“Dark Devotions” – Ray Patchett and Steve Messer
He turns rivers into a desert, springs of water into thirsty ground, a fruitful land into a salty waste, because of the evil of its inhabitants.
We live in a time when there is a strong sense of entitlement concerning what life, and whoever or whatever controls it, owes us. The current COVID19 circumstances have heightened this type of thinking in some people’s minds, as they lament the danger and restrictions. Although the exact nature of the relationship between human conduct and prosperous and convenient circumstances is a complex one, an underlying general principle is that ultimately God will destroy evil and redeem and satisfy those who call on him.
Psalm 107 is a song celebrating redemption. It describes four scenarios where people had reached the end of themselves and cried out to the Lord to find that he is indeed good. This is one of the obvious cases in the Psalms where
consecutive Psalms are linked. Psalm 106 describes aspects of the historic failed faithfulness of Israel, her consequential judgement and ends with a prayer to save them from the nations where he scattered them. Psalm 107 picks up this language so that in the general framework of a return to the place of Yhwh’s blessing four groups of people find their way back to him. In each case there is a pattern describing their particular trouble and their specific redemption.
Verses 4-9 describe those lost and ‘homesick’ who hunger and thirst (probably literally and metaphorically). In their desperation they cried to the Lord and he led them to a dwelling place and satisfied their soul with good things.
In verses 10-16 some were imprisoned by their deliberate rebellion against God’s words sitting under the shadow of
death in their own miserable darkness. In their desperation they cried to the Lord and he burst the bonds and delivered them from their self-made affliction as only Yhwh can do.
In verses 17-22 others, again by their own foolishness and sin, were afflicted in the core of their being. In their desperation they cried to the Lord and were healed.
In verses 23-32 some were going about their daily affairs and were swept into a great storm on the sea and came to the end of their own wisdom. In their desperation they cried to the Lord and he calmed the sea and got them to their destination.
Verses 33-43 then describe the general principles that the wise should learn from this. Principles upon which the world is made and which will be ultimately applied as creation is re-made.
The language that this Psalm employs describes an Exodus-like deliverance applied at a personal level. This, of course, finds its ultimate expression in the
one who calmed a storm and caused the representatives of the new Israel to ask who is this (Mark 4:35-41)? Who is also the one, after satisfying the hungry with Exodus-like-bread, caused the wind to ceased and announced himself
to be ‘I Am’ (Mark 6:44-52).
C.S. Lewis and City Alight give a good complimentary perspective. In one way we think a good deal too much about the atomic bomb. “How are we going to live in an atomic age?” I am tempted to reply: “Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.” In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways.
And mine are keys to Zion city, where beside the King I walk.
For there my heart has found its treasure Christ is mine forevermore.
Come rejoice now, O my soul, for his love is my reward.
Fear is gone and hope is sure. Christ is mine forevermore!
C. S. Lewis, Present Concerns: Ethical Essays (London: Fount Paperbacks, 1986), 73. City Alight, ‘Christ is mine forevermore’