Psalm 107

How can _____ People Get Help? Psalm 107 Have you ever asked yourself why bad things happen to people? It doesn’t matter if we are talking about good people, bad people, indifferent people or dumb people. Bad things happen in this broken world period. This Psalm walks through every category, at least from a 1,000 foot perspective, of suffering. God uses this song to teach us about people from the North, the South, the East, and the West. In other words people in every direction and in every land. It is most likely speaking directly to the Jews hoping to return from exile but it applies to every single person on the planet all the same. The first part of the Psalm gives four different types of people. Folks stuck out in the desert with no way to get better, Psalm 107:4-9, that is until God guides them to a place that has food and shelter and fills their soul with good things. The second group in verses 10-16 are in prison because they didn’t listen, but when their struggles caused them to listen to the Lord, He set them free. Some people are sick because they choose sin over service to the Lord but when that sickness causes them to call out to God, He heals them (Psalm 107:17-22). The final group mentioned are people that are just trying to navigate the waters of a confusing and deadly world. They are lost just like the people in the desert, the only difference is their place of lostness is the sea that is storming, hard not to think of Jesus and the Apostles here huh? (Psalm 107:23-32). The amazing part of this Psalm is that each group regardless of whether they are trouble because of the world or themselves have the same remedy set before them. To be healed, found, set free or rescued there is only ONE solution, “then they cried to the Lord.” See if you can find the four times in these sections that this phrase is repeated. The point seems to be that, it does not matter how you got into trouble, the way out is the same and the direction you are coming from does NOT matter! Cry out to the Lord and find help! And God’s response will be the same to you whether you are in your own trouble or trouble that you did not cause. Basically, it does not matter who made the mess, only God can clean it up for you. Psalm 107:33-43 gives a big broad picture of all of mankind for all of time. It is a cycle of blessing that leads to pride which leads to punishment which leads to repentance which leads to blessing which leads to complacency which leads to pride which leads to rebellion which leads to punishment which leads to...well you get the idea, go read the book of Judges and see what I mean. This is the story of humanity from the beginning. Adam and Eve lived in a perfect garden but being people in a perfect garden was boring for them so they chose to try to be gods themselves. They weren’t happy with just enjoying God’s blessings they wanted to decide what to eat themselves. Anyway that’s a whole nother topic but you get the point. We are never satisfied with this world, only God can satisfy and when we forget that, He has to remind us. So who should sing out and praise God for His redemption? What type of people need to be redeemed? People. People need to be redeemed it does not matter who we are or where we are from we need the Lord Jesus to redeem us out of our troubles and set our feet toward Heaven! #readbibledaily #biblestudy #psalm107 #hope #depression #slave #freedom