Psalm 107

It is so good to have our children with us, many of our children here, and you hear a little bit of commotion and noise, and that is just uh that's beautiful in the eyes and the ears of the Lord and in our ears as well.

We're gonna be in Psalm 107.

So if you have a Bible, go to Psalm 107.

We're calling this summer in the Psalms.

We're looking at a number of different Psalms that actually help us to pray.

And this particular Psalm, to give it you a little bit of a heads up, it's about how God delivers people in their trouble and the pivot on which the power of God swings is a certain kind of praying.

It's a particular kind of prayer, and every one of us is going to need to know how to pray like this.

Some of us right now, some of us in the near future, at least some of all of us before the Lord calls us home.

And I first heard about this kind of prayer from a friend of mine who went to Korea and he came back and said, when the Korean Christians and their church pray, they all pray out loud together.

And he said they're they're crying out and they're tears and they're shouting all together.

And I ask him, why do they do that?

Coming from, you know, the West here.

And he said, because that's the way God's people have always prayed.

I'll give you a couple of examples.

Exodus 2, these are not beyond the screen, uh, but just I want to take a note or two.

Exodus 2.23.

During those many days, the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help.

Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God.

God heard their groaning, God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and God saw the people of Israel, and God knew.

Or 1 Kings 17.

Elijah cried out to the Lord, Lord my God, have you brought tragedy even on this widow I'm staying with by causing her son to die?

And he stretched himself out on the boy at three times and cried out to the Lord, Lord my God, let this boy's life return to him.

The Lord heard Elijah's cry, and the boy's life returned to him and he lived.

Or even in the New Testament.

When Peter saw the wind, this is that famous story where Jesus is walking in the water and Peter says, Can I come to you?

Jesus said, Come on.

Peter begins to walk on the water.

When Peter saw the wind, he was afraid and began beginning to sink.

He cried out, Lord, save me, and immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him.

Moses cried out in the desert for water.

A frantic mother cried out to Jesus to deliver her daughter from demon possession.

A desperate father cried out for Jesus to come heal his son.

A blind beggar named Bartimaeus cried out for Jesus to heal him.

Job, Elijah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Amos, Jonah, they all cried out.

And really, these were just Bible stories for me.

Until Ruthie and I had one of the most wonderful experiences of our life.

On a cool Sunday morning, we left our hotel in Queens, New York, traveled into Brooklyn.

Our driver could not stop talking about Jesus.

And our destination, we arrived there, and there was a long line of people waiting to get into a building.

Not into a Broadway play, waiting to get into church.

Maybe you've heard of the Brooklyn Tabernacle.

Maybe you've heard some of their music from their choir or read some of the books by their pastor.

It's one of today's miracle stories.

There was a time when they could barely survive as a church, to barely operate, and the wind of the Holy Spirit began to blow in that place.

And now people literally stand in line outside to get a seat.

And it's not located in the suburbs, it's located in downtown Brooklyn, where there are uh beggars and needles on the street and just a lot of a lot of stuff out on the street.

I had I'd met the pastor's daughter and son-in-law, and totally was surprised when I got phone I got a phone call from her father, Jim Cembala, the pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle, and he asked if I would fly to New York and uh spend Sunday ministering to his people.

So they were in four services on Sunday.

Each service lasted two hours.

We left our hotel at 7:30.

We got back to the hotel at midnight.

I stayed and preached in two of the services, and we stayed for the other two services, and then we stayed over for Tuesday night when they have what they call their prayer meeting, and it was a longer line of people waiting to get in to a prayer meeting.

There was a lot that really stirred me at the Brooklyn Tabernacle.

Uh, Pastor Cymbla's leadership, uh, the singing that was so heartfelt, uh the testimonies, but nothing touched me like the praying of the people.

Pastor Simbla told me that he believes the secret of their church is prayer.

And when they prayed, they they literally poured their hearts out to God.

They were they were crying, and they some people were uh lifting their voice almost to a shout.

There were tears and brokenness.

I call it red-hot praying, desperate, believing, specific prayer.

They've just cried out to God.

In his book, Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire, Jim Sembler writes this the Bible says, My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.

Preaching, music, the reading of the word, these things are fine.

I believe and practice all of them, but they must never override prayer as the defining mark of God's indwelling.

The honest truth is I have seen God do more in people's lives during 10 minutes of real prayer than in ten of my sermons.

I would echo that.

Have you ever noticed that Jesus launched the Christian church not while someone was preaching, but while the people were praying?

Am I the only one who gets embarrassed when religious leaders in America talk about having prayer in public schools when we don't even have that much prayer in many churches?

That trip for us was like something right out of the New Testament or these revivals that you hear about in history.

Then I came across a little book called The Power of Crying Out.

And the author says this after knowing the Lord Jesus and teaching and studying his word for many years, it was only recently that I made what was for me a life-changing discovery.

I saw the Bible makes a clear distinction between prayer and crying out.

Crying out means voicing aloud to God, our need for Him, especially in times of great trouble when circumstances have no solution and our regular prayers seem to have no answer, we cry out.

So, what I want to do is I just want to raise three questions.

What does it mean to cry out?

Why cry out?

And how do you begin?

So, what does it mean to cry out to God?

And when you read in the scriptures, there's such a wide variety of words that are used for prayer, and almost every single word has something audible about it, something spoken out loud.

I'm not a Hebrew scholar.

I took Hebrew in seminary and I have forgotten almost everything I learned.

But I know how to use Bible study tools.

So I want to give you three or four Hebrew words that are translated, call or cry out.

The word quara, which means to call out with a loud noise.

Psalm 50, 15, call into me in the day of trouble, I will deliver you, and you will honor me.

There was a night when my wife was in the hospital fighting for her life, and I literally cried out to God and I said, Lord, you said in the day of trouble, and this is a day of trouble for my family, and I'm crying out to you, and you said you would hear and deliver, and we will honor you.

The word Hama, which means to make a loud noise, to roar, to make an uproar.

Psalm 50 55, 17.

I call to the Lord, and the Lord saves me.

Evening and morning and noon, I cry out in distress, and he hears my voice.

The word Shava, which is the authorities tell us it's a high-pitched shout for help, an urgent, heartfelt cry.

For example, Psalm 18, 6.

In my distress I called to the Lord, I cried out to my God for help from his temple.

He heard my voice, my cry came before him in his ears.

It's the idea of I do this when every other hope is exhausted.

Two more words.

Tasakwa, which it means to cry out loudly, often in distress.

Psalm 34, 17.

The righteous cry out, the Lord hears them, he delivers them from all of their trouble.

So over and over and over, the people in the Psalms are crying out for God's help, for God to act, and it's like the crying out is the pivot or the hinge on which the power of God swings.

One more.

Rina, which is a ringing, shrill cry for help.

Psalm 61.

Hear my cry, O God.

Listen to my prayer from the ends of the earth.

I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint.

Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

One of the most striking differences between prayers in the Bible, which are so powerful, and some of our prayers, is that in the Bible, prayers were voiced out loud, fervently, passionately, desperately.

People literally shouted out their prayers to God.

And when you when you become aware of this and begin reading your Bible, you see this everywhere.

It's just all over Scripture.

It just comes alive with sound.

Some of us have what we call a quiet time in the morning.

Maybe we ought to call it a noisy time that we have.

Psalm 28, 1 through 2.

To you I call, O Lord my God.

Do not turn a deaf ear to me.

Hear my cry for mercy as I call to you for help.

Or Psalm 142, 2.

I cry aloud to the Lord.

I lift my voice to the Lord for mercy.

I came across this.

This is the Dallas Morning News, October 28, 2001, written by Steve Blow, a journalist.

It's entitled, Gunman Faces Off with Prayer's Power.

Sherman Jackson, he's 36, on his way to church with a four-year-old daughter Alexa, stops for gas.

As he's about to drive away, a man in his 30s asked him to help jumpstart his car.

I'll pay you to help me.

Jackson fretted for a moment about being late for church and then chided himself for thinking about that instead of helping someone.

He invited the man into the front seat.

Alexa's in the back seat.

They drove off.

A few blocks later, the man produced a gun demanding money.

He pointed the gub in my right rib.

Okay, man, this is for real.

Give me all your money right now, or I'll unload this gun on you.

Jackson was terrified, mad at himself for putting his daughter in danger.

Oh, okay, this is all I have, and he gave him his money clip.

But the enraged robber demanded more.

He shoved the gun deeper into Jackson's side.

Jackson, who was a Garland insurance agent, had some Gideon Bibles to give to the homeless, put a dollar in each of the Bibles, and the gunman spotted those dollar bills and accused Jackson of lying.

And at that time, something came over Sherman Jackson, and he began to pray loudly, Father in heaven, hear my cry and deliver me from this present evil.

Suddenly Jackson slowed down and made a U-turn.

The gunman shouted, What are you doing?

and jammed his revolver into Jackson's chest.

Jackson said, I'm not taking orders from you anymore.

The gunman said, You don't get it, man.

You mean nothing to me.

Began pulling the trigger.

The hammer came back, but Jackson didn't flinch.

No, you don't understand.

Greater is he who is in me than he who is in the world.

My Jesus is stronger than your gun.

He pulled over and said, I want to tell you about Jesus.

The startled robber wavered for a moment, dropped his head, lowered his gun, and when he looked up, he was crying, I'm so sorry, man.

I was gonna shoot you.

Jackson said, Don't worry, man, I forgive you.

And Jackson began telling him about new life through faith in Christ.

He urged the man to go to church with him, but the man declined.

He asked Jackson to drive into his car at a store.

Along the way, he began to tell Jackson about all of his troubles.

Said his name was Mike.

Jackson continued telling him about life in Christ.

As they neared the store, Jackson said, By the way, Mike, give me back my money clip.

Do what?

Handed it back to him.

And you're keeping this New Testament and you're gonna read it like you've never read anything before.

I'm gonna be praying for you, Mike, that Christ will come into your life.

Jackson dropped the robber off at his church, off at his car, with a Bible in one hand and a gun in the other, and he drove on to church.

Now, some readers, this is a later article, some readers wrote to the columnists they didn't believe the story.

So a follow-up article in the same newspaper revealed Mike was suspected of involvement in, quote, a rash, a rash of 15 nearly identical robberies in the same area.

Police officers informed Jackson he was the only one who got his money back.

A few weeks later, Mike was arrested and he's in regular contact with Jackson.

In the moment when the gun was pressed into Jackson's chest, Jackson followed a pattern repeated in the Bible and through history.

He cried out to God.

So why would we do this?

I mean, God's not hard of hearing, God knows our thoughts.

There's nothing wrong with silent prayer.

We all pray in our mind, uh especially in crowds.

So why do this?

And I'm gonna give you three reasons.

Number one, Jesus often cried out to his father.

I think this verse may be on the screen.

Hebrews 5, 7 through 8.

In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications.

Read that with me.

With loud cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.

Next verse shows.

Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.

If you would go back to that first verse once again, I often thought that verse meant Gethsemane.

When Jesus is on his knees, uh sweating drops of blood and praying, I don't think that's the case at all.

In the days of his flesh, throughout his life, he offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries.

This was the practice of Jesus.

Why?

Well, what was he praying for?

Well, it says he was praying to God who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.

Was he saved from death?

No.

Then he went to the cross.

So what was he saved from?

I think that next verse helps us to know that.

Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.

Jesus was crying out to be able to obey and not disobey because more horrendous to Jesus than even the cross was disobeying his father.

He was pleading for the will and the power to obey when it was so hard to obey.

And he was heard because he never disobeyed.

God heard his cry.

This was the practice of Jesus.

So I just asked this question.

If the Son of God himself had to cry out for obedience when temptation was strong, you think we might need to?

Do you ever feel you are there is a temptation so strong you almost can't resist it?

What do you do?

We follow the practice of Jesus.

We cry out to God for help, to continue to obey Him and walk with Him.

And sometimes a cry is simply one word help! God save me, keep me clean, help me obey.

So that's one reason, because Jesus practiced this in the days of His flesh throughout his life.

Here's a second reason.

God promises to hear us when we cry out to Him.

In fact, He invites us to do this.

Listen to Psalm 22, 4 through 5.

This is the Psalm actually that begins, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

It's quoted by Jesus on the cross.

A couple of verses later.

In you, our fathers trusted, they trusted, and you delivered them.

To you, they cried out and were rescued.

The old Puritan Samuel Rutherford said this fervor, intensity in prayer is a heavenly ingredient in prayer, even though God hears prayers only as offered in Christ and not because of its warmth.

An arrow drawn in full strength has a speedier issue.

Intense prayers prevail and are answered.

The cry adds wings to prayer as a swift courier speeds his message of life and death to the king in a time of war.

There is a sort of violence offered to God in fervent prayer.

There is strength and muscles in such prayers.

Psalm 55, 17, I call to the Lord and the Lord saves me.

Evening and morning and noon I cry out in distress and he hears my voice.

Psalm 56, 9.

Then my enemies will turn back when I call for help.

By this I know God is for me.

How do you know God is for you?

How did he know it?

He says, Because my enemies turn back.

Why did they turn back?

Because he cried out for God's help.

Now to do this with all the emotion and the voice that you can muster is a humbling experience.

I think that's why we often resist doing it.

We tend to be proud.

We want everybody to think we got everything together, we got it all together.

We don't like to admit we have problems we cannot resolve.

And that attitude causes God, in some sense, almost to turn his face away.

God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.

Pride is our attempt to play God, build our lives around ourselves.

And when we cry out to God, we're admitting I'm not God.

I can't do this by myself.

You're the healer, you're the savior, you're the center of my life.

And often it takes an impossible situation to bring us to the end of self-confidence and self-salvation.

And as long as we struggle to resolve our problems by ourselves, the Lord just stands by and waits, just like a lifeguard is trained.

Let that drowning person stop flailing and struggling.

When he begins to sink, that's when the lifeguard moves in and saves him.

It seems that the Lord may be something very much like that.

Listen to Psalm 116, 1 through 4.

I love the Lord.

He heard my voice.

He heard my cry for mercy because he turned his ear to me.

I will call on him as long as I live.

The cords of death entangled me, the anguish of the grave came over me.

I was overcome by distress and sorrow.

Then I called on the name of the Lord, Lord, save me.

I was in a church service years ago now, and we were singing.

And he got it, fell on these stairs, and he began to just scream and shout, and then he ran out.

And a deacon in our church walked out to the back and led him to Christ.

His name is Nathan Powell.

He lives here.

Some of you may know him.

He came to the end of himself, cried out to God, was led to faith in Christ, and was saved.

Pat Williams managed the Chicago Bulls, the Atlanta Hawks, the Philadelphia 76ers.

He co-founded the Orlando Magic.

He'd been married 10 years when his wife told him, I don't care anymore.

I hate this marriage.

You never share your dreams with me.

You never share your work with me.

You never act as if I'm important to you in front of people.

All I get are the crumbs of your life.

Pat Williams said, I couldn't sleep.

Next day, he said, I surrender to the Lord in total honesty.

He said, In tears I cried out, Lord, do whatever you have to do with me.

I've got a crisis here.

I caused, crush me, show me, help me.

And in his book, Rekindled Marriage.

You can get it on Amazon.

He tells how that cry triggered a process of restoration of his marriage.

So why cry out?

Because Jesus did.

Because God hears us when we cry out.

I'll give you a third reason.

We have needs that only God can meet.

Desperate times call for desperate prayers.

And there are times when we reach the end of our resources and our pride and the weight is just too heavy for us to carry anymore.

And that brings us to Psalm 107.

So I hope you have your Bible open to it.

He gives us four pictures of people in distress emotional distress, relational distress, physical distress, spiritual distress.

Let's just read part of this Psalm.

Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.

Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.

I love that.

Let's share our testimonies with each other.

Let's not hide what God is doing in our hearts, in our lives.

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.

Some wandered in desert waste, finding no way to a city to dwell in.

Hungry and thirsty, their souls fainted within them.

Some of us know what that feels like.

Dry?

Wandering?

Alone?

Life is just dry.

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 the city to dwell in.

So 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.

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.

So it's not a picture of the desert anymore.

It's a picture of prison, addiction, trapment, circumstances out of your control.

Then, verse 13, they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress.

He brought them out of darkness in the shadow of death.

He 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 into the bars of iron.

It's a picture of wandering in the desert and also being trapped in a kind of prison.

Third picture.

Verse 17.

This is a picture of disease, of illness.

So you got a desert?

Got a prison?

Now you can't have a kind of a hospital.

Verse 19.

Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress.

He sent out his word and healed them.

He 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, tell of his deeds and songs of joy.

So you've got deserts, people in the desert, just dry, shriveled up, lost, wandering, they cry out, God delivers them.

People in prison, trapped, they cry out to the Lord, the Lord comes to their rescue.

People who are facing illness, they cry out to the Lord, the Lord hears them.

Last, verse 23.

Some went down to the sea in ships, doing business in the great waters.

They saw the deeds of the Lord as wondrous works in the deep.

For he commanded and raised a 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 wit's end.

So you got a storm.

We all know what's like to have a storm hit our lives.

So what do you do?

Verse 28.

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, and they were glad that the waters were quiet.

He brought them to their desired haven.

Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of men.

Let them extol him in the congregation of the people and praise him in the assembly of the elders.

In every case, people find themselves in situations from which they cannot rescue themselves.

They never would have wanted.

They cry out to God, and God hears them, and they give him praise.

They tell of what he has done.

They cry to the Lord.

So I just want to ask the question What need do you have?

Anyone here need courage?

Anyone here need strength or endurance?

Psalm 138, 2, when I called you, answered me, you made me bold and stout-hearted.

Anyone here needs a shirt, you need assurance that God is with you, that he's for you, that his hand is on your life.

Listen to Psalm 145, 18.

The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.

Anybody here need wisdom?

Anyone here facing a decision?

You don't know what to do?

Call to me.

I will answer you and show you great and unsearchable things you do not know.

Jeremiah 33, 3.

Any young people here, students, you don't know what you're gonna do when you've graduated from high school.

You don't know if you're gonna graduate from high school.

Career decisions.

What am I gonna do?

You're a young adult.

Do I get married?

Do I have kids?

Call to me and I will answer you, and I will show you great and unsearchable things that you do not know.

Any middle-aged people here dealing with aging parents?

Kind of trapped between children and aging parents?

You don't know what are you gonna do?

Facing career decisions, going through a midlife crisis, what do you do?

Call to me and then and I will answer you and I will show you great and unsearchable things you do not know, Jeremiah 33, 3.

Any senior adults here kind of wondering, what do you do now?

Where do you live after those first few weeks, the euphoria of retirement?

What now?

Call to me, and I will answer you, and I will show you great and unsearchable things that you do not know.

Anybody here need justice?

Someone's harassing you, someone is abusing you.

Luke 18, 7 through 8.

Will not God bring about justice to his chosen ones who cry out to him day and night?

I tell you, he will see they get justice.

Sometimes the answer is delayed, and we have to just keep crying out to him.

Anyone here need healing?

Psalm 30, verse 2.

Psalms 30:2

I called to you for help and you healed me.

Friends, I believe God sometimes creates needs in our life that we cannot resolve so that we cry out to him.

I think God sometimes lets certain temptations persist in our life to make us rely upon him.

He wants to show the world his power through lives of people who know to cry out to him.

So we've asked the question what does it mean?

Why do we do it?

Where do we start?

Again, I say this is really uncomfortable.

Our culture tells us your faith is private, it's personal.

Keep it to yourself, keep your prayers to yourself.

You need to be dignified, you need to be proper, you need to be respectable.

And sometimes you got a little voice in your head that just wonders if crying out to God in an audible voice will do anything.

I was facing one of the scariest times of my life.

The circumstances don't, the details don't matter.

I was in the backyard mowing the grass and could not get the fear and the uncertainty out away from my head.

And pushing the lawn mower in the backyard, I cried out to God and said, God, I need your help.

I poured out my fears, I poured out my anger, I poured out my guilt to him.

And to be honest to the Lord, there was a kind of peace that came over me.

There was a kind of sense it's going to be all right.

I am with you.

I I felt like a little child in the arms of my father.

It wouldn't have happened had I not swallowed my pride, set aside my doubts, humbled myself before the Lord, and just cried out to him.