreams, or to the fulfillment of God's promise.
• The relationship between God and suffering: The Calvinist tradition emphasizes that even the famine fell under God's decree and providence. The Arminian and Wesleyan traditions, while affirming God's sovereignty, tend to emphasize human freedom and responsibility together with God's permission.
• Limits of application: Some point out that using this passage to claim that "advancement always follows suffering" is an application divorced from its context. Critics of prosperity theology raise this point in particular. They hold that the weight of the text lies not in Joseph's success but in the preservation of the covenant people.

Related Passages

• Genesis 45:5-8
• Genesis 50:20
• Genesis 41:39-44
• Acts 7:9-10