Psalm 107 Part 6 

I can’t move on from this beautiful, artistic, and fascinating psalm without one more ‘meditation’. After a three-verse introduction, there are four stanzas, each beginning with the word ‘some’ and each ending with ‘let them praise the Lord.’ Then the last 10 verses offer a conclusion with a very surprising twist. At first glance, the four stanzas seem to describe four different types of people: wanders who get lost in the desert, prisoners condemned to hopelessness, sufferers in incurable illness, and sailors about to be shipwrecked. The psalmist (Ezra I think) was using all four images to describe Israel. However, they all can describe us as well.  

 The NT presents Jesus as the answer to all four situations. He is the way for lost wanderers (John 14:6). He is the deliverer who breaks the chains of sin and declares there is no condemnation for hopeless prisoners (Rom 8:1). He is the Great Physician (Luke 5:31), bringing relief for sufferers. He is the storm calmer for those about to sink beneath the waves (Mark4:39-41). If Christ has rescued you from any of these four situations, then your natural response should be as the fourfold response in each stanza (vs8,15,21,31) 

It was in a storm like mentioned in vs23-28 that John Newton experienced God’s amazing grace in 1748. He called on the Lord, and God revealed Himself. Newton later wrote the famous ‘Amazing Grace’ hymn. God calmed the storm’s in Newton’s life, making them die down to a whisper. Sometimes we forget that God wants to show us not only His amazing grace but also his ability to calm the storms in our life. What storms are you facing in your life today? Call out to God to help you through them. 

In the last verse, the psalmist wants to make sure we don’t miss the point: God saves us, and He does it over and over again in many different ways. His grace is truly amazing. His salvation is so wonderful that it spills over into all our life. In all our life’s we can detect everywhere the lovingkindness of the Lord. Selah