Let the Redeemed Give Thanks

Scripture Reading

Psalm 107 NKJV

Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy, And gathered out of the lands, From the east and from the west, From the north and from the south. They wandered in the wilderness in a desolate way; They found no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, Their soul fainted in them. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, And He delivered them out of their distresses. And He led them forth by the right way, That they might go to a city for a dwelling place. Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness, And for His wonderful works to the children of men! For He satisfies the longing soul, And fills the hungry soul with goodness. Those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, Bound in affliction and irons— Because they rebelled against the words of God, And despised the counsel of the Most High, Therefore He brought down their heart with labor; They fell down, and there was none to help. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, And He saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, And broke their chains in pieces. Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness, And for His wonderful works to the children of men! For He has broken the gates of bronze, And cut the bars of iron in two. Fools, because of their transgression, And because of their iniquities, were afflicted. Their soul abhorred all manner of food, And they drew near to the gates of death. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, And He saved them out of their distresses. He sent His word and healed them, And delivered them from their destructions. Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness, And for His wonderful works to the children of men! Let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, And declare His works with rejoicing. Those who go down to the sea in ships, Who do business on great waters, They see the works of the Lord, And His wonders in the deep. For He commands and raises the stormy wind, Which lifts up the waves of the sea. They mount up to the heavens, They go down again to the depths; Their soul melts because of trouble. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, And are at their wits’ end. Then they cry out to the Lord in their trouble, And He brings them out of their distresses. He calms the storm, So that its waves are still. Then they are glad because they are quiet; So He guides them to their desired haven. Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness, And for His wonderful works to the children of men! Let them exalt Him also in the assembly of the people, And praise Him in the company of the elders. He turns rivers into a wilderness, And the watersprings into dry ground; A fruitful land into barrenness, For the wickedness of those who dwell in it. He turns a wilderness into pools of water, And dry land into watersprings. There He makes the hungry dwell, That they may establish a city for a dwelling place, And sow fields and plant vineyards, That they may yield a fruitful harvest. He also blesses them, and they multiply greatly; And He does not let their cattle decrease. When they are diminished and brought low Through oppression, affliction and sorrow, He pours contempt on princes, And causes them to wander in the wilderness where there is no way; Yet He sets the poor on high, far from affliction, And makes their families like a flock. The righteous see it and rejoice, And all iniquity stops its mouth. Whoever is wise will observe these things, And they will understand the lovingkindness of the Lord.

In this thanksgiving season, I want to remind you of the value of being thankful. God is good, and his “mercy” endures forever. This is the repeated theme of Psalm 107. The word translated mercy is here about his steadfast love. The idea is that when God establishes a relationship with someone, he continues the favor he showed. That’s not only by forgiving them and giving them what they don’t deserve (mercy), it’s also that he keeps his promises. But in addition, it means that God loves and cares for his own, always.

The psalm begins with the appeal for the redeemed to thank the Lord. This redemption is further defined by five scenes of the kinds of trouble that the Lord delivered them from. The concept is that people find themselves in troubles of different kinds, and God hears them when they cry for help.

I. God Gathers Them Into his Kingdom

Before we get out of the first section, we’ve got our first picture of redemption. The theme of gathering Israel after exile begins very early, and remains something we are waiting for. Moses predicted that Israel would experience exile even before she had made it into the land in the first place, and after that exile be brought back; Jeremiah predicted a return from the exile. Of course, after 70 years a small group of Israelites did return; however, this was not the prophesied end-time return, since most Jews remained in foreign lands, and in fact, to this day there are more Jews outside Israel than in it. This is why Jesus predicts a return subsequent to his own day. Deut 30:3; Jer 29:14; Matt 8:11

Deuteronomy 30:3 NKJV

that the Lord your God will bring you back from captivity, and have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the nations where the Lord your God has scattered you.

Jeremiah 29:14 NKJV

I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive.

Matthew 8:11 NKJV

And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.

Now since I’m not speaking to Jews, it bears asking why this matters. And the reason is that our enjoyment of the Kingdom of God cannot happen until God fulfills his promise to Israel. Our word Church is the translation of the Greek Word ἐκκλησια. It became a technical term just as our English word is a technical term for the church; however, it did not start that way. Originally it just meant any group of people gathered together for any purpose - a football game is an assembly of people desperately in need of exercise, gathered together to watch 12 men desperately in need of rest. So the church is an assembly, a gathering of people. But gathering for what? It is the gathering of those Jews and Gentiles who have citizenship in the Kingdom of God. We are the gathered people of God, waiting for Jesus to come and establish the Kingdom of which we are already members.

So right at the start, the greatest kind of redemption is mentioned. Salvation from Sin is the greatest redemption because it allows entrance into an entirely new and better world forever; that’s way better than anything else.

II. God Leads the Lost and Hungry

Our first category of people are those who are lost - as in physically lost, and consequently they are also hungry and thirsty. It doesn’t say why these wanderers are wandering, so they may not be lost by their own fault. The point is that they are in distress, hungry and alone, and cry to God for help and he does. But I want to know, are there real stories of this happening? yes. You remember Hagar, Abraham’s slave-girl who gave birth to Ishmael? I think she could testify that God delivers the Wanderer.

The first time God delivered Hagar, she was pregnant with Ishmael. Abraham was struggling with the problem every polygamist has, that of conflict between the women in his life. This conflict was so severe that Hagar ran away. God appeared to her, promised her that she would have a son because God had heard her cries, and that this son would end up having innumerable descendants (Gen 16:1-14). She gave a name to the Lord - The God who sees. Meaning, God saw her affliction and helped her.

But it happened again. Gen 21:8-21 This time Ishmael was bullying the infant Isaac, and Sarah got upset again, because, you know, polygamy does that. This time God had Abraham send Ishmael away, promising him that Ishmael would also be a great nation. Incidentally, this is different than later Mosaic law for polygamous men, but that’s not a problem, since the Law hadn’t been given. Abraham obeys, even though he apparently does love Ishmael as well. He gives them provisions for the road, but it appears they are not enough, and they run out of water and the boy is unable to go on. When Hagar cries out to God, the Angel of the Lord appears to her again, and she finds a well of water and goes and helps the boy. They eventually make a home in Paran, and the boy lives in the wilderness, eventually founding his own people, the Ishmaelites. It even says that God was with Ishmael, and it is God’s doing that he was so successful, though there is little evidence that Ishmael was at all a follower of Yahweh.

III. God Breaks the Prisoner’s Chains

The next image is that of a prisoner, that God sets free. Now you may think of Joseph, but this prisoner is in that spot because he rebelled against God, something Joseph clearly did not do. Here we see God’s great mercy on display, because the prisoner cries out to God because of the mess he caused himself, and God hears him and delivers him. The Biblical character I think of is King Manasseh, son of Hezekiah. This was one of Judah’s worst kings 2 Chron 33:1-9. God warned him, to no effect, so God brought the King of Assyria, who bound the king and took him to Babylon. And this punishment had the effect God wanted. Manasseh repented 2 Chron 33:12-15. Sadly, this probably came at the end of a very long reign, and he could not truly turn the hearts of the people back to God after so much wrong; but Manasseh himself - his repentance was very real, as his actions afterwords demonstrated.

2 Chronicles 33:12–15 NKJV

Now when he was in affliction, he implored the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed to Him; and He received his entreaty, heard his supplication, and brought him back to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God. After this he built a wall outside the City of David on the west side of Gihon, in the valley, as far as the entrance of the Fish Gate; and it enclosed Ophel, and he raised it to a very great height. Then he put military captains in all the fortified cities of Judah. He took away the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the Lord, and all the altars that he had built in the mount of the house of the Lord and in Jerusalem; and he cast them out of the city.

IV. God Delivers Sailors

Now we move to the sea, to the sailors. Now sailing was a very risky profession. There’s no hint about why God sent the storm, thus, it could be for any reason at all. The important thing is that the poor sailors find themselves in danger and cry to God. Most of the section is devoted to painting a picture of what it feels like to survive a storm. Two Biblical narratives come to mind.

First one is of course, the sailors that encountered Jonah the foolish prophet. They were pagans, but the storm wasn’t sent because of them but because of the rebellious prophet they were transporting.

Second story is that of Jesus calming the storm - obviously our psalmist wasn’t thinking of the Messiah, since there’s no OT prediction of the Messiah calming the storm. However, the pattern is exactly the same (Mark 4:35-41). The disciples encountered one of the rapid storms that can come on the Sea of Gallilee, and their little fishing boat was heavily laden with the 13 men who were travelling on it. Jesus was tired from a long day of speaking and traveling, so he was asleep. They woke him with the accusation, “Master, don’t you care that we are perishing?” Jesus gets up and rebukes the wind and the waves, and says, “Peace, be still.” and it so it was.

Now this kind of miracle is without precedence in the Old Testament. Only God can calm the sea, as we see here in Psalm 107. So the disciples correctly wonder, “who is this guy?!” They know that only God can calm the sea, so to see Jesus do it blows their minds, as they are still learning who he is.

V. God is sovereign over the earth

The last picture is different. Instead of a group of people that are delivered from one trouble or another, a contrast is given. God makes the land barren or fruitful at his pleasure. But again, the punishment and blessing are imbalanced. He makes a land barren because of the wickedness of the inhabitants, but he blesses a land simply because they are hungry.

Now both sides are a reflection of God’s promises in the Mosaic Covenant. God promised Israel that if they sinned he would make the land dry and barren; and if they obeyed he would prosper their land. Deut 28:1-2, 15

Deuteronomy 28:1–2 NKJV

“Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God:

Deuteronomy 28:15 NKJV

“But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:

Furthermore, that’s exactly what God did through Elijah - we first meet Elijah when he declares that there would be no rain except at his word; after 3 1/2 years, he has the showdown on Mt. Carmel, and then God sends rain, despite the fact that the people’s repentance was shallow and unreal.

Now in our modern world we don’t usually worry much about lack of food - but that itself is God’s blessing. If God wanted, he could easily take it away; he certainly didn’t grant us the bounty of our modern world because of our exceptional righteousness.

This reflection of God’s blessing also extends to other forms of prosperity or poverty.

Conclusion

Now the key of this chapter is the last verse - the one who is wise will observe this and understand more about the Covenant Faithfulness of God. Thus thankfulness for God’s deliverance is important because it is part of being wise. And of course that begins with thankfulness for salvation, but it doesn’t end there. Whenever you see God bless or rescue you, you ought to consider and give thanks to God for what he has done for you. It’s part of being truly wise.