PSALM 107 PART 1 NEW FORMAT
REVISED 10-27-2004
Do you have friends and relatives who have little time for Jesus Christ? Do you have friends and relatives, both men and women, who think that they are macho, and who think that Christianity is for sissies, and not for macho men and women such as they think they are? Do you have neighbors who, if you invited them to come to Sunday School and church with you Sunday morning, would tell you that Sunday morning is the only morning that they have to sleep in; but they would get up before dawn on a Sunday morning to drive hundreds of miles to go hunting and/or fishing? Do you have friends, neighbors, or relatives, who really see no practical purpose for being a Christian? In their best moments they are just indifferent to the claims of Christ. In their worst moments they might scoff at your religion, calling it pie in the sky when you die. Are you concerned about their salvation? Do you want to see them coming to Christ?
I want to assure you this morning that God is more concerned about their salvation than you are. And throughout the course of the lives of your friends and relatives He has been doing something about it. What He does first is to let them carry on life as usual, to try to cope with life as best they can. Generally speaking, they think that they are managing fairly successfully. As long as they have a good job, good health, and fairly normal, healthy children - they think that they are coping. But then God allows unusual stress to come to their lives, troubles which stretch them beyond the point of coping. And then they often do one of three things. What most non-Christians do under unusual stress is merely to seek some form of medical help. Rather than go also to the Great Physician who treats causes, they often go only to a human physician who sometimes only treats symptoms with pills, which often only aggravate the cause.
If they see the hand of God at all in their trouble, they usually do one of two things. They either become bitter against God, or they cry out to God for help. When they become bitter, God just lets them carry on in their own strength and bitterness for another period, and then he allows them to have more stress. If they cry out to God for help, He answers them, and sends them at least temporary relief; which is often all that they really want. You see, what God is seeking is an eternal covenant relationship, which involves a commitment to the Lordship of Jesus Christ; and a commitment to love God as a heavenly Father. What they are often seeking is merely temporary relief. More often than not, after the temporary relief has come, they go back to the same old reliance upon self. In other words, they practice what has been called fox-hole religion.
Now all these acts of God in bringing people in and out of trouble are acts of loving-kindness. You see, one of the kindest things God can do for any person, Christian or non-Christian, is to wean him from trusting in his own finite human resources, and to lead him to trust in the infinite divine resources of Jesus Christ. And God=s loving-kindness is so great, that no matter how bitter Christians and non-Christians become, and no matter how much they cry to God for help in their troubles and then forget him in their good times, He keeps at this loving task of weaning them from trust in self to trust in Christ.
And some times, but not always, they come to the realization that they are being utter fools in resisting His love, that fox-hole religion is both unstable and foolish.
Today God may be working in this way with some non-Christians on your street. Tomorrow he may be working in this way with some non-Christians among your friends, relatives or associates at work. God will not stop His ways of loving-kindness with these individuals.
God knows that trust in self in foolish, and that trust in Christ is indispensable to proper living. And so through troubles God continues to encourage all people to experience proper trust in Christ. This is part of the reason why there is so much trouble in the world. God is teaching individuals and the whole world that reliance on self is sin, and that the wages of sin is death. He is weaning individuals to trust in Christ, a gift which brings eternal life.
Psalm 107 discusses this process.
You will find in your bulletin this morning a translation of Psalm 107 which I have prepared from the original Hebrew. Psalm 107 talks about people who practice fox-hole religion, and contrasts them with Christians who recognize God as their heavenly Father who is to be obeyed, and who recognize that Jesus has redeemed them to be His slaves.
Psalm 107 describes true Christians, people who recognize that God is their Father who is to be obeyed, and who recognize that Jesus is their Lord who has freed them from slavery to obey Him. People who practice fox-hole religion treat God as though He was their slave, as though He was some sort of cosmic machine which they can put into operation whenever they are in trouble.
Those who are redeemed recognize that we are God=s slaves. He has redeemed us. We owe Him everything we are and have because He gave His Son to redeem us. We want to be more like Jesus. We count it as a gracious gift from God when we suffer for His Name=s sake. We praise Him for the trials of life, for they refine the gold in our lives.
We sing with the songwriter:
THROUGH IT ALL,
THROUGH IT ALL,
I’VE LEARNED TO TRUST IN JESUS,
I’VE LEARNED TO TRUST IN GOD;
THROUGH IT ALL,
THROUGH IT ALL,
I’VE LEARNED TO DEPEND UPON HIS WORD.
Generally people who practice fox-hole religion do not praise God or thank God. They use God as their cosmic slave, but they do not praise Him or thank Him.
Psalm 107 describes four kinds of people who practice fox-hole religion: I have called them sojourners or wanderers who are constantly getting lost because they do not allow Jesus to lead them; shackled who wind up in jail because of their rebellion; sick people who wind up in hospital because of their foolishness; and sailors who think they can navigate without God.
The section on sailors is a climactic section. A key phrase is Acome to their wit=s end.@ If you don=t relate to the waves of the sea, think of people who are sunk in debt or sunk in despair or sunk in some quagmire of some sort.
Let me read with you the entire psalm as it appears in the translation.
Study it next week. Bring it with you next Sunday. The greatest thing we can do is win souls to Jesus. He is at work in the lives of our friends and neighbors who practice fox-hole religion.
TRANSLATION OF PSALM 107 BY DR. GEORGE E. (TED) BARTON
Please note that there are eight words which are repeated and which refer to God=s relationships with all people who practice fox-hole religion. Those eight words are: 1. praise; 2. mercy, goodness, loving-kindness; 3. cry out; 4. problem; 5. distresses; 6. wonderful acts; 7. sons of Adam; and 8. rescues. After each of these words the second number indicates the number of times it appears to that point in the poem. There are some special words used which only refer to redeemed people, Christians, people who regularly gather in the assembly or congregation and praise the Lord.
1. Praise (1-1) the Lord, for He is good; for His mercy (goodness, loving-kindness)
(2-1) is eternal (everlasting).
2. Let those redeemed (special) by the Lord say so, those whom He has
redeemed (special) from the hand of the oppressor;
3. And gathered (special) them from the lands; from the east and from the west,
from the north and from the south.
1. SOJOURNERS OR TENT-DWELLERS (VERSES 4-9)
4. There are those who wander in the wilderness, who tread the barren lands.
They cannot find a city in which to dwell.
5. Hungry and thirsty their soul within them faints.
6. Then they cry out (3-1) to God in their problem (4-1), and He snatches them from
their distresses (5-1).
7. Then He leads them along a straight road, so that they may come to a city in
which to dwell.
8. O that they would praise (1-2) the Lord for His goodness (2-2), and for His
wonderful acts (6-1) for the sons of Adam (7-1).
9. Because He satisfies the parched throat, and fills the hungry person with good things.
2. SHACKLED OR JAIL-DWELLERS (VERSES 10-18)
10. There are those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, shackled in stocks and iron,
11. Because they rebel against the words of God, and spurn the counsel of the Most
High.
12. He humbles their heart by hard labor; they stumble and there is no one to help them.
13. Then they cry out (3-2) to God in their problem (4-2), and He rescues (8-1) them
from their distresses (5-2).
14. He brings them out from darkness and the shadow of death; and their shackles
He snaps.
15. O that they would praise (1-3) the Lord for His goodness (2-3), and for His wonderful acts (6-2) for the sons of Adam (7-2),
16. Because He shatters doors of bronze, and cuts in two bars of iron.
3. SICK OR HOSPITAL DWELLERS (VERSES 17-22)
17. Numbskulls (fools), because of their rebellious ways, and because of their iniquities, become very sick.
18. Their soul abhors every kind of food; and they draw near to the gates of death.
19. Then they cry out (3-3) to God in their problem (4-3), and He rescues (8-2) them from their distresses (5-3).
20. He sends His word and heals them, and delivers them from their afflictions,
21. O that they would praise (1-4) the Lord for His goodness (2-4), and for His wonderful acts (6-3) for the sons of Adam (7-3),
22. And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of praise, and declare His works with rejoicing.
4. SAILORS OR SEA DWELLERS (VERSES 23-31)
23. There are those who go down to the sea in ships, who do business in mighty waters.
24. These (emphatic) see the works of the Lord and his wonderful acts (6-4) on the vast sea.
25. For He speaks and raises up the stormy wind, which lifts up high His waves.
26. They go up to heaven; they go down to the lowest depths
Their soul is melted because of the danger.
27. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunkard, and come to their wit’s end.
28. Then they cry out (3-4) to the Lord in their problem (4-4), and from their distresses (5-4) He brings them out.
29. He stills the storm to a whisper, and their waves are hushed.
30. Then they are glad because they are calm, and He guides them to their desired haven.
31. O that they would praise (1-5) the Lord for his goodness (2-5), and for His wonderful acts (6-5) for the sons of Adam (7-4).
5. SAINTS OR SANCTUARY DWELLERS (VERSES 32-43)
32. There are those who lift Him high (once) in the congregation (once) of the people (once), and praise (once) Him in the assembly (once) of the elders (once).
33. He changes rivers into deserts, and springs of water into parched ground,
34. A land of fruit into salt flats because of the wickedness of those who dwell there.
35. He changes deserts into pools of water, and parched earth into springs of water.
36. There he makes the hungry dwell, and they establish a city in which to dwell
37. They sow fields, and plant vineyards, and harvest a fruitful yield.
38. He blesses them, and they multiply greatly, and He does not allow their cattle to decrease.
39. Again (Notice the two cycles.) they are diminished and brought low through oppression, affliction, and trouble.
40. He pours contempt upon princes, and causes them to wander in a trackless wasteland.
41. The poor, however, He lifts up from affliction, and makes his clans like lambs.
42. The upright (first) see, and rejoice, but every iniquitous person shuts his mouth.
43. Whoever is wise will pay attention to these things, and will understand the loving-kindness (mercy, goodness) (2-6) of the Lord.
Notice that in this fifth section there are two cycles in and out of trouble. Notice also that the troubles come because of the sins and errors of others (primarily ungodly political leaders), not because of the sins of the righteous. Notice also that after verse 34 and after verse 40 there is no mention crying out to God as in previous sections. These people do not practice fox-hole religion.
I shall not be discussing my translation this morning. We may do that later. In the Hebrew of this psalm there are several words which are repeated. I have identified eight in my translation.
Those eight words are:
1. praise
2. mercy, goodness, loving-kindness
3. cry out
4. problem
5. distresses
6. wonderful acts
7. sons of Adam
8. rescues
After each of these words in my translation, you will see two numbers. The first number corresponds to the number in the list. The second number is the number of times that word has been used to that particular point in the psalm.
I SHALL NOW READ VERSES 1-16.
