His Love Endures Forever (Part 1)     

I find such great inspiration for worship in the Psalms. David, Asaph and others wrote and sang about their knowledge, love and relationship with God in ways that reveal their struggles and challenges and God's divine intervention, bringing hope, joy, peace and deliverance.

Psalm 107 is no different. It invites the redeemed to tell their story: "Let the redeemed of the LORD tell their story - those he redeemed from the hand of the foe" (Psalm 107:2).  

I can relate to that on so many levels. As a teenager, I remember being saved from an explosion that should have happened but didn't. I struck the match in a kitchen full of gas, leaking from the gas cylinder. The ball of fire engulfed the whole kitchen and settled on the tip of the cylinder, melting everything in its path. I managed to leave the kitchen after trying to put out the fire by myself - with water - how stupid! When the fire fighters arrived, they said it was a miracle that the cylinder did not explode. I was redeemed by the LORD.

David must be thinking of the Israelites returning from exile in Babylon, and how God redeemed them when he said "those he gathered from the lands, from the east and west, from north and south" (Psalms 107:3). Their story of redemption is our story. Think back to who you were and who you are now. Who's done it? God! Our story is God's story. It's all about his mighty power to save and deliver from trouble. It's the same God who showed his mighty power to set Israel free from a 430-year slavery. He was at work then and he's at work now. It is therefore fitting to respond in an outburst of praise, worship, and adoration.

That's why the psalmist burst out in song, in worship and adoration of this great God. And what a wonderful refrain throughout this Psalm, I like the King James version: "Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!" (Psalm 107: 8; 15; 21; 31)

Some wandered in desert wastelands, finding no way to a city where they could settle. Hungry and thirty, lives ebbing away, yet when they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, he delivered them from their distress. (Psalm 107:4-6). That was their story. Is it not ours? Can't you recall a time in your life when it felt like you were floundering, feeling unsettled, unloved, unwanted or thinking your life will soon be over? Now look where you are. Who's done it? Is it not him? It is not your strength, not your intellect, not your determination or resilience. It is him. Glory be to his name.

As we emerge from lockdown, let's learn to give him the praise that befits him. Let's acknowledge his loving kindness over us and our family. Let's give him an outrageous praise. Think of some outrageous ways you can express his enduring love over you. Think of ways you can tell your story and show the world how good and great he is. Your story, my story, their story is all bound up in his story of enduring and everlasting love.

"Oh that men (and women, and children and everyone everywhere) would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!"

(...to be continued)