Crisis at Sea

Psalm 107:23–32 ESV

23 Some went down to the sea in ships, doing business on the great waters; 24 they saw the deeds of the Lord, his wondrous works in the deep. 25 For he commanded and raised the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea. 26 They mounted up to heaven; they went down to the depths; their courage melted away in their evil plight; 27 they reeled and staggered like drunken men and were at their wits’ end. 28 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. 29 He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed. 30 Then they were glad that the waters were quiet, and he brought them to their desired haven. 31 Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man! 32 Let them extol him in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders.

Prayer

Lord, we thank you this morning for your word. We praise you as the God who speaks to us and the raging sea. You speak to the crashing waves, and they are still. You speak to our raging hearts, and they are stilled. Please speak to us this morning, through your word, by your Spirit, and do to us as Christ did to the waves when he said, “Peace, be still.” Show us your delivering love. Amen.

Introduction: God of the Seas

Many thousands of years ago, the greatest flood the world had ever seen and would ever see broke forth from the depths of the earth. The floods came at God’s command, ford wickedness had covered the world. Now, the water did. After 40 days, God spoke, and the waters receded. He bent his bow in the sky—the rainbow—as a sign to all the earth that he would not destroy all flesh like that again. God led Noah and his family into this new world and repeated the command he gave in the Garden of Eden, “Go forth, be fruitful and multiply.” In this, we see God’s steadfast love. We see his promise-keeping, loyal love, his hesed.

A thousand years later, the Israelites stood on the banks of the Red Sea. Pharoah and his armies were racing towards them in their chariots. The people of Israel cried out, saying, “Egypt must not have had enough graves for us, that we would be led out here to die.” Moses lifted his staff and stretched his arms out, and the text says, “The LORD drove the sea back by a strong east wind.” God delivered his people and destroyed their enemies. In this, we see God’s steadfast love—his hesed.

Seven hundred years later, Jonah was called to preach to the wicked city of Ninevah in the west. Jonah heard the call but went in the opposite direction. He went to a port city, took a boat, and headed to a city in the southeast. The text says he went “away from the presence of the LORD. But the LORD hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up.” All of the sailors manning the ship cried out to their different gods. They essentially rolled dice to determine whose sin had caused it. Whatever their lots were, moldy bread or spotted rocks, they were cast and indicated Jonah was the problem. Knowing he had been found out, Jonah confessed that he had disobeyed Yahweh, the God who created the earth and the sea. He accepted his fate, and the sailors tossed him from the ship, “and the sea ceased from its raging.” Jonah was swallowed by a fish for three days and nights—possibly even dying—but was vomited alive onto dry land. We see here, again, God’s miraculous, steadfast love—his hesed.

Seven hundred ninety years later, a man from Nazareth named Jesus was asleep on a boat. Some of his disciples were experienced fishermen who had made their living on the water. They had been around the block more than a few times. They had been rocked by the turbulent waters of the Sea of Galilee plenty of times. But this storm was not like the others. This storm was so violent, and the waves so large and strong, that these men feared for their lives. Jesus was not with them...

Mark 4:38–39 “But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.”

Mark 4:40–41 “He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?””

You’ll notice that each of these historical moments share a few things.

There’s water, and it’s a deadly problem.

There are people, and they are facing death.

There’s fear and faithlessness, which either cause the problem or make it worse.

There’s God, who intervenes and delivers his people through the danger.

It was God’s love that delivered his people. It was his steadfast love—his hesed—that, despite our promise-breaking, kept its promise.

When all seemed lost, God’s people gave up, and, as our text describes, “their courage melted away.”

They forgot, as we often forget, that God is the one who made the waves. He is the master of the seas. He is the one who holds the stars in their orbit.

He is the one who spoke the world into existence and now commands the muscle in your chest called a “heart” to contract and keep you alive.

They forgot, as we often forget, that he’s the one who made it all—and that God’s love is a delivering love.

The Titanic & John Harper, the Man Who Knew What Time It Was

One hundred twelve years ago, the Titanic struck an iceberg and sank. A man named John Harper was traveling to the US with his daughter and niece to preach at Moody Church. John rushed his girls to a lifeboat but stayed behind because he knew what time it was. He knew who was at work in that moment.

He began preaching Christ to anyone and everyone he could reach.

Survivor Jessie Leitch recounted that a man was “constantly preaching Christ.”

One man pushed him away, so Harper took his life jacket off and gave it to him, saying, “You need it more than me.”

When the ship sunk below the water, John spent his last moments swimming from person to person, saying, “Are you saved?”

One man said, “No.” After a time, the waters curiously brought him back, and he asked, “Are you saved now?”

The man said, “I cannot honestly say that I am.”

John Harper said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved,” then sank beneath the water.

This man, a Scot, said four years later, “There, alone in the night, with two miles of water under me, I believed. I am John Harper’s last convert.”

In each of these five stories of crises at sea, we witness God’s purposes to save and deliver his people as the supreme goal.. We see God working through disaster to bring about the deliverance, whether earthly or heavenly, of his covenant people. Because God’s love delivers.

The Text’s Crisis

The Psalmist uses a crisis at sea as the fourth and final episode of God’s hesed in action. The first three episodes were verses 4 through 22, which told the story of people lost in the desert being led home, people chained in dungeons who are set free, and people afflicted with disease who are healed. Now, we read of sailors in a storm.

This is one of the amazing things about God. He doesn’t speak to us in alien ways we can’t understand. He speaks to us in our language. And not just this, he speaks to us in vivid, visual ways. We see this all throughout this psalm.

Great waters

Stormy wind

Waves mounted up to heaven

Crashing down to the depths

Few of us will experience this exact situation, but every one of us will feel like our courage is “melting away,” and that we’re “reeling and staggering like drunken men, at our wits’ end.”

The Problem of Comfort

The Christian life is not ultimately focused on earthly comfort.

We have eternal comfort and intense spiritual comfort, but we are not promised the most earthly comfort. And we shouldn’t devote our lives to getting it.

God, in his grace, gives us comfort in a broken world. He gives us more comfort than we often realize.

When Christ spoke to the masses and called them to follow him, he said, “Pick up your cross.”

“Join the death march.”

“Be crucified with me.”

He calls us not just to discomfort, but to suffering in this life. And the great deception is that suffering cannot produce anything good.

The great deception is that, on the other side of suffering, where God works all things together for good, there cannot be a better and surpassing comfort.

So much of what grieves us in life is our sin. And so much of our sin stems from our desire to be comforted by things that aren’t God.

God gives us wealth, not to fully satisfy us, but as an investment. He gives it to us to use for his glory. It cannot satisfy, for we will eventually lose it.

God gives us health, not to fully satisfy us, but as an investment to use for his glory. It cannot satisfy, for it is guaranteed to fade.

God gives us talents, not to build our own mini-kingdom, but to build his—for his kingdom is without end.

Our very life is given to us by God. It’s not ours. We don’t own it.

And so, if our wealth, health, talents, or even our life is threatened, God has not wronged us.

Our flesh churns at this idea, that God has the right to give and take away as he sees fit.

Our flesh does not want to be comforted by God.

Romans 8:5–6 “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.”

Have You Still No Faith?

When the disciples woke Jesus up in the middle of the storm, they were sinning. After witnessing the divinity of Christ, they believed that a mere storm had more authority than he did. Moreover, they doubted that Jesus could or would save them.

This is why they are rebuked: “Have you still no faith?”

It is not a question of if you will come to this point, but when. I know that some of you have come through this kind of storm before or are currently in it now. And it is likely that a storm awaits some of us in the near future.

When God, who ordains all things for your good and his glory, raises the stormy wind in your life, who will you be? Who have you been?

I try to think about this. I try to ask myself this question, “If Christ called me down Job’s path, where I lost my wife, my children, my livelihood—would I bless God like Job, or curse him like his wife?”

Would I run to Jesus not in faith, but in faithless anger and frustration, saying “DON’T YOU CARE, GOD?”

Is that who I would be?

It’s enough to make a grown man tremble. Enough to melt him like wax.

But God… His love delivers.

Take Heart, and Enter Into the Joy of Your Master

Here’s the glorious news, Bowman: the story doesn’t end with you who’ve been, who you are now, or how you are going to fail in the future.

The glorious news is that the solution to each of those problems is the same:

Psalm 107:28–29 “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.”

The disciples, even in their sinful worry, went to Jesus. Jesus did not cast them into the sea as worthless men. Jesus lept into action. He literally commanded the waters to be still. He spoke peace.

Jonah, even in his sinful rebellion, cried out to God. God did not let him rot in the stomach of a fish. He rescued and delivered him from death.

The courage of these sailors in Psalm 107 melted away, when they should’ve taken heart. John Harper’s courage didn’t melt away, because he knew what time it was.

He knew God was at work with the Titanic, and he knew his duty. He didn’t curse God for the tragedy. He didn’t curse him for never watching his daughter grow up. He thanked God for the mercy of a lifeboat for her, and got to work.

He trusted God in the midst of the storm.

And here’s the amazing thing. Verse 30 still came true.

Psalm 107:30 “Then they were glad that the waters were quiet, and he brought them to their desired haven.”

The sailors cried out to God, and he delivered them to a safe haven.

A Scotsman, adrift in the sea, cried out to God, and not only was his life spared, but so was his soul.

Finally, John Harper, also, was led into the most desirable haven of all—the embrace of a savior who told him, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your master.”

God’s love delivers.

The Power of a Remembering Praise

The last two verses of our text today once again call us to action. When we hear about John Harper, and who he was during his crisis at sea, we can’t help but do a self-inventory.

It is not a bad thing to want to be like him when our time comes. And if John Harper was here today, all he would credit his final moments to would be the work of Jesus Christ in his life.

True bravery and courage cannot be faked. It cannot be summoned at a moment’s notice. Courage is like a fruit, and its tree is faith. It takes time to develop. So what is the water, that we can grow our faith, and develop this courage?

Psalm 107 has already told us multiple times. To remember the steadfast love of God, and his wondrous works to the children of man. We’ll come back and end with that, which is Verse 31, but look now at Verse 32.

Psalm 107:32 “Let them extol him in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders.”

The stories of God’s love for his people are to be remembered in corporate worship, for the building up of our faith.

This happens in so many ways:

At our baptisms last week, we heard Hayden, Leilani, Jesse, Jordan, Paul, John, and Linda each confess that Christ had claimed them for his own, and that they will follow him for the rest of their days.

When members join the church, they give their testimony before the congregation.

When we say the confession of faith together, we are speaking out our life’s story and hope.

When we sing, we proclaim God's wondrous works and praise him in the assembly of the elders.

You are here, now, at one of the most potent sources of faith-growing power that exists: worshiping on the Lord’s Day. We are, as the text describes, able to “extol him in the congregation of the people.”

When we assemble here on Sunday, whether it feels like it or not, the little boat of your life has pulled into a safe haven.

In this place, loud shouts of praise are lifted up.

The Gospel of Christ, which saves sinners from death, is preached, over and over, giving strength to the weary.

The word of God is poured out as water that renews the mind.

The devil wants you to stay in your docked boat, and not enter the haven. He wants you to starve and grow weary and isolated.

Sadly, it is possible to come to church but never enter it.

If this is you, then hear these words: “Look to the steadfast love of the LORD, and to his wondrous works to you.”

This is the call of Verse 31, and here is how you can apply it right now.

When we pray, take the words and make them your own. Take them into your mind like empty cups and fill them. Underline, circle, or highlight them. Put yourself into them, however your mind imagines it. And see them lifted up to the God who loves prayer, who loves your prayers, and who desires conversation with you.

When we sing, stop caring about how you sound or who can hear you. Realize that one of the reasons God made your vocal chords was so you would sing to him. See the God who delights in the sound of your singing. Sing back to the God who rejoices over you with singing. And when you sing the words, “Thank you Lord for making me whole,” grab hold of Jesus and say it to his face.

When Mark gives his benediction, open your heart to the reality that God’s face has shined upon you in the face of Jesus Christ. His countenance is on you. He has given you his peace.

Conclusion

The main point for this series on Psalm 107 is that God’s love moves a person. It moves them in a saving way, where we are moved from eternal death to eternal life. God’s love rescues us from pointless wandering in life. God’s love breaks the chains of the power of sin in our life. God’s love heals our hearts and renews our minds. And today, God’s love delivers us from fear. In all of this, we’ve been shown that remembering these things is what moves a person to obedience and courage.

I saw a video recently of a 3 year old boy who fell into a well in a small town in Romania. He was down there for hours, the local news had shown up, and it was heartbreaking. You could see the family weeping as men desperately dug away the well opening to lower a rope. The rope wasn’t working.

Eventually, a 14-year-old boy volunteers to go down the well, head-first, to try and grab the boy. The news captured the moment between the boy and what seems to be his father. He’s straps a head lamp on him and tests the clips and ropes for tightness. He then grabs the boys face with both hands and looks him straight on. You can see something being said, and the boy nods.

The recording cuts to a bunch of guys pulling on this rope. Up and up and up. You know everyone’s guts are churning. They have no idea what will or will not come back out.

First, some feet, then legs, then the torso, and then everyone is shouting as the father grabs his 3-year-old boy. The person filming understandably follows them off the scene and away from the well, but you catch a brief glimpse of something before they do. It’s incredibly moving to see a Dad clutching a son he thought was dead. But what was more moving to me was what I only caught a glimpse of, and that was of the other father—who was clutching his savior of a son.

I think the same thing is true of the Gospel. It is impossible not to be affected by the recognition that Jesus Christ gave his life to you. If you are a Christian, you cannot resist the impact that fact will have on your heart. It’ll melt it.

But it is possible to miss this: that the Father was the one who sent him. The Father didn’t send his beloved Son down a well to be pulled up again. No, he sent him to die a bloody death on a wooden cross. He sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sin, and you remember what that means from my last sermon. It meant taking the full force of his Father’s wrath onto himself, in our place.

The Son was lowered all the way into the grave.

But he rose again. At the command of the Father, Christ woke the dungeon flamed with light in his resurrection.

And he is now seated in his Father’s presence, once more, where he commands all history to proceed to its appointed end.

It is to this place that your crying out in trouble goes—the throneroom of God. Christ’s ears hear your prayers, and he brings them to his Father.

Have you, this day, cried out to God for deliverance?

Do so, and behold the wondrous works of God in the deep.