God Brings You Out of Spiritual Darkness

Psalm 107:10-22

God Brings You Out of Spiritual Darkness

Introduction: I’m not going to ask questions that I do not want to know the answer to, but I know that I have never been incarcerated. This quarantine and limitation or if your parents grounded you may be the closest thing many of us will get to being in actual prison.

When we read the Bible narratives, we see that Joseph and Daniel spent some time in prisons and we know Paul spent a what seems like a good bit of his Christian life in some prison or another.

Main Point: God can rescue you no matter where you are

I. God Will Lead You out of Prison (10-16)

Verses 10-16 and 17-22 are the second and third vignettes of the people who need rescued from their situation. The former group is said to be imprisoned and the latter group is suffering from is spiritual sickness. For the purposes of the Sermon series, these two groups are similar enough to create one coherent sermon for these two situations. Thematically, the two stories are tied together by disobedience. Verses 11 and 17 tell the reader the people are in their respective predicament due to their rebellious nature (v 11) or because of their misdeeds (v 17). Disobedience to God’sWords brings the people’s ruin and God’s Word brings about their rescue. Taking the commonality one step further, the refrain verses 13 and 19 are grammatically the same, even using the same verb for saving them.

DeClaisse-Walford links the westerly direction to the location of the group mentioned in verse 10-16 to the setting of the sun, where darkness occurs, and “the sun dies every night.” Alter looks to a more “concrete image of a dark, windowless dungeon-like place of captivity.”

Without electricity, prisoners most likely spent time alone in the dark, and that time can be spent thinking how the prisoner ended up there. Verse 11 gives us the answer, “it is the consequence of disobedience to God.” The people disobeyed God’s words or commands. The Hebrew word used is ‘imre’ or ‘emer’. By their failure or willingness to disregard the words from God that would lead them to freedom, they found themselves imprisoned, put away from God. For the exiled people this prison is a foreign land and the people cried for help (v 13). The psalm is a coming to grips with what caused the Israelites situation and the realization brings about, in their readiness to be saved. Verses 14-16 illustrates God “bringing them out” of their darkness, their prison and he broke their chains, and doors of iron and bronze that held them in the prison.

Like the intertextuality of the first strophe to the prophet Isaiah, Zenger and Jarrick link Psalm 107’s second strophe to the book of Job, particularly through the phrase “darkness and shadow of death.” Job wishes for death in chapter 10:21-22, and Job says he must go to die in “the land of darkness and deep shadow, the land of gloom and like thick darkness.” Job is convinced he is going to the land of the dead, never to return, and the psalmist expresses a similar idea, that their prison is inescapable. But the good news for Job and the Israelites in the vignette is that God rescues them. The refrain of verse 15 calls them to be thankful for his hesed, despite the people not obeying His words.

II. God Will Lead You Out of Destruction (17-22)

Verse 17-22 also talks about people’s foolishness in their disobedience causing illness and bringing them to the gates of death. Jarrick links this section to the northerly direction given in verses 1-3. Regardless of the direction, the people listed are called fools through their sinful ways or transgressions. Again, this implies the fools did not obey God’s word, which contrasts to the wise who follow God’s direction. Some translations render the Hebrew word ‘awal as sick or as Dahood renders the word, enfeebled. Sickness was often associated with foolishness or sin and both conditions were attributed to God enacting punishment for both.

Verse 18 says the foolish were unable to eat and they were close to death. Given the figurative nature of the Psalms and the Bible in general, it is possible that this passage could be an allusion to the word of God sustaining the people, but the transgressions resulting in a sickness because of the foolishness now turns away even the most delectable literal food. Being to weak to save or feed themselves, they cry out to Yahweh for salvation (v 19). Their way led them to the gates of death.

The link between verses 11 and 18 is shown in verse 20, “He sent out His word (dabar) and healed them. The Hebrew concept of dabar or word is akin to the Greek logos. Much like Yahweh or hesed, the word dabar, implies much more than just God speaking to save them It is the fact that he can save with his dabar. God’s dabar implies that that it is a “function of a conscious and moral personality.”

Dabar is the majestic word of command, sublime, meaningful, creative or destructive.” He saves His people because it is part of His nature. And this nature is not just something that a person can live off, like food, (see Deut. 8:3 or Matt 4:4) but His very dabar produce life. Genesis 1-2 demonstrate this, with God speaking everything into existence. Boman points out that our translation of dabar is somewhat inadequate because in English, the use of word “removes the deed within it.” However, in Hebrew it is a reality as we see here, God’s “effective dabar” heals the sick or perhaps more aptly, makes the foolish wise, which delivers them from their destruction. As Boman posits, “dabar is Yahweh as he is recognizable to mortal man.”

Genesis 15 is an integral chapter in Israelite history with regards to God’s word. God establishes and clarifies His covenant with Abraham. “After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: ‘Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.’” Abram receives the word (dabar) of Yahweh and God’s word/deed makes this covenant with Abram and establishes the promise of offspring (the people) and their land. Verse four reiterates, “Behold, the Word of the Lord came to [Abram].” These two instances are the only times the phrase “the word of the lord” appear in Genesis, “but it is widely found in the Old Testament.” God also details that the Egyptian period detailed at the end of Genesis and the book of Exodus. God delivered on His promises; He made good on his dabar. God dispels Abram’s doubt, expressed in v. 8, by “giving a very real assurance by orchestrating the covenant ceremony that, in the ancient near east, “guaranteed the greatest contractual security” between two parties.

One more example about the importance of God’s words comes from Joshua 23:14-15.

14“Now behold, today I am going the way of all the earth, and you know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one word of all the good words which the Lord your God spoke concerning you has failed; all have been fulfilled for you, not one of them has failed. 15 It shall come about that just as all the good words which the Lord your God spoke to you have come upon you, so the Lord will bring upon you all the threats, until He has destroyed you from off this good land which the Lord your God has given you.”

Again, we see God speaking to the people and He compares His good word with His bad word. The good word is most definitely a reference to the Sinai covenant and the promise of the Land. Here we see how God differentiates between how His words can be used. The good words are blessings and the bad words refer to the covenantal curses, and the focus of this address in Joshua squarely upon Deuteronomy 28:15-68. The audience of Psalm 107 are the recipients of the covenant both as the offspring and the land dwellers. And they are also the recipients of the good and bad words that God promised.

The post exilic Israelites are the dealing with the reinstatement of the covenant that was foretold in Jeremiah 29:10 “For thus says the Lord, ‘When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place.’” There are many more examples in the Bible of God using His words to act. God’s word is important in fulfilling his covenant with his people and sustaining His people through his words and deeds and this is demonstrated in the Psalms’ refrain.

Returning to Psalm 107, verse 21 echoes the overall theme of thanksgiving for the people but verse 22 deviates from the other refrains. The verse calls for the people to offer “sacrifices of thanksgiving.” This is an interesting tie into the idea of food because when “thank sacrifices were offered to God, the priests and the worshippers shared in a communal meal of gratitude for God’s goodness.” This festival nature would be the exact opposite feeling of someone who is too sick to eat. The people can rejoice and be alive as they are with other people who made it out of the same predicament. So hood we avoid owing to prison or get out of the prison we are in.

Application

1. Be Aware of Sin-

Sin manifests itself in the physical way whether it is speech or our actions or maybe inaction sometimes. It is either commission or omission.

But it is our heart. Our unwillingness to disobey God’s word that is the root of sin. It is what is on our heart that drives us to sin.

John Bunyan, author well know for the Pilgrims Progress wrote a to more books. In a Poem called A Caution to Stir up to Watch Against Sin

Stanza 9 and 10 read

SIN harden can the heart against its God,

Make it abuse his grace, despise his rod,

‘Twill make one run upon the very pikes,

Judgments foreseen bring such to no dislikes

Of sinful hazards; no, they venture shall

For one base lust, their soul, and heav’n and all.

Take heed then, hold it, crush it at the door

It comes to rob thee, and to make thee poor.

X

SIN is a prison, hath its bolts and chains,

Brings into bondage who it entertains;

Hangs shackles on them, bends them to its will,

Holds them, as Samson grinded at the mill,

‘Twill blind them, make them deaf; yea, ‘twill them gag,

And ride them as the devil rides his hag.

Wherefore look to it, keep it out of door,

If once its slave, thou may’st be free no more.

I want to be clear that this more than just being a good person or a moral person. This is giving your heart and you mind over to God.

2. Use Your Words.

Genesis Says that God spoke the world in existence. We are not God and we cannot speak things into the universe and have them appear. I’ve tried it so I can have a million dollars, but so far, the briefcase full of money has not rang my doorbell. We are not and never will be deities and we do not have the ability to make something appear out of nothing. That is a power reserved for the Almighty.

But we can still use our words wisely and to great effect.

Puritan Preacher Paul Baynes demanded that preaching often be somewhat painful: “Wherefore take heed … and love that word which brings you to the sight of sin, that brings you to fear judgment. These are sound wholesome words; though they smart, yet they are medicinable.”

Use Your words to Repent

This goes right along with what the psalmist is saying in this psalm and many others as well. Jesus says Repent and be saved.

Use your words to Pray

Paul instructs th eEpehsian church “praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.’ Eph 6:18-20

Use Your words to Praise

This again goes along with the attitude that this Psalm wants us to do as a church. Give thanks. Say it or Proclaim God’s goodness and love.

In Paul’s letters he gives praise to God and he also give praise to people who help further the Gospel.

in Colossians 1:3-6 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, 6 which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—.

Lastly, Use Your words to Proclaim the Gospel.

Praise God for the goodness and His love that he has demonstrated through Jesus, on the cross that releases you from your prison of sin and the

1 Corinthians 15:1-10 Now I would remind you, brothers,[a] of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain.

Conclusion:

Peter, Paul and Stpehen spent time in prison but not because they were sinful, but because they were beleivers. Today others are also in prison in other countires tries because of their beleifs which is a crime agaisnt man and his rule.

But We should know that when we sin we walk into the prison cell ourselves. But It keeps us there because Sin can or may it seems like it can overwhelm your life and trap you.

But the Key to open the cell door is to Repent. For the kingdom of God is at hand. if you are free, help others get out of their cells and then help yourself and others stay out of that sin induced prison.