Trinity Baptist Church

Give Thanks!

Giving Thanks for Salvation

Psalm 107

 

We are taking some time during November to think about learning to give thanks, not just for the physical, temporary stuff God blesses us with, but more importantly, the amazing, eternal spiritual blessings that are found in our relationship with God.

 

Last week, we focused on God Himself as we visited an Old Testament worship service.  Today I want us to return to the Old Testament to discuss the New Testament blessing of redemption.

 

In the early chapters of Romans, the Apostle Paul begins to build a case against humanity that will ultimately arrive at the conclusion that all have sinned and no one is excluded.  It doesn’t matter your ethnicity or nationality or gender or social standing.  No one is righteous.

 

In chapter one, he brings a list of charges and I find it interesting that included in that list, it says humans are guilty before God because they are unthankful.  From that we learn in order to be rightly related to God, we must be thankful.

 

That certainly ought to be true of Christians.  We, of all people in the world, ought to be thankful and at the top of our list, we should be thankful for our salvation.  To help us see how to do that, I want us to look at Psalm 107.  It is a psalm that is all about salvation and it calls us to worship of God by giving thanks for our salvation.

 

Now obviously, the setting for the psalm is not redemption through the blood of Jesus Christ.  In fact, it was sung by the Jews to thank God for redeeming His people from threatening disaster and death.  So it primarily focuses on physical salvation.  

 

However, it provides a beautiful, rich picture of the divine work of redemption that was promised to the Jews as a people and salvation to all people through Jesus.

 

If you are familiar with the history of Israel, you know they had been redeemed and rescued and restored by God over and over and over through the centuries. They had been rescued from Egypt in the south. They had been rescued from Assyria and Syria to the north. They had been rescued from the Philistines to the west and they were rescued from the Babylonians to the east.

 

They had plenty of reasons to sing about God's great deliverance and the opening verses set the tone for what the psalm is all about.

 

Verses 1-3

 

No matter what direction they looked, they could call to mind a time when God had delivered them.  Now most likely, this psalm was written after the exile in Babylon so that may be what is most fresh on the mind of the psalmist.

 

 

 

 

 

But I want you to keep in mind, what is said is not limited to that one experience.  It could be sung of any situation in which God brought deliverance to Old Testament saints as well New Testament redemption.  Therefore it is applicable to all who have been redeemed from sin.  In fact, any of us could have written the psalm.  David just beat us to it.

 

I say that because of what we find in verse 2.  "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so." That is the key verse of the psalm.  Those who have been redeemed are the ones who ought to be praising God and thanking God. Those who have been redeemed are those who can genuinely sing the song of thanksgiving for God's goodness and God's mercy to them.

 

In this psalm, there are four illustrations of God's redemption. They're very simple, easy-to-understand pictures of salvation and every one of them serve as motivation for the one who has been saved to give thanks to God.

 

First, in verses 4 to 9, God's redemption is like a lost caravan finding a safe city.

 

Secondly, from verses 10 to 16, God's redemption is like a captive prisoner being set free.

 

Thirdly, in verses 17 to 22, God's redemption is like a sick person who is healed,

 

And finally, in verses 23 to 32, God's redemption is like a doomed sailor being rescued from certain death in a storm.

Now while each of these analogies illustrates the blessedness of God's redemption, they also allow us a look into the real essence Old Testament salvation.  

 

With every situation, salvation came only when they realized they were lost, when they realized they were prisoners, when they realized they were sick, and when they realized they were doomed to disaster.

 

Or to look at it in another way, they were lost, they were rebellious, they were sinful and they were doomed and it was those situations that led them to God and His salvation.

 

Now the psalmist follows a sequence with each of the analogies.  First, there is the predicament. Then there is the petition. Then there is the pardon. And then there is the praise.

 

The predicament is the dangerous situation described. The petition is the cry for deliverance from that danger. The pardon is the merciful deliverance provided. And the praise is the call to thanks that follows.

 

Our own salvation is found in the pictures as well.  We, too, are like people lost in the wilderness, locked in prison, suffering from a deadly disease and threatened on life’s storm-tossed sea. We were lost and rebellious and sinful and doomed.  And because we have been saved, we are called to give our thanks to God.

 

 

 

 

Let's start with the first picture. Salvation is, first of all, like

 

 

verses 4-5

 

Here is the predicament.  These are restless, lost, sinners without resources, starved and thirsty, wandering hopelessly in a trackless desert, aimlessly looking for a city that can provide food and water, rest, and safety.

 

Now if you were an Old Testament Israelite, when you first heard those verses, your mind went to the wilderness wanderings.  Delivered out of Egyptian bondage, they wandered restlessly and aimlessly, roaming around in a wasteland between Egypt and Canaan where they all eventually died under divine judgment.

 

Or maybe you thought of the terrible conditions of being under Babylonian captivity, lost as a nation, immersed into a pagan culture in a religious desert of godlessness at the very point of perishing.

 

But it also describes us.  That's how sinners are. They wander, looking for a city, someplace where there's water, someplace where there's food, where there's provision and joy and fellowship and rest and security and safety from the ever-present and impending death.

 

That leads to the petition.

 

verse 6

People ask me all the time, "How were people in the Old Testament saved?" They realized they were lost and they cried out to the Lord. That's how, it’s just that simple.

 

Israel certainly cried to the Lord in Egypt. They cried to the Lord in Babylon.  They begged God for redemption from bondage and redemption from barrenness. They told God how serious was their condition.

 

And they illustrate sinners of any age who come to understand just how serious is their condition.  They recognize they are wandering aimlessly from place to place and job to job and marriage to marriage and experience to experience, and never finding any lasting satisfaction. And they desperately want to find their way to an inhabited city of safety and peace and tranquility and satisfaction.

 

According to Hebrews 11:10, they are looking for a city whose builder and maker is God; a city that has foundations. It's not temporary and changing.

 

An from that condition of lostness, recognizing the desperateness of the situation and realizing that there was impending death on the horizon, they cry out to God.

 

And verse 6 says, "And He delivered them out of their distresses. And He led them forth by the right way that they might go to a city for a dwelling place."

 

When Israel called to God, He heard them, and He delivered them, and He led them to a right way.

 

That’s the pardon.  Actually, in the Hebrew it says, “a straight way”. It literally means a road without humps and bumps and curves and turns.  It is an easy road. The grace of salvation makes it an easy way. The journey is depicted as a straight way, an easy way. God provided goodness and mercy and grace, and it was Him who did all the work. All we had to do was receive it.

 

The petition leads to the pardon, and the pardon leads to the praise.

 

verses 8 and 9

 

What could more deserve the praise and thanks of God's people than that they are safely on their way to the heavenly city?  Thank God, when you were lost, He found you and led you in the right way.

 

The second picture is of being

 

 

verse 10

 

Again, notice the predicament.  Here is a picture of a prisoner in a dungeon, in the darkness, in the shadow of death. And notice, they were there because

 

verses 11-12

 

This is a desperate situation indeed.  Not only a sinner living life lost in the wilderness, wandering aimlessly in an environment of hopelessness and insecurity, he is also he is imprisoned as the result of his rebellion against God.

When Israel was in captivity both in Egypt and in Babylon, the experience was a life of confinement, very much like prison.  They had no hope of freedom. They were there because of rebellion. They were there because of disobedience. They were, as it were, chained in the darkness and gloom of that pagan place.

 

They were like people in a stinking, smelly, filthy dungeon on death row waiting either execution or death from the conditions, without light and without hope and it was all because of rebellion against the law of God.

 

And that is really the essence of salvation.  We must come to terms with the fact that we must answer to God.  He’s in charge.  He’s calling the shots whether you lie it or not.  And we stand before Him guilty as charged and condemned to die.  This is how it was for Israel and that’s how it is for us.

 

And that leads to the petition.

 

verse 13

 

It's the same as verse 6. Why is it the same?  It is because that’s the only way it works.  There are no alternatives.  God only has one plan of salvation.  It’s the same exact pattern.

 

And then you go from the petition to the pardon in verse 13.

 

And again, it’s the same immediate reaction, "And He saved them out of their distresses."

 

Jesus said it this way, "Him that comes unto me, I'll in no wise cast out."

 

Verse 14

 

That is a beautiful verse, isn’t it?  Charles Wesley put it this way, "He breaks the power of canceled sin and sets the prisoner free." And it happens suddenly and instantaneously.

 

And such pardon leads to praise.

 

Verse 15

 

It just makes sense that those who have been saved would praise and thank the Lord.

 

Wandering in a wilderness, restless; punished in a prison, guilty and miserable.

 

Thirdly,

 

 

verses 17-18

 

Here we see the classic example of sickness being the result of sin.  That’s the predicament.  That’s not always true, but we ought to never forget, it might be.  We should at least take a look to see if there is something in our life that results in being sick.

 

Here the reference is to fools.  The indictment comes as a result of their sin.  He point blank says it:  they were afflicted because of their iniquities.

 

And according to verse 18, they are at the point of death.  Again, this is a picture of a sinner in his lost condition.  This may be a reference to Numbers 21 and the story of the snakes that came in and bit them.  And when they were near to death, they were called to look to a bronze serpent that was lifted up, who was the picture of Christ.

 

Here is the picture. Sinners are sick with a deadly, incurable ailment, requiring divine and miraculous intervention for a cure.  Not only is a sinner wandering in the wilderness, lost and hopeless, not only is he punished in a prison because of rebellion, but he also finds himself suffering from an incurable sickness with nothing he can do about it.

 

He doesn't have the strength or the capability to bring about a cure. He has a condition that is hopeless. He is unable to handle life. He is unable to deal with issues in life. He has no peace. He just wastes away to death.

 

The only hope is to call out to God.  And that’s what we find in verse 19a, the petition.  

 

And the petition leads again to the pardon.

 

Verse 19b-20

 

Is that not a beautiful description of the goodness of God? Is this not the mercy of God? Here are these wandering and lost; here are these punished and locked away; here are these suffering, crying out to a God who eagerly hears and responds to their call.

 

 

 

And the pardon leads to the praise.

 

verses 21-22

 

Four times he has made the same request and it really is a plea, saying, "Please don't be thankless.  Instead praise the Lord!  Is that not appropriate?  Should we not worship and offer to God our adoration and gratitude?

 

It ought to be true of us individually and it ought to be what takes place when the church gathers.  In fact, that is the express purpose for our gathering.  Somewhere along the line, we made Sunday a day about getting folks saved, but Sunday is the church’s day.

 

And those who are making professions of faith ought to be the ones we’ve led to the Lord out through the week and they are gathering with the church to worship and praise the God of salvation.  That is what the church gathers to do: to worship and praise and honor God and lift up His saving name and His saving work, and exalt the Savior through whom this salvation was provided.

 

Wandering in a wilderness, punished in a prison, suffering from a sickness, and finally,

 

 

verses 23-27

 

These were the kind of things that people in the ancient world experienced. It happened all the time.

That is the predicament.

 

Israel's captivity in Babylon was like a storm at sea.  And even though I’ve never experienced, I can’t imagine anything more frightening than being on a ship that's sinking in a storm. And souls literally melt; terror seizes the heart when there's not harbor and no rescue and only death.

 

The Jews knew that the storm of the Babylonian captivity had swept over the whole nation and threatened to drown them all. But more than that, it was an individual storm that would drown each soul. The world is a sea to sinners. It's a troubled sea. It's a sea full of temptation and sorrow and suffering, and its waves will one day drown.

 

The prince of the power of the air is really blowing the stormy wind. Heaven is a safe port, but it can't be reached without Jesus.  The violence of life, the uncertainty of life, the oppressions of life, the disappointments of life, the agitations of life all pose death and disaster. And so again comes the petition.

 

verse 28a

 

If ever there was a question about whether God was a merciful, willing savior, it should be answered by this psalm.  Here are people who are undeserving as we all are, and yet God hears their cry.

 

And the petition is answered with a pardon.

 

Verses 28b-29

 

That is the simplicity of the gospel.

 

Salvation is nothing over than when the restless, miserable, sick, fearful, aimless, wandering life, headed absolutely nowhere, with no resources, hopelessly near death and hell, calls on the Lord and He answers.

 

I want you to know God is in the business of hearing the cry of the sinner.  I don’t care where you are or what you’ve done.  It makes me no difference whether you are wandering in the wilderness, being punished in a prison, suffering from a sickness or sinking in life’s storms, everyone of us were in the  category of sins somewhere.  And the only way out is to cry out to the Lord and let Him save you.  As the psalmist says in

 

verse 31

 

You know what ought to happen every time we meet, every time we gather as a church? We ought to be thanking God for His gift of salvation. We ought to sing from a grateful heart.  We ought to give from a heart that is rejoicing in the goodness of God.  We should preach and teach and serve because we are so thankful to be saved.  And when an unbeliever walks in a church they ought to be overwhelmed with the joy and gratitude of God’s people as that praise Him for their salvation.

 

You know what ought to happen in our quiet personal time with the Lord?  We ought to be thanking God for our salvation.  “Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness, And for His wonderful works to the children of men!”

 

Let’s pray.