Title: Song of the Saved / Psalm 107
Contents Song of the Saved / Psalm 107
Im Young-soo
Psalm 107 is a poem that describes the joy of salvation by people who have gone through various difficulties and trials. The difficulties and trials presented in this psalm are wars, prison life, sickness, and a sea of storms. Some were defeated in wars, and others were imprisoned in dark dungeons. Some have suffered from disease and sea storms. When those who have gone through such hardships and trials looked back on their own past, they realized that they had never been left alone in such a situation.
When they were saved from an impossible situation of despair, one thing they had in common was their desire to praise and thank God for saving them. That is the beginning of Psalm 107. This psalm begins with words of praise and thanksgiving.
"Give thanks to the Lord
He is good, and his mercy endures forever.
People saved by the Lord, give thanks to the Lord
From the east, west, north and south, you have gathered together,
Give thanks to the Lord” (1-3)
If an artist with excellent aesthetic sensibility expresses the scenes of suffering in this psalm with pictures, he will be able to paint four scenes with different backgrounds and different characters. Today, at this time, we will all come to the central content of the text while thinking of the pictures of the four scenes with our imaginations.
The first scene is verses 4-5. The background of the picture is a desert. All you can see is sand everywhere. There are no trees, no grass, no plants. Only the sound of the wind moving the sand is barely audible, and everyone is silent. A group of people is coming from far away. A closer look at them reveals that their clothes are covered in dust, their hair is blown and scattered, their faces are black from the sun, their eyes are bloodshot, and their lips are dry and bursting. Their appearance is showing that they are hungry and hungry and their stomach is burning due to thirst. They got lost in the desert. They wandered in the desert until they could no longer walk. They have lost all hope.
This first scene depicts Israel returning from exile in Babylon. The text describes this desperate situation as follows.
“Some are lost in the desert of the wilderness,
I have not found a way to the inhabited city,
I was hungry and thirsty, and sometimes I ran out of energy.” (4-5)
In this desperate and gloomy situation, there is a junction of hope, like an oasis in the desert suddenly discovered.
“But when they cry out to the Lord in their affliction,
The Lord will deliver them from their affliction,
He made us enter on the right path, and into inhabited cities” (6-7).
The material of the picture in the second scene is the contents of verses 10-16. The background of the picture is the interior of the prison. It is a dark and gloomy place. Prisoners are wearing robes and chained to a cold, damp stone wall. The jailers brutally kick and beat the prisoners. This is how their dire situation is revealed.
“People live in dark and gloomy places,
Chained with pain and chains,
They disobey the word of God,
Because you have rejected the will of the Most High.
Therefore the Lord gave them pain in their hearts,
He humbled them,
They stumbled, but there was no one to help them” (10-12).
In this gloomy situation, they cry out to God. At that moment, the prison suddenly shook, the bronze gates were broken, and the iron bars were broken. The turning point of hope in this second scene is recorded like this:
“But when they cry out to the Lord in their distress,
They saved me from that predicament.
Deliver me from the dark and gloomy place
He broke the chains that bound them.
For you have broken the bronze gate and broken the iron bars” (13, 14, 16).
The third scene in the picture is the contents of verses 17-22. The third picture is a very tragic and pitiful scene. There are people who are sick with all kinds of diseases lying here and there. They are so sick that they can't even get up from looking at the food. I seem to be hearing moans here and there. The third tragic scene is recorded like this:
"The foolish ones,
walking the path of rebellion and committing iniquity
I suffered hardship and lost even the taste of rice
I have already reached the threshold of death" (17-18)
There is also a turning point of hope in the picture of this scene.
“Then they cried out to the Lord in their affliction,
The Lord saved them from their troubles
He healed them with just one word,
He brought them out of the pit of destruction” (19-20).
Last picture. The material of this picture is the contents of verses 23-32. The background of the picture is the sea. It is a vast sea with no islands in sight. There ancient sailboats sail the sea along normal routes. I don't know where that destination is. Suddenly, a storm cloud appears in the distance. A cold wind begins to blow. Then, as raindrops begin to fall, the sky gradually darkens. The wind gets stronger. The rain falls like a torrential downpour, and the waves start to form big. At first, no one on board was uneasy. They've been through several storms, so they're doing their daily work with confidence.
But soon fear begins to surround them. Voyeurs can read the horror on the faces of their comrades. People stumble as if drunk. It looks like the ship is going to break and sink at any moment. An atmosphere full of fear is expressed in the text like this:
“Ships float high in the sky and sink deep into the sea.
In such a crisis, people lose their minds and their livers melt.
They all stagger and shake like drunkards,
All their wisdom is useless” (26-27).
Once again the central content of this psalm appears.
“But when they cry out to the Lord in their distress,
get them out of trouble
The storm calms, the waves calm
Everyone is happy when everything is quiet
The Lord will lead them to the port of their desire” (28-30).
Then the psalmist adds the conclusion of this fourth picture.
"Give thanks for your mercy
Give thanks to the Lord for His wonderful salvation to man.
Honor him in the assembly of the people
Praise him in the gathering place of the elders” (31-32).
A desert or a prison, a sick bed or a storm. This means that all oceans actually exist in our reality. They are part of our human experience. Our experiences through these are frustration, despair, depression, loneliness, and fear. These experiences are the complete opposite of hope. These experiences give up our lives and make us pessimistic.
Surprisingly, however, the conclusion of today's text is that there is a way out from the desert, from the prison, from the hospital bed, and from the stormy sea. There are cool waters and oasis in the desert, fields of fresh air outside the dark prison, and calm waters and safe harbors in stormy seas. It is God who leads us to such a place.
That is the message this great psalm gives us. We are not alone when faced with impossible situations. God is with us. That is why we can have hope in any hopeless bleak situation. That is why we can give thanks and praise, "His goodness, and his lovingkindness, endure forever."
Let me introduce you to one thing that happened during World War II.
"At the scene where thousands of Jews were slaughtered and innocent free people were shed tears of blood in Auschwitz, Germany's killing center, the Jews shed tears and cried through bloody screams, the question 'God, where are you now?" is.
One day, the Allies recaptured the camp, and while examining the walls of the camp, they stood in front of the wall, startled by the words of a hymn written on one side in an unexpectedly worn piece. Perhaps it is a passage that a Christian wrote down as his confession of faith. The lyrics of that hymn are familiar to us too.
“It is impossible to describe in words of God’s great love.
It is impossible to write all this love of God in a scroll.
Even if the sea is used as ink, God's love cannot be recorded."
In front of this amazing record, the soldier's eyes were stunned, and a small letter stood out beneath it.
"God is here. God is here."
Our hope is 'God is here.' The answer to all the questions in our lives is 'God is here.' The God who is here now is with us in life in the desert, in prison, in hospital beds, and in stormy seas. God made this known to us through Jesus Christ.
God has a way. So, those who believe in God do not despair or get frustrated in the midst of any difficulties, but remain silent and wait for the work of God. Deep trust in God makes you more calm than you can imagine in the face of life's difficulties.
This is one of the anecdotes of John Wesley. Wesley encountered a storm while sailing across the sea for a meeting in the United States. In the midst of storms, people are clamoring for each other to live. In the midst of a mix of storms and clamors, a soft hymn was heard from somewhere. Wesley went to the place where the hymn was heard, and found several women sitting in a corner on the deck of the ship, singing the hymn very peacefully, with no uneasy light on their faces. They were Moravians. Wesley was deeply moved there. After that, that event was the motivation for another rebirth in Wesley's life.
Dear saints, in this reality, we cannot escape the sea of desert, prison, disease, and storm. However, we have been experiencing God's saving hand to guide us in the midst of it. This is our great life experience.
The reason we gathered here to worship is also to worship the God of salvation. Worship is not a means of receiving blessings, but a response of thanks to those who have experienced salvation.
- Amen -