Let the Redeemed Say So Text: Psalm 107:1-3
Introduction: The Non-Negotiable Premise
We begin a study of this great psalm of redemption, Psalm 107, with its glorious introduction. And right away, we must get our bearings. We live in a therapeutic age, an age that believes the central problem of man is low self-esteem, a lack of self-love, or a poor self-image. The solution, therefore, is to look inward, to find your truth, to speak your reality. But the Bible begins in a completely different universe. The Bible insists that the central problem of man is not that he thinks too little of himself, but rather that he thinks of himself constantly, and of God almost never. The problem is not a lack of self-esteem, but a profound and suicidal lack of God-esteem.
This psalm is a corporate testimony. It is a script for the redeemed to follow. It is a summons for God's people to stand up in the great congregation and declare who God is and what He has done. This is not optional. It is not for the extroverts among us. It is the fundamental duty of every blood-bought child of God. The world is perishing for lack of a true testimony. They are being fed a constant diet of lies about who God is. They are told He is a distant, disinterested landlord, or a cosmic tyrant, or an indulgent grandfather, or, worst of all, that He simply isn't there. And into this cacophony of lies, the redeemed are commanded to speak. We are to say so. Our testimony is not about our feelings, our journey, or our discovered inner strength. Our testimony is about Him. It is an objective declaration of His character and His mighty acts.
If there is one lesson the psalmist wants us to take away from this psalm, it is that men must learn how to praise God for His goodness. The psalm is structured around four vignettes of trouble and deliverance, followed by a recurring chorus. People get into trouble, they cry out to God, He delivers them, and then the psalmist exhorts them to give thanks. This pattern is the rhythm of the Christian life. But it all begins here, in these first three verses, with the foundational premise. Before we can see the particular deliverances, we must grasp the great deliverance. Before we celebrate the rescue from this or that jam, we must celebrate the rescue from the adversary himself. And we must understand that this rescue is not a private affair. It is a public gathering, a great ingathering from every corner of the globe.
The Text
Oh give thanks to Yahweh, for He is good,
For His lovingkindness endures forever.
Let the redeemed of Yahweh say so,
Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the adversary
And gathered from the lands,
From the east and from the west,
From the north and from the south.
(Psalm 107:1-3 LSB)
The Unshakable Foundation (v. 1)
The psalm opens with the great baseline of all reality, the bedrock truth upon which everything else is built.
"Oh give thanks to Yahweh, for He is good, For His lovingkindness endures forever." (Psalm 107:1)
This is the great liturgical refrain of Israel, found throughout the psalms and the chronicles. It is the fundamental confession. The summons is to give thanks. Thanksgiving is not a feeling; it is an action. It is a commanded duty. And it is not a duty performed in a vacuum. It has a reason, a solid, objective ground. We give thanks because He is good. Goodness is not an abstract concept; it is the very nature of God. He is the standard of goodness. Everything else is good only insofar as it reflects His character. When the world is crashing down, when circumstances are grim, when the adversary is raging, this truth does not change. God is good. This is not positive thinking; it is bedrock theology.
The second reason for our thanks is that His lovingkindness endures forever. This word, lovingkindness, is the Hebrew word hesed. It is one of the most important words in the Old Testament, and it is notoriously difficult to translate with a single English word. It means covenant loyalty, steadfast love, mercy, faithfulness, and goodness all rolled into one. It is God's unbreakable commitment to His people, based not on their performance, but on His promise. This hesed does not have an expiration date. It endures forever. It is not fickle. It does not depend on our moods or our obedience. It is as eternal as God Himself. When we sin, His hesed is what pursues us. When we are in trouble, His hesed is what rescues us. When we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself. This is the foundation of our security. We are not held by our flimsy grip on Him, but by His unbreakable grip on us.
The Public Proclamation (v. 2)
Verse 2 moves from the foundation of God's character to the responsibility of His people.
"Let the redeemed of Yahweh say so, Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the adversary." (Psalm 107:2 LSB)
Here is the logical conclusion. If God is good, and if His covenant love is eternal, then those who have experienced it have a non-negotiable obligation. Let the redeemed of Yahweh say so. They must speak. Silence is not an option. To be redeemed and to be silent is a flat contradiction. It is like being rescued from a burning building and refusing to tell anyone who the fireman was. It is an act of cosmic ingratitude.
Notice who is to speak: the redeemed of Yahweh. Redemption is a transaction. It means to be bought back. We were slaves, held captive, and a price was paid for our freedom. The New Testament makes it clear that the price was the precious blood of Christ (1 Peter 1:18-19). We were not redeemed because we were promising, or valuable in ourselves. We were redeemed because He is a redeeming God. It was His action, His initiative, His expense.
And from what were we redeemed? "From the hand of the adversary." The Hebrew is literally "from the hand of the foe" or "trouble." In the immediate context for Israel, this could refer to Egypt, or Babylon, or any number of earthly enemies. But the scope of this psalm, and the testimony of all Scripture, points to a greater adversary. We have been redeemed from the hand of Satan, the great foe of God and man. We were in his kingdom, under his authority, held captive to do his will (Colossians 1:13; 2 Timothy 2:26). We were not neutral parties. We were on the wrong side of the war. And God, in a unilateral act of sovereign power, reached into the adversary's camp and pulled us out. He did not negotiate with the adversary. He crushed him. The cross was not a transaction with the devil; it was a declaration of victory over the devil. Christ disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it (Colossians 2:15). This is the redemption we are to "say so" about.
The Global Gathering (v. 3)
Finally, verse 3 describes the scope of this redemption. It is not a tribal affair; it is a global one.
"And gathered from the lands, From the east and from the west, From the north and from the south." (Psalm 107:3 LSB)
This is a prophecy of the Great Commission. While the immediate historical context might be the return of Israel from exile in Babylon, the language is intentionally universal. God is not just the God of Israel; He is the God of all the earth. The adversary's dominion is global, and so Christ's redemption must also be global. Jesus Christ did not die to make the salvation of all men possible. He died to make the salvation of His people certain. And His people are found in every tribe, tongue, and nation.
The Lord Jesus Christ, after His resurrection, stood on a mountain in Galilee and gave His disciples their marching orders. "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations..." (Matthew 28:18-19). This is the mechanism for the great gathering. The gospel goes out, and the Spirit of God gathers the redeemed from every point of the compass. This is not a frantic, last-minute evacuation from a sinking ship. This is a triumphant, centuries-long conquest. The kingdom of God advances, and the kingdom of the adversary recedes. From the east and the west, from the north and the south, the redeemed are being gathered into the one body of Christ.
This is the great postmillennial vision of the Old Testament prophets. Isaiah saw it: "Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you. I will say to the north, 'Give them up!' and to the south, 'Do not hold them back'" (Isaiah 43:5-6). This is what the church is doing in the world today. We are participating in this great ingathering. Every time the gospel is preached, every time a soul is converted, it is another captive redeemed from the hand of the adversary, another exile gathered home from a distant land.
Conclusion
So, we have our foundation and our commission. The foundation is the unchangeable goodness and covenant faithfulness of God. The commission is to say so. We are to be a thankful people, a redeemed people, and a gathered people. And our gathering is not for our own comfort, but for a corporate testimony to the world.
The world is lost in a wilderness of its own making. It is hungry for meaning and thirsty for truth. It is in bondage to sin and death. And it is looking for a city, a place of habitation. The rest of this psalm will detail the specific troubles that men fall into and the specific ways God delivers them. But all of it flows from this grand, opening declaration.
We have been redeemed from the ultimate adversary. We are being gathered from all the ends of the earth. Therefore, we have every reason to obey the first command of the psalm. Let us give thanks to Yahweh. Let us stand up and say so. For He is good, and His hesed endures forever.