THE WORKINGS OF THE DEEP
Psalm 107:23, Study 12, Ships To Heaven,
Psalm 107:24-25
They saw the works of the LORD, his wonderful deeds in the deep.
Now I know this is to do with the oceans wherein lie the wonders of Gods creation
But again lets see this as a picture or allegory of sorts or a metaphor
You see Psalm 107 is about the four types of person but also about the exile of Gods
people to babylon, that babylon that was hurled to the deep which imprisoned Gods
people but for a short time
Those exiled people who throughout history have not listened and continued for a long
time not to heed the voice of God , those people who have worshipped anything but the
living God yet lived within the walls of Gods Kingdom
Those whom God has chosen yet have backslidden and continued in disbelief, those
who have lost their first love and have sought another
Those who have been luke warm and have been detestable more so an abomination to
The Lord Revelation 3:17 yet still He can save them if they but would turn to Him
Psalm 107 itself refers to the ships and the sea as the fourth person and those caught
in a storm
But again we see the imagery and the allegory of this Psalm to be more than just about
ships and sea's or prisons and exiled ones
We can see it as speaking to us now in this generation and even to me personally now
today so that today if I hear His voice I will not harden my heart towards Him but
will listen
And so we begin the focus on
Psalm 107:24
They saw the works of the LORD, his wonderful deeds in the deep.
And the sea's lift up their voice and Call and beckon us to the creator of all
And when people as "The Unsaved" respond to the call we begin our journey
When we listen to the voice of The One calling out to us and not to the ships
owner (The Ship can be seen as figurative as authorities " as are the sea's
seen as peoples"
The ships owner may be the authority that raises it head above the oceans
in other words "the authority that has been put into place over us"
whether that be by God or not Deuteronomy 17:15
And so everyone is being converted whether they be saved or not
Al of us being in the same boat and under the governing authority of that land
All of us change over time, in that we change our outlook on life, our concepts,
our attitudes,
We mature and change and if we have a partner in life we may well change with our partner
or with our family, at times it may be that both partners change in different ways and the
partnership can grow apart over time
But when we give over the authority of our lifes to a higher authority and not just to the owner
of the ship but the owner of the sea and all things, then the conversion begins to work within
the "deep"
And God begins to work from the inside out and starts His wonderful deeds in the deep
And although things around us have not changed we find that the world has changed...
to us
Although people around us may not change we might find that people have changed...
to us
And so as we change things appear to be seen as different and our conversion begins from
the inside out
All of this would never have happened unless the walls had been knocked down
Jeremiah 33:7 Nehemiah 2:17
Now God begine His working to rebuild the walls and the temple
And as we lift Him "Jesus" up in our lifes so we are lifted up
Now we are using the metaphor here of the sea as people
(The greek may not imply that the sea is people" nonetheless the greek neither implies that Jesus means a thousand different names nor can it attribute or imply the images and metaphors that the Holy Spirit brings to people as they read Gods word)
The reason being that Psalm 107 is about people : the four types and the people exiled to
babylon
Now we can take this simple metaphor (metaphor/parable/picture/allegory/image/vision/
dream)
We can take it into (as we have) where babylon is destroyed
And we know that the people that where exiled from their country and taken captive were
taken to babylon and held prisoner for some 70 years
Further on from that we can take the "sea of people metaphor" to the story of Jonah and also to the story of Paul in
Acts 27 and 28 were Paul is voyaging to Rome
Now the sailors here in this story were of the (sea of people) I say "of the sea" as they were not yet
Gods and so they were of the world John 15:19
Paul had a chance and took the chance 2 Timothy 4:2 1 Peter 3:15
He told of His God but they listened to the ships owner nonetheless God saved them
And here we ask the question "Does God save non believers"
Well what a silly question ? of course He answers the prayers of non believers and saves them !
If He did not then how on earth would I be saved ? or anyone for that matter !
But this salvation here in the book of acts is not about eternal salvation from hell or from
destruction or from the fire and going and being led into eternal life
No ...its about another salvation which is the day to day salvation from circumstance and trial
about deliverance from persecution of the enemy and from everyday things that God saves
us from
Can God save someone from a circumstance when they are not Christians ? does He really
answer their prayers ? was He not saving them on the ship on account of Paul being there ?
No , God could have just saved Paul but instead He saved all on board
Including the prisoners... interesting that we have "exiled ones" on board the sea of people
put into prison and in distress ? who were also crying out to God for salvation from the storm ?
And we wonder why God brings calamity to the earth ?
Why o why is that the only time when people cry out to God ?
And when they do ....does He not save them ? in His mercy ?
Again not eternal salvation but temporal salvation from that calamity that they might have a chance to
call no Him and be saved eternally (even though Some He knows will never come to Him)
Now on this sea of people with the authority of the ship and the owner we can be heading for danger
and we may not listen to the voice that calls us out of our distress
Nonetheless God still saves us and even the prisoners but for a while that we can continue on our babylon
journey without eternal salvation
And we see that Paul is bitten by a serpent (snake) on the isalnd of malta and the snake is shaken off into the fire and this is on the island of patmos where Paul was exiled after a time
Yet another simple example and illustration of what is to be and satans end
Then we find the island of patmos at the end of the journey where John was also exiled and
that takes us to revelations and Johns vision
And so each simple picture and metaphor leads us onto another and another and in this way
the bible links together as a chain (reference)
But these mataphors cannot always be taken too far and often overlap with another metaphor
further on, for example
We know that Jesus is coming in the "clouds of heaven" again a metaphor or simple picture
The clouds can be seen as the saints or angels , as in : clouds of angels
Yet again another metaphor in : the lampstands being the Churches in revelations and the Light
being Jesus the Light of the world
Now if we take this metaphor into Matthew 5:15 we know that we cannot hide a Church under
a table !
Then we have :Jesus the Gate but also we have Jesus the "Gatekeeper" again this picture cannot
be taken into "the gatekeeper of hell" then we have Jesus: The Rod and Jesus "The Staff"
Jesus the "Shepherd" which cannot be taken to Jesus The "Evening Star"
Now we also see that Jesus is the "Lamb" so He cannot shepherd Himself as A shepherd and A "Lamb" can He ? and so we take the metaphors as simple pictures to give an example so that even the "Children" can understand the message given , yet being or sounding "silly and "foolish" to the more
intellectual and learned
Such is the wisdom of God, to show and display Himself in such a simplistic fashion as too make fools those who think they are clever and to make the simple wise
And so We also have the "sea of Glass" in revelations, such a pure and simplistic picture yet hard
to undertsand, unless we are there and made clean and as pure as glass
"I had a dream last night and the dream was where I was touching a sheet of glass and as I touched
this glass it was disintegating as my finger scrolled accross it
It was bubbling up and falling as I touched it with my finger
Such is the purity of this glass"
Now Ive tried to find something here to back this up, (not that I have to backup anything or prove what I am saying to anyone) and I found this
Coffman Commentaries
The organization of this psalm appears to be: (1) announcement of the theme (Psalms 107:1-3); (2) the metaphor of the perils of travel (Psalms 107:4-9); (3) the metaphor of release from prison (Psalms 107:10-16); (4) the metaphor of recovery from sickness (Psalms 107:17-22); (5) the metaphor of escape from a dangerous voyage at sea (Psalms 107:23-32); (6) a general statement of God's gracious mercies (Psalms 107:33-43).
Rhodes described this psalms as, "A litany of thanksgiving by four groups of redeemed pilgrims: (a) desert travelers; (b) prisoners; (c) sick men; and (d) seafarers."F5 However, we fail to find four different groups of people in this psalm. The psalm evidently concerns God's people, especially with regard to their deliverance from Babylonian captivity.
wherein it is about four groups but implied that they cannot find them
THE DEEP
Psalm 107:24-25
They saw the works of the LORD, his wonderful deeds in the deep.
He knows every thought that swims through our minds and every motive that lurks within
Everything that is done whether hidden or Camouflaged at the bottom of the ocean of our
hearts and every desire following us to try to trap us in a net
............
But who is it that stirs up the oceans and raises the waves ?
Who is it that commands the oceans and speaks to the storm >?
Who is it that causes commotion in the nations and sets peoples hearts on fire ?
Who is it that stirs up the deep within ?
Psalm 107:25 For he spoke and stirred up a tempest that lifted high the waves
Isaiah 51:15
He stirs up mankind that they might call upon Him and be saved Psalm 107:28
He is the One who parts the sea's for the people to cross
Who disturbs the sea and makes it excited Isaiah 51:9
Isaiah 51:14-15
The cowering prisoners will soon be set free; they will not die in their dungeon,
nor will they lack bread.15For I am the Lord your God,who churns up the sea so that its waves
roar
The same sea that causes mankind to cry out for salvation also causes the
enemies of God to be destroyed Exodus 15:4
Psalm 107:28 then as the people cry out to God He delivers them
We know the story of Jonah and how he was in "the deep" and was swallowed up by the sea
monster and how Jonah prayed to the Lord in his distress !
Jonah was clinging to God And God answered him
Jonah 2:8“Those who cling to worthless idols
forfeit the grace that could be theirs.
And the sea monster was repelled and it was abominable to him that such a thing should be in the
deep and he spewed out this Holy thing onto the land
And so through one man all who were destined to be saved were saved and the nation repented
And God stirs up the storms now ...today... that firstly His people might go and once propelled
and motivated that others might be saved
Questions:
1. What wonderful things has God done in your life
2. What other biblical metaphors can you think of ?
3. How was Nineveh Saved ? (temporal or eternal salvation ?)
