Celebrate God's Unfailing Love

Today we will think about thanksgiving through a look at Psalm 107. It is the first psalm of Book V in the five-fold structure of the Psalms. It is not attributed to a certain person, but it is a psalm for the community of faith. In this psalm we see God’s lovingkindness, or unfailing love, on display with the people of the LORD exhorted to praise God because of His wonders (wonderful acts) to the sons of men.

I. We are invited to give thanks for God’s unfailing love, vs.1-3.

The call is to give thanks to the Lord, for He is good.

His goodness is not an abstract quality, but He displays His unfailing love toward us.

That unfailing love is everlasting.

Let the redeemed of the LORD say so

This points to a needful response from those who have been the recipients of His unfailing love.

The historical context maybe the return from Babylonian exile, or it could point forward to a future time.

This redemption of His own from the hand of the adversary (enemy) may be either physical or spiritual.

God has repeatedly displayed His unfailing love in the past to His people. We can take heart in this: Whatever our trouble may be in the present. God’s unfailing love will be there for us, His children through our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, just as it has always been there in the past.

II. God’s unfailing love is displayed in the wonderful ways He delivers people from their distressing and sinful conditions, vs. 4-32.

The psalmist gives some examples of the conditions God has delivered His people from.

Four are illustrated; note that the 2nd and the 3rd contain explicit references to Israel’s rebellion against God’s instructions.

Each illustration follows a four-fold pattern:

# 1 God’s people experience trouble

# 2 They cry out to God in their trouble

# 3 They are rescued by God out of their trouble

# 4 They are invited to give thanks for God’s unfailing love, demonstrated in their deliverance from their troubles

A. God delivers His people from displacement and deprivation, vs. 4-9.

# 1 — verses 4-5.

# 2 — verse 6a.

# 3 — verses 6b-7.

# 4 — verses 8-9.

B. God delivers His people from their bondage due to sin, vs.10-16.

#1 — verses 10-12.

# 2 — verse 13a.

# 3 — verses 13b-14.

# 4 — verses 15-16.

C. God delivers His people from folly and self destruction, vs. 17-22.

# 1 — verses 17-18.

# 2 — verse 19a.

# 3 — verses 19b-20.

# 4 — verses 21-22.

D. God delivers His people from the dangers of nature, vs. 23-32.

# 1 — verses 23-27.

# 2 — verse 28a.

# 3 — verses 28b-30.

# 4 — verses 31-32.

Lessons to learn:

We may experience trouble in a variety of forms:

Some are homeless, hungry, lost in the wilderness of life, 107:4-5.

Some are oppressed/depressed because of their rebellion against God, 107:10-11.

Some are sick to the point of death in their rebellion against God, 107:17-18.

Some are at their wit’s end, overcome by the storms of life, 107:23-27.

Trouble for each of us comes in a variety of shapes and sizes.

2. We can cry out to God when we are in trouble:

“Lord, help!” is our cry; our prayer need not be long nor sophisticated, but an effective cry to the only One who can help.

Their our times in each of our live when the distress we feel is so deep that this is the only prayer we can manage to pray:

— Illustrations: Matthew 9:27; cf. Matthew 20:30-31: “Have mercy on us, Son of David!”; Matthew 14:30: “Lord, save me!”

Matthew 9:27 NASB95

As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!”

Matthew 14:30 NASB95

But seeing the wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!”

When this prayer comes from a sincerity of heart and simplicity of faith, God moves into action.

3. We can count on God’s unfailing love in concrete ways that correspond to our trouble:

“He saved them out of their distresses”; “He rescued them from their distress.”

the refrain in 107:6, 13, 19, 28 are the same, but the rescue seen here corresponds to the need of the rescued:

— homeless, hungry and thirsty >>> home, food, satisfied thirst.

— darkness of despair >>> God leads them out of darkness.

— some were sick >>> God healed them.

— some caught in a storm >>> God brought them to a safe harbor.

God demonstrates His unfailing love through His “wonderful acts” to the sons of men. He does this in the here and now of our lives to meet our deepest needs.

God doesn’t just say He loves us, He shows it in His actions, cf. 1 John 3:18.

1 John 3:18 NASB95

Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.

4. We can respond by giving thanks for God’s unfailing love:

Verses 8, 15, 21, 31 is our invitation to thanksgiving in response to God’s unfailing love, demonstrated in our deliverance.

Our thanksgiving is to be as specific as God’s deliverance (see 107:9, 16).

III. There is wisdom in celebrating God’s unfailing love, vs. 33-42.

Some observations:

From our perspective, we see the troubles we experience comes from God’s hand, in response to our sin, vs. 33-34.

We should be encouraged because what comes from God’s hand He alone can take back, turn around:

Because God is, in a sense, at the source of our troubles, He is also at the source of the solution, v. 35.

Once He gets our attention, then He can bless us abundantly, vs. 36-38.

Thought troubles may (will) come, He will provide the rescue for His upright, resulting in their great joy, vs. 39-42.

IV. Therefore, reflect wisely on God’s unfailing love, v. 43.

To reflect wisely on our life experience provides us opportunity to recall in our own lives the demonstration of God’s unfailing love toward us.

We can fall into two extremes here:

# 1 — we have no sin = foolishness (1 John 1:8);

# 2 — stuck focusing on that sin, instead of the deliverance and freedom God has granted us in Christ.

Wisdom here is the skill to see God in all the twists and turns of our lives so that, when we reflect upon Him and His work, we will give thanks to the LORD because He is so good and because His unfailing love endures forever.