Psalm 107
This Week’s Main Idea:
When we acknowledge our need and come to God desperately seeking His grace, we will find Him ready to help us in our need.
Icebreakers:
Share about a time when you had to ask for help in completing a task or solving a problem. Is it difficult for you to ask for help from others? Why or why not?
Introduction:
We live in a culture that values self-sufficiency. We like to think that we can solve any problem and accomplish any task through our own strength, wisdom, and power. Life, however, has a way of proving such notions wrong as we face problems or tasks that we cannot solve on our own. Our truly deep need can either drive us to despair or drive us to God. Thankfully, when we acknowledge our need and come to God desperately seeking His grace, we will find Him ready to help us in our need.
Read Psalm 107:1-3.
1. What attribute of the Lord does the psalmist command his readers to give thanks for? How might forgetting this attribute of God keep us from being thankful?
2. What keeps you from being thankful to God? What are some practical ways we might cultivate thankfulness in our hearts toward God?
Read Psalm 107:4-32.
3. Why did God allow these people to face such dire situations? Why might God allow us to face similarly difficult circumstances?
4. How do the people in each of these situations respond (vv. 6, 13, 19, 28)? What does their response tell us about their understanding of their predicament? What does it tell us about their faith in God?
5. How does God respond to each of the four groups of people who cry out to Him for mercy (vv. 6-7, 13-14, 19-20, 28-29)?
Read Psalm 107:33-43.
6. What makes the needy (v. 41) here more likely to receive God’s grace than princes (v. 40)?
7. The psalmist ends Psalm 107 with a challenge to “consider the steadfast love of the Lord” (v. 43). How has God demonstrated His steadfast love for us through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross?
Taking it Home:
8. What has God delivered you from?
9. How should we respond to the deliverance God has provided in our lives?
10. What are some practical steps you might take to be more mindful of God’s steadfast love for you?
Suggested prayer:Â
Thank you, God, for demonstrating Your steadfast love for us through Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection. Keep us mindful of our desperate condition apart from You, and as we become aware of sin in our lives, make us even more aware of your mercy. Help us repent from pride that would keep us from a deeper relationship with You, and cultivate in our hearts a more humble and dependent faith in You.
Other Scriptures to Engage with this week:
Deuteronomy 20:1-4; Psalm 20; Philippians 1:18-30; Jeremiah 17:5-18; James 5:13-19; Psalm 33.