in that particularly. Have your Bibles turned to Psalm 107, 107. This is 43 verses, so I'm just going to let you just remain seated while I read these. And I'm going to preach one more next week on Psalms and I, unless the Lord really changes my mind, I taught on Hebrews a couple of years ago on Wednesday night, but I've just been feeling that I need to go to Hebrews and preach through Hebrews. It's one of the most profound books in the New Testament. I would rank it with Romans and Ephesians and And Hebrews would be probably my top three theologically powerful, particularly the first three chapters of Ephesians and the first 11 chapters of Romans. And Hebrews is just so powerful in exalting the Lord Jesus. So I think that's where I'm going at the beginning of May. So unless I make a U-turn or right turn or left turn, that's where we'll be going. So if you want to start reading Hebrews again, That'd be good. Let me read this psalm. O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, and a 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 and from the north and from the south. Some wandered in the desert waste, finding no way to a city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their souls 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 the 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 in irons. For they had rebelled against the words of God 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 the 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 iniquity 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 wit's end. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He made the storm still, the waves of the sea were hushed. Then they were glad that the waters were quiet, and he brought them to the 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 prays him in the assembly of the elders. He turns rivers into a desert, springs of water into thirsty ground, a fruitful land into 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 upon 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 the wickedness shuts its mouth. Whoever is wise, let him attend to these things. Let them consider the steadfast love of the Lord. Let's pray. Father, we do thank you for your steadfast love. We thank you, Father, for hearing our cry. and coming down, Father, and bringing healing and setting us free. And, Father, stilling the storm. And, Father, bringing dreams in the desert that we might quench the thirst of our soul and satisfy the hunger of our heart. So, Father, we pray as we look through these verses, your Holy Spirit will speak to us and transform us as your people. And so Father, we ask this in Jesus name, amen. Started so you could be seated, but you already are. We are creatures of habit. This is really a powerful psalm. Most commentators tie it to the return of the exiles. In Psalm 105, we have the history of Israel, basically up through Moses. And then in Psalm 106, we have the history of Israel up to the exile. And then mostly this and these three Psalms together as the culmination of God's deliverance of his people from their captivity. So we'll look at that and see that this morning. But in return of God's people, really the minority returned. There were hundreds of thousands that went into captivity. But when they were allowed to go back to land, there was only basically a little over 42,000 who returned to the land. And only four of the 24 divisions of priests, only out of four of those divisions did some priests return. There were only 74 Levites that returned to the land. So this is truly for God's people who truly know him. It's not enough just to claim that I'm a Christian. There has to be evidence. We're not saved by works. We're saved by the work of Christ. As Ephesians 2.10 says, we are created in Christ Jesus on two good works that God has before ordained that we should walk in them. And those works are the evidence of our salvation, not the means of our salvation. And so this is really a rejoicing of, unfortunately, a minority of people. But Jesus said that, didn't he? Many are called, but few are chosen. He said, broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many find their way on it, but it's the few, by God's grace, that find the straight and narrow way that leads to everlasting life. So in this psalm, I want us to look at basically three things, the worthiness of the Lord, the waywardness of man, and the wonders of God's grace, of his grace. So those are the three areas we're going to look at in this psalm. So first of all, the worthiness of the Lord. This psalm breaks out with praise. And one commentator said it went straight to Calvary. It went straight to God's grace in our life and straight to the altar. When you read Genesis, Basically, wherever Abraham went, he built an altar so he could worship the Lord. And so this is kind of the idea here that the first thoughts of the psalmist here is the adoration of God and the worship of God and the, oh, give thanks to the Lord. Why? Because he's good. You know, there's lots of attacks upon God. There's lots of questions. If God's a God of love, why does he let evil exist? If God's a God of love, why does he let wars exist and murders exist and crime exist? Well, Romans 1 answers that a lot. Because three times the Bible says, because man, in his suppression of the truth, his rejection of the truth, his embracing of lies, God just turns man over to himself. And the evidence of wars and crime and evil is the evidence of the depravity of man. And what the scripture says, that there's a day coming where God's gonna make all those things right. What's upside down's gonna be made right. And the wicked are gonna be judged and the righteous are gonna be rewarded. So that's God's plan, that's God's wisdom, that's God's purposes. But God is good. And we wanna see him, first of all, his goodness in creation. Even as we read Genesis, every time He made, declared something to come into existence, He said it was good. And then when He made man, He said what? It was very good. God is good in His creation. Now, there's a little theological word called aseity, that means that God is independent within Himself. He has nothing lacking within Himself. Sometimes people try to characterize God made man because he wanted to be in a relationship or he needed a relationship. God needs no relationship with his creation. He has complete harmony and love and relationship within the God, within the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is not lonely. God is not in need of our love. We're in need of His love, and it's only by His grace that He, the only thing I can say in God and His wisdom of creating what He created and creating man, it was for His grace and for His glory. But there was never a need within Him to do it. It was just out of his wisdom and grace that he did it. And so his goodness is intrinsic within himself. And in his creation, he demonstrated that goodness. And he continues to demonstrate that with common grace. Jesus said the sun shines in the just and the unjust. The rain falls upon the just and the unjust. There's a common, in fact, the very fact that we're breathing our next breath is because of the goodness and grace of God. None of us are guaranteed our next breath. None of us are guaranteed tomorrow. First, not the first thought, but many times this thought comes to my mind, like Wednesday night when Chris's sister called her. First of all, say that Allen had collapsed and they were doing CPR then. It was just like my dad. I was getting ready. I just started a job down in Fort Worth. We just went back to seminary. We were there about two weeks. I just had worked one week and getting ready to go to work at a little trucking company that serviced restaurants, food service. I went to work at 5 o'clock and worked to whenever we got done, sometimes 12 o'clock, sometimes 6 o'clock or 7 o'clock or 8 o'clock the next morning. And so I was just getting ready to go to work and got a phone call from my sister-in-law, my brother's wife, and said, your dad has had a heart attack. They're doing CPR. They're taking him to the hospital. So we called Chris's sister and brother-in-law that were living in Fort Worth. Charlene still lives down there. And Wayne was going to put a plane ticket on his credit card for me. And we're rushing to the airport. And I'm telling you, my foot did not cross the threshold. It was still in the air when I heard my name being paged over the sound system at the airport. Paging Michael Anthony, paging Michael, they went to the phone, and my sister said, your dad's gone, they couldn't revive him. And that's what happened with Chris's brother. We got the phone call, they're doing CPR, and then just shortly after we got the phone call, they could not revive him. And one of the first thoughts that always comes to my mind is, we never know what a day brings. None of us do. We never know what a day brings. But we can know this, that God is good. He is good. And particularly He's good toward us as His children. And that's the recurring theme through this psalm. They cried, verse six, they cried to the Lord in their trouble. He delivered them from their distress. He led them in a straight way till they reached a city to dwell in. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love and for his wondrous works to the children of man. And that, as we read through that, that is repeated over and over again. with each instance of description of the waywardness of man and man coming to himself like the prodigal son did and crying out to the Lord. God is good. He is steadfast in his love toward us. And we can rejoice in that. So he's good in his creation, but he's also good in his covenant. He is faithful to his covenant. The old covenant. God said, if you obey me, I'll bless you. And when they did obey him, he blessed them. If you disobey me, I'll curse you. That's what Psalm 80 says. God built this vineyard and he put this hedge around this vineyard to protect it. But through their disobedience, and what this psalm says, they rejected his word. They were disobedient to his word. And so Psalm 80 says that God tore the hedge down. And I think in King James language, it says, and the wild beast came into the vineyard and ravished it. I think that's what's going on in America right now. The hedge is down. Evil is reigning in the hearts of men in our society, in our culture, particularly Western culture. So God said in the old covenant, obey me, I'll bless you. Disobey me, I'll bring judgment. I'll bring curses upon you. I'll tear the hedge down. Again, what Romans 1 says, I'll turn you over to yourself. You want the reins of your life? Have at it. But it leads to death, it leads to destruction, it leads to heartache, it leads to affliction. But in the new covenant, which Jesus said is in his blood, in his life, death, and resurrection, it is kept by God. by the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why we're completely known and we're completely loved. Because in the new covenant, we trust in his works, not in our works. And so God is faithful in his covenant. And in the new covenant, he's faithful to sustain us, to forgive us when we sin, to empower us, and to lead us by his grace and by his mercy. And we rest in Christ. As we'll see in the last slide, Jesus is the answer to every aspect of the waywardness of man. And I don't wanna get ahead of myself, but we'll get there in just a moment. And his steadfast love. Have you ever thought God doesn't love you? I have. Now, it's been a while. The most dramatic time, I was about 16 years old, laying on my bed in my room, saved, strong to preach. They had been preaching for a year or so. But at that moment, the deep richness of my heart, there was pain, there was sorrow. And I cried out, Lord, do you really love me? Guess where he took me? Well, he took me to John 3.16, but he took me more to the cross. He said, Mike, if you doubt my love, look at the cross. That while you were at sinners, Christ died for you. I've commended, I've demonstrated, I've shown you my love. And I wanna say this, as believers, we must get to a point where we do not doubt God's love for us. No matter what comes our way, no matter what heartache comes into our life, we need to know that toward us, God's love is steadfast. It is there. It is always there. Again, I referred to the prodigal son a couple weeks ago. The father was at the crossroads looking for the son. He wasn't in his house with the door locked and the son come knocking and said, who are you? I don't know you anymore. No, he was at the crossroads. See, the prodigal son is just as much or maybe more about the love of the father than about the rebellion of the son. God's love is steadfast. It endures forever and it redeems. It's a redeeming love. God's love toward his creation is a redeeming love to offer redemption and reconciliation and salvation toward us. And I think I've told you this before, in my prayers, particularly if I'm asking God to intervene and bring healing to someone, I try to bring that into context of his redemptive purpose. Because there are times when God's going to use a sickness or cancer or something in a life of a believer As they go through that search, it might be the death of a loved one. As they go through that situation, that the love of Christ and the security of Christ and the peace of Christ and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is evident in their life and is shining like a beacon to those who are watching you or me go through this crisis. How are we gonna make it through this crisis? And God's grace is being manifested as a witness to those without Christ. That there is a strength beyond ourself. There is a purpose beyond ourself. There is a eternity beyond ourself. You understand what I'm saying? God is good even in that situation. When he doesn't answer our prayers the way we want him to answer it. When we cry out and say, why Lord did this happen in my life? His goodness is still present. His steadfast love is still present. And through that refining fire of affliction, He's taking the dross of sin out of us. He's intending to strengthen our faith. and to turn to Him. I think I mentioned this Wednesday night, a colloquial saying says that a tragedy can make you bitter, or it can make you what? Better. We can turn away from God's grace in His face to shine upon us, or we can turn to it, and we can cry out to Him, even in our weakness. And that's part of what this psalmist is doing. He's redeeming purpose. It rescues us from trouble. And as we go through this in just a moment, the waywardness of man, four different descriptions are in the psalm of the waywardness of man that only leads to destruction, only leads to trouble, only leads to affliction. But God, in his grace, allows us to cry out to him and he calms down and he rescues us. And it reaches to the ends of the earth. That's the picture of Revelation 5. From every tribe, from every nation, from every language, are going to be those that God has rescued by his grace, that are going to offer praise to the Lamb. Worthy is the Lamb who was slain. Oh, give thanks to the Lord for his good, for his steadfast love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. As you all were coming out of Sunday school, you were having that kind of conversation. We have a song that the angels only look upon in mystery. Because the angels that fell, they have no hope. Their destiny is eternal damnation along with Satan. The angels that remain faithful to God have no need of redemption. But we have tasted, we have experienced the depth of sin. And we have also tasted the grace of God as He's rescued us and redeemed us and forgiven us. And we can cry out, I'm forgiven. I'm forgiven. And that's a song the angels can't sing. Now they can join with us, worthy as the Lamb who was slain. And they do. That's one of the unique things about the revelation. Anytime a scene goes back to heaven, worship breaks out. Because all eyes are upon the true and living God in the land that was slain. And when the eyes see Him in His beauty, in His sacrifice, we can't, in fact, the psalm says we break out in joyful song. We rejoice in Him. Now, the waywardness of man, I'll try to go through this quickly. First of all, it's a picture of a wandering soul, wandering in the desert. That's where many people are. They have a hunger that cannot be satisfied by anything this world gives, but they're looking for it to be satisfied. In fact, Proverbs says a hungry man will eat anything. Again, we see all that in the prodigal son, this Jewish boy eating the leftovers of pigs. I dare say none of us have truly been really hungry. Maybe you have, I doubt it, but we have such abundance here in America. But this world is hungry. There's only one that can satisfy the soul of mankind, and that's the true and living God through his son, Jesus Christ. But there's still a hunger, and the world's trying to satisfy that hunger through multiple ways, but it can never be satisfied. There's a thirst that can only be quenched by the living water of the Lord Jesus. And again, people are trying to quench that thirst, and it never happens. Whether it's wealth, you know, I think I've mentioned this before, Howard Hughes back in the day was supposedly the richest man in the world, billionaire. Now we got, I guess, thousands of billionaires now, I don't know. But back in the day, when I was a kid, I was told that a billionaire could never spend his money. He could never exhaust his money. That it would grow so fast, no matter how he spent it, he just couldn't spend a billion dollars. And someone asked Howard Hughes, how much money do you need? You know what his answer was? Just a little bit more. Because the richest man in the world was not satisfied. The thirst of his soul was not satisfied by that wealth. The hunger of his heart was not satisfied by that wealth. And they were faint in spirit. And that's the end of those that wandered in the desert. And then there's a description of a darkened soul, of dwelling in darkness. That's what Isaiah 9 says. The people were walking in darkness. They were in the shadow of death. They were shackled by sin. That's one of the descriptions of the Lord Jesus about the suffering servant. He's going to come and set the captive free. He's going to break the chains of sin in our life. And only Jesus can do that. But those that are dwelling in darkness, they're bound by the shackles of sin. And they're in shameless rebellion. Verse 10, some sat in darkness in the shadow of death, prisoners in affliction and in irons, for they had rebelled against the words of God 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. Again, that's the word from Colossians 1.13, that we have been delivered from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his dear son. Again, that's what Paul says in Acts, that God gave him commission to proclaim the gospel and the light of gospel to deliver those that were in darkness. Then there's the foolish soul. And as Romans 1 says, they professed to be wise, but they became fools. There's the folly of sin. You know, we have to, I guess, admit or just recognize that in some way, at least initially, there's pleasure in sin. I think that's part of what the preacher refers to in Hebrews 11 when he talked about Moses rejecting the pleasures of being Pharaoh's son to embrace the will of God for him. And it took him to the backside of the desert. He spent 40 years in the backside of the desert in obscurity. After the first 40 years of his life, being predominant, being the adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter, being, in essence, the grandson of Pharaoh, and all the blessings and all the honors of that, all the education, all the wealth, all the clothes, all the servants, And Yanks changed all that for the backside of the desert. And that's where God came to him and called him when he was 80 years old, by the way. But there's folly in sin. I've said this before, and I just saw it. My brother put it on Facebook yesterday or this morning. Sin will take you farther than you want to go. It'll keep you there longer than you want to stay. And it'll cost you more than you want to pay. That's the effect of sin on our life. And so there's the folly of those that embrace sin and the consequence of sin, the wages of sin is death, the gift of God's eternal life. And there are shipwrecked souls. There are many shipwrecked souls. And some are young. Some are young. Some are in their teens, in their 20s, in their 30s. In this culture that we live in, this world that we live in, there are so many shipwrecked souls because they've been tossed about by the current and by the waves of this world. And they're just, in many ways, just helpless in that process. They're tossed about. They're terrorized by judgment. Again, you can't read this passage without thinking about Jesus again, that boat, disciples being terrorized. And what the psalm says, if I can find it real quick. Someone down to the sea and ships doing business on the great waters, they saw the deeds of the Lord, His wondrous works in the deep. He commanded and raised the stormy wind. He lifted up the waves of the sea. In fact, I almost got seasick reading this. They bounded up to heaven. They went down to the depths. Their courage melted away in their evil plight. They reeled and staggered like drunk 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. What did Jesus say to the storm? Peace, be well, still. By the way, he still does that. If you're going through a storm in your life, turn to Jesus and let him say, peace, be still. The waves of the sea were hushed and they were glad that the waters were quiet. And in this sentence here, He brought them to their desired haven. You read the gospel accounts, it says Jesus said, peace be still, and it says immediately they were at the shore. God brings us to our desired haven by His grace and by His mercy. Now quickly here, the wonders of His grace. There's the cry of repentance. which is always necessary. In fact, that's a sign of a true believer. Many have said, I think Spurgeon has said it, I've read others that have said it, Luther, I think, has said it, that the life of a believer is a continual life of repentance, a continual life of humbling ourself before the Lord. And a sign of a true believer is one God confronts us with our sin, we are broken by it, and we seek repentance. And there's a prayer of thanksgiving and rejoicing in the goodness of God and the steadfast love of God. And that should be upon our lips. I've said this, and I need it in my own life. I'm kind of a stoic guy. I don't really express a lot of things in my countenance a lot of times. But folks, we need to be joyful, don't we? We need to rejoice in the goodness of God and steadfast love. And God does place a song in our heart. And you find yourself, I know you do, you find yourself during the week, a song is there. Sometimes I feel like things are going on in my life, and in the background, this song is playing in my heart. Anybody have that experience? Am I the only weird person here? us, completely known, completely loved, I'm covered by my Savior's blood, can ring in our heart, and we can rejoice, we can have songs of joy before the Lord. And there's the exaltation of His wondrous works. To the thirsty, He's the living water. Only Jesus can quench our thirst. To the hungry, He's the bread of life. So often we find ourselves feasting at the wrong table, at lesser tables, at inadequate tables. Thou preparest a table, what, before me, where? In the presence of my enemies. And that table is the Lord Jesus. That feast is the Lord Jesus. That bread is the Lord Jesus. That thirst-quenching water is the Lord Jesus. to the prisoner, he's the chain breaker. Only he has the power to do that. You know, life is cyclical, particularly with addictions. It only takes one little slip to kind of fall back in there. I've got a young man that came to our Bible study down in the city, come from a godly family. His grandfather was a pastor, and I think his great-grandfather was a pastor, great heritage. And this young man was raised properly, got into MMA competition, and somehow got into drug addiction. ended up at Salvation Army and went through their program and got delivered from that addiction and really got back on the straight path. And now he's just recently been ordained to preach last fall. And just a fine young man, got a very beautiful family, a godly wife, three children. I think number four is on its way now. But just a really godly young couple. But he worked for one of the delivery companies and hurt his shoulder, had pain medication, and he slipped back into addiction. And he had to go back through a program to be dried out. Things like that, I understand, happen. But Jesus is the chain breaker. He's the one that can deliver. man has looked to, he's looked to the Lord to deliver him again and to send him back on a straight path. And to the arrogant, he's the Lord of life. In fact, the Bible says, God, resist the proud. I'll come to Jesus when I want to. Mm-mm, probably not. Probably not. God's hand's against you in your arrogance and in your sin. He gives grace to who? It starts with an H and ends with an E. The humble. When we humble, in fact, that's what these last words say. Whoever is wise, let him attend to these things. Let them consider the steadfast love of the Lord. We must humble ourselves before him. To the fullest, he is the wisdom of God. He's the one that brings us to that straight path. He's the one that brings us to that city in which we can dwell. So that's what, again, what the writer of Hebrews says, Abraham was still looking for that city. He hadn't attained it yet. He was a sojourner in the promised land. He didn't experience the promises completely that God had given him, but he was still a sojourner. He was still looking for that city whose foundations are God. And guess what? He's there now. He's there now. And so God is the one that leads us in a straight way. God is the one that leads us to a city that we can dwell in. God is the one that can quench our thirst, quench our hunger, set us free from the bondage of sin, can make us wise, you know, The beginning of wisdom is what? The fear of God. He's the one that can set us free, redeem us. Oh, give thanks to the Lord for he is good. And his steadfast love endures forever. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for your goodness and your steadfast love to us, your grace and your mercy. that we can rejoice in you with songs of praise in the midst of the congregation. That's why we sing these songs each Sunday, not just to fill in time, but Father, to declare the gospel, to declare your goodness, to declare your faithfulness. So Father, thank you for who you are. Help us, Father, to always look to you. Always be satisfied in you and in your son, Jesus Christ. In his name we pray, amen.