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Wednesday 02/12/25
Thru the Bible: Psalm Book IV & V: Chapters 105-107
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Let the redeemed of the Lord say so!
Psalm 105:1-45,
“(1) Give thanks to the LORD, call on His name; proclaim His deeds among the peoples.
(2) Sing to Him, sing praise to Him; tell about all His wonderful works! (3) Honor His holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice.
(4) Search for the LORD and for His strength; seek His face always. (5) Remember the wonderful works He has done, His wonders, and the judgments He has pronounced, (6) You offspring of Abraham His servant, Jacob’s descendants–His chosen ones.
(7) He is the LORD our God; His judgments govern the whole earth.
(8) He forever remembers His covenant, the promise He ordained for a thousand generations– (9) the covenant He made with Abraham, swore to Isaac, (10) and confirmed to Jacob as a decree and to Israel as an everlasting covenant:
(11) “I will give the land of Canaan to you as your inherited portion.”
(12) When they were few in number, very few indeed, and temporary residents in Canaan, (13) wandering from nation to nation and from one kingdom to another, (14) He allowed no one to oppress them; He rebuked kings on their behalf:
(15) “Do not touch My anointed ones, or harm My prophets.”
(16) He called down famine against the land and destroyed the entire food supply.
(17) He had sent a man ahead of them–Joseph, who was sold as a slave. (18) They hurt his feet with shackles; his neck was put in an iron collar. (19) Until the time his prediction came true, the word of the LORD tested him.
(20) The king sent for him and released him; the ruler of peoples set him free. (21) He made him master of his household, ruler over all his possessions– (22) binding his officials at will and instructing his elders.
(23) Then Israel went to Egypt; Jacob lived as a foreigner in the land of Ham. (24) The LORD made His people very fruitful; He made them more numerous than their foes, (25) whose hearts He turned to hate His people and to deal deceptively with His servants.
(26) He sent Moses His servant, and Aaron, whom He had chosen. (27) They performed His miraculous signs among them, and wonders in the land of Ham.
(28) He sent darkness, and it became dark–for did they not defy His commands?
(29) He turned their waters into blood and caused their fish to die.
(30) Their land was overrun with frogs, even in their kings’ chambers.
(31) He spoke, and insects came–gnats throughout their country.
(32) He gave them hail for rain, and lightning throughout their land. (33) He struck their vines and fig trees and shattered the trees of their territory.
(34) He spoke and locusts came–young locusts without number. (35) They devoured all the vegetation in their land and consumed the produce of their soil.
(36) He struck all the firstborn in their land, all their first progeny.
(37) Then He brought Israel out with silver and gold, and no one among His tribes stumbled.
(38) Egypt was glad when they left, for dread of Israel had fallen on them. (39) He spread a cloud as a covering and gave a fire to light up the night.
(40) They asked, and He brought quail and satisfied them with bread from heaven.
(41) He opened a rock, and water gushed out; it flowed like a stream in the desert.
(42) For He remembered His holy promise to Abraham His servant. (43) He brought His people out with rejoicing, His chosen ones with shouts of joy.
(44) He gave them the lands of the nations, and they inherited what other peoples had worked for.
(45) All this happened so that they might keep His statutes and obey His laws. Hallelujah!”
Psalm 106:1-48,
“(1) Hallelujah! Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His faithful love endures forever.
(2) Who can declare the LORD’s mighty acts or proclaim all the praise due Him?
(3) How happy are those who uphold justice, who practice righteousness at all times.
(4) Remember me, LORD, when You show favor to Your people. Come to me with Your salvation (5) so that I may enjoy the prosperity of Your chosen ones, rejoice in the joy of Your nation, and boast about Your heritage.
(6) Both we and our fathers have sinned; we have gone astray and have acted wickedly.
(7) Our fathers in Egypt did not grasp the significance of Your wonderful works or remember Your many acts of faithful love; instead, they rebelled by the sea–the Red Sea.
(8) Yet He saved them BECAUSE OF HIS NAME, TO MAKE HIS POWER KNOWN.
(9) He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up; He led them through the depths as through a desert. (10) He saved them from the hand of the adversary; He redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.
(11) Water covered their foes; not one of them remained.
(12) Then they believed His promises and sang His praise.
(13) THEY SOON FORGOT His works and would not wait for His counsel.
(14) They were seized with craving in the wilderness and tested God in the desert.
(15) He gave them what they asked for, but sent a wasting disease among them.
(16) In the camp they were envious of Moses and of Aaron, the LORD’s holy one. (17) The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan; it covered the assembly of Abiram. (18) Fire blazed throughout their assembly; flames consumed the wicked.
(19) At Horeb they made a calf and worshiped the cast metal image. (20) They exchanged their glory for the image of a grass-eating ox. (21) They forgot God their Savior, Who did great things in Egypt, (22) wonderful works in the land of Ham, awe-inspiring deeds at the Red Sea.
(23) So He said He would have destroyed them–if Moses His chosen one had not stood before Him in the breach to turn His wrath away from destroying them.
(24) They despised the pleasant land and did not believe His promise.
(25) They grumbled in their tents and did not listen to the LORD’s voice. (26) So He raised His hand against them with an oath that He would make them fall in the desert (27) and would disperse their descendants among the nations, scattering them throughout the lands.
(28) They aligned themselves with Baal of Peor and ate sacrifices offered to lifeless gods. (29) They provoked the LORD with their deeds, and a plague broke out against them. (30) But Phinehas stood up and intervened, and the plague was stopped. (31) It was credited to him as righteousness throughout all generations to come.
(32) They angered the LORD at the waters of Meribah, and Moses suffered because of them; (33) for they embittered his spirit, and he spoke rashly with his lips.
(34) They did not destroy the peoples as the LORD had commanded them, (35) but mingled with the nations and adopted their ways. (36) They served their idols, which became a snare to them. (37) They sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons. (38) They shed innocent blood–the blood of their sons and daughters whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; so the land became polluted with blood.
(39) They defiled themselves by their actions and prostituted themselves by their deeds.
(40) Therefore the LORD’s anger burned against His people, and He abhorred His own inheritance. (41) He handed them over to the nations; those who hated them ruled them.
(42) Their enemies oppressed them, and they were subdued under their power.
(43) HE RESCUED THEM MANY TIMES, BUT THEY CONTINUED TO REBEL DELIBERATELY AND WERE BEATEN DOWN BY THEIR SIN.
(44) When He heard their cry, He took note of their distress, (45) remembered His covenant with them, and relented according to the abundance of His faithful love.
(46) He caused them to be pitied before all their captors.
(47) Save us, LORD our God, and gather us from the nations, so that we may give thanks to Your holy name and rejoice in Your praise.
(48) May the LORD, the God of Israel, be praised from everlasting to everlasting. Let all the people say, “Amen!” Hallelujah!”
Now we begin the 5th and final book in the greater book of Psalms.
Book V begins here in Psalms 107 and continues through the end of Psalms in chapter 150.
The Predominant focus is upon God’s kingdom – especially the future Messianic Kingdom.
I mentioned to you as we began the Book of Psalms that the entire affair is bookended by what amounts to a doxology.
Psalms 1 & 2 are the beginning bookends and the last 5 Psalms (Chapters 146-150) function as the ending bookend.
So tonight we will close out with one of my favorite Psalms – Psalm 107.
This is a very structured Psalm in that it is divided into 4 examples with each one divided into 4 sections.
Each example:
- Tells of a distress into which mankind may (and often does) get themselves.
- A cry to God for help in their distress.
- A response of deliverance from God.
- A call to acknowledge God in praise for His wonderful works and goodness.
Bookending this internal structure is an initial appeal to mankind to praise God for His goodness and faithful love. It closes an overview of the reasons for this ongoing pattern in human existence. It offers the actions of man and the faithful response of God which brings distress or deliverance based upon human actions.
It then draws a conclusion, reveals the response of the righteous to these truths and explains what the wise stand to learn from all of this!
Now this Psalm holds a very special and prominent place in my life journey. It was quite literally my bread and water for years – during some of the most difficult years I ever knew.
I say my bread and water because they sustained my soul, though at the time it felt like prison rations. I had for a very long time suffered greatly with a fear of having forfeited my salvation through a sin of verbal outlash at God in my youth. I had been told by those in my church – especially a Sunday School teacher – that God had given us freewill. Then the next Sunday the same teacher told us that God would send sickness, adversity, poverty and countless other troubles into our lives if we failed to serve Him. To me this sounded like coercion, manipulation and a way around freewill. It was as if God had said, “Well technically I’m giving you freewill, but I will make your life miserable if you fail to chose what I want you to.” Which was all the same to me as having no freewill at all – in fact it was worse. At least if I had no freewill I stood the chance of not knowing I had no choice. This way, I knew I had freedom, but could only express it in the direction God demanded unless I wanted to suffer for it.
Well I knew enough about God and the devil – good and evil to know that they are opposites. So if God was manipulating me, bullying me, terrorizing me and punishing me into obedience, then I knew who it was that would do me good and allow me freedom without consequences.
I was so angry and I felt so betrayed by Him that I told God I didn’t want to serve Him anymore and told Him He could keep His salvation!
In His patient love and kindness God knew I was a child and was acting impetuously out of misinformation, anger and more than anything else the hurt of perceived betrayal. I felt God had been lying to me.
It was almost 5 years that I stayed like that. It wasn’t until I was 12 that God got through to me. When He did, the love of God came into my heart like a flood and I sensed such a rejoicing at our reuniting – my heart was finally home again. I began to pursue Him with a ravenous passion spending countless hours reading the Bible and even witnessing to my friends and their parents. One time I took a trip with a friend to Savannah, Georgia and talked nearly the whole 10 hour trip there – several hours while we were there and nearly the whole trip home – essentially preaching to my friend’s mother and answering her questions from scripture. I was SO hungry and on fire.
Then one day I ran across a passage in Hebrews which I misunderstood and took it as my condemnation. Satan was certain to remind me SO CLEARLY of my verbal betrayal of God and convinced me that I had apostated myself. Live off and on under that fear for well over a decade. Loving God, wanting to be close but terrified that I no longer was accepted by Him. It was hell in so many ways.
Towards the end of those years, every time I opened my bible I felt nearly pushed to Psalm 107. I read it and read it and read it. I knew it and could recite it in my sleep – literally. I got to the point that I didn’t want to open my Bible because I knew I would be driven there again!
Finally in an act of desperation I cried out to God to let me read something else. He told me to read it again. This happened several times in a single day – reading it each time He told me to and I was getting more and more weary with it. Finally He read it to me. I kid you not. He read the chapter pl;acing emphasis in completely different places than I ever did… than ever even occurred to me to place it. But the end of the chapter was the key which would eventually unlock my deliverance. Let’s read this Psalm together…
Psalm 107:1-43,
Initial appeal:
“(1) Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His faithful love endures forever.
(2) Let the redeemed of the LORD proclaim that He has redeemed them from the hand of the foe (3) and has gathered them from the lands–from the east and the west, from the north and the south.”
First example:
“(4) 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.”
First Cry & response:
“(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.”
First Call to praise n response to God’s deliverance:
“(8) Let them give thanks to the LORD for His faithful love and His wonderful works for the human race. (9) For He has satisfied the thirsty and filled the hungry with good things.”
Second example:
“(10) Others sat in darkness and gloom–prisoners in cruel chains– (11) because they rebelled against God’s commands and despised the counsel of the Most High.
(12) He broke their spirits with hard labor; they stumbled, and there was no one to help.”
Second Cry & response:
“(13) Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble; He saved them from their distress. (14) He brought them out of darkness and gloom and broke their chains apart.”
Second Call to praise n response to God’s deliverance
“(15) Let them give thanks to the LORD for His faithful love and His wonderful works for the human race. (16) For He has broken down the bronze gates and cut through the iron bars.”
Third example:
“(17) Fools suffered affliction because of their rebellious ways and their sins. (18) They loathed all food and came near the gates of death.”
Third Cry & response:
“(19) Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble; He saved them from their distress. (20) He sent His word and healed them; He rescued them from the Pit.”
Third Call to praise n response to God’s deliverance:
“(21) Let them give thanks to the LORD for His faithful love and His wonderful works for the human race. (22) Let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving and announce His works with shouts of joy.”
Fourth example:
“(23) Others went to sea in ships, conducting trade on the vast waters. (24) They saw the LORD’s works, His wonderful works in the deep.
(25) He spoke and raised a tempest that stirred up the waves of the sea. (26) Rising up to the sky, sinking down to the depths, their courage melting away in anguish, (27) they reeled and staggered like drunken men, and all their skill was useless.”
Fourth Cry & response
“(28) Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and He brought them out of their distress. (29) He stilled the storm to a murmur, and the waves of the sea were hushed. (30) They rejoiced when the waves grew quiet. Then He guided them to the harbor they longed for.”
Fourth Call to praise n response to God’s deliverance
“(31) Let them give thanks to the LORD for His faithful love and His wonderful works for the human race.
(32) Let them exalt Him in the assembly of the people and praise Him in the council of the elders.”
Closing statements and explanations
“(33) He turns rivers into desert, springs of water into thirsty ground, (34) and fruitful land into salty wasteland, because of the wickedness of its inhabitants.
(35) He turns a desert into a pool of water, dry land into springs of water. (36) He causes the hungry to settle there, and they establish a city where they can live. (37) They sow fields and plant vineyards that yield a fruitful harvest. (38) He blesses them, and they multiply greatly; He does not let their livestock decrease.
(39) When they are diminished and are humbled by cruel oppression and sorrow, (40) He pours contempt on nobles and makes them wander in trackless wastelands. (41) But He lifts the needy out of their suffering and makes their families multiply like flocks.”
Response of the righteous & an appeal to learn
“(42) The upright see it and rejoice, and all injustice shuts its mouth. (43) LET WHOEVER IS WISE PAY ATTENTION TO THESE THINGS AND CONSIDER THE LORD’S ACTS OF FAITHFUL LOVE.”
God is indeed faithful, and His pursuit of us is relentless!
Blessings!
Tri
