Have you ever played a game like Civilization, Sim City or Settlers of Catan? Psalm 107 is a bit like that. Not that it is a game but that it is the ups and downs of humankind. And the heights and depths of the human experience are summarised by this account of our ups and downs.
And each time you see the same scenario.
6 "LORD, help!" they cried in their trouble, and he rescued them from their distress. ...
13 "LORD, help!" they cried in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. ...
19 "LORD, help!" they cried in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. ...
28 "LORD, help!" they cried in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress.
Main Point: The godly response to ups and downs of human history is to be moved to praise because you can see how God sends the Lord Jesus to help those who call for His help.
Psalm 107 encourages you to view things from God’s perspective. If you do you will see that the following:
v1 the Lord is good so we should give thanks
the Lord’s faithful love endures forever
v2 the Lord redeems so you should speak out about His redemption
v3 the Lord gathers exiles
v6 the Lord rescues people in their distress
v7 the Lord leads people to safety
v8 the Lord has great love for people so we should praise Him
v8 the Lord does wonderful things for those who call out to Him
v9 the Lord satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things
v11 the Lord gives His Word and counsel
v12 the Lord breaks the rebellious with hard labour
v13 the Lord saves those in distress who call to Him.
v14 the Lord leads
v14 the Lord snaps chains
v15 the Lord has great love for people so we should praise Him
v15 the Lord does wonderful things for those who call out to Him
(Will you go through the whole Psalm and finish the list?)
And on and on the Psalm goes with this account, and hopefully in it you can see God. We might see ourselves, we might see others, we might see the world around us. But we are meant to see God. Not just in Psalm 107 but Psalm 107 teaches us to see everything through the lens of God at work, God doing wonderful deeds, God rescuing those who call on Him. Have you called on God? Then you can be sure that He heard and is rescuing you.
Have you got yourself in a pickle again? Have you wandered off out of the protection and light that God has given you? Are you in deepest gloom? Then know this, the Lord saves. And how does He save? Verse 20 of Psalm 107 tells us.
“He sent out his word and healed them, snatching them from the door of death.”
Have you learned how to read the Psalms with me so far or is this your first one or are you not very practised in seeing the main point? Jesus showed the two on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24 that the whole of Scripture, all of the Bible, the entirety of the law and prophets point to Him. So we are looking for Jesus in the Psalms and we find Him everyday. Today I saw Him in every word about our Lord but mostly in this verse 20. Jesus is the Word of God. Jesus is the healer sent from God the Father to reveal His promise and His salvation to the world. Anyone, anywhere, at any time can call out to the Lord and say, Help! And God the Father sends Jesus, the Word of healing.
And although the Psalm is full of references to God’s work which Jesus will use to describe and explain who He is and what He has come to do (and there are many things Jesus did that are described as the work of God rescuing those who call to Him), you probably noticed the calming of the seas in verse 29.
“He calmed the storm to a whisper and stilled the waves.”
Jesus is the Lord whom Psalms 107 reveals. And the Psalm ends with two kinds of people: Those who look at everything in human history and see Jesus, and those who look at human history and are clueless and hopeless.
So which one will we be?
“'The godly will see these things and be glad, while the wicked are struck silent. Those who are wise will take all this to heart;
they will see in our history the faithful love of the Lord .'”
Conclusion: If you are godly then you will see and be glad. You will see the faithful love of the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be glad.
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| Handwritten Psalm 107 |
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