So as we wrap up this year, we are going to be in Psalm 107 today, and then next week we will begin a short stint in Nehemiah, and then we'll be headed back to 1 Corinthians to finish out 1 Corinthians over the course of much of 2025. But, this morning, finishing up, as you know, in between books, in between different series that we've done, we've been in the Psalms and thought we would finish this year and going to do Psalm 107. I know there are a few in this room who enjoy biographies of missionaries or great men, women of the faith that are examples. There's a few of them. Alexander Duff is not one that most people know. Alexander Duff was a Scottish pastor and he was a missionary who was sent to India. On October 14th of 1829, he and his wife boarded a ship called the Lady Holland, and four months later, on the 13th of February, sometime around midnight, the ship struck ground while trying to navigate the Cape of Good Hope. I always laugh because Cape of Good Hope, southern peninsula of Africa, notorious for bad weather. It's kind of where the South Atlantic and the Indian Ocean come together. And so they struck land. The pounding waves destroyed the ship. Miraculously, every crew member and every passenger survived and made it to shore. But all the cargo was lost. There was a sailor who was trying to find fuel or food who happened to come across two books. One book was the Scottish Psalm book and the other book was a Bible. And he looked inside and it happened to have the name of Alexander Duff on it. So, he quickly brought it to the missionary. Now, if you're headed to India to start a college and you've got a cargo of 800 books and it's all gone, it makes it difficult to start college, does it not? Eventually, the Lord did provide it. And that became a reality. However, when Mr. Duff received the Bible, he brought everybody around him and he read Psalm 107. Of all the passages in Scripture, why would Psalm 107 come to mind? Well, there is a sense that the last section deals with those who are at sea. But I actually believe it's because the psalm causes us or encourages us to pause, reflect, and praise the Lord for His work in the midst of many dangers, toils, and snares that we face as children of the living God. If you know anything about the psalm, Psalm 105, 106, 107 is a trilogy. recounts Israel's experience from the time of God's covenant with Abraham to their entrance into the Promised Land. And then 106 reminds them of their unfaithfulness during that same time period and reflects the years of their exile to Babylon. And then 107 recounts and thanks God for their deliverance from exile. I don't know about you, but I find it hard to relate to being in exile. It's not what we think about here. But our citizenship is in heaven. One day we will live with Jesus in a new city on a new earth and all things will be restored. We will no longer be cast out of the garden, but the culture that we live in right now is very different from that true home. We're called to be ambassadors. Sadly, I know I can't speak for you, but I wonder if I love this temporary home more than I should. See, the experiences recounted in 107, though, are common to our own. As a church, as Redemption Fellowship, we have been in a couple of temporary locations over the last few years. When we first said that we were going to move, we said it was going to become a nomadic experience. We did not know that it was going to be as nomadic as it has been. We left a place that had been our home for 17 years, and now it appears that as we move into this next year, the Lord is graciously providing a place that we can call home. So I thought Psalm 107 would be a great way to finish out this year because we are spiritual exiles in a sense, living in a secular culture, and the culture around us stands in overt opposition to the things of the Lord. That's reality. And yet the Lord has faithfully protected us, He's provided for us, He's guided us. So as we look at Psalm 107, I encourage you to look with me, beginning in verse 1. Psalmist writes, O 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, from the north and from the south." This call to praise should cause us to ask a single question, a very distinct question, am I among the redeemed? Am I one that's been delivered from sin? Am I one who's been gathered from my own aimless secular wandering from the north, from the south, the east, the west, to be part of God's well-loved, well-grounded, well-established covenant people? I know most of those in this room can answer yes. We know we've been redeemed from sin. That means we should follow suit. Thank God for our redemption. He is good and His steadfast love endures forever. And so, in hopes of encouraging us, the redeemed, this morning, we're going to walk through the four sections of Psalm 107. They provide a poetic picture of a deadly uncertainty common to people. but apart from God that delivers people, we're in trouble. Each of these sections depicts our spiritual condition apart from the Lord Jesus, and it also foreshadows the hope of Christ. So, let's look at these four sections, beginning in verse 4. The first picture of uncertainty and danger described here in this psalm is that of being homeless or lost. says, some wandered in desert wastes, finding no way to a city to dwell in, hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them. And then they cried to the Lord in their trouble and He delivered them from their distress. He led them by a straight way until they reached a city to dwell in. Let them thank the Lord for His steadfast love, for His wondrous works to the children of man. for He satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul He fills with good things." See, God's people were without homes. They were nomads. They would have to tear down and set their camp back up, which included a place where the Lord would dwell with them. They were lost, wandering in the desert without a home for decades. Now, though it hasn't been decades, it's been similar, having to set up and tear down, but there is a spiritual dimension which is much more important to consider. Friends, we are homeless without God. He's our true home, and apart from His work in our lives, we are like the prodigal son who left his father's home to squander an inheritance in a far-off country. For that wayward son, salvation began when he realized where he was at. He confessed his sin, he returned to his Father. Very similar to that first question, have you returned to God crying out, Father, I've sinned against You? That brings us to the second picture. There's a danger described in this psalm that describes the distress of the prisoners. Verse 10, some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in afflictions and in irons, for they had rebelled against the words of God and spurned the counsel of the Most High. So, He bowed their hearts down with hard labor. They fell down with none to help, and then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and burst their bonds apart. Let them thank the Lord for His steadfast love, for His wondrous works to the children of man, for He shatters the doors of bronze and cuts into the bars of iron." Now, there might only be a few of us here who can directly relate to being behind bars, but all who are Christians can speak of being delivered from the bondage of sin. See, in Luke 4, 16 through 20, there's an account of Jesus teaching the Israelites that may be familiar to you. But I put it up here. Luke writes, And he came to Nazareth, where he had had Bren brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day. And he stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written. And Jesus said, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. And He rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And then the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him, and He began to say to them, Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." And if you know the story, that caused great hatred. See, the prison of being in bondage to sin is what Jesus seems to have in mind there. We never see in Scripture Jesus freeing anyone from a literal prison. It doesn't exist. It doesn't mean it didn't happen. It's just not recorded. But He has freed everyone who has ever believed in Him from sin's chains. We have been slaves to sin. But friends, by His atoning death, we've been set free. Each of us can say with the psalmist, here in verse 11, for they had rebelled against the words of God and spurned the counsel of the Most High. Shouldn't we then thank God that He has, as it says in verse 14, brought us out of darkness and the shadow of death and burst our bonds apart? Each one of us here has resisted the Lord, but Jesus has shown Himself to be all-powerful. Let us thank the Lord for His steadfast love. That brings us to the third picture. Describes the way that we have been healed from having suffered affliction because of our sin. Verse 17, some were fools through their sinful ways and because of their iniquity suffered affliction. They loathed any kind of food and they drew near to the gates of death. And then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress. He sent out His Word and healed them and delivered them from their destruction." Friends, this describes an illness so great that they drew near the gates of death. Now there's some here who have experienced that type of physical deliverance, either having been rescued from cancer or other severe physical illness or pain. But it also speaks of a spiritual sickness that's only cured through God's Word, friends. His Word is the only thing that can heal us. We were once spiritually blind, but now we see. His Word is the only thing that has life. According to Scripture, our condition apart from Christ is far worse than being sick. Ephesians 2.1 says that we were dead, unable to respond or to seek God. Paul writes, and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. But see, when God speaks to our hearts, We experience a spiritual resurrection just as Lazarus did when Jesus called him from the tomb. The Apostle Peter spoke of being born again. He said, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable through the living and abiding Word of God. See, as Christians, as followers of the Lord Jesus, those who have been born again, we have been saved from our destruction, as it says in verse 20. He delivered them from their destruction. And so what are we to do? Verse 21, 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. This is our motivation for giving and serving, friends, right here. We give and we serve out of gratitude to the Lord for His said fast love. And that brings us to the fourth picture, potentially the most poetic, potentially the most beautiful picture in the psalm. It pictures the danger God's people faced while at sea. Verse 23. Some went down to the sea in ships, doing business on the great waters. They saw the deeds of the Lord, His wondrous works in the deep. For He commanded and raised a stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea. They mounted up to heaven. They went down to the depths. Their courage melted away in their evil plight. They reeled, and they staggered like drunken men, and they were at their wits' end. And then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress. He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed. And then they were glad that the waters were quiet, and He brought them to their desired haven." Now, for those that are born in Colorado, you're landlocked. There's no sea. Years ago, I had the privilege of taking a delegation of athletes to compete down in the Mediterranean. We also competed in the Caribbean. And it was notorious that one of the athletes' fathers and I would find ways to experience what local fishermen experienced. And while we were in the Caribbean, we thought it was a good idea to convince some fishermen that we should go out and catch fish and actually have a real kind of fish fry on the beach. So we couldn't find a big ship, so we found a couple of dudes who had an 18-foot little dinghy. And we thought it was a good idea to go out in that thing and fish. Well, we finally made our way around the peninsula, and this has a single outboard motor, no oars, and we're about three or four miles off the coast in a little 18-foot boat. Not the best of ideas. We realized that these two men were unfazed. We were sick. Now, they asked for help with the anchor and with, we're going to call it fishing gear. So I went up to the front of the boat to help with the anchor. I found a bunch of rusted Folgers cans filled with concrete with rope. I'm not joking, I knew there was not enough rope to hit the bottom of the sea as far out as we were. So I'm not sure what they thought that thing was going to do. At the same time, the father, his name's Dan, he realized the same thing because the weights that he was putting on the fishing line were simply rusted spark plugs. So, he called me. The look on his face was he was looking and holding this spark plug and I showed him the anchor. Now, Dan was a short, happy-go-lucky, jolly Irishman who was pretty ruddy and his face went white. We knew we were in trouble. And for two hours, We were in the middle of the ocean, literally at times being tossed in the air, just kind of hitting the ground. By God's grace, we caught fish after fish after fish. And we lived to tell about it. We got back to shore and we decided we would never do that again. See, these verses hit home when you've experienced what it's like for waves to go to heaven or down to the depths. Here, it's hard. But I'm confident that there's many been in a situation when it says you were at your wits end and your only hope was to cry out to the Lord for deliverance It could have been a health issue. It could be serious financial problem. It could be personality conflict at work. It could be a battle within your family. Here's how we're called to respond when we're delivered from those types of situations. Verse 31. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man. Let them extol Him in the congregation of the people and praise Him in the assembly of the elders." Friends, there's nothing more beautiful when the people of God witness publicly about His wondrous works. In a world that is opposed to Him, in a world that thinks everything is by chance, it is beautiful when the people of God extol praises to Him, especially in the midst of danger. Now, did you notice that that refrain is repeated four times in the Psalm? How do we extol Him publicly? Well, the best way is to offer God ourselves and let others know about Him. The Apostle Paul, Romans 12, 1, wrote, I appeal to you therefore, brothers, and by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a spiritual sacrifice, a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. There are simple ways we can do this. When a presentation at work or school goes well, we can praise him for his grace in our lives, showing favor. rather than boasting of our own effort. Did we work to put it together? Does Dr. Lyle work to put together the things that he does? Some things that just comes to him in his sleep. I don't think that's the way that it happened. But he uses the gifts and the talents and the abilities that the Lord designed him with. What about a promotion? I see Sammy. It's so good to see you. Wonderful to have you here. Knowing that you finished the top of your class and now are stationed in Hawaii because that's where you chose to be. Did you do that? She's like, yeah. She used the gifts and the talents that the Lord gave her. Whether it's a promotion, or a role in a play, or a position on a sports team, or purchasing a house, or getting into college, we have opportunities every day to let, to allow people to know the Lord's been kind to us. The world does not do that. The world boasts in their own effort. It is not hard in social media, especially in LinkedIn, to see people boast about their own effort. If you really want to let people know, share the truth of what it felt like to be lost and alone and without hope. But don't stop there. Share the joy of having hope, being included in his family, Friends, the Bible describes Jesus as the perfect groom. That means we're the bride. I don't know many brides who don't let anyone know they were married. Anybody? Anybody, you know, gotten married and said, no, no, we're not gonna tell anybody? It's just not the way that it works. As we move into this final section, we get to witness a degree of honesty and depth and spiritual sensitivity that I think we are often afraid to share. See, the psalmist points out that not everything the people of God experience seems like deliverance or things that should be utter joy. Look at verse 33. He turns rivers into a desert, springs of water into thirsty ground, a fruitful land into a salty waste because of the evil of its inhabitants. He turns a desert into pools of water, a parched land and springs of water, and there He lets the hungry dwell. and they establish a city to live in. They sow fields and plant vineyards and get a fruitful yield. By His blessing, they multiply greatly, and He does not let their livestock diminish. But when they are diminished and brought low through oppression, evil, and sorrow, He pours contempt on princes and makes them wander in trackless wastes. but he raises up the needy out of affliction and makes their families like flocks. The upright see it and are glad and all wickedness shuts its mouth. He says, whoever is wise, let him attend to these things. Let them consider the steadfast love of the Lord. It's safe to say that life has pains and trials, tribulations, challenges. Yet in spite of them, we are instructed to praise the Lord for His wisdom, for His goodness. By seeing God's loving, sovereign hand in the hardships that we face, the ups and downs, the successes and failures, the prosperity and the adversity, they're all under the control and brought about by the will of the Almighty God. All of them. So how do we apply this to our lives? as a way to be encouraged. I want to share five ways I believe this psalm in particular encourages to pause and reflect and praise the Lord in the middle of our dangers and toils and snares that impact our lives. As we walk through each of these I encourage you to consider what work you must do in your own life, in your own heart, in your own mind. But then consider the abundant opportunities around us to remind others of God's steadfast love, care, and grace in the midst of hardship. So first, focus on reverence for God. Throughout the psalm, we're instructed to thank the Lord for His steadfast love. Lord is capitalized, which means it's Yahweh, which means it's reminding us of the covenant keeping God. Since God's ways are not our ways and His ultimate purposes are generally beyond our own understanding, humbly submit to Him as Lord, as God over all, knowing He will faithfully fulfill all that He has promised to do. The Apostle Paul ended the third section of Romans by describing God's choice to bypass the majority of Jewish people in order to bring the gospel to Gentiles. And then he promised one day to work among the Jews to save them. But listen to the way he responds to this truth. He doesn't boast in his understanding, but instead he breaks into a doxology. He says in Romans, Oh, the depths of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God, how unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable are His ways. For who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been His counselor or who has given a gift to Him that He might be repaid? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen. See, there's nothing wrong with trying to understand God's ways. His judgments, His blessings, His mind. But we should always remember that the way He works will be beyond our own understanding, and we need to be okay with that. I encourage you to ask yourself this week, as you think about the year to come, am I okay with trusting God to be God? What if I don't get the job I want? What if my health doesn't improve? What about when our vehicles don't start? What if our marriage challenges only improve slightly? What if our children get into serious trouble? What if the Lord doesn't bring me a spouse I so desperately desire? Am I okay to trust God to be God? Am I okay knowing that what I'm walking through is designed for good and ultimately His glory? Am I willing to be content with and rejoice over the things He has already graciously provided? It's not wrong to desire help. or working vehicles or solid marriages or a spouse. It's not wrong to ask God for those things. As a loving father, he wants us to communicate with him. He wants us to share our desires. I believe it's why he's so graciously made himself accessible in prayer. He says, bring your desires to me. Ask me to be content with the things you have. But am I okay with God being God? Second, follow the example given in this psalm to cry to the Lord in your trouble. Look at the repeated phrase in verse 6, 13, 19, and 28. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress. Now, when you read that at face value, it sounds like they cry for help and God responds. But if you know Scripture, deliverance wasn't always immediate. God's people spent over 400 years in captivity. They were overthrown by their enemies. They wandered about the desert for decades until a generation of people died. God's people encountered hardship after hardship, and yet Scripture says, then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress. In your distress, cry to the Lord. If you know someone in distress, cry out to the Lord with them. Sometimes the best way to minister and care for people is to pray with them. and encourage them that the sovereign Lord of all things, our covenant-keeping God, loves them dearly. It's okay to cry with them. It's okay to remind them that sometimes God's promises don't come to be right away. See, in our minds, we can know that God is sovereign. In our mind, we can know that God's already delivered us from our greatest distress. But in the midst of pain and trial, that's hard to internalize. When you're facing severe illness, when your marriage is in crisis, your mind doesn't naturally say, oh yeah, but I've been redeemed from my greatest trouble. We have pain. And we have an opportunity to come alongside people and pray and care and minister to folks. And that brings us to the third way we can apply this psalm. Seek eternal things. See, we should look beyond the seen to the unseen, to the eternal. It's what it means to walk in faith, right? Abraham is an example of someone who did this. Listen to the writer of Hebrews in 1110. He talks about old Abe's lifetime of walking in faith. He says, for he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. Because we know that God is both good and sovereign, we can seek an eternal perspective during the ups and downs. God loves us unconditionally, and because He does through the Holy Spirit, He comforts and He preserves and He guides. That's why we're instructed in verse 43 to consider the steadfast love of the Lord. Fourth, invite sinners to repent. Knowing and trusting in the goodness of God should result in a desperate desire for us to share the truth of who He is and what He's done with those who do not know Him. We are called to warn those who naturally desire to suppress the truth, boldly warn them that persisting in sin will result in eternal condemnation, But ask the Lord to increase our willingness, our desire, commit to share the gospel unashamedly, unreservedly, relentlessly. It can be easy to overlook, but there's a forward-looking Christ foreshadowing element to each of the phrases here that results from the Lord's deliverance that we looked at a moment ago. Take a look at them. In verse 7, listen for Christ here. It says, He led them by a straight way. In verse 14. It says, He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death and burst their bonds apart. In verse 20, it says, He sent out His word and He healed them. He delivered them from their destruction. And then in 29, He made the storm be still and the waves of the sea were hushed. Friends, this psalm talks about Christ just as much as it talks about the Israelites' own experience. Share the good news with people. Offer others hope. And lastly, the fifth way, it's repeated multiple times, be persistently grateful. Allow our lives to be characterized by gratitude towards God for being who he is and for acting as he does towards us. The Apostle Paul in Philippians put it this way, In everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. See, despite after being shipwrecked during a four-month journey while headed to India, with the entire cargo of books, the entire purpose of him going, now set aside. Alexander Duff was given his Bible, and he opened it up and read this psalm. And it finishes with, whoever is wise, let him attend to these things. Let them consider the steadfast love of the Lord. So to what degree are we able to do that? See, what matters most in life is not the trials, or the tribulations, or the challenges, or the perils that we face, or even being delivered from them. What matters most is whether or not we are actually in the hands of the sovereign God, whose steadfast love never ceases. That's what matters most. If we are His, we can consider these things as Psalm 107 encourages us to do. So let's pray and then sing praises to our great loving God who is sovereign over all things and through his shed blood, death and resurrection of his son Jesus has redeemed us from the greatest trouble ever, our sin. Father God, throughout history you have caused your people to experience joy and pain. Lord, we live in a very comfortable place. Sometimes it's hard to think about these types of situations. prisoners afflicted, people wandering, and yet that's the truth of what we face. Our hearts were bound. We were in bondage. The Lord, Your Word says not to be conformed to this world may be transformed by the renewing of our mind. Lord, I pray that this year you would renew our mind. You would allow us to see things with an eternal perspective. Lord, that you would help us through your Holy Spirit to cry to the Lord in our distress, to trust that deliverance will come. Lord, help us to thank You for Your unending, steadfast love, for the wondrous works that You have done to us, for us. Lord, thank You. Let You be glorified in us this coming year. In Jesus' name, Amen.