Psalm 107:8 – Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

Hello readers, new blog time today. I do thank you for reading, and hope I can be a blessing in turn to you today. What I write is to edify, not to destroy, so hopefully you will read this and get a lot out of it and it’ll give you strength for your journey of life ahead. This verse never meant anything to me until recently. Sure I’ve read it before, but many times I have never really thought about it or the truth of it has never struck me. Often it’s like that with scripture, you read it, and one day the Holy Spirit ministers it to you. That’s why you’ve got to read it and get it in you. It’s spiritual food, and even if things don’t make sense now, you don’t know when the Holy Spirit is going to use those verses in your life.

Sometimes with Psalms it can all seem a bit same same. Sometimes I can read Psalms and it’s just another Psalm sentiment kind of attitude. Chapter after chapter it’s praise and worship and God. But that is more reflective of me than anything wrong with the word of God. I guess if you’re unthankful to God or in sin or whatever, you’re not liable to really praise and worship God. The Bible often makes no sense to us because it’s not a reality in our life. If you really love God and his word, and it’s the very air you breathe, it will be very precious to you.

I can be very unthankful to God. And even if I am thankful, I don’t live like I’m truly thankful to God. Thankfulness to God is far more than a thanks mate. I don’t even recognize what he’s done in my life, I don’t even thank him. Oh that men would praise God David said. People today are unthankful. And it says in 2 Timothy 3 that in the last days unthankfulness will be one of the many undesirable traits that characterize the men of that generation. The truth is we all can be so unthankful, ungrateful, and selfish. In this blog today I ask myself the question, and also you the question… is it that hard to see what God’s done for you… and for you to thank him?

Do you even have the wisdom and ability to see God’s work in your life? See because it’s not just we aren’t thankful to God, it’s we don’t see anything to be thankful for. The final verse of this chapter will say this… Psalm 107:43 – Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the lovingkindness of the Lord. We really have a problem with seeing and observing things. The problem is we don’t even have the wisdom to see God’s work in creation, in this world, in their own lives. They don’t see his great mercy and lovingkindness.

This is not just another meaningless Psalm sentiment. None of them are. We get so spiritually cold on God that Psalms is a chore because what’s being said in Psalms isn’t in our heart. So much of the Bible we just run past, we check it off on our Bible reading obligation calendar.

So many parts of the Bible… it’s the same message and same things again and again. I’ve been in the prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel) in the last few months and it’s just constant warning and forecasting of coming judgment. It seems like it’s the same message again and again… so much so they said to the prophets can’t you say anything else? Even Jeremiah himself wearied of his message of how wicked they were and how God was bringing judgment and pleading them to repent… and he tried shutting up. All it seemed he had to say was the same thing, and the same negativity at that. Maybe even you think that of my blog… do I have anything good to say? The truth is though, the message isn’t the problem, maybe if we heeded it and repented and believed it would be different! How about we hear and heed what God has to say? It’s for our good.

God’s done so much good in my life. Can I even see it? Can I see his hand in my life? And do I even acknowledge it? Can I even see past myself to see it? Do I ever thank him and praise him for his goodness and his wonderful works to me? Jesus healed ten lepers, and they went their way healed. One of them turned back to thank him and worship him… and he was a Samaritan. The rest were healed, but they forgot who healed them, they didn’t even thank him.

Is it that hard to say thanks to God? And not a thanks as an offhand remark, but a life of being thankful for who God is and what he done for you personally? So often we live a life completely devoid of our empty profession. Like we know the truth, but we really live like it’s not true. If we really believed God’s word our lives would be totally different. We have a spiritual sight problem. It takes the Spirit of God to see things which we don’t with our natural eyes and understanding.

I’ve been having a chat recently with someone who was saying how we are animals, well we aren’t just animals because we were created in the image of God, we have a consciousness, the breath of life from God himself, we care about morality and justice and right and wrong. Animals don’t have that. But while we aren’t just animals, the problem is many people today indeed do live and think like beasts, just as the Bible says. They’ve reduced themselves to animalistic mentality through their rejection of God, where all they know and do is what they know naturally. Without God you have no enlightenment that only the Holy Spirit can give you. Nebuchadnezzar became like a beast of the field because of his pride. You see, he didn’t see either. He thought it was he himself that had made Babylon what it was, when who really had set up his kingdom and given him it was God. So today we really are talking about sight… the ability to see and observe what things really are… and when you do that, you’ll realize how good God is.

Things like wisdom and understanding and knowledge… they come from God. People don’t see God and his work in their lives and all around them, because they’ve got none of those things truly having denied the source of wisdom and knowledge and understanding… their Creator. Read Job 39 about the ostrich… she’s deprived of wisdom… why else would you lay eggs and just leave them there not knowing someone will just step and break them lying out in the open. There’s no wisdom in her life, she’s deprived of it. She can’t see what you can see as a human. She’s just doing what she naturally knows to do.

The inability to observe, the lack of wisdom, having denied God… means that you also won’t see his lovingkindness… you won’t be thankful… and people today certainly are not. It’s not God doesn’t love this world, it’s they don’t understand it, they don’t see, they’re blind. See, God gave his Son to die for this world so that sinners could be saved. That’s pretty loving. But you tell people the gospel and it’s hate speech. Their salvation is hate speech. This world doesn’t reject God, it hates God. They hated enough to nail his only begotten Son to a cross. They don’t really see what things are, how things are. They don’t see lovingkindness, they see no reason to be thankful.

Any true Christian has a testimony to the immense mercy, and grace, and lovingkindness and longsuffering of God. You cannot be saved and not testify of these things. When you see who you are, what you’ve done, who God is, what God has done… how can you not? Without God’s grace and mercy, we’d all be goners. In this Psalm, and we’ll go through it a bit, you see God’s deliverance time and time again. Our lives are nothing if not for the lovingkindness of God. We sin, we go astray, we forget, we depart, we go cold on God… and God forgives us and delivers us again and again. His mercy hasn’t run out on me when I haven’t deserved his mercy, much less his constant mercies. Thy mercies are new every morning, great is thy faithfulness! That was said in the middle of a book which was lamenting the sin of Israel, the fearful judgment of God… and even in the darkest hour the promise of God’s deliverance and mercy is still there, the hand of the Lord still reaching out just as Jesus reached out to Peter as he sank in the sea. Sometimes you think, well that’s the last sin, surely he’s done with me now. Surely he’s sick and tired of me. But his mercy has never run out. I’ve never exhausted his grace. In all the judgment all through the prophets there was always light at the end of the tunnel, always a plea to repent, always God willing to be merciful.

I’ll go through the first number of verses in this Psalm… You know, God is good. That’s how this Psalm starts, everything he created was good. It was our sin that messed it up. His mercy endures forever. You know, for a Christian your entire eternity is based on his mercy. We always will be a tribute to the mercy of God, the mercy that he had on us when he sent his Son to die on the cross for our sin. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so! What does that mean? What it says! If you’ve been saved, tell others about Jesus Christ, stop hiding your light under a bushel. Other people need to be saved still. There’s many enemies you have been redeemed from. Satan, death, your flesh, sin, lust, pride, bitterness, envy… a life without joy, happiness, purpose, fulfillment… hell… the list goes on.

God has gathered people out of all the lands… you see, there are saved people all around the planet. It’s not where you’ve been born, what you’re brought up in… we all have the same Creator God, the gospel has gone into the whole earth. The book of Psalms talks about how creation itself not just speaks, but sings the glory of God. God’s taken you from a life of wandering… that’s what the unsaved life is, it’s wandering in the wilderness in a solitary way. Solitary because you are alienated from God. If you are not saved, there is a separation between you and God. You were created for fellowship, relationship to bring glory to the Lord Jesus Christ… if you aren’t saved, if you aren’t redeemed your life is in a solitary way. They found no city to dwell in! God has prepared a city for the children of faith, that’s the eternal and continuing city, that’s the city of God, and it’s in heavenly country. This world has nothing to offer the child of God, that’s why we are strangers and pilgrims in the earth… we’re just passing through. Nothing here offers the future, the hope, the joy, the fulfillment, the purpose, the certainty that the Lord does.

Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. You know, many people in the world today are at wit’s end. They just get through day to day. Nothing this world offers can satisfy the longing soul. Everything this world has is temporary, it’s all vanity. A life that is not saved is ultimately empty. But they did the right thing. They cried unto the Lord. That’ll be where your life changes forever. When you have lived a life of sin, everything’s ruined, wrecked, ashes… and you cry to God to save you. Save me from my sins Lord Jesus. He will deliver you. That’s pretty good right? That’s worthy of praise? A God that will deliver you when you cry unto him. You didn’t deserve it, you didn’t merit it, you spent a life throwing your sin in his face, and he hears you when you cry unto him in all the trouble that you have got yourself in. Instead of blaming God, instead of making him evil to justify your sinful life, how about cry unto him for him to save you?

God led them forth by the right way. You know, if you are saved, there is a right way. It’s the way of obeying God’s word… that’s the right way. God will lead you in the right way. So many people claim God is leading them… but he’s not, because their life is not in the right way. God ALWAYS leads us in the right way, in accordance with his Holy word. That right way is what leads to the eternal, celestial city of Pilgrim’s Progress. So many people are on the wrong way, yet expect to turn up in destination heaven. How can you take the wrong road, the road of rebellion and sin and yet expect to turn up in the heavenly country?

Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness! You see, we’ve gone through just the first seven verses of this chapter, and already it’s oh that men would praise God. He’s been merciful, he’s redeemed us, he’s gathered us, he’s heard us, he’s led us… he’s shown such goodness and mercy to us who didn’t deserve any. He meets our needs, he hears our cries, he bears with all our going astray… that’s worthy of praise!

Four times in this chapter, Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! I would encourage you to read the chapter for yourself. I could go on. It’s a great chapter, you can glean so much from it. Get in Boaz’s field and you’ll not just glean, but he’ll leave you handfuls on purpose! But basically this chapter is encouraging us to look at how wonderful his works are, to recognize who God is and what he has done and does for us every day. He never fails us. He is so good to us while we live our wicked, sinful, unthankful lives. He is worthy of praise.

When I was reading this I saw this verse… Psalm 107:29 – He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. What does that remind you of? Jesus Christ! He made the storm clam and the waves still that day on the sea of Galilee with the disciples. Remember? He calmed the storm, Jesus fulfilled that very verse. Peace be still. Verse 30… Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven. You know, his disciples experienced this first hand, you think they were glad when the raging storm ceased instantly? You can know this same calm in your turbulent and troubled life. Maybe God’s brought that storm so you’ll finally see and acknowledge how good and merciful and loving he is? You can experience what the disciples did yourself, it’s written for you. Jesus Christ will bring you unto your desired haven. Our desired haven is heaven and the eternal city of God. Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life. Cry unto him in your trouble… salvation is his wonderful work to the children of men! Jesus Christ did all the work, all you have do is believe on him with your heart. It’s not a bad deal. Is it?

Maybe you think you’re wise, maybe you think you can see… but no, we can only see when Jesus Christ makes us see. If you truly saw, you’d give thanks to and praise God forever. He is so good, he is so merciful, he is so full of lovingkindness. You won’t go to hell having not experienced those things. You can shove him away your whole life, he’s been so good to you, even while you threw your sin in his teeth your whole life. You use the breathe he gives you every moment of every day to curse him to his face. You use the able body he’s given you to do wickedly every day. How much mercy he has shown all of us. Maybe one day you will finally see who God is and what God has done for you, and in that you’ll understand the lovingkindness of the Lord.  May God minister the truth of his word to you today.

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