MacDonald, William: Psalm 107 ~ Sin - Servitude - Supplication - Salvation

Well, let's look at another psalm tonight and, um, see how Israel missed the abundant life and how they came into it also. And it's Psalm one hundred and seven. Psalm one hundred and seven. We'll read some of the verses. Psalm one hundred and seven, number one: Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he has redeemed from the hand of the enemy and gathered out of the lands from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south. They wandered in the wilderness in a desolate way. They found no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses, and he led them forth by the right way that they might go to a city for habitation. Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men, for he satisfies the longing soul and fills the hungry soul with goodness. Those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, bound in affliction and irons, because they rebelled against the words of God and despised the counsel of the Most High. Therefore he brought down their heart with labor. They fell down, and there was none to help. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death and broke their chains in pieces. Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men, for he has broken the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron in two. There's a cycle, a spiritual cycle, oftentimes in the affairs of men. You see it here in God's dealings with the children of Israel. It's very prominent in the book of Judges. The cycle goes something like this: sin, servitude, supplication, and salvation. Or if you wanted to change it a little bit, you could say rebellion, retribution, repentance, and rest. You have that cycle all through the book of Judges, and you have it here in this Psalm. I'd like to suggest to you that this Psalm gives us four chapters in the experience of the children of Israel. First of all, it begins with a general statement of thanksgiving to the Lord for his dealings with the nation. Then in verses four through nine, you have a reference to Israel's forty years in the wilderness. Now, this might not be clear to you right away, but we'll try to make it clear. Forty years in the wilderness wanderings of the children of Israel from Sinai to the, uh, plains of Moab. Then in verses, um, ten through sixteen, you have the Babylonian captivity. Uh, seventy years in captivity to Babylon, uh, because of their terrible idolatry. They would not listen to the word of the Lord. Then, um, in verses seventeen through twenty two, I think you have the sick nation of Israel as it was at the time of Christ's first advent, when he first came to Bethlehem and his ministry there. I think that pictures Israel at that time, verses seventeen through twenty two. And then verses twenty three through, um, thirty two, you have the tribulation period, which is still ahead, uh, for the nation of Israel and for the Gentile nations as well. Just call it the tribulation period. And then finally, in verses thirty three through forty three, you have general statements about the grace and government of God. How he shows grace when his people are walking in obedience to him, and how he reaches out in government when they need to be restored to him. Now we'll go over that again as we move on, uh, and explain it in greater detail. Say, where in the world did he ever get that out of a psalm like this? Well, to me, this is, I- I- I think the word of God is a wonderful book. And, you know, one of the things I'd like to do in, um, just these simple studies on the Psalms is to provoke the young people, young fellows and young girls, to become serious students of the Word of God, because there are marvelous treasures in it. I want to tell you, when I come across some of these things in the scriptures, if I had found a vein of gold or won the lotto or anything else, I, I couldn't be more happy. I get more satisfaction out of coming across these choice nuggets in the scriptures. They mean so much to me, and I would love to see that happen in your life at all as well. You know, we do the things that we like to do. It's great to be motivated to study the scriptures. One of the things, I think one of the, the problems with young people studying scriptures, they bite off too much. They try to do a chapter a day or something. It's too much. Do five verses, that's fine, or do a, just a paragraph or something like that. Just remember, a big job is made up of many little jobs, and you can't do a big job, but you can do a little one. And I tell you, if you go to Romans and master the first five verses, when I say master, you know, I mean get familiar with them, uh, well, it's five verses, go on to ten, fifteen, twenty, something like that. Be a good thing to get before the Lord and set out your goals before him and tell the Lord what you really want to do as far as the scripture is concerned. You know, it's a wonderful thing that we have in our hands, the Word of God. It's our choicest earthly possession, isn't it? The Bible. Our choicest earthly possession. You say, I know, but a documentary on TV is more exciting, or a basketball game in Lawrence, you know, is more gripping. It depends on whether you're looking through the eyes of flesh or the eyes of faith. It really does. Depends. If you're looking through the eyes of faith, the Word of God is, is much better than that documentary on TV, because it's forever. It's forever. And everything you learn about the scriptures down here is an investment for eternity. You're not going to know everything when you get to heaven. Heaven's going to be a learning process, but what you learn about the scriptures is going to be your initial investment in heaven, right? You say, well, I thought everybody's cup was going to be full. Well, it is going to be full, but some people will have bigger cups than others. And you determine the size of your cup down here with, among other things, what you do with the scriptures. Your appreciation of the Lord Jesus, even down here, like even in a, a room like this, there are various degrees of appreciation of the Lord Jesus, who he is and what he's done. Well, uh, we carry that with us to heaven. I don't say we won't improve on that in heaven, but that's our initial investment in heaven when we get there. So to me, it's marvelous to think that heaven is going to be a school. The Bible's going to be the textbook. We're going to be learning throughout all eternity. Ephesians two seven, that in the ages to come he might show what is greatness of his kindness and his riches toward us through Christ Jesus. God's going to be the teacher. Eternity is going to be the term, and we're, we're learning now, and we can make a sacred deposit now in the word of God that will go with us into eternity. It's really worthwhile, friends. Don't waste your time on the sleeping habits of the Puerto Rican lizards. Or the significance of the picnic in modern American society. I mean, come on. Get with what's really lasting and important for all eternity. Well, the psalmist says, oh, give thanks to the Lord, for his mercy endures forever. He is good, and his mercy endures forever. I don't think, relatively speaking, anybody receives as little thanks as the Lord for what he deserves. You know? You know, if you go into a restaurant and bow your head and give thanks for the food, you're an oddity. You are. Very few people in the restaurant gave thanks for their food. Did you notice? Don't. When I was back at Emmaus one time, Three of us went into a restaurant next door just to get a cup of tea or a cup of coffee, and we finished, and two men walked over to us, and they said, are you brethren? And we said, well, I guess you could say that. And they said, well, only the brethren would give thanks for a cup of coffee. We were an oddity. But it's true, the Lord deserves so much thanks. You know, we spent all our time thanking him, but would be none too much for what, what he's done for us. Isn't it true? When you think of the son of his love coming down from the ivory palaces and going to that cross of shame where he's despised, where his face was cut. Imagine the face of the ruler of the universe covered with shame and spitting. And he did it for you and for me. I tell you, it's marvelous. Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord, for he is good and his mercy endureth. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. This is an exhortation for us to be outspoken about the Lord. You know, people are really outspoken about other things today. My, they have no shame in speaking about things they should be ashamed about. Whose glory is their shame, who mind earthly things, Paul says, writing to the Philippians. But we should be outspoken about the Lord too. And, um, in spite of the fact that his name is banned in the world today, you know, in California, you can't sing Christmas carols in the school anymore. Can't use the name of Jesus in the school except in profanity. Even here in Lawrence, you can talk about voodoo down at the museum, but you can't talk about Jesus. It's a name that's banned. Well, we should be very, very outspoken about him and give every, use every opportunity to bring that name before the public. Gathered out of the lands from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south. Well, he did that, he did that in a partial way, return from Babylonian captivity, but the fulfillment of that is still future. Well, let's look at the first chapter in the life of Israel, verses four through nine, wilderness journey. You say, well, how do you know? Well, it says, it says they wandered in the wilderness in a desolate way, they found no city to dwell in. You know, it's really something to think of those people leaving, leaving Sinai and starting on that journey, and frankly, they were lost most of the time. They just wandered, they retraced their steps, they crossed their pathway once again. You can't, you can't really trace their re- their route accurately today. It's impossible because a lot of the cities that are mentioned there no longer exist, and we don't know where they were. They were lost. Dear friends, I want to tell you it's a terrible thing to be lost. It's a terrible thing to be lost. I was lost once up in the Sierra Nevada range once, and I- it's a terrifying experience with the sun setting and darkness coming over, and you're there and you're prodding down this way and you're probing down this way. You have to come back because it doesn't lead to any path. Tell you the terrible thing, but it's worse to be lost spiritually. You know, if you're here tonight and you're unsaved, there's nothing between you and hell but air. Serious thing to be lost. And what makes it so hard is that salvation is free, it's a gift of God, and it's yours for the taking. You have everything to gain and nothing to lose. So here you have this sad chapter in the history of the nation of Israel. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. They cried out to the Lord in their trouble. He delivered them out of all their distresses. How gracious the Lord is, how long suffering he is with us, as well as with the nation of Israel. Incidentally, the nation of Israel was just a test tube by which God tested the whole human, uh, uh, race. Teaches that very clearly in, um, Romans chapter three. He took Israel and he tested Israel, and then he applied the findings to the whole, the whole human race, and he had every right in the world, um, to do that. He led them forth by the right way that they might go to a city of habitation. They came up to the plains of Moab, and then under Joshua they crossed in, and they came to a city of habitation in the land of Canaan. Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for his goodness, for his wonderful works to the children of men. I like this, for he satisfies the longing soul, fills the hungry soul with goodness. A good description of what it means to be saved, you know. You're restless. You're, you just can't find satisfaction in the world. As Pascal said, there's a God-shaped vacuum in the human heart, and it's true. It's absolutely true. And, uh, then the Lord Jesus comes in, and he fills the heart, so you say, I'm sick of love. You know, you just can't take it. There's so much. His love for you and your love for him. He satisfies the longing soul and fills the hungry soul with goodness. That's the savior that we have. Then you have in verses ten through sixteen the Babylonian captivity. And you say, now where'd you ever get that? Well, let me just show you where I got it. Verse sixteen says, he has broken the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron in two. Now turn over to Isaiah chapter forty five and verse two. Isaiah chapter forty five and verse two. I'm going to go back to the beginning of the chapter. Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, to subdue nations before him and loose the armor of kings, to open before him the double doors so that the gates will not be shut. I will go before you and make the crooked places straight. I will break in pieces the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron. There you have the same expression again, don't you? The gates of bronze and the bars of iron. That's what it says in verse sixteen of chapter of Psalm one o seven. He has broken the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron in two. And of course, you know how that was after their seventy years of captivity, God raised up this man Cyrus, who incidentally, in the book of Isaiah, is named by that name before he was ever born. You tell me the Bible isn't a wonderful book. I tell you, the fulfill script, the fulfillment of prophecy in the, um, in the book of Isaiah proves the existence of God and the inspiration of the word of God. Absolutely does. So, and here you have God raising this man up. He was God's man for that hour, and he delivered the people. He made that decree and delivered the people from their Babylonian captivity. So you compare verse sixteen of the Psalm with verse two of Isaiah forty five. You have a key. Watch out for your keys as you study the word of God. And this is a good one. So let's read what it says about that Babylonian captivity. They, those who sat in darkness and the shadow of death, bound in affliction and irons, because they rebelled against the word of God and despised the counsel of the Most High. He tried, he tried through the prophets over and over again to bring them back to himself. They didn't want it. They wanted their own way. They wanted to do the things that they wanted to do. Therefore, he brought down their hearts with labor, and they fell down, and there was none to help, dragged off into captivity. They cr- then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death and broke their chains in pieces. Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men. Again, for he has broken the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron in two. The Lord, isn't the Lord wonderful? He's so patient with us. We're not very patient with people compared to him, but he's so patient with us. We, we fall on our face, we just make a mess of it all, and he still comes out to us in loving kindness and restoration to our hearts, and that's what he was. Well, now there are people who are bound, um, in with gates of bronze and bars of iron today. I think of all the addictions that people are fighting today. In some ways, I think this is probably one of the most difficult times in the history of my lifetime. I've never known it like this, and it's really sad, it's really sad that people have given themselves over to drugs and various forms of chemicals, and they're really bound by iron. I tell you, nothing but the power of the Holy Spirit, nothing but the power that raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will break those terrible addictions in people's lives. I know the world has its own methods of dealing with them, but they're all faulty. They all fall and dash themselves on the rocks. Um, but the Lord Jesus can break every fetter, and he can make you free. And I'd say one of the things we'll be doing in heaven will be the testimonies of people that were bound, they were captive, and the Lord came in, they believed on the Lord Jesus, and he marvelously delivered them from it. Then you have, as I said, the sick nation of Israel that the Lord Jesus came to in his first advent, verses seventeen through twenty two. You say, where do you ever get that? Well, I'll tell you where you get it. First of all, it describes their condition in verses seventeen through nineteen. I'll just read it. Fools, because of their transgression and because of their iniquities, were afflicted. Their soul abhorred all manner of food, and they drew near to the gates of death. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses. But then the next verse is, he sent his word. What is his word? Well, I think John one tells you what his word was. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God. The word was with God, was God. The word tabernacled among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Now, turn just briefly to Matthew chapter eight and verse eight. Matthew chapter eight and verse eight. Uh... And they read these words, the centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof, but speak a word and my servant will be healed. Speak a word and my servant will be healed. Now, the Lord Jesus came to a sick nation of Israel. Um, Isaiah says that in the fifty third chapter. It was a most un- unlikely that the Messiah would arrive from, from this kind of a nation, yet that's the very nation that he did arise from. Turn to Matthew nine. and verse twelve, I think this is very, uh, good. Matthew 9, verse 12. It says, um, when Jesus heard that, I should go back for the, um, connection. It was the Pharisees he was speaking. In verse eleven, when the Pharisees saw it, they disciples, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? And Jesus heard that. He said to them, those who are ill, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. And he was saying to them, it was a rebuke to them. They were members of a sick nation. That's the continuity of thought in that passage. So here you have God sending his word and healing them. Well, he didn't heal the whole nation, but he healed the believing remnant of the nation and delivered them from destruction. And then the psalmist just breaks out and says, oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for his goodness, for his wonderful works to the children of men. And really, when you think of it, his works to the children of men are wonderful. His faithfulness, for instance, in the seasons of the year, his faithfulness in the weather, and in so many different ways. I tell you, God could have just wiped us all off the face of the earth in a nuclear blast, and he would have been perfectly just to do it. Instead of that, he's just showered mercies on people day by day. It says in verse twenty two, let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving and declare his works with rejoicing, with rejoicing. And I think that we do that in our hearts. I hope we do, um, hope that our prayers aren't aren't all requests, but that they're mingled with prayers, with worship and thanksgiving to the Lord. Then you have a very interesting section here, beginning in verse twenty three, and I would suggest to you that it describes the tribulation period. If you've never been at a terrible storm at sea, you can't appreciate these verses. I've been on the North Atlantic when the waves were dashing over the captain's bridge on the ship, and you'd be there in your stateroom, and you hear the creaking of these limbs in, in the ship. It was really, really something. They tell the story of that man that was up on the deck, and he was seasick, and, uh, friend came, a erstwhile friend came along and said, don't worry, nobody ever died of seasickness. He said, don't say that, that was my only hope. And that's a very good description of what sick sick seasickness is like. It really is a very good description. If you have trouble praying, go on a ship in a storm at sea. That's the best way to learn how to pray, to be in a storm at sea, and that's what he's describing here. It's very, very good, very good. You know, the literature, even if the Bible weren't the word of God, which it is, the literature, the majesty of the language is really marvelous. Let those who go down to the sea in ships, who do business in great waters, they see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep, and it really is true. It really is true. He commands and raises the stormy wind which lifts up the waves of the sea. They mount up to the heavens. Well, it's a figure of speech, isn't it? It's a figure of speech. They don't mount up to the heavens, but we use language like that all the time. It's hyperbole. It's known as hyperbole. It's, it's an exaggeration, but it's so clear that nobody thinks of it as being a dishonest exaggeration. They know what it means. Hyperbole. It's unforgettable. Saying it in an unforgettable way. They mount up to the heavens, they go down again to the depths. You're in the trough of the waves, go down to the very depths, and it seems like that. It seems that you're not going to come up again. Their soul melts because of trouble. And this is true. It's really true that in this probably well known among many of you, that there are storms at sea where crews of ungodly men despair of ever surviving the storm. Captains, they say, this is it. This is it. God in his mercy spares them over and over again. Do they thank him? No, they don't thank him. Do they turn to him? No, they don't turn to him. They just say it was good luck. They reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man and are at their wits' end. What a vivid description of a storm at sea. Then they cry out to the Lord in their trouble, and he brings them out of their distresses. He calms the storm so that the waves are still, and they're glad because they're quiet. So he guides them to their desired haven. Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for his goodness, for his wonderful works to the children of men. Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people and praise him in the assembly of the elders. Well, I said that people are lost today. There are people in the chains of addiction today. There are people who are ill because of transgression today. And here you have people whose lives are in storm. I want to tell you, dear friends, a lot of people are going through terrible storms. There, I think there are worse storms in the human breast than there are on the Atlantic or the Pacific. Sometimes I marvel at the ability of the human frame to endure some of the storms of life. But I want to tell you, my Savior could stand up in a boat in a storm in the Sea of Galilee and raise his hand and say, peace be still, and the winds and the waves obeyed his will. His disciples said to him, don't you care that we perish? Imagine saying that to the Lord of life and glory. Imagine saying that to, saying that to the one who was giving them their breath at that very moment. The one who holds matter together. They said, don't you care that we perish? And yet he didn't rebuke them. My, the loving kind, the long suffering of God. He didn't rebuke them for saying that. No, no. He was patient with them. And I think they learned that day, I hope they learned that day, that the boat can't sink as long as the Lord is in it. That's it. And, and you might be here tonight, and there might be a great storm in your life, nobody might not even know about, might not even know about it. Never mind, God knows about it. Can a boat sink while thou, dear Lord, art in it? Can the heart faint that waiteth on thy will? The answer is no. Wonderful to be in the boat with Jesus, isn't it? Wonderful to be in the boat with Jesus, no matter how fierce the waves might be, and they are fierce sometimes, and life does have this emotional roller coaster. I don't deny that, but deep above it all, the Lord is there taking care of us. Then you have that closing section, I call it the government and grace of God. And notice what can God can do, and and he can do it both ways. He can he can act in grace, and he can act in government. He turns rivers into a wilderness. Here's a fertile land producing marvelously, and God can just withhold the rain, and pretty soon everything is brown instead of green. The water springs into dry ground, a fruitful land into barrenness for the wickedness of those who dwell in it, which teaches me that God deals with nations as far as within as far as well as with individuals, doesn't he? We know that, the God of the nations. And it's marvelous that he hasn't dealt more this way with our country, although we have been seeing national disasters on an increasing scale, it seems to me, in, um, the last few years, if we have eyes to see. A fruitful land into barrenness for the wickedness of those who dwell in it. He turns a wilderness into pools of water. This is the other side of it, isn't it? This is the grace of God. He can take a wilderness and turn it into pools of water and dry lands into water springs. There he makes the hungry dwell, they may establish a city for habitation and sow fields and plants, plant vineyards that they may yield a fruitful harvest. He also blesses them, and they multiply greatly, and he does not let their cattle decrease. And this is what he did when the children of Israel went into the, um, promised land. Marvelous how they went to work and the crops be God's dealings with men, and God has his rules. God has his rules. Can't sin and get away with it. I think we have to remember that a Christian cannot sin and get away with it. As far as the penalty of that sin is concerned, it's taken care of by the work of the Lord Jesus on the cross of Calvary. But there are other, there are consequences to sin in this life, and we should remember that. And so then the Psalms closes, whoever is wise will observe these things, they will understand the loving kindness of the Lord. And the w- the hand of the Lord behind the scenes, working out all his principles and all his laws. So let's just go over it once again. First three verses, statement of thanksgiving to the Lord for the wonderful way in which he acts toward his people. Verses th- through through nine, the wilderness wanderings of Israel, the forty years wandering from Sinai to the border of the Promised Land. Verses ten through sixteen, uh the Babylonian captivity, and we got that because of the expression in verse sixteen, he's broken the gates of bronze and the bar- cut the bars of iron, exactly what it says in Isaiah forty five two, referring to Cyrus as the agent of the Lord in doing it. Then seventeen through twenty two, perhaps the, a picture of Israel... at the time the Lord Jesus came, says he was a root out of dry ground, a root out of dry ground. Israel, I think, was the dry ground, don't you think? And the Lord Jesus, a wonderful, wonderful Lord Jesus coming up out of such unlikely soil. And he was the word that God sent and healed them, at least he healed those who turned to him in faith, but not the nation as such. And then finally, the, uh, tribulation period, um, uh, the Gentile nations and Israel going through this terrible time of trouble that's going to come on the earth, trouble greater than the earth has never ever known, and greater than it will ever know. Looking back on the Holocaust, you wonder if anything could be worse than that. I visited Auschwitz twice in the years since then, and I had a king-sized case of depression after visiting it. Horrible, horrible, horrible. Uh, the Russians captured it before the Germans could destroy it, and the evidence is all there, dear. They had a roll call, and people were dressed in what you would call a light pajama style, uh, cloth. They had no wool or warm clothing, and whenever the bell rang out there in the courtyard, they all had to fall in for, uh, roll call. The longest roll call in the middle of winter lasted nineteen hours. And that's not the worst. That's not the worst. You think anything, nothing could be worse than what happened. Oh yes, it's going to be worse in the tribulation period. I'm so glad that believers will be going up at the time of the rapture. They won't have to endure that, won't have to face that time of trouble. And then finally, just a general statement of how the Lord deals in grace with nations and with people, and he deals in government also. And this should be a wor- a word for us to walk in fellowship with the Lord, and as Joe said, know the abundant life and, uh, not have to know the government of God in this life at the present time. Shall we pray? Blessed Father, we would just lift up our voices to you at this time and praise you for your wonderful works to the children of men. And when we think of that, we can't think of any work more wonderful, wonderful than the, the work that was accomplished by the Lord Jesus at the cross of Calvary, and how he could say, it is finished. How the work of redemption was completed then. It left nothing for us to do, and it's ours for the taking. We pray if there are some here tonight who are lost, hopeless, helpless, hellbound. We pray, Lord, that they'll wake up from their stupor of death and trust the sinner's Savior. We pray if some are bound in the iron of habit, in the iron of addiction tonight, they'll come to you and find deliverance by the power of the Holy Spirit of God. We pray of some who are ill, physically or spiritually, because of sin. They might claim First John one nine, we confess our sins, be faithful and just to forgive us our sins, cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Pray that they might know in this way the healing touch of the great physician. And for those whose lives are a storm tonight, Lord, the waves are dashing high. Lord, we pray that you will come in and speak peace to these troubled hearts. May they rest in you day by day. Thank you, Lord, with all of our hearts for your goodness and for your grace, for your long suffering toward us, and also for your wonderful book, the Bible. We adore the infinity of scripture, Lord. We pray that we might more and more be men and women of the word, thus investing for eternity. We ask it in his name and for his sake. Amen.