Please take your Bible in hand and turn to Psalm 107. Psalm 107. It begins on page 506 in the church Bible in front of you. I was encouraged before I got up here today by one of you that I need to be especially loud and jumpy today! Those aren’t words that I think anyone has ever used to describe me – loud and jumpy! But an illustration to help orient us to our text; maybe this will help.
Some of you are familiar with the Red River Rivalry, the Oklahoma vs. Texas college football rivalry game. There is a story from the 1999 rivalry game where, making his debut was Mike Leach as the new offensive coordinator at Oklahoma University. And Oklahoma were heavy underdogs. Texas was very strong that year, but a few days before the game, Mike Leach made, he created, a dummy script, a fake playsheet. And on Friday at walkthroughs, at the last practice before the game, Mike Leach kept that fake playsheet on the field in hopes that Texas would find it and use it. And a Texas coach found that dummy script, that fake playsheet, and he took it to the Texas locker room. And Texas’ entire defensive effort was built around that fake script. And so the next day at the game, on the second play, instead of running it left, which the script said to do, where all of the Texas defenders were, Mike Leach ran it right where no one was. And on the fifth play of the game, instead of throwing it short, like the script said to do, and all of the Texas defenders were ready for, Mike Leach threw it long and scored a touchdown. It wasn’t until the game was 17-0 did Texas realize that the script was fake! They threw it in the trash, and it’s an amazing sports story.
Getting the script right, getting the story right is important. And so here is the question for us this morning. Here is the question that Psalm 107 asks us, “Christian, how do you interpret your story? How do you interpret the story of your life? As you look back at all of the tension and at all of the tangled threads and all of the twists and turns, the loose ends, the long nights, in all of the detours, in all of the seemingly random events, how do you interpret your story?” You see, Psalm 107 gets at the battle on the turf of your heart for gratitude, for gratitude with your story. For gratitude and contentment. And then verse 22 says, “for joy.” This battle for joy. There’s a quote I think of from time to time, I’ve used it before from A.A. Milne, the author of Winnie the Pooh, about Piglet. And so we’re going from Mike Leach to Piglet! But he said of Piglet, “He had a very small heart but a large capacity for gratitude.” “He had a very small heart, but a large capacity for gratitude.” And I can’t speak for you, for me, every so often my eyes are opened at the difference between what I deserve, what I deserve and what I have. “Such a crown,” as one author has said, “for such a blind and ungrateful person.” And so this psalm challenges the person here who looks at their story and can feel himself or herself lacking. It challenge those of us who are worried about the life that we don’t have that we lose sight that we are blind to what the Lord has done and to the goodness of the life that we have been given.
And so Psalm 107 – “Songs of Joy.” Before we read, let me pray for us and ask for the Lord’s help. Let’s pray.
Our great God and heavenly Father, we come this morning from all different places. Some are anxious. Some have wandered off. Some are fatigued. Some are in desperate need of You. Some of us are doubting. And for all of us, we pray that You would come and that You would speak and that You would give Your Word success and that You would remind us of Your steadfast love this morning. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.
Psalm 107, beginning in verse 1:
“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.
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.
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.
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!
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. 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.
He turns rivers into a desert, springs of water into thirsty ground, a fruitful land into a salty waste, because of the evil of its inhabitants. He turns a desert into pools of water, a parched land into springs of water. And there he lets the hungry dwell, and they establish a city to live in; they sow fields and plant vineyards and get a fruitful yield. By his blessing they multiply greatly, and he does not let their livestock diminish.
When they are diminished and brought low through oppression, evil, and sorrow, he pours contempt on princes and makes them wander in trackless wastes; but he raises up the needy out of affliction and makes their families like flocks. The upright see it and are glad, and all wickedness shuts its mouth.
Whoever is wise, let him attend to these things; let them consider the steadfast love of the Lord.”
Amen. This is God’s Word.
This is a great psalm and through this story we learn something about how to read our own stories, especially in the twists and the turns in which we often find ourselves. If you look with me at the text, you’ll notice how the psalm begins, verse 1, and you’ll notice how the psalm ends, verse 43. Psalm 107 begins and ends with reference, look, with reference to “the steadfast love of the Lord.” In verse 1, “The steadfast love of the Lord endures forever.” And then at the end, verse 43, “Consider,” or wisdom is considering, “the steadfast love of the Lord.” And so in each of these four pictures, these four cameos, these four stories beginning in verse 4, verse 10, verse 17 and verse 23. In each of these four stories, the steadfast love of the Lord is the bracket. So Christian, the steadfast love of the Lord is the bracket of your life.
Now verse 3 provides the context for the psalm. This is a psalm or remembering, it’s a psalm of thanks. Verse 22, it is a song of joy. And it is a psalm with a context. And the context is that God’s people, because of their sin, they were scattered, and so they were exiled by the Babylonians. And then we read in verse 3, they were exiled, they were scattered to “the east and to the west, and to the north and to the south.” But you see in verse 2, in their exile they had these different stories of trouble but God has redeemed them from their trouble and He has now gathered them back. Commentator Derek Kidner said of this Psalm 107, “This is a psalm to celebrate the return of exiles. They are scenes from life.” So these are scenes, these four scenes from their experience, their experience in exile. Augustine on this says that, “This psalm was written for all of God’s people, and this psalm is to be a mirror. It is proposed to us as a means of self-knowledge like a mirror.” And so Christian, Psalm 107 is a mirror for you when you read this psalm.
You see, as a Christian, you can say that you were lost and wandering. You can say that you were hungry and thirsty, that you were in darkness and imprisoned, that you are a sinful fool and that you have faced the great waters, the great storms. You see, this is, Psalm 107, this is your story, Christian. Christopher Ash adds this regarding verses 1 to 3, that “The old covenant church rejoiced to be gathered from exile in words that may be used by the new covenant church as we exult in Jesus gathering us from the four corners of the earth.” So Psalm 107, we’ll look first at these four pictures, these four stories from verses 4 to 32, and then we’ll seek to learn some lessons in application. So first, look with me at these four stories.
The first, verses 4 to 9, about the wanderer. You see in verse 4, “Some wandered in desert wastelands.” Second, in verses 10 to 16, about the prisoner. “Some sat in darkness, prisoners in affliction.” The third cameo, verses 17 to 22, the fool or the sinful fool. “Some were fools through their sinful ways.” And then fourth, verses 23 to 28, the mariner, the sailor. “Some went down to the sea.” And so you might read this, you might find yourself today lodged in one of these stories, there might be multiple mirrors for you here today. The Christian can read all of these, the Christian can read all of these and say, “Do you remember when? Do you remember when?” Notice the refrain in all four stories of trouble to prayer to rescue to thanksgiving. Over and over again, beginning in verse 6, 13, 19 and 28. If you look at the text, beginning in verse 6, “They cried to the Lord in their trouble” and He delivered them from their distress. “Let them thank the Lord, let them thank the Lord for His steadfast love, for His wondrous works to the children of man!” Just over and over and over again. So let’s take a look.
First, verses 4 to 9, the wanderer. You see verse 4, “Some wandered in desert wastelands, finding no city,” no way to a city to dwell in. So they are vulnerable. Verse 5, “hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them.” Do you remember when, Christian? Do you remember when?” When you were lost, when you were lost in the wilderness, when you were lost in the wasteland, when you were lost in the emptiness of life, of life without God? Do you remember when that life which never satisfies, not knowing which way to home? Do you remember when? Is this story familiar to you? Verses 4 to 9. And we can even ask, “Where are you today? Where are you?” That second question in the book of Genesis when God is going after the man who is hiding. He has wandered off. Prone to wander. And He asks, “Where are you?” When you think about the prodigal son who went to the far country. Or even the elder son, the elder brother who wandered off in the interior of his life from his father’s heart. Where are you?
A story that I have told before, I think of quite often, is the story of Robert Robinson when he boarded a carriage just outside of London. He hoped to be riding alone, but across the aisle from him was a young woman and she was carrying in her hands a book, a breviary, a book of prayers and poems and hymns. And a couple minutes later, she tossed that book across the aisle to him and she said, “Sir, this is beautiful. You must read this.” And Robinson read these words, “Come, Thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing Thy grace.” And Robinson’s face sank and she noticed his despair. She noticed a change in his countenance. And she said, “Sir, do you know these words?” And he responded to her and he said, “Miss, I wrote those words more than 25 years ago, and I would give a thousand worlds to feel today what I felt back then.” Where are you? Where are you? You see, maybe you are here this morning and like Robert Robinson it’s been a long time for you. And you wake up and you ask, “How did I get here? How did I get so far from home? How did I get so far from God’s heart? And how did my life just begin to ebb away?” Alistair Begg says on this point, “Beware the famine which comes to the wandering believer. Beware the famine of a wandering life.” So where are you?
Do you see what the wanderer does? Do you see in verse 6, again, this refrain, the wanderer cried to the Lord in trouble, and the Lord delivered them. Verse 7, they need a city. He leads them to a city. They need spiritual food and He “satisfies the longing soul” and fills them with good things. Again, Kidner says that, “This is a picture of the lost being found, the wanderer retrieved.” The wanderer retrieved. And so do you know this story, Christian? “He had a very small heart but a large capacity for gratitude.”
How about the second picture, the second story, verses 10 to 16 – the prisoner. You remember this, Christian. The prisoner in darkness. You read here about the prisoner rebelling against the words of God, the council of the Most High. One commentator puts together the first and the second cameo and he writes that, “Until rescued, man is not simply lost in too wide a world,” that first cameo, “or trapped in too small of one,” like these prisoners in the second cameo. “But until rescued, he is both.” And so you see here that we are captive, that we are in a narrow world in our native condition, in our natural condition with shame and with slavery and with darkness, the psalmist says. Verse 11, we walk in darkness, we love the darkness, that we are prisoners to the darkness of our idols and the darkness of our sin. Do you remember this story? Do you remember what it is to be in darkness, to be a prisoner, to be in the prison pit, deep in the dungeon of sin? Is this story familiar to you?
Some of you heard last week at Missions Conference really the remarkable testimony of one of our missionaries, Lowell Ivey. And he was in prison for armed robbery for 17 years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. And while in solitary confinement, Lowell heard a radio program. It was called, “Here Comes the Light,” which the Lord used to shine the light of the Gospel into his dark heart. And Lowell said that he was delivered from darkness. And there is a Ligonier ministry video where Lowell shares his testimony. And that video ends with him saying, “My name is Lowell Ivey. The Lord set me free. I was set free in prison by God’s grace.” It’s an amazing testimony. Do you remember this story, Christian, verses 10 to 16, the story of the prisoner? Is it familiar to you?
And maybe you’re here today living in darkness, sensing the remaining remnant of darkness, the deep darkness in the corners, the deep recesses of your heart and you know the misery, verse 11, the misery of a rebellious heart to the words of God, to the counsel of the Most High. If that’s where you are and you feel like you are in a prison, you cannot escape, you cannot get out, what do you do? What does the psalmist do? This refrain, verse 13. There’s trouble – he’s in trouble, the trouble of darkness, the trouble of prison – to prayer, to rescue, to thanksgiving, verse 15 and 16. “Let them thank the Lord,” the Lord shatters, He breaks their bonds and their chains, and so “Let them thank the Lord.” And so you see, the Gospel gives you a bigger story. The Gospel gives you a better story than your idols could ever promise you. And that’s the place where you live, Christian. Not a place of deprivation but a place of fullness. That is where you live. Is this story familiar to you? “He had a very small heart but such a large capacity for gratitude.”
Verses 17 to 22, that third cameo – the fool. You see in verse 17, they are “fools through their sinful ways.” They have some kind of disease. They have some kind of pestilence. Their bodies are wasting away. And the language here in this third cameo is that it’s self-inflicted. This is a situation their sins put them in. And so do you remember this story – the sin-sickness in the innermost part of your heart? When we sing, “I am sick and sore, I am sick and sore” in my sin. Bruised and brought low by your sin. The wonder of the psalm, again and again and again is that your sin is no match for His mercy. And again, the Lord does not tire of delivering those who cry to Him in trouble. The wonder of the psalm, verse 19 – trouble, to prayer, to rescue, to thanksgiving. They cry to the Lord and he delivers them from their trouble. Verse 20, “He sent out His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction.” And they thanked the Lord. Verse 22 – they offered sacrifices of thanksgiving, they sing songs of joy. “He had a small heart but he had a large capacity for gratitude.” Is this story familiar to you?
What about the fourth cameo, the fourth picture? Verses 23 to 32 – the mariner. You remember this story? Verse 23, “Some were doing business on the great waters; they saw the deeds of the Lord. For He commanded and raised the stormy wind.” And then verse 27, they were “at their wits’ end.” And so the psalmist is describing the experience, the experience of being in the storm. And in the face of our confidence and competence, in the face of our assets and our abilities, in the face of our potential and our pride, we are humbled – look at these two words in verse 25 – we are humbled by these two words. Verse 25, “He commanded.” And so the storm here is commanded by God. He is in control of the details of the storm. And in the storm, they experience, they are confronted with God’s power. They come face to face with their own weakness. And God here, we are reminded that God can hear your weakest whisper. He can hear your weakest whisper in the storm, in the wind and the waves, in the fury of it. And they cry out to the Lord. And what do we see? Verse 30, He stilled the storm. “The waves of the sea were hushed.” He delivered them, and “He brought them,” verse 30, “to their desired haven.”
And so the wanderer, the prisoner, the fool, the mariner – are these stories familiar to you? Is this, Christian, a mirror for you today? This is a great psalm. Through this story we learn something about how to read our own stories, our own experience. And so what do we do with this psalm? Let me offer four lessons for us from this psalm.
The first lesson – cry to the Lord in your trouble. That’s the first lesson from this psalm. You see this in verse 6, verse 13, verse 19 and verse 28. Cry to the Lord in your trouble. You see all of these different stories, all different kinds of trouble. And so people are wandering, people are lost, people are hungry and thirsty, people are fearful in great danger, people are sick. All different kinds of trouble. You have then the various providences we didn’t even get to in verses 33 to 42. These various providences. They are outmatched, no way out, no exit, no amount of money, no amount of striving, no amount of planning can help you. You are at the end of yourself and you cannot solve this – what do you do? All different kinds of trouble – what do you do? These stories are invitations that regardless of the trouble, regardless of the chapter that you are in, there is the same pattern. There is this same Gospel pattern, the same remedy – you cry out to the Lord. You cry out to the Lord regardless of the trouble that you are in. You notice that the second and the third stories contain explicit mention of sins and the first and the fourth do not. And so regardless of the trouble you are in, for whatever reason that trouble is at your front door, you can cry to the Lord in your trouble. That’s the first lesson for us – cry to the Lord in our trouble.
Second lesson – thank the Lord for His steadfast love, for His wondrous works to the children of man. You see this in verse 8, verse 15, verse 21 and verse 31. Thank the Lord. And so over and over again, because the psalmist knows we are forgetful people – we read that in our Call to Worship – “Forget not,” Psalm 103, “Forget not all His benefits.” We are forgetful people. And so what about you? As you look over the landscape of your life and you look at the boundaries and you see how He has bracketed your life with His steadfast love, as you look out over your life at how He has redeemed you, as one commentator said, “He has retrieved you from your wandering and released you from the prison of your sin and restored you from your disease of sin and rescued you from your storms,” can you say, “Thank You. Thank You for Your steadfast love. Thank You for Your wondrous work in my life.” Christian, how do you interpret your story? And how different is this script from the one that you have been telling yourself or the one that you have been listening to from those rival stories that you are prone to believe?
A thankful heart is God-centered and focuses on what you have been given. An unthankful heart centers on you and what you wish you had or what you think has been taken away from you, what might have been, what should have been. And so learning to thank the Lord and truly mean it, it flows out of a heart that has a large capacity for gratitude. And there will be days as you look at your life before it is a feeling, it’s a choice. And that’s why it is a command over and over in Scripture. Fifty times in the psalms alone – Psalm 105, “Give thanks to the Lord. Call upon His name.” Psalm 9, it’s a command – “Give thanks to the Lord with your whole heart.” You see this in the New Testament as well, Colossians 3 – “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts and be thankful.” Thank the Lord. And so you have to practice, practice, practice this habit of thanksgiving because we know the language that comes easy. The language that comes easy is cynicism. It’s complaint. It’s self-pity. Ingratitude. And so this is something that you have to plow and prepare. It’s something that you have to work on like a new muscle. Thank the Lord. This habit of gratitude – thank the Lord for His steadfast love, for His wondrous works. “He had a small heart but a large capacity for gratitude.”
So cry to the Lord in your trouble, second, thank the Lord. The third lesson – tell of the deeds of the Lord. Tell of the deeds of the Lord. You see this in verse 2. “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.” And you see this in verse 22, “Let them tell of His deeds in songs of joy.” And so in other words, the third lesson is – you have a story to tell. You have a story to tell. You see, we fear exposure and we like to keep the cards close to the vest. We don’t want people to find out the struggles of our story, the mess, the fumbles of our life. But you see here that when the redeeming work of the Lord burst into their life and redeemed them and retrieved them and released them and restored them and delivered them and healed them, verse 2 and verse 22 – they had a story to tell.
And so if this has happened in your life and in your heart, you don’t have to write it down like the psalmist did. But if you have that friend, if you have that neighbor, if you have that coworker who can hear your story and can say, “Well if He redeemed that, if He healed that mess by His Word, if He brought you out of that darkness, well then maybe, do you think maybe He could do that in mine?”
And so you cry out to the Lord, you thank the Lord, you tell of the deeds of the Lord, and then fourth and last application comes from verse 43. “Whoever is wise, let him attend to these things; let them consider the steadfast love of the Lord.” And so the fourth lesson – consider the steadfast love of the Lord.
Let me close with this. There is a beautiful love story that I read about not long ago. And the story was shared by a man who had bought a used 1969 copy of the book, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. And the love story that he told is about a married couple, Herland and Kathleen Stindal. And what you find, really the very first page of the book, are handwritten notes from “K,” which stands for Kathleen. And that first page has dates and the first is September 23, 1972. The storyteller thinks likely the date when Kathleen started reading the book. And then on page 14 there’s different handwriting with a note from “H.S” – Herland Stindal. And then on page 19 again, from K. And then page after page from K and from H with notes. And then on the last page of the book, as you finish the final chapter, they both signed off with dates and with their location in, first in – sorry – 1972. And so you read, “K.S. September 25, 1972. In Spain.” And then, “H.S. February 27, 1974. On train from Greece to Spain.” And then the next is “K.S. November 8, 1979. In Dublin.” And you see this on that last page, just back and forth and back and forth with initials, with dates, with their location, back and forth until the last two were dated “1998 and 2000” and they sign off with these two “X” marks.
And the author said the key to understanding their note is Herland’s notes aren’t for him; they’re for Kathleen for the next time that she reads the story. And Kathleen’s notes aren’t for her; they’re for Herland, the next time he reads the story. And the notes in this book are messages between husband and wife, messages of love and loyalty and friendship over four decades. And the storyteller wrote that the copy of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is part of their correspondence. “It’s an artifact of their long love. Each signature supplies an answer to the question, ‘Where were you, my spouse, when your mind was full of what my mind now holds?’ And each added signature declares, ‘I am here and now with my mind full of what is held in this book and in this story.’”
When you read this psalm and when you consider the steadfast love of the Lord, you sense the nearness of Jesus Christ. You sense the nearness of your great bridegroom, Jesus Christ, and His love for His people. And He doesn’t just initial this page, but what you see here in this story is that Jesus Christ has come near, He has written Himself into this story – that He loved you so much that He has come near on every page of the story. And you see this psalm, like all of Scripture, points to Jesus Christ. And so consider each of these four pictures, these four cameos in the hundred-and-seventh psalm. So consider Jesus Christ who wandered from the height of heaven. And He said, “Foxes have holes, birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.” So Jesus was hungry and thirsty in the wilderness. That on the cross Jesus said, “I thirst,” so that you can come and eat and drink of the fullness of His love. Consider this. Consider Jesus who gives light to those in darkness. Jesus said in John 8, “I am the light of the world,” and He calls you into His marvelous light. Consider Jesus.
Look at verse 10. Consider Jesus who was a prisoner in affliction on the cross, even though verse 11, He never spurned, He never spurned the words of God our the counsel of the Most High. He was obedient to the counsel of the Most High. He didn’t just – look at verse 18 – He didn’t just draw near to the gate of death, but He was obedient to the counsel of the Most High, to the point of death, and even death on a cross. Consider this. Jesus in Mark chapter 4, when Jesus made the storm be still, remember He made the sea, the waves hush. And the disciples asked, “Who is this? Who is this that even the winds and the sea obey Him?” And so consider His steadfast love.
Consider Jesus and His steadfast love for the wanderer, for the prisoner, for the fool, and for those in the great storm. Consider His steadfast love for you this morning, His steadfast love to write Himself into your story. And so how do you interpret your story? How do you interpret the story of your life? Where are you in the story? “He had a very small heart but a large capacity for gratitude.” Amen. Let me pray. Let’s pray.Our great God and heavenly Father, would You now open our lips? Would You give us grace to forget not all of Your benefits? Would You give us thankful hearts as we consider Jesus and His steadfast love for us? And we pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.