Understanding the Lovingkindness of the Lord
A few days ago, I was savoring the early morning quiet of a nearly deserted airport terminal, flipping through the pages of my Bible. I had intended to soak in Psalm 139, which was such a comfort and joy to me on my travels last year. Instead, my eye fell on the first verse of Psalm 107:
“O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good: for His mercy endureth for ever.”
This, too, was familiar territory, and I decided to stop and read the whole psalm, feeling the truth of God’s goodness and mercy resonate with my heart.
You see, about a year ago, I had sat in this same airport terminal, clinging to the truth of God’s constant presence with me. I have always had a fairly intense fear of flying, and the thought of navigating airports by myself made me particularly thankful for the truth from Psalm 139 that God is with me.
But this year, as I sat in an astonishingly comfortable chair looking out on the plane I would shortly be boarding, I suddenly realized I had peace instead of fear.
The goodness and mercy of God had a vibrancy that morning that drew me to read on through the whole psalm. When I reached the last verse, something stood out to me:
“Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the lovingkindness of the Lord.” (v.43)
What things? I looked over the psalm again to see what the “these things” were, and realized that the entire psalm is full of things that help us understand the lovingkindness of the Lord.
The word mercy in verse 1 and the word lovingkindness in verse 43 are the same Hebrew word. In fact, that same word for God’s lovingkindness appears six different times in this psalm, four of which are translated “goodness” in the repeated refrain,
“Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men!” (v 8, 15, 21, 31)
The Hebrew word comes from a root that means “to bow.” In His loving mercy, God Himself “bows,” as it were, the Creator stooping to intervene in the lives of those He created. This psalm helps us understand the merciful lovingkindness of the Lord by drawing our attention to several types of people on whom His lovingkindness has been poured out.
In the Grasp of the Enemy
Verses 2-7 speak of “the redeemed of the Lord.” We can tell from the following verses that the psalmist had some specific events in Israel’s history in mind. Verse 3 reminds us of the regathering of Israel after the Babylonian captivity, and verse 4 draws our minds back further, to God’s faithfulness to bring Israel through the wilderness and into the Promised Land.
Although you and I may not have been redeemed out of the hand of an enemy nation, or regathered after exile far from our homeland, you and I have been redeemed in a very real way.
If you have accepted Christ’s gift of salvation, you have been redeemed out of the hand of our ultimate enemy: Satan. You have been redeemed out of the hand of sin and death and they no longer have any claim on you. As Romans 8 puts it,
“What shall we say then to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?” (v.31)
We who are in Christ do have an enemy, but he is powerless against us. God in His lovingkindness takes all our enemy’s efforts and turns them around, accomplishing good through them where evil was intended. (Romans 8:28) We have been redeemed from the enemy, freed from captivity, and gathered together in Christ.
“But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come He might shew the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:4-7)
Longing
“For He satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.” (v.9)
Over and over throughout the history of Israel, we can see how God provided their needs time and time again. Whether manna in the wilderness, water from a rock, or the simple abundance of the promised land, God can be seen faithfully filling the hungry—and yet, I am so glad that God’s provision isn’t limited to the physical.
Notice in this verse that God satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul, not with food, but with goodness. God’s provision takes into account the whole of our being, and gives what is best. We often expect God to provide a certain way, or grumble at Him for withholding something we think He should have provided, but what does the Bible say?
“No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly.” (Psalm 84:11)
There are only two options here: if something is withheld from us, either we are not walking uprightly, or God knows that particular thing would not be a “good thing” for us. God provides us what is good.
Sometimes, as with the disciples in Luke 8, God chooses to change our physical circumstances, other times, as with Paul in Acts 27, He chooses to change our inner circumstances, giving us peace in a situation that logically should be anything but peaceful.
He satisfies the longing soul: not always by giving that which is longed for. Often it is by calling us to find Him the answer for the longing we are feeling, to let Him fill that empty place in our hearts. God’s goal is, as Paul prayed in Ephesians 3,
“That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.” (vv.17-19)
God often allows us to experience longing, so that He might satisfy it Himself, and bring us into closer fellowship with Him.
Rebellious
Verse 11 makes it clear that this next group of people started off as rebels. The way God showed His lovingkindness to them was to allow them to be brought low, to hit rock bottom, so that He might save them out of their distresses once they called to Him.
How often you and I go about our lives as if all that existed was our little spot on the earth, as if all that mattered was our own set of difficulties and complaints. When we are reminded that God is there and is at work, we might decide we don’t like what God has allowed and rebel against Him, either inwardly or outwardly.
God knows our hearts, and there is no hiding anything from Him. When we rebel, God mercifully brings us up short. He allows us to come to the point where our own inadequacy and ineffectiveness are acutely obvious—the point where we finally submit to the truth that we need God, and that He is good and knows what is good for us. Then, God can begin working to set us free from the bonds of sin we have placed upon ourselves.
“He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in sunder.” (v.14)
Fools
Verse 17 defines the next set of people to whom God showed His merciful lovingkindness as,
“Fools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities”
Sin has a way of making fools of us. When we are acting in disobedience to God, we are, by definition, acting contrary to wisdom (Proverbs 9:10)
These particular fools are afflicted and “drawing near unto the gates of death.” Their lives are wrecked by their sin, and they find themselves unwilling even to eat.
When we are outside the will of God, affliction holds no consolation.
So how does God show His lovingkindness to these afflicted fools? He hears their cry, saves them from their distresses, but more significantly, He heals them through His Word, and delivers them from the destruction their sin and folly have wrought in their hearts and lives.
Sin is deceitful and destructive. For those who have travelled the downward spiral of unchecked sin, life can seem irreversibly damaged. But God can heal and rebuild, and He does it through His Word. Romans 10:17 puts it this way:
“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.”
And in Ephesians 5: 26, we are told that Christ gave Himself for the church, “
That He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word”
When we immerse ourselves in the Word of God, our faith is strengthened and our thinking cleansed. That is why we are told to,
“be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” (Romans 12:2)
God mercifully demonstrates His lovingkindness to us in our foolish, sin-wrecked state by using His Word to bring healing to our hearts and lives as we listen and obey.
Tempest-Tossed
In verses 23-30, we see the account of “they that go down to the sea in ships.” Those who spend much time on or near any large body of water have plenty of opportunity to “see the works of the Lord.”
Whether it is the awesome power of the wind and waves that reminds us of the infinitely greater power of the God who made them, or the variety and intricacy of the many fish, birds, and other sea life that point us to the limitless creativity of the Creator, the sea has much to offer in terms of pointing us to God.
But those who spend time in “great waters,” as this psalm puts it, also have the opportunity to see God’s merciful lovingkindness by experiencing God’s intervention and power over nature. Just like the disciples who marveled that,
“even the winds and sea obey Him”(Matthew 8:27)
You may not be a sailor or fisherman, but we each have our own encounters with terrifying events of nature. Whether it’s a severe storm, a power outage, an earthquake, or a frightening amount of turbulence on an airplane, the times when we are faced with the fierceness of nature are opportunities for us to cry out to God and see Him exercise His lovingkindness on our behalf.
He may not choose to calm the storm or restore power immediately, or make the earthquake or turbulence cease, but He will do whatever is right in the situation, and we can trust Him and lean on His goodness and lovingkindness. Even if He does not calm the storm, He is certainly able and willing to calm you and me!
And when He does bring calm, let us not take Him for granted, but praise Him for His goodness!
The last section of this psalm gives a series of examples of God’s control over what may seem to us inevitable realities: water, crops and livestock, and governments.
God is able to do anything, and He often delights to demonstrate His lovingkindness in ways that astonish us. He is able to overcome any obstacle, calm any storm, and bring good from any situation. No wonder the psalmist bursts forth,
“O that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men!”
Now, how about you? You have seen how God demonstrated His lovingkindness to others, but what has He done for you? What is He doing in your life right now? Praise Him, trust Him, and delight in the demonstrations of His lovingkindness.
“O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good: for His mercy endureth for ever.” (Psalm 107:1)