Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
A score of 0.5 or higher indicates the tone is likely present.
Emotion Tone
Anger
0.08UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.11UNLIKELY
Fear
0.08UNLIKELY
Joy
0.65LIKELY
Sadness
0.54LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.67LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.02UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.74LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.9LIKELY
Extraversion
0.04UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.72LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.67LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Times of special celebrations are some of the most enjoyable times in our lives.
Families celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, and other significant events.
Nations celebrate momentous occasions in their history.
Special honors, achievements, and victories also offer opportunities to celebrate.
Psalm 107 was written for a joyous celebration by God’s people.
After seventy years of captivity in Babylon, God had moved to bring about Israel’s release.
Most of the people chose to remain in Babylon, as their lives and families were now established there.
But 42,360 (not including servants and singers) continued to believe in God’s great promises and returned to Jerusalem to rebuild their city and society (Ezra 2:64–65).
After a year of exhausting work throughout the city, the time had come to rebuild the temple—the place where God had dwelled among the nation in a special way.
The people held a great celebration to mark the laying of its foundation.
Most likely, that celebration was the original setting for Psalm 107:
The anonymous author of Psalm 107 recalled some of the severe circumstances God’s people had endured in Babylon.
He also described some of the hardships they faced in returning to Jerusalem.
In fact, true believers have continued to face such trials within Israel throughout the nation’s history.
Moreover, God’s people in every generation and nation have faced, and will continue to face, such difficulties.
Thankfully, God’s great love triumphed over His people’s dreadful circumstances.
In faithfulness to His promise, He rescued them and brought them safely home again.
God’s unfailing love is the theme of this jubilant celebration.
Psalm 107 begins Book V of Psalms.
He is worthy of all praise and thanks because...
I.
He Redeemed Us
(107:1–3)
The unnamed psalmist began by calling on God’s people to praise Him.
Like Psalms 105 and 106; Psalm 107 starts with an exhortation to give thanks to the Lord, continuing the theme of thanksgiving from the previous two psalms.
A. Because He Is Good
His love (mercy) endures forever (v. 1).
God’s people should constantly express their gratitude to Him for His goodness and everlasting mercy.
Mercy (chesed) is God’s unfailing, steadfast love, His unmerited favor and devotion to us.
This trait stirs God to offer His eternal covenant to us and to keep it without exception.
Though we repeatedly fail the Lord, He never fails us.
He is forever faithful to His promises.
B. Because of What He Has Done
(vv.
2–3)
The Lord had kept His promise to deliver His people from the Babylonian captivity.
All those whom the Lord had redeemed were encouraged to share their testimony, the fact that God had rescued them from the hand of their enemy (v.
2).
Just like the remnant who returned to Jerusalem, we should praise God and be eternally grateful to Him for redeeming us.
To redeem is to set free by paying a price.
Because of God’s great love, He paid the ultimate price to set us free from sin:
He sacrificed His only Son that we might be saved and the Lord Jesus Christ willingly shed His precious blood for you and for me.
We can live in victory over sin and be spared from its tragic consequences.
The Lord has also set us free from our greatest enemy, which is death.
We are the heirs of eternal life (Ro.
6:23).
If Christ does not return soon, every one of us will die physically.
But we need not fear death.
II.
He Saved Those Who Wandered
(107:4–9)
The people praised God for preserving them as they traveled through the dry desert lands to return to Jerusalem.
The phrase “wandered in the wilderness” reminds us of their ancestors whom God had supernaturally delivered from Egypt.
Generations before, God had led His people through the desert and into the promised land.
In the same way, God was with the remnant who returned to Israel from Babylon.
The journey was long and strenuous, but their faithful Lord led them safely home.
A. Their Plight
(vv.4–5).
From point to point, the distance from Babylon to Jerusalem was approximately 500 miles.
However, the returning Jews traveled northwest along the Euphrates River and then south to Jerusalem, a four-month trek of over 900 miles.
The journey was demanding and exhausting.
There were no cities along the way where they could rest and be refreshed (v.
4).
Food and water were scarce.
As they grew increasingly weaker from hunger and thirst, they felt as if they were slowly dying (v.
5).
B. Their Deliverance
(vv.
6–7).
Weary and desperate, the travelers cried out to the Lord, and He delivered them (v.
6).
He rescued them from their trouble, faithfully guiding them in the right or straight way—the way to Jerusalem.
God led them every step back to their homeland that had been so savagely destroyed by Babylonian invaders seventy years earlier.
By God’s grace, they settled again in the heart of the promised land, the place of the Lord’s provision, peace, and security.
C. Their Duty
To give thanks to God (vv.
8–9)
The bestowing of such rich mercy was worthy of the people’s loudest praise and deepest gratitude.
Because of the Lord’s goodness (chesed) or unfailing love, the psalmist charged the remnant to give God thanks (v.
8).
The phrase “children of men” (literally, sons of Adam) indicates that God showers His goodness on all of humanity, not just His covenant people.
It also emphasizes the Lord’s abundant goodness to His people.
“Since he is so gracious to all peoples, how much more to his own covenant children!”
In addition, the Lord had satisfied all of the faithful remnant’s longings, both physical and spiritual (v.9).
He had sustained them physically throughout the long, trying journey from Babylon to the promised land.
But more significantly, God had fulfilled the desire of their thirsty souls:
He had brought them back to Jerusalem, the beloved city where the Lord’s presence had dwelled with His people in a special way.
Like the remnant returning to Jerusalem, we are on a journey.
Our destination is heaven, the eternal promised land for God’s people.
In fact, Scripture calls us “strangers and pilgrims” here on earth.
We may sometimes feel that we are all alone, but we never are.
We may feel insufficient for the challenges we face, but we can do all things through Christ.
We need to fix our eyes on our destination just as Jesus did.
He will guide us every step of the way until, at long last, we march through the gates of the heavenly city.
By God’s grace and power, we will make it home.
We will see His face and live eternally in His presence; and, if we are faithful, we will hear Him say, “Well done.”
III.
He Saved Some from Bondage
(107:10–16)
Recalling those who had suffered during the Babylonian captivity, the psalmist continued to celebrate God’s faithfulness to His people.
Many of the Israelites had become settled in Babylon and chose to remain there when granted the freedom to leave.
Others, however, endured great hardship while in bondage.
The Lord saved them by stirring Cyrus, the Persian king who conquered Babylon, to set the captives free (Ezra 1:1–4).
A. Their Plight
Lived in darkness, gloom, and misery (physical and spiritual) (vv.
10–12).
Many of the Jewish captives suffered immensely while in Babylon (v.
10).
God’s correction was a crushing blow to their souls.
Having been dragged away from their homes in Jerusalem, they lived in darkness, gloom, and misery.
And as the days crept slowly by, they dwelled under the menacing shadow of death (tsalmaweth).
Some—perhaps those who did not submit willingly to Babylonian rule—had been bound in iron chains and cast into prison.
Others were jailed because they stayed true to the Lord and refused to compromise their devotion to Him as with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego as well as Daniel in the Lions Den.
God’s people had fallen captive to Babylon for a clear reason:
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9