FBC Morning Light – September 20, 2022

Psalm 107 and the Meaning of Steadfast Love

Well, a good Tuesday morning to you. So today we're reading in Psalm 107. I hope you've read that psalm today. If you haven't, I really want to encourage you to take some time at some point during the day and read this psalm.

It's really a delightful psalm when you see in it just the character of God and the goodness of God. In fact, the psalm begins by telling us to give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for he is good.

Now, when you read that part of the verse, your mind can go all kinds of places in the way in which the Lord shows his goodness, and legitimately so, because he does reveal his goodness in many, many different ways.

An earlier psalm, 103, says, you know, forget not all of his benefits, and then there's just a list of these different things that the Lord does for his people that are benefits to his people. But in this particular psalm, when the psalmist says, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, he zeroes in on one particular aspect of the way that the Lord shows his goodness.

And that's expressed in the last part of the verse, which says, for his steadfast love endures forever. Now, the word that's translated steadfast love is really an interesting word. In the Hebrew, it's the word hesed, and it's kind of a difficult word to capture the fullness of its meaning in English.

The King James Version usually translates it mercy, but it doesn't mean the kind of mercy where you don't get the punishment you deserve. That's not what that word means. Other translations, like the ESV translates it steadfast love, sometimes the King James translates it loving kindness.

One of the professors I had in seminary, he said the way he likes to translate it is God's loving loyalty to his covenant. His loving loyalty to his covenant. Now, it'd be hard to translate that single Hebrew word with those loving loyalty to his covenant, those five words, but nevertheless, that understanding captures the significance of the term, that God is loyal to his covenant, he's faithful to his word, and he is so lovingly, he's not begrudging in his loyalty to his covenant, he lovingly is loyal to his covenant.

Well then, the psalm goes on to show various situations in which God shows his steadfast love, his loving loyalty to his covenant. When his people, in a variety of experiences of distress, cry out to him in utter dependence and need, cry out to him for deliverance and help, and he provides that help.

Let's just look at these different areas. In the first instance, in verse four and following, he talks about people who wandered in the wilderness in a desolate way. It's like they got lost, and then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses, and he led them in the right way, led them in the way they should go.

That's a very literal example of something that would be not uncommon in that culture in that time and place, where there was plenty of wilderness, and people had to traverse through a wilderness to get to different places.

But you could actually look at that metaphorically, that I'm kind of lost in a wilderness of life, and I don't know which way to go, and I'm not sure of the destination that I should be pursuing here, and I cry out to the Lord in my desperation, in my despair, and the Lord shows his steadfast love, his loyalty to his covenant by providing guidance, typically through his word, maybe through the counsel of others, and so forth.

That's one way. Then in verses 10 and following, he talks about those who sat in darkness, in the shadow of death, bound in affliction and irons, because they rebelled against the words of the Lord and despised the counsel of the Most High.

So they're reaping the consequences of a life of rebellion, find themselves in bondage and suffering, and the Lord, it says, brings down their heart with labor, they fell down, there is no one to help them, and then finally, in their despair, they cry out to the Lord in their trouble, and he saves them out of their distresses, brings them out of darkness in the shadow of death, and breaks their chain in pieces.

This is a good example of someone maybe who's grown up in a Christian home, and they just turn their back on it all, they really don't want to have anything to do with it, and they start to experience the consequences of a life of sin and rebellion.

The Lord brings them down, because the Lord wants to save that soul, and that person finally realizes the sinfulness of his path, cries out to the Lord, and the Lord, in his grace and mercy, in his steadfast love, saves, redeems that one from their distress.

God’s Steadfast Love in Foolishness and Storms

And verses 17 and 18 is another example of suffering the consequences of foolish sin. It says, fools, because of their transgression and because of their iniquities, were afflicted. So they have taken a path of sin, not in a defiant, rebellious way, but just in foolishness, and transgressed against God's Word, and then they get themselves in a pickle.

They get themselves in a mess, and in their mess, they cry out to the Lord, and verse 19 says, he saves them out of their distresses. And then in verses 23 and following, talk about those who go down to ships to do business, and they're out on the sea, a storm comes up on the sea, and they despair of life.

They're confident that their ship's going to wreck, they're going to drown and perish, and then they cry out to the Lord, and he saves them, bringing them out of their distresses, calming the storm. Again, this was a very literal thing in the mind of the psalmist, but it can also serve as a metaphor for so many areas of life.

These people go to do business on great waters in seafaring trade, but you don't have to do your business on the sea to find yourself in a very tumultuous, storm-tossed situation, and needing the Lord's deliverance from the mayhem and from the impending disaster.

And those who cry out to the Lord in utter dependence upon him, he will eventually bring them out. This is the promise of hesed, the promise of the Lord's steadfast love. How good he is. So give thanks to the Lord today, for he is good, and his steadfast love endures forever.

Prayer and Benediction

And so our Father and our God, we are grateful today for your steadfast love. We're grateful that we can count on you, we can trust in you, we can look to you in every situation, and especially in our distress, we find you faithful and kind to deliver.

Ultimately, as you see fit. Thank you for that steadfast love. Bless these thoughts to our hearts today, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. All right, have a good Tuesday, I trust the Lord will bless you in it, good day.