properly · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
covenant
בְּרִית֑וֹbe.ri.To
H1285
a compact (because made by passing between pieces of fl… · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
ever
לְעוֹלָ֣םle.'o.Lam
H5769
properly · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
word
דָּבָ֥רda.Var
H1697
a word · noun, common masculine singular absolute
commanded
צִ֝וָּ֗הtzi.Vah
H6680
(intensively) to constitute · verb, piel perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
thousand
לְאֶ֣לֶףle.'E.lef
H505
hence (the ox's head being the first letter of the alph… · preposition + noun, common both genders singular construct
generations
דּֽוֹרDor
H1755
properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Deuteronomy 7:9 Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his com…
Psalms 106:45 And he remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his mercies.
Psalms 111:5 He hath given meat unto them that fear him: he will ever be mindful of his covenant.
Luke 1:72-74 To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant;
1 Chronicles 16:15 Be ye mindful always of his covenant; the word which he commanded to a thousand generations;
Psalms 105:42 For he remembered his holy promise, and Abraham his servant.
Nehemiah 1:5 And said, I beseech thee, O LORD God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and obser…
Psalms 111:9 He sent redemption unto his people: he hath commanded his covenant for ever: holy and reverend is his name.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 105:8-24
We are here taught, in praising God, to look a great way back, and to give him the glory of what he did for his church in former ages, especially when it was in the founding and forming, which those in its latter ages enjoy the benefit of and therefore should give thanks for. Doubtless we may fetch as proper matter for praise from the histories of the gospels, and the acts of the apostles, which relate the birth of the Christian church, as the psalmist here does from the histories of Genesis and Exodus, which relate the birth of the Jewish church; and our histories greatly outshine theirs. Two things are here made the subject of praise: -
I. God's promise to the patriarchs, that great promi…
He hath remembered his covenant for ever,.... Another argument of praise taken from the covenant of grace, in which he is our God, and of which he is ever mindful; he remembers his covenant ones, whom he perfectly knows, and never forgets them; he remembers his covenant promises to them, and allows them to put him in remembrance of them; he has respect unto his covenant, and the blessings of it, and bestows them on his people; gives them the sure mercies of David; and he remembers his love, which is the source and spring of all.
The word which he commanded to a thousand generations; that which is properly a covenant with Christ our head on our account, is a word of promise to us; a promise…
Psalm 105:6-11
6. Ye seed of Abraham his servant, the sons of Jacob his chosen. 7. He is Jehovah our God: his judgments are through all the earth. 8. He hath remembered his covenant for ever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations; [206] 9. Which he made with Abraham; and his oath which he swore to Isaac; [207] 10. And established it to Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant: [208] 11. Saying, I will give thee the land of Canaan, the cord [or measuring line [209] ] of your inheritance.
6 Ye seed of Abraham his servant. The Psalmist addresses himself by name to his own countrymen, whom, as has been stated, God had bound to himself by a special adoption. It…
The Church Fathers
"He hath been alway mindful of His covenant" (ver. 8). Other copies read, "for evermore;" and this arises from the ambiguity of the Greek. But if we are to understand "alway" of this world and not of eternity, why, when he explaineth what covenant He was mindful of, doth he add, "The word that He made to a thousand generations"? Now this may be understood with a certain limitation; but he afterwards saith, "Even the covenant that He made with Abraham" (ver. 9): "and the oath that He sware unto Isaac; and appointed the same unto Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting, testament" (ver. 10). But if in this passage the Old Testament is to be understood, on account of the land of Canaan; for thus the language of the Psalm runneth, "saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan: the lot of your inheritance" (ver. 11): how is it to be understood as everlasting, since that earthly inheritance could not be everlasting? And for this reason it is called the Old Testament, because it is abolished by the New. But a thousand generations do not seem to signify anything eternal, since they involve an end; and yet are also too numerous for this very temporal state. For by howsoever few years a generation is limited, such as in Greek is called genea, whereof the shortest period some have fixed is at fifteen years, after which period man hath the power of generation; what then are those "thousand generations," not only from the time of Abraham, when that promise was made him, unto the New Testament, but from Adam himself down to the end of the world? For who would dare to say that this world should last for 15000 years? Hence it seemeth to me that we ought not to understand here the Old Testament, which it said through the prophet was to be cancelled by the New: "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant." ...After saying, "He hath been mindful of His covenant unto an age;" which we ought to understand as lasting for evermore, the covenant, namely, of justification and an eternal inheritance, which God hath promised to faith; he addeth, "and the Word that He commanded unto a thousand generations." What meaneth "commanded"? ...The command then was faith, that the righteous should live by faith; and an eternal inheritance is set before this faith. "A thousand generations," then, are, on account of the perfect number, to be understood…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Covenant — A contract or agreement between two parties. In the Old Testament the Hebrew word berith is always thus translated. Berith is derived from a root which means “to cut,” and hence a covenant is a…
Covenant, The · God is ever mindful of — God is ever mindful of
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
The poet now begins himself to do that to which he encourages Israel. Jahve is Israel's God: His righteous rule extends over the whole earth, whilst His people experience His inviolable faithfulness to His covenant. יהוה in Psa 105:7 is in apposition to הוּא, for the God who bears this name is as a matter of course the object of the song of praise. זכר is the perfect of practically pledges certainty (cf. Psa 111:5, where we find instead the future of confident prospect). The chronicler has זכרוּ instead (lxx again something different: μνημονεύωμεν); but the object is not the demanding but the promissory side of the covenant, so that consequently it is not Israel's remembering but God's that…
The covenant is the Lord’s irrevocable oath to be the Father of Abraham and his descendants (see Gen 12:1-9; 15:1-21).
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 105:8
He hath remembered his covenant for ever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations.
He hath remembered his covenant for ever. Here is the basis of all his dealings with his people: he had entered into covenant with them in their father Abraham, and to this covenant he remained faithful. The exhortation to remember (Ps 105:5) receives great force from the fact that God has remembered. If the Lord has his promise in memory surely we ought not to forget the wonderful manner in which he keeps it. To us it should be matter for deepest joy that never in any instance has the Lord been unmindful of his covenant engagements, nor will he be so world without end. O that we were as mindful…
