Ps 107

steadfast love

(Psalm 107)

 Jason Procopio

You will need a Bible to follow this outline, or you can read the text here.

introduction (v. 1-3)

• The basic premise of this entire psalm:

• The steadfast love of the Lord endures forever (v. 1)

• We see his love manifested in his rescuing his people from trouble (v. 2-3)

• His people should talk about it (v. 2)!

• A couple things to note: 

• When the psalmist speaks of “they” or “them” or “some,” he is talking about the people of God, “the redeemed of the Lord.”

• Obviously God also shows this kind of mercy and rescue to people who don’t know him (common grace), but God’s people can count on his steadfast love and protection, and rest in their promises.

• God’s love is described as steadfast—in other words, persevering. He loves when he has no good reason to love. He loves when anyone else would give up. He loves when any logical person in his place would say, “I’d be crazy to keep coming after this person.”

• God’s love is manifested to his people—in context, the people of Israel. But there is the promise of a larger scope in view here (v. 3): he gathers his people in from the east, the west, the north and the south: from everywhere. This is the promise to bring people from all nations into his kingdom, through the person and work of Jesus Christ.

• Jesus Christ fulfilled the law God had given to the people of Israel and instituted a new covenant, so that God’s grace no longer applies only to Jews, but to anyone who places their faith in him. We tend to think the Old Testament is all about law and rules and punishment, and the New Testament is all about grace, and that’s simply untrue: we can see the light of the gospel dawning in phrases like this, which we find scattered all throughout the OT.

• After this opening, the psalmist focuses on several different situations, illustrating how God’s steadfast love persevered and rescued his people in the past, in order to give us confidence in his goodness in the present, and hope for the future.

• Examples of God’s steadfast love (v. 4-32)

• Each of the next few stanzas (v. 4-9, v. 10-16, v. 17-22, v. 23-32) contain an almost identical pattern:

• Situation

• Call to God

• God’s rescue

• The proper response

• (For two of them:) Examples of God’s character in action, which we see more fully after.

• So let’s look at the different examples the psalmist gives.

• Suffering from poverty (v. 4-9)

• We obviously see a lot of poor, homeless people in Paris on the streets: asking for change, asking for food, sleeping, sometimes so damaged by their misfortune that they can’t think straight or think correctly. 

• People typically have one of three reactions to being confronted with this kind of poverty: 

• they get frustrated and annoyed at the interruption to their otherwise ordered life (“Leave me alone, I’ve got important things to do,”); 

• they see so much of it—so many homeless people—that they simply stop seeing it, becoming indifferent; 

• or their heart goes out to their plight, and they want to help (even if they sometimes feel helpless to do anything more than giving a bit of change).

• The situation the psalmist describes here is similar, but even worse: these people wandered in desert wastes, and couldn’t even find a city to live in. No one around, no one to ask for help. 

• So whom do they turn to? God. V. 6: They cried to the Lord.

• And how did God respond? He delivered them from their distress. He led them to a city to dwell in, where they could be cared for and find the nourishment and shelter they needed.

• What is the proper response of those for whom God cares in this way? Thankfulness (v. 8-9).

• Suffering from just punishment (v. 10-16)

• Now let’s be clear: the suffering described in v. 10-12 is just. They’re not being persecuted; they’re not being mistreated. These people rebelled against God. They are in prison, in chains, in affliction, as a just punishment for their sins. 

• And the psalmist is clear that whatever they’re suffering came from God: v. 12—HE bowed their hearts down with hard labor. 

• The Bible is clear that he has a will for humanity—there are certain actions, thoughts and attitudes which are clearly sinful (against his will for humanity) and that for sin there is just punishment.

• So whom do they turn to? Strangely (it may seem), God himself—they know they have sinned against him, so their only help can come from him. 

• And how did God respond? v. 14: he brought them out of darkness and burst their bonds apart.

• This is unthinkable for us (naturally speaking), because it is fundamentally unjust. People who have committed crimes don’t deserve reprieve from those crimes, they deserve to be punished. 

• But the Bible will consistently say that we have all committed crimes against God; we have all rebelled against him; so we are all deserving of eternal punishment. And outside of God’s grace, this is what we receive, because that is what is just.

• Because God is just, he can’t leave sin unpunished; but because his steadfast love endures forever, he makes away to free the prisoners from their chains and give them reprieve from their suffering: he punishes his perfect, sinless Son in their place. 

• Jesus Christ dies so that we might live. He is nailed to a cross so that we might go free. This is the message of the gospel.

• What is the proper response? Thankfulness (v. 15-16).

• Suffering from natural consequences of sin (v. 17-22)

• V. 17-18: This situation is more common, or at least more relatable. He’s talking about people who have foolish, twisted ideas of what is good for them. No one would admit, out of context, that they think all food is bad for them. But we do know about eating disorders—people who come to believe that eating will do them more harm than good.

• That example is one of a million we could give. We all have foolish, twisted ideas of what is good for us. 

• I have to keep my sin a secret, because if everyone knew what I’d done, my life would fall apart.

• I have to climb high in my career through any and all means possible, because if I don’t, I’ll be unhappy.

• I have to have as much fun as I can now, even if that fun runs counter to the will of God revealed to me in his Word, because if I don’t, I’ll be too old to enjoy my life later.

• We all have ideas in our minds of ways in which we should live our lives, ideas which sound logical, but which may well run counter to what God says about us and to us in his Word.

• And the result of following these foolish, twisted ideas of what is good for us is inevitably that we suffer the consequences of our foolishness—rather than giving us the satisfaction we look for, they drain us of satisfaction. Rather than giving us life, they suck life out of us. Sin is a vampire which looks appealing at first, but which in the end will kill us.

• So to whom do these people turn? To God (v. 19).

• And what does God do? He healed them, delivered them from the destruction they brought on themselves (v. 19-20).

• What is the proper response? Again, thankfulness (v. 21-22). Celebration.

• Suffering from natural causes (v. 23-32)

• Lastly, some people don’t suffer because of anything wrong they do; they simply suffer because life beats them down.

• The example given in v. 23-27 is that of seamen who sail from one place to another, “doing business”. 

• There is no sin described here; they are just doing their jobs. And yet the storm rages and beats them to a pulp—they arrive at the point where life has become so hard that they can’t even think straight.

• Whom do they turn to? God (v. 28).

• How did God respond? He calmed the storm (v. 28-30). 

• What is the proper response? Once again, thankfulness and praise (v. 31-32).

• It is sometimes hard to imagine, when we’re in the thick of the storm, that God could ever deliver us from it. But our Savior is the one who spoke peace to the waters—who, with one word from his mouth, calmed the storm. And he cares more for his people than he does for the winds and the waves. His promise to us is that no matter how hard the storm seems today; no matter how intense it feels or how long we have suffered, our suffering has an expiration date. He will calm the storm at the right time.

God’s character in action (v. 33-42)

• And this is what we see in the following verses. No matter what things may seem like, chaos and destruction are not God’s M.O.

• We talk a lot about God’s character; but what does that character in action look like?

• He punishes sin to destroy sin (v. 33-34).

• He punished his Son on the cross to destroy the sin that was killing his people.

• He brings life where there is none (v. 35).

• He resurrected his Son to give us new life in him.

• He brings order from chaos (v. 36-37).

• He brings us to a place where there is a framework for our humanity—we are no longer simply wandering aimlessly; he brings us into community with himself and with one another, where our work has eternal implications.

• He blesses his people abundantly (v. 38).

• He may not give us everything we want, but he gives us everything we need.

• He punishes those who oppress and afflict the needy (v. 39-40).

• We are incensed by injustice, and we should be: God is too. But we don’t need to worry that injustice will go unpunished. All sin, all injustice, will be perfectly punished by God—either through God punishing the sinner for eternity in hell, or through God punishing Christ in the place of the sinner who places their faith in him.

• We can and should feel anger over injustice, but we can trust God with that injustice: we don’t have to hold on to that anger. We can trust that he will work justice perfectly.

• He cares for the oppressed and the needy (v. 41).

• Those who are afflicted, those who are in need, may not know where their help will come from, or when. But they can know that God will rescue them. 

• This is what he does. He provides for his people in need, giving them what they need (again, not necessarily what they want, but what they need).

• The result? His people see his goodness and are glad; and all wickedness shuts its mouth (v. 42).

conclusion (v. 43)

• So what do we do with all this?

• I know that much of what I’ve said this morning is going to be hard to believe for some of you. Many of you are suffering; many of you are afraid; many of you are desperate to see justice done. I know because, strangely, even if we’ve been physically separated, I’ve actually had occasion recently to speak to several people in the church about this very subject. I know how hard this kind of text is to hear if you’re suffering.

• For others of you, you may have just come out of seasons like the ones described here; you’ve seen God’s love at work in your own life. So this psalm resonates for you in just the right way—every end of every stanza is Yes, yes, that’s EXACTLY what God does, that’s what he did for me! Yes!

• In either case, the psalmist invites us to the same thing. In the light of the way God has acted in the past; in the light of the thankfulness God’s people have shown him in response to his grace; and in the light of his character in action in the present, we are called to be wise, and consider God’s love.

• V. 43.

• If you’re suffering, and have a hard time accepting the idea of God’s love in action, don’t push it aside too quickly; don’t immediately assume it can’t possibly be true. Attend to these things. Consider them. Consider the love he has shown to other people. Consider the way God is.

• I recently had the occasion to see a brother in Christ do something very difficult that could have been  interpreted as malicious, if one were inclined to see it that way. And unfortunately, some people did see it as malicious: people are often quick to assume evil motivations behind actions with good intentions. 

• The thing is, I know this brother very well. I know his heart. I know what he’s like. He loves Jesus, and he loves his brothers and sisters in Christ, and he only wants to see the gospel lived out and proclaimed in the lives of the people around him. So he said the hard thing, and did the hard thing, even though it cost him. 

• My point is that my knowledge of what he’s like changed the way I saw what he did. Because I know him, I could see—I could easily see—that what he did wasn’t malicious at all—quite the opposite. What he did, he did out of love. 

• We understand how this works. And if it’s possible for us to understand that about a fellow human being, who is also a sinner saved by grace, how much more should we try to understand God’s heart behind what he does, God’s heart behind what he allows, God’s heart behind his timing? 

• The more we grow to know who God is, and what he is like, the more patient we will be in those times when he doesn’t seem to be answering our prayers the way we want; the more trusting we will be that whatever he’s doing, whatever he’s allowing, he’s doing for the best possible reason. And we can trust that when the time is perfect, he will come, and he will rescue us.

• And if you’re not suffering—if you can clearly see God’s love in action for you—rest in that truth. Think about what he has done. Consider his love. Attend to these things. Let them shape your heart into a heart of trust and love for God, so that when suffering comes again—and it will come—you can rest in the promises of his love in action for you.