Need Deliverance?

Text: Psalm 107, Title: Need Deliverance? Date/Place: WHBC, 6.3.18, AM

A. Opening illustration: Plymouth Colony’s Governor William Bradford’s proclamation on Monday, December 11, 1620. Boice’s Commentary, p. 864

B. Background to passage: This Psalm is the first psalm in the 5th book of Psalms. No one knows why they are divided into books except for the Jewish tradition that the number five corresponds to the five books of Moses that make up the Pentateuch, Gen-Deut. However, each book does end with a doxology to give a dividing point for its portion. This psalm is a declaration and praise for the redemption and deliverance that God provides.

C. Main thought: As we all experience the need for deliverance throughout our lives, we shall look today at this anonymous psalmist expression of praise for the God who delivers!

A. Needs for Deliverance

1. There are several needs for deliverance that are mentioned in this psalm. (1) Times in life where we have lost our way, times of vulnerability, times of emptiness. (2) Times in life where we have strayed from God, rebelled against His word and began to reap the reward of our disobedience. (3) Times when our health has failed for various reasons and we were near the gates of death. (4) Times when fear has invaded our lives through many circumstances, we reeled from stormy seas and came to our wits end.

2. Argumentation

3. Illustration: “I mourn the loss of what once was as well as the loss of what never was. They are both losses of what I hoped would be. Couples who have struggled with infertility, as well as those who have buried a child, or who are raising a special needs child or a wayward son or daughter, have all lost what they hoped would be. Whatever the origin, they are losses nonetheless.” -blogger Vaneetha Risner, Loss of mother, siblings, virtually father, fiancé, detesting school, money, job, deeply depressed, before an interview for a clerk’s position at the House of Lords, he decided to end his life. Unsuccessful for the better part of a day, eventually, exhausted from his continual attempts throughout the day, he fell asleep. He awoke around three in the morning in a terror of self-loathing and reached for pen knife and attempted to thrust it into his chest – but the blade broke. He then tried to hang himself from his bed frame – but the bed frame broke. Finally, he was able to successfully hang himself from his door frame till he lost consciousness – but then, the rope broke. He hit the ground, and convulsed into an unknown, deeper sense of self-hatred, unable to even kill himself. A narrator describes his experience the next day, “He felt for himself a contempt not to be expressed or imagined; whenever he went into the street, it seemed as if every eye flashed upon him with indignation and scorn; he felt as if he had offended God so deeply that his guilt could never be for-giv¬en, and his whole heart was filled with tumultuous pangs of despair. Madness was not far off, or rather madness was already come.” His song below, God Moves in a Mysterious Way.

4. These are situations, but the psalmist also is helping us to deal with feelings related to them. Many of us have had times in life where things have been ripped away from our lives leaving us to question the goodness or sovereignty of God. We wonder if we are somehow being punished for sin which we have committed. We see insanity or death approaching and fear paralyzes us as to what may happen. Maybe some of you struggle with depression or times that you go through deep darkness and despair of life itself. Some of you may have even attempted suicide at times in your life. Some of you deal with incessant physical pain and some spiritual pain exacerbated by sin, and some of us carry a burden of a spiritual nature for another. YOU ARE NOT ALONE. We are broken people feeling the affects of indwelling sin given us from our father Adam. The scripture is full of us. Some of you are like the William Cooper prior to his visit to the asylum, not knowing Christ. However, it would be a great story to say that after his conversion and his 12-month stint in the insane asylum, he was fixed, but not so. He continued to have bouts with depression and even attempted suicide afterwards, but after his conversion in the asylum, William did have a remarkably different outlook on life. Though still plagued with sadness, he no longer clung to his certain damnation. He would falter, and at times snap at Newton that he was beyond help, but would always come back to that sense of awe that God still loved and accepted him. Some of you need to cry out to Christ not simply as a deliverer from your pain and heartache, but as a savior from the sin that entangles your soul. You need to believe on Christ!