With the approaching Thanksgiving holiday being within days, I thought it only fitting we take some time to read through Psalm 107.
Life can often be difficult, and we can struggle to find something to thank the Lord for. But this Psalm is a wonderful reminder of where we were when the Lord found us, and how to give thanks for his hearing our cry for help.
Psalm 107 begins with an exhortation to give thanks to the Lord for his goodness and love, and then for the redeemed of the Lord to tell their story.
Psalm 107 (NIV)
1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
his love endures forever.
2 Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story—
those he redeemed from the hand of the foe,
3 those he gathered from the lands,
from east and west, from north and south
What's amazing to me is the honest depiction of the different types of people there are out there, and how when they reached an end, cried out and found the Lord. Perhaps as we read through, you and I will identify with one or more of these.
For example, the wanderer.
4 Some wandered in desert wastelands,
finding no way to a city where they could settle.
5 They were hungry and thirsty,
and their lives ebbed away.
6 Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
7 He led them by a straight way
to a city where they could settle.
8 Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love
and his wonderful deeds for mankind,
9 for he satisfies the thirsty
and fills the hungry with good things.
Can you relate to that, were you the wanderer? Perhaps you were not literally wandering about, unable to settle, but maybe, like me, you wandered through different kinds of escapes, trying to simply find peace. And then, when all energy was spent, you cried out to the Lord and he heard you!
Take a moment to recall that time, the time of wandering and the time of deliverance, and give the Lord thanks!
