GIVE THANKS FOR DELIVERANCE
Study Scripture: Psalm 107:1-9, 39-43
Background Scripture: Psalm 105, 106. 113
Lesson 7 October 16, 2021
Key Verse
Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses.
Psalm 107:6
INTRODUCTION
This Psalm is very important to both Jewish and Gentile believers for like the other praise Psalms it calls on those that Yahweh have redeemed or saved to praise and give thanks (Hebrew: yadah) to Him.
It gives the reasons for praising and thanking Yahweh. It underlines that Yahweh is good (Hebrew tob), and that He has steadfast or faithful love (hesed). The psalmist calls on the people to give Yahweh’s His due acknowledging that they have been blessed in many, many ways because of what He has done. He has saved them.
This Psalm emphasizes God’s rescue activity throughout.
It gives a brief history lesson on the history of the Israelites and the troubles that they went through when Yahweh in fulfillment of His covenant promise to Abraham and the fathers took them out of Egypt, established a Covenant with them at Mount Sinai, put up with their several rebellious activities and the breaking of their covenant relationship, took them through a learning experience through the wilderness, established them in the land of Canaan in fulfillment of the promise, watched their continuing disobedience and troubles in the land of Canaan, watched over them through the Babylonian exile, and again redeemed them and brought them back to their Land after they cried to God.
Note clearly the constant repetition in the Psalm of the steadfast love of God throughout the ungrateful and rebellious actions of the people of God repeatedly breaking His laws a number of times. This poses the question for us,
How do we live that expected life of thanksgiving to Yahweh the Lord in the midst our daily struggles for survival, the attacks on us from our enemies, and our self-centeredness?
We should ask ourselves what are the ways in which we are rebellious against God, whether we need to be bitten by snakes, and what God had to do by giving us the gift of Christ to die on the Cross so that He could provide for our healing and salvation.
Do we have to be taken by God into desert wastes so that we are forced by our circumstances to cry out to God and have Him intervene to provide for our immediate needs and lead us into a place of refuge?
When we are taken out of our troubles and distress are we led to give thanks for God’s mercy and offer thanksgiving with shouts of joy because of what God has done?
All of those that have been redeemed from trouble and taken out of their exile in the land of sin are now summoned to join the congregation of God and to call on God to give thanks for His steadfast love and His unswerving faithfulness to the covenant people.
In this there are four reports of God’s saving acts. These blessings brought by God’s rescuing activity give reasons for praise.
The redeemed are described as those gathered
-from desert wastes,
-from darkness, gloom, and prison
-from sin, illness, and hunger,
-from the sea.
Their troubles are described. Their cries to the Lord in their trouble are described, God saving them from their distress and God’s rescue is described. And then there is an admonition for them to thank God for His steadfast love and His wonderful works.
The meaning of the key words used is very important. Hesed means the steadfast love of God. It is illustrated in Scripture by the covenant that David and Jonathan made with one another recorded in 1 Samuel 18:1-3 where Jonathan asked David to remember him and his family irrespective of what the future held for them. So Jonathan said, “
If I am still alive, show me faithful love (hesed) of the Lord…never cut off your faithful love (hesed) from my house…(1 Samuel 20:14-15).
Jeremiah 22 speaks of the loyal love between two parties in a marriage.
Hosea 1-3 shows the unfaithfulness of Israel to Yahweh and her lack of loyal love hesed when he recounts the experience he had with his unfaithful wife. In Chapter 2:19. Hosea states God’s love:
“Your love (hesed) is like a morning cloud
Like the dews that goes away early.
For I desire steadfast love (hesed) and not sacrifice,
The knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings” Hosea 6:4,6.
Hesed therefore carries the sense of loyal love between two parties bound by covenant.
It is to be noted with respect to the word good that this word is first seen in the account of creation. Genesis 1: 30 God saw everything that He had made and it was very good tob.
It has the meaning pleasing.
The word “thanks” or “thanksgiving” means “to respond to God’s goodness and grace with gratitude”.
The Dictionary tells us that the Hebrew word Yadah “ has the root meaning “to throw”, or “the extended hand, to throw out the hand”, therefore “to worship with extended hand”. Eventually it also came to denote songs of praise– to lift up the voice in thanksgiving– to tell forth and confess his greatness (e.g. Psalm 43: 4, 2 Chronicles 20: 19-20 is the yadah type of praise”.
The Hebrew noun todah “thanksgiving” is derived from the Hiphil of the verb yadah “to praise”.
The dictionary states a difference between the word “praise” and the word “thanksgiving” as follows:
“Praise is to complement and admire God for all his virtues and for what he is. Thanksgiving is to express thanks and gratitude to God for the things that he has done for you and provided you. Thanksgiving is merely done by works showing gratitude”.
We therefore should remember what this popular hymn means:
O love that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee.
Charles Spurgeon the prince of preachers therefore advises:
“This is a choice song for the redeemed of the Lord (Psalm 107:2). Although it said it celebrates providential deliverances, and therefore may be sung by any man whose life has been preserved in time of danger; yet under cover of this, it mainly magnifies the Lord for spiritual blessings, of which temporal favors are but types and shadows. The theme is thanksgiving, and the motives for it. The construction of the Psalm is highly poetical, and merely as a composition it would be hard to find its compeer among human productions”.It is made clear in this Psalm that God is able to save no matter what the dangers. Where there is anxiety or uncertainty about the future and the people of God are on the edge of irresistible disaster, but is really able, and nothing can really successfully challenge or override His power to save.
THE TEXT
Verse 1.
The theme of Psalms 107, is the sacrifice of praise that is due to Him who redeemed them, the children of Israel, out of exile and all kinds of destruction. What we have here in the first verse is a clear exhortation to the Lord God Almighty. It is a general call to give thanks to God. Through the psalm or through prayer given what God has done for all believers, all mankind, all creation, it is no less than what He deserves, and is rightfully due to Him.
The psalmist’s intention is that all should praise the Almighty, Sovereign Lord, but not just because of the good that He does, but the fact of God’s universal goodness. God is good, all the time, God is good, and without doubt, as He is the author of all good, His mercies endures forever, and as we shall see in the upcoming verses, never fails.
Spurgeon advises:
“Let us be at all times thoroughly fervent in the praises of the Lord, both with our lips and with our lives, by thanksgiving and thanks living. JEHOVAH, for that is the name here used, is not to be worshiped with groans and cries, but with thanks, for he is good; and these thanks should be heartily rendered, for his is no common goodness; he is a good by nature, and essence, and proven to be good in all the acts of his eternity. Compared with him there is none good, nor, not one: but he is essentially, perpetually, superlatively, infinitely good.
We are the perpetually partakers of his goodness, and therefore ought above all his creatures to magnify his name. Our praise should be increased by the fact that the divine goodness is not a transient thing, but in the attribute of mercy abides forever the same, for his mercy endureth forever. The word endureth has been properly supplied by the translators, but yet it somewhat restricts the sense, which will be better seen if we read it, “for his mercy forever”. That mercy had no beginning, and shall never know an end. Our sin required that goodness should display itself to us in the form of mercy, and it has done so, and will do so evermore; let us not be slack in praising the goodness which thus adapts itself to our fallen nature”.
Verse 2.
In this verse those that are redeemed of the Lord are implored to acknowledge this fact, as it speaks to their spiritual state and if true they see the great Redeemer as such, as those that do view God as their great Redeemer and understand that He has saved them from sin and hell.
They have, of all people, the most reason to say that God is good, and His mercy is everlasting.
Keep in mind that their redemption is a proof of His goodness, and an instance of His mercy. Even though this may directly be applied to the children of Israel, it can be generally applied to the children of God the most as it is He who has delivered us from any sort of slavery, bondage, and confinement, whether from the power of disease, or from a prison, or from wicked and unreasonable men, and from captivity in an enemy’s country, where they have been used very severely; as the providence of God is concerned in all such deliverances, thanks should be given to Him.
Since Christ is the author of our redemption, those who give praise to God should call themselves redeemed, and not by themselves, nor by any creature, but by the Lord, who being their God, and near kinsman, had a right to redeem them, and, being God, was able to do it, and who has effected it by His precious blood. This means Christ has a right to those who He has redeemed and they are His property. The word redemption means that. So now it should be clear that all those redeemed have great reason to praise the Lord and His goodness, and sing the new song of redeeming love.
This is what the children of God should be aware of. They have been redeemed from Satan their implacable adversary, who is stronger than they. They have been redeemed from the law, which curses and threatens them with damnation and death, and from death itself, the last enemy. Redemption has come from the hand of all their enemies; God has wrested and redeemed Israel and us from the hand of the enemy, from all their sins which war against their souls.
Verse 3.
We should never forget that Israel suffered two exiles. The first one was from the Assyrians who captured the northern kingdom of Israel in 722 B.C., killing many and taking others prisoners, scattering them in different places.
Then Babylon destroyed Judah and Jerusalem in 587 B.C. killing many of the inhabitants and taking most of the rest of Babylon where they lived in exile for over 50 years.
This psalmist is celebrating the fact that Jerusalem existed and its people have been gathered to their own land from every quarter of the earth.
The idea clearly is therefore that God will gather His own from wherever they have been scattered and from wherever they have wandered so that they would have one glorious Shepherd. This idea applied to Israel and it also applies to all of those that are in the body of Christ.
Both then, now and tomorrow, Christ died to gather together in one, out of all the lands His people, even more so as spoken by David. This thought seems to be meant of as a temporal deliverance, wrought for them when in their distress they and we cry out to the Lord. David in part reassures that God will certainly hear and help.
When troubles become extreme that is man’s time to cry, and then it will be God’s time to succour and bring them back to Him.
There is no place, no land, nor border that God cannot enter, cross and go to act to deliver His people. Though they were dispersed as out-casts, God gathered Israel out of all the countries whither they were scattered, that they might again be incorporated into their own restored nation.
God knows those that are His, and where to find them. If they are in an enemy’s country, God will bring them out and be their rescue. Not by might or power (Zechariah 4:6), nor by price or reward (Isaiah 45:13), but by the Spirit of God, working on the spirits of men. This is why the children of God have reason to adore the grace of God, and to show forth His praise, who has called them by His grace, and separated them from others for Himself.
Verses 4-5.
In this wisdom psalm this psalmist or David seems to be retracing the history of the nation. Verses 4 to 9 could easily be interpreted as referring to Israel’s wanderings in the wilderness for we know that for 40 years they lived in the desert and not in any city, grumbling about their hunger, and their lack of water. This psalm speaks of the people being in a state of bewilderment, having no road to travel on, no dwelling place to rest in. As part of Israel’s Prayer Book this psalm was certainly alluding to Israel’s passage through the wilderness to Canaan’s land.
In general travellers through waste places, especially the wild deserts of Arabia, where the wind blowing the sand, covers the roads with it, travellers will lose their way, and wander about, till directed by one providence or another. These people were in rebellion and were being punished.
God would eventually bring them back to Him since they were in danger of perishing through the dry and barren deserts.
Like Ezekiel 20:35 alludes to, before and at the effectual calling, the people existed in a state of error and ignorance, they were like sheep that have gone astray, were lost and had wandered. For a while no path was open to them, and they still were unable to find the right way.
Yet the true way of peace, life, and salvation by Yahweh, they did not know while in a state of nature and unregeneracy.
There was no trodden path, no friendly company, but one solitary way, no lodging, no conveniences, no accommodations, no inhabited city where they might have room or refreshment. However, as God’s promises are true, He would bring His remnant among the people to Him and would take them into the Promised land.
They were lost in sin and wandered with no remedy. But note that God had promised to protect the children of the disobedient ones who had accused Him of wanting to destroy their children. Believers are warned by Spurgeon:
“Men, when under distress of soul, find nothing to rest upon, no comfort and no peace ; their efforts after salvation are many, weary, and disappointing, and the dread solitude of their hearts filled them with dire distress”.
There are people like those rebellious people of Israel who wander from place to place, from job to job, from marriage to marriage, seeking as one writer says, the answers to where the answer to their problems lie. But unfortunately they cannot find the answer for they are looking for something they cannot find and so they keep on wandering seeking satisfaction.
Now it is quite satisfactory that they would seek a city. The Bible in Hebrews 11 tells us that Abraham was looking for a city but note the kind of city he was looking for. He was looking for the city
“which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God”.
The city that God creates has excitement and security and it would be a place where you will feel at home and at rest. But if one is not seeking such a city their cravings will never be satisfied.
As travellers in deserts sometimes are, their provisions being spent they find themselves hungry and faint. It is not just their mortal shells that are in this state, their souls are also in this particular condition as well. So how then will they find satisfaction? There would be heavy fears and nothing to minister and refresh them.
Verses 6-7. Like the prodigal, Israel came to themselves, and are thoroughly convinced of their state and condition by nature. They had to seek provision from God for they could not have it from themselves or any other. When they suffered in their wanderings they cried to the right person and they turn to God with supplications because of their necessity.
When they had no food, God gave them manna. When the water that they found was bitter Yahweh enabled Moses as one writer says, to make it sweet. They surely must have prayed even though their prayers were quite faint and probably feeble given that their faith was weak. But God heard their cry and God delayed not to kill the entire nation but to purge the nation of those that were constantly disobedient.
Remember therefore that Yahweh delights to come to help those who are in a hopeless state when they realize that there was no one else that could or would help you. One writer looking at the experience of Israel tells us all of this applies to us for in verses 6 to 7 we are told what happened to Israel. So he states what happened when they cried to the Lord in their trouble:
“Some of you have had this experience. You too were restless, you were uncertain, wandering, you were hungry and thirsty for life but you could never find it. You tried everything. Finally, when you reached the bottom, you cried to the Lord in your trouble. When you did he heard you. Not suddenly or instantaneously but gradually, he began to set you free. He began to lead you “by a straight way”.
Those in this condition God delivers by leading them in a straight way. They have been wandering circuitously, deviously; now they start going straight. That is the way described in the Scripture. It is a straight way, right through the middle of life. God leads them until they find a city to dwell in, until they reach the place of excitement and security. It does not happen overnight. Sometimes it takes a while.
Some of us are finding this true in our lives. Gradually, step-by-step, as we walk the straight way, God is leading us to a place of excitement and security, of adequacy, of power. Power is always exciting, is it not? Those who are formed this way then have a responsibility, says the psalmist in verse 8”.
They realize they hunger after Christ, the bread of life, and thirst after His grace, the water of life, and the blessings of it. They hunger and thirst after His righteousness, and justification by it.
Natural men, even the very Heathens, when in distress, will cry unto God for relief. It is a time of trouble with awakened sinners, when they are convinced of sin by the Spirit of God, when they are pricked to the heart with a sense of it. When calamity, dread and all hope is gone from them, all will cry out to He who can save them, that is, pray, unto the Lord, the God of their lives, whose ears are open to their cries.
For it is the Almighty God who can and will lead them in the right way. It is the Almighty God who will satisfy their hunger and fill their souls with good things.
By God’s providence He directs travellers that have lost their way, and puts them into the right way. The Lord leads awakened and inquiring souls to the right way of salvation. They are led to Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life. God directs and enables them to believe in Him, to walk by faith, and to continue to walk in Him. As they have received Him, they will understand that His way is plain and the straight way, the way in which they shall not stumble. Men do foolish things, and often do err, wander and lose themselves, but His way though it may have afflictions and tribulations, it is the narrow and rough way, yet it is a right one, and a safe one, and it brings with it eternal life.
This habitation David speaks of is possibly the place where the tabernacle of God will be. As here, He will dwell with men, and they with Him. It is a place, one might call it a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. This is where there is an everlasting habitation, and mansions of peace and rest for the people of God to dwell in, after they have gone through their troublesome passage in this wilderness.
Christ has always been spoken of as our city of refuge, where awakened sinners are directed to flee to, where there is plenty of provisions and safety. It is a strong city, about which salvation is as walls and bulwarks, to which they come and become citizens of it.
Verse 8.
The psalmist in this verse presents reasons why men should praise God. He starts off with the providential goodness in providing food and drink for them. God has met their needs. When they were faint from their travels, God was there to ensure that they would make it through. He also directed their way as at times their path was somewhat obscured by different obstacles, but in either case when they were lost, He never left them, and continued to guide them to the safe place to which they were bound. This no doubt references instances in Israel’s past, but it is also an allusion to what God will do with all of His children as the promises given to Israel were to be applied to believers in Jesus for He has instructed us that all true believers are now grafted into the Olive Tree. It is therefore now our privilege to follow the Lord Jesus Christ and serve Him.
They should praise Him particularly for His special grace and goodness, in redemption and effectual calling. He has brought them and us out of a wilderness state and condition, and supplied all His children with all spiritual provisions, and putting them in the right way to eternal glory and happiness.
These verses are repeated at the close of each of the instances produced, in which the goodness of God appears to persons in distress, and who being delivered, are to acknowledge it, and be thankful for it. That is, we, His children should be obliged to confess or to declare to God His goodness, and to the children of men His wonderful works. Spurgeon helps us understand what is happening around us because of the love and mercy of God:
“The children of men are so insignificant, so feeble, and so undeserving, that it is a great wonder that the Lord should do anything for them; but he is not content with doing little works, he puts forth his wisdom, power, and love to perform marvels on the behalf of those who seek him. In the life of each one of the redeemed there is a world of wonders, and therefore from each there should resound a world of praises”.
Verse 9.
We are born in sin and shaped in iniquity. From the early years children of God are taught this lesson so that we may when taught about the Almighty God have a great perspective to look at life in terms of what He has done for us.
Part of that is given in this verse, as it talks about the soul and the soul that has been encouraged to seek God out. The soul that is hungry and thirsty, and longs for food and drink, will seek out a way to be satisfied. That satisfaction comes in the form of Christ and His grace, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. For an interest in Him, and fellowship with Him, the Lord satisfies with these things, as with marrow and fatness.
In verses 10-38 We are then told about some persons with other problems and who are sitting in darkness and gloom which is a figure in the Bible of people who are hopelessly ignorant, who cannot understand their condition or what is wrong. Besides that they are in iron chains bound by habits, ideas, thoughts, and attitudes that have them tightly bound so that no matter how they try and despite the misery that they are in they cannot break the grip on them. They are like the drug addicts, the hopelessly sexually promiscuous addicts that are among us. They are like the people who have bitter, resentful and critical spirits, who live with negative attitudes.
They are like that because they have rebelled against the word of God. They do not like what God has said about life and they want to act as they see fit. They have rejected the truth. They have spurned the counsel of the Most High. Since they do not want to follow what God advised them their hearts are now bowed down with hard labor. They have followed the life which is agonizing, a hard life, an exhausting life and they have been dragged down. This is a consequence of having rebelled against God and ignoring and spurning His direction. Because of that they are left to their own resources and there is no one to turn to . One writer says that these people are prisoners bound by their own weaknesses.
But a merciful God did not say, You have made your own bed, made your own decisions, took the course of life that you wanted to take and now you have to lie in the uncomfortable bed you made with no one can help you.
The merciful God however brought them from darkness and gloom when they cried to Him. Yahweh does not like to see people suffer and struggle and so He broke their bonds. The vicious drugs and other roots of bitterness that have held them in captivity were broken by the initiative of the Lord God and the only problem they had now was to keep from sliding back into those sins again. As Charles Wesley said:
“He breaks the power of canceled sin,
He sets the prisoner free;
His blood can make the foulest clean;
His blood availed for me”.
The experience of Israel taught us that even when you are bound by evil and you are struggling with bad habits and not being able to break them, God has the power to set you free.
Then your responsibility is to spend the rest of your life telling others about what God has done for you, how He has set you free.
We are told how powerful God is for all God did was to send His Word and His word worked. Then you should know the Living Word, the Logos, identified Himself with human beings.
So again we are told in verses 21 to 22 that we should thank the Lord for His steadfast love and wonderful works, and we should render joyful service and joyful sacrifices with great joy, gladness and cheerfulness.
But not only that. Sailors who are accustomed to crises on the sea can be overwhelmed and they have to turn to God for He alone is capable to get them to a safe haven.
Those who have gone through crises on the sea and survived are told to praise God and extol Him for their deliverance, lifting Him high, and praising God before the elders.
But we must hasten to say that there are several methods God uses to accomplish the purposes that He has. Sometimes God uses adversity, deliberately sending troubles, disasters, and crises in our path to get our attention. Some people only pay attention to God when they get sick, are in difficulty, or are in trouble. Then they have to listen to what God has to say. But God is telling us that we need to learn to hear His word because His word tells us what life is all about.
Then sometime God uses prosperity (verses 35-38) regaling us and giving us the things we are looking for, satisfying our hearts, filling us with good things.
Verse 39.
We depend on God for our increases and to maintain us when things decrease. Many have seen people suddenly rise and fall and are brought to nothing. They are diminished and brought low by adverse providences, and the end of their days as low as they began them, but for those who hold onto the Lord God, they shall always be in a position of increase because they seek a reward where moth and dust do not corrupt, and where no thief can approach it to take it away.
This verse might be applied to the Jews at their destruction by the Romans, when they were greatly lessened and brought low by oppression. Sometimes Christians are brought low under the Heathen persecutions. Often believers increase more and more under the antichristian tyranny.
But Yahweh has power to contemptuously deal with these enemies of His people who are made to wander in the wasteland.
Either way, God is with us in all this adversity. We must remember that God has the power to bring the needy out of their affliction and so we should walk before God conscious of our dependence on Him.
Verse 40.
The Lord God Almighty will execute judgment on all those who would harm His children. It is not always immediate, but it will be timely in how it is executed, according to His will and desire. None can withstand the Lord. He sets up and pulls them down, those who would attack His children. It does not matter if they sit on thrones, or if they are nations, or even spiritual beings, they are subject to Him.
It is no small thing when the Scriptures says the enemies of God will seek the rocks and mountains to cover them from His wrath. This will be particularly true of the antichristian princes, when the vials of God’s wrath will be poured out upon them.
All those that oppose the Lord God Almighty will be driven out of their kingdoms, they will flee for shelter, and wander about in untrodden paths. There will be no counsel to help them, it is as if they were put in a continual maze in a wilderness, at an entire loss what they should do; this is what it is to defy the Most High.
Verse 41.
The verses now shift back to God exalting His people. The Lord sometimes exalts men of low degree, and raises men of mean extraction and parentage, who have made a poor figure in life, to high places of honour, free from adversity and distress, as He has done with David, raising him from the sheepfold to be the king of Israel. This is all done for His pleasure, so that among things men can see that His will shall be done.
This is the eventual state of all the saints and people of God, who for the most part are poor in this world, on many different levels. But whom He chooses, calls, and saves, these the Lord sets on high, sets them among the princes of His people, makes them great, as they are set on Christ the Rock, who is higher than they, higher than the angels and than the heavens.
Their nature is being advanced above angels for they are joint heir with Christ. They will have a crown of glory, life, and righteousness, put upon them, and be possessed of an everlasting kingdom, and be out of the reach of affliction. Though they are not clear of it in this world, they are appointed to greatness to come in the next world, and so are encouraged to toil hard for their Master, to do the will of their Lord so that they may take joy in the reward that is set forth for them, but even so, recognize that they will be in eternity with Christ. Divine providence would always work for the benefit of the people of God.
In addition, a blessing is in store, for the Lord says He will make the poor families like a flock of sheep, so greatly does He increase them. The people of God are often compared to sheep, and to a flock of them, and here we are told that these creatures will greatly increase. Here it denotes the large number of the saints, as in the first times of the Gospel, both in Judea and in the Gentile world when they shall be multiplied and not be few. They will be glorified and not be small.
Verse 42.
Blessing are continued in these verses. The children of God shall see increase and prosperity applied to the saints, the glory of the congregation of God, the church shall increase, even so that will point to the glory of the Lord.
We should rejoice as we know that the day comes when God will execute all judgment against His enemies and His order shall reign supreme.
It speaks to the men of iniquity, all bad men, those separate from God, that they shall be silenced and have nothing to say against the providence of God. They will be confounded, and will not be able to say anything against their own condemnation, but will just watch, be struck with admiration at the wonderful things done by the Lord for His people.
Verse 43.
This verse starts off with Whoso is wise, or as it may be read interrogatively (Jeremiah 9:12), that is, spiritually wise, wise unto salvation, who is made to know wisdom in the hidden part, for not such as are possessed of natural wisdom, or worldly wise men, much less who are wise to do evil, are here meant.
Every wise man, understands the goodness of God towards them. In the several dispensations of His providence towards them, and His special love and kindness towards His own people, even in all their afflictions, they will perceive this to be at the bottom of every mercy and blessing. They will understand more of the nature and excellency of it, and know more of the love of God and Christ, which passeth knowledge.
CONCLUSION
It is wise for pay attention to and notice carefully what God has done. He has given us common sense, the ability to see the ways of wisdom, and a brain so that we can see that it is foolish not to be wise.
He tells us that we must pay attention to the lovingkindness of the Lord. We should understand that it is pleasant and profitable to understand this attribute of God.
So this last verse means that you should think about all of this and how it relates to you.
Have you been going through difficult situations and are you bitter because of that?
Are you hostile or restless because you are held prisoner by some attitude, habit or perceived fault?
Are you emotionally upset, fearful, troubled by a crisis that you have created for yourself or even one which has come upon you unexpectedly?
Think about your life carefully for a minute. Understand that God accepts you as you are. Understand that He loves you and is deeply concerned about you and is willing to meet you exactly where you are.
Many accidents, some created by Israel, and others outside of their control affected that nation. But note that even during this story of the wilderness the psalmist praises the glory of God’s grace for He satisfies the longing soul and filled the hungry with goodness. God certainly brought strong discipline and national affliction for the people of Israel were a rebellious house. From the time of their release from captivity in Egypt up to the time of the exile by Assyria and Babylon the nation went through a great deal but with all of that and the indignation felt by Yahweh at His people’s flagrant acts of idolatry and disobedience, Yahweh kept the nation alive, showing the glory of their covenant relationship, His tenderness, His mercy, and His long-suffering.
Don’t make any excuses. These things were written for your instruction for it is you that is at the end of the age.
His love does not change whether you are failing or whether you are a success in life. It makes no difference to God how men regard you. So God has paid special attention to the redeemed and you should rejoice in that fact that you are redeemed. You will find that the love of God has set you free and you can then live under the power and freedom that God gives you.
“Whoever is wise, let him give heed to these things;
let men consider the steadfast love of the Lord”.
Let men consider the unqualified acceptance of the Lord Whoever is wise let him give heed to the Psalms.