DUNCAN/O give thanks unto the Lord

If you have your Bibles, I’d invite you to turn with me to Psalm 107 as we begin our journey through the fifth book of the Psalms together. This psalm, that begins the fifth book of the Psalter, is a call for the redeemed to give thanks. The context is the return of the people of God from exile. 

The Psalms teach us both that we are to be thankful and how we are to be thankful. We are prone to ingratitude, and even as believers, redeemed and renewed in Christ, we have a constant battle to fight with ingratitude. Why? Because some of us struggle with entitlement and presumption. If troubles encompass you, the problem becomes God’s. “God, how could You allow this to happen to me? This calls into question Your very existence.” We presume that we are entitled to constant blessing and so we assume it and do not thank God for it. This psalm supplies us an unchanging basis for our gratitude. And it finds that unchanging basis for our gratitude in the goodness, love, and loyalty of the Lord — in His nature and in His actions and specifically in His covenant love and loyalty.

I. An Exhortation to Thanksgiving 

This psalm is set in the context of a remarkable reunion. The people of God, because of their sin, have been spread all over the Mediterranean world. And God, in His kindness, at the end of His judgment, has now brought back a remnant into the land and into Jerusalem. And in that very context, the psalmist is concerned to say to people, who you would think because of their experience would be primed for thankfulness, “Remember to be thankful! Remember to be grateful! We should give thanks to the Lord!” This psalm begins with an exhortation to gratitude. It’s God calling on all His people to give thanks and that exhortation of course bases that thanksgiving not in circumstances but in God’s character and in God’s deeds. He is the God of steadfast love, and He is the God who has redeemed. And because of those two things, His people are to give thanks. 

II. Four Pictures of God’s Redemption

The first picture you see of this redemption is in verses 4 – 9. It’s a picture of restoration from isolation and deliverance from desolation. Wandering is a picture of the judgment upon them for sin and His leading them into a city to dwell in is a picture of His grace to them in redemption. One of my favorite hymns is “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” and you remember how the last stanza goes? “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it; prone to leave the God I love. Here’s my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for Thy courts above.” We all know our tendency, our propensity to wander. God, in His kindness, has kept us from wandering to our own destruction.

And then there’s this second picture and you see it in verses 10 – 16. And it’s a picture of redemption as liberation, of being saved from the prison pit. A picture of being cast into one of those pits. “Then they cried in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death and burst their bonds apart.”

Then if you look with me at verses 17 – 21, we see a third picture and it’s a picture of salvation from sickness. “Some were fools through their sinful ways, and because of their iniquities suffered affliction; they loathed any kind of food, and they drew near to the gates of death. Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress. He sent out His word and healed them and delivered them from their destruction. Let them thank the LORD for His steadfast love.” And so, the picture of restoration from exile is done in terms of healing from sickness there. 

And then in verses 22 – 32, the picture is of being saved from overwhelming waters. It’s a picture of people out on a little sailing vessel up against enormous waves. They were at the end of their own competency’s ability to deal with the situation that they were in regarding the greatness of the storm in which they found themselves. So, they what? Verse 28 – “cried to the LORD in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress. He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed.” 

All of us, who are believers in Christ, can relate to these pictures in our own experiences. We know what it’s like to feel isolated and to wander. We know what it’s like to feel imprisoned by our sin. We know what it’s like to feel sick unto death in our sin, or to be storm-tossed on the raging waves of life. And all four of these pictures are pictures of what God has done for the children of Israel, bringing them out of their exile — exile brought on by their own sin — and by His mercy, bringing them back home safe. And they’re to prompt what? They’re to prompt gratitude.

III. The Basis of Our Gratitude to God 

The psalm ends pointing us to the two things that provide the sure and secure basis of our gratitude to God. The first you see in verses 33 – 42 and it’s simply this — God’s sovereign providence. God provides for His people. He is in control in every event of their lives. There may be people who have suffered abuse and betrayal and deeds that are so wicked that they tremble to speak about them in public or even in a private conversation to a friend. Those things, in and of themselves, do not prompt thanksgiving, but knowing that God works all things for good to those who love Him and who are called according to His purpose, knowing the sovereign providence of God, gives us something to anchor ourselves in gratitude that is non-circumstantial.

The psalm ends with this exhortation — “Whoever is wise, let him attend to these things; let them consider the steadfast love of the LORD.” God’s providence and God’s love do not change. Our circumstances can change under the duress of life, but God’s providence, His purpose for good, His person, His character, and His love—these things do not change and therefore, the believer can be grateful at all times that He will force even the most wicked acts against us, even the most disappointing circumstances, to do His bidding for our good because He loves us and He is faithful. And that is why the psalmist says, “If you are wise, you will consider the steadfast love of the Lord.” I don’t know what you’re struggling with in gratitude today, but this psalm begins you down the path again to be able to give thanks to the Lord, no matter where you are.