Psalm 107: The Stories of the Redeemed

Call to Worship

Psalm 111:1–4 ESV

Praise the Lord! I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation. Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them. Full of splendor and majesty is his work, and his righteousness endures forever. He has caused his wondrous works to be remembered; the Lord is gracious and merciful.

Sermon

We’re continuing this week with another Psalm, and this one is a little bit longer, so we’re not going to read all of it, but we will read a good chunk of it. If you’ll turn with me we’ll be in Psalm 107, verse 1-32, and then finish with verse 43.

Psalm 107:1–3 ESV

Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever! Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he has redeemed from trouble and gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.

Psalm 107:4–9 ESV

Some wandered in desert wastes, finding no way to a city to dwell in; hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He led them by a straight way till they reached a city to dwell in. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man! For he satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things.

Psalm 107:10–16 ESV

Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in affliction and in irons, for they had rebelled against the words of God, and spurned the counsel of the Most High. So he bowed their hearts down with hard labor; they fell down, with none to help. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and burst their bonds apart. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man! For he shatters the doors of bronze and cuts in two the bars of iron.

Psalm 107:17–22 ESV

Some were fools through their sinful ways, and because of their iniquities suffered affliction; they loathed any kind of food, and they drew near to the gates of death. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man! And let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving, and tell of his deeds in songs of joy!

Psalm 107:23–32 ESV

Some went down to the sea in ships, doing business on the great waters; they saw the deeds of the Lord, his wondrous works in the deep. For he commanded and raised the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea. They mounted up to heaven; they went down to the depths; their courage melted away in their evil plight; they reeled and staggered like drunken men and were at their wits’ end. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed. Then they were glad that the waters were quiet, and he brought them to their desired haven. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man! Let them extol him in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders.

Psalm 107:43 ESV

Whoever is wise, let him attend to these things; let them consider the steadfast love of the Lord.

You might have picked up on it, but this Psalm has 6 distinct sections; an opening, a longer closing, and four parallel parts in the middle. Let’s start at the beginning.

Let’s read the introduction together.

Psalm 107:1–3 ESV

Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever! Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he has redeemed from trouble and gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.

The passage starts right off the bat with a command. The Psalmist is giving the command to give thanks, because God is good, and because of God’s everlasting faithful love. And who is the command given to? To those who have been redeemed. We covered this word earlier in the summer when we mentioned the story of Ruth. If you’ll recall, redeemed means to be bought back, in the story of Ruth, Boaz redeems Ruth by paying the necessary fees to take on the care of Ruth and Naomi as his responsibility. It’s much like what Christ did on the cross for us, like the first song we sang this morning: “His blood was the payment, His life was the cost, We stood 'neath a debt we could never afford, Our sins they are many, His mercy is more”. Christ paid the cost to redeem us to buy humanity back and adopt those who follow him to become his children.

And this idea of being redeemed, saved, bought back, and rescued continues throughout the entirety of this Psalm. And what’s in these first three verses continues to be repeated, that those who are redeemed should and do give thanks and praise God for who He is and what He has done for them. And as it says in this verse, God has rescued them, bought them back, from trouble and now the many people who have been saved are being gathered together to give thanks to God together.

And this is what the 4 middle sections are about. They tell the stories of different types of people who have been redeemed by God, and each section uses a similar format in order to point to what they have been through and how God has helped them.

If we look at each of them, they all have the same basic pattern.

They start like this some… did a certian thing, and each time the thing is something that took them away from God.

Verse 4 and 5:

“Some wandered in desert wastes, finding no way to a city to dwell in; hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them.”

Verse 10-12

“Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in affliction and in irons, for they had rebelled against the words of God, and spurned the counsel of the Most High. So he bowed their hearts down with hard labor; they fell down, with none to help.”

Verse 17-18

“Some were fools through their sinful ways, and because of their iniquities suffered affliction; they loathed any kind of food, and they drew near to the gates of death.”

Verse 23-27

“Some went down to the sea in ships, doing business on the great waters; they saw the deeds of the Lord, his wondrous works in the deep. For he commanded and raised the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea. They mounted up to heaven; they went down to the depths; their courage melted away in their evil plight; they reeled and staggered like drunken men and were at their wits’ end.”

Like I mentioned, in each of these situations we see the group of people being decribed turning away from God and ultimately finding ruin. And just to make it a little simpler I came up with a title for each group.

The first group I’ve titled the Wanderers, they travelled all around searching for somewhere to stay, somewhere to find food and water, somewhere to gain sustenance and a place to belong. And I think that their description fits a lot of people in our world, there’s a lot of people who’s story is that until they found God they felt like they were wandering aimlessly with nothing to fill them, and nowhere where they really belonged. And there are some that are still in that journey.

The second group I’ve titled the Prisoners. They’re just as lost as the wanderers, they’re living in darkness, they rebelled against the way they knew was right and in the end they ended up in chains, slaves to their own pain and affliction, they’re stuck trying and striving on their own, and they’re getting nowhere. There are some that I’ve met like this as well, whether their slavery is to some form of addiction, or they’re slaves to the rat race of the world, they just constantly feel stuck, enslaved, trapped in this misery.

The third group I’ve titled the Fools. The verse about them is short and simple, “they loathed any kind of food and they drew near to the gates of death”. This reminds me of people who have been told what is right and what is true, and yet they refuse to take part of it, it’s almost as if they are the most aware of their spiritual hunger, and yet they refuse food, instead they starve themselves, and they run towards death instead of life. I’ve seen these people, I think there’s a lot of young people like this, they’ve grown up knowing what is right, and then as they get older they become hardened and they learn more and more about the bible only to use it to desuade others and to chase after the opposite.

The fourth group I’ve given the title the Sea Sick, in this description these people haven’t done anything innately wrong, unlike the people in groups two and three, instead they’re simply people going about their life, when everything gets flipped upside down on them. They’re simple sailors doing business on the seas when out of nowhere comes a massive storm, and they’re tossed to and fro, and they are petrified, at their wits’ end. I think a lot of people can relate to this category as well, they don’t feel like they’ve done anything to deserve what life has thrown has them, they’ve simply gone about their business, but then their world gets rocked upside down, and they’re at their wits’ end.

But what does the Psalm say about each group, the same verse is repeated each time.

“Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress.” (v.6, 13, 19, 28)

No matter what’s going on in someone’s life, we all come to a point where we are at our wits’ end. Whether it be something that we’ve done, or something that’s happened to us, we all get to a point where all that’s left is to cry out for help. And as Christian’s we know that the person we cry out to is the LORD.

And we also rely on His faithfulness, we rely on the truth that He will hold us fast, that He will deliver us from our distress, that He will hear us when we call out to Him, and He will always be there as our refuge and our strength.

In each case, the story continues with how God delivered each type of person from their distress.

Verse 7

For the wanderers: “He led them by a straight way till they reached a city to dwell in.”

Verse 14

For the prisoners: “He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and burst their bonds apart.”

Verse 20

For the fools: “He sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction.”

Verse 29-30

For the Sea Sick: “He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed. Then they were glad that the waters were quiet, and he brought them to their desired haven.”

In each case, God answered their specific cry for help, and gave them exactly what they needed. He gave the wanderers direction. He burst the bonds of the prisoners. He gave truth and healing to the fools, and saved them from the path of destruction that they were set on. And the sea sick, he calmed the storm around them, and brought them to a save haven.

And just like the phrase “Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress.” was repeated each time, here, another phrase is repeated each time. This phrase is also repeated each time:

“Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man!” (v.8,15,21,31)

In each case, the Psalmist calls the people who have been redeemed, delivered and rescued, to come and to thank God for His steadfast love, for how God has worked on their behalf.

And finally each part closes by adding a part explaining why or how they are worshipping God and giving thanks to Him.

Verse 9

For the Wanderers it says that they worship and thank God because “he satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things.” Those that were lost and hungry and empty, are now satisfied and filled.

Verse 16

For the Prisoners it says they worship and thank God because “he shatters the doors of bronze and cuts in two the bars of iron.” Those that were trapped and in bondage have now been rescued, God has broken their chains and shattered the doors of their cells.

Verse 22

For the Fools it says that they worship and thank God like this: “let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving, and tell of his deeds in songs of joy!” Those that were proclaiming falsehood and running from truth, have found the truth and now rejoice in it and proclaim the truth of God’s character and deeds.

Verse 32

For the Sea Sick it says that they worship and thank God by “extoling Him in the congregation of the people, and praising him in the assembly of the elders.” Those that have seen God work mightily on their behalf proclaim it to others for them to see Gods work and hopefully also praise God for who He is, and what He has done.

That’s not the end of the Psalm, the rest of it is also very beautiful and I encourage you all to read the rest of it later. But for this morning I want to focus on these four stories through the lens of the final verse. It says this:

Psalm 107:43 “Whoever is wise, let him attend to these things; let them consider the steadfast love of the Lord.”

As we grow stronger as Christians one of the best ways to better understand God and how He’s working today is to listen to each other’s stories and to hear the stories of others. We consider the steadfast love of the Lord by hearing how His love has worked on our behalf and on behalf of those we know and other Christians that we meet.

Our stories are also one of the best methods we have for evangelism, to invite others to come and follow Jesus. We all have stories that in some way, shape, or form, are like what we’ve just read.

Maybe you feel like your story, how you came to know Jesus, or in your life how Jesus has saved and helped you is like one of the ones we read.

Maybe you feel like for a long time you were wandering and you couldn’t find a place where you fit or where you felt fulfilled, and then you met Jesus and He saved you, redeemed you, adopted you, and filled you.

Maybe you feel like you were a prisoner, you’ve been a slave to sin, or fear, or addiction, or shame, or anxiety before, and you couldn’t find a way out, until Jesus came to your rescue, and he broke down your prison walls and called you out of that way of life and into a new one with Him.

Maybe you felt like the fool, that at one time you were running from the truth, but then you fell far enough and you called out and pursued the truth and Christ came and met you there, and He saved you and taught you the truth, and now you’re being called to proclaim it.

Or maybe you’ve felt like you’ve been sea sick, that through no fault of your own you’ve had your life turned upside down and everything became overwhelming in a moment, and the only thing you could cling to was Christ, and He came and saved you and now you have a story to tell of how Christ has rescued you.

This list isn’t exhaustive either, all of us who are Christian’s have a story, a testimony, of how we have been saved and rescued and redeemed. There’s a show called the Chosen and it’s about the life of Jesus and his disciples, and in it Mary Magdalene says this: “I was one way, and now I am another, and the thing that happened in between was Him.” All of us have a story like that, and it might not be a long crazy story, but if we are Christians then there are times in our lives that we have had to rely on Jesus for strength and redemption and salvation, times when we cried out to Him and He came to our rescue.

And so now I want to do something we don’t typically do, I want to open an invitation for those who want to to share a story from their life, a time when Jesus rescued them , or saved them, or helped them in some way. We learn from each other’s stories. So I’ll open that up now, if anyone wants to share their story.

Communion

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 ESV

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Benediction

Hebrews 13:20–21 ESV

Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.