4SpiritualSecrets

Psalm 107 (cont’d)
10 “Those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death,
Bound in affliction and irons…
13 They cried out to the LORD in their trouble,
And He saved them out of their distresses.
14 He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death,
And broke their chains in pieces.”

The second stanza of this great hymn describes redemption from our CHAINS. In this second stanza God broke their chains in pieces. When God became flesh and dwelt among us He could not pass up someone who was not free. This reminds me of a poem:

“A famished bear whose foot was clenched within a murderous trap wrenched about in fright and pain around the tree that held the chain emitting many a hideous howl. His state was noticed by an owl, who, perched above him, fat and free philosophized from out of the tree, ‘To what avail this fuss and noise? The thing you need good bear is poise!’”

The person who anonymously wrote this little poem was telling us there are two kinds of people in this world-those who are free and those who are not free. Sadly, those who are free often look down in detached apathy upon those who are not free. From this great Psalm and when God became flesh we learn that God is no “fat owl” as He looks upon those who are not free.

Are you free? If you are free, how do you relate to those who are not free? How do you believe the God Who lives in you wants to relate through you to those who are not free? If you are free should you not step up and say so to the glory of God?

Psalm 107
“They wandered in the wilderness in a desolate way;
They found no city to dwell in.
5 Hungry and thirsty,
Their soul fainted in them.
6 Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble,
And He delivered them out of their distresses.”

An excerpt from the first stanza of this great hymn of redemption describes how God redeemed His people when they were wanderers in a wilderness. Their way was desolate. They were hungry and thirsty to the point that their souls fainted in them. Then they cried to the LORD and He delivered them from their distresses.

Deliverance is a synonym for salvation and salvation is a synonym for redemption. This first stanza describes how God redeems His people from their CHAOS.

In the Gospel of Matthew we read several times that when Jesus saw the multitudes He wept for them because they were like lost sheep that had no shepherd. They did not know their right hand from their left. In the Gospel of Luke the entire fifteenth chapter is called “The Parable of the Lost Things” because it describes the loving heart of Jesus for those who are lost. The key verse of that Gospel tells us that Jesus came to seek and to save those who are lost (Luke 19: 10).

From Genesis to Revelation we are told of the great loving heart of God for those who need to be redeemed from being lost. After eloquently and graphically describing this first level of redemption, the theme of this psalm is repeated: that those who have been redeemed from their chaos should step up and thank the LORD.

Can you resonate with this first level of redemption and then step up and say so?

Psalm 107

“Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good!
For His mercy endures forever.
Let the redeemed of the LORD say so,
Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy,
And gathered out of the lands,
From the east and from the west,
From the north and from the south.”

This is a great hymn of redemption. Simply stated redemption means “to buy back and bring back that which was lost.” It’s like the word “rehabilitation” which in its Latin root means “to invest again with dignity.” The theme of this great psalm is that the great loving heart of God has a passionate desire to redeem and rehabilitate His people. They were once in His possession but He has temporarily lost them.

The people God is redeeming are a global people. They come from every point on the compass. The exhortation of this psalm, which is repeated many times, is that those who have been redeemed of the Lord should step up and say so. This initial exhortation is followed by five stanzas which describe different levels of redemption. After each level is eloquently and graphically described, the theme exhortation of the psalm is repeated like a refrain that the redeemed should thank the Lord for his goodness and His wonderful works in their lives.

As I begin the 80th year of my life I look back over my journey and see in the five stanzas of this hymn a summary of the way God has worked in my life. They fill me with grateful worship. I pray that as you become acquainted with these five graphic descriptions of redemption you will meet yourself in this psalm and then step up and say so.

“… for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age…” (Titus 2: 11, 12)

Supporting his thesis that we are saved by grace, Paul writes that when Jesus was born into this world the grace of God appeared bringing us salvation. He also writes that the grace that brought salvation was teaching us that we are to find the levels of grace that enables us to live godly lives.

Here again we find levels of grace being identified. A study of the letter of Paul to Titus reveals that the church Titus was planting on the island of Crete could have been called “The Church of the Three Appearings.”

The first appearing was when Christ brought salvation to this world. The second will be when Christ returns in his Second Coming. The third appearing is the way Christ shows Himself to the world right now through the godly men and women in His church who access keeping grace and living grace while they look for the return of their Savior.

“We’re writing a gospel a chapter each day by things that we do and things that we say. Men read what we write whether faithful or true. Say, what is the gospel according to you?”

Paul wrote in another place that we are living epistles known and read by all men. We are the only Bible many people will ever read. We must realize that we need to access these levels of grace to show Christ to the world and not merely for our own benefit.

How many levels of grace do you access as you live for Christ?

“… through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”
(Romans 5:2)

In this verse the apostle identifies two more levels of grace. Having written that we are justified by faith, Paul declares that we also have access by faith into grace that makes it possible for us to stand in a hostile world and live a life that glorifies God. This access into grace makes it possible for us to enter into living grace and keeping grace.

There was a long and ancient poem that described a debate in heaven between two men who died in their nineties. They debated which of them was the greatest trophy of grace. One had lived a terribly sinful life. On his deathbed he had been led to salvation. He, therefore, considered himself a greater trophy of grace than the other man.

The second man had been the son of a pastor. He came to faith as a child and had never wavered in his faith. He himself had become a pastor and in that role he had led many to Christ and was a faithful shepherd for nearly 60 years.

The debate lasted for thousands of years but when the angels were asked to vote on the matter they decided that the pastor’s son was the greater trophy of grace. The first man had experienced saving grace but the second man had experienced keeping grace and living grace.

We sometimes give young people the impression that it is better to have lived a sinful life and then experience a dramatic conversion. However, there is nothing good about sin. We are a greater trophy of grace when we do not sin.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that (faith) is not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8,9)

Just as there are levels of fellowship there are levels of grace. The first level is saving grace. The verse above clearly states that we are saved by the grace of God and not by our works. Even the faith by which we believe that good news is the gift of God to us. Not one of us, therefore, can boast about our salvation as if we had something to do with it.

The apostle writes in the next verse that we are saved for good works. In his other writings he makes it clear that works validate our faith and so works are important. But if we hold up our works to God and ask Him to save us on the basis of those good works, the Prophet Isaiah tells us they would be as filthy rags before God (Isaiah 64:6.)

Millions of people believe they are saved by good works. If you ask people how they know that if they died today they would go to heaven, a large majority would say something like, “I hope so” or “I’m doing my best.” If they would think about it they should ask themselves how many good works are enough to save them. Those who believe they are saved by good works are almost never sure of their salvation.

The first level of grace assures us of our salvation because salvation by grace is not a matter of our good works. What matters is the good work of Jesus Christ when He died on the cross for us.

“… my brother, fellow worker, and fellow soldier, but your messenger and the one who ministered to my needs.”
(Philippians 2:25)

The letter of Paul to the Philippians is a thank you note. The church Paul established in Philippi was his sending church. They supported him regularly as he points out in the rest of this chapter. He is especially thanking them for a gift that was delivered by an old man named Epaphroditis. In the way Paul describes his relationship to this dear old man we see distinct levels of fellowship.

Paul refers to him as his brother. That means that he was a believer. Then he calls him a fellow worker. Amos raised the question, “Can two walk together unless they are agreed? (Amos 3:3) Paul himself had to separate from a brother named Barnabas because they were not in agreement. Another level of fellowship is focused when Paul refers to this old man as a fellow soldier. By this Paul was describing the level of fellowship experienced by those who risked their lives together while serving Christ. Later in his reference to this faithful messenger Paul makes the observation that this man nearly died while completing his mission objective of delivering the offering of the Philippian Church to the aging Apostle Paul.

He calls him a messenger and the one who ministered to his needs. As believers we are all called to be messengers and ministers (2 Corinthians 5: 13-6:2). According to this Scripture every reconciled believer has committed to him or her, a message and a ministry of reconciliation.

According to Paul all five of these levels of fellowship were in place between himself and this dear old man. How many levels of fellowship are you experiencing in your relationships with other believers?

“Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed…His mercies never fail, They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3: 21-24)

I will make more observations about these quotes from the Lamentations of Jeremiah. In his despair and grief over what he had to see during the conquest of Jerusalem, Jeremiah called to mind that it is only because of the great love of the Lord that we are not consumed.

This raises the question: ‘What do we think we deserve and why?’ When the Rabbi wrote his book about bad things happening to good people he assumed a thesis. He assumed that the people were good and deserved good things. That does not agree with Scripture. According to Jeremiah, it is only because of the mercy of God that we do not get what we deserve.

The word “mercy” means unconditional love. God showed Jeremiah that His mercies are new every morning. His next words inspired a great hymn called, “Great is Thy Faithfulness.” God is faithful to us even when we are not faithful to Him. Every morning is a clean slate for us because His expressions of unconditional love are new every morning.

When we meditate on these thoughts, inspired by Jeremiah we should thank God every day for the mercy that withholds and the grace that bestows salvation on anyone who will believe that Good News. Jesus Christ died on that hill where Jeremiah wrote these words so that God could withhold what we deserve and bestow on us a salvation we do not deserve but receive by faith.

Today would you like to thank Him for His mercy and trust Him for salvation?

“Yet this I call to mind… Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed… His compassions never fail… They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3: 21-24)

After writing his prophecy which has moved many scholars to label him “The Weeping Prophet” Jeremiah adds a short postscript to his fifty-two chapters of weeping. That postscript is called “Lamentations” which means “Weepings.”

You simply have to know why Jeremiah is weeping to understand and appreciate his writings. He is weeping about the Babylonian massacre and captivity of God’s chosen people! For years he warned the people of God that unless they repented this awful tragedy would happen. As he writes his Lamentations he has been permitted to remain in the land of Judah. Sitting in his Grotto he laments all the tragic things that have now happened.

In the midst of his deepest expressions of sorrow and sadness he suddenly breaks forth with the verses quoted above. These verses have been translated and paraphrased to tell us more clearly that what God revealed to Jeremiah in his darkest hour was that He had never stopped loving His chosen people. In some ways, God had never loved them more then when He chastised them with that Babylonian conquest and captivity.

A providential wonder of prophecy is that Jeremiah’s Grotto where he was seated as he wrote these Lamentations was on the top of a hill that was called “Golgatha.” This means that God gave Jeremiah this wonderful prophecy that His unconditional love was being expressed for His chosen people throughout the tragedy Jeremiah was lamenting on the very spot where centuries later God would pour out His unconditional love for the whole world.

“…we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand..” (Romans 5:2)

Paul writes that God has given us access, by faith, to a quality of grace that makes it possible for us to stand for Christ in this world, and live lives that glorify God. Then he writes that we should rejoice in our suffering, because God sometimes uses our suffering to force us to access that grace.

How must our God feel when He sees us struggling in our own strength to live as we should, knowing He has provided us with a way to access all the grace we need? We are to rejoice when God uses suffering to make us an offer we cannot refuse that drives us into His grace.

There are levels or degrees of suffering we simply cannot endure without the grace of God. When our suffering drives us beyond the limits of any human resources we have within ourselves, these times of severe testing become God’s opportunity to provide and prove His grace to us. A devout hymn writer has expressed that truth this way:

“When we come to the end of our store of endurance.
When our strength has failed and the day is half done.
When we have exhausted our hoarded resources
Our Father’s full giving has only begun.

“His love has no limit. His grace has no measure.
His power has no boundary known unto men.
For out of His infinite wisdom and mercy
He gives and He gives and He gives yet again.”

According to Paul, it is the love of God that sometimes uses our suffering to force us to access the grace he prescribed in the second verse of Romans chapter 5 and in that great verse about grace he wrote in his second letter to the Corinthians.

Are you willing to let problems you cannot solve or suffering you cannot endure drive you to access the amazing grace of God today?