“The upright see it and are glad;
But all unrighteousness shuts its mouth.
Who is wise? Let him give heed to these things;
And consider the loving kindness of the Lord.”
Psalms 107: 42-43
This Psalm displays the loving kindness of the Lord through how He delivers His people in their distresses. Four different kinds of distress are described; hunger and thirst from wandering in a wilderness, the misery of being under the yoke of hard labor, suffering the affliction that results from our own foolish and rebellious ways, and the grave danger of being on a ship tossed about on high seas.
The loving kindness of God redeems and rescues them from these desperate conditions resulting in the joy and gladness of His people. The upright see His saving hand and are glad, but the unrighteous, in contrast, shut their mouths. What accounts for the difference between how God’s people react to calamity and rescue and how the unrighteous react?
It is common to hear the unrighteous blame God for calamities. There are, for every disaster, those ready to accuse God for His apparent absenteeism on behalf of those who suffer. They often charge Him for failing to stop the calamity. What would they say of God if they knew that the reason He does not stop such calamities, is not because He lacks the strength, the will, or the power, or that He is somehow absent or unaware, but because He is the one responsible for the calamity? If they rage against Him for failing to stop a disaster, what rage would result if they knew He Himself caused the disaster? (Amos 3:6, Isaiah 45:7)
In the four troubles described in this Psalm, God is both the one who rescues from trouble, and the one who brings the trouble in the first place. This bringing and delivering from calamity is called “His loving kindness.” In verse 23 and following God takes the credit for changing rivers and springs into deserts and thirsty ground. Verse 12 says it was God who humbled them with labor, and it was God who spoke, causing the waves to rise up, melting the hearts of those on the ship.
What do the unrighteous say to this? They say that the people of God are fools for rejoicing in how their God saves, because He only saved them from what He Himself brought. God could simply not bring the calamity in the first place. Why doesn’t He deliver us from our foolishness from the get go? If we were safe before God acted to bring a dangerous storm, why should we praise Him when He removes the danger, since He was the one who brought it in the first place? This is how the unrighteous view it, but the upright see it differently and are glad. Why?
The unrighteous would be happy to simply keep their lives free from trouble and safe from calamity. To have a safe and comfortable life, free of trouble is the best they can hope for. For God to act take away their comfort, only to then give it back, only disturbs the unrighteous, causing them to think of God as capriciousness. But the upright see it and are glad! Why? Because the upright, when they come through a God-given calamity, come out the other side with a clearer view of God Himself! In every calamity God works to draw His people to Himself by opening their eyes to how He is a God who can not only stop the calamity, but who, in Himself, so much more valuable a treasure than any comfort, safety, or good life that we may have had before the calamity came. The upright come to know that their lives, while perhaps more comfortable before a calamity, were not OK, but were without God and therefore hopelessly lost in trivialities. The upright come to recognize the awesome, merciful, loving kindness of God in bringing the trouble that awakened their hunger and thirst, their desperation, not just for rescue, but for God Himself! God brings calamity and He takes it away. For the unbelieving, this just brings them back to what they had in the first place, but having added a hurtful experience along the way. All in all such calamities are a negative transaction. But for the upright, they declare with gladness, “take away all my comfort, all my security and I will rejoice with gladness, if in the end I have an interest in the glorious loving kindness of the Lord!”
Father, open my eyes. Grant me a hunger and a thirst for you. Cause me to cry out to you to satisfy my soul with your beautiful, perfect, infinitely wise loving kindness.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.
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