Let the Redeemed of the Lord Say So

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Almost exactly a year ago, I traveled to beautiful northern Cyprus to teach at a training school my organization was facilitating there. The visit happened to overlap with the American holiday of Thanksgiving. My Brazilian hosts invited me to share some thoughts about the celebration with a largely non-American congregation, and I gratefully accepted. 

However, as the date grew nearer, I knew I had a problem. While I was prepared to give a brief overview of the history of Thanksgiving, I wanted a Biblical passage to frame my thoughts. While the Bible does not lack verses that encourage us to be grateful, none seemed to fit what I was looking for until I stumbled across Psalm 107. Many striking images in the Psalm mirrored the Pilgrims’ experiences and brought out essential themes from the Torah and the Prophets and their parallels in the Gospels and Epistles. 

This year, I am turning my talk into an article and podcast episode for the upcoming holiday, hoping it will be an uplifting reminder to praise our Redeemer. I’m also doing the bulk of rewriting and editing in Israel after the horrific events of October 7 (a little over a month ago now), and I hear the distant, dull thuds of mortar fire and rockets as I type. All these things drive home that circumstances do not dictate whether or not we are thankful and how wonderful it is to have a redeeming God who will set the captives free and cause Israel to dwell in safety. (Isaiah 61:1; Jeremiah 23:6)

In September 1620, a small ship called the Mayflower left Plymouth, England, with 102 passengers. These men and women were seeking a new home where they could freely practice their faith. 

The Pilgrims were part of a group seeking to return to the early church practices. They felt that the Church of England had strayed too far from the apostles’ teaching.

After a treacherous crossing lasting 66 days, they landed far north of their intended destination. 

During the first brutal winter, most Pilgrims remained on the ship, suffering from the cold and disease. Only half of the Mayflower’s passengers and crew lived to see the spring. 

When those who survived moved to the shore, they received an astonishing visit. A member of the Abenaki tribe approached them and greeted them in English! 

A few days later, this English-speaking man returned with another Native American, Squanto. Squanto, a member of the Pawtucket tribe, had been kidnapped years ago by an English sea captain and sold into slavery. He was ransomed by a group of Spanish monks who focused on educating and evangelizing him. After some time in Spain, Squanto made his way to London. There, Squanto joined an exploratory expedition to the new world to return to his homeland. When he came back to his tribe, he heartbreakingly discovered that the disease had wiped out his entire village. So, he went to the nearby Wampanoag tribe and lived with them. 

A year after the devastating discovery of the death of his tribe, Squanto found himself speaking English with a group of desperate Pilgrims, weak and dying from malnutrition and disease. His voyage back had seemed in vain, but now Squanto saw a redemptive purpose to his return home: he would help these people. And help them, he did. 

Squanto taught the Pilgrims how to cultivate corn, extract sap from maple trees, catch fish in the rivers, and which poisonous plants to avoid. He also helped the settlers forge an alliance with the local Wampanoag tribe. 

In November 1621, after a successful harvest, the Pilgrims organized a celebratory feast with the Native Americans who had saved their lives. This banquet is what we remember today with our Thanksgiving meals. 

However, it wasn’t until 242 years later, in 1863, that Thanksgiving became an official American holiday. It was at the height of the Civil War when President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed that the last Thursday in November would be a time of national Thanksgiving. 

I do, therefore, invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States … to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend that they also do, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.

So, though Thanksgiving is a time of gratitude for food, friendship, and God’s grace, it was born in the middle of the difficult circumstances of war, exile, slavery, sickness, and starvation.

Though Thanksgiving is a modern American holiday not mandated in the Hebrew scriptures or apostolic writings, many of its themes echo and parallel the people of Israel. Indeed, the Pilgrims and Squanto could open up the book of Psalms and see similar sufferings to theirs and the same hope of redemption. 

Psalm 107: An Overview

One Psalm that surely would have been strikingly applicable to the Pilgrim’s story is Psalm 107. This Psalm is a series of four scenes, beginning in verse 4 and running all the way to verse 32. Each tableau describes a different circumstance: wandering, imprisonment, sickness, and storm-tossedness. Though each event is different, the condition is the same. All these are aspects of being in exile. 

Exile is the natural result of sin. When our father Adam and mother Eve disobeyed the word of God, they were cast out of the garden in Eden and felt the curse of sickness and death. Adam was alienated from the land that would make him work hard to harvest food, and Eve was estranged from her children, birthing them in great pain. These are the curses of the first exile, but it would not be the last. 

Israel, God’s own nation, would feel that curse of exile in their disobedience as well. When the law was given to the people of Israel, it came with blessings and curses. Blessings of living in the land promised to Abraham, blessings of abundant harvest, blessings of many children, and blessings of peace resulted from keeping the law. Curses of war, barrenness, hunger, and exile resulted from national disobedience. 

This cycle of exile in disobedience and restoration in repentance is seen over and over throughout Israel’s history. As Jeremiah and Ezekiel prophesied, it is a pattern that will only ultimately be broken by the redeeming Messiah. (Jeremiah 31:31–34; Ezekiel 39:25–29) 

The Biblical calendar also has a built-in practical demonstration of what this ultimate redemption will look like in celebrating the Jubilee. In the Jubilee year, observed every fiftieth year, servants are set free from their masters to go back to their families, or as Leviticus 25:10 says, “…and each of you shall return to his clan.” The second commandment of Jubilee is that all lands should return to their original owners. In Israel, the twelve tribes had specific portions of land, which were then allotted to clans within the tribe. Land might be sold (or rather, leased), but it reverted to its assigned family on the Jubilee year. 

This grand reset that would happen once in a lifetime began a year of restoration, marked by the sounding of the Jubilee trumpet on the Day of Atonement. 

If the Jubilee year was the sign that the cycle of sin and exile would not last forever, Leviticus 25 continues this theme by outlining the responsibilities of a person charged with reversing the effects of exile—the redeemer. This Redeemer recovers his family land, restores his brothers to their families, and buys people out of slavery. 

But what are we to do in the meantime, in this present evil age, where we long for the resurrection—the redemption of our bodies—and the restoration of the kingdom to Israel? (Romans 8:23; Acts 1:6) In each of the four scenes of this Psalm, the turning point is this repeating phrase, “They cried out to the LORD in their trouble.” By beseeching the redeemer to come and rescue us in our wretched state, the next part of the repeating phrase comes into effect: “and he delivered them from their distress.” 

What sustains us and causes thankfulness while our exile from Eden still stands? What about this time between crying out and deliverance? The Psalmist is not silent in what causes his present rejoicing and future hope, building his song on this foundation: “Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!”

The Foundation of God’s Love: Psalm 107:1–3

Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever!
Let the redeemed of the LORD say so,
whom he has redeemed from trouble
and gathered in from the lands,
from the east and from the west,
from the north and from the south.

As we read the opening lines of this Psalm, we already see familiar themes of redemption and ending exile. But what is this “steadfast love” that so fills the author’s heart with joyful thankfulness? 

“Steadfast love” is the English phrase used to translate the Hebrew word chesed (חֶסֶד). Chesed specifically describes God’s unwavering, faithful, kind, and covenantal love. Chesed promised Abraham land, children, and that he would bless the families of the earth through Abraham’s own family. (Genesis 12:1–3, 15, 17:9–14) The same love set life and death before the children of Israel and begged them to choose life. (Deuteronomy 28, 30:11–19) Steadfast love told David that one of his sons would establish an everlasting kingdom. (2 Samuel 7:12–13) Chesed promised the house of Israel and the house of Judah that they would have the law written on their hearts, be regathered from a final exile, dwell securely in their land, and never be wanderers again. (Ezekiel 39:25–29) 

These glorious promises that we greet from afar give us cause for joy. We have an anchor for our hope—a redeemer whose steadfast love keeps every promise he ever made. In the meantime, we have little Jubilees, signs of mercy that orient us to our ultimate redemption. 

Wanderers Retrieved: Psalm 107:4–9

Some wandered in desert wastes,
finding no way to a city to dwell in;
hungry and thirsty,
their soul fainted within them.
Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
He led them by a straight way
till they reached a city to dwell in.
Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love,
for his wondrous works to the children of man!
For he satisfies the longing soul,
and the hungry soul he fills with good things.

The first scene of our Psalm paints a picture of homeless wanderers stranded in the desert. The pain and the danger of exile include hunger, thirst, exposure, and discouragement. But just as God made way for the children of Israel in the desert before they entered their promised land, just as the Pilgrims languished in a ship and were dying from cold and hunger before the warmth of spring and Squanto’s help, God’s mercy brought them out of their desperate situations.

The ultimate realization of this picture is laid out in Hebrews 11:8–16: 

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God… These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, one from heaven. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

We can join the Psalmist and the author of Hebrews in gratitude to a God who will not leave us homeless wanderers forever but who rewards those fixed on a city that heaven has built and designated for God’s people. This Redeemer will bring us home at the time of redemption and fill hungry souls with good things. 

Prisoners Released: Psalm 107:10–16

Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death,
prisoners in affliction and in irons,
for they had rebelled against the words of God,
and spurned the counsel of the Most High.
So he bowed their hearts down with hard labor;
they fell down, with none to help.
Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death,
and burst their bonds apart.
Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love,
for his wondrous works to the children of man!
For he shatters the doors of bronze
and cuts in two the bars of iron.

When we think of the prisoners of Israel, we often think of Joseph being cast into a pit and sold by his brothers or the Hebrew people’s bondage in Egypt. These concepts would have been no stranger to Squanto, who was sold into slavery, or to the enslaved people of the American South during the American Civil War when Abraham Lincoln established Thanksgiving as an official holiday. 

However, the Psalmist attributes the suffering of this particular slavery as the natural consequence of rebellious disobedience. These people, in their poverty, have sold themselves to sin and are now tortured in its terrible prison. In their helplessness, they cry out to the LORD. 

In response, the Redeemer dramatically initiates a rescue worthy of comic book heroes, smashing to pieces all obstacles to life and freedom. Not only has our Redeemer broken us out from the prison of sin, but he gave his very self as a ransom for many. (1 Timothy 2:5–6). This gift is redemption at great cost and even greater glory. We have much to be thankful for, indeed! 

Sick Restored: Psalm 107:17–22

Some were fools through their sinful ways,
and because of their iniquities suffered affliction;
they loathed any kind of food,
and they drew near to the gates of death.
Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
He sent out his word and healed them,
and delivered them from their destruction.
Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love,
for his wondrous works to the children of man!
And let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving,
and tell of his deeds in songs of joy!

Here, we see a picture of people perishing from lack of knowledge, falling sick because they don’t know the word of God. This situation is echoed in the plight of the Pilgrims, completely ignorant of the crops and techniques required to survive the harsh conditions of the New World. We might also be reminded of the story of King Josiah when the Book of the Law was found in the temple of the Lord. (2 Kings 22:8–20) The Scripture had been lost, and the people had forgotten the commands of God. This forgetfulness did not exempt them from the covenantal curses, however. When the temple was being repaired, the Book of the Law was found, brought to the king, and read to him. When the king heard the word of the Lord, he was so distressed that he tore his clothes. He knew that Judah had not obeyed the word of the Lord, and they were in danger of exile. He sent messengers to inquire what to do from the prophetess Huldah. 

“She said to them, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Tell the man who sent you to me, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am going to bring disaster on this place and its people, according to everything written in the book the king of Judah has read. Because they have forsaken me and burned incense to other gods and aroused my anger by all the idols their hands have made, my anger will burn against this place and will not be quenched.’ Tell the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says concerning the words you heard: Because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I have spoken against this place and its people—that they would become a curse and be laid waste—and because you tore your robes and wept in my presence, I also have heard you, declares the Lord. Therefore I will gather you to your ancestors, and you will be buried in peace. Your eyes will not see all the disaster I am going to bring on this place.’”

Even though God’s judgment stood against the people of Judah for worshiping other gods, He sent forth his word to heal the repentant King Josiah, who had “cried out to the LORD” in his distress. God promised him that the curses of breaking the law would not fall on him, but instead, he would be gathered to his fathers, one of the primary obligations of the redeemer in Leviticus 25. 

Later in Israel’s history, the Lord again sent his word in the person of Jesus. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14). The Word, in the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection, made a way to deliver us from sin. Because of this redemption, we can look forward to another promise of the nation of Israel walking in the blessings of the law, not its curses, in Isaiah 2:3–5. 

For out of Zion shall go forth the law,
and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations,
and shall decide disputes for many peoples;
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war anymore.

O house of Jacob,
come, let us walk
in the light of the LORD.

Oh, that the Messiah would teach us his ways and that his saving health would be known among the nations! (Psalm 67: 2) 

Storm-Tossed Rescue: Psalm 107:22–32

Some went down to the sea in ships,
doing business on the great waters;
they saw the deeds of the LORD,
his wondrous works in the deep.
For he commanded and raised the stormy wind,
which lifted up the waves of the sea.
They mounted up to heaven; they went down to the depths;
their courage melted away in their evil plight;
they reeled and staggered like drunken men
and were at their wits’ end.
Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
He made the storm be still,
and the waves of the sea were hushed.
Then they were glad that the waters were quiet,
and he brought them to their desired haven.
Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love,
for his wondrous works to the children of man!
Let them extol him in the congregation of the people,
and praise him in the assembly of the elders.

This section of the Psalm would have resonated with the Pilgrims as they crossed the stormy Atlantic. Sailing for more than two months across 3,000 miles of open ocean, the 102 passengers of the Mayflower—including three pregnant women and more than a dozen children—were squeezed below decks. Conditions were crowded, cold, and damp, and many passengers suffered crippling bouts of seasickness. 

Many details from this scene also echo Jonah’s story as he fled God’s explicit instruction to preach repentance to the city of Nineveh. Jonah instead boards a boat bound for Tarshish, set on an exile of disobedience. Judgment fell on their ship, and the storm subsided only when Jonah was thrown overboard. At the sight of the “deeds of the Lord” judgment and salvation, the sailors feared Jonah’s God. 

Or perhaps the episode of Jesus calming the storm comes more readily to mind. 

One day, he got into a boat with his disciples and said to them, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.” So they set out, and as they sailed, he fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger. And they went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm. He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?”(Luke 8:22-25) 

The lack of faith that caused Jonah to think he could escape his calling was similarly present in the disciples, who feared perishing even though they were with the Lord of Life. Though they had temporarily lost sight of the steadfast love of their redeemer and had given into fear at the fierce and deadly storm that raged around them, they still cried out to him. Like the pagan sailors who threw Jonah overboard and then saw the wind and waves immediately calm, the disciples feared the presence of such tremendous power. Though the disciples asked, “Who is this?” as they marveled, a Psalmist knew the redeemer’s covenant name a millennia before this storm on the Sea of Galilee: “They cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them in their distress.” 

Whoever is Wise, Let Him Attend to These Things: Psalm 107:33–43

He turns rivers into a desert,
springs of water into thirsty ground,
a fruitful land into a salty waste,
because of the evil of its inhabitants.
He turns a desert into pools of water,
a parched land into springs of water.
And there he lets the hungry dwell,
and they establish a city to live in;
they sow fields and plant vineyards
and get a fruitful yield.
By his blessing they multiply greatly,
and he does not let their livestock diminish.

When they are diminished and brought low
through oppression, evil, and sorrow,
he pours contempt on princes
and makes them wander in trackless wastes;
but he raises up the needy out of affliction
and makes their families like flocks.
The upright see it and are glad,
and all wickedness shuts its mouth.

Whoever is wise, let him attend to these things;
let them consider the steadfast love of the LORD.

After the four earlier scenes of God’s redemptive power at work, the Psalmist closes his hymn of praise with one last contrast. King Solomon also observes this distinction in Proverbs 3:34, “Toward the scorners he is scornful, but to the humble he gives favor.” Peter and James quote this proverb in the apostolic writings: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” (James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5). When the inhabitants are evil, God turns a river into a desert. When the residents are humble and oppressed, the LORD turns the desert into pools of water. This is the final vindication of those who know they need a redeemer and the final judgment of those who think they do not need redemption. This is “the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.” (2 Corinthians 2:15–16)

Like the Pilgrims, we see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living despite living in exile in this present evil age. We can rejoice with feasting that an almighty God is merciful to us and that moments of beauty and love shine through even the worst circumstances. We trust that God will be with us as we eagerly await “the redemption of our bodies.” And we put our hope in the Messiah of Israel, a loyal redeemer to his people, who will rescue them from the cycle of alienation and death brought on by the curses of disobedience.

We know that our Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. (Job 19:25) This ultimate Redeemer will fulfill all his obligations in freeing the slaves, reuniting families, and restoring the land, as all his covenants promise. In steadfast love, he will bring us out of exile and into everlasting communion with him.

Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever! 
Let the redeemed of the LORD say so,
whom he has redeemed from trouble 
and gathered in from the lands,
from the east and from the west,
from the north and from the south.

Amen! Maranatha. 

Further Reading

Bejon, James. Towards a Theology of Jubilee.

Boyadjiev, Nikolai. Eschatology in the Psalms: A Lost Interpretation. (Not published as yet, but keep an eye out!) 

Phillips, Devon. Ending Exile: A Meditation on Shavuot. 

Pitre, Brant. Jesus, the Tribulation, and the End of the Exile: Restoration Eschatology and the Origin of the Atonement.