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by Katie Erickson

“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.” (Psalm 107:1)

If that verse sounds familiar, it could be because it’s also the first verse of Psalm 106 that I wrote about last week. But after that verse, this psalm differs somewhat from the previous one.

Psalm 107 begins the fifth and final book within the book of Psalms. These “books” are just groups of psalms to divide up the book. Some scholars believe that this was to mimic the 5 books of the Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy). This psalm is known as a thanksgiving-wisdom psalm because it starts out urging its reader to give thanks and it ends with encouraging its reader to have wisdom.

Verses 1-3 say, “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story—those he redeemed from the hand of the foe, those he gathered from the lands, from east and west, from north and south.” Notice the focus on “the redeemed of the Lord” in these verses. It’s a common misconception that those who follow God live lives that are free of trouble; on the contrary, here we see that God has redeemed His people from adversity. God continues to redeem His people from whatever adversity we face, though not always in the way we might want.

While the reference to God gathering His people may have been a bit unusual for the nation of Israel since they were generally all living in the same place, this is especially relevant today in the context of following Jesus. Today, followers of Jesus are found all around the world, and God gathers all of us to Him as a part of His family.

Now, before we move on in this psalm, I want you to take a moment and start thinking of reasons that you have to be thankful in your life. You can probably come up with quite a long list, right? Well, verses 4-32 of this psalm are Israel’s list of reasons to be thankful! I encourage you to read it, but I’ll give you the highlights here.

Verses 4-9 speak of them being wanderers in the desert. While that doesn’t sound like a reason to be thankful, it is because God delivered them when they needed Him to. They were hungry and they were thirsty, and God gave them food and drink. They had no place to call their home, but God led them to a city where they could settle.

Verses 10-16 speak of them being prisoners, in chains and subjected to forced hard labor. Again while that doesn’t sound like something that would make people thankful, again God saved them from that. He broke away their chains and freed them from their captivity.

Verses 17-22 speak of them being a sick people. They were so sick they nearly died - a perfect time to be thankful for your life, right? But again, when they cried out to God, He healed them and delivered them from their physical illnesses.

Verses 23-32 speak of them being sailors on the sea. That doesn’t sound so bad, but the sea was a very dangerous place where one storm could end the lives of many. But God calmed the stormy seas and delivered them safely back to land.

When you started making your list of thing you were thankful for, did you include all the seemingly bad things that have happened in your life? Are you thankful for a loved one with cancer? Are you thankful for natural disasters? I’m guessing you’re generally not thankful for those things.

But here’s the thing. If you read that whole passage, you may have noticed that each one of these sections has a verse that says, “Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind.” Each and every time that God’s people went through difficult times, when they called out to God He delivered them. In spite of all that seemed so negative, they were called to give thanks to God for that! No matter what’s happening in life, God’s love will never fail and He will continue to do wonderful deeds for mankind, even if it doesn’t seem like it from our perspective.

The psalm continues in verses 33-42, giving reasons to praise God. Even though the people went through all this bad stuff, God was still working good for them. God has the authority to make bad things good, to make water flow in the desert, and to provide food for the hungry, just to name a few. He is always worthy of our praise, even if we don’t feel like He’s doing what we want Him to. Fortunately, He is God and we are not! We don’t know what’s best for us as humankind, but God does. He is always worthy of our praise for continuing to love and guide us through whatever happens in life.

The psalm closes in verse 43 with this: “Let the one who is wise heed these things and ponder the loving deeds of the Lord.” If we are unwise, then we’ll just get angry or depressed when bad things happen to us. But if we’re wise, we’ll take to heart the things listed in this psalm. Even when it feels like we’re going through the worst time of our lives, God still loves us! His love will never fail. When we call out to Him, He will deliver us! It may not be the way we want or expect Him to, but we can always count on His unfailing love. We can always give thanks to God because His love truly will endure forever.

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