Psalm 106:22

Psalm 106:22, in plain English

The psalmist lists the specific miracles—plagues in Egypt and the parting of the Red Sea—as evidence of God's power that Israel had witnessed firsthand. These weren't distant stories; these were events their parents and grandparents actually saw.

Why it's here

When you talk about 'Ham,' you're talking about Egypt (Ham was Canaan's father, and Egypt was often called the 'land of Ham'). The 'wondrous works' and 'awesome deeds' refer to the ten plagues and the miraculous escape. Every adult Israelite in the wilderness had either lived through these events or heard them from eyewitnesses, making their forgetfulness even more shocking.

Who's speaking

Still the psalmist, recounting the specific miracles to make the case that forgetting God was inexcusable.

Where it sits in the story

These miracles are the foundation story of Israel's identity—the moment God claimed them as His own people. Everything else flows from this.

The scholarly reading

The psalmist catalogs God's extraordinary miracles in Egypt and at the Red Sea, establishing the magnitude of what Israel's ancestors had willfully forgotten.

Language and setting

The reference to 'the land of Ham' (Psalm 105:23 employs identical phrasing) is a poetic designation for Egypt; Ham was Noah's son whose descendants populated that region according to Genesis 10. These 'wondrous works' (נִפְלָאוֹת—niflaot, literally what inspires awe) and 'awesome deeds' (נוֹרָאוֹת—noraot) encompass the ten plagues and the parting of the sea, the demonstrable proofs of YHWH's supremacy over Egyptian gods and natural order.

Voice

The psalmist, drawing on liturgical recollection patterns established in Egypt-rehearsal psalms like 105 and 113, but now inverting them to highlight human ingratitude rather than divine power.

Significance

These verses ground Israel's covenantal obligation in the Exodus narrative—the foundational story that established Israel as God's peculiar people and demanded perpetual remembrance and obedience.

20They exchanged their Glory for the image of a grass-eating ox.

21They forgot God their Savior, who did great things in Egypt,

22wondrous works in the land of Ham, and awesome deeds by the Red Sea.

23So He said He would destroy them— had not Moses His chosen one stood before Him in the breach to divert His wrath from destroying them.

24They despised the pleasant land; they did not believe His promise.

Read all of Psalm 106 — The other side of Psalm 105. Israel's history retold through the lens of rebellion — yet God saved them again and again for His name's sake.