The Redeemed of God
Psalm 107,
Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever!
2 Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,
whom he has redeemed from trouble
3 and gathered in from the lands,
from the east and from the west,
from the north and from the south.4 Some wandered in desert wastes,
finding no way to a city to dwell in;
5 hungry and thirsty,
their soul fainted within them.
6 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
7 He led them by a straight way
till they reached a city to dwell in.
8 Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
for his wondrous works to the children of man!
9 For he satisfies the longing soul,
and the hungry soul he fills with good things.10 Some satin darkness and in the shadow of death,
prisoners in affliction and in irons,
11 for they had rebelled against the words of God,
and spurned the counsel of the Most High.
12 So he bowed their hearts down with hard labor;
they fell down, with none to help.
13 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
14 He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death,
and burst their bonds apart.
15 Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
for his wondrous works to the children of man!
16 For he shatters the doors of bronze
and cuts in two the bars of iron.17 Some were fools through their sinful ways,
and because of their iniquities suffered affliction;
18 they loathed any kind of food,
and they drew nearto the gates of death.
19 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
20 He sent out his word and healed them,
and delivered them from their destruction.
21 Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
for his wondrous works to the children of man!
22 And let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving,
and tell of his deeds in songs of joy!23 Some went down to the sea in ships,
doing business on the great waters;
24 they saw the deeds of the Lord,
his wondrous works in the deep.
25 For hecommanded and raised the stormy wind,
which lifted up the waves of the sea.
26 They mounted up to heaven; they went down to the depths;
their courage melted awayin their evil plight;
27 they reeled and staggered like drunken men
and were at their wits’ end.
28 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
29 He made the storm be still,
and the waves of the sea were hushed.
30 Then they were glad that the waters were quiet,
and he brought them to their desired haven.
31 Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
for his wondrous works to the children of man!
32 Let them extol him in the congregation of the people,
and praise him in the assembly of the elders.33 He turnsrivers into a desert,
springs of water into thirsty ground,
34 a fruitful land into a salty waste,
because of the evil of its inhabitants.
35 He turns a desert into pools of water,
a parched land into springs of water.
36 And there he lets the hungry dwell,
and they establish a city to live in;
37 they sow fields and plant vineyards
and get a fruitful yield.
38 By his blessing they multiply greatly,
and he does not let their livestock diminish.39 When they are diminished and brought low
through oppression, evil, and sorrow,
40 he pours contempt on princes
and makes them wander in trackless wastes;
41 but he raises up the needy out of affliction
and makes their families like flocks.
42 The upright see it and are glad,
and all wickedness shuts its mouth.43 Whoever is wise, let him attend to these things;
let them consider the steadfast love of the Lord.
And we just heard verse 43. Now we want to do exactly what it says…
This morning, by the grace of God, we’re gonna be wise and we’re gonna “attend to these things.”
There are three central truths in Psalm 107 that we need to see. The first is this:
1. The redeemed of God come from everywhere.
This is verses 1–3. The psalmist is commanding the people of God to praise him. And notice in verse 2 that he calls the people of God “the redeemed of the Lord.”
And that word “redeemed” is another way to say to be saved. It means to be claimed as one’s own and brought back into safety at a cost to the redeemer.
That’s true for the people of God!
We are who we are, first and foremost, because God has taken it upon himself to rescue us. We’ve been saved.
Then verses 2 and 3 tell us more: We’ve been redeemed from trouble and gathered in from lands east, west, north, and south.
I read this verse to the kids the other night and asked what it means if something is from east, west, north, and south — and John Owen said right away: It means from everywhere.
That’s exactly right. These are the four corners of the earth. It means everywhere— fromevery direction.
And from the start in Psalm 107 this means two things are happening: this is an answer to prayer and it’s a sign of hope.
Thinking Canonically
This is an answer to prayer because of the immediate context.
Last week, Psalm 106 closed with this prayer in verse 47:
“Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from among the nations,
that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise.”
This week Psalm 107 opens in thanks and praise to God because he has answered that prayer. The people of God had been scattered, but now God is starting to do what looked like the new exodus.
This is where we see the sign of hope … For this part, we gotta zoom out from the Book of Psalms and remember the whole storyline of Scripture and the history behind this: The Book of Psalms was shaped into its final form within the historical context of Israel’s captivity in Babylon.
The people of God were in exile, longing for the Messiah to rescue them. They longed for the restored kingdom the prophets foretold. And in 538 BC, Cyrus king of Persia allowed Jewish exiles to return to their homeland. Eventually the temple was rebuiltand the walls of Jerusalem were restored (we read about this in Ezra and Nehemiah). That’s the historical situation behind Psalm 107.
It was a foretaste of the hope to come, but it was still a far cry from the new and greater exodus envisioned by the Old Testament prophets … that’s because:
The nations are not yet streaming to Zion.
The earth is not yet full of the knowledge of the Lord.
The wolf is not yet hanging out with the lamb.
Jerusalem was not yet new — it wasn’t even what it used to be.
That’s why Psalm 107 is mainly a pointer. It’s a signpost looking beyond itself.
The real hope is that one day — quote: “people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at the table in the kingdom of God” — that’s a direct quote from Jesus in Luke 13:29.
Jesus affirms this Old Testament hope. One day the redeemed of God will come from everywhere, and every direction. And that’s the church that Jesus is building now. Ever since Acts Chapter 2, Christians are from all over the world.
Worthy of Global Glory
And this is really important. It’s one of the most glorious things about our faith. It’s why Christianity has been called a missionary faith. And it’s unique to us.
Christianity is not like Islam.
Islam is a coercive religion that imposes itself on other cultures.
The goal of Islam is not to seek the good of a city, but the goal is conquest. Takeover. It destroys what was there before and tries to do something different.
But see, the gospel is able to enter any kind of culture on this planet with both challenge and affirmation … There are parts of every culture that the word of God challenges — it says: “This is out of step with God’s design. Change it.”
And there are also parts of every culture that the word of God affirms — it says: “This echoes something good in God’s design. Redeem it.”
It’s always both, which is why expressions of the church can look so different all around the world, and the Bible can be translated in any language — it’s beautiful!
The gospel never requires someone to become culturally Jewish or Roman or American. Jesus makes one people from every people. Because he is worthy of global glory. … That’s where we’re headed.
This Old Testament hope, and what Jesus taught, one day is gonna be a “great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages” and we will all gather around the throne of the Lamb and we will praise him together (see Revelation 7:9).
The redeemed of God come from everywhere. That’s the first truth to see.
Here’s the second:
2. The redeemed of God are rescued from every trouble.
Now notice the word “trouble” in verse 2. The redeemed of the Lord (from all over the world) are redeemed from trouble.
And then that trouble is explained in verses 4–23 as four different kinds of trouble. We can put it in four categories: God redeems his people from being … Lost, Trapped, Defeated, and Afraid.
Now, look, I don’t think these four categories are exhaustive or exclusive. You can be in other kinds of trouble, and you can be in all these kinds of trouble.
But what I do know for sure is that all of us have been in some kind of trouble. And some of us are still there. … and if that’s you, you’re at the right place this morning. Now I’m going to read each kind of trouble to you, but remember this is poetic — it’s not gonna describe every detail of your story, but it’s gonna make sense to you.
First, the trouble of being lost.
We see two in verse 4:
“Some wandered in desert wastes, finding no way to a city to dwell in; hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them.”
Again, most likely none of you have literally wandered around in a desert … but you know what it’s like to wander around in a desert. You know what it means to be lost.
You’re looking for a place to land, for a place to call home, for a place to plant your tree. But everything around you is just flat and dry, and there’s nowhere to even sit. So you just keep wandering.
This reminds me of earlier this summer.
Y’all know I love summer, and I watched a lot of youth sports this summer, but there was one field we were at … flat ground as far as the eye could see, synthetic turf surrounded by concrete surrounded by asphalt surrounded by lava — that’s what it felt like. There was no shade at all. The sun was just bearing down.
And it was kinda funny to watch, because the parents and spectators would get there, and everyone is trying to figure out where to sit, everyone is wandering around holding their chair, but it’s all the same: It’s either scorching hot or scorching hot. Like a desert.
And in a desert it doesn’t take long before you’re drained.
Your soul gets hungry and thirsty and starts to faint. This the trouble of being lost.
Second, the trouble of being trapped.
We see this is verse 10:
“Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in affliction and in irons …”
Let me stop here for a minute to make sure you get the picture: This kind of trouble is not being lost, it’s being stuck. There’s a seat in this trouble, but it’s a seat in darkness. It’s the shadow of death. And you’re imprisoned there. You can’t get out. And when you try, you realize that you brought this whole thing upon yourself. The psalmist tells us in verse 11:
“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.”
Sometimes we choose our trouble. That’s what this is. We enslave ourselves to sin, and we can’t escape. It’s this cycle of a slow downward spiral. We’ve been there. The trouble of being trapped.
Third, the trouble of being defeated.
This is verse 17:
“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.”
I want you to see here the resignation. They’re defeated. They’ve quit. The word for “fools” in verse 17 is one that shows up a lot in the Book of Proverbs. It means “culpable stupidity.” It’s the recognition that “Yes, I brought this trouble on myself” but then it’s just an implosion. You’re beat. You’re done. You give up.
Think about this as cynicism to the extreme. It is the so-called ‘respectable sin’ of our times. You’re just grumpy about everything. Despairing. Nothing is ever good enough. You loathe any kind of food. The trouble of being defeated.
Fourth, the trouble of being afraid.
This is verse 22, and it’s a longer description. … it’s a picture of being in the middle of a storm at sea … huge waves are rising up around you … and we read in verse 26:
“their courage melted away in their evil plight;
they reeled and staggered like drunken men and were at their wits’ end.”
Now one of my favorite commentators said something about this verse that struck me. I want to read it to you. Listen to this. He said:
Given the wider biblical resonances of the sea and the deep, it is reasonable to suppose that we are to feel here the terror not just of a literal storm at sea but of the forces of wickedness and chaos in the nations that afflict the church of God. (Ash, 124)
Try this metaphor: Cities Church, we are in a ship (and it’s not a cruise ship — it’s a lifeboat) — and we are surrounded by a storm at sea. The wind and waves are raging around us. That’s the image.
One thing that helps us with this image is that this sanctuary is properly called a nave. That’s what this room is. It’s the “nave” — which is the Latin word for ship. These wooden beams were built to replicate an old boat. We’re in an ark, and we’re passing through the storm of this world, and we’re trying to get as many people as we can in the ark with us. But right now the storm is bad.
And bad storms cause fear. That makes sense. Some of us are at our wit’s end. That makes sense too. Both makes sense when you’re in a storm, because a storm is something we can’t control.
This reminds me of a moment when Earnest Shackleton and his team were attempting to cross the Drake Passage. (If you’re not familiar with Shackleton, you will be, I’m gonna talk a lot about him for a while.)
The Drake Passage is the most dangerous body of water in the world, between the southern tip of South America and Antarctica. It’s common for there to be 50-foot waves.
The year was 1916, and Shackleton, along with five other men, were trying to make this voyage in a 26-foot sailboat … because it was the best they had.
They almost died several times. They kept having to break off the ice that was starting to cover the boat. But all they could really do was hoist the sails and hold on … they needed the right wind. Which was not up to them. And I get that. But the good news for us is that we know who controls the wind.
And therefore, in our storm, we do what the redeemed of God have always done when they’re in trouble: we cry out to God!
This is the refrain we underlined earlier, in verse 6, verse 13, verse 19, verse 28. It’s repeated four times:
“Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.”
The pattern in this psalm is trouble, prayer, deliverance.
Trouble, prayer, deliverance.
Trouble, prayer, deliverance.
Trouble, prayer, deliverance.
And it’s deliverance for what? What do we want deliverance for?
Is it to be comfortable?
This is where we need to think hard and be honest.
Churches that are compromised by a love for comfort prefer to be in situations where God doesn’t need to be God. Sometimes, if we’re honest, many Christians want to be in a place where Jesus doesn’t have to be real.
Now, what’s amazing about this room is that you’re here. You’re in the boat. And I know it’s not easy. I’m preaching to the choir here, as they say. But we’re gonna be able to stay in this boat together and make it through as long as Jesus is in the boat with us. And he is. And he will bring us through the storm. And not just the storm of present opposition, but the storm that is the journey through this world. Look what he can do in verses 33–42!
We’re pilgrims, y’all. Our home is that better country, that lasting city. And Jesus will lead us there … rescued from every trouble.
Finally, here’s the third truth to see:
3. The redeemed of God respond with grateful praise.
This is what we do because God is God, because Jesus is real:
“Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
for his wondrous works to the children of man!”
This refrain is verse 8, verse 15, verse 21, verse 31.
And it’s no surprise to us. If our experience is trouble, prayer, deliverance, then of course, our response is grateful praise.
Trouble, prayer, deliverance, praise.
And this grateful praise is not simply an action we do every now and then, but it is a way of life. Everyday we live grateful to God because we’re saved! We are forgiven for all our sin! We are free from the power of Satan! Heaven is our home! God is our treasure!
Some of you may know Steve Treichler.
He’s the senior pastor at Hope Community Church in Minneapolis. He’s been there for like 100 years, and one thing I love about Steve is that he knows he’s been saved. It’s just fresh on his heart. Thinking about this sermon, I sent him a text yesterday and asked him: Steve, what’s the secret? How do you keep that reality so fresh?
He texted me back, and I gotta tell you what he said.
He said — and I quote:
“If I’ve got one spiritual gift it’s that I remember where I came from. I remember what it was like to not know the Lord, to be lost, to be terribly afraid and without purpose.”
And then he said: he remembers how the gospel came into his life and changed everything.
He was lost, now he’s found. Me too. Us too.
Trapped, but now we’re free.
Defeated, but now we’re saved.
Afraid, now we’re secure. And we can say:
Through many dangers, toils, and snares,
we have already come;
Grace has brought us safe thus far,
And grace will lead us home.
And that’s how we come to this Table.
The Table
We come to this Table remembering from where Jesus has brought us. And that we have come to him. If you’re here this morning and you’ve put your faith in Jesus, we invite you to eat and drink with us. Let’s give Jesus grateful praise.
