A THANKSGIVING QUARTET IN TWO PARTS
II. “Deliverance from Dis-ease and Life’s Storms”
11-26-06
Ken Peterson
Psalm 107: 1-3 & 17-32
INTRODUCTION
I sometimes ask people, “When have you been most aware of God in your life?” I’ve asked it of Christians and non-Christians. You might expect people to answer with a description of some warm, inner feeling of God’s presence connected with church or another religious event. And, occasionally, I do hear that. But most often, what I hear is some story of deliverance:
- a threatening life experience in the form of an accident or disease;
- or a time of great emotional upheaval in the death of someone close, the death of a marriage, or a business disaster.
The witness that’s given goes like this– “If God hadn’t helped me, I know I’d never have made it.”
That shouldn’t surprise us. The Bible is saturated with stories of God delivering people from trouble. From chapter one to the final chapter, it is the story of God’s saving our human race. But within that overarching plan, the Bible contains thrilling stories of God’s loving care, intervening with His power to deliver when people get into trouble. And, that story continues throughout history right into our individual situations.
Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick, a great preacher and national radio personality in the early part of the 20th century, gives an interesting illustration. He said when he was a young boy and saw the tree branches moving in the wind, he concluded that the moving branches he could see were causing the wind that he could not see. When you think about it, you can see how a young child might think that. Of course later, he realized it was the other way around. The wind he could not see caused the movement he could see.
Much of what God does in our world is unseen until we see its effects in some remarkable blessing of a saving act or an incredible, “unexplainable” movement in our hearts. We become the moving branches. This may include doors of opportunity opened or closed, inner strength, thoughts and desires moved by God’s unseen hand. It is important to give witness to what God is doing in our lives. Let people know that our strength in adversity is not due to our superior inner strength. It is God. Tell how His Word has strengthened and guided you. Tell of His healing.
The 107th Psalm literally bursts with the excitement of telling the stories of God’s deliverance– telling that the change you see is caused by the unseen actions of God. Four groups of witnesses are called forth to give testimony. These are not named. They are not great heroes, just ordinary folks. Each of them, as they’ve reached the end of their rope, “Cried out to the Lord in their trouble” (6, 13, 19, 28), and found His gracious deliverance.
Last week, we looked at the first two witnesses (4-16), dealing with loneliness and depression. Now, we have two more stories.
DIS-EASE (17-22)
Some became fools through their rebellious ways
and suffered affliction because of their iniquities.
They loathed all food
and drew near the gates of death. (17-18)
The RSV uses the word “sick” in place of fools, reading, Some were sick through their sinful ways. Either word works as a translation of the Hebrew which refers to insanely living for the moment, destroying our heath in the process. So it is, The Message puts it,
Some of you were sick because you’d lived a bad life,
your bodies feeling the effects of your sin.
Here we have physical distress caused by moral deficiency.
Certainly not all our sicknesses are due to sin in our lives, but many are. I hyphenate the word disease to reflect that– dis-ease. Inner dis-ease can bring about many of our physical sicknesses. Think about the effect of fears, stress, unhappiness, bitterness. They create conditions that make our bodies more vulnerable to viruses and bacteria. Stress is directly related to heart disease and cancer. Have you ever noticed, that when you go through a highly stressful time, often within a few days you come down with a cold, the flu, or a cold sore?
A number of years ago a physician, Dr. S. I. McMillen wrote a little book called, None of These Diseases. The title comes from Ex. 15:26 where God promises to keep the Israelites from the diseases that afflicted the Egyptians. In the regulations God gives them to follow in the Law, Dr. McMillen found excellent prescriptions for preventing disease.
Those rebellious ways include sexual practices that lead to AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. Also, we can think about alcohol abuse, gluttony, and tobacco use. We can harm our bodies by unhealthy eating and a lack of discipline in exercise. Controlled by our desires, we can be led by our passions to our own destruction.
Also, Scripture has much to say about the other inward “dis-eases” that lead to ill-health. In Mtt. 6:25-34, Jesus tells us to not worry. Worry is born out of a failure to trust God’s wise, loving care for us. If we just got rid of anxiety and worry, we’d all be healthier, wouldn’t we? The Bible commands us to rejoice and give thanks in all circumstances, helping us deal with the negative things in life. The Bible teaches us how to deal with our anger, to control our passions, and to live lives filled with hope and purpose. As Christians, we don’t gauge success by the same things this world gauges it by, which eliminates a lot of the “drivenness” we sometimes feel. When love replaces resentment and bitterness, it is good for our health.
Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble,
and he saved them from their distress.
He sent forth his word and healed them; (19-20a)
Crying out to the Lord is repentance and relinquishment. It is a turning away from trying to manage things on our own and turning to God in trust. But also notice, they are healed by His Word: He sent forth his word and healed them. As we put our lives under the direction of God’s Word, we enter into ever greater health. Living God’s way and doing what He tells us to do is good for our bodies. God is always interested in more than superficial healing of the symptoms. He wants to deal with the root causes of our sickness, leading us to greater levels of wholeness. Ex. 15:26 reads in part, the verse McMillen uses in his book,
hearken diligently to the voice of God... keep my commandments...
for I m the Lord your healer.
The most complete revelation of God and His plan for us is in Jesus. He is the Word made flesh, personal, and in action. Again and again, His Word heals people.
J. C. Penney was the founder of the first national chain of clothing stores in 1902. In the stock market crash of 1929, J. C. Penney’s business was on solid ground, but because of some personal commitments he’d made and a bank failure he lost most of his fortune ($40 million). He became so worried that he couldn’t sleep. He developed a severe, extremely painful case of shingles. And, there were physical problems that the doctors couldn’t diagnose. His doctor predicted that he might die– or as the Psalmist here says, he drew near the gates of death. J. C. Penney was utterly broken physically and mentally, overwhelmed with a fear of death. He wrote farewell letters to his wife and son, for he did not expect to live until morning.
The next morning, he awoke to the sounds of singing from the hospital chapel. He felt drawn to be there, so he pulled himself together and struggled down the hall to the chapel. It was a group of nurses holding a worship service. He entered just as they were singing, “God Will Take Care of You.”
Be not dismayed what-e’er be tide, God will take care of you;
Beneath His wings of love abide, God will take care of you.
God will take care of you, thro’ every day, o’er all the way;
He will take care of you, God will take care of you.
Then followed a Scripture reading and a prayer. In J. C. Penney’s own words:
“Suddenly something happened. I can’t explain it. I can only call it a miracle. I felt as if I had been instantly lifted out of the darkness of a dungeon into warm, brilliant sunlight. I felt as if I had been transported from hell to paradise. I felt the power of God as I had never felt it before. I realized then that I alone was responsible for all my troubles. I know that God with his love was there to help me. From that day to this, my life has been free from worry. I am 71 years old, and the most dramatic and glorious minutes of my life were those I spent in that chapel that morning: ‘God Will Take Care of You.”
J. C. Penney went on to live a health-filled life until he died at age 95. He became a great Christian philanthropist and regularly spoke in churches, giving
thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love
and his wonderful deeds for men. (21)
LIFE’S STORMS (23-32)
We live in a dangerous world. We are especially vulnerable when doing business in it. We can be exploited, outwitted, cheated, taken advantage of by other people. There can be economic twists and turns we have no control over– not to mention natural disasters that can wipe us out. This witness speaks of being “merchants on the mighty waters” and encountering a terrible storm that threatened to destroy their enterprise.
They mounted up to the heavens and went down to the depths;
in their peril their courage melted away.
They reeled and staggered like drunken men;
they were at their wits' end. (26-27)
But even more than their business enterprise is threatened. Their very lives are at stake here.
Those who have lived through a terrible storm like a hurricane or tornado or a huge storm on the sea where your little boat is literally tossed about by towering waves that are way over their heads, often describe it as absolutely terrifying. Remember just a couple of weeks ago with the flooding on the coast as people just over the mountains from us watched helplessly as their property was eaten away by a raging river and watched their houses float away. A storm is an apt image for many of the fearful things we face in life.
The story of Jesus calming a storm in Mk. 4:35-41 is instructive for us. It’s on page 972 in your pew Bibles if you want to follow along. The disciples are in the center of God’s will– they are obeying Jesus’ command to cross the lake. Yet, even so, they encounter a furious squall threatening to drown them all. When we encounter various kinds of storms in our lives, it doesn’t necessarily mean we somehow missed God’s will. Jesus is so exhausted, he continues to sleep as the boat is tossed about. Also here, we have a picture of Jesus’ absolute confidence in God’s care of Him so that nothing can disturb His peace. His soul is at rest. As the disciples wake Him, we’re not sure of what they exactly mean by, Teacher, don’t you care if we drown? (38). Is it a call for “all hands on deck– we need you to help with the oars and bailing water?” Or, do they expect Him to do something about their peril? Obviously they got more than they expected as Jesus rebuked the wind and the waves with, Quiet! Be still! (39). He chides the disciples for their fear, which He identifies with a lack of faith. For, what is there to fear if God is with us? The old Gospel song, “Master the Tempest is Raging,” picks up this truth in that wonderful refrain,
No water can swallow the ship where lies
the master of ocean and earth and sky!
They all shall sweetly obey Thy will–
peace be still, peace be still.
Since Jesus has come, our “they cried out to the Lord” (Ps. 107:28) has a new dimension of meaning. We have the opportunity to invite Him into our boat– into our lives. As long as He is with us, we’re safe. Sometimes He calms the storm we’re in. Other times He calms us as we go through the storm. But either way, we are at peace. Knowing and feeling His presence with us brings peace.
When our hearts are overwhelmed with anxiety, it is symptom that we are not trusting Him. How do we move back to trust in those times? The disciples know Jesus is the answer– though they can’t conceive of how. So they rouse Him. How do we rouse Jesus? Well, first we have to be sure He is in the boat with us. Have you invited Him into your life as your Lord and Savior? Have you turned from your sins and rebellion against God and received His forgiveness and been born again? If you have, He is with you, in your boat. But still, we will often find ourselves overwhelmed with fear in the midst of a storm. Call out to Jesus in prayer. Turn to the promises and assurance of Scripture. Jesus, the Living Word, is present to us there. Get with other believers in worship and let their faith fan yours back into flame.
CONCLUSION
The author of our closing hymn, Martin Rinkart, was a pastor in a most difficult storm. I know I’ve shared this story with you before, but it bears retelling– we do forget. Martin was the pastor in Eilenburg Germany during that unbelievably awful time called, the Thirty-Years-War, a series of battles raging through central Europe for 30 years. All but the first and last of his 32 years of ministry were in the midst of this conflict. Because Eilenberg was a walled city, many people fled to it and it became terribly overcrowded. Deadly pestilence and famine swept through the city. In all 8,000 people died in his the little town of Eilenberg, including Martin’s wife. Martin conducted funerals for 4,480 of those people. The plague of 1637 was particularly severe. Martin was the only remaining minister and some days conducted funeral services for 40-50 people. His own home became a refuge for many of the afflicted victims, even though he often had difficulty providing food and clothing for his own family.
How do you live through such frightening, tempestuous times? Well, this hymn says a lot, for it was written by Martin as a table grace for his family. Imagine Martin Rinkart, as a single parent now, with his gathered children singing this hymn as their grace before a meager meal.
Now thank we all our God with heart and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things have done, in whom His world rejoices;
Who, from our mother’s arms, hath blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.
O may this bounteous God thro’ all our life be near us;
With ever joyful hearts and blessed peace to cheer us;
And keep us in His grace, and guide us when perplexed,
And free us from all ills in this world and the next.
All praise and thanks to God the Father now be given,
The Son, and Him who reigns with them in highest heaven,
The one eternal God, whom earth and heav’n adore;
For thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore. Amen.
Martin Rinkart knew Jesus was in his boat. These words are rooted in a calm assurance that God is over all, even the midst of horrendous circumstances. By composing such a hymn of praise to God for His care and provision, he kept this truth before his family and church. It gives witness to how we need to be together, helping one another keep faith when anxieties press in on us. Appropriately, this hymn was sung at the signing of the Peace of Westpahlia in 1648, ending the Thirty-Years-War.
I leave you with those thrilling words of assurance with which the eighth chapter of Romans ends:
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:
"For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 8:35-39)