Psalm 107:1-43
“The Many Storms of Life”
In our journey with Jesus we will find ourselves in all sorts of situations.
The ups and downs.
The times of distance and distraction, and times of closeness and being firmly anchored to the Lord.
The storms and the calm.
As we face this journey this is the encouragement which comes from Psalm 107:1-3
1 Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His love endures forever.
2 Let the redeemed of the LORD tell their story—those He redeemed from the hand of the foe, 3 those He gathered from the lands, from east and west, from north and south.
Right from the beginning we know the attitude we are to have as we read through the Psalm. It is an attitude of thankfulness that arises because of God’s character.
God is a good God.
Not vindictive. Not unjust. Not indifferent.
He is a good God who brought His people out of Egypt.
The Good God who returned the people from Exile in Babylon.
The Good God who is at work for our good, even when it may not feel like it.
God’s love endures forever.
Not fleeting. Not conditional. Not temporary.
God’s love continues to reveal itself in His acts of grace and mercy and forgiveness. The ultimate expression of that love being the giving of His One and only Son that we may not perish but have eternal life.
A visual outworking of God being good and loving is that He is a God who redeems and gathers.
He calls His people.
He builds His kingdom.
He gathers His church.
God keeps bringing His people into His family. And each one of these people has a story to tell of the way God works. This Psalm is part of that story. It is the story of those who have experienced repentance and renewal. It is the story of those who know they have a place in God’s family.
It is the story of a very varied spiritual journey.
Some make their way through that journey as Wanderers. We read about them in Psalm 107:4-9
4 Some wandered in desert wastelands, finding no way to a city where they could settle.
5 They were hungry and thirsty, and their lives ebbed away.
6 Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress.
7 He led them by a straight way to a city where they could settle.
8 Let them give thanks to the LORD for His unfailing love and His wonderful deeds for mankind, 9 for He satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.
Wanderers are those who have stopped following the path.
When I was in grade 12 a group of us got lost on an overnight walk.
There was a path. We had maps and a compass. We knew where we needed to go. We were excited for the challenge.
BUT … there was a group of us who ended up just chatting to each other.
We weren’t really paying attention to where we were going. Then at some point we realised – we weren’t on the path anymore.
Thankfully we did have the map and compass. Once we were focussed we found our way back to the group … who didn’t even realise a group of us had disappeared.
Wanderers are not those who deliberately disobey God. Nor are they intentionally setting out to stop following God.
Wanderers are in the wasteland because they have become distracted.
Maybe distracted by a new opportunity.
Maybe distracted by the need to pay bills and make ends meet.
There are many distractions that can make us wander. But soon, the distraction gives way to a realisation. We are in a wasteland and we feel insecure because we have moved off the path.
And we continue to be wanderers, until we cry out to the LORD who promises to give as complete spiritual security.
In the Old Testament the promise is described in this way:-
1 “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters;
and you who have no money, come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.”
Isaiah 55:1
In a similar way:- 35 Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to Me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in Me will never be thirsty.”
John 6:35
No matter what era … OT … NT … today … the promise is the same.
It is not literal food and drink. But a promise of being given all that we need spiritually as we recover from the spiritual hunger and thirst which arise when we have wandered from the path. A promise of spiritual security.
Wandering. It can be part of our spiritual journey.
Another component of our spiritual journey can come because we have been trapped.
We read about this in Psalm 107:10-16
10 Some sat in darkness, in utter darkness, prisoners suffering in iron chains, 11 because they rebelled against God’s commands and despised the plans of the Most High.
12 So He subjected them to bitter labour; they stumbled, and there was no one to help.
13 Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and He saved them from their distress.
14 He brought them out of darkness, the utter darkness, and broke away their chains.
15 Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and His wonderful deeds for mankind, 16 for He breaks down gates of bronze and cuts through bars of iron.
The Trapped are those who have deliberately set themselves against God.
The words used to describe this group are words like “prisoners”, “rebelled” and “despised God”.
They are lost … but deliberately so.
The outcome is that they have become chained.
Rebellion can do that can’t it? It can keep us chained and make us feel like a prisoner. For most of us it is not a literal chain … but we have been there never-the-less.
We can become chained to emotional responses … such as bitterness and anger … they can make us slaves as well.
We can become chained to life-styles … the pursuit of wealth or the need to succeed … it is another area of slavery.
We can even be chained to things that are inherently good … our families, or relationships, our responsibilities … even here we can stand against God.
For each one of us the issue may be different, but the result is exactly the same:- there are those invisible chains that bind us.
We are prisoners.
And we continue to be trapped until we cry out to the LORD who promises to set the prisoners free.
Not long after Jesus was baptised He went to Nazareth, the town where He grew up, and He was preaching in the synagogue.
This is part of what He said.
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent Me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”
Luke 4:18-19
When Jesus said these words He was quoting Isaiah 61:1-2.
By making the words of Isaiah His own Jesus understood that it has always been the plan of God to release the trapped from their chains.
Jesus also understood that His ministry and calling was to be the One who would make it eternally possible for that release to take place.
Jesus did this so that those
… who knew that God was good and eternally loving
… but who were also trapped because they had rebelled and found themselves in darkness.
Jesus did what was necessary so that those who currently have this journey, can call out to God and their chains will be broken.
Being Trapped. It can be part of our spiritual journey.
Another component of our spiritual journey is feeling Broken.
We read about this journey in Psalm 107:17-22
17 Some became fools through their rebellious ways and suffered affliction because of their iniquities.
18 They loathed all food and drew near the gates of death.
19 Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and He saved them from their distress.
20 He sent out His word and healed them; He rescued them from the grave.
21 Let them give thanks to the LORD for His unfailing love and His wonderful deeds for mankind.
22 Let them sacrifice thank offerings and tell of His works with songs of joy.
We see words like “fools”, “iniquities” and “suffering”. The word rebellious is also used … but it is a different Hebrew word than the one used to described the previous group. From these words know that the Broken are dealing with the ongoing consequences of their sin.
In one sense we are dealing with the same people as those who are in the previous group. However, even though they have sought forgiveness for their sin, they are still on the journey where they are still experiencing the guilt that comes with knowing they have sinned.
They are discouraged and feel like hopeless cases.
They have brought into the lie that they are no use to God any more.
They are just ready to give up.
“God gave me so many opportunities, and so many chances, and I just blew it.”
“What would God want to do with a useless person like me?”
It is that part of the journey when we feel like we have been so sinful that we actually don’t think we deserve forgiveness. Where we would completely understand if God just abandoned us to the grave.
Broken by the weight of guilt over sin.
We continue to be broken until we cry out to the LORD who will never let the grave have the final word.
In the Old Testament, generally, the grave was the place of ultimate abandonment.
It is the place where people were forgotten.
There are some verse which give the sense that the grave is the place where God will forget you.
Generally, that was the case.
But every now and then in the Old Testament we get glimpses of the bigger picture.
In the middle of his difficulties and suffering Job declares
25 I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end He will stand on the earth.
26 And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God;
27 I myself will see Him with my own eyes—I, and not another.
Job 19:25-27
Job knows that the grave is not the end nor will the grave bring an end to Job’s existence.
Job knew that, somehow, God would break the power of the grave.
The grave will not cause Job to be forgotten. Beyond the grave, is life.
When Jesus died and rose again – Jesus eternally broke the power of the grave.
So much so that Paul is able to write:-
54 “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
55 “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:54-57
The grave is inconsequential. We are rescued from the grave.
Jesus breaks the brokenness which comes when we think the consequences of sin have rendered us as useless. After sin is not brokenness – but life.
Feeling Broken. It can be part of our spiritual journey.
Another component of our spiritual journey is feeling Fragile.
We read about this journey in Psalm 107:23-32
23 Some went out on the sea in ships; they were merchants on the mighty waters.
24 They saw the works of the LORD, His wonderful deeds in the deep.
25 For He spoke and stirred up a tempest that lifted high the waves.
26 They mounted up to the heavens and went down to the depths; in their peril their courage melted away.
27 They reeled and staggered like drunkards; they were at their wits’ end.
28 Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and He brought them out of their distress.
29 He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed.
30 They were glad when it grew calm, and he guided them to their desired haven.
31 Let them give thanks to the LORD for His unfailing love and His wonderful deeds for mankind.
32 Let them exalt Him in the assembly of the people and praise Him in the council of the elders.
This is not the testimony of sailors.
It is the testimony of those who are going through all sorts of storms of life.
The fragile are those who face wave after wave of difficulty.
We are going along just being involved in our careers, our family, our church, our responsibilities, or anything else in the normal course of life. It all seems to be under control when suddenly — snap! — there it goes.
It doesn’t come because we have sinned … it just comes.
What we trusted in …
What we thought was well established …
What we presumed was a sure thing …
… it’s all gone. The circumstances of life so overwhelm us that we reel and stagger like drunkards. And we come to our wits’ end.
There is a comfort in this isn’t there?
To know that people in this world have been at their wit’s end for at least as long as this Psalm has been around, which is about 2500 years.
And for at least 2500 years God has been helping such people.
We will continue to be fragile until we cry out to the LORD who stills the storm.
For those of us who have been around church for a little while.
We can’t help but think about Jesus the storm-stiller.
You can read about it in Matthew 8.
The disciples are in a boat in a storm – and Jesus is asleep.
The storm is so ferocious that even the disciples who were fisherman were afraid and fragile.
They cried out to Jesus and He calmed the storm.
Jesus is the storm stiller.
Not just of physical storms. But all the storms that come through life that make us feel fragile – where we are tossed about on the waves.
There are still more verses in Psalm 107 … but that is where we will stop this morning.
Stop and reflect on what this Psalm is teaching us today.
We the redeemed will all face a varied spiritual journey.
Wanderers. Trapped. Broken. Fragile.
These can all be part of our journey.
But it is not the whole story. And it is not the end of the journey.
The story we ultimately tell is the story found in the opening verse.
1 Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His love endures forever.
Psalm 107:1
In every situation we keep coming back to the LORD and crying out to Him.
Knowing … trusting … taking comfort from … the God who gathers us.
No matter what we are going through we can come to that place where we keep giving thanks
… our God is Good.
… the love of our God endures forever.
That doesn’t mean life will go smoothly. But it does mean we will be able to keep a spiritually wise perspective in the midst of the journey.
Giving thanks. Giving thanks. Giving thanks. … Every day
Prayer
