Psalm 107:1-9
Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever!
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,
whom he has redeemed from trouble
and gathered in from the lands,
from the east and from the west,
from the north and from the south.
Some wandered in desert wastes,
finding no way to a city to dwell in;
hungry and thirsty,
their soul fainted within them.
Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
He led them by a straight way
till they reached a city to dwell in.
Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
for his wondrous works to the children of man!
For he satisfies the longing soul,
and the hungry soul he fills with good things.
Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, song, epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The psalm for Sunday, March 10, comes from Psalm 107, verses one through nine. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so whom He has redeemed from trouble, and gathered in from the lands from the east and from the west, from the north, and from the south. Some wandered in desert wastes, finding no way to a city to dwell in hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble. And he delivered them from their distress, he led them by a straightway till they reached a city to dwell in. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love for his wondrous works to the children of man, for he satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul, he fills with good things. Here ends the reading Psalm 107, verses one through nine as part of a much longer Psalm. The song goes on for some way after this, and it actually helps us understand what's going on here. But let's take a look at this first section. Oh, give thanks to Lord for He is good for his steadfast love endures forever. This is a passage that my family would pray. When we did our meal prayers, we would say what is sometimes called the Lutheran common table prayer. Come, Lord Jesus be our guest. And then we would finish it up with, Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. And this is perhaps one of the great confessions of faith from the Old Testament, that his steadfast love endures forever, right. And so the psalm leads God's people in reflecting on this, it says, Let the redeemed of the Lord say so whom He has redeemed from trouble, and gathered in from the lands from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south. So the redeemed of the Lord, redeemed is economic language, bought out of the hand of someone else. In fact, you would use that language, if you bought someone from slavery and then freed them, they would be redeemed from slavery. And here, it's redeemed from trouble. They were in the hands of trouble, and God bought them and pulled them out. And that would apply to all of the people of God from all sorts of areas right the in Egypt, God redeemed them from Pharaoh when he spent the blood of the lamb in other places He has redeemed as well gathered people together from all over into Israel to find place. Now the next thing that we see is an example of one of those that has gathered in this is part of a series of different groups that Psalm 107 talks about. So the first is it says some wandered in desert wastes, finding no way to a city to dwell in hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them. Now there are a number of different groups that the Psalm talks about, not just this one in the reading. The next set of groups was some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in affliction and in irons, for they had rebelled against the words of God and spurned the Council of the Most High. The next one is, some were fools through their sinful ways and because of their iniquity, suffered affliction, they lowered any kind of food, and they drew near the gates of death. The next group is some went down to the sea and ships doing business on the great waters. They saw the deeds of the Lord his wondrous work in the deep, for he commanded and raised a stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea. And then finally moves on to describing the great power of God. And so what's interesting about this psalm is that it goes through a number of different scenarios where people are in need, and God rescues them. Now, this one, the first one, some wandered in desert wastes, finding no way to a city to dwell in hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them. This is one that people are trapped in through no fault of their own. They cried to the Lord in their trouble and he delivered them from their distress. He led them by a straightway till they reached a city to dwell in. Now, this one I think is chosen because of the reading from numbers, where you have a number of people who are, they are in the wilderness wandering, and God leads them after 40 years wandering in the wilderness back to Israel to give them a city and a place to dwell in. And so you've got wandering in desert wastes is that parallel to what you have in the reading from numbers, but they were only wandering because of the other things that have been going on. So it was they are more likely the one that goes, some were fools through their sinful ways, and because of their iniquities suffered affliction. They loathe any kind of food, and they drew near to the gates of death, that sounds a whole lot more like the numbers reading, where they're complaining about God taking them out of Egypt and giving them worthless food, the manner that he had promised them. So we returned to the reading, though, their soul fainted within them. And then it says, Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. So they were lost, they were in the desert, they had no way to find a place and God delivers them. And we're thinking here, probably not like an individual person, but like a tribe, a group, God's people, perhaps, he led them by a straightway till they reached a city to dwell in. So once they call out for God's direction, He guides them and leads them into the land of Israel, where he can provide for them and have a city to live in. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love for his wondrous works to the children of man, for he satisfies the longing soul and the hungry soul, he fills with good things. So the Psalm was talking about the person who wanders, finding direction, into a place where God can provide for them. Now, we shouldn't take this as as a metaphor for the Christian life. Like where it's not, it's not about like people who have no direction in life, and are just looking for God to show them the way to go. Though, you know, God's guidance and wisdom does do this. This is talking about people who are literally in the desert, and God provides them a land, this would be easily a reference to the wanderings of Israel, and God providing them a place to stay. Now, for Christians, we are we, before Christ, before were brought into the church, are wandering in a waste of a spiritual waste. And it's Christ who brings us together into the land of His Church where he can feed us and fill us with his body and blood to provide for us. Now, this is this group is the one that is of no fault of their own. The other some of the other groups are God rescuing them from their own foolishness. The one goes somewhere fools through their sinful ways, and because of their iniquities suffered affliction. And then it says, Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distress. What, oh, great gift, our God gives us that when we are fools, and we suffer because of our sin. God sent His Son Jesus Christ. Another one is some sat in darkness in the shadow of death, prisoners in affliction, for they had rebelled against the words of God and spurned the Council of the Most High, so we bowed their hearts down with hard labor. These are people who are rebels against God, imprisoned, justly forced into hard labor. And it says, Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. Can you believe God delivers us the prisoners, great criminals, horrible people who do in violence on the world, God hears them. And if he hears them, he can hear you. And then the last one is someone down to the sea in ships, and they saw the works of the Lord how he called a stormy wind. And so here again, this is not people who are are sinners, and they're getting the consequences of their action. They're just fishermen out in the water, and God calls up a storm and they cry out to heaven. And he delivered them from their distress. This is what God does.
He is a God who saves he saves us when we are facing in things that are not of our own making, when we face the consequences of actions that are not ours, whether we're lost, we're on the sea or just human beings in search of a savior. But even more importantly, he saves us when we sin. When we are actually facing the consequences of our actions, and we need a Savior from ourselves. He sends us His Son, Jesus Christ. And we all we can do is rejoice in the goodness of God, how he redeems us from trouble. That's all we have for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye
Transcribed by https://otter.ai