There is no situation in which we may find ourselves that the redeeming work of God cannot reach. And the distance between our current situation and God’s help is our cry for help!
I have been reading Psalm 107 recently as well as a devotional book alongside that touches on different applications we can draw from this passage. What an encouraging passage this is! 42 verses packed with different life scenarios where people were facing some form of challenge or distress and they experience God’s help in miraculous ways. The last verse wraps it all up with a very personal exhortation.
Are you in trouble? The Lord can help!
Are you isolated, scattered or exiled? The Lord can gather.
Are you wandering with no place to dwell and in distress? The Lord can set you on a straight path and deliver you.
Are you sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death? Are you a prisoner of either? The Lord can burst your bonds apart!
Is your heart rebelling against God or even despising his counsel? The Lord can bow or bend your heart toward him.
Are your sinful ways making you despise wisdom (another way to describe foolishness!)?
Are your own iniquities increasing your afflictions?
Is your current situation generating a lot of fears? Is your future looking pretty bleak? Are the waves beyond you? The Lord has power to raise the wind and the waves, and he also has the power to still them and bring you to a safe haven!
Are you facing impossibilities? Or are you being led by God to enter something that, humanly speaking, does not make any sense? The Lord can turn rivers into deserts and vice versa. He can also help people get established and experience the richness of life in places where signs of life are the last thing you see right now.
Oh but wait, as if this was not enough, God does not put up forever with the oppression of his people. The Lord “pours contempt on princes and makes them wander in trackless wastes” when they oppress his people. Furthermore, “He raises up the needy out of affliction and makes their families like flocks.”
So how powerful can God be over our current situations? Very powerful! Consistent with how he works, “He sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction.” (20) Words from God become conduits of his power. He pronounces realities into being. That is amazing!
No wonder the recurring response of those who experience the redemption of God in some way is to thank him for his steadfast love and “his wondrous works to the children of man!”
It is no wonder that the Psalmist ends this passage with the most appropriate exhortation:
“Whoever is wise, let him attend to these things; let them consider the steadfast love of the Lord.” I am not sure if only the wise are positioned to attend these things or if anyone who attends to these things becomes wise. Regardless of what the right conclusion is, the exhortation is the same for everyone: consider the steadfast love of God.
How is God showing you his steadfast love today? Or, how do you need his steadfast love in your life?
The distance between your current situation and his help is just a cry for help away!