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“If you’re able, please stand.” Read Ps. 107:1–9. “Thanks be to God!”
You probably saw the news this week about the disaster along the border of Nepal and China. A glacier collapsed into a river valley and sent a tidal wave of water, rock, and mud downstream. The number of fatalities is increasing, and several thousand remain unaccounted for.
Yet, as happens in such tragedies, there are also stories of heroism coming out. There are stories of rescues by the Nepali Army. One person posted her praise of the soldiers: “A heartfelt thank you to the brave Nepal Army for their tireless rescue and relief efforts during the floods in Nepal. Your courage, dedication, and selfless service in rescuing stranded people, evacuating those in danger, and providing emergency support are truly admirable. Salute to every soldier working day and night to protect and save lives.”
The rescue led to praise. In this case, praise of the men risking their safety and lives to save others.
That illustrates for us a key part of all true worship of God: All true worship of God begins with a rescue.
Worship is not something born in us, that we create, that we manufacture.
Worship starts with God rescuing us. All true worship starts with a rescue.
It might be a rescue from a sinful addiction that’s destroying us. Or a rescue from an impossible financial situation.
But if true worship of God is the result, then that rescue also includes being rescued from the prison of your sin and rebellion against God. God must take the first step if our worship of him is to be true worship.
Our passage is Psalm 107. The first psalm in Book Five of the Psalms—Psalms 107–150. The Psalm is anonymous. There’s no caption, no description of the original setting of the Psalm.
But the Psalm is distinct in a couple important ways. One is that it gives us important clues that it’s about “the steadfast love of the LORD,” “the hesed of Yahweh.” You can see that in the first verse and last verse—Ps. 107:1, 43.
A second important element is the repeating structure. The four main stanzas are all exactly the same in their structure: A desperate situation (v. 4). “Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble” (Ps 107:6, 13, 19, 28). Then God “delivered them from their distress” (Ps 107:6, 13, 19, 28). Then they are to “thank the LORD for his steadfast love” (Ps 107:8, 15, 21, 31).
The Psalm is imagining that the saints who experienced these four different desperate situations have gathered together to tell their stories and sing his praises—Ps. 107:2–3.
This morning we want to see these four rescues and how all true worship starts with a rescue.
Prayer – The situation in Nepal—save lives, save souls. Those who were there as part of a pilgrimage to worship their idols, bring repentance to the survivors.
Let’s look at the first stanza, vv. 4–9.
The redeemed are in a desperate situation: “Some wandered in desert wastes, finding no way to a city to dwell in” (Ps 107:4).
Refugees. Exiles. Sojourners. Aliens. Possibly those returning from Babylonian captivity. It isn’t clear.
The picture is of basic lack—no food and no water. It’s a desert setting.
No city—it’s remote. Away from any kind of support system. A picture of deprivation.
Can you relate? Can you relate to times when providing the basic essentials feels impossible and out of reach?
What do they do? Exactly what they should do. They cry out: “Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble” (Ps 107:6).
God rescues them: “He delivered them from their distress” (Ps 107:6).
The result is that the PILGRIMS FIND A CITY. He brings them to a “city” (Ps. 107:7). In the ancient world, a city is a place of support and protection and provision.
They Worship: “Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love” (Ps. 107:8).
What are we celebrating when we celebrate finding provision and protection from our God? We’re celebrating his “steadfast love.”
“You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed;
you have guided them by your strength to your holy abode.” (Exod 15:13)
And 800 years later God sends his people to Babylon for 70 years because of their sins, he speaks to them a promise of his steadfast love. Their sins cannot stop the steadfast love of the LORD:
Jeremiah 33:
“Thus says the LORD: In this place of which you say, ‘It is a waste without man or beast,’ in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate, without man or inhabitant or beast, there shall be heard again 11 the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voices of those who sing, as they bring thank offerings to the house of the LORD: “‘Give thanks to the LORD of hosts, for the LORD is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!’ For I will restore the fortunes of the land as at first, says the LORD. (Jer 33:10–11)
Application:
In our passage, God's "steadfast love" means provision, "the longing soul" and "the hungry soul" (v. 9) are fed and satisfied. God's "steadfast love" brings daily provision.
And that's still true! That’s why Jesus taught us to pray in The Lord’s Prayer: “Our Father in heaven….Give us this day our daily bread” (Matt 6:9, 11).
That’s his “steadfast love” reaching down to us and providing and protecting.
But God's "steadfast love" in Christ brings even more. We are given not only physical bread, but the spiritual bread of Jesus himself. Psalm 107:9 says, “he satisfies the longing soul.” We also feed on Christ:
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” (John 6:35)
The second situation begins in verse 10 – Read Ps. 107:10–16.
The redeemed are in a desperate situation: “prisoners in affliction and in irons” (Ps 107:10).
But it was a prison from their own doing: “for they had rebelled against the words of God, and spurned the counsel of the Most High” (Ps 107:11).
Prisoners, but they deserved it.
What do they do? Exactly what they should do! They cry out: “Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble” (Ps 107:13).
They deserved it, but did the LORD turn a deaf ear to their cries? No, he heard their cries.
God rescues them: “He delivered them from their distress” (Ps 107:13).
The result is that THE PRISONERS FIND FREEDOM— See Ps. 107:13b–14.
They Worship: “Let them thank the LORD” (Ps 107:15). See Ps. 107:16: “shatter the doors of bronze and cuts in two the bars of iron.”
Application: This is our story, too. You don’t have to be a convicted criminal to be part of this rescue story.
There's a sense in which every Christian is a prisoner who has been released.
Look at v. 10: “Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in affliction and in irons.”
That language will be picked up again by John the Baptist’s father, Zechariah. When John is born, Zechariah was “filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied.”
Luke 1:
“The sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” (Luke 1:78b–79)
We were those “who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.” But then Christ came!
A little later in Luke’s gospel, Jesus speaks of his ministry using a passage from Isaiah 61. Listen to what Jesus does for us.
Luke 4:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19)
The third situation begins at v. 17 – Read Ps. 107:17–22.
The redeemed are in a desperate situation: Not really clear until the LORD rescues them. Ps. 107:20: “He sent out his word and healed them.” Their “affliction” (Ps 107:17) is some kind of sickness.
But note—this “sickness” is no typical sickness. It is connected to God’s discipline. It is a punishment for sinful foolishness—Ps. 107:17.
In their sickness, what do they do? They cry out: “Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble” (Ps 107:19).
God rescues them: “He delivered them from their distress” (Ps 107:19).
Once again they deserved it, but once again God hears their cry and delivers them!
The result is that THE SICK FIND HEALING: Ps. 107:20.
They worship: “Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love” (Ps 107:21).
Yes, let them tell their story! (Ps 107:22).
Application:
Some sickness isn’t because you innocently caught a virus.
Sickness is God’s discipline to wake us up. How many workaholics have had heart-attacks and realized their priorities were totally out of whack and needed to change?
Some addictions can bring their own self-destructive consequences.
Sexual sin can bring its own cascade of problems and repercussions.
Stories on sports gambling and its impact on young men—these stories are starting to multiply. ESPN recently ran a story called “We are Broken”: One family’s fight against gambling addiction.”[1]
This is the perverted penance that ESPN does occasionally. No one spends more to advertise sports gambling and to promote sports gambling than ESPN. But every once in a while, they do this pretend penance to remind us of the problem.
In this story a boy they call Amit was an honor student in high school. Tennis player. Wanted to become an engineer. Went to University of Cincinnati in the fall of 2023.
By the end of spring semester in 2025, he had flunked out of school, lost 20 pounds, was disheveled and unkempt.
He got into sports betting through playing poker for money. The bets got bigger, then it was on to casinos and finally sports betting.
Eventually he was taking the rent money his parents gave him to place more bets. He started using their credit card to place bets.
His parents found out everything. As his dad said, “my son was a professional liar.”
Ultimately, through a rehab center and Gambling Anonymous, he’s found some release.
This is a sin—but also a sickness. Support groups have their place. They can be a great means of grace.
But ultimately it will be the grace of God where a person finds true healing.
If these sin-sicknesses are part of your life, Psalm 107 has a message for you: “Cry out to the LORD!” His “steadfast love” is big enough to bring healing. He’ll point the way out.
The fourth situation starts in v. 23 – Read Ps. 107:23–32.
The redeemed are in a desperate situation: Storm at sea –Note that detail: “He commanded…”
There’s really no such thing as a “natural disaster.” They’re all “supernatural disasters.” But we call them “natural disasters,” because they involve the forces of nature and we can trace some kind of cause-and-effect.
But in the end, what happens is precisely what “he commanded…”
In this situation there’s a massive storm at sea. Israel being sea merchants didn’t happen until King Solomon in the mid-900s BC (Bullock (Baker, 2015)). But in this desperate situation, even these professional sailors are fearing for their lives.
To these sailors the waves were “up to heaven” and “down to the depths” (v. 26).
They did what any of us would do.
They’re in an impossible situation. What do they do? They cry out: “Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble” (Ps 107:28).
God rescues them: “He delivered them from their distress” (Ps 107:28).
But how? Look at Ps. 107:29.
Just as the LORD “commanded and raised the stormy wind” (v. 25), so “he made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed” (v. 29).
The result is that THE STORM-TOSSED FIND PEACE. The LORD calms the storms.
They worship: “Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love” (v. 31).
And then that great final note in v. 32 – they went to church! What a worship service that was for these men! They had assumed their lives were over and the storm would take them. But then they PRAYED and the LORD rescued them.
You better believe they sang praises to God that Sunday!!!
Illustration: John Newton’s conversion at sea in a ferocious storm.
When John Newton was 22 in 1748, he was in his own desperate situation. By 22, Newton had been at sea many times, had worked on slave ships, and after being lost at sea was rescued by the ship Greyhound. The Greyhound also encountered a horrific storm.
The storm was terrific: when the ship went plunging down into the trough of the sea few on board expected her to come up again. The hold was rapidly filling with water. As Newton hurried to his place at the pumps he said to the captain, “If this will not do, the Lord have mercy upon us!” His own words startled him. “Mercy!” he said to himself in astonishment, “Mercy! mercy! What mercy can there be for me? This was the first desire I had breathed for mercy for many years!” About six in the evening the hold was free from water, and then came a gleam of hope. “I thought I saw the hand of God displayed in our favour. I began to pray. I could not utter the prayer of faith. I could not draw near to a reconciled God and call him Father. My prayer for mercy was like the cry of the ravens, which yet the Lord does not disdain to hear.”
He cried out for mercy—and the Lord heard him. The Greyhound made it to shore, and Newton was never the same. His lifelong pursuit of Christ and celebration of God’s “Amazing Grace” began in that storm at sea.[2]
This took place on the 10th March 1748. John Newton says of that date:
“That 10th of March is a day much to be remembered by me; and I have never allowed it to pass unnoticed since the year 1748. For on that day the Lord came from on high and delivered me out of deep waters.”
Application: Our God can still storms!
Jesus the storm-killer in Mark 4:
And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. 38 But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” 39 And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. 40 He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” 41 And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” (Mark 4:37–41)
“Who then is this”? This is God right before our eyes! The God of Psalm 107, Yahweh! Jesus Christ rebuked the storm, just as God in Psalm 107 “commanded” (v. 25) the storm to exist and then “made the storm to be still” (v. 29).
The Epilogue in the Psalm – The God who changes fortunes according to his own design, blessing his people, judging his enemies – Read Ps. 107:33–42.
What does the LORD do for the Redeemed?
All of us have different stories of redemption, but together we are “the redeemed." We’ve been rescued from a desperation situation!
All true worship begins with a rescue. And when we cry out, and the Lord rescues us? Give thanks to him for his “steadfast love.”
Let them extol him in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders. (Ps 107:32)
The Psalm is imagining that “the redeemed” are “gathered in” and together are praising the LORD for his deliverance, for his steadfast love.
That’s what a Sunday morning is, it’s the community of the redeemed coming together to sing of the Lord’s rescue. We were lost, and he rescued us. We were hungry, and he fed us. We were prisoners by our making, and he freed us. We were sick, and he healed us. We were facing life-threatening storms, and he rescued us.
Application:
Remember like John Newton remembered. On his tombstone in England, he told others what to put on his grave. This is what’s written there:
JOHN NEWTON. Clerk. Once an infidel and libertine a servant of slaves in Africa was by the rich mercy of our LORD and SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST preserved, restored, pardoned and appointed to preach the faith he had long laboured to destroy. Near 16 years as Curate of this parish and 28 years as Rector of St. Mary Woolnoth.
Tombstone of John Newton
And finally, the last verse of Psalm 107: “Whoever is wise, let him attend to these things; let them consider the steadfast love of the LORD.” (Ps 107:43)
Prayer and closing songs (“Forever,” etc.)
[1]https://www.espn.com/sports-betting/story/_/id/49547066/sports-betting-gambling-poker-addiction-college-campus-youth
[2]https://banneroftruth.org/us/resources/articles/2001/john-newtons-conversion/.
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