The Winds and the Waves

Read Psalm 107:23-32

There is hardly a more relaxing place to enjoy than being out on a beautifully God created body of water. The splendor, color, and life that abounds in these beautiful bodies of water are a sight to behold. Whether a vacationer or employee on these great waters, they are not always calm. As in Psalm 107, a stormy gale can cause quite a problem or a predicament for the mariner. When the waves seem to raise up to the sky, it seems as there is no more terrifying a place on planet earth than on these blustery seas! Gordon Lightfoot in his Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald song says,'Does any one know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours?" 

In a predicament like this, there is only One person to turn to. For Psalm 46:1 says,"God is a refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble." Not only present in a storm at sea, but at a storm in the work place, a storm at home, or a storm brewing at the doctor's office. He is the One that can soften the raging seas so that we can navigate through them. Surely He will see us through. "Do not fear for I am with you, do not anxiously look around you for I am your God, I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand."(Isa.41:10) 

The pardon or provision comes next in the Psalm as it has three times earlier. The wind and the waves are His servants, they come and go at His command. He commanded waves, now He commands calm. Isa.65:24, "It will come to pass that before they call, I will answer, and while they are still speaking, I will hear." It certainly appears that before something dramatic happens to us and before we cry out, an equal mercy to meet us is on the way to comfort us. English Puritan John Flavel said, "Because we do not see which way relief should come, we conclude that none is to be expected. Indeed if a man had never experienced the goodness of God to him, it were not so heinous a sin to question His willingness to do him good, but what place is left after such frequent trials."

"Through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God.” (Acts 14:22)  The praise again goes out to God for His wonders to the sons of men, acts that defy nature, that only He can do. For He can do above and beyond what we can ask, think and as I like to add, even imagine. Let us always give thanks to the Lord for His abundant lovingkindness! Alexander MacLaren says, "All things work together for good to those who love God, and the more they love Him, the more clearly they will see, and the more happily they will feel, that so it is. How can a man contemplate the painful riddle of the world and keep his sanity without that faith? He who has it for his faith, will have it for his experience."

To sum up the Psalm 107, He can definitely deliver us from days in the dessert, He can definitely deliver us from days in the dungeon, He can definitely deliver us from days with disease, and He can definitely deliver us from days in the deep.

Elder Randy Slak