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The Steadfast Love of the LORD.

In Psalm 105 the Psalmist has sung of how the LORD brought His people into the Promised Land. Blessings were bound up for the people with this land – this is where God promised to specially meet with His people. Then in Psalm 106 there are warnings concerning possible exile from this wonderful land if the people were not careful to obey what the Lord told them to do. Sadly such warnings went unheeded and the people were indeed scattered amongst the nations.

In this Psalm 107 return from exile is being celebrated.

The Psalmist is writing in order to encourage God's people to a proper response. He wants them to realise what the LORD has done for them and to respond with thankfulness.

In the OT this exhortation to give thanks to the LORD is repeated frequently (some 18 times).

The psalmist is quick to explain why such thankfulness is appropriate: he wants the people to understand what God is like in His dealings with them.

The first reason he brings forward is that the LORD is good.

"the LORD is good" 8 times in the OT "he is good" a further 9 times and Ps.73:1 begins with "God is good"!

Indeed the complete wording:

"give thanks to the LORD, for he is good" is found 6 times eg. Ps.106:1

And there are several other similar verses with minor variations on the same theme.

The second reason adduced is that the steadfast love of the LORD endures forever. The word translated steadfast love or mercy is hesed which means the covenant love that the LORD has promised. This love is a wonderful encouragement for the people of God – small wonder that we find the phrase repeated 40+ times in the OT.

The psalmist has been very clear about what kind of behaviour he wants to see and now he leaves us in no doubt as to who should demonstrate this type of behaviour:

"Let the redeemed of the LORD say so…"

Those who have experienced the help and deliverance that the LORD supplies are the ones who are being called upon to respond in this way. In some senses this is sad isn't it? We have to teach our children to say "thank you" and so it seems God has to teach His children exactly the same thing!

"The redeemed of the LORD" are those who have been delivered from their troubles by the LORD's gracious intervention on their behalf. But humans are so quick to forget what has been done and don't easily ponder the kindness and goodness that the LORD has shown towards them. So the psalmist called on the people of his day – and through them to us – to be mindful of just what has been done for us. We are not to forget what the LORD has done and neither are we to regard it all as our natural right or due.

In v.3 the psalmist refers briefly to the return from exile – the people had been scattered but the LORD is His goodness had brought them back. In the following verses he will go into more detail concerning the kind of difficulties they had been in during their exile.

In the heart of the psalm we come across four stanzas which describe the experience of the people while in exile and away from the Promised Land. In some translations the impression is given that different groups of people experienced a different set of difficulties but the original Hebrew doesn't really support this idea. Rather what we have is an account of that exile from four different angles.

We must remember that the Psalms are poetry and the use of graphic language and imagery are designed to make a point without necessarily being understood in woodenly literal terms. In the same way as we consider these four various descriptions of distress we should understand that the LORD delivers from all kinds of disasters and not just from the four here described.

Let's take a look at the different stanzas and begin by noticing the common elements that confirm that we are indeed right to consider them as such.

The four stanzas are as follows:

1.     vv.4-9

2.     vv.10-16

3.     vv.17-22

4.     vv.23-32

In each of these sections we find a repeating pattern:

A.    a description is given of the plight in which the people found themselves

B.    a virtually identical cry to the LORD and a virtually identical summary of the LORD's deliverance (6,13, 19, 28)

C.    a fuller description of the deliverance specific to each situation

D.    an identical exhortation to give thanks or praise to the LORD (8,15,21,31)

E.    a concluding word is added before the next section begins

Now to each of the sections in turn:

The first predicament that the psalmist describes is that of being lost in a desert land.

They couldn't find their way and so were condemned to aimless wandering. Being a desert land there wasn't sufficient sustenance and so they were both hungry and thirsty. In such circumstances they were beginning to lose heart – their soul was fainting within them – their life was gradually ebbing away.

From the depths of despair in this situation finally prayer is resorted to and the people cried out to the LORD who heard them and delivered them. No longer did they wander directionless but He led them directly to their destination – a city to dwell in!

Surely a people who had experienced such a deliverance would be thankful after all "He satisfies the longing soul and the hungry he fills with good things." v.9

There is no hint of how long any of this took. The psalmist is not all that interested in the time element. Perhaps he had a more biblical mindset than we do – we want things to happen instantly whereas he knew perhaps that our "times are in His hands" (Ps.31:15) or again as Ps.90:6 has it "For a thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night."

What is of crucial importance to the psalmist is that the cry to the LORD does not go unheard or unheeded! And this is true in each of the different pictures the psalmist draws for us. In our distresses let us not hesitate to go to the LORD with confidence. As the prophet Habakkuk put it in a slightly different context:

Hab.2:3 "If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay."

You'll remember that at times the people of God have had to wait some considerable time before deliverance came to them – think of the Israelites in Egypt – and yet deliverance did come. If deliverance doesn't seem to be coming according to our timescale let us trustingly go on crying out to the LORD. Let Job be our example:

Job 13:15 "Though he slay me, I will hope in him; yet I will argue my ways to his face."

Now too let us consider how this passage leads us on to think of our Lord Jesus Christ:

The people were wandering without knowing which way to go: Jesus is the Way.

When the LORD intervened He showed this people a straight way to a city in which to dwell – the narrow way which the LORD shows us leads to life. The believer following this way will also arrive at a city "whose designer and builder is God" (Heb.11:10) and this city is a heavenly one (Heb.11:16).

The people too were hungry and thirsty with hope disappearing: our Lord Jesus Christ tells us that those who hunger and thirst after righteousness shall indeed be filled (Mt.5:6) – Jesus Himself is the living bread we need (Jn.6) and He provides in abundance the living water that fully satisfies (Jn.7).

What a depressing state this was – whether understood literally or metaphorically! Darkness went hand in hand with despair and the misery was compounded by the weariness of heavy labour.

There are times when distresses come upon us and we can't trace any particular reason why it is so but there are also other occasions when such calamities are due to our own sinful rebellion.

We should learn from this that sin has consequences. Temptation glitters with wonderful advertising promising us the world – the small print we sadly refuse to take note of! We learn to our cost that temptation never provides the satisfaction offered and quickly turns to heavy bondage that bows us down and breaks our spirit.

But no situation is hopeless when we remember to cry out to the LORD!

Again the emphasis is upon, dare I say it, the inevitability of the LORD's intervention. Be that intervention quick or long-delayed.

The response of the LORD is to bring His people out of the darkness – our Jesus is the Light of the World who has shone in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome Him! He delivers from bondage, breaking the bands that tie us down, shattering the seemingly indestructible doors that bar the way before us.

I wonder if this section makes you think of Wesley's hymn "And can it be?" Listen to the fourth verse of that hymn:

Long my imprisoned spirit lay

fast bound in sin and nature’s night;

Thine eye diffused a quickening ray,

I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;

my chains fell off, my heart was free,

I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.

Now what links do we find here to the Lord Jesus?

Well, when Jesus began His public ministry by reading the Scriptures in Nazareth He declared that the passage He had read had just that moment been fulfilled in Him! The passage was:

Lk.4:18-19 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour."

And in Jesus itinerant ministry we find Him healing those who were sick and especially repeatedly delivering those possessed by evil spirits.

In referring to His coming into the world Jesus declared that He had come to pay the liberation price of those held captive or in debt (Mk.10:45)– He described Himself as coming to pay a ransom and hence we frequently to Christ as our Redeemer.

In a general sense all sickness is related to sin – sickness is part of the fallen world that was cause by sin. Thus we must be careful – not all sickness is directly due to a specific or specific sins. However some sickness and ill heath is. Think of alcohol and drug abuse for example. How true to life this is – how often the appetite disappears when we're ill, the very though of eating is difficult to entertain.

Once more from this distressful situation earnest prayer was offered and once more deliverance is afforded.

The psalmist speaks of healing coming through God's word and we readily move on in our thinking to consider that healing comes through Jesus who is the Word of God! On numerous occasions Jesus demonstrated His readiness and ability to heal the sick and that of all different types – lameness, leprosy, blindness and deafness.

And of course over and above the healing of the body Jesus proclaimed the forgiveness of sins – His ability to heal the body being proof of His authority to forgive sin. See Mk.2:1-12.

There is something impressive about a rough sea – the strong gales that blow the sea up into steep waves remind men of their own littleness and at the same time point up the handiwork and the greatness of Almighty God. Even the bravest of men may find their courage shaken as they realize their impotence in the face of storms at sea. The outcome at times is out of their hands – all that is left to be done is to cry out to the LORD. His intervention is so necessary and, the psalmist tells us, His intervention comes in response to the desperate cries of His people!

It reads so easily doesn't it? v.29 "He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed."

Can any Bible reader fail to think of how our Lord Jesus walked on the sea as the wind was buffeting His disciples? He helps Peter who begins to sink under the waves. Can any Bible reader fail to think of how on another occasion Jesus was asleep in the stern of a boat? His disciples were panicking and what did He do?

Lk.8:24"And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm."

The pattern changes in vv.33-42. No longer is the psalmist intent on reminding his hearers of the various predicaments they had got themselves into in the past, now he is more concerned to make a number of more general statements whereby he can describe the type of thing the LORD does with regularity.

The psalmist does not want his hearer or us for that matter to hold small views of God. The LORD is in no way hampered when He decides to deal with the world He has made.

If men become wicked and boastful He will turn their previously fertile land into a barren waste.

Then, just as easily, He'll turn such a waste into productive fruitful again so that the poor and needy may have a super-abundance.

Are men puffed up with their own importance and abusing their power and influence? Well, He'll bring them down while at the same time raising the needy and making generous provision for them.

The LORD does not go cap in hand to man for permission to act – He is the LORD!

And sums up the psalmist no right-minded person will judge Him negatively for such behaviour rather His behaviour will gain their whole-hearted approval. The wicked will not be left with a leg to stand on but will be reduced to silence.

With v.43 the psalmist brings his psalm to a close.

He had begun with an exhortation to praise and to thank the LORD because He is a good God and because He is a God who acts consistently towards His people with unwavering covenant love, strong love.

Now as he concludes, having presented his arguments and explanations, the psalmist calls upon those who are/who would be wise to ponder seriously what he has written. Indeed the steadfast love of the LORD is very great and well-worthy of being made the subject of our meditations.

Amen.