Home • Preaching the Word • Psalms
Let the Redeemed of
the Lord Say So — Page 4
Sermon on Psalm 107
And now the Sea. The Sea is the place for the Hebrew where danger lurks, and uncertainty reigns. And it is the place where storms swallow sailors whole. It is the Lord who causes storms to come up, and He who causes the storms to cease. In Isaiah and Jeremiah, the Sea represents the kingdoms of the world. Without the Lord, the Israelites have no control over the superpowers of their day. The Lord raised up and brought down the great empires of Egypt, Assyria and Persia while the people of God rode the great storm of the nations. They were tossed up and down and back and forth as they cried out. And the Lord delivered them. The Lord brought temporary stability to the region so that His people could return to their land. The waves were hushed —it reminds a Christian of Mark 4 when Jesus who on that stormy sea, told the wind and sea to “Hush!” in order to protect His people. It is He who has authority over nature as well as over the nations. And it is He who brings the Israelites back to their land and to their places of worship. Just as the Lord has raised up the sea and the nations, now the gathered people could “raise up,” or “extol” Him before the nations!
In the concluding call to praise in verse 43, the Psalmist writes, “Who is wise? Let him give heed to these things, And consider the very loyal love of the LORD.” If you look back at Psalm 105 and 106, you will notice that they are probably written by the same person as Psalm 107. In Psalm 105, the Psalmist reminds us of the covenant love of the Lord to His servant Abraham and His descendants as He led them to and through Egypt. But in Psalm 106, we are told that the Israelites did not speak of the mighty deeds of the Lord, but rebelled and “did not understand” His wonders, or “remember [His] great loyal love” (vv 6-7). Nevertheless, the Lord was faithful to His covenant in the midst of incessant rebellion and He “redeemed them from the hand of the enemy” (v. 10; cf. Ps. 107:2). Psalm 106 ends with a request that the Lord save them, and gather them to Himself for the purpose of giving thanks to the name of the Lord and praising Him (v. 47). Since they did not do this, He disciplined them in exile. Wise is the one who remembers and declares the loyal, covenant love of the Lord.
So how can we be wise with Psalm 107? How does Psalm 107 become for me and my family more than just “my grandpa’s Psalm”? And how does it become for all of us more than a Psalm on the redemption of Israel from Babylon? Let’s take a look as we see Babylon as a metaphor of the oppression of this sinful world in which we find ourselves.
<< Previous Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 Next Page >>