Redeemed Community: God redeems those in the desert
Notes
Transcript
CIT: God hears those who cry out to him and redeems them because they seek him.
CIS: God redeems those who cry out tim him because they seek him.
SO: For our people to know that God hears our cries and is moved into action to redeems us.
Sticky: “God hear’s our cries.”
Christian Standard Bible Psalm 107
Some wandered in the desolate wilderness,
finding no way to a city where they could live.
5 They were hungry and thirsty;
their spirits failed within them.
6 Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble;
he rescued them from their distress.
7 He led them by the right path
to go to a city where they could live.
8 Let them give thanks to the LORD
for his faithful love
and his wondrous works for all humanity.
9 For he has satisfied the thirsty
and filled the hungry with good things.
Introduction
Series Recap:
Today I will be preaching to you sermon number 2 of our new sermon series, The Redeemed Community. Last week we looked at verses 1 - 3 of Psalms chapter 107. In those verses we saw how God doesn’t just save. He redeems. Meaning, no matter what banner we previously held that declared to the world who we are... abuse victim, abuser, orphan, murder, worthless… whatever that banner was, God saves us out of that life, and, redeems us, or gives us a new identity. Because God doesn’t just save, he redeems.
Today we are are going to be looking at verses 4 - 9. So if you would, please turn your bibles to Psalm 107 and while you do, let me lead us in prayer.
Lost (Ps 107:4-5)
Starting in verse 4 we find the first group of people that the Psalmist is describing to us that God redeems. If you recall the last sermon, the purpose of this chapter in the Psalter is to remind the one who sings this Psalm, this is the reach of God’s saving grace. It doesn’t matter where you are, you could be in the four corners of the earth (East, West, North, South), in any of these circumstance described in the rest of the chapter, or you could be the furthest corner of the earth and in any one of these circumstances. It does not matter, God is able to save and he is able to redeem.
Starting in verse 4, we see the first group is a people who are lost. Lost because they have no safety, no permanence, and misplaced hope
Some wandered in the desolate wilderness,
finding no way to a city where they could live.
They were hungry and thirsty;
their spirits failed within them.
Wandering
No path, no direction
No shelter (no way to a city where they could live)
What’s the problem with wandering? You see the phrase written on jeeps all the time, “Not all who wander are lost.”
The problem that comes with wondering is that there is no safety and there is no permanence
No safety
If you and I are just wandering around with no place to call home. That’s a scary place to be in. There is a feeling vulnerability because there is no protection from the elements. If we were in the desert without a shelter, the sun and the wind during the day and the cold and the wind at night are brutal enough to kill you.
And then there are the other dangers of wildlife and thieves. It’s difficult to rest because you feel as if you have to stay on guard all the time.
Without a place to city, a place to rest, there is no safety
A place of permanence
While a city offers a place of physical rest, in safety, permanence offers a bit of emotional and mental comfort. It’s a place that you know you belong. A place that you know you can always go back to. I’ve talked to a lot of Soldiers, and the most heart breaking thing to hear is when you ask where are you from or where did you grow up and they don’t have an answer.
There have been multiple that tears well up in their eyes as they respond, I don’t know or I’m not sure how to answer that.
Keep in mind that things back then were not like they are. Today, some dream of not being in a city. Being in nature and enjoying life with few walls. Back then a life without walls meant death, at the very least a tough life. Given that these people don’t have a place of safety or permanence it’s no wonder that their spirits failed because they had no place to rest.
Spirits failed
Here’s where it gets a little deep. What could cause a spirit to fail. I mean, it is clear that these people described are in a tough spot. But there have been many stories of people who are in physically tough positions who pulled through. Often, these people who survive, get through extra ordinary circumstances because they maintain hope.
One of the trainings I have to do this year is an online version of SERE. Which stands for Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape. Basically its how to avoid getting captured and what you should and shouldn’t do if you are captured. One of the things they teach you if you do get captured, is to maintain hope. Simply maintaining hope greatly increase the chances of surviving. Hope in what though? Well they can’t tell you what to hope in. They make suggestions like, your country, your fellow servicemen and women who are working diligently to save you. They do mention your faith and a few other things.
Why is the spirit of these people we are reading about in these verses failing? They had hope right? They hadn’t given up, they were still searching for a city.
Hope in the wrong thing.
I would argue, that their spirit is failing because they are putting hope in the wrong thing. What does the verse say Ps 107:4
Psalm 107:4 (CSB)
Some wandered in the desolate wilderness,
finding no way to a city where they could live.
They were seeking a city. In other words their hope was not in God. It was in a change in their circumstances. They kept searching. They would try going this way and that way to find a change circumstance. That maybe, if we got there, we would find rest. How many of us are guilty of that.
The people in these verses thinking If only
better job
Better car
Better body
next beer
next relationship
next phone
next house
Like drinking salt water to quench your thirst, (which lead to more dehydration by the way) They didn’t find safety, they didn’t find permanence, what did they find? They found Hunger and thirst. They were seeking to solve their own problems in seeking a city. All they found was more hunger and more thirst. You could look at this as the wrong path. When we seek to our own means to fix ourselves, we only find the problem getting worse.
Alone, socially isolated, hungry and thirsty. wandering in the desert. This reminds me of the story of Hagar found in Gen 21:14-16
Early in the morning Abraham got up, took bread and a waterskin, put them on Hagar’s shoulders, and sent her and the boy away. She left and wandered in the Wilderness of Beer-sheba. When the water in the skin was gone, she left the boy under one of the bushes and went and sat at a distance, about a bowshot away, for she said, “I can’t bear to watch the boy die!” While she sat at a distance, she wept loudly.
Why did she weep? She wept because her spirit had failed. She had given up on her circumstances changing for the better. She had wandered in the wilderness and finding no rest for her or her son, no more water, it’s likely the bread was gone too. So hungry and thirsty, she gives up and cries out. I would argue that she cried out to God.
I believe this because she named her Son Ishmael which means, God hears.
Now I know some translations say the boy wept loudly. But I am on the side of the translators of the CSB and would argue that it’s better translated, she wept loudly.
Here’s why. While the rest of the passage talks about God responding to the boy crying, it doesn’t mean that Hagar’s cries weren’t affective (Besides that fact that the pronoun and the verb are feminine.) Because God honors when we cry on the behalf of another. When we mourn with another. (also, don’t underestimate the power of a single mother. When a single mother speaks, even God listens)
What happens when the people of Psalm 107 cry out to God?
Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble;
he rescued them from their distress.
Hagar
What I think is one of the most powerful things about this passage and the truth that God hears us when we cry is the fact that we are saved from one of the worst conditions. One of the worst states to be in is voicelessness or being someone or belonging to a people who aren’t heard.
“While poor people mention having a lack of material things, they tend to describe their condition in far more psychological and social terms than our North American audiences. Poor people typically talk in terms of shame, inferiority, powerlessness, humiliation, fear, hopelessness, depression, social isolation, and voicelessness.”
Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert
One of the things I savor about being a Christian is the fact that we can be sure that we are heard. Heard by God because God hears our cries...
God hears our cries.
voi powe
What happens when we God hears our cries?
Cried out (Ps 107:6
Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble;
he rescued them from their distress.
He rescued them from their distress
Distress = A state of anguish or affliction
When you cry out to God, you can be sure that God hears you because God hears our cries and saves you out of your state.
Let me be clear what this verse is not saying. I believe whole heartedly that at this point, God did not relieve their suffering because he changed their circumstances. God rescued them from their distress, not from their thirst, hunger, lostness. They could have been in the middle of the desert, with no food, no water… and when God responded to their cries, He did not bring food, he did not bring water, he did not bring a city. He brought himself.
Let me tell you, you would be amazed at what you can endure if you rest in the fact that you have God.
Led by right path
He led them by the right path
to go to a city where they could live.
Before:
No safety
No permanence (no
Satisfied
Thirst quenched
Hungry no
Filled
Not only are they not hungry any more. They are filled with good things
We all know the difference between stuffing ourselves junk verses filling ourselves with with good things. There is a big difference between cotton candy, donuts,
What happened when God heard Hagar?
God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What’s wrong, Hagar? Don’t be afraid, for God has heard the boy crying from the place where he is. Get up, help the boy up, and grasp his hand, for I will make him a great nation.” Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well. So she went and filled the waterskin and gave the boy a drink. God was with the boy, and he grew; he settled in the wilderness and became an archer. He settled in the Wilderness of Paran, and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
The people
Regroup and homegroup: Sharing our stories so that we may hear one another. Because we belong to a God who hears, we are meant to be a people who hear. But we aren’t meant to be a people who only hear. We are meant to beckon each other to the cross. Many people say point to the cross but that implies that you are not at the cross yourself. We beckon people to the cross because we have experienced God’s redemption and want you to experience it as well. But also, we know that when we are heard by each other we find relief but we find redemption when we are heard by God.
When we are heard by each other, we find relief. When we are heard by God, we find redemption.
We can proclaim to you
my story - worthless
Psalm 34:4–10 (CSB): I sought the Lord, and he answered me
and rescued me from all my fears.
5 Those who look to him are radiant with joy;
their faces will never be ashamed.
6 This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him
and saved him from all his troubles.
7 The angel of the Lord encamps
around those who fear him, and rescues them.
8 Taste and see that the Lord is good.
How happy is the person who takes refuge in him!
9 You who are his holy ones, fear the Lord,
for those who fear him lack nothing.
10 Young lions lack food and go hungry,
but those who seek the Lord
will not lack any good thing.
Pray (Psalms 3
A psalm of David when he fled from his son Absalom.
1 Lord, how my foes increase!
There are many who attack me.
2 Many say about me,
“There is no help for him in God.”
Selah
3 But you, Lord, are a shield around me,
my glory, and the one who lifts up my head.
4 I cry aloud to the Lord,
and he answers me from his holy mountain.
Selah
5 I lie down and sleep;
I wake again because the Lord sustains me.
6 I will not be afraid of thousands of people
who have taken their stand against me on every side.
7 Rise up, Lord!
Save me, my God!
You strike all my enemies on the cheek;
you break the teeth of the wicked.
8 Salvation belongs to the Lord;
may your blessing be on your people.
Selah
Communion
For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
While poor people mention having a lack of material things, they tend to describe their condition in far more psychological and social terms than our North American audiences. Poor people typically talk in terms of shame, inferiority, powerlessness, humiliation, fear, hopelessness, depression, social isolation, and voicelessness.
Young lions lack food and go hungry,
but those who seek the Lord
will not lack any good thing.
1 Lord, how my foes increase!
There are many who attack me.
2 Many say about me,
“There is no help for him in God.”
Selah
3 But you, Lord, are a shield around me,
my glory, and the one who lifts up my head.
4 I cry aloud to the Lord,
and he answers me from his holy mountain.
Selah
5 I lie down and sleep;
I wake again because the Lord sustains me.
6 I will not be afraid of thousands of people
who have taken their stand against me on every side.
7 Rise up, Lord!
Save me, my God!
You strike all my enemies on the cheek;
you break the teeth of the wicked.
8 Salvation belongs to the Lord;
may your blessing be on your people.
Selah
Christian Standard Bible Chapter 21
God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What’s wrong, Hagar? Don’t be afraid, for God has heard the boy crying from the place where he is. 18 Get up, help the boy up, and grasp his hand, for I will make him a great nation.” 19 Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well. So she went and filled the waterskin and gave the boy a drink. 20 God was with the boy, and he grew; he settled in the wilderness and became an archer. 21 He settled in the Wilderness of Paran, and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
