Despair to Hope

Welcome to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in Morning Sun, Iowa. Check us out online at www.sharonrpc.org. We pray that this message will be a blessing to you and that the Lord will use it to transform your faith and your life. Well, good morning and welcome to Coffee and Devotions. It is Wednesday morning. Thanks so much for joining me today. This is where every day we get together, we get into God's word, and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2021, we will make it through all of the wisdom literature. And we are trucking ourselves along through here.
So it is Psalm 107 today. Did you know that the book of Psalms is traditionally, in the Hebrew scriptures, broken up into five different books? So 150 Psalms broken up into five different books and congratulations, you have made it to the final book, book five of the Psalter. So Psalm 107, why don't we go ahead and have some coffee, we'll pray and we'll get into God's word.
Let's pray. Father, we thank you. We thank you for your word. We pray that we might have ears to hear. We pray that we might have hearts to believe. We pray that your spirit would be working in us as we read your word in Jesus's name, amen. All right, here we go, Psalm 107.
Let's turn over there to our Psalm book. Oh, real quick, you know I don't ask you this very often. If this is helpful to you, hit that like button. Let the algorithms of the internet know that this is helpful content to you. All right, here we go, Psalm 107. O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he has redeemed from the hand of the enemy. And they gathered out of the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south. They wandered in the wilderness in a desolate way. They found no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them.
Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them out of their distress. He and He led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city for a dwelling place. Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful works to the children of men. For He satisfies the longing soul and fills the hungry soul with goodness. Those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death bound in affliction and irons because they rebelled against the words of God and despised the counsel of the Most High.
Therefore, He brought down their heart with labor. And they fell down, and there was no help. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distress. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death and broke their chains in pieces.
Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful works to the children of men. For He has broken the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron in two. Fools, because of their transgression and because of their iniquities, were afflicted. Their soul abhorred all manner 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. He sent His word and healed them and delivered them from their destructions.
Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful works to the children of men. Let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving and declare His works with rejoicing. Those who go down to the sea in ships, who do business on great waters, they see the works of the Lord and His wonders in the deep. For he commands and raises the windy storm, which lifts up the waves of the sea.
They mount up to the heavens, and they go down again to the depths. Their souls melt because of trouble. They reel to and fro and stagger like drunken men and are at their wit's end. Then they cry out to the Lord in their trouble, and he brings them out of their distress. He calms the storm so that the waves are still. Then they are glad because they are quiet. So he guides them to their desired haven. Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men. Let them exalt him also in the assembly of the people and praise him in the company of the elders.
He turns rivers into the wilderness and the water springs into dry ground, a fruitful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of those who dwell in it. He turns a wilderness into pools of water, and dried land into water springs. There he makes the hungry dwell, that they may establish a city for a dwelling place, and sow fields and plant vineyards, that they may yield a fruitful harvest. He also blesses them, and they multiply greatly, and he does not let their cattle decrease. when they are diminished and brought low, through oppression, affliction, and sorrow, he pours contempt on princes and causes them to wander in the wilderness where there is no way. Yet he sets the poor on high, far from affliction, and makes their families like a flock. The righteous see it and rejoice, and all iniquity stops its mouth. Whoever is wise will observe these things, and they will understand the loving kindness of the Lord."
Well, that's a long passage for us today. Let's quickly ask ourselves, A, what is this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do in response to this? Like normal, I'm going to leave the B to you. Let me know what you think is the best verse to summarize this passage down in the comments. Let me know that. But let's go ahead and look here.
What is he talking about? in this passage. Well, give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his mercies endures forever. And then we go through a series of trial and tribulation, distress and hardship, iniquity and sin, followed by God's deliverance, peace, and mercy. And we see this in a few different times, don't we? We see this in the wilderness. This is what it says in verses four through 16. This is the wilderness experience that God is talking about here in those passages.
And then he talks about in verses 17 to 22, fools because of their transgressions and because of their iniquities were afflicted. Their soul of poor is all matter of food. And he talks about people who are in their sin, Let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving and declare his works with rejoicing. Do you see it's this pattern here of darkness and gloom, sin and something wrong, trial and something in flux, followed by deliverance. followed by praise, followed by trusting on the Lord. We find that in verse 23 down through verse 32. By the way, this is one of my favorite parts of the entire Psalms. I'm a sailor, right? I lived for four years on a boat. I loved it. I would have spent 20 years if the Lord hadn't called me to study his word and do this with people.
But it's talking about God. with the sailors as they go to the ships and as they're fraught with trouble as the seas go up, lifting them up into the heavens and then straight down into the depths. Have you ever seen this? Have you ever watched a show like the Alaskan crab fishing shows on Discovery Channel? These little boats were lifted high up into the air and go straight down into the bottom of the swells. It's amazing that they stay afloat and the danger that they find themselves in. I love the messianic picture that we have here in this passage, too.
When the disciples got in that boat and they were going across the Lake of Galilee, and as they were going, a megastorm came upon them, and the ship was being swamped. And they wake up, Jesus waking them up, you know, don't you care about us? We're going to die. And Jesus gets up, and he rebukes the wind and the waves, and he says, be still.
And there's a mega calm, a great calm. And the disciples with open mouths gasp, what sort of man is this that even the waves and the wind obey him? Notice here. Notice here. Verse 28, then they cry out to the Lord in their trouble and he brings them out of their distress. He calms the storm. so that his waves are still. This is the work that God does. This is the work that Jesus did.
He goes on still for another dozen verses or so, right? He turns rivers into wilderness and water springs into dry ground. He also blesses them and they multiply greatly and he does not let their cattle decrease. Do you see? He's the one who brings calamity, but he also brings wellsprings. He's the one who shows mercy upon mercy. When they are diminished and brought low through oppression and affliction and sorrow, verse 39, he pours contempt on princes and causes them to wander in the wilderness where there is no way. He sets the poor on high from affliction and makes their families like a flock.
The righteous see it and rejoice and all iniquity stops its mouth. This is the messianic trajectory that God gives. This is what the Lord does. He loves to do this. He turns the world on its head. He takes the lowly things of the world and he exalts them. He takes the small things and makes them great. He takes affliction and he turns it into blessing.
I don't think we need to look further than The story of Joseph, or the story of Jesus to see that. I think that's what we can rest in. That God's grace is sufficient for us. That we rest in who he is, knowing that this is the way he does things. The world doesn't like it. The world doesn't understand it. But we who trust in God stand in awe, knowing that he's got it all under control.
Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. We pray that we would trust you, that we would follow you, that we would know that in the deepest of darkness, that the light shines the brightest. Give us hope. Let us know in our affliction that you are God. In Jesus' name, amen. May the Lord bless you today. May he fill you with peace. And I'll see you tomorrow. Bye.
Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue, Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.