WWUTT 1159 Let the Redeemed of the Lord Say So? (Psalms 106, 107)

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Reading Psalms 106 and 107, where the Lord disciplines Israel and the others whom He loves, so they would repent of their sin and so be saved. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!

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Looking through the history of the scriptures, how God has worked through history, it's a wonderful thing.
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Whether you're reading the Old Testament or the New Testament, we see that mankind can be awful, but God is good when we understand the text.
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This is When We Understand the Text, a daily study of God's Word that we may be filled with the knowledge of His will.
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For questions and comments, send us an email to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com
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Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. Well, in our Old Testament study, we've been in the
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Psalms, and we're going to begin today with Psalm 106. This is the last psalm of Book 4 in the
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Psalms, so Psalm 107 would begin Book 5. Now, as we go through this,
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I'm going to read the whole thing. It's a little bit longer psalm. We won't go back through it and exposit it like we usually do, but to preface the read here,
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I'll let you know this is a historic psalm just like Psalm 105 was, which was also a little bit longer psalm.
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That was 45 verses. I think Psalm 106 is 48 verses. So this is going to recall a lot of the events that happened in Israel's past that it may call to reminder that God is faithful, and He will fulfill
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His promises, and He will deliver His people. What this is looking toward is a time of exile, even though that may not happen for a few hundred years, but the psalm is prophetic in that sense, knowing that though a people had to be punished because of their unfaithfulness, they remember that God will be good to them, and He will be merciful, and He will deliver them.
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So this has practical application in the sense that if you find yourself in a perilous situation because you have been persistently unfaithful or walking in some kind of a sin, and you're now reaping the consequences of that sin, take heart, still turn to the
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Lord, ask for His forgiveness, because He will deliver you and cleanse you from all unrighteousness.
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Let's begin here in Psalm 106, starting in verse 1. Praise the Lord, O give thanks to the
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Lord, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever.
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Who can utter the mighty deeds of the Lord or declare all His praise?
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Blessed are they who observe justice, who do righteousness at all times.
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Remember me, O Lord, when You show favor to Your people. Help me when
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You save them, that I may look upon the prosperity of Your chosen ones, that I may rejoice in the gladness of Your nation, that I may glory with Your inheritance.
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Both we and our fathers have sinned, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedness.
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Our fathers, when they were in Egypt, did not consider Your wondrous works, they did not remember the abundance of Your steadfast love, but rebelled by the sea, at the
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Red Sea. Yet He saved them for His name's sake, that He might make known
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His mighty power. He rebuked the Red Sea, and it became dry, and He led them through the deep as through a desert.
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So He saved them from the hand of the foe and redeemed them from the power of the enemy, and the waves covered their adversaries, not one of them was left.
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Then they believed His words, they sang His praise. But they soon forgot
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His works, they did not wait for His counsel, but they had a wanton craving in the wilderness and put
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God to the test in the desert. He gave them what they asked, but sent a wasting disease among them.
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When men in the camp were jealous of Moses and Aaron, the Holy One of the Lord, the earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, and covered the company of Abiram.
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Fire also broke out in their company, the flame burned up the wicked.
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They made a calf in Horeb and worshipped a metal image. They exchanged the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass.
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They forgot God their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt, wondrous works in the land of Ham, and awesome deeds by the
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Red Sea. Therefore He said He would destroy them, had not Moses, His chosen one, stood in the breach before Him to turn away
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His wrath from destroying them. Then they despised the pleasant land, having no faith in His promise.
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They murmured in their tents and did not obey the voice of the Lord. Therefore He raised
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His hand and swore to them that He would make them fall in the wilderness, and would make their offspring fall among the nations, scattering them among the lands.
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Then they yoked themselves to the bale of Peor, and ate sacrifices offered to the dead.
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They provoked the Lord to anger with their deeds, and a plague broke out among them.
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Then Phinehas stood up and intervened, and the plague was stayed, and that was counted to him as righteousness from generation to generation forever.
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They angered him at the waters of Meribah, and it went ill with Moses on their account, for they made his spirit bitter, and he spoke rashly with his lips.
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They did not destroy the peoples as the Lord commanded them, but they mixed with the nations and learned to do as they did.
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They served their idols, which became a snare to them. They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons.
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They poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood.
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Thus they became unclean by their acts, and played the whore in their deeds.
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Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against His people, and He abhorred His heritage.
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He gave them into the hand of the nations, so that those who hated them ruled over them.
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Their enemies oppressed them, and they were brought into subjection under their power. Many times
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He delivered them, but they were rebellious in their purposes, and were brought low through their iniquity.
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Nevertheless, He looked upon their distress when He heard their cry. For their sake
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He remembered His covenant, and relented according to the abundance of His steadfast love.
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He caused them to be pitied by all those who held them captive. Save us,
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O Lord our God, and gather us from among the nations, that we may give thanks to Your holy name, and glory in Your praise.
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Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. And let all the people say,
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Amen. Praise the Lord. Now, when we read close to the end there, and about a little bit after verse 40, where it says,
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Their enemies oppressed them, they were brought into subjection under their power. Many times He delivered them, but they were rebellious in their purposes, they were brought low through their iniquity.
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This is in reference to the book of Judges. So this is in reference to the Babylonian exile, and then the
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Persian exile that would later come, although there is an anticipation of that, prophetically an anticipation.
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It doesn't explicitly say that the Babylonians were going to take them over, but there's a prophetic sense in which, when this people falls again in the future, may we turn to the
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Lord and say, verse 47, Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from among the nations, that we may give thanks to Your holy name, and glory in Your praise.
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See, this scattering among the nations hadn't happened yet. That was going to come later. So that's where there's kind of the prophetic undertone.
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But the reference to being turned over to their enemies, and many times God delivered them, that's what we saw throughout the book of Judges.
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There's also something else that has a modern application to it.
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When we read in verses 37 through 39, They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons.
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They poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood.
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Thus they became unclean by their acts and played the whore in their deeds.
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Boy, if that does not describe what's going on in the Western world right now, this sexual revolution that has taken hold, and because of all of this sexual promiscuity, there are women who are getting pregnant out of wedlock and aborting their children.
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By the thousands, over 3 ,000 children aborted daily through the barbaric, murderous practice of abortion.
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And so our hands are filled with blood. These nations that have indulged in this have poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, and the land is polluted with blood.
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But the Lord our God will save those even who are guilty of this sin.
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If they turn from their sinfulness and worship the Lord God, He will forgive your iniquity.
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Repent and don't return to that licentious, adulterous way anymore, but turn to Christ and His righteousness.
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He will forgive you, and He will give you a new heart, and He will clothe you in righteous robes.
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The shame of your nakedness will no longer be exposed, but before God you will be able to stand before Him purified, justified by the precious blood of Christ which was spilled on the cross for your behalf.
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Turn from your sin, believe by faith, ask God for forgiveness, and He will give it to you.
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Let the cry of your heart be as what we read in verse 47, Save us,
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O Lord our God, and gather us from among the nations that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise.
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That is the cry of every believer when they come to Christ, and everyone who might be tempted by the ways of this world to cry out to God, Save us and gather us from among the nations.
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We as Christians are indeed the people of God that have been gathered from among the nations, and we will be among those who will stand before the throne of glory for all eternity, saying,
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Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and who is and who is to come, singing
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His praises forever, all those who are in Christ Jesus. Blessed be the
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Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. And let all the people say,
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Amen. Praise the Lord. Well, that's the conclusion of Book 4 in the
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Psalms, and now we get to Book 5, beginning with Psalm 107. This is a longer psalm, like Psalms 105 and 106, and begins the same way as Psalm 106.
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Here we go, Psalm 107, verse 1. O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever.
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Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has redeemed from trouble and gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.
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You know, that's exactly the way that Jesus says the angels will gather
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His elect. This is in Matthew 24, verse 30. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the
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Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
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And He will send out His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather
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His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
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That sounds similar to what we read here in verse 3, gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, and from the north and from the south.
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There's a little bit of foreshadowing there, you think? Verse 4, some wandered in the desert wastes, finding no way to a city to dwell in.
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Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them. Then they cried to the
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Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress. He led them by a straight way till they reached a city to dwell in.
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Let them thank the Lord for His steadfast love, for His wondrous works to the children of man.
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For He satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul He fills with good things.
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Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in affliction and in irons.
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For they had rebelled against the words of God, and spurned the counsel of the Most High. So He bowed their hearts down with hard labor.
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They fell down with none to help. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress.
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He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and burst their bonds apart.
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Let them thank the Lord for His steadfast love, for His wondrous works to the children of man.
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For He shatters the doors of bronze, and cuts in two the bars of iron.
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So the Lord deals with us the same way. There are going to be occasions in which we, though we may proclaim to be followers of Jesus, might wander from the way, and we'll go our own way.
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We will fall into sinfulness, giving in to temptation, and even block from our mind that we're doing anything wrong at all.
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And God in His mercy will not allow us to perish, though we have sinned so egregiously against Him, though we know the way of truth and have strayed from it.
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What we deserve is an even greater judgment from God. But if God is merciful toward us,
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He will not let us perish, even in that sinful way. We should not test the Lord our God, but He, being merciful, will afflict us in our iniquity, bringing us low to the ground.
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I've heard one preacher say, to some of you, God may have to hit you with a freight train before you're going to come around again and realize the stupidness that you're walking in.
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That came to me in a time in my life when I was wandering off in doing my own way, and hearing this preacher say, some of you,
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God is really going to have to mess up. Like you're hearing me talk to you right now, and you don't think you're doing anything all that bad, but God is really going to have to tear you down before you realize just how foolish you are being and how close to the precipice of death you are playing around.
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And that shook me before I got to a really, really bad place where I may not have recovered or may have fallen into worse sin that would have had deeper consequences.
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So I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful for that preacher that preached a hard thing that really shook me to my senses.
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But this is what is happening here in Psalm 107, that those who knew the
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Lord, they knew the way of the Lord, and yet they had gone their own way. God has afflicted them and then delivered them from their distress.
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He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death and burst their bonds apart.
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In their sinfulness, they were so close to death, they were in its shadow, but God did not allow them to perish.
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So let them thank the Lord for His steadfast love.
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He is the reason why that person did not fall into judgment. Verse 17, some were fools through their sinful ways and because of their iniquities suffered affliction.
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They loathed any kind of food and they drew near to the gates of death. Then they cried to the
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Lord in their trouble and He delivered them from their distress. He sent out His word and healed them and delivered them from their destruction.
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Let them thank the Lord for His steadfast love, for His wondrous works to the children of man, and let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving and tell of His deeds in songs of joy.
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So you have a similar scenario going on there. And it says, some were fools through their sinful ways, because of their iniquities suffered affliction, they loathed any kind of food.
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That's like the word of the Lord came to them or the prophets would proclaim or the teachers would teach and they wouldn't listen to it.
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They would continue to go in their sinful way and try to justify their own actions rather than being convicted of heart by the words of God that had been proclaimed.
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And so they drew near to the gates of death and they cried to the Lord in their trouble and He delivered them from their distress.
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This is what Hebrews 12 talks about when it says God disciplines those He loves. He will not allow us to fall to destruction, but will discipline us that we may come back to repentance and following in the way of Christ.
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Verse 23, some went down to the sea in ships doing business on the great waters.
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They saw the deeds of the Lord, His wondrous works in the deep, for He commanded and raised the stormy wind which lifted up the waves of the sea.
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They mounted up to heaven, they went down to the depths, their courage melted away in their evil plight.
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They reeled and staggered like drunken men and were at their wits end. Then they cried to the
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Lord in their trouble and He delivered them from their distress. He made the storm be still and the waves of the sea were hushed.
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Then they were glad that the waters were quiet and He brought them to their desired haven.
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Let them thank the Lord for His steadfast love, for His wondrous works to the children of man.
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Let them extol Him in the congregation of the people and praise Him in the assembly of the elders.
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Jesus revealed Himself to the disciples in this way, in rebuking a storm and calming it and they praised
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His name when they saw that the waters were quiet and He brought them to their desired haven.
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That's exactly the way that went in the gospel of John, in fact. But you know, even the big storms that we see today, whenever some natural disaster comes upon some kind of an area, why would
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God allow such a thing to happen? Well, He does it according to what is said in Job and in the
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Psalms, for love and for the land and for judgment, so that a person would turn from sin and see
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God and turn to Him and repent in fear of these disasters that are coming upon them, for judgment that comes upon them will be so much worse than all of the storms and natural disasters that come upon any country.
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So God would allow these things to happen so to turn a person from the wickedness of their ways and fear
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God and live. Let's finish up this psalm here. Starting in verse 33,
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He turns rivers into a desert, springs of water into thirsty ground, a fruitful land into a salty waste, because of the evil of its inhabitants.
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He turns a desert into pools of water, a parched land into springs of water, and there
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He lets the hungry dwell, and they establish a city to live in. They sow fields and plant vineyards and get a fruitful yield.
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By His blessing they multiply greatly, and He does not let their livestock diminish.
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When they are diminished and brought low, through oppression, evil, and sorrow, He pours contempt on princes and makes them wander in trackless wastes.
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But He raises up the needy out of affliction and makes their families like flocks.
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The upright see it and are glad, and all wickedness shuts its mouth.
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Whoever is wise, let him attend to these things. Let them consider the steadfast love of the
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Lord. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You for the goodness that You show to us.
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Even if it means You have to punish us, You do so because You regard us as sons and daughters of God.
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So let us not hate this punishment but love it, for we know that it is transforming us from sinful wretches into righteous followers of Jesus Christ, our
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Savior. Keep us in Your love. Never let us go too far, but be faithful to us,
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O God, and teach us Your ways. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. This has been
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When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes. For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more, visit our website at www .utt
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and let your friends know about our ministry. Join us again tomorrow as we grow together in the study of God's Word when we understand the text.