Psalm 107 speaks to me a lot. It emphasizes crying out to the Lord in trouble and the deliverance He offers from distress. It also highlights how He satisfies our soul’s longings and fills our hungry soul with goodness.
Over the last few months, I’ve been struggling emotionally over a broken relationship with a dear friend. As I have cried out to the Lord and have been doing spiritual battle, He has been answering by working within me and comforting me. The more I seek Him, the deeper the work that He does in me. By faith, I know that God is working in both me and my friend. He is faithful.
My soul has become hungry for more of Jesus. God is using this difficult time to bring me closer to Him.
Thanksgiving and Worship
Throughout Psalm 107, God speaks about how He responds to our cries for help and seeks our thanksgiving and worship, even in difficult times. Many times, as I have cried out to Him, He has shown me my need for repentance. As I repent, He meets me there, and that brings thanksgiving and worship. Throughout my life I’ve seen Him change situations and circumstances for my good. That also inspires me to worship Jesus and to trust Him day by day.
Promises to Claim
Verses 19 and 20 promise that He saves us from distress and destruction when we cry out to Him.
Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses. He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.
Our enemy, Satan, tries to bring us to destruction and distress by planting lies in our thoughts. As we pray for discernment, God reveals these lies to us. Using the armor of God, we can stand against them and proclaim God’s Word instead. This is one way God saves us from distress and destruction.
When we are in physical, spiritual, or emotional danger, Jesus comes to our rescue. His abounding love and protection are always with those who love and follow Him.
Calm in the Storm
Verse 29 says, He calms the storm so that its waves are still. Then they are glad because they are quiet; so He guides them to their desired haven.
I know this is a prophecy about Jesus calming the storm at sea, but it also applies to the storms we face in life. Sometimes the waves seem high, and we seem to be tossed about. Yet as we yield to Jesus, He calms the storms in our lives.
Progression Through Life
Verses 35 to 38 show a progression that parallels our lives, from dryness to fruitfulness, harvest, and blessings.
He turns a wilderness into pools of water and dry land into water springs. There He makes the hungry dwell that they may establish a city for a dwelling place, and sow fields, and plant vineyards, that they may yield a fruitful harvest. He also blesses them, and they multiply greatly, and He does not let their cattle decrease.
Dryness to Water:
We sometimes go through spiritual dryness. It seems we are in a dry land or wilderness we’re wandering in, and yet, as we look to Him, He brings the living water of the Holy Spirit and changes everything.
Spiritual Hunger:
People who are hungry for God will dwell in the once dry land, establishing a city, sowing fields, and planting vineyards. God can use the spiritual dryness we feel to increase our hunger for Him. As we spend time seeking Him, He enables us to learn from those dry experiences so that we can sow, plant, and build upon His Word and His Presence. What was once a dry, thirsty land and a wilderness becomes irrigated and productive for us.
Fruitful Harvest:
God wants to bring a fruitful harvest into our lives, but we must seek fruitfulness by asking Him to work within us. This often involves repentance, yielding, thankfulness, and taking time to listen to Him. Then what has been sown yields a great spiritual harvest.
During this season in my life, my desire for more spiritual fruitfulness in my life has been impacted by this book:
Secrets of a Fruitful Heart by Bob Sorge. I recently met Bob at a conference, as I was manning his book sales table. The title called out to me, for it was exactly what I knew I needed. What Bob shared from his own experiences and insights into the Scriptures opened my heart to allow God to work in me in new ways.
Blessings and Multiplication:
The Holy Spirit blesses and multiplies fruitfulness in us, bringing a great harvest from what we’ve planted. The fruitful harvest is a multiplication of the spiritual fruit that is within us and of people whom we can affect for Christ. He takes what we’ve planted and multiplies it. But the process often flows out of pain, which He uses to sculpt us.
This progression from dryness to fruitfulness, to harvest, and to the blessings of multiplication is not instant. It is a process by which He works in us and reworks us throughout our lives.
Wisdom and Understanding
Psalm 107 ends with verse 43, which emphasizes the importance of wisdom in understanding the Lord’s lovingkindness.
Whoever is wise will observe these things, and they will understand the loving kindness of the Lord.
We need God’s wisdom, and we’re told throughout the scriptures to ask for it. As we ask for wisdom, He gives us insights into scriptures and into our walk with Jesus. As we are wise, we observe what He’s doing. As our spiritual eyes are opened, our understanding increases of how great and good He is, how He has blessed us, how He is blessing others, how He uses us, how He’s building fruitfulness within us, and how He answers prayer. So many good things! We surely can give Him thanks and give Him praise. He is an awesome God.
Meditate on Psalm 107 and comment on what part of the Psalm speaks to you the most.
Scripture quotes are from the New King James Version.
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