Let the Redeemed of the LORD Say So
Jared Mellinger
Psalm 107
January 1, 2023
Sermon Recap PDF
Introduction
- Psalm 107 was one of the Psalms the people of God sang when they returned from exile, and so it was a time of looking back and seeing God’s faithfulness, and it was a time of looking forward as well.
- This Psalm is a Psalm of Thanksgiving.
- Martin Lloyd Jones is the one who gave me this comparison. He once said we must never fall into the error of imagining that because we are Christians, we therefore know all about the love of God. He says most of us are but as children paddling at the edge of an ocean. There are glorious depths in this love of God, of which we know nothing.
- The ocean of God’s love is infinitely vast. We have not mastered this love and we never will. We are not experts in the love of God. We are children paddling at the edge of an ocean.
- His love for us is so great. And this gospel that we believe is so glorious that we will never exhaust its depths. Martin Lloyd Jones goes on to say our chief defect as Christians is that we fail to realize Christ’s love to us. How often he says, have you thought about this?
- We spend time thinking about our activities and our problems, but the most important necessity in the Christian life is to know Christ’s love to us. Our chief defect, my chief defect, your chief defect, is this very reality that we do not sufficiently understand and enjoy, and rest in the unchanging love of God.
- Psalm 107 is addressing our chief defect. It’s addressing what is the most important necessity in the Christian life—to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. Make this your aim. Make this your prayer. Make this your goal. Make this your resolution as you head into a new year. God intends for this Psalm to deepen our knowledge of his great love for us and then for it to have a very particular effect in our lives. And that is to catapult us into a life of Thanksgiving.
I. Celebrate God’s unchanging love in delivering us from sin (verses 4-32)
- We have four pictures here of human predicament and divine deliverance.
- Each picture is a different way of describing the varied effects and consequences of sin in our lives, and each picture displays the riches of God’s love to sinners.
- These pictures are the stories of our lives. We can see our faces next to these pictures and these stories.
- In these pictures there is a moment of distress. Then there is following that distress a cry for help. Following the cry for help, there is divine rescue. And then there is an exhortation to give thanks to the Lord for his steadfast love.
II. Celebrate God’s unchanging love in all His dealings with us (verses 33-43)
- Verses 33 through 43 through the end of the Psalm, celebrate God’s unchanging love in all his dealings with us. It describes the times of adversity and abundance that God brings to his people.
- What we learn is that there are these varying circumstances that God brings to his people to his children, and he does it all as expressions of his unfailing love to us.
- It is the Lord who leads and sustains his people through pain and trial. And it is the Lord who sustains and is with his people through times of joy and abundance.
- Through it all, the steadfast love of the Lord remains.
- If you’re in a situation where it is difficult for you to perceive the love of God for you, remember– we must never measure God’s love for us by the presence or absence of our trials, but rather we must always measure his love by the reality of the cross.
- He loves us more than we can imagine. He’s with us in every valley and he’s with us on every mountaintop. His love is steadfast through it all.
- We are so inclined to look at our circumstances and to judge the character and disposition of God toward us according to our circumstances, rather than look to the cross rather than look to the love that he’s demonstrated for us once and for all.
Conclusion
- Verse 8, verse 15, verse 21 and verse 31 all repeat the anthem of the redeemed. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love.
- The unchanging love of God in our deliverance from sin, and all the days of our lives, in all of his providential dealings with us, all of this is intended to produce a life of Thanksgiving and praise in every one of us.
- God is saying you have reason to give thanks. Verse 22 says let them offer sacrifices of Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a crucial aspect of prayer. When we think of prayer, we begin with adoration to God. And we include not only petition asking God for things in prayer — that that is certainly appropriate — but also our prayer life must have a significant portion devoted to Thanksgiving.
- The dominant note of the Christian life is praise, because the dominant factor in God’s dealings with us is his goodness. And because his goodness is unchanging, therefore we give him praise.
Questions for Discussion/Application
- Re-read the text, Psalm 107. What initial insights and observations do you have from reading this passage?
- Looking back on your life, what reasons do you find that you have to give praise and thanks to the Lord? Consider taking time for each person to share.
- Jared said, “If you’re in a situation where it is difficult for you to perceive the love of God for you, remember– we must never measure God’s love for us by the presence or absence of our trials, but rather we must always measure his love by the reality of the cross.” How can remembering God’s love, as displayed at the Cross, help us walk through trials in a God-honoring way?
- Consider taking time to pray, thanking and praising God for His steadfast love and the various ways He has expressed that love towards us.