Common Father: Part II

I’d like to spend some time with Psalm 107 because in it, we not only see the common and unchanging attributes of our Heavenly Father, but how four different types of people in four different kinds of circumstances, whose actions produced four different consequences, ultimately shared in the common graciousness of God when they cried out to Him.

One of the first interesting and important things I noticed in this psalm that struck a chord in me was the mention of four common calamities of life:

1) banishment and dispersion: This is the place of distance and separation - a place where we are not only disconnected from friends and family, but from God. This is a place where there is an eerie silence of the soul and an emptiness of heart. Have you ever been there? I have. Are you there now? Know and believe that God is your common Father, and He will bring you back into a fellowship of grace and mercy.

2) captivity and imprisonment: This is a place of bondage - a place where God is not only not your master, but a place where you are helpless against your struggles, your addictions, your lusts, your emotions, and your human nature. It is a place of stagnant water that has poisoned your ability to let go of the past and go forward with God. Ever been there? I certainly have. Are you there right now? Put your trust in God, and He will break your chains and teach you what it means to be really free.

3) sickness and distemper of body: This is a place of physical weakness - a place of discouragement, a place of focus on your flesh, a place of limitation. Ever been there? Boy, have I ever been there. If you’re there right now - if your physical body is so sick and tired that you feel you just can’t go on, bring your fatigue and fear to your Father and draw near to Him and lean into His sweet embrace and rest.

4) danger and distress at sea: What does the “at sea” symbolize for us? How about danger and distress at the workplace. It’s what the people in Psalm 107 did for a living. They were merchants. For us it’s where we work, where we spend sometimes over 8 hours a day, and it can be a place of constant struggle, of trials and confusion - a place where we are faced with an onslaught of conflicting values. Do you face danger and distress at the workplace? Allow God to be your shield; put down your shield, your defenses that bear the crest of your human ability and potential and all the worldly safeguards we wrap around us like a blanket. Pick up the shield of faith that bears the crest of the kingdom of God and remember the battle truly belongs to the Lord.

Dear Father-God, You are Lord of us all. You see our common struggles, and You desire to grow us through them – to bring us closer to You. Help me to put off the ways of the old man and embrace the ways of Your Spirit.

Check out: Psalm 107