Wanderer.rebel.fool. Part 1 Series

“Wanderer. Rebel. Fool. Everyday People”

2015 Summer Series: A Study of Psalm 107 Part 1

All Scripture References are from New Living Translation. Tyndale House Publishers Inc.

Today we’re beginning a New Summer Series called: “Wanderer. Rebel. Fool. Everyday People.” We, as a church, are on a mission to reach and equip ‘everyday people’ they are our target audience and our mission field. Not so ironically we, as a church, are made up of those same ‘everyday people’… We are not special. We are not better than. We are not superior to…We are a collection of everyday people who are serving an amazing God.

This summer series will use Psalm 107 to explore where some of us have come from - You will most likely see your story here or at least a part of it.

We will get a glimpse of the “weary wanderer, the languishing prisoner, the foolish rebel and the foundering soul lost in a storm…”

You will at the very least get a glimpse of something that is familiar to you - something you can readily relate to…a place where you’ve come from.

If we don’t take a look at where we’ve come from - we are most likely to forget how far we’ve come and also forget Who brought us to where we are.

Then the danger is thinking that we can finish the journey on our own or that we indeed are something special and we run the risk of becoming un-relatable to everyday people.

Turn in your bibles to Psalm 107.

PRAY

Psalm 107 is the first Psalm in the fifth book of the Psalms.

It is primarily a Psalm celebrating the returning of God’s People who have been dispersed all over the world.

They had been wandering, they were held captive, they had been ruled and controlled by others, they had been through an awful lot - but God was gathering them together again…calling them out of the places that collected them like broken pots.

God was calling them out of those places and the Psalmist was calling on them to praise the Lord.

When those of old heard this Psalm they were immediately appreciative of all that God had done and it wasn’t a stretch to apply and respond to the call to be thankful…not at all.

Some would have fresh memories of the very places mentioned throughout the Psalm.

But this isn’t just a historical Psalm applicable to only those who lived then - we will see that it is as spiritually applicable to us today who have heard the voice of Jesus and have been called out of the darkest of places. We were found wandering on the most distant and forgotten roads.

But we heard the voice of Jesus and responded and we have come to God for He hasn't forgotten us.

And from all kind of varied background and difficult circumstances - we come back to God.

He is the good God of Everyday People.

The Psalm opens with these words:

Psalm 107:1: “Give thanks to the lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever.”

The first words of the psalm are “Give thanks to the lord, Jehovah, For he is good."

One saint of old asks, “Is not this, “For He is Good” the Old Testament version of "God is love"?

Remember we found that in 1 John 4:8, the text so often repeated in our previous series of “What Difference Does It Make?” “God is Love.”

Here we hear repeated over and over “God is Good.” He is good by nature, and essence, and proven to be good in all the acts of His eternity.

God will never be proven to not ‘be good’.

And compared with Him there is none good, no, not one: Jesus replied to a questioner who addressed Him as ‘good teacher’ “Why do you call me good - only God is good.”

God is essentially, perpetually, superlatively and infinitely good.

And we are the constant benefactors of His goodness and so it is fitting that we should respond to the call here - to do what? “To give thanks!”

Realizing just how good God is -we give thanks.

The insightful prayer of George Herbert captures it: “O Thou who hast given us so much, mercifully grant us one more thing - a grateful heart.”

God grant me, grant to us a grateful and thankful heart.

Psalm 107:1-3: “Give thanks to the lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever. Has the lord redeemed you? Then speak out! Tell others he has redeemed you from your enemies. For he has gathered the exiles from many lands, from east and west, from north and south.”

We see in these verses three things - A Declaration, An Investigation and An Invitation.