Thank the LORD for His Redeeming Love

1:09A photo album. It looks something like this with these cardboard pages and a little plastic you pull back and sticky thing you stick the photos on. And every now and then you would pull that thing out and you would just look back at the pages and remember where you've been and what all's happened, where you've come from. Well, Psalm 107 functions much like one of those family albums. The psalmist opens it up before us and invites us to look at four photographs from Israel's family history, four snapshots of God's redeeming love.

1:49This is one of the most intricately structured psalms in the entire Psalter. It was written during the post-exilic period, and it's designed to celebrate God's redemption of his people, his drawing them out of exile and bringing them home. The psalm begins with an introduction that establishes the theme in verses 1 through 3. And then come the four portraits of God's redeeming love in verses 4 through 32. That section, those four portraits, are going to be our main focus today of this sermon. And then the sermon ends in verses 33 through 43 with two concluding sections that reinforce the central message.

2:35Now, if you listen closely to the psalm, you probably notice that there's a pattern. The four portraits follow a similar pattern. There's a predicament, and then there's a plea, and that's followed by God's deliverance and pardon, and finally, a call to praise. That repeated pattern is the heartbeat of the psalm. So, these four scenes that we're going to look at here probably reflect the actual hardships that the exiles experienced either while they were in exile or on their journey home. But beyond just the literal historical vignettes, this is meant to paint a spiritual picture, a portrait of God's people and the desperate condition from which the Lord has delivered us.

3:26The structure here is intentional in the psalm, and it drives us to one main truth, and here it is. Here is the main truth of the psalm. It is the main focus of this sermon, and it's simply this: Let us thank the Lord for his redeeming love. Let us thank the Lord for his redeeming love. That's my only goal for this sermon today: is that you leave here with gratitude in your heart for the redemption that you've received.

3:56So, that's the title on the front of our photo album here. And the main theme is introduced in these first three verses. Look at what the psalmist says: Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he has redeemed from trouble, and gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, and from the north and from the south. These first verses celebrate God's enduring love and his gracious redemption of Israel.

4:25He had gathered his scattered people back from exile. But in that great ingathering, it foreshadowed an even greater redemption and an even greater ingathering. Through Jesus Christ, God has redeemed and gathered people from every tribe, every tongue, every people, every nation into one family. We were just praying for a missionary who is letting that be known. That all people from all lands, from the east and the west, and the north and the south, have been called back home.

4:59If you've trusted in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, then you are one of the redeemed of the Lord. This is our God. This song is our song. This family album is our family album. So as the redeemed of the Lord, let us look at the first page of the album together. And let us thank the Lord for his redeeming love. First of all, a love that brings us home. A love that brings us home.

5:27The first photograph of our album shows a group of weary travelers. They're lost in the wilderness. They're hungry. They're thirsty. They're exhausted with no place to call home. Verse 4. Some wandered in desert wastes, finding no way to a city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them. Now, for the Israelite worshiper, these words would have immediately called to mind Israel's story. Some would have thought of their forefathers wandering in the wilderness after the Exodus. Others would have pictured the long journey home from exile.

6:00And anyone who had traveled the barren landscapes of Palestine knew how terrifying it was to lose your way in the wilderness. But the psalmist isn't merely describing physical wandering and lostness, he's using poetic language to describe a deeper reality, the plight of all humanity apart from God. Thus, in Israel's wanderings, we hear echoes of our own story. Before Christ, we too were spiritually lost, wandering far from God, unable to find our way home. As Isaiah says, all we like sheep have gone astray. That's the predicament of the first story, the first picture.

6:42But then comes the turning point, the plea. And this exact plea is repeated in every single vignette. Verse 6: They cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. Picture those travelers miles from safety, hungry, vulnerable, with no city in sight. And at last they realize there's only one hope. They can cry out to the Lord. That's all they have left is to cry out to the Lord. Isn't that where God brings every one of us? Isn't that where God brings every sinner to a place of desperation where all we can do is cry out?

7:24We can't feel our way back to him. We can't reason our way back. We can't. Work our way back. God must bring us to the end of ourselves so that in the midst of our trouble, we cry out for mercy. Oh, friends, if you're here this morning and you've never done that, you've never fallen on your knees before a holy God and cried out for mercy and asked for Him to bring you out of your distress, then I pray that you would do that today. Jesus Himself said He came to seek and to save the lost. The lost.

8:02If you're wandering through life without direction, never quite finding the home that your heart longs for, you're exactly the kind of person Jesus is speaking to this morning. Sometimes you have memories that stick in your mind so vividly that the emotion of the experience comes back. And I remember when I was six years old, one of the most frightening experiences of my life. I was in a very busy and crowded mall, and I got separated from my parents.

8:33Has that ever happened to any of you in here? Okay. Now, this was, I was a kid of the 80s, and our parents gave us a little bit more freedom, even at six. But I wasn't supposed to wander away from them, and I did. And I didn't see them. At first, I wasn't too worried. I assumed I'd find them in a moment, but pretty soon every face was a stranger, and panic began to set in, and I realized I was lost, and so I. The only thing a six-year-old knew what to do, and that was I cried. I cried out for my parents. Thankfully, a kind shopper noticed and comforted me and helped me find my parents who had been searching for me the whole time. Every one of us knows what it's like to feel lost, maybe not in a shopping mall, but in life.

9:25We long for purpose and security for someone to take us home. And, well, we are longing for someone to lead us home. Look at verse 7. He led them by a straight way till they reached a city to dwell in. He led them. The Lord didn't simply point them in the right direction. He led them safely home. Listen, friends, God's redeeming love is a leading love. It is a leading love. It takes us all the way home. We need someone to lead us. Or, as that great theologian of our age, Carrie Underwood, said, we need Jesus to take the wheel.

10:09The destination is important, too. They weren't merely rescued from the wilderness. They were brought to, it says here, a city, a place of safety, a place of provision. God didn't simply rescue them from something, he rescued them to something. Throughout Scripture, God's people are portrayed as pilgrims journeying toward a place. Where they'll dwell with him forever and ever. That's what Hebrews tells us. Even Abraham understood that the promised land pointed to something beyond just the promised land. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 9 and following says this: By faith he went to live in a land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise, for he was looking, listen to this, forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.

11:03Abraham knew that the promised land was just foreshadowing something much greater, a greater city, a place of perfect union with God and fellowship with him, where there is perfect safety, perfect provision for all eternity. Through faith in Christ, we are children of Abraham, and thus we are fellow pilgrims and fellow exiles on that same journey. The God who brought wandering Israel safely home is the God who, through Christ, is bringing his redeemed people all the way home. And so we say, Amen and amen to the psalmist's words in verses 8 and 9, where he says this: Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of men. This, too, is repeated in every single one of the images of redemption. Verse 9, why? Why do we thank him? For he satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things.

12:01Brothers and sisters, we who were once lost have been found. We have been given a heavenly citizenship. We have been united to Jesus Christ. He is our way, He is our dwelling place, He is our bread of life, in whom we will never hunger or thirst again. Church, let us thank the Lord this morning for a love that brings us safely home. And as we turn the page in our photo album, the second photo I want us to see this morning is that this redeeming love is also a love that sets us free. It sets us free. The second photograph of our album is a one that shows us prisoners who are in chains. Look at verse 10. Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in affliction and in irons. Israel knew captivity well. They had known slavery in Egypt. Over and over again, they had been oppressed by invading armies, and then they were in exile in Babylon. They were repeatedly under oppression. Again and again, their bondage was the painful consequence of them turning away from the Lord. Look at verse 11. For they had rebelled against the words of God and had spurned the counsel of the Most High. Their captivity was always a direct result of their rebellion against God and His Word. So, friends, it's not hard. To see our own story in this picture, we too were enslaved not to Egypt or Babylon, but to the power of sin that resides in every human heart. Every one of us has rebelled against God's rightful authority, and as a result, we were held captive by sin, utterly unable to free ourselves. Look at verse 12. So he bowed their hearts down and with hard labor, and they fell down with none to help. With none to help. What a devastating phrase. None to help.

14:04They could not break their own chains, and neither can we. Left to ourselves, there is no escape from the bondage of sin. And so, once again, the turning point comes with a desperate plea. Verse 13, they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. Friends, this is the good news that God delights to rescue those who cry out to him. God delights to set free those who will cry out to him. If you're here this morning and you've never done that, I plead with you, please. Cry out to the only one who can set you free. Verse 14 says, He brought them out of darkness and out of the shadow of death and burst their bonds apart. The God who brought exiles out of darkness is the same God who, through Christ, brings sinners out of the kingdom of darkness and into His marvelous light.

15:03Jesus taught us that we are all in bondage to sin. He says this in John chapter 8: everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. But then he goes on to say in that same chapter: if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. Free indeed. Now, how did He set us free? Oh, friends, let's just, we've sung about it already. Let's just think about it a little bit more. And if this does not stir gratitude in your heart, I don't know what will.

15:34He lived the sinless life that we failed to live. He bore the judgment for sin that we deserve to receive. He took our place on that old rugged cross, satisfying God's righteous wrath against sin. And then he rose again, breaking the chains of death, shattering the bondage of sin. And now, how should we respond? We should respond the way verses 15 and 16 respond. We should thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of men, for he shatters the doors of bronze and he cuts into the bars of iron.

16:16Are you grateful this morning? Are you grateful? A couple of years ago, I saw a documentary about a man who had been wrongfully imprisoned after decades. Behind bars, new evidence, DNA evidence, or something had proved his innocence, and he was finally released. And standing before the cameras and tears streaming down his face, he thanked his family for believing in him and he thanked his lawyer for fighting for justice. He overflowed with gratitude, but he was innocent. We, on the other hand, have been set free despite our guilt.

16:55How much more should we overflow with thanksgiving to God? But if you're like me, gratitude gets crowded out by so many other things in our busy lives. Listen to the Apostle Paul in Romans 6, verse 17. He says, This, but thanks, thanks be to God that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed. Paul was not only stirred to thanksgiving for his own redemption, he was stirred to thanksgiving for the redemption of others. But thanks be to God that you who were once slaves are free.

17:46Oh, we should be the most grateful, thankful people in the world. We don't need a holiday to remind us to give thanks. Friends, if you've never trusted in Christ, Again, you need to understand your predicament. Apart from him, you are locked in a maximum security prison of your own sin, sitting on death row with righteous judgment hanging over your head. Your release date will never come. You cannot escape. You cannot buy your freedom. Unless someone from the outside rescues you, you will perish.

18:22There is only one who can set you free. I beg you to cry out to him today. So, in our family album of redemption here, we've seen a love that brings us home, and now we see a love that sets us free. Let's turn the page one more time and discover the next portrait of God's redeeming love: a love that makes us whole. A love that makes us whole. Look now at the next photograph that the psalmist gives us in verses 17 and 18. Some were fools through their sinful ways, and because of their iniquities, suffered affliction. They loathed any kind of food, and they drew near to the gates of death. That describes an illness, a sickness. They couldn't eat.

19:02They were on their deathbed. Now, unlike the first two predicaments, these people aren't suffering because they got lost or because they're imprisoned by an enemy. They're suffering from the sickness and affliction brought on, according to verse 17, by their own iniquities. Under God's covenant dealings with Israel, rebellion often resulted in physical affliction. And thus, the physical affliction pointed to something deeper. It pointed to a spiritual affliction. A spiritual illness, an illness that we're all born with. You do realize from the moment we are born, from the moment we're conceived, an illness has been passed on to us. We're all infected, infected with a sinful nature. Or, as Jeremiah puts it in Jeremiah 17, verse 9, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick.

20:00Sick. Sin always promises life, but it delivers death. It promises freedom, but leaves us in bondage. It promises satisfaction, but always leaves us emptier than before. That's why the psalm calls these people fools. Fools. It's like an opioid addict. They know the drugs are destroying their bodies and their relationships and ultimately their lives, yet they foolishly keep going back for one more hit. That's the deceitfulness of sin. Humanity keeps returning to the very thing that is destroying us, chasing fleeting pleasures while ignoring the ruin that's being left behind. This is our condition apart from Christ. Left to ourselves, we cannot cure our own condition. We need God to make us whole.

20:56And so, just as we've seen in every picture before, the turning point comes. Comes again with the very same plea, verse 19. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. Doesn't it say something that they keep crying and God keeps delivering? Oh, how great is his steadfast love? Lost people cry out, prisoners cry out, now sick people cry out, and God delights to answer those who cry out to him in humble faith.

21:28Friends, if you've been trying to fix your own illness, fix your own heart, you will never succeed. Just like you couldn't find your way home, and just like you couldn't break your chains, you cannot heal your own soul. You need the one who took our illnesses and bore our diseases, who is Jesus Christ alone. We need Jesus, who in Mark chapter 2, verse 17 said this, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. And if you know the plight of mankind, that's all of us in here. You see, that's what the Pharisees didn't get when Jesus said that to them. They didn't understand that they needed the same physician that the prostitutes and the tax collectors needed. So look now at verse 20 to see how our Savior heals. It says he sent out his word and healed them and delivered them from their destruction. What a beautiful statement. God heals through his word. Psalm 19 says, Says this, the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. Friends, the Bible consistently teaches us that the Spirit of God uses the Word of God to point us to the Son of God who alone can heal our deepest disease, the disease of a depraved heart.

22:50If your faith is in Christ Jesus, rejoice, friends. Rejoice. The sickness of your sin no longer defines you. You have a new heart. You've been made whole. And one day, when Christ returns, your body will be made whole as well. Praise God. That wholeness, that health is not just spiritual, it's physical, but it may not happen on this side of eternity. But we will be made whole. Praise God. Every trace of sin and sickness and sorrow and death will one day be gone forever. So how now shall we respond again, verse 21 and 22? Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man. And let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving and tell of his deeds in songs of joy. Songs of joy. I love that. Grateful people are joyful people. Grateful people are joyful people. Grateful people are singing people.

23:54You can't help it, right? You know, I'm a huge world. Cup soccer. I'm a huge soccer fan, and of course, this is our special time every four years, right? And one thing, I used to go to soccer games when I lived overseas, and one of the things that soccer fans do in the rest of the world that's not so much here in our sports where we have stupid little chants like defense, defense, right? In the soccer world, they sing songs. If you watch a soccer game, you hear it. They're just singing, and they're singing, and they're singing, and they're especially loud when their team is winning. Friends, we are on the winning team. Jesus has won the victory. Let us sing with joy. We should be singing louder than the English fans were singing well before they lost to Argentina.

24:47Singing, proclaiming. So, church, sing, sing of his redeeming love, a love that brings us home, a love that sets us free, and a love that makes us whole. Let's turn to one more page of this amazing family album and discover one more picture. And we'll see that God's redeeming love is a love that gives us peace. A love that gives us peace. Verses 23 through 32. The final photograph in our album takes us aboard a ship. The psalmist introduces us to ordinary merchant sailors who are going about their ordinary days' work. Verse 23, some went down to the sea in ships doing business on the great waters. They saw the deeds of the Lord and his wondrous works in the deep. So they're simply doing. Their work. They're out there amongst God's creation, his nature, doing their work, earning a living, sailing from port to port, when suddenly everything changes, and here comes the predicament in verse 25. For he commanded and raised the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea. I don't miss those first two words, he commanded.

25:50The storm wasn't an accident, it wasn't bad luck, it wasn't outside of God's control. The Lord who commands the storm is also the same Lord that provides the peace. Have you ever been caught on a boat in rough seas? How many of you have ever been, any sailors, anybody who've been on a boat of some sort, a ship, or anything? I've been on a couple of cruises, but the cruise ships are like these gigantic hotels in the water, so that it doesn't really count. I was on a trip to the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador, and we were in a much smaller vessel, and suddenly a storm arose. I don't think I've ever been more scared in my whole life because you feel totally out of control. You can't do anything. I mean, you're flying from this side of the room to that side of the room. You can't control anything. That's when you realize how powerless you are in the middle of the storm.

26:44Some of the Israelites singing this psalm had undoubtedly lived through storms like that described here. Yet every person understands what it feels like when life resembles a storm. The uncertainty, the fear, the feeling that everything we thought we could control. Slipping through our fingers. So listen to the psalmist's picturesque description in verses 26 and 27. He says, They mounted up to the heavens, they went down to the depths, their courage melted away in their evil plight. They reeled and staggered like drunken men who were at their wits' end. At their wits' end. That may be the most relatable phrase in this entire psalm.

27:26Anybody else ever been at their wits' end? You've done everything you know how to do. You've prayed, you've planned, you've worked the problem from every angle, yet the waves keep coming. Storms have a way of exposing how little control we actually have. But once again, the turning point comes with a plea. Verse 28. Then they cried to the Lord of their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. There it is again. Lost people cry out, prisoners cry out, sick people cry out, now terrified sailors cry out. And once again, the Lord hears, verse 29 and 30. He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed. Then they were glad that the waters were quiet, and he brought them to their desired haven. I can't help when I read that but think of another storm.

28:23It's in all the synoptic gospels. Mark 4, for example, Jesus and Disciples were crossing the Sea of Galilee when a furious storm arose. Though several of those disciples were experienced fishermen, they feared for their lives, what the text says. Meanwhile, Jesus, resting in the perfect peace of trusting his father perfectly, was sound asleep. Sound asleep. And when the disciples woke him, Jesus stood up, he rebuked the wind and said to the sea, Peace be still. And immediately there was great calm. And I can only imagine that surely those disciples, when that happened, thought about Psalm 107.

29:14And they knew at that moment that the one who calmed the sea with them in the boat right there is the same one celebrated in Psalm 107. And because he is Lord over every storm, friends, he is able to give us peace when we simply trust in him. I don't know what storm you're facing today. Maybe it's a strained marriage, a prodigal child, a frightening diagnosis, financial uncertainty, or simply the weight of living in this broken world. Jesus never promised his followers a storm-free life, but he did promise to be the one who overcomes the storm on our behalf. John 16:33, this was, you know, when I was a kid, I was in a Christian high school, and I was told I had to have a life verse. I was okay, so I just, I just, I just opened up John and found a life verse, and this was it. But it has been my life verse. Jesus said, This, I have said these things to you, that in me you may have what? Peace. In the world, you will have tribulation, but take heart. I have overcome the world.

30:25It's a pretty good life verse. The promise of the gospel is not that Christ always removes us from the storms. The promise is that he will always be with us and give us peace in the midst of the storm. Don't look to change circumstances for that peace. Don't look to a raise at your job to give you peace. Don't look to others for peace. Don't look within yourself for peace. Look to Jesus Christ alone. And how again should we respond to that peace? Well, verses 31 and 32. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of men. Let them extol him in the congregation of the people and praise him in the assembly of the elders. Notice where this final utterance of praise is centered: in the congregation, in the assembly of the people. One of the ways God strengthens his people is by letting them hear how he is how others have come through storms. Your storm may become someone else's encouragement. Your testimony may become someone else's hope. Consider the infectious nature of corporate thanksgiving described by the Apostle Paul in Colossians chapter 3. Listen to this. Let the peace, there that peace again, let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which you indeed were called in one body and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing, there's that again, psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with what? Thanksgiving in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God, the Father, through him. Brothers and sisters, encourage one another. Bear one another's burdens.

32:27Sing with gratitude to the Lord together. Give thanks together. The peace that Christ has given was never meant to terminate with us alone. It's meant to strengthen the whole body. Get out of our minds this private walk with the Lord, your own personal experience with God. Yes, that exists, but it doesn't exist for you. It exists for others. That you might bless and help make that thanksgiving infectious. Let it spread through this church. So, there we have it. Four snapshots of God's steadfast love. Every photograph is different, different predicaments, yet every picture reveals the same God, our God, a God whose steadfast love never fails. I pray your heart has been stirred with gratitude this morning. Now, there are some more verses in this psalm, but I don't think, yeah, I don't think Pastor Alan wants me to go much longer.

33:39So, in verses 33 through 43, the psalmist simply broadens the lens a little bit and gives us two final sections that reinforce the message. And he shows us this through some sovereign reversals, if you will. The God who rescued his people is the God who overturns every human circumstance, bringing down the proud while lifting up the humble, turning deserts into pools and fruitful lands into wastelands. He is the sovereign God who reverses fortunes according to his sovereign will. So, we don't have time to unpack all of that this morning. So, let's just end with the psalmist's call to wisdom and reflection, the very last verse of the psalm. Whoever is wise, let him attend to these things. Let them consider the steadfast love of the Lord. Church, let us be. Wise, let us slow down long enough to remember and meditate upon and give thanks for the steadfast love of our God.

34:42And now, as we get ready to go into the next section of the worship service where we will be observing the Lord's Supper, in the Lord's Supper, friends, we actually have the greatest portrait of his redeeming love. So, imagine my little book here in the last page has this huge picture of the cross. This is a vivid reminder that you'll experience in a little bit that our Savior's body was broken and his blood was shed for our redemption. That's his redeeming love. And so, as we receive these gifts by faith, let us receive them with hearts overflowing in gratitude. Gratitude that, though we were lost and wandering, he brought us home. Though we were shackled by sin, he set us free. Though we were sick in our rebellion, he made us whole. And though we were storm-tossed in this broken world, he has given us peace. Let's pray.

35:41Father, thank you for your word. Father, if there be any error in my words, then I pray, Father, you would strike it from the memory of everyone in here. But, Lord, whatever was true, Lord, whatever was properly aligned with your infallible word, God. God, let it sink deep into our hearts and let thanksgiving and gratitude flow from our hearts and infect all of those around us. Because, God, we thank you for your redeeming love. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.

36:20Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.