As you know if you’ve listened to me for any time at all, one of the men who has helped me to understand the gospel more clearly is the great 19th century British preacher, C. H. Spurgeon. Early in his ministry—remarkably, while he was still in his teens—Spurgeon was clearer on the gospel than many preachers ever are! He held to the biblical gospel without wavering, although he soon came under fire from opposite directions.

On the one side were men we could label Hyper-Calvinists. They believed, as Scripture teaches, that God is sovereign in all things (Ps. 103:19). They believed correctly that God sovereignly chooses those whom He saves (Eph. 1:4-5) and that He actually saves them, so that none of them are lost (John 6:37-40). But the problem was, these men held so firmly to these truths that they would not appeal to sinners to come to Christ. They thought that such appeals contradicted God’s sovereignty in salvation. Because Spurgeon pleaded with sinners to come to Christ, these men attacked him.

On the other side, those we could call Arminians emphasized man’s free will. They denied that God sovereignly chooses some to salvation, explaining His sovereign election by saying that it was due to His foreknowledge of those who would choose Him. They could not reconcile human responsibility with God’s sovereignty. And so they attacked Spurgeon because he held firmly that salvation is totally from God.

For example, in a sermon, “High Doctrine,” which Spurgeon preached on June 3, 1860 (just shy of his 26th birthday), he hammered home the truth that salvation is totally of God. He said (The New Park Street Pulpit [Pilgrim Publications], 6:259),

Again, this doctrine gives the death-blow to all self-suffi­ciency. What the Arminian wants to do is to arouse man’s activity; what we want to do is to kill it once for all, to show him that he is lost and ruined, and that his activities are not now at all equal to the work of conversion; that he must look upward. They seek to make the man stand up; we seek to bring him down, and make him feel that there he lies in the hand of God, and that his business is to submit himself to God, and cry aloud, “Lord, save, or we perish.” We hold that man is never so near grace as when he begins to feel that he can do nothing at all.

He goes on to show that sinners cannot pray on their own, repent on their own, or believe in Christ on their own. If they do any of these things, it is because the sovereign God is graciously granting repentance and faith. Salvation is totally from Him.

Both of these errors—Hyper-Calvinism and Arminianism—stem from a common source, namely, rationalism. They both impose human logic on the Scriptures, but from opposite sides. But Scripture clearly affirms both the absolute sovereignty of God and our full responsibility. And Spurgeon held to both of these truths (see Iain Murray, Spurgeon & Hyper-Calvinism [Banner of Truth], esp. pp. 80-88). I encourage you to read him to help you think more clearly about this important biblical matter.

Psalm 105 addresses both of these truths. The bulk of the psalm (vv. 8-44) traces God’s sovereign hand in choosing Israel as His people, protecting them when they were vulnerable and weak, delivering them through the miraculous events of the Exodus, preserving them in the wilderness, and bringing them into the Promised Land. The clear emphasis of these verses is that God did it all.

At the same time, the first five verses and the last verse of the psalm emphasize human responsibility. The first five verses are filled with commands: “give thanks,” “make known,” “sing praises,” “speak,” “glory,” “seek” (3 times), and “remember.” The final verse tells us that the reason for God’s sovereign deliverance and preservation of His people was “so that they might keep His statutes and observe His laws.” And thus we see both God’s sovereignty and our responsibility. To sum up the psalm:

Because of God’s sovereign, gracious dealings with us, we should praise Him, obey Him, and make Him known to others.

We don’t know for sure who wrote this psalm, although verses 1-15 are included as a part of a larger song that David used when he brought the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem (1 Chron. 16:8-22). In spite of this, many scholars argue that it was written much later, after the return from the Exile. But we don’t need to know the author to benefit from its message.

The first section (vv. 1-7) consists of a series of exhortations to praise the Lord and to make Him known among the peoples (Gentiles). Verses 8-44 recount the history of the nation from Abraham through their inheriting the land of Canaan. The psalm concludes with a single verse, “the bottom line,” calling the nation to obedience and praise.

1. In His sovereign grace, God has chosen us and has His hand upon us, even through our trials (105:8-44).

The psalmist attributes everything in Israel’s history to God’s sovereign purpose. You can see this in the repeated use of the pronoun “He.” “He has remembered His covenant …, the word which He commanded” (v. 8). “He confirmed it” (v. 10). “He permitted no man to oppress them” (v. 14). “He reproved kings for their sakes” (v. 14). “He called for a famine” (v. 16). “He sent a man before them” (v. 17). “He made him [Joseph] lord of his [Pharaoh’s] house” (v. 21). “He caused His people to be very fruitful” (v. 24). “He turned their heart to hate His people” (v. 25). “He sent Moses” (v. 26). “He sent darkness” (v. 28). The same is said of all the plagues (vv. 28-36). “Then He brought them out” (v. 37). “He spread a cloud for a covering” (v. 39). “He opened the rock” (v. 41). “He remembered His holy word” (v. 42). “He brought forth His people with joy” (V. 43). “He gave them the lands of the nations” (v. 44). You can’t miss the point!

The psalmist begins (vv. 8-11) with God’s covenant promise to Abraham, which was repeated to his sons, Isaac and Jacob, to give them the land of Canaan and to make of their descendants a great nation. There was nothing in Abraham to merit God’s choosing him out of all of the other pagans living in Ur of the Chaldees. God did not foresee a spark of faith that Abraham would exercise out of his own free will. Rather, God sovereignly chose Abraham, revealed Himself and His purpose to Abraham, and protected him and his descendants when they were few in number, in the midst of the hostile Canaanite peoples (vv. 12-15). Derek Kidner observes (Psalms 73-150 [IVP], p. 375), “Nothing could make it clearer that it was God, not man, who saw the whole matter through.”

This is especially true in the story behind verse 15. This quote does not occur verbatim in Genesis, but God does refer to Abraham as His prophet in the incident where Abraham lied to Abimelech about Sarah being his sister. God appeared to this pagan king in a dream and said, “You’re a dead man because you took this woman, because she is married” (Gen. 20:3). When Abimelech protested because he had not yet had relations with Sarah and also because Abraham had lied to him, God told Abimelech that the reason he had not sinned was that God had kept him from it.

He also told him that Abraham was a prophet, and that he would pray for Abimelech so that if he restored Sarah, he would live (Gen. 20:6-7). Genesis does not tell us whether Abimelech was confused over how there could be a lying prophet who had power in prayer with God! But clearly, the emphasis in that story is on God’s sovereign purpose to preserve Abraham and his progeny, not on Abraham’s obedience!

God later protected Jacob from his much stronger brother, Esau, who easily could have murdered him for stealing his birthright (Gen. 33). Still later, He protected Jacob after his sons slaughtered the Shechemites after the rape of their sister (Gen. 34). By calling the patriarchs His “anointed ones” and His “prophets,” God is showing that their preservation was not due to their political or military power, but to His sovereign choice of them.

The psalm continues with the story of Joseph (vv. 16-22). God called for a famine on the Promised Land. That’s all that it takes for a famine to come on an otherwise fertile land: God calls for it! Proud America should take heed! If God called for a famine on America, our farms would look like the Sahara! But because God had a purpose for Abraham’s offspring, He had “sent a man before them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave” (v. 17). Joseph went to Egypt because his jealous brothers sold him as a slave, but the psalmist attributes it to God sending him. Joseph himself affirmed that God had sent him to Egypt to preserve their lives (Gen. 45:5). They meant evil against him, but God meant it for good (Gen. 50:20)!

But before God elevated Joseph in Egypt, He tested him through his time in prison (vv. 18-19). “His word” (v. 19) probably refers to Joseph’s dreams that he would be over his father and brothers, which God had given to him years before. During his years in the Egyptian prison, he must have wrestled with doubt. “Was that truly God’s word to me, or did I just imagine it? Should I count on a bunch of dreams, or was I just a foolish teenager?” Before God elevated Joseph, He had to humble him, so that he learned to trust in God alone.

Then in His perfect time, God elevated Joseph, who was then able to provide food for his extended family during the years of famine (vv. 20-22). The former prisoner was now able to imprison even princes! Although this has a wider reference, I think it also refers Joseph’s imprisoning his own brothers when they came to him for food, to teach them wisdom. Through Joseph, Jacob and all his descendants came to sojourn in Egypt, where God caused them to be very fruitful (vv. 23-24).

Then God turned the hearts of the Egyptians to hate His people (v. 25). This does not imply that God is the author of evil. Rather, He takes the evil that already exists in people’s hearts and uses it for His own holy purposes. This was supremely demonstrated at the cross, where God used evil men to accomplish His sovereign purpose of salvation through the death of His own Son (Acts 2:23; 4:27-28).

Next, the psalmist tells the story of Moses and Aaron, His chosen servants (v. 26) whom He sent to bring Israel out of slavery through the plagues. We don’t know why, but the psalmist begins with the ninth plague (darkness), then goes back to the first and second (blood and frogs), reverses numbers three (gnats) and four (flies), skips five (pestilence on the livestock) and six (boils), and then lists seven (hail), eight (locusts), and ten (death of the firstborn). Various suggestions are given as to why the ninth (darkness) is listed first, but these are only speculations.

On “they did not rebel against His words” (v. 28), there are at least three different views. John Calvin and Matthew Henry take they to refer to Moses and Aaron, who obediently pronounced the plagues in spite of Pharaoh’s threats. John Gill refers they to the plagues, which were obedient to God’s commands. Derek Kidner and H. C. Leupold think that they refers to the Egyptians, alluding to Exodus 11:3, which says that the Lord gave the Israelites favor in the eyes of the Egyptians, who gave them much silver and gold before they departed (Ps. 105:37).

The psalmist goes on (vv. 37-41) to recount the Exodus (although he omits the parting of the Red Sea!) and God’s protection and provision for the nation in the wilderness through the cloud, food, and water. He ends by repeating that all these miraculous events happened because God remembered His covenant with Abraham to give the land of Canaan to his descendants (vv. 43-44).

Let me summarize some of the spiritual lessons from this brief history. Please observe that there is an important practical reason for knowing the history of God’s dealings with His people, both through the inspired Word of God (as here), and also through church history. The point of rehearsing these 500 years of Israel’s history was so that God’s people would remember His gracious dealings with them and be obedient to His covenant commandments (v. 45). Here are seven lessons:

(1). Salvation is totally of the Lord, from start to finish.

God chose us, He called us to Himself, He protected us when we were weak and vulnerable (even before we came to saving faith), He guided us in His ways, and He brought us to His promised salvation. This history clearly shows that salvation is through God’s mighty power, not through our feeble human will. Abraham lied on more than one occasion. Isaac favored the godless Esau over the scheming Jacob. Jacob was a deceiver who bemoaned God’s dealings with him (Gen. 42:36; 47:9). Jacob’s sons were cruel and immoral (Gen. 34, 37, 38). Yet God chose them and used them as the people through whom His Savior would come.

(2). Nothing can thwart God’s purpose for His people.

Pharaoh, the mightiest king on earth, was no match for God when He chose to deliver His people. God didn’t need a mighty army to defeat Pharaoh. He merely spoke and sunny Egypt was engulfed in total darkness. God spoke again and Pharaoh’s rivers turned to blood, his bedroom swarmed with frogs, his skin crawled with gnats and flies, and his land was destroyed by hail and locusts.

(3). God’s sovereign purposes involve individuals, but always in a corporate context.

God called and used Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and Aaron, along with many other individuals. But He called them and used them as His nation, His corporate people. In America, Christians tend to be overly individualistic. We attend church like we attend the theater, not really forming close relationships. If we don’t like one church, we change to another that suits us better, or we drop out and do our own thing. Who needs the church? But God’s purpose is not just to save individuals, but to form “a holy nation, a people for [His] own possession” (1 Pet. 2:9). If you are not committed to being built together in a local church, you are not in line with God’s purpose for history.

(4). God’s sovereign purposes are not fulfilled in our timetable, but in His.

The history sketched here took over 500 years, 400 of which God’s people were slaves in a foreign land. God promised Abraham the land, but he died only owning a cave in which to bury his dead. He promised to multiply Abraham’s descendants as the stars of the sky, but he died with only one son of the promise, Isaac. He prophesied to Joseph that he would rule over his father and brothers, but He didn’t tell him that the route to fulfillment included spending his twenties in an Egyptian dungeon.

(5). God’s sovereign purpose includes using trials to refine us.

His word tested Joseph (v. 19). Moses spent 40 years in the desert, and then had to go through the many trials of leading Israel out of Egypt and through the wilderness. As Paul explained (Acts 14:22b), “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.”

(6). God’s strength is magnified in our weakness, so that all the glory goes to Him.

As you read this brief synopsis of God’s dealings with His people, your focus is not drawn to the greatness of any of these men that God used, but rather to God’s ability to accomplish His good pleasure through such weak instruments. God accomplishes that purpose in ways that often seem upside down to us. He gives Abraham and Sarah the son of the promise by closing her womb until she was past the age of bearing children. He gave Abraham’s descendants the land of promise by causing them to wander around for years, and then by enslaving them for 400 years. He elevated Joseph to second in the land by imprisoning him during his prime years. He freed His people from bondage by turning the hearts of their captors to hate them. He fed them in a barren desert with the bread of heaven and quenched their thirst from a rock. When we are weak and without resources, all glory goes to God!

(7). God will accomplish His sovereign purpose for us and bring us safely to glory.

God (vv. 42-43) “remembered His holy word with Abraham His servant; and He brought forth His people with joy, His chosen ones with a joyful shout.” In New Testament language (Rom. 8:28-30), “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.” He keeps going to the end of that great chapter, showing that nothing can separate us from God’s great love for us in Christ Jesus.

Before I close, I still need to deal with our response!

2. Our response to God’s sovereign grace toward us should be to praise Him, obey Him, and make Him known to others.

A. Our response to God’s sovereign grace towards us should be to praise Him (105:1-7).

I could easily preach an entire sermon here! Skipping for the moment the second half of verse 1, note the verbs (vv. 1-5): “Give thanks to the Lord, call upon His name… Sing to Him, sing praises to Him; speak of all His wonders. Glory in His holy name; let the heart of those who seek the Lord be glad. Seek the Lord and His strength; seek His face continually. Remember His wonders which He has done, His marvels and the judgments uttered by His mouth.” Then he addresses Israel (v. 6), “O seed of Abraham, His servant, O sons of Jacob, His chosen ones!” And he reminds them (v. 7), “He is the Lord our God; His judgments are in all the earth.” There are enough things there to praise God every day for the rest of our lives!

B. Our response to God’s sovereign grace towards us should be to obey Him (105:45).

The conclusion of the whole psalm is, “So that they might keep His statutes and observe His laws. Praise the Lord!” This psalm has focused almost entirely on God’s grace, while overlooking the many sins of God’s people. (That will be the theme of the next psalm.) But the psalmist reminds us at the end that God’s grace is never an excuse for disobedience (Rom. 6:1-2). Rather, God’s grace should motivate us to obey Him and praise Him.

C. Our response to God’s sovereign grace towards us should be to make Him known to others (105:1b).

“Make known His deeds among the peoples.” Israel was not to hide the revelation that God had entrusted to them, but to proclaim it. Jesus’ final words to us were to make disciples of all the nations (Matt. 28:19-20). God’s sovereign grace in saving us should never diminish our evangelistic effort, but rather increase it. As the Lord told Paul when he was in Corinth (Acts 18:9-10), “go on speaking and do not be silent; for I am with you, and no man will attack you in order to harm you, for I have many people in this city.” Those people were God’s elect, who had not yet come to faith. So Paul endured all things for the sake of God’s elect, so that they would come to salvation (2 Tim. 2:10). The doctrine of election should motivate us to evangelism and missions, because we know that God’s sovereign purpose to save His people will not fail.

Conclusion

The very fact that you’re listening to this message shows that God is dealing with you. Perhaps He is calling you to repent of your sin and trust in Christ. Have you responded to His call? Perhaps you’re a Christian, but you need to submit to His sovereign dealings with you by praising Him, obeying His Word, and making Him known to others. “He is the Lord our God; His judgments are in all the earth. Praise the Lord!” (105:7).

Application Questions

1. Is it illogical to affirm both God’s sovereignty over all things and at the same time, our responsibility for our actions? Why/ why not?
2. Why is it of vital importance to affirm that salvation is totally of the Lord? If it is partly up to our “free will,” does God get all the glory?
3. How can God be sovereign over all and use evil (Ps. 105:25) without being the author of it? What theological problems result if we deny that God is sovereign even over evil?
4. Why does a proper view of God’s sovereign election not militate against evangelism (as is often charged), but rather lead to greater evangelistic effort?

Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2009, All Rights Reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation

A man was the sole survivor of a shipwreck. He was able to make a raft from some of the ship’s cargo and drifted to a deserted island. There he constructed a makeshift shelter and lived on what little food he had been able to salvage from the wreckage. Time after time he tried in vain to attract the attention of a passing ship. Finally, he saw a ship approaching more closely and hurriedly lit a signal fire. To his dismay, the ship passed by and was quickly fading from sight.

Accidentally, the flames from the signal fire set the thatched roof of his shelter on fire. The man watched helplessly as all of his provisions burned to ashes. All was lost, he thought. He didn’t see how his life could last much longer. But then he noticed that the ship which had passed by him had turned around and was approaching the island again. To his relief, he was seen by the crew and rescued.

Once on board, he went to the captain to express his thanks. He asked, “What caused you to turn around after you had already gone by me?” The captain answered, “We saw the smoke you made by setting your shelter on fire.” The very thing that seemed to seal his doom was the means of his delivery.

A lot of people view their problems like that marooned man. They see no point or purpose in them. Their problems drive them to despair and hopelessness. Sometimes people blame God and grow bitter because He allows trials to come into their lives. And yet it is often those very trials that God has designed as the means for the person’s salvation or growth in grace. The problems bring us to the end of our own resources so that we are forced to call upon God for help.

The fallen human race has a basic problem: we think that we are self-sufficient. We are not, of course, but we think we are. In order for God to communicate His love to us, He has to bring us to an awareness of our need to depend totally upon Him.

We all appreciate love the most when we are most aware of our need for the person who loves us. While the analogy does not correspond completely, we can see this to some degree in a marriage. A husband (or wife) who is independent and self-sufficient will not appreciate the love that his (or her) spouse offers as much as the one who realizes his (or her) own needs and how the spouse meets those needs. The analogy breaks down in that it would be unhealthy to be totally dependent on a spouse.

But when it comes to God, we are in fact totally dependent on Him. All things hold together in Christ (Col. 1:17). I take that to mean that if Christ let go, all matter would disintegrate. He is the author and giver of life. We are dependent upon Him for our next breath or heartbeat. That is the fact of the matter. But we do not experientially believe it. And so God designs problems to come into our lives so that we reach the end of ourselves, call out to Him for deliverance, and thereby experience and appreciate His great love.

To receive help from God, you must come to the end of yourself and cry out to Him for His undeserved favor. 

That is the message of Psalm 107. It was probably written after Judah had gone into captivity and exile in Babylon and then later returned to the land of Palestine. In Psalm 106:47 there is the cry, “Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from among the nations.” In Psalm 107:2-3, that request has been answered. The psalmist wants to teach his readers how God uses trials (like the exile) to drive us to trust Him.

The main body of the psalm consists of four poetic portraits of people in difficult circumstances. In each case the people were overwhelmed with a problem they could not solve; they cried out to God in prayer; He answered their prayer with His provision; and then there is an exhortation to praise God for what he has done. Some commentators see each of the four portraits as poetic ways of referring to the experiences of the exile. Perhaps his readers were wondering why God had allowed such trials. But as you meditate on the psalm, you begin to see that each group pictures fallen humanity from a slightly different angle. We are the wanderers, the prisoners, the sick, and the overwhelmed.

The psalm is structured like a sermon. There is an introduction (vv. 1-3) which states his theme of God’s loyal love and redemption from the enemy. Then he describes the four groups:

Group 1: Wanderers (4-9)

Group 2: Prisoners (10-16)

Group 3: Sick (due to sin) (17-22)

Group 4: Overwhelmed by circumstances (sailors) (23-32)

Then, there is a summary of God’s ways (vv. 33-42), in which the psalmist makes the point that God brings down the self-suffi­cient, but lifts up the needy who call to Him. In this section there is another cycle:

Plenty > Poverty (vv. 33-34)

Poverty > Plenty (vv. 35-38)

Plenty > Poverty (vv. 39-40)

Poverty > Plenty (vv. 41-42)

Then, as in all good sermons, the psalmist concludes by driving his point home to his readers (v. 43): Are you wise? Then think about it and you will see in these pictures how God works through problems. As you apply it to yourself, you will appreciate the Lord’s undeserved love in a fresh way.

Let’s go back through the psalmist’s sermon in a bit more detail and see how he makes the point that to receive help from God, we must come to the end of ourselves so that we will cry out to God for His undeserved favor.

Introduction (107:1-3):

Verse 1 states the theme: The reader is to give thanks to God for His goodness and lovingkindness (loyal love or undeserved favor). Verses 2 and 3 set the scene a bit more precisely by defining who it is who is to give thanks to the Lord: those He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy and gathered from the lands (i.e., the former exiles).

The idea of redemption implies antecedent bondage. The one needing redemption had fallen under the domination of some alien power. He could not free himself; he needed a redeemer to free him. God had redeemed Israel, first from slavery in Egypt and then from captivity in Babylon. We who are in Christ have been redeemed spiritually and eternally from bondage to sin, self, and Satan through the blood of Christ. Also, as we walk with Christ, we experience His deliverance from the problems we face in our everyday life. As we realize our helplessness and experience God’s gracious help for our problems, we ought to appreciate His love and give thanks to Him. That’s the message of Psalm 107.

Four Pictures of Deliverance (107:4-32):

Group 1: Wanderers (vv. 4-9)

This group is lost in the wilderness, aimlessly wandering in confusion. They lack the security and stability of a city to call home. They are hungry, thirsty, and fainting from exhaustion (v. 5). Finally they call out to the Lord (v. 6) and He delivers them and directs them to an inhabited city where their needs are met (v. 9). Therefore they are to give thanks to the Lord for His love and wonderful deeds (v. 8).

The wanderers represent those spiritually who are lost, groping for meaning and purpose apart from God. There is no genuine meaning to life or purpose for living if you live apart from God. You can do the greatest, most noble deeds imaginable for the human race, but what ultimate good does it do? People still die in a few short years and must face eternity. If people are just a bunch of animals who have evolved by chance a bit higher than lower life forms, then the only philosophy that makes sense is, “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” People who live apart from God are lost.

There’s one thing worse than being lost: being lost and not even knowing that you are lost! I read of a boy and his brother whose grandma took them to Disneyland. During the course of the day, she bought each of them a little flag. At one point, they stopped to watch a parade, as “toy soldiers” marched by playing their instruments. Suddenly, the grandma realized that the four-year-old was gone! Having lost one of our children once at Disneyland, I know the panic she felt! She began frantically searching for him. Then she happened to look up at the parade marching by and there, at the end of the parade, marching along, smiling happily and waving his flag, was her grandson! He was lost, but he didn’t even know he was lost. He was having a great time.

There are a lot of people in this world like that little boy. They’re lost, but they don’t even know it. They’re marching through life having a grand time, unaware that the heavenly Father is concerned that they are lost. But someday the band will stop playing. They will be all alone, facing eternity without God.

Verse 9 tells us the kind of people God helps: The hungry and thirsty soul. It is those who realize they’re lost and cry out to God (v. 6) whom He answers. Those who march through life ignoring or denying their desperate need for God will not find Him. He satisfies the thirsty soul and fills the hungry soul with what is good.

Do you feel lost? Jesus says, “I am the Way.” Do you feel empty and hungry? Jesus says, “I am the Bread of Life.” Do you feel thirsty to know God? Jesus says, “I will give you living Water.” Do you feel exhausted and weary? Jesus says, “I will give you rest.” To get help from God, you must realize that you are lost, give up your own efforts to find the way, and call out to God. He will lead you to Himself.

Group 2: Prisoners (vv. 10-16)

This group is in captivity, in darkness, misery, and chains, due to rebellion against God’s Word. They have spurned the counsel of the Most High (v. 11). Because of their sin, God humbled their hearts with labor and put them into a situation where they came to the end of themselves and found that there was no one to help. Then they cried out to the Lord and He saved them (vv. 13-14).

This group represents those who think they can cast off God’s directives and live apart from obedience to His Word. Many in our culture think that their modern way of thinking is far superior to the confining mentality of the Bible. They say, “We want to be free to live as we choose!” But sin always leads to bondage and ultimately brings misery and death.

I find many who claim to be Christians, but they have cast off God’s Word and live according to their feelings and to the ways of this self-seeking world. If you talk to them about the need to obey God’s Word, they say, “That’s legalism!” But they have turned the grace of God into licentiousness (Jude 4).

Sin is always deceptive. At first it looks great and it seems to meet your needs. But it’s like a thirsty man who quenches his thirst with amoebic water. His thirst is quenched for the moment, but it gives him a terrible case of dysentery which dehydrates him all the more, and his latter state is worse than his former.

God graciously sends hardship to such people to the point that they stumble. All the earthly things they have relied on fail them; there is none to help (v. 12). Please note that it is God who sovereignly, graciously brings difficulties into the lives of His people who have spurned His counsel. If you have shrugged off the commands of God’s Word because you didn’t like them, and now you’re having problems, those problems come directly from God for the purpose of humbling your heart so that you will turn back to His Word and submit to it (v. 12).

God wants you to see that you must trust in Him with all your heart and not lean on your own or on the world’s understanding (Prov. 3:5). When you come to the end of yourself and cry out to Him, instead of saying, “Too bad! You got yourself into this mess, so I’m not going to help you,” God graciously delivers you from the sin which had you in bondage. To get help from God, you’ve got to abandon all trust in your own wisdom and seek Him and His wisdom through His Word.

Group 3: Sick (due to sin) (vv. 17-22)

Sickness is not always directly due to sin but sometimes it is. The group described in these verses is clearly physically ill due to their sin (see vv. 17-18). The word “fool” (v. 17) in the Bible does not refer to the mentally deficient, but to the morally deficient. The fool is not unintelligent; he is rebellious. Sin eventually takes a toll on a person emotionally and often physically. Verse 18 reads like a description of a drug addict or alcoholic who has wasted his mind and body.

This group represents those who think they can sin without penalty. Again, God lets them reach the point of despair: “They drew near to death” (v. 18). Until they hit bottom, they weren’t willing to turn to God. Finally, they came to the end of themselves. There was no where to go for help except to God. They cried out to Him and He saved them out of their distresses (v. 19).

Note God’s grace in rescuing groups two and three. They’re not in trouble because they’re lost or overwhelmed (as with groups one and four); they’re in trouble because of outright rebellion. They don’t deserve God’s grace. But that’s what grace is: undeserved favor. And so God responds to their call for help. If you are in great trouble today and you know that the reason for your trouble is your own rebellion, you may feel that you can’t call out to God for help. Not so! Cry out to Him and He will deliver you from your sin to His glory!

Group 4: Overwhelmed by circumstances (vv. 23-32)

As Derek Kidner (Psalms [IVP], 2:386) aptly puts it, this group does not speak so much of “our guilt but of our littleness. The hurricane shakes us into seeing that in a world of gigantic forces, we live by permission, not by good management.” These sailors are overwhelmed by circumstances beyond their control. All their wisdom as sailors was swallowed up (v. 27b). If you’ve ever been in a bad storm at sea, you almost get sea sick just reading verses 26-27. I was in such a storm in a seaworthy Coast Guard boat, and it was scary. I can’t imagine what it would be like in the primitive boats of the fifth century, B. C.!

This group represents those who are confident that they can handle life and cope with life’s problems in their own strength. These men were skilled in seamanship. It was their business. But God merely spoke and raised up the wind (v. 25) and these self-sufficient sailors were brought to the end of their skills (v. 27, margin). God put them into a situation where they were forced to abandon all trust in themselves and call out to God for deliverance. Through this trial they came to experience God’s love and grace.

Thus the psalmist paints these four word-pictures to drive home the point: To receive help from God, you must abandon all trust in yourself and cry out to God for His undeserved favor. By nature we are self-sufficient. So God sovereignly, graciously brings us into situations where every human crutch is knocked away. When we cry out to Him and He delivers us, we can only give thanks for His undeserved love and favor.

Summary of God’s Ways (v. 33-42):

The four word-pictures drive the nail in; now the psalmist gives a summary of God’s ways to clinch the point. Through a series of four cycles of contrast which describe how God turns plenty into poverty and poverty into plenty, he shows that God strikes down the self-sufficient, but lifts up the needy who call out to Him.

(1) First (vv. 33-34) he describes some people who live in a fruitful land with abundant water. They think they’re set for life. But they disobey God and so He turns their fertile land into a wasteland. Sodom and Gomorrah are exhibit A.

(2) Next (vv. 35-38), he describes some people living in a dry wilderness. These people know that they are needy (v. 36, “hungry”). God supplies their needs and blesses them.

(3) But then (vv. 39-40), like Israel in the land after God drove out their enemies and blessed them with material goods, they became self-sufficient and forgot their dependence upon the Lord (Deut. 6:10-12, 8:11-14). I understand the group in verses 39-40 to be like that. So God makes them wander in a pathless waste (v. 40).

(4) Finally (vv. 41-42), those who are needy and know it God sets securely on high away from affliction and blesses them so that the righteous rejoice and the wicked are silenced.

The point is that the self-sufficient, who think they are competent, are really deficient, because God is opposed to the proud. But those who know that they are insufficient in themselves and thereby call out to the Lord are sufficient, because God gives grace to the humble. We must come to the end of ourselves to experience God’s grace and love.

Conclusion (v. 43):

The psalmist concludes by appealing to the wise reader to give heed to these things and to consider the lovingkindnesses of the Lord. He is saying, “Apply it to yourself.”

Conclusion

There are two kinds of problems portrayed in the psalm that we all experience: (1) Problems resulting from circumstances beyond our control (groups 1 and 4). These are due to our finite condition. (2) Problems resulting from our sin (groups 2 and 3). These are due to our fallen condition. The first step to receive help from God is to recognize that no matter what our problems, we are not self-sufficient. We need God! If our problems stem from known sin, then of course we must turn from our sin to experience God’s blessings (Ps. 66:18).

The next step (no matter what the source of the problem), is to call out to the Lord. Acknowledge your dependence on Him. Watch Him deliver you in His own way and time. Then, give thanks to Him. And be sure to tell others of how God delivered you from your problems so that they will learn to turn to God themselves to experience His grace (v. 2).

Preaching is a hazardous occupation, because God usually makes me learn personally the message I’m going to preach. (It’s especially dangerous to preach about trials!) You may think that I’m gifted so that sermons effortlessly flow from the Bible through me. Wrong! It’s a rare week that I don’t struggle with a sermon to the point of thinking, “I can’t do it! I don’t know what I’m going to say.” As I get up to speak, I’m often overwhelmed with my inadequacy. Or, if it isn’t the sermon, I’m overwhelmed with ministry needs that I don’t know how to cope with. I’m repeatedly made aware of my own inadequacy to serve the Lord. It forces me to cast myself upon God for His mercy, which is precisely where I need to be.

What are your problems? Instead of growing bitter and blaming God for them, view them as divinely designed opportunities to bring you to the end of your own resources so that you will call out to God and experience the beautiful provision of His great love and grace. God doesn’t help those who help themselves. He helps the helpless who cast themselves on His mercy.

You may say, “I’ve sinned too much! I don’t deserve God’s help!” That’s great! You’re a candidate for God’s grace. Our psalm shows that the undeserving who realize their great need are the only kind of people God helps. No matter how great your problems, you will find mercy from God if you call out to Him for salvation.

Discussion Questions

1. Why is the notion that we can earn God’s favor so widespread? How can we avoid it personally?
2. Some say that all trials come from the devil. Why is this unbiblical? How can a good God send trials?
3. Doesn’t God want us to feel adequate and competent? How can we serve Him if we feel inadequate and incompetent?
4. Agree/disagree: The most pervasive sin and root of all sins is pride?

Copyright 1993, Steven J. Cole, All Rights Reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, © The Lockman Foundation

In 2007, British atheist Christopher Hitchens published, God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything [Twelve Books]. It quickly shot to the top of the New York Times Bestseller List. According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_Is_Not_Great), “Hitchens contends that organised religion is ‘[v]iolent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism, tribalism, and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children’, and that accordingly it ‘ought to have a great deal on its conscience.’”

As a Bible-believing pastor, I would agree with many of Hitchens’ criticisms of organized religion. In fact, I would argue that organized religion has been one of Satan’s greatest tools to promote deception and to keep people from knowing the living and true God. But at the same time I believe that Hitchens makes a foolish error that he will regret throughout eternity when he asserts, “God is not great.” In addition to reeking of arrogance, that assertion rests on Hitchens’ irrational assumption that every­thing we see in the world and in the universe came out of nothing by sheer chance. But if God is the almighty Creator of the universe and if He governs it by His sovereign power, then He alone is great! Hitchens has confused the false gods of various religions with the living and true God.

Psalm 113 asserts the greatness of God (113:4-6): “The Lord is high above all nations; His glory is above the heavens. Who is like the Lord our God, who is enthroned on high …?” It is safe to say that many of our troubles in the Christian life stem from the fact that (as J. B. Phillips put it) our God is too small. We need to get the biblical view of God high and exalted.

But if that were the only view of God given to us in the Bible, we would rightly fear to draw near to Him. God is mighty, but we are weak. He is holy, but we are sinful. He knows everything, but we don’t. He is eternal and not subject to death, but we are time-bound and vulnerable to accidents and disease.

So, thankfully, Psalm 113 presents another side of God. Not only is He great, but also He is gracious (113:7, 9): “He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap…. He makes the barren woman abide in the house as a joyful mother of children.” And so, as Derek Kidner aptly titles this psalm (Psalms 73-150 [IVP], p. 401), there is “Nothing too great for Him, no one too small.” The message of this gem of a psalm is,

We should always praise God because He is great and He is gracious to the helpless person that calls on Him.

This is the first of six psalms (113-118) in the Psalter called “the Egyptian Hallel” (Hallel means praise). As Kidner explains (ibid.), “Only the second of them (114) speaks directly of the Exodus, but the theme of raising the downtrodden (113) and the note of corporate praise (115), personal thanksgiving (116), world vision (117) and festal procession (118) make it an appropriate series to mark the salvation which began in Egypt and will spread to the nations.” The Jews sang the first two psalms before the Passover meal and the other four afterwards. So these were probably the songs that Jesus and the apostles sang in the upper room on the night that He was betrayed (Matt. 26:30).

The psalm falls into two main sections, the call to praise the Lord (1-3); and, the causes for praising the Lord (4-9), namely, that He is great (4-5) and He is gracious (6-9). There is an unstated but strongly implied action point: If you are poor and helpless, call upon the great God to be gracious to you.

1. The call to praise the Lord: His servants are to praise Him at all times (113:1-3).

“Praise the Lord! Praise, O servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forever. From the rising of the sun to its setting the name of the Lord is to be praised” (vv. 1-3). There are four lessons here:

A. We need to be stirred up to praise the Lord.

Three times in the first verse the psalmist exhorts us to praise the Lord. John Calvin (Calvin’s Commentaries [Baker], 4:331) explains that this repetition is not superfluous, given how cold and callous we are in practicing it. He points out that we all acknowledge that we were created to praise God’s name, and yet we often disregard His glory. Thus the psalmist repeats the exhortation so that we will be more fervent and faithful in praising the Lord.

Genuine praise of God does not mean that we go around saying, “Praise the Lord” all the time. Rather, it is a response to thinking about who God is and what He has done, as revealed in His Word. While praise by its very nature is somewhat spontaneous, it also can be cultivated as we deliberately meditate on God’s greatness and glory. If (like me) you must admit that you do not adequately praise the Lord (as we saw in Psalm 106:2, “Who can show forth all His praise?”), the place to start is to spend more time meditating on God as revealed in His Word.

One other thought: if you admit that you do not praise God often enough or fervently enough, it’s probably true that you are not enjoying Him enough. C. S. Lewis pointed out (Reflections on the Psalms [Harcourt, Brace, and World], p. 95, cited by John Piper, Desiring God [Multnomah Books, 1996] p. 49), “I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation.” If we delight in a beautiful sunset, we want to extol its beauty to others. Our enjoyment of it spontaneously overflows into praise. Our enjoyment of who God is and what He has done for us will also erupt in heartfelt praise.

B. The only ones who can praise God are His servants.

“Servants of the Lord” (v. 1) refers either to the entire nation as God’s chosen servants (Isa. 41:8-9) or to individuals in the nation who had experienced God’s redemption (Ps. 34:22). Sometimes it referred to the priests who served God in the tabernacle (Ps. 134:1). But here it probably refers to individual Israelites (H. C. Leupold, Exposition of Psalms [Baker], p. 790).

In New Testament terms, since we all are believer-priests, members of God’s chosen nation (1 Pet. 2:9), all believers are servants of the Lord. In other words, being a servant of the Lord is not something that a few of God’s people volunteer for: “I volunteered to serve on the building committee.” Or, “I serve the Lord by teaching Sunday school.” Rather, it is something that all of God’s people are by virtue of the fact that we have been bought by the blood of Christ. And a major part of our service for the Lord is to praise His name. Derek Kidner puts it (p. 401), “There is point in specifying the Lord’s servants and His name, since worship to be acceptable must be more than flattery and more than guess-work. It is the loving homage of the committed to the Revealed.” And so if you know Christ as Savior and Lord, you are His servant and part of your service every day is to praise His name.

C. The object of our praise is the Lord Himself as revealed in His Word.

The name of the Lord (repeated 3 times in vv. 1-3) refers to all that God is and all that He has done in His works of creation and redemption (see Willem VanGemeren, Expositor’s Bible Commentary, ed. by Frank Gaebelein [Zondervan], 5:107-108). “Lord,” which occurs five times in the first three verses (eight times in this short psalm) translates the Hebrew name for God, Yahweh. It stems from the Hebrew verb, to be. The only place in the Bible where this is explained is when God revealed Himself to Moses at the burning bush. Moses asked the Lord what he should reply when the Jews asked him, “What is God’s name who sent you to us?” God replied (Exod. 3:14), “‘I AM WHO I AM’; and He said, ‘Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

James Boice (Psalms [Baker], 3:922-924) explains that this story reveals several important facts about God. First, He is a person, not an abstract philosophic idea. He revealed Himself to Moses by speaking to him. Second, God is self-existent. Nothing caused Him or brought Him into being. Third, God is self-sufficient. He does not need the angels or humans or anything else. We can’t contribute anything to Him that He is lacking. Fourth, God is eternal. He has always been and He will always be. Fifth, God is unchangeable. He never differs from Himself. “What he is today he will be tomorrow” (ibid., p. 924). Thus, as Dr. Boice points out, we can trust God to be as He reveals Himself to be. And, this also means that God is inescapable. “He will not go away.” If you ignore Him now, you will not ignore Him when you stand before Him in eternity!

One other incident that is especially important in considering what it means to praise the name of the Lord is Moses’ request that God show him His glory. The Lord replied (Exod. 33:19), “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.” Then, as Moses called upon the name of the Lord, He descended and stood there with Moses (Exod. 34:5), and said (34:6-7), “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”

Briefly, note that when God revealed His name to Moses, it centered on His goodness and His sovereignty. Yet while extolling His compassion, grace, and love, God also mentioned His justice in punishing the guilty. The application for us is that we do not properly praise the name of the Lord if we focus on our “favorite” attributes to the neglect of the whole of who God has revealed Himself to be. If all you do is praise God for His love, but not for His sovereignty and His justice, you are not praising His name.

Thus, we need to be stirred up to praise the Lord. The only ones who can praise Him are His servants, whom He has redeemed. The object of our praise is the Lord Himself as revealed in His Word.

D. The time and place to praise the Lord are always and everywhere.

“Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forever. From the rising of the sun to its setting the name of the Lord is to be praised” (vv. 2-3). God’s praises should begin now and we will continue praising Him in heaven throughout eternity. We should hand off God’s praises to our children and grandchildren, so that the chorus of praise continues until the Lord returns.

“From the rising of the sun to its setting” means that God should be praised not only in Israel, but all over the earth. As God says in Malachi 1:11, “‘For from the rising of the sun even to its setting, My name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense is going to be offered to My name, and a grain offering that is pure; for My name will be great among the nations,’ says the Lord of hosts.” As John Piper puts it (Let the Nations be Glad! [Baker Academic], second ed., p. 17), “Missions exists because worship doesn’t.” Our aim should be to see the name of the Lord praised always all over the earth.

The psalmist then moves to why we should praise the Lord:

2. The causes for praising the Lord: He is great and He is gracious (113:4-9).

God is enthroned on high, but He humbles Himself to help those who are helpless, who cry out to Him.

A. Praise God because He is great (113:4-5).

“The Lord is high above all nations; His glory is above the heavens. Who is like the Lord our God, who is enthroned on high …?” These verses remind us of Isaiah’s wonderful description of the Lord’s greatness (Isa. 40:12-41:4). I can only cite a few verses:

Isa. 40:15, 17: “Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales; behold, He lifts up the islands like fine dust…. All the nations are as nothing before Him, they are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless.”

Isa. 40:18: “To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare with Him?” The prophet goes on to mock those who make and worship idols.

Isa. 40:25-26: “‘To whom then will you liken Me that I would be his equal?’ says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these stars, the One who leads forth their host by number, He calls them all by name; because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, not one of them is missing.”

The psalmist says that not only is the Lord high above all nations, but also, “His glory is above the heavens” (113:4). If you could travel at the speed of light, it would take you 8 minutes to get to the sun. It would take 33,000 years to get to the center of our galaxy, The Milky Way. The Milky Way belongs to a group of some 20 galaxies known as the Local Group. To cross the Local Group, you’d have to travel for 2 million years. The Local Group belongs to the vast Virgo Cluster, part of the even larger Local Supercluster, 500 million light-years across. To cross the entire universe (as we know it) at the speed of light would take about 20 billion years! God’s glory is above all of that!

William Beebe was a worldwide explorer and a friend of President Theodore Roosevelt. Often when he visited the President, the two men would go outdoors at night to see who could first locate the Andromeda galaxy. Then as they gazed at the tiny smudge of distant starlight, one of them would recite, “That is the spiral galaxy of Andromeda. It is as large as our Milky Way. It is one of a hundred million galaxies. It is 750,000 light-years away. It consists of one hundred billion suns, each larger than our sun.” After that thought had sunk in, Roosevelt would flash his toothy grin and say, “Now I think we’re small enough! Let’s go to bed.” (Encyclopedia of 7,700 Illustrations, by Paul Lee Tan [Assurance Publishers], # 2213) Knowing that God’s glory is above the heavens puts us in our proper place!

When the psalmist says that God is enthroned on high, it points to His sovereignty. He rules over the entirety of His creation. Nothing happens apart from His sovereign will or permission. As Psalm 103:19 declares, “The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His sovereignty rules over all.” The psalmist goes on (113:6) to indicate that God has to stoop down to look on the heavens, let alone the things on this speck called earth!

This means, as Jeremiah proclaimed (32:17), “Ah Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for You.” Or, as Paul put it (Eph. 3:20), God “is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us.”

So the psalmist says, “Praise God because He is great!” But if God were only great, we would cringe in fear and hesitate to approach Him. So the psalmist also affirms,

B. Praise God because He is gracious (113:6-9).

“Who is like the Lord our God” (v. 5), “Who humbles Himself to behold the things that are in heaven and on earth? He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes, with the princes of His people. He makes the barren woman abide in the house as a joyful mother of children. Praise the Lord!” (6-9).

Leupold comments (p. 791), “He has done two things, each of which seems to make the other impossible. He has first taken His seat so high that no one can match Him, yet He has regard for the lowliest of the low in that He ‘looks down so far.’” Verses 7 & 8 are almost verbatim from the song of Hannah (1 Sam. 2:8). Hannah was barren, but cried out to God for a son. In response, the Lord gave her Samuel, who became the great prophet. Hannah’s song extols how God casts down those who are proud in their own strength, who rely on themselves, but He lifts up the needy and helpless who cry out to Him.

Mary, the mother of our Lord, echoes Hannah’s song in her Magnificat (Luke 1:51-53), “He has done mighty deeds with His arm; He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their heart. He has brought down rulers from their thrones, and has exalted those who were humble. He has filled the hungry with good things; and sent away the rich empty-handed.” As Spurgeon put it (Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit [Pilgrim Publications], 11:616), “When we think little of ourselves, God thinks much of us.”

Derek Kidner observes (p. 402), “Verses 7 and 8 anticipate the great downward and upward sweep of the gospel, which was to go even deeper and higher than the dust and the throne of princes: from the grave to the throne of God (Eph. 2:5f.).” In other words, God isn’t just in the business of lifting beggars from the physical ash heap and seating them with princes. He is also in the business of taking spiritual beggars from the ash heap of sin and seating them with His exalted Son at His right hand in heavenly places! God is infinitely great, but He is also gracious!

The psalm ends on a deliberate anticlimax, referring to the lone, barren woman whom God makes a joyful mother of children. It’s a reference to Hannah, of course. But it also implies an action point for every reader:

3. The implied action point: If you are poor and helpless, call upon the great God to be gracious to you.

In Hannah’s day, to be childless was a great disgrace and curse. And, there were no fertility drugs or clinics to help you conceive. All you could do was to cry out to the Lord. It is significant that when God called Abraham and promised to make of him a great nation and to bless all nations through his descendants, He also gave him a barren wife. The same was true with Abraham’s son, Isaac’s wife, Rebekah (Gen. 25:21) and with his son, Jacob’s wife, Rachel (Gen. 29:31). Sarah and Rebekah were in the line of Christ, but they were initially unable to conceive!

Why did God do that? He did it to show that we cannot save ourselves by our own strength or efforts. Salvation is totally of the Lord. He doesn’t save those who are righteous or those who are strong. He saves sinners who are weak in themselves, but who cry out to Him for mercy. And the psalm ends with an individual barren woman to show that God is not just concerned with needy people in general, but with the individual. And He especially cares for individuals who have come to the end of their own strength. They are on the ash heap of life, unable to save themselves. When He saves them, He gets all the glory.

Conclusion

So, “Who is like the Lord our God?” No one! He alone is great, but also he is gracious to those who are poor and helpless. His greatness and His grace are supremely seen in that He sent His eternal Son into this sinful world. He took the form of a servant and was obedient to death on the cross, to pay the penalty for your sin (Phil. 2:5-11). Call upon Him to save you from your sin. Cry out to Him in your spiritual barrenness to fill you with His joy. In your weakness, rely on His strength. Praise His name from this time forth and forever!

Application Questions

1. List some practical applications that stem from getting a biblical view of God’s greatness.
2. Why is it important to see that all Christians are the Lord’s servants; hence, we don’t volunteer to serve?
3. How can we avoid the imbalance of focusing on only our “favorite” attributes of God, rather than the totality of who He is?
4. How does the popular teaching of “self-esteem” go against the biblical emphasis on seeing yourself as weak and helpless?

Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2009, All Rights Reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation

Psalm 118 was Martin Luther’s favorite psalm. He wrote (cited by C. H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of David [Baker], 5:337),

This is my psalm, my chosen psalm. I love them all; I love all holy Scripture, which is my consolation and my life. But this psalm is nearest my heart, and I have a peculiar right to call it mine. It has saved me from many a pressing danger, from which nor emperor, nor kings, nor sages, nor saints, could have saved me. It is my friend; dearer to me than all the honors and power of the earth.

He put verse 17, “I will not die, but live, and tell of the works of the Lord,” on a plaque on his study wall, where he could see it every day. Many Reformers had been killed. Luther was cheered by this verse, which assured him that he was perfectly safe until his work on earth was done (from Spurgeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit [Pilgrim Publications], 38:2).

There is much help in this psalm for each of us. It’s not an easy psalm to outline in terms of the content. In terms of movement, it falls into two halves: From verses 1-18, the psalmist and other worshipers are on a pilgrimage toward Jerusalem for one of the great feasts. From verses 19-29, the worshipers have arrived at the temple, where their worship continues. And so it was a song for festive processional corporate worship.

We don’t know who wrote the psalm or when. Scholars debate whether the first person sections are speaking of Israel in a personified sense, or whether it is a Davidic king relating his own experience of God’s delivering him from violent enemies. I am inclined to the latter view. As Derek Kidner points out (Psalms 73-150 [IVP], pp. 412-413), the psalm celebrates “a victory and vindication worthy of a king.” The author speaks as a king (vv. 10ff.) and he receives a king’s welcome (see, also Rikk E. Watts, Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament [Baker Academic], ed. by G. K. Beale & D. A. Carson, p. 207). But anyone whom God has saved can relate to the psalmist as he gives joyous thanks to God for His salvation.

When Jeremiah was in confinement just before the destruction of Jerusalem, the Lord gave him a prophecy, that although Jerusalem and the cities of Judah would be destroyed, He would restore His people. Yet again there would be heard in this devastated city (Jer. 33:11), “… the voice of those who say, ‘Give thanks to the Lord of hosts, for the Lord is good, for His lovingkindness is everlasting’; and of those who bring a thank offering into the house of the Lord.” That prophecy cited (with slight variation) verses 1 & 29 of Psalm 118 and referred to verse 27, where people bring thank offerings.

Years later, when the Jews were returning to the land, the singers in Ezra’s day sang a variation of Psalm 118:1 when the builders laid the foundation for the second temple (Ezra 3:11), “They sang, praising and giving thanks to the Lord, saying, ‘For He is good, for His lovingkindness is upon Israel forever.’” Some have suggested that verse 22, about the stone which the builders rejected becoming the chief corner stone, was literally true of the corner stone of the second temple. But that is just a guess.

Also, as I mentioned when I spoke on Psalm 113, that was the first and Psalm 118 is the last of a group of psalms known as the Egyptian Hallel (Hallel means, “praise”). The Jews sang the first two of those psalms before the Passover meal and the last four after the meal. The Exodus (and Passover) pictured God’s redemption of His people, not just physically from slavery, but spiritually from sin. Thus Psalm 118 is a song of thanksgiving to God for His salvation. Verse 14, “The Lord is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation,” is taken from the Song of Moses, sung after the Exodus (Exod. 15:2). While the psalmist was referring to deliverance from his physical enemies, we can legitimately apply it to God’s saving us from sin.

As the last song after the Passover, this would have been the last song that Jesus sang with His disciples before going out to the Garden of Gethsemane. The gospel accounts of Palm Sunday and the Passion Week cite from Psalm 118 in reference to Jesus. When He entered Jerusalem, the crowds cried out the words of verses 25-26 with regard to Jesus (Matt. 21:9; Mark 11:9-10; Luke 19:39; John 12:13). (“Do save” in Hebrew is “hosanna.”) Later that week, as He debated with the Jewish leaders, Jesus referred to Himself as the stone which the builders rejected, which becomes the chief corner stone (Matt. 21:42).

Peter also used Psalm 118:22 in preaching to the Jewish Sanhedrin after the resurrection. In Acts 4:11-12, after testifying that God had raised Jesus from the dead, Peter boldly proclaimed, “He is the stone which was rejected by you, the builders, but which became the chief corner stone. And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.” Peter also refers to this verse in 1 Peter 2:7. He goes on to speak about how we have been saved by God’s mercy, “so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Pet. 2:9). That’s what Psalm 118 is about, proclaiming the excellencies of God’s salvation:

If you have experienced God’s gracious salvation, thank Him for it every day.

Because of its length, we can only skim the surface. We’ll look at it in four sections.

1. Because salvation is our greatest need, God’s lovingkindness should be our continual song of praise (118:1-4).

The opening and closing verses of the psalm are identical and state the theme, “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His lovingkindness is everlasting.” Then (as in Ps. 115:9-13), the psalmist calls upon three groups to repeat the refrain, “His lovingkindness is everlasting.” Israel is a call to the nation as a whole to praise God for His enduring love. The house of Aaron calls to the priests, who served at the temple, to praise God for His everlasting love. You who fear the Lord zeroes in on those whose religion was not merely cultural (as Jews), nor ritualistic or routine (as the priests’ religion may easily have become), but real and personal.

In other words, all of us need to be stirred up to give thanks to the Lord, not only when He is good to us, but also because “He is good” and “His lovingkindness is everlasting.” Even when we go through difficult trials (vv. 5, 10-13), the Lord is good and His lovingkindness is everlasting. His very nature is good and He is especially good to His covenant people who fear Him. As Paul states (Rom. 8:35-39), there is absolutely nothing, including tribulation, persecution, or even death, which can “separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:39).

Underlying these verses and the entire psalm is the experience of God’s salvation (the word occurs in vv. 14, 15, 21; “save” is in v. 25). If a fierce enemy is attacking you and about to prevail, you need God to save you. But such deliverance is only a picture of our spiritual condition. Because of our sin, we are all “children of wrath” (Eph. 2:3), under God’s condemnation (John 3:36). We are one heartbeat away from judgment and eternal punishment. And so salvation, being rescued from God’s judgment, is the greatest need of every person. When, through faith in Jesus Christ as the one who bore your punishment, God saves you, His lovingkindness should become your continual song.

2. Because we don’t naturally see that salvation is our greatest need, the Lord puts us in desperate situations so we will cry out to Him alone to save us (118:5-13).

Derek Kidner titles the first section “timeless love” and this section “timely help.” The psalmist reveals that he is in distress (v. 5). His enemies hate him (v. 7). But it’s not just an individual or a small group that is after him. The nations surround him like a swarm of bees (vv. 10-12; this indicates that a king may have written the psalm). They pushed him violently so that he was on the verge of falling (v. 13). In such conditions, “From my distress I called upon the Lord; the Lord answered me and set me in a large place” (v. 5). There are three lessons here:

A. God uses trials to show us our need for Him, so that we will pray.

We pray most fervently when we go through severe trials, because it is then that we see how great our need really is. When things are going relatively smoothly, we should pray, of course. But I know that my prayers become much more focused and fervent when I’m in a difficult trial. Such prayer should be offered in faith that the Lord is able to deliver you. The psalmist refers to God as his refuge (vv. 8, 9), his help (v. 13), and his strength and salvation (v. 14). He knew that if God did not come through, he was doomed. Out of great need, he prayed. So should we.

B. In our trials, we must not doubt that God in Christ is for us.

When fierce trials hit, the enemy always tries to get us to doubt the goodness of God: “If He is good and if He loves you, why is He permitting this trial?” But the psalmist here affirms (v. 6), “The Lord is for me; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” Again, he repeats as if to assure himself (v. 7), “The Lord is for me ….” Similar verses are found in Psalm 56:4 & 11, as well as Hebrews 13:6. Of course, evil men can cause a lot of emotional and physical pain, including death.

But the point is, they cannot do anything that is ultimately harmful to us, because they cannot take away God’s salvation. As Jesus said (Matt. 10:28), “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Paul states it wonderfully (Rom. 8:31, 32), “If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?”

C. Our trust must be in God alone to save us.

The psalmist cries out to the Lord and trusts in the Lord alone to save him. He specifically states that he was not trusting in man (v. 8), not even in men of influence (“princes” v. 9). He attributes his victory to “the name of the Lord” and His “right hand” (vv. 11, 12, 15, 16). He declares (v. 14) that the Lord is his strength. His trust was in God alone to save him from his enemies.

Trusting in God alone and crying out to Him in prayer are not necessarily our automatic reactions when trials hit. Often, we scramble to provide our own way out of the jam. Maybe, as an afterthought, or when all else fails, we resort to prayer. But prayer and faith should be our first response, before we do anything else.

Although there are instances where the Lord told His people not to do anything, except to watch Him deliver them (Exod. 14:13, 14; 2 Chron. 20:17), God’s normal method is for us to use the means that He provides. We are to trust in Him, not in the means, but we use the means in dependence on Him. In this instance, although the psalmist had men around him who helped him (v. 7) and although he had to fight the enemy, he didn’t trust in his fellow soldiers or in his own military ability. His trust was not in his army, but in the Lord.

When it comes to spiritual salvation, God often uses severe trials to show you your need. Maybe it’s a health issue, where you may die. Maybe it’s a financial crisis, where you don’t know where your next meal is coming from. But your real need is not just to get through the crisis, but to get right with God. To do that, you must see that you are a sinner, guilty before God. He sent His own Son to bear the penalty for sin that you deserve. And you must see that He offers forgiveness for your sins and eternal life when you trust in Christ alone. As Paul puts it (Eph. 2:8-9), “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

What is the result when God saves us?

3. When we experience God’s salvation, He becomes our strength and our song, so that He gets all the glory (118:14-21).

In this section, the psalmist makes three points:

A. Experiencing God’s salvation fills us with joy (vv. 14-15).

“The Lord is my strength and my song, and He has become my salvation. The sound of joyful shouting and salvation is in the tents of the righteous; the right hand of the Lord does valiantly.” Again, verse 14 is taken from the Song of Moses (Exod. 15:2), sung by Israel after the Lord destroyed Pharaoh’s army in the Red Sea. All through the Old Testament, the Exodus is looked back to as the supreme example of God saving His people. When you have relied on God to save you from your sin, He becomes your salvation, and also your strength and your song. Note, also that the joyful song of salvation extends into the family of the righteous (v. 15). When a man and his family experience God’s salvation, there is great joy in that home. Righteousness, which includes the fruit of the Spirit, is at the heart of a happy home life.

B. When we experience God’s salvation, He is glorified as we tell others and grow in godliness (vv. 16-18).

The psalmist exalts the Lord and His strength (His “right hand”). As a result of God’s deliverance, the psalmist vows to tell others “of the works of the Lord” (v. 17). So should we.

Note also (v. 18), that although on the surface the psalmist’s troubles stem from fierce enemies trying to kill him, he attributes it ultimately to the Lord’s discipline. John Calvin notes (Calvin’s Commentaries [Baker], on Ps. 118:18, p. 386), “The main thing in adversity is to know that we are laid low by the hand of God, and that this is the way which he takes to prove our allegiance, to arouse us from our torpidity [sluggishness], to crucify our old man, to purge us from our filthiness, to bring us into submission and subjection to God, and to excite us to meditate on the heavenly life.” As we submit to God’s loving hand of discipline, He produces in us “the peaceful fruit of righteousness” (Heb. 12:11).

C. Only the righteous may enter into true worship with the Lord and His people (vv. 19-21).

“Open to me the gates of righteousness; I shall enter through them, I shall give thanks to the Lord.” The “gates of righteousness” are the gates of the temple. The joyous pilgrimage has arrived at Jerusalem. But to enter those sacred precincts, the worshiper needed to check his heart and make sure that he was right before God. Only then could he truly worship the Lord who is holy.

When we trust Christ as Savior, God clothes us with Christ’s righteousness, so that we may enter His holy presence. But, also, we must search our hearts to make sure that we are not harboring any known sin. Just before the author of Hebrews encourages us to draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, he reminds us that God’s word judges the thoughts and intentions of our hearts, and that all things are open and laid bare to His eyes (Heb. 4:12-13, 16). And so as we come before the Holy One in prayer and worship, we must make sure that we come in the righteousness of Christ, with no known sin in our hearts.

Thus the psalmist has shown that because salvation is our greatest need, God’s lovingkindness should be our continual song of praise (1-4). Because we don’t naturally see that salvation is our greatest need, the Lord puts us in desperate situations so that we will cry out to Him to save us (5-13). When we experience His salvation, the Lord becomes our strength and song, so that He gets the glory (14-21). Finally,

4. God’s way of salvation confounds the world but causes His people to rejoice and give thanks to Him (118:22-29).

The “stone” (v. 22) may refer to Israel, whom the Babylonians rejected and despised, yet who became the nation to bring the Savior into the world. Or, it could refer to the king. David, for example, was rejected by his own brothers and hunted down by Saul. But God finally exalted him to the throne. Or, as I said, some postulate that it related to an actual stone in the second temple, at first set aside, but later laid down as the cornerstone.

Whatever the background, Jesus clearly applied the verse to Himself. He was the stone rejected by the builders (the Jewish leaders), but who became the chief corner stone (Matt. 21:42). They rejected and crucified Him, but God raised Him up and highly exalted Him, “so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow” (Phil. 2:10). God’s way of salvation is a stumbling-block to the proud, but a source of great joy to God’s elect (1 Cor. 1:18-31).

Note also that the rejection and exaltation of Jesus “is the Lord’s doing.” God is the author and initiator of our salvation (see, Isa. 53:10; Acts 2:23; 4:27-28). He must give us light (v. 27) or we do not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ (2 Cor. 4:4-6). In verse 24, the day referred to is not every day (although it is true that the Lord gives us every day), but rather the day of salvation, when the rejected stone became the chief cornerstone. Note also (v. 27b) that God’s way of salvation requires the appropriate sacrifice on His altar. Jesus is God’s complete and final sacrifice for our sins (Heb. 10:1-14).

Thus we should cry out to the Lord to save His people and to prosper His church (v. 25). Salvation is always individual. You must be able to say with the psalmist (v. 28), “You are my God, and I give thanks to You; You are my God, I extol You.” And so the psalmist comes full circle (v. 29), “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His lovingkindness is everlasting.”

Conclusion

James Boice (Psalms [Baker], 3:963-964) tells of how three Protestant martyrs in France relied on Psalm 118 as they faced execution. Louis Rang, a Huguenot pastor, was condemned to die in Grenoble in 1745. He was offered life if he would renounce his faith, but he rejected the offer. He was led to the scaffold singing a French versification of Psalm 118:24, which might be translated, “Here now is the happy day for which we have been waiting. Sing praise to God who gives us joy and pleasures unabating.”

A few weeks later, another Huguenot pastor, Jacque Roger, also strengthened himself with this verse. He was 70 years old and had escaped his enemies for nearly 40 years. He spent his last days in prison encouraging other Protestant pastors to remain true to the faith. As he was led to his execution, he also sang the same verse that Louis Rang had sung just weeks before.

The last of the Huguenot martyrs in France was Francois Rochette, who died in 1762, 17 years after Rang and Roger. He too was offered freedom if he renounced his faith. He too refused. He also mounted the scaffold singing, “Here now is the happy day for which we have been waiting.”

We may or may not face martyrdom for our faith, but we all face various trials. If you have experienced God’s salvation through Jesus Christ, then you should be filled with joy and thanksgiving. You should be able to say (vv. 28-29), “You are my God, and I give thanks to You; You are my God, I extol You. Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His lovingkindness is everlasting.”

Application Questions

1. If we really meditated on how great God’s salvation is, wouldn’t we experience less depression? Is this realistic or not?
2. How can a young person raised in a Christian home come to see his desperate need for salvation?
3. Where is the balance between trusting that the Lord will preserve you from death versus being careful about dangerous situations? Was Paul right or wrong to go to Jerusalem in spite of the Spirit’s warnings (Acts 21:8-14)?
4. Since the gospel is foolishness to the perishing (1 Cor. 1:18), should we try to “package” it in a more palatable form?

Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2009, All Rights Reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation