Psalm 107
I was much struck in reading this psalm with three words in it, spoken of those whom the Spirit there exhorts to give thanks and praise to the Lord.
1. Redeemed. “O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endureth forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy.”
We, blessed be the Lord’s name, are redeemed (a) from the hand of the enemy. The enemy’s power is broken by Him who by death has destroyed him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and the captive has been set free. As with Israel of old, who saw all their enemies dead on the sea shore, so with us the deliverance is full and complete, and we can truly sing—
“His be the Victor’s name
Who fought the fight alone,
Triumphant saints no honor claim,
His conquest was their own.”
This perhaps is the aspect of redemption that appeals to us first, and yet the other is even more blessed. We are the redeemed of the Lord: redeemed (b) to God, as that blest company spoken of in Rev. 5:9, who will sing by and by, “Thou hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood.” He has made us His own treasure, a treasure the value of which in His sight can only be measured “by the precious blood of Christ” (see 1 Peter 1:19).
Well may the thought of this preciousness in God’s sight lift up our hearts in adoring worship, while we muse in wonder as we listen to our blessed Savior telling His Father, Thou “hast loved them as Thou hast loved Me” (John 17:23).
2. Gathered (ver. 3). He “gathered them out of the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.” If God redeems us individually, it is not His thought to leave us as isolated ones in the midst of a scene that has rejected Christ. Caiaphas spoke the truth when he said that Jesus “should gather together in one the children of God” (John 11:52).
God loves to gather His redeemed ones, as in Matt. 18:20, (a) in or to Christ’s name, that One in whom His own soul finds its perfect and unchangeable delight, that we, too, may have “great delight” as we sit under His shadow (Cant. 2:3). Thus the center of God’s affections has through His grace become our center also. O! that we might walk more worthily of Him, and more constantly and truly seek His glory. For if God caused the houses of Israel and Judah to cleave to Him that they might be to Him “for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory” (Jer. 13:11), how much more so has Christ now taken us to Himself as a peculiar people, making us one with Himself, and giving us to bear His name.
But, further, in Matt. 18:20, we find that by the Holy Spirit we are (b) gathered together, that walking in the light—the place that, as believers, we have been set in by God—we might have fellowship one with another, “and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3 and 7).
How different to the “good fellowship” of the world!
Holy communion with the Father and the Son and with one another in the power of the Spirit of God, is to be only truly enjoyed while we remember that it is “in the light” that we walk, so that everything in us which is manifested by that light as being contrary to God may be at once judged and confessed.
It is remarkable how often in these days of failure we hear of “walking in love” in such a way as would seem to indicate that we must not be too exclusive.
Let any who would so use it note the force of that passage in 1 John 1:7, that the place of our fellowship—where indeed we shall most truly manifest divine love the one to the other is “in the light” in which we are at all times.
Did we more realize this we would no doubt more earnestly strive to be found walking according to that light.
The apostle John, who, more than any other, speaks of love, yet writes,
“I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.” 3 John 4.
3. Satisfied. “He satisfieth the longing soul” (Ver. 9). God loves to satisfy the longing soul with the One who satisfies His own heart. Can we not say—
“God is satisfied with Jesus,
We are satisfied as well”?
Yet we go on longing, for the more we know of Jesus the more we want to know of Him, and God will go on satisfying us with Him until in glory we see Jesus face to face. He will then be satisfied with the fruit of the “travail of His soul” and we shall be forever satisfied when we awake with His likeness.
“O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good.” Psa. 107:1.