Praise The Lord For His Goodness

What this episode covers

Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! Reading: Psalm 107:1-43 Introduction: O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy; And gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south.They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses. And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation. Psalm 107:1-7 ​ Today we will be looking at Psalm 107…in its entirety. Whilst somewhat unconventional, I believe the structure of the psalm allows me to do this.  I remember 2018 whilst reading Psalm 107, one verse in particular sat up and made me take notice and this is the title of our message: “Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!” It resonated with me personally, since observing the wholesale rejection of God despite his continued goodness and mercy being lavished upon them continually. I had been reading the bible regularly and from cover to cover.  Two things generally happens when you do this:  First there is a heightened awareness of God working in your life and in the lives of others  Secondly an increased burden for the lost. It is this burden for the lost that desires… “… that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!” It’s quite an incredible Psalm in that those words are repeated 4x throughout the Psalm…as what I would consider a chorus. (Psalms are songs after all). If this is the chorus, then what is contained in what would be considered the stanzas is that which we ought to praise God for: notably his “GOODNESS and his wonderful works to the children of men” DEMONSTRATED in various ways.  This Psalm is an exhortation to praise God, and this is what should define PRAISE!!! Praise ought to be a CONSIDERED response and a HEART-FELT expression of gratitude for God’s intervention in our lives. By considered, I mean actual perceivable and definable intervention and not praise for the sake of praise. Anything short of this (or greater than this) runs the risk of taking the Lord’s name in vain. For example: Pentecostals are great at devising strange doctrines. In psalm 22:3 we read: “But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.”  (Psalms 22:3) For some weird reason they believe that God lives inside our praise and that through praise, they can conjure up the presence of God. This is very dangerous stuff and grounded in the occult.  No: In saying that God inhabits the praises of Israel, the psalmist is saying that the the knowledge and remembrance of God is passed on from generation to generation VERBALLY through the praises of Israel (esp. Psalms) The first thing that we notice within this Psalm is that there is an HISTORICAL content (of real and actual events). In that respect, it is a call to REMEMBRANCE  Memory is a good thing…we should learn from from the past in order to AVOID making the same mistakes again. Did they? I don’t think so.  The first half of the Psalm especially deals with the Exodus and the wilderness wanderings in its content. I’ll admit that some of the content is somewhat obscure…but that which is clear is VERY teachable.  I’ve divided the Psalm into 4 points which deal with a specific praise-worthy work or aspect of God’s nature. These aspects aren’t necessarily confined neatly within each section, and so we see some cross-over (of these aspects) between the stanzas.  [Turn to] The first seven verses set the scene (so to speak) Verse 1 declares God’s goodness… “Give than