GOD’S WONDERFUL WORKS (2)

“Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness, and for His WONDERFUL WORKS to the children of men!” – Psalm 107:8

Our thanksgiving may be considered to be incomplete if they’re oblivious of GOD’S WONDERFUL WORKS: “Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness, and for His WONDERFUL WORKS to the children of men!” (Psa.107:8). This Psalm is a song of thanksgiving to God, who has been merciful to His people and gathered all who were lost. It speaks of God’s deliverance to returning captives. The psalmist passionately pleaded with his listeners to give thanks to God, and for a good reason – because He is good and merciful! His goodness was then revealed throughout the rest of the psalm. The phrase “for His mercy endures forever” implies that God’s Mercy had no beginning, and shall never know an end.

Following the opening Call to Thanksgiving, the psalmist invited God’s people – those redeemed by His enduring mercy – to declare that they were redeemed: “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy, and gathered out of the lands” (vv.2-3a). It would be ungrateful and wrong to be silent about so great a work of redemption from the world, the flesh, the devil, and countless other snares. The psalm goes on to describe four distinct aspects of God’s redemption rescue to: the lost in the wilderness (vv.4-9); the bound and afflicted in darkness (vv.10-16); the sick and dying (vv.17-22); and the storm-tossed on dangerous seas (vv.23-32). All the redeemed of the LORD must say so.

God’s goodness is seen in His deliverance to returning captives: “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 distresses” (vv.4-6). The people were lost in the worst possible place, even as the sinner is who is lost in sin; they wandered up and down in vain searches and researches as a sinner does when he or she is awakened and sees his or her lost estate; but it ended in nothing. God still delivers the deserted and leads the wanderers – those lost in the world’s wilderness – from an endless maze of desolation.

In dire hunger and thirst, the redeemed cried out to the LORD, and He answered, and delivered them out of their distresses (v.5). He “led them forth by the right way… to a city for a dwelling place” (v.7); better than any modern navigation systems. Just as there were the hungry and thirsty in the wilderness, there is also a longing in the human soul, craving satisfaction: “For He satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness” (v.9). God’s still delivers the spiritually lost, and satiates thirsty and hungry souls with goodness. Mary, the mother of Jesus appears to have quoted verse 9 in her song “He has filled the hungry with good things” (Lk.1:53).  This portrays her as a woman who knew and loved God’s Word.

Verses 10-16 describe deliverance for the captives: those who were bound and afflicted “in darkness and in the shadow of death” (v.10a). Some of God’s people were imprisoned because they “rebelled against the words of God and despised the counsel of the most High” (v.11). His Mercy however answered to their cry for help, with salvation “out of their distresses” (v.13); deliverance “out of darkness” and liberty from the chains of bondage (v.14). God “broke the gates of bronze, and cut the bars of iron in two” so that His people could return as He gathered them (v.16).

Verses 17-22 describe deliverance for the sick and dying, although though their trouble was self-afflicted – traceable to their foolishness, iniquity, and transgression. Even those who were “near to the gates of death” still obtained Mercy (v.18). They were healed and delivered from destruction, by the power of God’s Word, reminding us of the many times Jesus healed people simply by speaking a word. May we always enjoy God’s Wonderful Works through His Wonder-working Word!