Psalm 107 The Lord delivers us from manifold troubles

Speaker: You're listening to the Wednesday in the Word podcast, serious Bible study applied to real life. I'm Krisan Marotta. On today's podcast, David John Morata will be speaking on Psalm 107. You can follow along with the lecture notes by going to wednesdayintheword.com slash Psalm 107. Thanks for joining us. Speaker 1: We're going to do Psalm 107 this morning, which is I think one of my favorite Psalms. Let me read it through and then I'll make some comments about it. Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his loving kindness is everlasting. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he has redeemed from the hand of the adversary of the adversary, and gathered from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south. They wandered in the wilderness in a distant in a desert region. They did not find a way to an inhabited city. They were hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses. He led them also by a straight way to go to an inhabited city. Let them give thanks to the Lord for his loving kindness, and for his wonders to the sons of men, for he has satisfied the thirsty soul, and the hungry soul he has filled with what is good. There were those who dwelt in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in misery and chains, because they had rebelled against the words of God and spurned the counsel of the most high. Therefore he humbled their heart with labor, they stumbled, and there was none to help. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, he saved them out of their distress, he brought them out of darkness and shadow of death, and broke their bands apart. Let them give thanks to the Lord for his loving kindness, and for his wonders to the sons of men, for he has shattered the gates of bronze and cut bars of iron asunder. Fools, because of their rebellious way, and because of their iniquities were afflicted. Their soul abhorred all kinds 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 distress, and he sent his word and healed them, and he delivered them from their destructions. Let them give thanks to the Lord for his loving kindness, and for his wonders to the sons of men. Let them also sac let them also offer sacrifices of thanksgiving, and tell of his works with joyful singing. Those who go down to the sea in ships, who do business on great waters, they have seen the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep, for he spoke and raised up a stormy wind, which he lifted up the waves of the which lifted up the waves of the sea. They rose up to the heavens, they went down to the depths, their soul melted away in their misery, they reeled and staggered like drunken men, and they were at their wits' end. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distresses. He caused the storm to be still, so that the waves of the sea were hushed, then they were glad because they were quiet. So he guided them to their desired haven. Let them give thanks to the Lord for his loving kindness, and for his wonders to the sons of men. Let them extol him also in the congregation of the people, and praise him at the seat of the elders. He changed rivers into a wilderness and springs of water into a thirsty ground, a fruitful land into a salt waste, because of the wickedness of those who dwell in it. He changes a wilderness into a pool of water, and a dry land into springs of water, and there he makes the hungry to dwell, so that they may establish an inhabited city, and sow fields and plant vineyards, and gather a fruitful harvest. Also he blesses them, and they multiply greatly, and he does not let their ta cattle dis decrease. When they are diminished and bowed down through oppression, misery, and sorrow, he pours contempt upon princes, and makes them wander in a pathless way waste. But he sets the needy securely on high away from affliction, and makes his family like a flock. The upright see it and are glad, but all unrighteousness shuts its mouth. Who is wise? Let him give heed to these things and consider the loving kindness of the Lord. Okay. First of all, it's it's clear from looking at this psalm, just a casual glance, that this is a series of little word pictures about people in different circumstances. And I think it invites you to think about the circumstance in a more general way. So it may talk about people upon the sea, but it invites you to think about people in similar types of situations that the word pictures are just too pretty not to be taken both literally for the situation that they're in, but also a little bit more generally as a case of a certain kind of people. And I think the theme of Psalm 107 is that Psalm 107 is part of, at least it looks like it's part of a trilogy of Psalms. Psalm 107 is actually the first in one of the book of the Psalms, but it looks like the trilogy includes the last two books from the previous Book of the Psalms. The Psalms are split into five books, and this is the first of a book, and the last two sort of invited. And if you look at Psalm 105 and 106 and 107 together as a whole, they tell an interesting story. Psalm 105 talks about the promise that Israel is the chosen people, that Israel will fulfill God's purposes, that God has a special plan for Israel. Psalm 106 talks about God punishing them or chastising them for their unrighteousness. And then Psalm 107 talks about him reclaiming or rescuing them from out of the distress that he himself put them in, if you will. And so it's this story of God chooses, God chastises, and then God reclaims or redeems his people back out of the trouble that he put them in in the first place. And you see the theme of these three Psalms in some of the uses of the term of the lands. So if you look at Psalm 105, 44, he gave them also to the lands, also the lands of the nations. So this is the promise. Then in Psalm 106, you see he swore he would scatter them in the lands, and then Psalm 107.2, he's gathered them back from the lands. So he gives them the lands of the nations. That's their inheritance, that's their purpose. Then they're not fulfilling it. He scatters them out across the lands, and then he calls them back from all the lands after the captivity. So I think this series of Psalms is a series of Psalms sort of reiterating God's people's place in the world and God's people's purpose and explaining why, sort of in the past, why God did these things, and yet out of all these troubles, God has pulled us back together as a people. If you think about it, it's actually very strange for a people to get scattered throughout the lands and then get freed and come back and form themselves as a nation again. That's a very sort of strange event. There's a couple things I want to say about this psalm, because this psalm is going to talk about how people's sin leads directly to their situations. So we have a God who's a very personal God, and I always want him to work, I was an engineering major, I always want him to work like an engineering major would want them to work, you know, input, output, input, output, very consistently, you know, like a machine. And I've realized that God quite often in my life deals that way because that's the way I want him to deal, and he bows sometimes to my stupidity, and sometimes God works with me on the level of that I'm that I'm stupid that way, and I want things to be reasonable and rational, and I want him to show me sort of why things happen the way they do, and sometimes he brings people into my life that can speak to me. I've realized that God is very relational, and that with other people, sometimes he bows to their stupidity, and he's much more emotional, and he's much more tangential, and he's dealing with them on a completely different level because they're a different kind of person, and that's the level that they need to sort of be dealt with. So we have a very personal God, and sometimes the very thing that we need is we need God to show us that the way in which we're going is not the right way by making that way frustrating and futile. And then out of that frustration and futility, God uh, we cry out to God, and God says, Ah, you learned your lesson, and then he pulls us back out of those situations. Now, that is not a rule. That's what I'm trying to say. That that is not a rule. If you make it into a rule, you get into all kinds of doctrinal problems. For example, you can't explain the book of Job, why he takes a perfectly normal guy who's doing just fine and gives him all kinds of troubles. So troubles are not necessarily an indicator that there's sin in your life, and to be rooting around for sin that God is clearly not, you know, clearly not showing you isn't a good idea. So we all have troubles. I mean, troubles and suffering is the norm of this life, and you can ex- and and and that can be for a number of different reasons. So when we see in this psalm that there's suffering, this is one kind of suffering, and one kind only. This is the gracious suffering of a God who's chosen someone and won't let them go on the wrong path. Okay, so it's still a very loving and uh a form of suffering. Another kind of suffering is someone who's on the right path, and God is refining and testing their faith. So they're doing just fine, they're doing what they should be doing, and they're meeting opposition anyway, and God is refining that faith to say, um, yes, you trust me, even in the midst of all these headwinds of life that are coming at you, you're still willing to trust me. That's making you more the kind of person I want you to be. So the the theme may end up being the same, but I just want to be sure be clear, because sometimes when you teach a psalm that says, you did this and you got this, because that's the way, you know, sort of the you you get into this uh mentality that, gosh, I'm suffering in my life, you know, it must be because I'm sinful, or I know a friend who's suffering, it must be because of their sinful. More often than not, that's the application that we that we end up wanting to give to it. Okay. Um this psalm is very much uh about uh redemption, um, and you get it right in uh the first couple of verses. Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord save us. Those he redeemed from the hand of the foe, and those he gathered from the lands, from the east and the west, and the north and the south. Um there's two different things that the redeemed need to say. The first one is that God is good, you know, God is absolutely good, and in him there's no shifting shadow. And the second thing is that his love endures forever. So we can count on God's love in all kinds of difficulties. God's love keeps on going. It never fails even when it's our fault, even when we've done the wrong things. God never sort of gives up on those that he's chosen. The first little section is verses four through nine. I call this wanderers retrieved. So it's it a lot of these start out with a phrase something like, some did this and some did that. So this first one is uh some people who are wandering in desert wastelands, finding no city, uh no way to a city that they could settle in. You'll see from the thing that the wanderers are rootless, they're restless, they're alienated, they're disenfranchised, they're uh they're disenchanted. So they have no city, they're hungry and thirsty, their lives are ebbing away. Uh the word for thirsty here is also used sort of plants that are all dried up and there's no life in them. So they don't they don't have any of the goodness that comes from um comes from the kinds of things that when you have a family and a community you're living in and you've been able to set down roots and sort of plant yourself, all the all sorts of life springs up from that. Um we've been in Charlottesville for 15 years, and after 15 years, you really sort of sink roots down into a community after a while, and and you see people that you haven't seen in five years, and they're in your town. They're not just visiting. You know, it's a there's all kinds of things that when you find a family like Trinity, um, you know, I think about it, uh my non-Christian neighbors are so alienated that they see each other, and that's sort of about it, and then they that's all. And there's kind of a neurosis that when you when you go off to work and you have to deal with people who don't really care about you, you can't really share your life with, and then you come home and maybe you're dealing with a spouse that maybe that marriage isn't everything it ought to be as well, you can feel incredibly alienated and isolated and end up getting a little neurotic sort of because of it, because you don't have all the things that let you flourish. You see this sometimes in families that have to move every two years. It's like they they have trouble sort of settling in and building, you know, sort of the all the things that make a community a community. And and and this is, I think, a picture of that, even though this is probably literally you were scattered along the lands, you were taken out, you were you had to live someplace else in captivity, or you at least were forced to live there, you couldn't return back to the place you grew up, the farm you knew, the olive vineyard you planted that takes hundreds of years to sort of get established, the grape arbors that you plant that takes hundreds of years, you know, all the all these things that help make life life. Um and so this is true of I think anyone like that. And then this is a great quote from C. S. Lewis. unknown: C. Speaker 1: S. Lewis said that men in desperate need of strength might cry out, Billy Bud, help me, and nothing much happens, or a man in need of wisdom might cry out, William Shakespeare, help me, and nothing much happens. But Lewis says, for 1900 years, when people have cried out, Lord Jesus help me, something happens. God comes to the rescue. Who is Billy Budd, by the way? Who's very strong. Okay, thank you. I'd heard the term and I thought I'm I'm illiterate. I don't know. Um it's interesting that if you do cry out, God help me, God comes to you. And you can't really find God on your own. He's completely transcendent. So unless God comes to us, we can't, you know, we can't ever meet him. So all we can do is cry out, God help me, and yet God, you know, the creator of the universe is the one who enters our life and actually meets us where we are. And sometimes meets us where we are in very specific circumstances. We say, God help me in a very specific situation, and he does because he's that kind of God. Not because he has to do that, but because he's a relational God that has a unique relationship with every single person in the world. And when they cry out to him for help, he meets them in the kind of way that they will understand and that they will they will respond to. Because he's, you know, if he's chosen you, he will he will get you, he will find you. Um I think it's interesting that the climax of this section is in verse 7. Um He led them straight away to a city where they could settle. That the whole climax is finding a city. Uh we don't we don't normally think of that. We usually think of cities, let's stay as far away as we can from them. But if you think about the ancient Near Eastern city, you know, you had nothing, just wilderness out in the farmland, what you found in a city was a spring or a well, there were people, so that you had a community that you were surrounded by. You know, I think I think the equivalent today would be finding a community of people with whom life can flourish, setting down roots within that community. So, you know, when I think about the city, it's it's more like Trinity than it is like Charlottesville. It's it's more like a situation like this. A place where, you know, if if there's catastrophe in your life, there's people to come around you and say, hey, what can I do to help? How can how can we be part of that family? So um and the and it's interesting to me also that um that if you're lost, hungry, thirsty, and exhausted, that really the the answer is not only the Christian community, but it's it's the the head of the Christian community, Christ, because he is the way, the bread and water of life, and the giver of rest. He's the one um he's the one for whom all this is possible being part of his family. So the first one is all about wanderers retrieved. The second one in 10 through 16 is all about prisoners being released. And you get you get some great word pictures in here, some sat in darkness and the deepest gloom, prisoners suffering in iron chains. So you get this uh this all these pictures of captivity. Um I think it sort of invites because of, we've been studying Exodus, and because of our captivity in uh Egypt being at least compared to our captivity in sin, and that God redeems us from one and God redeems us from the other. Similarly, I think the Babylonian captivity sort of invites us to ask the question of our own captivity and sin, and when he sets us free, he sets us free not only from these kinds of situations, but he also sets us free from the real enslavement we have. It's interesting that this is in verse 11, for they had rebelled against the words of God and despised the counsel of the Most High. The reason they're in captivity is specifically because of their sin. So they're getting, if you will, exactly what they they deserved. They're enslaved because they rebelled against the word of God. Um and yet God doesn't say, you know, you did it, now get yourself out. That's not what he says. He's a God who saves us despite what we deserve. He's a God who saves us even in the midst of all of that. Um that's good because we couldn't have gotten ourselves out. You see that, and they stumbled, and there was no one to help. So you stumble, there's no one to help. There's nothing that you can do about it. You're in chains. How can you free yourself? Um you're dead at the bottom of the sea. It's not like not like God throws you a life preserver and you have to grab onto it. It's like you're dead at the bottom of the ocean and God revives you and gets you out of the ocean. So there's all of God's sovereignty. So one of the one of the other themes in here is that if God is after someone, he will find them and he will get them. And if God is after you, if God has chosen you, then that explains a lot about your life. Because God is after you, he will, you know, he will he will frustrate sometimes the things that you don't want him to frustrate, and he will make uh certain parts of your life miserable, and somehow I think after the more Christians see that sin leads to death, the less appetizing sin is. I don't know about you. I used to eat raw chocolate chip cookie dough. I love that. You know, when I was like 20-something, you make a batch of raw chocolate chip cookie dough and you get a bowl of a spoon, you know, and you just eat that. Well, I know, I now know what that does inside your system. And I can't, I can't enjoy raw chocolate chip cookie dough anymore. I just can't do that. Because I know that sin leads to death, and I know what that death looks like, and I'm still trying to lose some of that death. So you it it's after a while, when you see things that and you understand that they're not healthy for you, you they're just not appetizing anymore either. You can't enjoy them. It's not a, you know, it's not a uh it's not a pleasure that you can just indulge in because you know that it leads to bad things. Well, uh, you know, it's the sin is the same way. When you engage in certain sin and you know that sin leads to death, the sin becomes less appetizing because you know it leads to alienation between people, you know that your children won't like it, you know that your spouse won't like it, you know that the people around you won't like it, and you know that that will cause the disillusionment of relationships, and that will sort of end up in decay, and you don't like all that decay. So sometimes God does that. He gives us a taste of, and it's really just a taste. They don't deserve imprisonment, they deserve death. But he gives us just a taste of some of the death that comes from sin in order that we might not like sin anymore, and we might reform and turn back away from uh that repent. Okay. So wanderers retrieved, people who really don't have a community and uh and don't have the life that comes from it, people who are imprisoned in sin. The next section is um is the sick restored. And uh the New International version has some became fools through the rebellious ways. The um the New American Standard has fools because of their rebellious ways and because of their iniquities were afflicted, which I think is a better translation. I think it's the fools were afflicted is the idea. And first of all, the foolish are not um the foolish are not unintelligent. They're they're perverse. And I don't mean that in a in in as strong a sense as you might think. It just means that they're sinful. They're fools, they're sinful, they're not skilled in living righteously, is is one way of thinking about it. So wisdom is a skill in living, foolishness is uh foolishness in living. It's not doing the things that you should do. It's not recognizing the sins that lead to death. It's getting yourself in stupid situations, you know, sort of that then go on from that. And they end up being afflicted, their trouble is self-afflicted, and you could think of probably a a thousand different ways. This is a very general language and you could probably think of a thousand different ways that this comes about that some lifestyle ends up in some physical or mental affliction. You can think of drug addicts you can think of homosexuality you can think of promiscuity. There's a lot of things that end up in in mental or physical sickness. Or as I said it could just be mental sickness. So they begin feeling sorry for themselves because of their situation because nothing seems to work in life because nothing they do seems to lead to life. It all seems to lead to death. So after they feel sorry for themselves then self-pity becomes depression. Depression becomes psychotic because of their failure to deal with their self-pity. Or they're just people who've been resentful, angry, hostile, filled with animosity and they become neurotic or psychotic because of that. Now, I will tell you that I I I'm the most mentally healthy person I know and I've and I've decided that all of us are a little bit neurotic and psychotic. So I mean I I've I've seen people who are who are just so so alienated that they they go around and they're locking up their house three, you know, if the if the husband's gone, the wife is locking up the house three or four times and and she can't stand being alone and and can't deal with the kids and and you people end up having nervous breakdowns and going to the hospital because the life seems overwhelming and it's and I understand those people because I think all of us have a little bit of that that mental illness that says oh my goodness you know everyone thinks I'm supposed to know this at my job and I don't really feel like I know everything at my job and I have the imposter syndrome. Okay? So I know all of you out there thinking golly he's talking to me specifically because a lot of us are very insecure about our own ability to cope with life and to handle all these things and we get we get the car breaking and the kids need need this and that needs this and and then tax time rolls around and it's like I haven't done my taxes and I'm not it's it's just like all these things are overwhelming. It's like these big tsunamis that come and they sort of swamp our lives. And we all end up feeling a little bit neurotic in those situations and having those little anxiety attacks. So as I said I'm the most mentally put together person I know and yet I get those those those pangs of oh my goodness can I you know I've got all this stuff that's going on can I handle it all? And we live in in Charlottesville and Charlottesville says you're not doing very much. You know Charlottesville as a c as a culture sort of says you are you you have more free time now than you've ever had in your life and you should just enjoy it and you know and sit you know drinking iced tea on the front porch because you're not busy if you want to see busy look at my life and we're sort of like that as a as a as a culture you know we kind of compete that way a little bit and so not only are you feeling swamped but you're feeling like you're only doing half what you should be doing if you were really productive if you really were going to finish your you know PhD, get your tenure, whatever it is that's going on in your life. So I understand, I understand that that um if you're not physically afflicted, although a lot of for a lot of people that kind of stress comes out in physical ways and it's it's interesting when you know does it does your stress come out as you know that pain in your stomach or does it end up in your neck pain or does it end up in lower back pain? Or does it end up in you know that that's another way you can tell that you're overstressed is it will come out in in sometimes physical ways in your body as well. And so for me it's quite often in my stomach. You know the phone rings sometimes my stomach goes like that, you know, because I don't even I don't even know who's calling you I look at the collar ID and I think ah you know it's it's I don't even know who who who would who would let it stay tightened up you know until they call and then it's like you know and it's like oh my goodness you know I didn't want them to call. I've been dodging their phone calls for weeks. So so we're we're all I think in the situation where things that we do and our inabilities to sort of cope with life and the stresses that are probably placed on us are sort of overwhelming us. And and that's why at least um I think verse 18, they loathed all food and drew near to the gates of death you know that that can be a sign almost as much of mental illness as physical illness is just the fact you're so worried you can't eat or you're so sick you can't eat. Then they cried to the Lord from in their trouble and he saved them. He sent forth his word and healed them he rescued them from the grave the uh the grave here is is a different Hebrew word than it normally is the grave is a pit so a a deep hole something that you can't really get out of by yourself again. And then here's what I think is interesting let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love for his wondrous deeds for men. Let them sacrifice thank offerings and tell of his works with songs of joy so God turns our insanity into thanksgiving health and the wholeness of mind you know the the ability to to sing songs of joy. That's the the way in which God sort of redeems us and and God's work in our lives sort of saves us. And so you know sometimes I think oh gosh you know my life is really put together I'm one of the most put together people I know. And then I think to myself yeah but without the Lord I would probably be an alcoholic and I would probably be neurotic and I'd probably have fallen apart and I'd probably be in a much different situation but by God's grace and community, God's grace and in in in the context of people who can come alongside and say, yeah, life's like that and just sort of speak honestly about yeah what do you do when you have the imposter syndrome or when you're not quite sure what you're supposed to do in your marriage or your family or you're with your kids or something like that and and sharing those sort of stories and being broken. Think about it you know Alcoholics anonymous is the close is the closest most non-Christians will ever come to being able to speak honestly about the troubles that they have in life you know hi I'm Dave I'm a sinful wretch let's try it again. So say hi Dave Hi Dave. Hi I'm Dave I'm a sinful wretch. Hi Dave See there you go. See and that's that's a sort of welcoming thing the Alcoholics Anonymous you know and that's what we do at church every single week. Every single week is our AA meeting where we where we talk about the fact we're not the people we should be and yet there's this higher power that helps us be the people that we should be. You know Alcoholics Anonymous is the best view of the gospel that most people will ever have. So the sick restored 17 through 22 then 23 actually I like this section a lot I call this the stormed tossed rescue. Others went out on the sea in ships they were merchants on the the the mighty waters they saw the works of the Lord his wonderful deeds in the deep for he spoke and stirred up a tempest that lifted up the high waves they mounted up to the heavens and went down to the depths in their peril their courage melted away they reeled and staggered like drunken men and they were at their wit's end. So the interesting thing I think about this is this section is not really about our guilt. These people are out there they're not they're supposed to be out there but it talks about our little our littleness. And the the Hebrew word for wit is is wisdom and it's a skill in living one way you could translate it would be all their skill at seamanship was useless or literally all their wisdom was swallowed up. So there are situations and again we live in a community where you're supposed to be put together you're supposed to know how to handle all this you know to call someone at the university unwise would be sort of the you know you're not you're not very wise that would be sort of the ultimate insult or the at least the second ultimate insult maybe you're not intelligent would be would be the way they they'd want it put. So because that's the way everything at the university is sort of judged. And yet there comes a point at which our finiteness and our s our ability to handle things, there's a limit to that. And in this situation people who were skilled as seamanship they were actually out on the on the deep water which is sort of a an unusual thing in ancient times most people were afraid of the sea and the ships aren't really seaworthy so they'd hug the coast as they went along on their routes. Only if they had to do like really long distance sailing the really skilled sailors if you will would find themselves out on the deep water. And when you're out on the deep water so this is a very skilled crew out on the deep water when you're out on the deep water then it's even more dangerous because the the uh the ocean isn't very hospitable to life it's not very it's not very safe place, it's not very easy place. And so now all of a sudden a storm comes up and and they're at their wits end they don't know what to do. Yeah. Speaker 5: Is there anything um thing said about this passage uh being similar to Jesus walking or Jesus calling the storm. Speaker 1: Yeah y y you know it it it it it it it immediately invites that. Speaker 5: When I read that that's the first thing I thought I thought wait a minute this is written so far before that and I wonder whether anybody at the time I don't know how familiar the the the disciples would have been with the Psalms. Speaker 1: I think they would have been very familiar. What's odd is that when this comes up in Matthew no one Matthew doesn't say and thus he fulfilled or anything else like that. But I think the disciples' reaction to Jesus is because they understood this psalm. So let me just read that um that piece that's in Matthew eight uh when Jesus got into the boat his disciples followed him and behold there arose a great storm on the sea so that the boat was being covered with the waves but Jesus himself was asleep and they came to him and woke him saying Save us, Lord, we are perishing. He said to them, Why are you afraid you men of little faith? Then he got up and he rebuked the winds and the sea and it became perfectly calm and the men were amazed and said, What kind of man is this that even the winds and the sea obey him? And I think they're saying if even the winds and the sea obey him like in this Psalm would be one way of saying it, only God does that in this Psalm. And so I think it's it's a it's a backhanded way of saying it how can a man do this? Only God does this kind of stuff. Only God rescues from the from the from the wind and the water and the waves this way, in this manner by just speaking to it and it calms down. Because in verse 20 he sent forth his word I'm sorry he stilled the storm to a whisper and the waves in the sea were hushed. It's just sort of amazing to me that that it's not mentioned. It's not it's not referenced. And yet I think I think in the back of the of the disciples' mind at least they have this psalm in mind. Because there's not there's really nothing else much that's like it. Speaker 5: I mean there's a passage in Isaiah that talks about the storm tossed um but he even our I mean not that this is uh ancient but even our study Bible I'm looking at it and it doesn't even say anything down in the in the notes of I mean it references all kinds of other stuff but you would think you would reference yeah it's I mean it certain it certainly invites that. Speaker 1: So and I think it would I think the disciples might have understood it because they they knew their Bibles pretty well. They only had one book. So they they they read it a lot so and actually I think the uh the application in Matthew is almost exactly the same that that uh that you're afraid because you don't think God is near in the midst of a situation you can't handle and God's right there in the boat with you. Yeah literally so um so this is another sort of situation I think that people find themselves in this is the one that I think also invites us to take this more as types and not um because although the other situations in prison and scattered among the lands would have been typical things that you would have found the Israelites in as they're being restored from captivity back to the land, being out on the sea when you're doing your job is not really and they're not really restored. They're restored to shore but they're not really restored back to Israel. They're not freed and set free and gathered back again. So I think these are lots of different sort of type situations it's a it's a little series of short stories all around the same theme if you will in the in the Psalm okay let me go on and and and talk about the the summary statement in 33 he's really talking about the way in which God uses some of these both um chastisements and um and redemptions he turned rivers into a desert flowing springs into thirsty ground and fruitful land into a salt waste because of the wickedness of those who lived there he turned the desert into pools of water and the parched ground into flowing springs. There he brought the hungry to live and they founded a city where they could settle. They sowed fields and planted vineyards that yielded a fruitful harvest. He blessed them and their numbers greatly increased and he did not let their herds diminish. Then their numbers decreased and they were humbled by oppression, calamity and sorrow. He who pours contempt on nobles made them wander in a trackless waste. But he lifted the needy out of their affliction and increased their families like flocks. The upright see and rejoice but all the wicked shut their mouth. It seems to me in this summary statement he's he's talking about how God is behind it all. He's working everything out according to his plan and purpose and it is good. That is what he wants us to see we tend to blame God for the trouble we're in and we attribute evil to him we say he is not good. God is not treating us right and we play into Satan's hand while we do that. Satan wants us to believe that God is not trustworthy and that he does not care about us and that he does not love us but he does. Even when life is hard Paul says he is working out all things according to his purpose which is good. And that's um that goes back to what the um what the redeemed are to say God is good and his love endures forever. And then he concludes in verse 43 Whoever is wise let him heed these things and consider the great love of the Lord. Wise again being skilled about life able to cope with it so whose ever skilled about life should say these things consider the great love of the Lord. So it's let me just talk about some of the applications that I think you can get from this first of all the chosen of God will God will get the chosen of God. So God is sovereign he is completely able to go after people who you wouldn't normally think he's going to redeem. And I take great comfort from the testimonies that I hear about people here at Trinity about how they came to the Lord. I take great comfort in being more bold about sharing my faith because sharing the faith isn't the thing that convinces people. It's God that is responsible for convincing people and changing their lives. And so I'm willing to talk to people who I'm pretty sure would never ever turn to the Lord and would never become Christians because some of those people are currently attending Trinity and you hear their stories and it's like I can't believe if you became a Christian you're even worse than my fill in your own relatives blank here. You know I I I sort of can't believe that so I'm just going to keep doing it. The other thing does is when you do evangelism that way it takes the edge off of having to convince people. So you don't come across desperate. You ever get that feeling is that you're you just feel desperate. This person has got to understand the gospel. And it just comes across as hey you know God is awesome and and uh and he has he's willing to step into our lives and redeem us from all kinds of stuff and he's done that for me and he could do that for you if you want but hey you know it's up to you. You know and you sort of take that approach and in the back of your mind saying you think it's up to you. But I know it's not up to me. And that's really what I'm saying. I'm really saying it's not up to me. You know you can take it or you can take it or leave it. I'm just I'm just responsible for being the beautiful feet that that can carry the gospel around and then God's the one who's responsible for basically swamping your life and making you miserable without him and sometimes God will do that and it's a very loving and gracious thing. And then and then if you see someone and God is just swamping their life and making them them miserable and you find out you know some little piece of of how someone's failing, that's the point at which Christians should go in and say, hey, you know, that's really tough. Let me tell you I I've been there you know I've been so neurotic I thought I couldn't handle life. Or I've had those kinds of situations or I was doing this and you know my marriage was breaking apart or my kids were alienated from me or or I couldn't get along with people at work and and uh and you know if you're interested I can tell you what helps. You know it helps having this community because it helps having a God who's who's there. It helps having a group of people where you can be honest with them and you know they'll come alongside you. I mean what other group of people can you stand up and say I'm you know I'm a I'm a complete wretch will you be my friend? And you know what what group of people is that is that the criteria that they'll that they'll do that. So one is in evangelism. I think this sort of gives you a picture of evangelism that both makes you you know because God is sovereign it can make you both more more bold and more relaxed about the process at the same time knowing that he he will redeem his own. The second thing is sometimes it explains things that are going on in your life you know any kind of understanding how sin leads to death I think is helpful because it makes the sin in our lives less attractive. It makes us more open and ready to say gosh yeah God's really putting his finger on that piece of my life and uh and I'm you know I'm I'm stubbornly responding and he just keeps making the waves bigger and I don't I don't particularly like that. I would like to be more responsive to God so you know Lord you know I I I don't believe but help or I want to believe help me in my unbelief. Help me redeem help me understand and trust you enough to be able to follow what you said. So that's sort of another piece is uh of of the application. Can anyone else think of some others they want to share? Yeah? I guess I'm looking for an application on the uh on in the sick rest I really identified with your uh anecdote where the guy comes up to you and says you know you think your life is crazy you should be hanging out on the the front porch drinking tea my life is crazy how how how should we respond to that and I'm saying like if this person is you know in the body of should we just laugh or is there something more I'll tell you there there are certain there are certain times where my wife and I have um oh yeah well I'm I'm more busy than you are you know sort of sort of little matches with each other and and uh and usually it's to get out of doing something at least on my part um you know it's just you know I I'm I'm busy she's busy either one of us could do this someone has to you know and so um and so yeah we have these little these little competitions and I'm I'm not quite sure what the response should be other than wow thanks for confessing your sin you know I mean or or I can't handle as much pressure I can't handle that much pressure you know I'm may maybe maybe you have a higher tolerance for it or maybe everything you know is work is working out in your life I just can't handle that um so I'm I'm falling apart. You know that that kind of honesty sometimes is helpful a little bit. Or you know it it for for me it always goes back to yes but I I think God wants margin in our lives. That's the thing I'm more convinced of is that you don't write out to the edges of the paper you leave if you leave big margins you leave big places where God can just steer you a little bit differently and and something comes along and yes you're very busy and you have all these responsibilities and things and you just can't you can't meet that one adequately that God has suddenly thrown into your lap. Whereas if you have big margin you can just sort of say yeah let me take let me take the time it's going to take to do that and and go over there. So for for me my busyness is at least a uh something I I think I need to repent of more and say, you know I I I need to figure out what I should be doing rather than what all these all these good things I could do. What is God really calling me to? And what is God leaving for other people or leaving undone. I mean I don't know about you but taking taking a day off is difficult for me because I'm always have enough to fill eight days, not six. And so just trying to take that day and and give that to more meaningful things and time to reflect and time to sort of rest is difficult. It's not that's not necessarily how my nature would be. Or I like the way Greg Thomson put it, you know, we have trouble taking Sundays off because taking one day off a week because we're kind of lazy the other six. And we and we don't get and I don't know about you, I can be both neurotic, busy, and lazy all at the same time. And that really that really sort of bothers me about, you know, it's just my character. You know, where you can you can be working all day, get nothing done. You know, it's just sort of like, how did how did that happen, you know? And and so I'm I'm neurotic just just in in those kinds of things because so so I I think it's di it's it can be different for in different situations, but um part of it is I think we try to do too much and then we do it all badly and and trying to figure out really what our calling should be and focus down to I think God wants me to do this and I'm going to set enough time for this with margins on it and try to narrow down just what that focus is. You see this in in in moms that you know they they try to be super mom. You know because I'm trying to keep track of three little kids I should be the super homemaker. And so I have to have you know I have to make soup from scratch and I have to bake home home baked bread and I have to you know at least once a month you know and and you but you get this impression you know if you've got three kids three little kids at home congratulations you know we can only manage we only survived two and we I was told my son Brendan that we would have had more kids but we had him first. And and just keeping up with him and keeping him from sticking forks into light sockets and you know things like that. Just I'm I'm just proud he's he's about to turn 18 and he's still alive because because he's a handful to to handle. So if you've if you've got three kids, great you did better than us. You know that's that's wonderful. If they're all still they're all still breathing that's good. So so you you get this impression you have to be you have to be super person to handle all this. And I wouldn't I wouldn't do that. Yeah. Speaker 2: Just as far as another application and kind of writing your own and kind of in the same pattern. Speaker 1: Oh what a great idea. That's great. I wouldn't want you to read mine but that's really a good idea. Yeah to to take the psalm and and write it out as your own and then I did this stupid thing and and it led to this and and I don't want anyone to know about it. So yeah but but I think it is helpful to review um I don't know about you but some families have family stories that are retold within our family. We've got a few about how God is faithful and how God stoops to our um stoops to our wherever we're at in order to you know un uh for us to understand that he is good and that he redeems bad situations and things like that. So yeah, I think family stories like that are really helpful. Because then they're sort of touchstones you can go back and you can say yes but but God did that for me. And true in retrospect it seems really stupid but only because I was really stupid at that point in my life and yet God saved me out of that and redeemed it. And isn't it amazing he stooped down to my level of stupidity and we often don't see God at work now we only see God at work in the in the in in the past in our life because right now we're God is at work but we're so stupid that we don't we don't always recognize him at work. He's he's he's coming down to our level of stupidity. Great idea. Speaker 3: Other applications I'm not going to say the psalmist is thinking of but it's interesting to me I was just thinking in my own life of that he ends in his last of the four examples with men kind of relying on their own skill I can do this I can I can ride a boat I've done it all in my life when I look at my life and I say I'm a thirsty person like the first one he throws out and I'm a prisoner in sin and all the things that seem to reveal that the needs are unfoolish like the third person that's like okay but some of it might be the Charlotte's Bill way I can answer that with trying harder in my own skills. Speaker 1: Right. Speaker 3: And I don't know I I doubt if there's really a progression in his mind that way but at least I see it in my own life. Speaker 1: Yeah that's good I I love too the refrain that that happens over and over again you know the the then they cried out to the Lord refrain and then they'll let them give thanks to the Lord refrain. And in each case changing it slightly for the situation that there's a theme to go through the whole thing. You know it's interesting we think that Charlottesville is sort of bad. I have a brother in the San Francisco Bay Area and they have a different ethos but it's really it's really even worse in some respects. In the San Francisco Bay Area, you just have this feeling you have to be running somewhere to justify your existence. And so the dating scene is all sort of very um you know California you sort of think California is casual but it's a very put together casual. It must take hours to put together casual that well do you know what I mean? We're much more laid back in our dress here than it is in California. In California it is very put together casual and it is it's like it's like magazine quality casual and then and then the job market is so bizarre because of all the all the dot-com you know booming businesses and my brother's a a venture he's a he's a corporate lawyer and my dad asked him once so what what do you actually do Paul? And Paul said well my job is to see if I can keep the company alive long enough to get paid because they're dealing you know they're going through million dollar a month burns you know and they've got all this stuff and it's venture capital here there and and you know a third of them are going broke and they're usually the ones who are hiring my brother and giving him stock in the company instead of pay. You know it's got this drawer full of absolutely useless stock. And um and you know I my dad and I we just went out to to dinner and and there's these you know put together little couples going through the mating dance. And then there's this group of of guys who are clearly they're clearly salaried workers very low in the company from their from their conversation. But all they're talking about is venture capital because that's how you justify everything you know and and they're talking about all this high finance for which I know they're not responsible. But it's a very interesting ethos and they're all worried about this, that and the other and and we were there maybe it was just because we were there and and uh having a late dinner so these are all the people who've been working late you know who who are now at all these dot coms. But it's just a really different culture out there as well. And again it's it's just as sort of broken and fallen as Charlottesville. Charlottesville just as broken and fallen in a very intellectual academic way. You know they were just broken and fall fallen in a very high finance sort of corporate you know venture entrepreneurial ship. So we're all broken and fallen in different ways it's just it's just interesting to see you can see it a lot better when you travel to another city than in the one that you live in and the and the one you swim in. Let me close this in pro. God we do say that um that you are good and your love endures forever and that you we are glad that you have um chosen us and driven us to yourself. We confess to you that we're not the people that we should be that we we identify with each of these groups in their own way that we are um we have sins that have enslaved us and we are uh neurotic and sick because of of our of our sin and that we have things that overwhelm us uh in life and we ask that you would rescue us and we cry out to you um God save us redeem our lives help make us into the people that you would have us be help make us um bold to sing your songs of praise to others and share our faith we just thank you for the time that we've had in the Psalms and pray that we might delve into your word on a regular basis. Make us more and more men and women of the Bible men and women who hunger and thirst for you and for your word. In Jesus' name Amen