Psalms 107: trouble, cry, deliverance, praise, repeat: part 7
February 28, 2018
Welcome to part 7 on this series on psalms 107!
Psalms 107
17 Fools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted.
18 Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat; and they draw near unto the gates of death.
19 Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saveth them out of their distresses.
20 He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.
21 Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
22 And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing.
verse 19
Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saveth them out of their distresses.
This is the third of 4 times the Israelites have cried unto the Lord and received deliverance.
6 Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses.
13 Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses.
19 Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saveth them out of their distresses.
28 Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
Why do they keep crying unto God, time after time?
Because he keeps on faithfully delivering them time after time.
Without complaining, criticizing, or condemning.
That’s priceless.
There are countless verses on all the incredible attributes of God and the benefits of trusting in him – here are only 4.
Deuteronomy 31:6
Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.
Psalms 52
7 Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength; but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness.
8 But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God: I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever.
9 I will praise thee for ever, because thou hast done it: and I will wait on thy name; for it is good before thy saints.
Ezekiel 36:36
Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I the Lord build the ruined places, and plant that that was desolate: I the Lord have spoken it, and I will do it.
II Samuel 22:31 [amplified bible]
As for God, His way is blameless and perfect;
The word of the Lord is tested.
He is a shield to all those who take refuge and trust in Him.
verse 20
He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from all their destructions.
As a reminder, from part 1 of this series, let’s be aware of the overall context and centrality of Psalms 107:20 as the foundational verse of the entire 5th [and last] section or “book” of the book of Psalms.
Screenshot of the companion reference bible on the structure of Psalms 107 – 150, with Psalms 107:20 as the central verse: He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.
The word “word” is used 1,179 times in the bible.
Its first usage in Genesis sets a very important foundational principle.
Genesis 15:1 [amplified bible]
After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying,
“Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; Your reward [for obedience] shall be very great.”
Why?
Job 3
25 For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.
26 I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came.
Job’s fear is what broke open a hole in the fence and allowed Satan, the adversary, access and wreak havoc in Job’s life.
The new testament reveals why Job, full of fear, had no rest or peace.
I John 4
17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.
18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.
19 We love him, because he first loved us.
Verse 18 says “fear hath torment”, the opposite of peace.
Why is peace so important?
Romans 15:13 [amplified bible]
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing [through the experience of your faith] that by the power of the Holy Spirit you will abound in hope and overflow with confidence in His promises.
You can’t believe God’s word and thus, you will never get healed or delivered, without God’s peace.
Speaking of fear, when Gideon set up his army, the first thing he did was eliminate all the men with fear, then he removed all the idolaters. After that, Gideon and his laughably small army of 300 decisively won a battle where:
- They were outnumbered approximately 450 to 1
- They used no weapons
- No casualties
- No injuries
- The enemy was completely annihilated.
Isn’t that the God you want fighting for you?
This is the exact same God that healed the Israelites and delivered them from all their distresses.
Psalms 107:20
He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from all their destructions.
Definition of healed:
Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance
cure, cause to heal, physician, repair, thoroughly, make whole
Or raphah {raw-faw’}; a primitive root; properly, to mend (by stitching), i.e. (figuratively) to cure — cure, (cause to) heal, physician, repair, X thoroughly, make whole.
One of the great usages of the Hebrew word rapha is in Exodus where the healing nature of God is clearly spelled out.
Exodus 15
24 And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?
25 And he cried unto the Lord; and the Lord shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them,
26 And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee.
Moses also cried unto the Lord and he got his answer, so he set a great example for the Israelites to follow.
This is one of the 7 redemptive names of God: Jehovah Rapha, the Lord our healer.
Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten son, had many of the same characteristics of God, so he healed many people as well.
Luke 4:18
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
Definition of heal:
Strong’s Concordance #2390
iaomai: to heal
Part of Speech: Verb
Phonetic Spelling: (ee-ah’-om-ahee)
Definition: I heal, generally of the physical, sometimes of spiritual, disease.
HELPS Word-studies
2390 iáomai (a primitive verb, NAS dictionary) – healing, particularly as supernatural and bringing attention to the Lord Himself as the Great Physician (cf. Is 53:4,5).
Example: Lk 17:15: “Now one of them [i.e. the ten lepers], when he saw that he had been healed (2390 /iáomai), turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice.”
[2390 /iáomai (“to heal”) draws the attention to the Lord, the supernatural Healer, i.e. beyond the physical healing itself and its benefits (as with 2323 /therapeúō).]
Many teachings could be done on the subject of the many names of God alone, so this is just a very brief introduction.
DOES THE LORD GIVE AND TAKE AWAY?
Everybody knows the Lord gives us health and the Lord steals it away, i.e. takes our life, right?
We’ve all heard that and, unfortunately, millions of people still believe it.
Where does this persistent and ubiquitous belief come from?
A wrong understanding of a persistent and ubiquitous book.
Job 1:21
And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.
I can hear you now: “See, there’s all the proof I need. God gives and God takes away.”
Not so fast.
First, let’s do some critical thinking by comparing other verses on the same subject.
Romans 8:32
He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
No mention of God taking anything away, only freely giving to us.
The old testament is the new testament concealed.
The new testament is the old testament revealed.
What does the new testament reveal about the true nature of the devil?
John 10:10
The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
Now we have an apparent contradiction between Job 1:21 and other bible verses on the same subject.
Anytime there is an apparent contradiction in the bible, the answer will always be in a wrong and/or incomplete understanding of scripture and/or a wrong translation of the bible.
If you truly believe that God gives you health, then takes it away, what’s the point in trusting in him anyways?
Apparent contradictions always breed doubt, confusion, and strife, so we don’t want to give the devil any opportunity to trip us up.
Figures of speech to the rescue!
They are a grammatical science that deliberately deviates from the normal rules of grammar to catch our attention and put special emphasis on a certain word, words, or concept by design.
The specific figure of speech used in Job 1:21 is called a Hebrew idiom of permission.
In the old testament, because Jesus Christ had not yet come, the devil wasn’t defeated or even exposed.
People were in spiritual darkness and didn’t know much about the devil, nor how his kingdom operated.
Thus, anytime something bad happened, they simply understood that God allowed it to happen, and therefore, he was ultimately in control.
So when Job said, “the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away”, what this really meant in his culture and time was that the Lord allowed it to be taken away because he can’t overstep a person’s freedom of will.
Galatians 6
7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
Now there is no confusion or contradictions.
God is still good and the devil is still bad.
Job 1:21 [amplified bible]
Through all this Job did not sin nor did he blame God.
job knew that God was not the true cause of the problem.
We would be wise to follow his example.
Job 2:7
So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown.
Here is the confirmation that it was the adversary who attacked Job, not God.
So now that we have a better understanding of the true nature of God and the devil, it’s much easier to believe the Lord will heal us and deliver us from our distresses.
Psalms 103
1 Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:
3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;
In verse 3, the reason that God “forgiveth all thine iniquities” is mentioned before “who healeth all thy diseases” is because if you are full of guilt, condemnation, etc about what you did in the past or how you feel about yourself, then you won’t be able to believe God for healing.
1 John 3:21
Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.
I John 5 [amplified bible]
14 This is the [remarkable degree of] confidence which we [as believers are entitled to] have before Him: that if we ask anything according to His will, [that is, consistent with His plan and purpose] He hears us.
15 And if we know [for a fact, as indeed we do] that He hears and listens to us in whatever we ask, we [also] know [with settled and absolute knowledge] that we have [granted to us] the requests which we have asked from Him.
Psalms 103
4 Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;
5 Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
6 The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.
7 He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.
8 The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.
9 He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever.
10 He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
11 For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.
12 As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
If you picture a globe, go north from the equator to the north pole. If you go past it in the same direction, you are now actually going south.
North clashes with south.
In other words, your sins get dragged up from the past and are thrown back in your face.
But if you start from the equator again and head either east or west, you can go on indefinitely and you will never meet the opposite direction again.
In other words, your past sins will never get thrown back in your face by God, who has already forgotten them, so how could he?
Thus, if they ever do come back up, they must come from a source other than God – i.e. the world that is run by the adversary.
Know that God loves you, has made you worthy, and has already healed you through the work of his son, Jesus Christ.
I Peter 2 [amplified bible]
23 While being reviled and insulted, He did not revile or insult in return; while suffering, He made no threats [of vengeance], but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges fairly.
24 He personally carried our sins in His body on the cross [willingly offering Himself on it, as on an altar of sacrifice], so that we might die to sin [becoming immune from the penalty and power of sin] and live for righteousness; for by His wounds you [who believe] have been healed.
25 For you were continually wandering like [so many] sheep, but now you have come back to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.
