I invite you to take your copy of Scripture this morning and turn to Psalm 107. Psalm 107. And if you're using one of the Bibles that we provide for you, you'll find our passage on page 506 and 507. 506 and 507. So, if you were here a couple of weeks ago, I preached a sermon in which I did a survey of the book of Psalms as a whole, and we saw that there's five books in the book of Psalms. And this morning, we are going to be continuing this series in the Psalms, and we're starting in Book 5. So over the years, I've just kind of done different series in the Psalms and been preaching consecutively through, and we've come to Psalm 107, which is the first Psalm in Book 5, okay? So we're going to look at Psalm 107 this morning. So I'll begin reading for us in verse 1. It's a little bit of a longer psalm. It's 43 verses. I'll read through the psalm in its entirety, and then we'll consider God's Word together, okay? So Psalm 107, O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has redeemed from trouble and gathered in from the lands from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south. Some wandered in desert waste, finding no way to a city to dwell in, hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress. He led them by a straight way till they reached a city to dwell in. Let them thank the Lord for His steadfast love, for His wondrous works to the children of man. For He satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul He fills with good things. Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in affliction and irons. For they had rebelled against the words of the Lord and spurned the counsel of the Most High. So He bowed their hearts down with hard labor. They fell down with none to help. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death and burst their bonds apart. Let them thank the Lord for His steadfast love, for His wondrous works to the children of man. For He shatters the doors of bronze and cuts in two the bars of iron. Some were fools through their sinful ways and because of their iniquities suffered affliction. They loathed any kind of food and they drew near to the gates of death. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress. He sent out His Word and healed them and delivered them from their destruction. Let them thank the Lord for His steadfast love, for His wondrous works to the children of man. And let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving and tell of His deeds in songs of joy. Some went down to the sea in ships, doing business on the great waters. They saw the deeds of the Lord, His wondrous works in the deep. For He commanded and raised the stormy wind which lifted up the waves of the sea. They mounted up to heaven. They went down to the depths. Their courage melted away in their evil plight. They reeled and staggered like drunken men and were at their wits' end. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress. He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed. Then they were glad that the waters were quiet, and He brought them to their desired haven. Let them thank the Lord for His steadfast love, for His wondrous works to the children of man. Let them extol Him in the congregation of the people, and praise Him in the assembly of the elders. He turns the rivers into a desert, springs of water into thirsty ground, a fruitful land into a salty waste because of the evil of its inhabitants. He turns a desert into pools of water, a parched land into springs of water. And there He lets the hungry dwell, and they establish a city to live in. They sow fields and plant vineyards and get a fruitful yield. By His blessing, they multiply greatly, and He does not let their livestock diminish. When they are diminished and brought low through oppression, evil, and sorrow, He pours contempt on princes and makes them wander in trackless waste. But He raises up the needy out of affliction and makes their families like flocks. The upright see it and are glad, and all wickedness shuts its mouth. Whoever is wise, let him attend to these things. Let him consider the steadfast love of the Lord." Amen. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we are so grateful for your Word and for your love. We pray now that as we turn to your Word that you would shower us with your love. As you open our eyes and our hearts to see the glory of what you have for us in Psalm 107. Lord, may we truly be a people who know and rejoice in your love. And it's through Jesus Christ, our Lord, we pray. Amen. Well, I've entitled our message this morning, Consider the Steadfast Love of the Lord. And I've taken the title from our message directly from the psalmist concluding exhortation in verse 43, which I just read. Whoever is wise, let him attend to these things. Let them consider the steadfast love of the Lord. Now that's a command. We are commanded to consider the steadfast love of the Lord. And often times we respond negatively to commands. We don't like, in our natural state, we don't like being told what to do. Children, you understand this. As your parents might say, empty the dishwasher. Or take out the trash. or clean your room, and you are tempted to groan inside, I don't like being told what to do. But, not all commands are difficult and unpleasant. So consider if one of your parents said, we're going to go to the convenience store and I will buy you a drink and I will buy you something from the candy aisle and then they instruct you go and get what you want and meet me at the counter. Now that's not too bad, right? That's a good instruction, a good command that you'd be happy to obey. Or maybe they say your birthday party is coming up and on Friday night we're going to buy pizza and then they instruct you Contact five or ten of your closest friends, have them come over to the house, and we'll celebrate your birthday. Now that's a good command to obey, good instruction to follow, that you'd be happy to comply. And here what we see in Psalm 107 is that the good and gracious command that the Lord gives us is to consider the steadfast love of the Lord. Now why would we not want to obey that command? Why would we not be delighted to obey the Lord's instructions? Because we know that the steadfast love of the Lord is far better than a Coke and candy or even a pizza party with our closest friends. And this is the command, this is the instruction that is presented to us in Psalm 107. Consider the steadfast love of the Lord. That's what I want us to do together this morning in these next few moments that we have together. As we do so, I want us to look at our passage in four parts. We'll consider a call to thank the Lord for His steadfast love. Then four demonstrations of the Lord's steadfast love. Then a reflection on God's sovereign steadfast love. And finally, a call to consider the Lord's steadfast love. Those are our four main points. I'll repeat them as we go. But that's how we want to work through our psalm this morning. First of all, consider this as our first main point. A call to thank the Lord for His steadfast love. You see this in verses 1-3. And it's immediately apparent in Psalm 107 that the theme of this psalm is the Lord's steadfast love. In fact, the psalmist brackets the psalm with an acknowledgment of the Lord's steadfast love. You see there in verse 1, O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever. And then if you look down at verse 43, which we read a few moments ago, we see it again, whoever is wise, let him attend to these things, let him consider the steadfast love of the Lord. So the psalmist brackets the psalm with references to the steadfast love of the Lord. And then you notice in verse 2 that the psalmist reveals the ultimate purpose or goal of this psalm. Which you see there in verse 2, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Now that's the ultimate purpose and goal of this psalm. The ultimate purpose and goal of this psalm is not just that we would consider the steadfast love of the Lord, but that we would consider it to the point that we confess and we give thanks to the Lord for His steadfast love. In other words, for all those who have been redeemed by the Lord, by His steadfast love, that we would say so. That we would give thanks to the Lord. So I ask you this morning, have you been redeemed? Has the Lord ever redeemed you from trouble and tribulation? Has He ever redeemed you from the consequences of your own bad behavior? Have you been redeemed from sin and death and hell through faith in Jesus Christ? Then the admonishment of the psalmist in our psalm this morning is let the redeemed of the Lord say so. In other words, don't be silent about it, but give thanks to Him for His steadfast love. This is the ultimate goal. This is the ultimate purpose of our psalm. And the people who are being addressed in this psalm, the original audience here, they have all the more reason to praise the Lord for His steadfast love, Because they have rebelled against the Lord. And as a result of their rebellion, they had been exiled. So in 722 B.C., Assyria, the nation of Assyria, defeated Israel. And then in 586 B.C., the Babylonians defeated the southern portion of Israel. The southern kingdom, which was known as Judah. And so the nation, as a result of these two conquests, the nation is destroyed. The temple is destroyed. The walls of the city have been brought down to the ground. The enemies of God now occupy the land of Israel. And many of the people of God have been exiled to foreign nations. Now if you were here a couple of weeks ago when I did an overview of the book of Psalms, which I referred to earlier, I tried to show that the five books of Psalms actually tell a story. That they're organized in such a way as they're telling a story of the nation of Israel, starting with David, through the destruction of the nation, and then offering hope for a future restoration. And you might remember that the end of book 4 in Psalm 106, So the psalm that just comes before our psalm this morning, there's a prayer. There's a prayer for restoration. Look there. You just look up the page, probably in your Bible. In Psalm 106 verse 47, we read, this is the prayer of the psalmist, Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from among the nations, that we may give thanks to Your holy name and glory in Your praise. See, they had been scattered among the nations. They had been exiled because of their sin. And now as we come into Book 5, in Psalm 107, notice that in Psalm 107 verses 2 and 3, we have a record of God answering that prayer. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has redeemed from trouble. Here it is, verse 3, and gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south. We learn from this psalm and from the consequences of sin that the people of Israel experience that it is a dangerous and perilous thing to walk in consistent, knowing rebellion against the Lord. And these folks that are being addressed here in Psalm 107, they are experiencing the bad consequences of their own poor decisions. And yet, it is in the midst. of those consequences. That the Lord in His mercy redeems them. That He gathers them up. That He returns them to the land. And He restores their fortunes. And so the psalmist declares, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Let them give thanks to the Lord for His steadfast love. Now the second main point in our passage is four demonstrations of the Lord's steadfast love. So the psalmist opens up by calling us to give thanks to the Lord for His steadfast love. And now in this next section, the second main point, he gives us four examples or demonstrations of the Lord's steadfast love. This is found in verses 4 to 32. Now this is the main section of the psalm It covers the most content in the psalm. And what we have here is examples, four examples, of the Lord delivering His people from the painful sorrows of their own sin. In these four demonstrations of the Lord's steadfast love, we also see that a clear pattern emerges. Some of you may have picked it up when we were reading the psalm. The pattern goes like this. There's a crisis of exile. then there's a cry in trouble, then there's an act of deliverance, and then there's a call to thanks. So a crisis of exile, a cry in trouble, an act of deliverance, and then a call to thanks. Let me just kind of survey this real quick and show you kind of big picture how this is laid out. There's a crisis of exile. So in my translation of the Bible that I'm reading from this morning, the ESV translation, each one of these crises is marked by the word some. And it's the beginning of each one of these four demonstrations. So notice in verse 4, some wandered in desert waste. Verse 10, some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death. Verse 17, some were fools through their sinful ways. Verse 23, some went down to the sea in ships. And these are all poetic descriptions of how the people of God experienced exile as a result of their sin. So there's this crisis in exile. Notice next, there's a cry in trouble. So this is the second step in the pattern. And we see this in each one of these episodes. We see it in verse 6, in verse 13, in verse 19, in verse 28. We read these words. It's the same words in every single instance. They cried to the Lord in their trouble. So there's a crisis in exile. There's a cry in trouble. Then the third step in this pattern is an act of deliverance. Again, we see this in verse 6, in verse 13, in verse 19, in verse 28. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress. And then notice the final step in the pattern. A call to thanks. And again, we see this sentence repeated four times. Both in verse 8, verse 15, verse 21, verse 31. And here's the real burden of this psalm. This is the call to thanks. Let them thank the Lord for His steadfast love, for His wondrous works to the children of man. So this is the pattern that's repeated four times. Over and over again. Now let's look, just for a moment, with that pattern in mind, and I'm not going to point out the pattern each time that we go through these episodes, but you can see it there as we walk through these verses. With that in mind, let's look at each one of these demonstrations of the Lord's steadfast love. You see, the first one appears there in verses 4-9. I would refer to it as a love that brings us home. And you see in verses 4-9 that these exiled sinners are depicted as lost and wandering in the desert places. They're without a city. They're hungry. They're thirsty. They're famished. In fact, the psalmist's description of the exiles here reminds us of the wilderness wandering of the people of God after they rebelled against the Lord when He had delivered them from Pharaoh and from Egyptian slavery. And now the psalmist describes their experience in exile with that same kind of language. They're wandering in the wilderness. They have no city. They're hungering and thirsting. They're faint. Their suffering reminds us of the harsh consequences of sin. Of course, we know that sin oftentimes promises intimacy and companionship. Belonging. But when we pursue sin, we often realize that it only leads to hurt and loneliness and isolation and being cut off from others. And that's what the exiles are experiencing here in our psalm. In fact, the description here of the exiles and them not having a home, not having a city, wandering, being in a desert place, it reminds us actually of the prodigal son. The parable of the prodigal son, many of you know it. Jesus tells a story about a son who squandered his father's wealth in a foreign land. He's alone and destitute as a result of his rebellion. And finally, he comes to his senses and he says, how many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger. And he returns to his father's house. And what does his father do? He welcomes him home. even though he had been isolated and destitute and deserted. And this is what the Lord does for these exiled sinners here in Psalm 107. You see in verse 7, He led them by a straight way till they reached a city to dwell in. And in verse 9, He satisfies their longing souls and fills these hungry, destitute exiles with good things. My friends, have you ever squandered the goodness and kindness of God in your life? And as a result, returned to Him destitute and hungry, pleading for His mercy, and He welcomed you home? If so, then the psalmist says, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Let them thank the Lord for His steadfast love and for His wondrous works to the children of man. Notice the second demonstration of the Lord's steadfast love in this section. We see it in verses 10-16. I would refer to this as a love that sets us free. You see in verses 10-16 that their rebellion against God's Word led to imprisonment and it led to slavery. You see there in verse 10, some sat as prisoners in affliction and irons. And in verse 12, He bowed their hearts down with hard labor with none to help. And the exile's bondage and imprisonment here reminds us of the slavery and bondage of sin. In Proverbs 5, verse 22, we read, the iniquities of the wicked ensnare Him, and He is held fast in the cords of His sin. St. Augustine actually describes, as he reflects on this passage, a person who begins to do battle with their sin, but then discovers the prison of their sinful heart is, quote, like an unscalable wall and all the doors closed. And he cannot find a way by which to escape into a good life. And many of us have experienced this before. The power, the bondage of sin. And this is why Jesus came, right? To proclaim liberty to the captives, to set at liberty those who are oppressed. Jesus Himself declared in John chapter 8, Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. So if the Son has set you free, you are free indeed. Charles Wesley actually captured the glory of this truth, this truth of freedom from the bondage of sin in his well-known hymn, And Can It Be? Long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin and nature's night. Thine eye diffused a quickening ray. I woke the dungeon flamed with light. My chains fell off, my heart was free. I rose, went forth, and followed Thee. Amazing love! amazing, steadfast love, how can it be that thou, my God, shouldst die for me? Oh, my friends, if you've ever been enslaved and in bondage to sin, if you've ever been in the grip of sin, and being in the grip of sin, You were shocked and maybe even frightened at the possibilities of your own wickedness. And yet the Lord, when you cried to Him, reached down and delivered you. And transformed you and changed you. Not into perfection, but really changed you. And transformed your life. Then the psalmist says, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Let them give thanks to the Lord for His steadfast love and for His wondrous works to the children of man. So it's a love that leads us home. It's a love that sets us free. It's a love that heals us. We see this in the third demonstration of God's steadfast love. You see it there in verses 17 to 22. Here, the wickedness of the people manifests itself in sickness and death. Now we know that much of the sickness that we experience in this life is simply the consequence of living in a fallen and broken world. But some sickness that folks experience in this life is the consequence of their own bad decisions and sinful actions. And this was the case for these sin-sick exiles. You see it there in verse 17. Some were fools through their sinful ways and because of their iniquities suffered affliction. They loathed any kind of food and they drew near to the gates of death. And when the psalmist says that they were fools, he's not saying that they were unintelligent. This is not a matter of intelligence. Rather, this is a matter of moral perversity. One commentator refers to their state as culpable stupidity. They are morally responsible for their bad decisions. And they make those decisions not because fundamentally there's something wrong with their head or their brain, but there's fundamentally something wrong with their heart. And their sinful rebellion you see here affects their physical health. that their sin negatively affects their appetite. They loathed any kind of food. Now we don't know exactly what's going on here with the exiles and how all of this played itself out, but we do know that sometimes the guilt and sorrow of sin can make one lose their appetite. It can make us feel nauseous, unable to eat. Sometimes the physiological effects of sin can suppress one's appetite. You think about a drug addict whose body slowly wastes away as their appetite for food is replaced with almost an unquenchable desire for the next hit or the next fix. And the psalmist says that as a result of this, they drew near to the gates of death. And we know that sometimes the physical consequences of sin are so severe that they lead to death. But notice what the Lord has done for these sin-sick exiles. In verse 20 we read, He sent out His Word and He healed them and delivered them from their destruction. And my friends, I know that there are some here this morning who have been delivered from the physically debilitating effects of sin. Perhaps you were an alcoholic. Or maybe you were a drug addict. Or maybe the indulgences of gluttony had wrecked your health. And the Lord sent out His Word The promise of His gospel. The word of His grace. And it cut your heart. And you were broken to pieces. And you cried out to Him for salvation. And He redeemed you. And the psalmist says, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. If you've experienced God's salvation from the physical debilitating effects of sin, then give thanks to the Lord for His steadfast love. For His wondrous works among the children of man. But this is not all. Notice the fourth demonstration of the Lord's steadfast love. It's a love that brings us home. It's a love that sets us free. It's a love that heals us. It's a love that quiets the storm. You see it there in verses 23-32. The crisis here that the psalmist describes is that the exiles find themselves in a storm. Now this is interesting here in this section in verses 23 to 32, because repeatedly up to this point, the acts of the Lord's salvation and deliverance have been referred to as His wondrous works. We see it in verse 8, verse 15, verse 21. His wondrous works to the children of man. And that refers to the Lord's acts of salvation and deliverance. But notice here in verse 24, The storm of the Lord's discipline is also now identified as the deeds of the Lord, His wondrous works, that's the same word, in the deep. And then the psalmist goes on to credit the Lord with the harrowing and life-threatening storm that the exiles endure. So you see it there in verse 25. Look at verse 25. For He, that is the Lord, commanded and raised the stormy wind which lifted up the waves of the sea. They mounted up to heaven. They went down to the depths. Their courage melted away in their evil plight. They reeled and staggered like drunken men and were at their wit's end. Now what we see here in our text is that as a response, to persistent sin and rebellion in the lives of His children, there are times where the Lord may bring a storm of unrest in our lives. It causes chaos, and conflict, and confusion. And this is what the exiles had experienced. But notice what the Lord does for these storm-tossed exiles. Look there in verses 29-30. He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed. Then they were glad that the waters were quiet, and He brought them to their desired haven. Now this, of course, reminds us of the Lord Jesus when He and the disciples found themselves in the midst of a violent storm and the disciples came to Jesus and they woke Him up and they said, Lord, are you going to do anything? Don't you care that we are perishing? And Luke records in the Gospel of Luke, Luke 8, verse 24, and He awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves and they ceased and there was calm. Now my friends, is there anyone here this morning who has known the chaos, the storm of the chaos and disruption that sin can bring? Maybe it's your own sin. Maybe it's the sin of others. But the storm of chaos and destruction that can come, perhaps to your marriage or to your family, or to your workplace, or to a church, And perhaps you've experienced that before, and you, in your desperation, in the midst of the storm, cried out to the Lord, and in His mercy, He quieted the storm. He hushed the waves. He stilled the waters. If that's ever happened to you in your life, then the psalmist says, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Let them give thanks to the Lord for His steadfast love and for His wondrous works to the children of man." What we see in this second main section is that there are four demonstrations of the Lord's steadfast love and each one is ample cause to give Him thanks. And so I would encourage you, even now, to consider. Here we have four demonstrations of the Lord's steadfast love. Consider. Can't you think of four times, just four times, that the Lord in His mercy has delivered you and saved you from the consequences of your own sin, or the consequences of someone else's sin? Can you think of four times that the Lord has delivered you or saved you just from the normal trials and difficulties of life? Maybe over this last year. Or over this last month. Or over this last week. Or maybe this morning. And if so, the psalmist says, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Let them give thanks to the Lord for His steadfast love and for His wondrous works to the children of man. So this takes us now to the third point, third main point, and third main section of our psalm. So we've seen a call to thank the Lord for His steadfast love. Then the psalmist lays out in poetic form these four demonstrations of the Lord's love to the exiles. And now notice, third main point, a reflection on God's sovereign, steadfast love. Now we find this in verses 33-42. Verses 33-42. And here what we see in this section is that a new pattern emerges. So there was this pattern before. There was a crisis in exile. There was a cry in trouble. There was an act of deliverance. There was a call to give thanks. And we saw that repeated in each one of those four demonstrations of the Lord's steadfast love. Well, at this point in the psalm, that pattern ceases. But a new pattern emerges. And what we see in this next section is that there is this pattern that goes back and forth between the exercise of God's sovereignty to afflict and the exercise of God's sovereignty to restore. So it goes back and forth. God afflicts in His sovereignty. He restores in His sovereignty. And it's as though what the psalmist is doing now at this point in the psalm is that he's presented us with these four demonstrations of the Lord's steadfast love, but then he pauses. And he looks back and he reflects. And in those four episodes or demonstrations of God's steadfast love, he wants to pull out a lesson. And he wants to teach us a lesson from those four examples. And the lesson he wants to teach us is that God demonstrates His steadfast love towards us through the exercise of His sovereignty. Or we could say it this way. It is by God's sovereignty that we experience His steadfast love in our lives. So let me show you this. Notice in verses 33 and 34, we see first of all that God exercises His sovereignty to afflict. Verse 33, He turns rivers into desert, springs of water into thirsty ground, a fruitful land into a salty waste. And why does He do this? It's His discipline. Notice it says, because of the evil of its inhabitants. So because of the evil of a land, of a people, God will afflict them in this way, so that rivers are turned to deserts, springs of water to thirsty ground. So God exercises His sovereignty to afflict. But then notice, there's a transition, and now we see in verses 35 to 38, God exercises His sovereignty to restore. He turns a desert into pools of water, a parched land into springs of water. Now that is the exact opposite of what was just said in verse 33. And that's intentional. See in verse 33 it says he turns rivers into a desert, springs of water into thirsty ground. Now in verse 35 he turns a desert into pools of water and parched land into springs of water. The point is he's sovereign over it all. Notice verse 36, He's continuing to exercise His sovereignty to restore. And there He lets the hungry dwell and they establish a city to live in. They sow fields and plant vineyards and get a fruitful yield. By His blessing, they multiply greatly and He does not let their livestock diminish. But now there's a transition in verse 39 and 40. Now we see again, God exercises His sovereignty to afflict. Look in verse 39. When they are diminished and brought low through oppression, evil, and sorrow. Notice this. In verse 38, the last phrase in verse 38, it says, He does not let their livestock diminish. The first line in verse 39, when they are diminished. It's the same word diminished and brought low. That's intentional. Again, the point is, He's sovereign over it all. Protection from diminishment of livestock, He's sovereign over that. The diminishment of livestock, He's sovereign over that too. Notice, He continues in verse 40, exercising His sovereignty to afflict. He pours contempt on princes and makes them wander in trackless waste. In other words, God exercises His sovereignty to afflict those who oppress His people. And then there's another transition in verses 41 to 42. Now God again exercises His sovereignty to restore. Verse 41, but He raises up the needy out of affliction and makes their families like flocks. The upright see it and are glad, and all wickedness shuts its mouth. The point that the psalmist is making here is that God is sovereign. He is the source of both all the afflictions and the blessings that we experience in this life. And He is able And this is not always because of a direct result of personal sin in our lives, but He is able to afflict us, He is able to humble us so that we might become more keenly aware of our need for Him and our dependence upon Him. And my friends, He is able to bless us and to renew us and to restore our hearts with His tender mercy and loving kindness. To populate the most barren and sparse spaces of our lives with goodness and with life and with blessing. And He is able to do all this and more because He is sovereign. And the way we experience His steadfast love is through the exercise of His sovereignty in our lives. So that He both afflicts and blesses for our good. This leads us to our fourth and final point in the psalm. Fourth main point. A call to consider the Lord's steadfast love. Now this is just one verse. Notice verse 43. A call to consider the Lord's steadfast love. Whoever is wise, let him attend to these things. Let them consider the steadfast love of the Lord. It should be pointed out here that the wise are not cynical. Sometimes we identify wisdom with cynicism, but here we see the wise are not cynical. They don't distrust the Lord, but rather they consider the steadfast love of the Lord and they thank Him and they trust Him. And as we consider the steadfast love of the Lord, and in particular meditate on the steadfast love of the Lord in Psalm 107, we realize that the person of Jesus, in more ways than I have time to explain this morning, is the ultimate fulfillment of the steadfast love of the Lord that the psalmist speaks of here in this psalm. Consider it. Although Jesus Himself was sinless, He entered into this fallen world and experienced the exile of a world that was cursed by sin. Jesus wandered in the desert and in the wilderness. You remember He was tempted in the wilderness, right? Jesus was cast out of the city. Jesus had no place to lay His head. Jesus experienced hunger and thirst. Jesus was falsely accused and condemned and even faced death for his people. Jesus experienced all that the exiles experienced here in Psalm 107. Not because of any sin or wrongdoing that he himself had done, but he entered into this world, into the exile of this world and the brokenness and sin of this world. And now he offers us freedom and salvation and life through faith in him. And here's the great burden of Psalm 107. For all those who have trusted in the Lord Jesus. For all those who have experienced His salvation from sin and death. For all those who by the grace of God have been delivered from a thousand trials and difficulties on their way to heaven. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. And let them give thanks to the Lord for His steadfast love and for His wondrous works to the children of man. Psalm 107 reminds us of the account in Luke's gospel, in Luke chapter 17, of Jesus' healing of the ten lepers. Many of you know it well. Jesus entered into a city. There were ten lepers there. They were desperate for healing and for salvation. And so they began to cry out to Jesus, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. Their cry was actually the cry of Psalm 107. We read it four separate times in Psalm 107. They cried to the Lord in their trouble. And like the sin-sick exiles in Psalm 107, Jesus healed those ten lepers. He granted them salvation and deliverance. He healed them. He cleansed them. And then Luke records. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice, and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks." And the one who returned was actually a Samaritan whom the Jews despised. And do you remember Jesus' response when the one came back? His response was, were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Jesus was shocked by their ingratitude and Psalm 107 is written to heal and address that ingratitude so that we would not be like those nine. But Jesus not only responded to the nine with shock and disappointment, He also responded to the one. who came with thanks. Jesus responded to him and said, rise and go your way. Your faith has made you well. My friends, that is so encouraging. Think of the ways that Jesus did not respond. Jesus did not respond by saying, you're a Samaritan. I don't receive thanks from likes like you. Jesus did not respond by saying, you didn't thank me the right way. Or you didn't thank me enough. Jesus did not respond by saying, that's all you got? Doctors charge a lot of money. And I didn't give you a prescription and tell you to go home and see if it improves in two or three weeks. I granted you immediate, instantaneous, full and complete healing and all you got from me is thank you? No, this beggar comes to the Lord Jesus and all he's got is thank you. And the Lord Jesus receives it? And He reassures him, and He comforts him, and He blesses him, and He declares over him, your faith has made you whole. Go in peace. And my friends, for every sinner who comes to the Lord Jesus with a heart full of gratitude, in humility, looking to Him in faith, and says, thank you, The Lord receives you and he blesses you and he delights in your praise. And therefore, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Let them give thanks to the Lord for his steadfast love and for his wondrous works to the children of man. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Oh, Father, we thank You. We praise You for Your love. Lord, may we not be like the nine lepers who were silent and who did not return with thanks, but Lord, may we be a people of gratitude, of rejoicing. May we, Your redeemed, say so, and may we give You thanks. May we give You thanks in the congregation of the righteous, Lord, as we gather for worship. May we give You thanks with song, as Psalm 107 calls us to do. May we give You thanks as we bear witness and give testimony to Your goodness in our lives as we speak to other believers and those who have not yet trusted in Christ. May we give thanks and may we give testimony to Your love for us as we teach our children Your ways and speak to them of Your grace. Lord, we thank You for Your steadfast love. And we pray now, Lord, even as we conclude this service and sing another psalm, that we would consider Your steadfast love and we would give You praise. And it's through Jesus Christ, our Lord, we ask it.