Psalm 107:1 O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever
Do you like Christmas music? I do and I am probably obsessive about it. I begin listening to Christmas music in October. Quite frankly, if you take Handel’s Messiah as Christmas, I listen to that all year round. I love Christmas music. What about Thanksgiving music? Can you name five Thanksgiving songs? There are a lot of songs that have gratitude in them, but we don’t always think of them as Thanksgiving songs. Psalm 107 is a thanksgiving hymn.
If you want to understand who people are, consider what they sing about. What fills your ears and your mind? In Psalm 107 you find people with a story. This is the story of God’s deliverance of His people Israel from captivity. It is laid out in four different vignettes, scenarios that exemplify what God did for the nation as a whole.
Psalm 107:2 says, “Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy.” So, this is a people with a story. Troubadours, singers and songwriters from the Middle Ages, wrote stories and put them to song. They sung about love and the king’s court. I’m not opposed to that necessarily, but you find something more in Psalm 107. It is a love for a gracious God. You find a people with a story.
The synopsis of this hymn, which is also the chorus, is found in verses 6-8. It begins, “Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and delivered them out of their distresses.” So, they had a lot of trouble, they cried, God heard, and God delivered. This is the first instance of this, and you find it four times. You have four verses with a refrain that is sung four times.
Verses 7-8 say, “And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation. Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!” The distillation of this psalm is basically a problem, a prayer, a praise. That is so redundant in the book of Psalms; it is almost formulaic. I had a problem, I prayed, and now I praise God for His answer to my prayer.
Sometimes it is good to have a prayer list, things for which I am praying. If I am just thinking about the things I myself need, I don’t have to be reminded of what my problems, worries, and needs are. What I do need to be reminded of oftentimes is the way that God has answered, the things for which I should be giving thanks. That is what needs a list for sure.
So, you have a hymn of thanksgiving with a story, four verses with one chorus. The lesson is who God is. Verse 1 says, “O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.” God is good and merciful, everlastingly so. If every morning I came to work and punched a fellow in the face, and say, “Oh, I’m sorry. That is a bad habit. It is because of my family background and temperament, and I’m stressing out.” He might forgive me if he is gracious. If I did it a second time, he might grudgingly forgive me again, but if I continue to do this, his patience would probably at some point just give out. But God is good and His mercy endures. God is not forgiving because I am good. He forgives because He is gracious, holy, perfect. When I come to Him asking for forgiveness, He gives that.
Verse 11 tells us one of several instances where the people depicted here have problems that were of their own making. Verse 11 says, “Because they rebelled against the words of God.” Verse 12 says, “Therefore he brought down their heart.” Verse 17 says, “Fools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted.” Sometimes I have trouble for no direct reason I have caused. Other times I have produced my trouble, yet God is good and at the same time He has lovingkindness and everlasting mercy.
What produces thanksgiving, a song in the heart as we find in Psalm 107? Let me suggest three things. First, there is a story. There is no praise without prayer. There is no prayer without problems. Can you think of problems you have? Of course, those are easy to remember. What is hard to remember is the things for which we should be thankful. Can you think of problems you had a year ago? You might say yes because they are the same problems you have now. Or it could be that you had problems a year ago, you prayed, God delivered, and you have forgotten about them. So, what produces thanksgiving? A story does. If you read the entire psalm, you find four pictures of real problems, real prayer, and real deliverance.
Second, there is observation. Verse 43 says, “Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the lovingkindness of the LORD.” Sometimes we don’t understand God’s goodness because we don’t remember it. We don’t remember God’s goodness because we don’t observe and pay attention. If I were to observe God’s goodness as frequently as I observe my problems, I would feel better and act better toward this wonderful God.
Psalm 106 gives true history of Israel. It begins, “O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.” There are several instances where they faced trouble and they did not remember; they forgot. A lot of times thanksgiving is just observing and remembering what He has done, not just because it is right but because it helps our frame of mind.
Finally, there is humility. Psalm 107:40 says, “He poureth contempt upon princes.” He is talking about how God deals harshly with those who are proud and full of themselves. In contrast, verse 41 says, “Yet setteth he the poor on high from affliction.” So, he resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. Verse 42 says, “The righteous shall see it, and rejoice.
So, who is the hero in your story? If there is any hero other than God, you don’t have something that will produce a song. Only a hero other than oneself will produce a song of thanksgiving like we read in Psalm 107. Psalm 107 is a thanksgiving hymn produced by a story, people who payed attention, and the humility of joy that came from that.