A
man was the sole survivor of a shipwreck. He was able to make a raft
from some of the ship’s cargo and drifted to a deserted island. There he
constructed a makeshift shelter and lived on what little food he had
been able to salvage from the wreckage. Time after time he tried in vain
to attract the attention of a passing ship. Finally, he saw a ship
approaching more closely and
hurriedly lit a signal fire. To his dismay,
the ship passed by and was quickly fading from sight.
Accidentally, the flames from the signal fire set
the thatched roof of his shelter on fire. The man watched helplessly as
all of his provisions burned to ashes. All was lost, he thought. He
didn’t see how his life could last much longer. But then he noticed that
the ship which had passed by him had turned around and was approaching
the island again. To his relief, he was seen by the crew and rescued.
Once on board, he went to the captain to express his
thanks. He asked, “What caused you to turn around after you had already
gone by me?” The captain answered, “We saw the smoke you made by
setting your shelter on fire.” The very thing that seemed to seal his
doom was the means of his delivery.
A lot of people view their problems like that
marooned man. They see no point or purpose in them. Their problems drive
them to despair and hopelessness. Sometimes people blame God and grow
bitter because He allows trials to come into their lives. And yet it is
often those very trials that God has designed as the means for the
person’s salvation or growth in grace. The problems bring us to the end
of our own resources so that we are forced to call upon God for help.
The fallen human race has a basic problem: we think
that we are self-sufficient. We are not, of course, but we think we are.
In order for God to communicate His love to us, He has to bring us to
an awareness of our need to depend totally upon Him.
We all appreciate love the most when we are most
aware of our need for the person who loves us. While the analogy does
not correspond completely, we can see this to some degree in a marriage.
A husband (or wife) who is independent and self-sufficient will not
appreciate the love that his (or her) spouse offers as much as the one
who realizes his (or her) own needs and how the spouse meets those
needs. The analogy breaks down in that it would be unhealthy to be
totally dependent on a spouse.
But when it comes to God, we are in fact totally dependent on Him. All things hold together in Christ (Col. 1:17).
I take that to mean that if Christ let go, all matter would
disintegrate. He is the author and giver of life. We are dependent upon
Him for our next breath or heartbeat. That is the fact of the matter.
But we do not experientially believe it. And so God designs problems to
come into our lives so that we reach the end of ourselves, call out to
Him for deliverance, and thereby experience and appreciate His great
love.
To receive help from God, you must come to the end of yourself and cry out to Him for His undeserved favor.
That is the message of Psalm 107.
It was probably written after Judah had gone into captivity and exile
in Babylon and then later returned to the land of Palestine. In Psalm 106:47 there is the cry, “Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from among the nations.” In Psalm 107:2-3,
that request has been answered. The psalmist wants to teach his readers
how God uses trials (like the exile) to drive us to trust Him.
The main body of the psalm consists of four poetic
portraits of people in difficult circumstances. In each case the people
were overwhelmed with a problem they could not solve; they cried out to God in prayer; He answered their prayer with His provision; and then there is an exhortation to praise
God for what he has done. Some commentators see each of the four
portraits as poetic ways of referring to the experiences of the exile.
Perhaps his readers were wondering why God had allowed such trials. But
as you meditate on the psalm, you begin to see that each group pictures
fallen humanity from a slightly different angle. We are the wanderers, the prisoners, the sick, and the overwhelmed.
The psalm is structured like a sermon. There is an
introduction (vv. 1-3) which states his theme of God’s loyal love and
redemption from the enemy. Then he describes the four groups:
Group 1: Wanderers (4-9)
Group 2: Prisoners (10-16)
Group 3: Sick (due to sin) (17-22)
Group 4: Overwhelmed by circumstances (sailors) (23-32)
Then, there is a summary of God’s ways (vv. 33-42),
in which the psalmist makes the point that God brings down the
self-sufficient, but lifts up the needy who call to Him. In this
section there is another cycle:
Plenty > Poverty (vv. 33-34)
Poverty > Plenty (vv. 35-38)
Plenty > Poverty (vv. 39-40)
Poverty > Plenty (vv. 41-42)
Then, as in all good sermons, the psalmist
concludes by driving his point home to his readers (v. 43): Are you
wise? Then think about it and you will see in these pictures how God
works through problems. As you apply it to yourself, you will appreciate
the Lord’s undeserved love in a fresh way.
Let’s go back through the psalmist’s sermon in a bit
more detail and see how he makes the point that to receive help from
God, we must come to the end of ourselves so that we will cry out to God
for His undeserved favor.
Introduction (107:1-3):
Verse 1 states the theme: The reader is to give
thanks to God for His goodness and lovingkindness (loyal love or
undeserved favor). Verses 2 and 3 set the scene a bit more precisely by
defining who it is who is to give thanks to the Lord: those He has
redeemed from the hand of the enemy and gathered from the lands (i.e.,
the former exiles).
The idea of redemption implies antecedent bondage.
The one needing redemption had fallen under the domination of some alien
power. He could not free himself; he needed a redeemer to free him. God
had redeemed Israel, first from slavery in Egypt and then from
captivity in Babylon. We who are in Christ have been redeemed
spiritually and eternally from bondage to sin, self, and Satan through
the blood of Christ. Also, as we walk with Christ, we experience His
deliverance from the problems we face in our everyday life. As we
realize our helplessness and experience God’s gracious help for our
problems, we ought to appreciate His love and give thanks to Him. That’s
the message of Psalm 107.
Four Pictures of Deliverance (107:4-32):
Group 1: Wanderers (vv. 4-9)
This group is lost in the wilderness, aimlessly
wandering in confusion. They lack the security and stability of a city
to call home. They are hungry, thirsty, and fainting from exhaustion (v.
5). Finally they call out to the Lord (v. 6) and He delivers them and
directs them to an inhabited city where their needs are met (v. 9).
Therefore they are to give thanks to the Lord for His love and wonderful
deeds (v. 8).
The wanderers represent those spiritually who are
lost, groping for meaning and purpose apart from God. There is no
genuine meaning to life or purpose for living if you live apart from
God. You can do the greatest, most noble deeds imaginable for the human
race, but what ultimate good does it do? People still die in a few short
years and must face eternity. If people are just a bunch of animals who
have evolved by chance a bit higher than lower life forms, then the
only philosophy that makes sense is, “Eat, drink, and be merry, for
tomorrow we die.” People who live apart from God are lost.
There’s one thing worse than being lost: being lost
and not even knowing that you are lost! I read of a boy and his brother
whose grandma took them to Disneyland. During the course of the day, she
bought each of them a little flag. At one point, they stopped to watch a
parade, as “toy soldiers” marched by playing their instruments.
Suddenly, the grandma realized that the four-year-old was gone! Having
lost one of our children once at Disneyland, I know the panic she felt!
She began frantically searching for him. Then she happened to look up at
the parade marching by and there, at the end of the parade, marching
along, smiling happily and waving his flag, was her grandson! He was
lost, but he didn’t even know he was lost. He was having a great time.
There are a lot of people in this world like that
little boy. They’re lost, but they don’t even know it. They’re marching
through life having a grand time, unaware that the heavenly Father is
concerned that they are lost. But someday the band will stop playing.
They will be all alone, facing eternity without God.
Verse 9 tells us the kind of people God helps: The
hungry and thirsty soul. It is those who realize they’re lost and cry
out to God (v. 6) whom He answers. Those who march through life ignoring
or denying their desperate need for God will not find Him. He satisfies
the thirsty soul and fills the hungry soul with what is good.
Do you feel lost? Jesus says, “I am the Way.” Do you
feel empty and hungry? Jesus says, “I am the Bread of Life.” Do you
feel thirsty to know God? Jesus says, “I will give you living Water.” Do
you feel exhausted and weary? Jesus says, “I will give you rest.” To
get help from God, you must realize that you are lost, give up your own
efforts to find the way, and call out to God. He will lead you to
Himself.
Group 2: Prisoners (vv. 10-16)
This group is in captivity, in darkness, misery, and
chains, due to rebellion against God’s Word. They have spurned the
counsel of the Most High (v. 11). Because of their sin, God humbled
their hearts with labor and put them into a situation where they came to
the end of themselves and found that there was no one to help. Then
they cried out to the Lord and He saved them (vv. 13-14).
This group represents those who think they can cast
off God’s directives and live apart from obedience to His Word. Many in
our culture think that their modern way of thinking is far superior to
the confining mentality of the Bible. They say, “We want to be free to
live as we choose!” But sin always leads to bondage and ultimately
brings misery and death.
I find many who claim to be Christians, but they
have cast off God’s Word and live according to their feelings and to the
ways of this self-seeking world. If you talk to them about the need to
obey God’s Word, they say, “That’s legalism!” But they have turned the
grace of God into licentiousness (Jude 4).
Sin is always deceptive. At first it looks great and
it seems to meet your needs. But it’s like a thirsty man who quenches
his thirst with amoebic water. His thirst is quenched for the moment,
but it gives him a terrible case of dysentery which dehydrates him all
the more, and his latter state is worse than his former.
God graciously sends hardship to such people to the
point that they stumble. All the earthly things they have relied on fail
them; there is none to help (v. 12). Please note that it is God who
sovereignly, graciously brings difficulties into the lives of His people
who have spurned His counsel. If you have shrugged off the commands of
God’s Word because you didn’t like them, and now you’re having problems,
those problems come directly from God for the purpose of humbling your
heart so that you will turn back to His Word and submit to it (v. 12).
God wants you to see that you must trust in Him with all your heart and not lean on your own or on the world’s understanding (Prov. 3:5).
When you come to the end of yourself and cry out to Him, instead of
saying, “Too bad! You got yourself into this mess, so I’m not going to
help you,” God graciously delivers you from the sin which had you in
bondage. To get help from God, you’ve got to abandon all trust in your
own wisdom and seek Him and His wisdom through His Word.
Group 3: Sick (due to sin) (vv. 17-22)
Sickness is not always directly due to sin but
sometimes it is. The group described in these verses is clearly
physically ill due to their sin (see vv. 17-18). The word “fool” (v. 17)
in the Bible does not refer to the mentally deficient, but to the morally
deficient. The fool is not unintelligent; he is rebellious. Sin
eventually takes a toll on a person emotionally and often physically.
Verse 18 reads like a description of a drug addict or alcoholic who has
wasted his mind and body.
This group represents those who think they can sin
without penalty. Again, God lets them reach the point of despair: “They
drew near to death” (v. 18). Until they hit bottom, they weren’t willing
to turn to God. Finally, they came to the end of themselves. There was
no where to go for help except to God. They cried out to Him and He
saved them out of their distresses (v. 19).
Note God’s grace in rescuing groups two and three.
They’re not in trouble because they’re lost or overwhelmed (as with
groups one and four); they’re in trouble because of outright rebellion.
They don’t deserve God’s grace. But that’s what grace is: undeserved
favor. And so God responds to their call for help. If you are in great
trouble today and you know that the reason for your trouble is your own
rebellion, you may feel that you can’t call out to God for help. Not so!
Cry out to Him and He will deliver you from your sin to His glory!
Group 4: Overwhelmed by circumstances (vv. 23-32)
As Derek Kidner (Psalms [IVP], 2:386) aptly puts it,
this group does not speak so much of “our guilt but of our littleness.
The hurricane shakes us into seeing that in a world of gigantic forces,
we live by permission, not by good management.” These sailors are
overwhelmed by circumstances beyond their control. All their wisdom as
sailors was swallowed up (v. 27b). If you’ve ever been in a bad storm at
sea, you almost get sea sick just reading verses 26-27. I was in such a
storm in a seaworthy Coast Guard boat, and it was scary. I can’t
imagine what it would be like in the primitive boats of the fifth
century, B. C.!
This group represents those who are confident that
they can handle life and cope with life’s problems in their own
strength. These men were skilled in seamanship. It was their business.
But God merely spoke and raised up the wind (v. 25) and these
self-sufficient sailors were brought to the end of their skills (v. 27,
margin). God put them into a situation where they were forced to abandon
all trust in themselves and call out to God for deliverance. Through
this trial they came to experience God’s love and grace.
Thus the psalmist paints these four word-pictures to
drive home the point: To receive help from God, you must abandon all
trust in yourself and cry out to God for His undeserved favor. By nature
we are self-sufficient. So God sovereignly, graciously brings us into
situations where every human crutch is knocked away. When we cry out to
Him and He delivers us, we can only give thanks for His undeserved love
and favor.
Summary of God’s Ways (v. 33-42):
The four word-pictures drive the nail in; now the
psalmist gives a summary of God’s ways to clinch the point. Through a
series of four cycles of contrast which describe how God turns plenty
into poverty and poverty into plenty, he shows that God strikes down the
self-sufficient, but lifts up the needy who call out to Him.
(1) First (vv. 33-34) he describes some people who
live in a fruitful land with abundant water. They think they’re set for
life. But they disobey God and so He turns their fertile land into a
wasteland. Sodom and Gomorrah are exhibit A.
(2) Next (vv. 35-38), he describes some people
living in a dry wilderness. These people know that they are needy (v.
36, “hungry”). God supplies their needs and blesses them.
(3) But then (vv. 39-40), like Israel in the land
after God drove out their enemies and blessed them with material goods,
they became self-sufficient and forgot their dependence upon the Lord (Deut. 6:10-12, 8:11-14). I understand the group in verses 39-40 to be like that. So God makes them wander in a pathless waste (v. 40).
(4) Finally (vv. 41-42), those who are needy and
know it God sets securely on high away from affliction and blesses them
so that the righteous rejoice and the wicked are silenced.
The point is that the self-sufficient, who think
they are competent, are really deficient, because God is opposed to the
proud. But those who know that they are insufficient in themselves and
thereby call out to the Lord are sufficient, because God gives grace to
the humble. We must come to the end of ourselves to experience God’s
grace and love.
Conclusion (v. 43):
The psalmist concludes by appealing to the wise
reader to give heed to these things and to consider the lovingkindnesses
of the Lord. He is saying, “Apply it to yourself.”
Conclusion
There are two kinds of problems portrayed in the psalm that we all experience: (1) Problems resulting from circumstances beyond our control (groups 1 and 4). These are due to our finite condition. (2) Problems resulting from our sin (groups 2 and 3). These are due to our fallen
condition. The first step to receive help from God is to recognize that
no matter what our problems, we are not self-sufficient. We need God!
If our problems stem from known sin, then of course we must turn from
our sin to experience God’s blessings (Ps. 66:18).
The next step (no matter what the source of the
problem), is to call out to the Lord. Acknowledge your dependence on
Him. Watch Him deliver you in His own way and time. Then, give thanks to
Him. And be sure to tell others of how God delivered you from your
problems so that they will learn to turn to God themselves to experience
His grace (v. 2).
Preaching is a hazardous occupation, because God
usually makes me learn personally the message I’m going to preach. (It’s
especially dangerous to preach about trials!) You may think that I’m
gifted so that sermons effortlessly flow from the Bible through me.
Wrong! It’s a rare week that I don’t struggle with a sermon to the point
of thinking, “I can’t do it! I don’t know what I’m going to say.” As I
get up to speak, I’m often overwhelmed with my inadequacy. Or, if it
isn’t the sermon, I’m overwhelmed with ministry needs that I don’t know
how to cope with. I’m repeatedly made aware of my own inadequacy to
serve the Lord. It forces me to cast myself upon God for His mercy,
which is precisely where I need to be.
What are your problems? Instead of growing bitter
and blaming God for them, view them as divinely designed opportunities
to bring you to the end of your own resources so that you will call out
to God and experience the beautiful provision of His great love and
grace. God doesn’t help those who help themselves. He helps the helpless
who cast themselves on His mercy.
You may say, “I’ve sinned too much! I don’t deserve
God’s help!” That’s great! You’re a candidate for God’s grace. Our psalm
shows that the undeserving who realize their great need are the only
kind of people God helps. No matter how great your problems, you will
find mercy from God if you call out to Him for salvation.
Discussion Questions
- Why is the notion that we can earn God’s favor so widespread? How can we avoid it personally?
- Some say that all trials come from the devil. Why is this unbiblical? How can a good God send trials?
- Doesn’t God want us to feel adequate and competent? How can we serve Him if we feel inadequate and incompetent?
- Agree/disagree: The most pervasive sin and root of all sins is pride?
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