PSALM 107 PART 3
THE PEOPLE OF THE CONGREGATION
PLEASE TURN TO PSALM 107 OR TO THE TRANSLATION OF PSALM 107 WHICH I PREPARED FOR YOU.
I SHALL READ VERSES 32-43.
This section describes true Christians, the people of the congregation who gather regularly in churches to praise the Lord.
5. SAINTS OR SANCTUARY DWELLERS (VERSES 32-43)
32. There are those who lift Him high (once) in the congregation (once) of the people (once), and praise (once) Him in the assembly (once) of the elders (once).
33. He changes rivers into deserts, and springs of water into parched ground,
34. A land of fruit into salt flats because of the wickedness of those who dwell there.
35. He changes deserts into pools of water, and parched earth into springs of water.
36. There he makes the hungry dwell, and they establish a city in which to dwell
37. They sow fields, and plant vineyards, and harvest a fruitful yield.
38. He blesses them, and they multiply greatly, and He does not allow their cattle to decrease.
39. Again (Notice the two cycles.) they are diminished and brought low through oppression, affliction, and trouble.
40. He pours contempt upon princes, and causes them to wander in a trackless wasteland.
41. The poor, however, He lifts up from affliction, and makes his clans like lambs.
42. The upright (first) see, and rejoice, but every iniquitous person shuts his mouth.
43. Whoever is wise will pay attention to these things, and will understand the lovingkindness (mercy, goodness) (2-6) of the Lord.
Notice that in this fifth section there are two cycles in and out of trouble. Notice also that the troubles come because of the sins and errors of others (primarily ungodly political leaders), not because of the sins of the righteous. Notice also that after verse 34 and after verse 40 there is no mention crying out to God as in previous sections. These people do not practice fox-hole religion.
Let me repeat what I said when I first began this series of sermons on Psalm 107.
Do you have friends and relatives who have little time for Jesus Christ? Do you have friends and relatives, both men and women, who think that they are macho, and who think that Christianity is for sissies, and not for macho men and women such as they think they are? Do you have neighbors who, if you invited them to come to Sunday School and church with you Sunday morning, would tell you that Sunday morning is the only morning that they have to sleep in; but they would get up before dawn on a Sunday morning to drive hundreds of miles to go hunting and/or fishing? Do you have friends, neighbors, or relatives, who really see no practical purpose for being a Christian? In their best moments they are just indifferent to the claims of Christ. In their worst moments they might scoff at your religion, calling it pie in the sky when you die. Are you concerned about their salvation? Do you want to see them coming to Christ?
I want to assure you this morning that God is more concerned about their salvation than you are. And throughout the course of the lives of your friends and relatives He has been doing something about it. What He does first is to let them carry on life as usual, to try to cope with life as best they can. Generally speaking, they think that they are managing fairly successfully. As long as they have a good job, good health, and fairly normal, healthy children - they think that they are coping. But then God allows unusual stress to come to their lives, troubles which stretch them beyond the point of coping. And then they often do one of three things. What most non-Christians do under unusual stress is merely to seek some form of medical help. Rather than go also to the Great Physician who treats causes, they often go only to a human physician who sometimes only treats symptoms with pills, which often only aggravate the cause.
If they see the hand of God at all in their trouble, they usually do one of two things. They either become bitter against God, or they cry out to God for help. When they become bitter, God just lets them carry on in their own strength and bitterness for another period, and then he allows them to have more stress. If they cry out to God for help, He answers them, and sends them at least temporary relief; which is often all that they really want. You see, what God is seeking is an eternal covenant relationship, which involves a commitment to the Lordship of Jesus Christ; and a commitment to love God as a heavenly Father. What they are often seeking is merely temporary relief. More often than not, after the temporary relief has come, they go back to the same old reliance upon self. In other words, they practice what has been called fox-hole religion.
Now all these acts of God in bringing people in and out of trouble are acts of loving-kindness. You see, one of the kindest things God can do for any person, Christian or non-Christian, is to wean him from trusting in his own finite human resources, and to lead him to trust in the infinite divine resources of Jesus Christ. And God=s loving-kindness is so great, that no matter how bitter Christians and non-Christians become, and no matter how much they cry to God for help in their troubles and then forget him in their good times, He keeps at this loving task of weaning them from trust in self to trust in Christ. And some times, but not always, they come to the realization that they are being utter fools in resisting His love, that fox-hole religion is both unstable and foolish. Today God may be working in this way with some non-Christians on your street. Tomorrow he may be working in this way with some non-Christians among your friends, relatives or associates at work. God will not stop His ways of loving-kindness with these individuals. God knows that trust in self in foolish, and that trust in Christ is indispensable to proper living. And so through troubles God continues to encourage all people to experience proper trust in Christ. This is part of the reason why there is so much trouble in the world. God is teaching individuals and the whole world that reliance on self is sin, and that the wages of sin is death. He is weaning individuals to trust in Christ, a gift which brings eternal life.
Psalm 107 discusses this process, and it also demonstrates what Christians are supposed to do when troubles come. Christians are not supposed to practice fox-hole religion. Christians are supposed to grow in their faith when troubles come. The redeemed are to share with others the joy of the Lord in their sufferings. Instead of grumbling and whining in their troubles, Christians are to rejoice and be glad. They are called upon to rise and shine.
God expects those of us who trust in Christ to do at least three things to co-operate with Him in this program of leading people to trust in Christ when they can no longer cope.
The first things that He expects us Christians to do is to be a model of how to respond to trouble.
According to James 1:2-4 how should Christians respond to troubles and trials?
WITH JOY AND ENDURANCE.
(James 1:2 NIV) Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of
many kinds,
(James 1:3 NIV) because you know that the testing of your faith develops
perseverance.
(James 1:4 NIV) Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and
complete, not lacking anything.
In the beatitudes, in Matthew 5:3-12, we have eight rungs in the ladder towards spiritual maturity. What is the top rung on the ladder?
JOY WHEN PERSECUTED, JOY WHEN FALSELY TREATED AND ACCUSED.
Matthew 5:10-12
(Mat 5:10 NIV) Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
(Mat 5:11 NIV) "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and
falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.
(Mat 5:12 NIV) Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for
in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
So as God brings troubles into the lives of people, encouraging them to put their trust in Christ, He expects us to demonstrate and to model the joy which Christ brings to a Christian in the same circumstances. God expects us to be joyful and enduring in all trials.
Listen to Phil. 2:14-15:
(Phil 2:14 NIV) Do everything without complaining or arguing,
(Phil 2:15 NIV) so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God
without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like
stars in the universe
What verses in Deuteronomy do these verses in Philippians reflect?
Listen to these verses found in Deut. 31:27 and Deut. 32:5 which Moses addressed to the children of Israel, who were supposed to be children of God,
but who denied their God-likeness grumbling and murmuring when he sent them trials and troubles.
(Deu 31:27 NIV) For I know how rebellious and stiff-necked you are. If you have
been rebellious against the LORD while I am still alive and with you, how much
more will you rebel after I die!
(Deu 32:5 NIV) They have acted corruptly toward him; to their shame they are no
longer his children, but a warped and crooked generation.
What was their major defect or spot or blemish? Grumbling and complaining.
When people who are supposed to be children of God grumble or complain,
what are they saying about their Father? They are saying that their Father mistreats them, that He is hard on them, that He is not in control of the circumstances which come to them.
So, if people grumble and complain, they are virtually saying that the God of the Bible is not their Father. They are saying that the devil is their father.
If people are walking in the presence of God, if God is at their side, then they rejoice; because in God’s presence there is fullness of joy; at His right hand
there are pleasures for ever more. So people who grumble are denying their spiritual birth. They are denying that God is their Father. That is the way the children of Israel acted. They acted as though they were children of the devil,
not the children of God.
Children of God have a characteristic mark which identifies them as children of
God, as children of light. That characteristic mark is JOY. The children of the devil have a characteristic mark which identifies them as children of the devil,
as children of darkness. They grumble and complain. GRUMBLING is a mark of crookedness and perversity. So, Paul says to the Philippian believers:
(Phil 2:14 NIV) Do everything without complaining or arguing,
(Phil 2:15 NIV) so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God
without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like
stars in the universe.
Don’t be like the Israelites in the wilderness. They grumbled and complained.
That was a basic defect which suggested that they were not children of God.
They were crooked and perverse. Don’t be like the people in Philippi around you. They grumble and complain because they walk in darkness. Don’t be like them. They are crooked and perverse. Be a light shining in their darkness.
There were two kinds of people in the wilderness when the spies returned from the promised land. There were people who focused on God and on the grapes,
and there were people who focused on their gripes. There were people who rose up and whined and there were people who wanted to rise up and shine in the power of God. Unfortunately the whiners outnumbered the shiners.
The second thing that God expects us to do when He brings troubles to non-Christian people is to visit them when they are in trouble.
According to James 1:27 what is true religion?
(James 1:27 NIV) Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is
this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself
from being polluted by the world.
True religion is not carrying a big Bible, and saying: I am a Baptist.
True religion is visiting people in distress and keeping oneself unspotted from the world.
And what is one of the worst spots of the world? Grumbling and complaining,
being unthankful.
According to Matthew 25:31-40, when Jesus comes again, what will be the real test of whether we are truly children of God?
Answer: Whether we visited people in trouble.
Listen to these verses found in Matthew 25:31-45.
(Mat 25:31 NIV) "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory.
(Mat 25:32 NIV) All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
(Mat 25:33 NIV) He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
(Mat 25:34 NIV) "Then the King will say to those on his right, ’Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.
(Mat 25:35 NIV) For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,
(Mat 25:36 NIV) I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
(Mat 25:37 NIV) "Then the righteous will answer him, ’Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?
(Mat 25:38 NIV) When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?
(Mat 25:39 NIV) When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
(Mat 25:40 NIV) "The King will reply, ’I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’
(Mat 25:41 NIV) "Then he will say to those on his left, ’Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
(Mat 25:42 NIV) For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink,
(Mat 25:43 NIV) I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
(Mat 25:44 NIV) "They also will answer, ’Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
(Mat 25:45 NIV) "He will reply, ’I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
According to this passage, how do we get into the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God?
By inheritance, by being born again by faith in Christ, by accepting Him who gives you the authority to become a child of God, by spiritual rebirth, by what the theologians call regeneration or the new birth?
But according to this passage, how do we prove in a practical way that we really are born again, that we really have new life, that we really are children of God?
By visiting people in trouble.
As we study Psalm 107 we shall find many parallels between it and Matthew 25. People are hungry. People are in hospitals and prisons. People are naked.
People have been out in the storms of life, literally and figuratively. And godly people have visited them. Jesus says that when godly people visit them, though they may not be aware of it, they are visiting Him.
And may I remind us all that the unsaved probably will not call upon us to visit them when they are in trouble, unless we have established a vital relationship with them in the normal times of life. That is the reason why, though a Christian must practice separation from the world, he must not practice isolation from the world. God is separate from His world, but He is not isolated from His world.
My friends, if we are not characteristically joyful; if we are not regularly visiting people in their needs; then we are not regularly practicing real religion.
I care not how often we read the Bible; I care not how many church meetings we may attend. Determining whether a person has real religion only by
how often he comes to church, or only by how often he reads his Bible, is a little like determining how healthy a person is by measuring only how much he eats. Religious fat Alberts are not necessarily healthy. Real religion is not primarily a matter of input, but a matter of output, output in joy, and output in visiting others.
God is regularly allowing people to have trouble so that they will cease trusting in themselves and begin to trust in Jesus Christ. Unless we respond joyfully to our trials, and unless we visit others during their trials, we shall not be very effective in co-operating with God in His program of reaching out to others.
I was not brought up in a Baptist home. My parents were Christians, but they were not Baptists. Generally speaking they were joyful. Generally speaking I was happy around them. When I was in elementary school, my closest chum was a Baptist with Baptist parents. His parents were not very joyful. His father in particular was often grumbling. Although his mother grumbled somewhat, a worse sin she had was probably gossiping. My chum’s father seemed to have been born in the negative case. He was negative about most things in life.
My chum did not particularly enjoy being around his father. He was more anxious to be around my father. Interestingly enough, my chum’s mother thought that her husband was saved, because he called himself a Baptist.
She thought that my father was not saved, because he was not a Baptist.
My father was often singing: I am so glad that our Father in heaven tells of His love in the book he has given. I am so glad that Jesus loves me. I can’t remember ever hearing my chum’s father sing. I suspect that if he had ever sung, it would have been something in a minor key. Every place of joy that my chum could have experienced seemed to have been locked by his parents with a minor key.
One night my chum invited me to go with him to a Youth for Christ meeting.
We heard the Lacey family, a group of black singers, most of whom were over fifty, sing the Grumbler’s Song.
Part of it goes like this:
Oh, they grumble on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
They grumble on Thursday too.
They grumble on Friday, Saturday, Sunday;
They grumble the whole week through.
If you don’t stop your grumbling,
Stop all your grumbling here;
You’ll never get to heaven,
For grumblers don’t go there.
Repent and be converted,
Be saved from a grumbler’s sin.
You’ll find the grumbling people,
They never will get in.
When the Lacey family would sing that song, my chum would get really excited.
He thought that they were the greatest. I think down deep in his heart he wished that his parents would listen to that song, and take it to heart.
His parents had an expression: Hold your G G’s. It meant: Hold your horses.
Slow down. Don’t be in such a hurry. They were constantly telling us boys to hold our g g’s, to slow down. We loved life too much for them.
As I have grown older, and have become a pastor, and have met parents who deny their relationship to God, and hurt their relationship with their own children by grumbling and gossiping, I have been tempted to say to them:
Hold your G G’s. And by that I would not mean: Hold your horses. Slow down.
I would mean: Stop your grumbling and gossiping. Grumbling and gossiping deny your relationship to God, and hurt your relationship not only with your own children, but with everyone else whom you can influence for good.
So, as God works on our friends, loved ones, and neighbors, bringing them troubles and trials, so that they will learn to depend on Him and not on themselves, God expects us to model joy, patience and endurance in the trials
he brings to us.
