By “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
Psalm 107:1-2
for his steadfast love endures forever!
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,
whom he has redeemed from trouble”
This Old Testament Psalm was sung by the Israelites to give thanks to the Lord for deliverance from their adversaries (v.2). As we read this Psalm today, we must be reminded of the deliverance that God brought to us from our sin.
The Psalm recounts four different scenarios of salvation from a certain danger. In verses 4-9 God leads the hungry and thirsty wanderer into a city. In verses 10-16 a prisoner is set free by God from his chains. A sick and dying man is healed in verses 17-22 and finally, in verses 23-32 the Lord rescues sailors from imminent death in a billowing storm.
All four illustrations follow the same procedure. There is the predicament (“Some sat in darkness … prisoners in affliction and in irons”), then there is the petition (“Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble”), then follows the pardoning (“and He delivered them from their distress”) and finally it all results in praise to God (“Let them thank the LORD for His steadfast love, for His wondrous works to the children of man”).
This Psalm then reminds the Christian of the predicament brought upon himself—the consequences for his sin. Secondly, we are reminded that we brought our predicament to God, in a state of despair, faced with inevitable, just death. Then we acknowledged our own and others’ inability to relieve us of our terrible burden. Thirdly, God responded to us, the desperate prodigals, with a most wonderful pardon, undeserved. And finally, we responded with a praise of awe and appreciation which John Newton referenced, “How precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed.”
May we then remember how the Lord bowed our hearts, how we fell down with none to help, how we cried to Him in our distress, how He delivered us from our bondage and that we, the redeemed of the Lord, must thank Him for His goodness and His steadfast love, for His wondrous works to the children of man.