The God Who Saves

The God Who Saves

Psalm 107:1-32

It may seem strange to anyone who knows anything about the English Puritans to speak of Psalm 107 as “The Pilgrims’ Psalm,” not because they did not know, frequently read, and greatly cherish it, but because being people of the Book they loved and cherished the other psalms too. In fact, they cherished the entire Bible.

But that is not the whole story. As anyone who knows anything about the Pilgrims is aware, Psalm 107, more than any other portion of the Bible, aptly describes the many dangers they experienced prior to, during, and after their crossing of the Atlantic Ocean to found America’s Plymouth Colony.

Did they recognize this description themselves?

There is reason to think they did, since Governor William Bradford in his account of the founding of the Plymouth Plantation explicitly referred to Psalm 107 in his summation of their achievement:

May not and ought not the children of these fathers rightly say: “Our fathers were Englishmen which came over this great ocean, and were ready to perish in this wilderness; but they cried unto the Lord, and he heard their voice and looked on their adversity,.… “Let them therefore praise the Lord, because he is good: and his mercies endure forever.”

“Yes, let them which have been redeemed of the Lord, shew how he hath delivered them from the hand of the oppressor. When they wandered in the desert wilderness out of the way, and found no city to dwell in, both hungry and thirsty, their soul was overwhelmed in them. Let them confess before the Lord his loving kindness and his wonderful works before the sons of men.”

Those words are based on Psalm 107, which suggests that the psalm was often in the Pilgrims’ minds. Since the Pilgrims came ashore on Monday, December 11, 1620, after having spent the prior day worshiping God, it is even likely that Psalm 107 was the basis for that Sabbath’s meditation.

In its own setting Psalm 107 is a praise song of the regathered people of Israel after their Babylonian bondage. Psalms 105, 106, and 107 form a trilogy.

· Psalm 105 recounts Israel’s experience from the time of God’s covenant with Abraham to the people’s entrance into the promised land

· Psalm 106 tracks their unfaithfulness during that same time period and reflects the years of their exile to Babylon

· Psalm 107 thanks God for their deliverance from that exile.

Still, the psalm was fittingly used by the Pilgrims and may be loved by us as well, since the examples it gives of the perils from which the people of God are delivered are at once common, varied, and suggestive. We can see ourselves in each of these situations.

Let’s pray and we’ll work through these verses together.

Pray!

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.

This Psalm is a call to God’s people to praise Him for His grace and power in their lives. Charles Spurgeon wrote about this psalm that, “The theme is thanksgiving, and the motives for it.”

The redeemed are called on to “give thanks.” This phrase has the idea of “extending the hands in praise and glory.”

We are to praise Him because He is “good.” This word refers to that which is “beautiful, best, fine, kind, lovely and sweet.” That’s Him!

We are to praise Him for His “steadfast love.” As you read this Psalm, it becomes clear that God was behind all the disruptions they encountered in life. While He might have been behind the pain, He didn’t abandon them to their problems. He worked in them to bring them to a place of restoration and blessing!

This Psalm was probably written after Israel had been delivered from their bondage in Assyria and Babylon.

· They’re reminded of what the Lord allowed them to suffer because of their sins and of how He delivered them when they called on Him by faith.

· They’re reminded of the consequences of their sins and they’re reminded of the grace God showed them in forgiving their sins and restoring them.

· They’re called on to praise the Lord for His mercy and grace in their lives.

· They’re also reminded that God is ever faithful to hear and restore those who call on Him!

There’s a word here for us today. The saints of God are reminded of where the Lord found us and of how He delivered us from our terrible condition. Because He has moved in power, the redeemed are challenged to praise the Lord.

By the way, the very fact that we have been “redeemed” is enough of a reason for the saints to praise Him! The very word “redeem” suggests the payment of a price. God redeemed us by sending His Son to die for us that we might be saved from our sins. I’m saved today and headed to Heaven because Jesus Christ took my place on the cross, suffered the penalty for my sins and endured the wrath of God that was intended for me.

That’s enough to praise Him for all eternity! He gives us even more reasons in these verses!

I want you to notice the four divisions in this Psalm. They tell us of where God found us when He saved us. They also remind us that He still possesses all the power necessary to deliver us for what we face as His children in this life.

Even a brief glance at these verses reveals the truth that the Lord has delivered us out of terrible circumstances in the past. Let us never forget that our God has never changed.

Hebrews 13:8 ESV

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

The God Who delivered us in the past is the same God Who walks with us today!

While these verses tell us where we came from, they also point out what He can do with the trials we face in this life. If you find yourself in any of these places, just let this Psalm remind you that God is still on His throne! He is still in charge and He is still the God who saves.

This Psalm will teach us that He doesn’t just save His people from their sins; He also saves them day by day!

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.

First, we see that he provides:

Homes for the homeless

Homelessness or perhaps just being lost in the wilderness is the first picture of peril.

It’s easy to understand why these words would have appealed to our Pilgrim fathers as describing their experiences. These poor people had been driven from their homes and were virtually hounded from place to place, at one time escaping England for Holland, until at last they set sail for the American continent.

According to William Bradford, they “were hunted and persecuted on every side.… Some were taken and clapped up in prison, others had their houses beset and watched night and day, and hardly escaped their [enemies’] hands; and the most were fain [constrained] to flee and leave their houses and habitations, and the means of their livelihood.”

These were the problems they faced in the early 1600s. So, when they finally came to America and were settled in their own homes from 1620 on, however rustic these rude shelters may have been, the Pilgrims felt enormous gratitude to God.

As the psalmist says:

6 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress.

7 He led them by a straight way till they reached a city to dwell in.

As of January 2019, Kentucky had an estimated 4,079 experiencing homelessness on any given day, as reported by Continuums of Care to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Of that Total, 313 were family households, 447 were Veterans, 211 were unaccompanied young adults (aged 18-24), and 534 were individuals experiencing chronic homelessness.

Public school data reported to the U.S. Department of Education during the 2017-2018 school year shows that an estimated 23,964 public school students experienced homelessness over the course of the year. Of that total, 2,799 students were unsheltered, 2,369 were in shelters, 1,003 were in hotels/motels, and 17,793 were doubled up.

Homelessness is a real problem that many of us have never experienced.

If you had a good home or have one now, then do what the psalm says:

8 Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man!

We’ve looked at this image as part of the Pilgrim’s experience and as our having literal homes today, but we are all homeless without God, who is our only true home. Apart from God we are like the prodigal son, who left his father’s home to squander his substance in a far country. Salvation began when he came to his senses, confessed his sin, and returned to his father.

Have you returned to God, crying, “Father, I have sinned against you!”?

He provides homes for the homeless. He also provides:

Freedom for captives

The second image of this central section of the psalm, in verses 10-16, describes the pain of prisoners. The Pilgrims’ leaders were often put in prison for not conforming to the established religion of the time, and when small groups tried to escape the persecution by sailing across the English Channel to Holland or elsewhere, they were frequently arrested on that account too.

Bradford tells of several such incidents. In one, the men were separated from their wives and children.

“Pitiful it was to see the heavy case of these poor women in this distress; what weeping and crying on every side, some for their husbands that were carried away.… others not knowing what should become of them and their little ones; others again melting in tears, seeing their poor little ones hanging about them, crying for fear and quaking with cold.

Being thus apprehended, they were hurried from one place to another and from one justice to another, till in the end they knew not what to do with them.”

Bradford tells how eventually they all still managed to get to Holland, where they thanked God.

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.

There are not many among us who can speak of being delivered from prison literally. But all who are Christians can speak of being delivered from the prison of sin. This prison is what Jesus seems to have had in mind in the synagogue at Nazareth when he spoke of coming “to proclaim liberty to the captives” in Luke 4:18.

Jesus didn’t free anyone from a literal prison, as far as we know, but he has freed everyone who has ever believed on him from sin’s chains. We have been slaves to sin, but by his atoning death we have been forever liberated. We’ve been forever set free.

Each of us can say that we have “rebelled against the words of God, and spurned the counsel of the Most High.” And that God “brought (us) out of darkness and the shadow of death, and burst (our) bonds apart.”

Shouldn’t we thank God for that deliverance?

15 Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man!

16 For he shatters the doors of bronze and cuts in two the bars of iron.

John Bunyan, the author of Pilgrim’s Progress and a Puritan, saw verse 16 as a description of Christ’s breaking through the bronze gates and iron bars of Bunyan’s tightly closed-up heart to save him. He resisted Jesus, but Jesus proved all-powerful.

Has Christ shown himself to be all-powerful for you? Shouldn’t you be thankful he is?

He provides homes for the homeless, freedom for captives, and He provides:

Healing for the sick

The third image pictures people who are suffering.

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!

It describes illness so severe that it brought people to the gates of death.

This section describes the Pilgrim experience too. Four of the original small band of 102 passengers died before they even reached America, one just before the ship landed. Most terrible of all, half of the remainder died in that first cruel winter, which Bradford called “the starving time.”

Only twelve of the original twenty-six heads of families and four of the original twelve unattached men or boys survived, and all but a few of the women perished. As for the rest, there was a lot of sickness.

You may have experienced God’s deliverance from a serious illness, just as the psalmist describes and the Pilgrims experienced. The psalm is also depicting deliverance from spiritual sickness, since it refers to “their sinful ways” caused by “their iniquities” and God’s “word” as the agent of our healing.

God’s Word is the only thing that heals our spiritual sicknesses. It is the only thing that has life. As the Bible pictures it, our condition apart from Christ is far worse than just being sick. We’re actually dead, so far as any ability to respond or come to God is concerned: “dead in [our] trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1).

When God speaks his Word to our hearts, we experience a spiritual resurrection, just as Lazarus did when Jesus called him from the tomb.

Using another image, Peter spoke of our being born again “not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God” (1 Peter 1:23).

If you’re a Christian, God has saved you from destruction by that same life-giving Word. The psalm says you should be thankful for that salvation.

21 Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man!

22 And let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving, and tell of his deeds in songs of joy!

He provides homes for the homeless, freedom for captives, healing for the sick and He provides:

Safety for those at sea

In the opinion of many commentators the most beautiful, most poetic, and certainly the most inspiring section of Psalm 107 is the part that describes the peril of God’s people while at sea.

Although it wasn’t, it might have been written as a description of that difficult sixty-five-day, late-fall crossing of the turbulent North Atlantic by the Pilgrim fathers and their families.

Psalm 107:23–30 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.

I’ve never been on the ocean, let alone in a storm, but I do know that it must be absolutely terrifying to be in that situation.

Forget the ocean. Maybe you’ve been in a situation of an entirely different nature but you’ve also been at your wits’ end and cried to the Lord and were delivered. Maybe you were facing a serious financial problem, a personality conflict at work, or a battle within your family. If you were delivered, listen to what the psalm says.

Psalm 107:31–32 ESV

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.

There is nothing so attractive in the children of God as publicly acknowledging his unmerited favor and unfathomable goodness to them.

Wherever you are today, I want you to know that God is still on His throne! He hasn’t changed! His power hasn’t waned. He is still the God Who saves!