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By Guest Writer | Dennis Gladden Oh, 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. —Psalm 107:1-2 Before Thanksgiving Day ever graced a calendar, there was Psalm 107.The psalmist is brazen. He doesn't poll everyone around the table, asking, "What are you thankful for?" He opens with two imperatives, "Give thanks" and "Let the redeemed speak up." The psalm infuses thanksgiving with an odd ingredient—redemption. Family time, food galore, football, parades, gearing up for Black Friday shopping—these are the things of Thanksgiving. Redemption? After reading this psalm, I will add it to my Thanksgiving list. And not just for Thanksgiving Day. When I peeled away the words in our English translations, I saw why redemption isn't customary Thanksgiving fare. It recalls dark days and hard times. The shadow of death lurks here, as in the valley of Psalm 23. Claustrophobia squeezes. The verses reek of helplessness. Listen carefully, and the whimpering English "cries" for help throughout the psalm crescendo when the Hebrew speaks for itself. Hear the cries for what they are: shrieks. Some are shouts for attention, others howls of anguish. The bleakness is necessary; otherwise, the psalmist has no reason to command giving thanks.Redemption is for the desperate. Like an umbrella, the first three verses of the psalm cover verses four through thirty-two, where four tempests erupt, each with a unique threat. One word in the Hebrew connects them—the word translated enemy in verse two and trouble in 107:6, 13, 19, and 28. The hand of the enemy personifies the troubles that follow. The enemy and the subsequent trouble press their quarry in three ways. First, there is the weapon—a stone sharpened into a knife. Consequently, the word evolved to refer to the one who wields the weapon—an enemy. Ultimately, there is the destination: the enemy corrals you into a cramped, narrow space, a tight spot with no way out. To the hard-pressed, the psalmist says, "Give thanks." Your Redeemer descends into the depths with you and ushers you to safety. His redemption is your salvation. Let's look at the particulars of the troubles and of the redeemer. Distress 1: Isolated and faint (Psalm 107:3-9) The psalmist begins with a contingent wandering in a wilderness. They are isolated, and starved as much for companionship as for food. Like Jesus when He fasted in the wilderness for 40 days, they hunger and thirst, to the point they faint. Cut loose from the familiar, they roam, looking for company but "found no city to dwell in."[1] In their destitute solitude, they slump in distress and "cry out to the LORD." Distress 2: In the dark and helpless (Psalm 107:10-16) The psalmist saw the first group on the move, wandering in wastelands, searching. A second group comes into view. These aren't moving, but have fallen and are sitting, immobile and shackled, languishing in the shadow of death. Worse, they are helpless. Companions, if they have any, perhaps mock, scorn, or pity them, but no one helps them back on their feet.They hadn't always been this way. "They rebelled against the words of God, and despised the counsel of the Most High" (107:11). They abandoned the word that had been the lamp to their feet, only to "sit in darkness, bound in affliction" (107:10). Distress 3: This life is no life (Psalm 107:17-22) Whereas the second group lingered in the shadow of death, the despair in these verses drives its prisoners to its very gates. In today's parlance, we would express their destructions in verse 20 as being in the pits. The life they barely cling to is no life at all. They are in suicidal depression, loathing even their food. The psalmist attributes their trouble to their own doing: "Because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, they were afflicted" (107:17). He introduces them as fools, which suggests they believe there is no God and live as described in Psalm 10: arrogant, abusive, deceitful, and smug—convinced that "God will never see" (10:11). Job was no fool, but his angst matched what we read in these verses. May darkness and the shadow of death claim the day on which I was born. Why did I not die at birth? —Job 3:3, 5, 11. Even righteous Job sat by the gate of death. Distress 4: At their wits' end (Psalm 107:23-31) In the last group are the self-sufficient who go about their business and then life gets stormy—so rough that they reel from its ups and downs (107:27). They have seen God's work but aren't affected. God disrupts their routine, reminiscent of Psalm 55:19, "Because they do not change, therefore they do not fear God." At their wits' end (107:27), they stagger, anxious to reach their "desired haven" (107:30). They want to be anywhere but where they are. The redeemer does what the desperate cannot do themselves. The four scenes are bleak, but not final. A redeemer emerges who does for the desperate what they cannot do for themselves. He descends into the depths with them and transforms a dreamy sentiment into hardcore reality: They are not beyond God's reach. Is My hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. The LORD saw...and wondered that there was no intercessor. Therefore His own arm brought salvation for Him. ... The Redeemer will come... —Isaiah 50:2; 59:1, 14-16, 20 This brings us to why thanksgiving rings throughout Psalm 107. The psalmist anticipated the redeemer; we know He has arrived. Whether we look forward or back through the years, our eyes fix on Jesus. Welcome Jesus, the Redeemer Let's see how the four scenes in Psalm 107 anticipate Jesus the Redeemer. 1. For the Isolated and starved He led them forth by the right way. Psalm 107:7 The shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. I am the good shepherd. I am the way. John 10:3, 11; 14:6 He satisfies the longing soul. Psalm 107:9 I do not want to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way. ... [The 4,000] all ate and were satisfied. Matthew 15:32, 37 2. For those in the dark, feeling helpless He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death. Psalm 107:14 The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned. Matthew 4:16 He broke their chains in pieces. Psalm 107:14 Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. ... if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. John 8:34, 36 3. When the life you have is no life He sent His word and healed them. Psalm 107:20 "Only speak a word, and my servant will be healed"... Jesus said to the centurion, "Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you." Matthew 8:8, 13 He delivered them from their destructions. Psalm 107:20 [The unclean spirit] often has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him...and Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit. Mark 9:22, 25 4. For those staggered by life and at their wits' end He calms the storm, so that its waves are still. Psalm 107:29 [Jesus] arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Peace, be still!" And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. Mark 4:39 The psalmist wrote, having observed history and his neighbors. I read, nodding to the truth in his words because I have been distressed in more than one of these ways and Jesus has redeemed. What troubles have harassed you, squeezing until you felt trapped? Maybe you are feeling desperate even now. The holiday season is known for adding stress. May the wonderfully good news of our Redeemer comfort and strengthen you: He inclined to me, and heard my cry. He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps. He has put a new song in my mouth— Praise to our God. Psalm 40:1-3 This Thanksgiving, remember redemption.[1] References are from the New King James Version.-Dennis @ Dennis Gladden IM Writers Association is a collective group of Christian writers who support the advancement of the Gospel of Jesus Christ while sustaining an eschatological view of the Holy Scriptures of God.
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