Sermon on Psalm 107

God Rescues His People

We like a good rescue story, don’t we? We live in a fallen world where people suffer every day, and whenever we hear a story of someone being rescued from their suffering we rejoice! Rescue stories give us hope and comfort in the midst of our own sufferings.

This is why so many Hollywood movies are about superheroes. We like to see movies about people who are powerless to save themselves and then BANG! A hero comes along and saves them!

This theme of good and evil, suffering and rescuing is littered throughout the pages of the Bible. One of the strongest arguments for the Bible being God’s Word is that it agrees with our human experiences. If it were false, it would deny that we suffer in any way, as many Eastern religions teach. If it were false, it would teach that men and women can save themselves from any circumstance, as modern humanism teaches. But the Bible is true in every way, and so it teaches us that suffering is real and that we are often powerless to save ourselves.

Consider the Israelites, God’s chosen people. Of all the people groups in the world, none have suffered throughout history more than the Jews. We know about the Holocaust, to be sure. But their suffering extends thousands of years ago.

It all started in Egypt when the Israelites immigrated there during a famine. At first they were treated well by the natives. Over time, however, they were forced into slavery. The Israelites were treated as slaves for nearly four hundred years until God sent Moses to lead them out of Egypt.

But their troubles did not end. Because of their continual disobedience to God’s covenant with them, the Israelites were forced into exile and slavery multiple times in the ensuing centuries. They deserved it. Yet because God is merciful and loving, He rescued them from their enemies not because of any goodness on their part but because He is good.

This is the background of the text we are about to read. It is from one of my favorite Psalms, number 107. The author who wrote it had this historical understanding of people being enslaved by others and rescued by God.

Let us begin with the introduction.

Psalm 107 NIV

1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;

   his love endures forever.

2 Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story—

   those he redeemed from the hand of the foe,

3 those he gathered from the lands,

   from east and west, from north and south.

4 Some wandered in desert wastelands,

   finding no way to a city where they could settle.

5 They were hungry and thirsty,

   and their lives ebbed away.

6 Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,

   and he delivered them from their distress.

Right at the get go, we see that the Israelites are in trouble. They are wandering in the desert. Perhaps this is an allusion to the Exodus. They are hungry and thirsty enough to almost die.

That is quite a predicament! I once worked at a summer camp where the temperatures would often soar past a hundred degrees. Luckily, there were water fountains with clean water everywhere on the campgrounds. Although I got thirsty, I was able to replenish every hour.

You can’t do that in a desert. There’s not enough water to go around for a nation of wandering people. Something supernatural has to occur for them to survive, and it does.

What happens? The Israelites “cried to the Lord” and “he delivered them.” He provided for them by sending forth water from dry rocks and bread and meat from the heavens.

7 He led them by a straight way

   to a city where they could settle.

8 Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love

   and his wonderful deeds for mankind,

9 for he satisfies the thirsty

   and fills the hungry with good things.

The Psalmist wrote something twice. Did you catch it? He wrote, “Let them (the Israelites) give thanks to the Lord”, verses 1 and 8. Whenever the biblical authors repeated something, they wanted to show that their content was very important. It is worth repeating.

In this case, it is worth thanking the Lord for His deliverance! If the Israelites’ story ended with “He led them by a straight way to a city where they could settle”, it would not be a good story. God’s glory would not be attained. The people would not have fulfilled their destinies: gratitude for God’s saving power!

You see, God does not merely rescue people because He has pity on them. He does. But He also rescues them because He is worthy of thanksgiving and gratitude! The natural response to His salvation for us should be, “Thanks, God!”

And although God led the Israelites to the Promised Land, they would again rebel against Him. They would forget Him and be ungrateful for all the He did for them. And so what happens next?

10 Some sat in darkness, in utter darkness,

   prisoners suffering in iron chains,

11 because they rebelled against God’s commands

   and despised the plans of the Most High.

12 So he subjected them to bitter labor;

   they stumbled, and there was no one to help.

The Psalmist tells us that they became prisoners. God would send the Philistines in the Book of Judges to capture the Israelites, and later came the Assyrians and Babylonians and Greeks. The Israelites were once again subjected to the slavery they had experienced in Egypt. In fact, “there was no one to help.”

Was God unjust for allowing the Israelites to become slaves again? Notice that it was the Israelites who “rebelled” against and “despised” God. They voluntarily chose slavery themselves, because to reject the freedom of loving God is to accept slavery.

In no way is slavery condoned in the Bible. Slavery is evil. Yet the only other option the Israelites had beside following the Law and God’s covenant with them was slavery. Slavery to sin is the natural consequence to turning away from God. And not only were the Israelites enslaved to sin such as idolatry, they were enslaved to sinners-other nations.

And yet

13 ... they cried to the Lord in their trouble,

   and he saved them from their distress.

14 He brought them out of darkness, the utter darkness,

   and broke away their chains.

15 Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love

   and his wonderful deeds for mankind,

16 for he breaks down gates of bronze

   and cuts through bars of iron.

God saved His people again! Can you believe it?

After centuries of turning their backs on God, you would think the Israelites would be left to rot. There would be no mercy for them. Indeed, there should be no mercy for them.

And God does the unthinkable. He rescues them again. He breaks away their chains of slavery upon hearing their cries for rescue.

But the Psalm is not over yet. The writer continues,

17 Some became fools through their rebellious ways

   and suffered affliction because of their iniquities.

18 They loathed all food

   and drew near the gates of death.

19 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,

   and he saved them from their distress.

Do you see a pattern in this Psalm? It is this: the Israelites sin. God subjects them to slavery. The Israelites cry for help. God saves them.

Sound familiar? Has this happened in your life?

Have you ever been stuck in a habitual sin? Have you ever been addicted to a series of wrong decisions?

It certainly happens to me. I see this pattern in my own life. I sin. I become addicted to sin, enslaved to it, powerless to defeat it. Then I cry for help, and God saves me. For a time life is rosy and blissful. And then it starts all over again. I sin…

Truly, God is merciful! He has every right to annihilate us! It wasn’t only the Israelites who repeatedly turned away from God. It has been all of mankind throughout all of history, turning to false gods and worshipping everything but the true God. Ever since Adam and Eve we have been stuck in this plight: being enslaved to our sinful desires and to the world and to the devil up to this present age.

But God provided a way for us to be saved, and that way is described in verse 20:

He sent out his word and healed them;

   he rescued them from the grave.

Notice, God sent out his “word”. The Apostle John wrote, “In the beginning was the Word” (John 1:1). Therefore, the Psalmist is not only talking about general acts of God saving the Israelites throughout history. The Psalmist, writing hundreds of years before Christ, is making a prophecy. He is predicting that Jesus Christ will rescue from the grave.

Outside of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, there is no hope for eternal life. There is no hope of rescue from the grave. It was the death of Jesus Christ that freed those Israelites who by faith accepted it. It was the death of Jesus Christ for us Gentiles that has saved us from slavery to sin and eternal slavery to death.

The Incarnation of Jesus Christ, the fact that the Son of God became a man to save us, was the greatest rescue mission of all time. Once and for all, the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus provided for us salvation from the grave.  We do not have to be afraid of being separated from God. By faith, by simply calling out for Him to save us, we can be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ.

And for rescuing us God deserves the highest praise! He deserves gratitude from us! Our response should be one of giving thanks. The Psalmist writes,

21 Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind.

22 Let them sacrifice thank offerings

and tell of his works with songs of joy.

Of course, the rescue mission is not over yet. Although Jesus has come once to provide a way for us to be reconciled to God, He will come again to finalize His kingdom here on Earth. Until then, we still need deliverance from sin.

So what are some practical steps you can take to gain deliverance from something in your life? How can you be rescued from sin, from circumstances, from other people?

I believe this passage, Psalm 107, gives us a crucial starting point: we must ask for help from God! It is that simple. We must ask God to rescue us from whatever is keeping us in bondage.

Some will argue that is too simplistic. Some will say that God demands change from us and we are all on our own. We must take control of our own destinies. We are responsible for getting ourselves out of any situation.

But that is merely humanism, not biblical theology. True deliverance originates from God. Without God, we cannot be rescued from the evils of this life. We cannot rescue ourselves.  We must ask God for help.

Notice that repeatedly the Psalmist writes that the Israelites in slavery cried out for help from the Lord. It was after they pleaded for mercy that God rescued them.

Sometimes, God will allow you to be a victim in life until you make that choice that you want Him to rescue you. God will allow you to be stuck in a rut until you cry out for help? Why? To show you that it is only Jesus Christ and the power of His Holy Spirit that can save. If we could save ourselves, we would get the glory. But the whole point of life, of creation, is to not glorify ourselves but to glorify God.

This is why many successful programs like Alcoholics Anonymous begin with relinquishing pride and self-sufficiency in their recovery steps. The first of the Twelve Steps is to submit to a Higher Power, which as Christians we know to be the Highest Power, Jesus Christ.

So the first step for deliverance is to ask, to pray, to plead, to beg for God to help you.

Think for a moment of the one thing that you need deliverance from: bad health, debt, etc. And then ask God to supernaturally work in your life to rescue you!

But what if God does not immediately answer your cries for help? What if you are still terminally ill? What if you are still stuck in addiction? What if you are still trapped in circumstances beyond your control?

Two answers I can give to you.

Number one, sometimes God delivers you from evil by helping you to make wise choices and empowering you for righteous living. God delivers you by equipping you.

Let me give you an example. For someone struggling in debt, God can certainly rescue that person by miraculously having the debts erased. Paid off for by a lottery ticket.

But more than  likely, God will rescue that person by allowing the debtor to gain a biblical knowledge of how to manage money, surrounding that person with wise counselors, and empowering that person with the Holy Spirit to motivate within with a deep desire for God-honoring financial choices.

In other words, God sometimes won’t rescue you unless you are willing to do the hard work, to sacrifice blood and sweat. You need to cooperate with God.

Answer number two as to why God does not always seem to rescue: sometimes it takes time.

In our Western society, we always want a quick fix. We want the cancer cells to miraculously disappear.  We want our addictions to instantaneously lose power over us. We want those people who are hurting us to move states.

Although God does sometimes provide quick fixes, He has never promised it for our lives. Sometimes, God will not rescue us until we pass from this life to the next. God will not heal a cancer victim until she breathes her last breath on this Earth and takes her first in Heaven, where there is no cancer.

Although this may sound despairing, let me give you some hope. All suffering is temporal. It does not last forever for those who place their trust in the saving power of Jesus Christ. At the end of time, God wins. There will be no need for deliverance, because Jesus Christ will have completely erased sin and suffering and death for those who love Him and want to glorify Him.

In the meantime, let us take the Psalmist’s advice:

43 Let the one who is wise heed these things

   and ponder the loving deeds of the Lord.

Let us remember the Gospel- the good news that Jesus Christ delivered us from eternal separation from Him by His sacrifice for us on the cross and delivered us to eternal union with Him. God is the hero who has rescued us, his treasured people.