"From East and West, North and South," a sermon on Psalm 107

Psalm 107
“From East and West, North and South”
Preached Sunday, July 31, 2022

The suggested reading of today's Psalm, which I decided to do for time purposes, actually cuts out 32 verses! But when you cut out those verses you lose the testament to what God is doing in the world. So in my sermon today I am going to be quoting from parts of the Psalm that we didn't read - cause it’s worth looking at the big picture of God at work everywhere in the world. The Psalm starts:

“O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever.
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,
those he redeemed from trouble
and gathered in from the lands,
from the east and from the west,
from the north and from the south.”

Then the Psalmist tells of 4 examples, presumably one from each direction of the world: from the east and the west, the north and the south. In each cause there is a tale of distress, a cry out to God for deliverance, deliverance, and then thanksgiving to God.

Verses 6, 13, 19 and 28 are the same:
Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress


And then the response in verses 8, 15, 21, 31 are the same:
Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love,
for his wonderful works to humankind.

It gives the sense that this was a Psalm for congregational use. A call and response.between the leader of the congregation and the worshiping body as together they remember how God is at work in every corner of their world.

And that’s what we need to do today. I think sometimes it can be easy to get into a pit of despair at the world around us or for those of us who are online, get caught in the trap of doomscrolling…but God is at work in our world if we just know where to look. And God is at work in our lives and in our whole world and in every corner of the world in ways we can see if we just look and ways that we will never see in our lives but God is at work in known and unknown ways. So today, let us look for God at work in the world, using the 107th Psalm as a guide.

First, the east:
“Some wandered in desert wastes,
finding no way to an inhabited town;
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,
until they reached an inhabited town.”

East of Israel/Palestine lies a vast desert that leads to the eastern side of the fertile crescent. Few would have chosen to wander such a place and perhaps they were brought there by circumstances and trauma beyond their control - with no place to lay their head.

When I think of those in similar situations today, I think of homeless and migrant populations and how God is at work within and among them.

A homeless ministry that is close to my heart is Open Table in Nashville, a United Methodist ministry in Nashville that has a housing and people first approach to working with those without homes. And co-founder of Open Table, Lindsey Krinks write about her relationship with Ken Goslin, a man experience homeless. She says this in an article about first meeting him:

"It was so hot in July. We were both just drenched in sweat and he rolled up to me in his wheelchair and didn’t say anything to me, but he just scribbled this one word on a sheet of paper and held it up. That one word said “Help.” I said, “Well, what’s going on?” And he started writing. It turns out he couldn’t talk or walk because of a brain tumor that was growing into his spinal column. And he hadn’t been getting the care he needed for that. He was staying, at that point, at the mission and would just wheel up and back. He couldn’t get any help because no one would spend the time just sitting down and trying to sort through everything.”

Ken became homeless at the age of 14 as he escaped abuse of every kind - mental, physical, sexual. About how at the age of 14 after being locked in a basement, he decided he’d rather be homeless than deal with the abuse he was experiencing. He worked hard through his life, doing manual labor jobs and moving around, both running from the past and running toward a community and belonging that he was looking for.

Lindsey goes on to describe the friendship with Ken and the relationship that blossomed. How they helped him get his paperwork in order, how they got him access to his disability fund, how they connected him to health care to care for his tumor, and how a friendship blossomed. How they would take him to Starbucks and he’d drink coffee through a feeding tube. How Ken would text the Open Table workers, his friends, because it was the only way he could communicate. And he would sign his texts “I’m a nobody.” Lindsey recounts how they reacted to that: “We’re like, “Ken, you matter. You’re a friend. We are here with you.” And we gradually got to see his “I’m a nobody” thing turn into “I’m a somebody.” And it eventually turned into, “I’m a badass,” which I love. He had a funny sense of humor. I really liked seeing his transformation from a “nobody” to a “somebody” to a “badass,” which shows you that he found his worth along the way as he was dying.”

And Ken did die. They could not operate on his tumor as he was homeless and did not have a place where he could recover. And so he died and his friends from Open Table were with him through hospice care and they were there to bury him and remember him. This is God at work. It is not a success story in the sense most would expect. They cannot say “Ken is alive today and in housing.” But they can say, Ken found community, connection, friendship and the change from “nobody” to “somebody” to “badass.”

God was at work even among those who have no home and so we join our voices with the Psalmist:
“Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love,
for his wonderful works to humankind.”

Let us turn to the west.
“Some sat in darkness and in gloom,
prisoners in misery and in irons,
for they had rebelled against the words of God
and spurned the counsel of the Most High.
Their hearts were bowed down with hard labor;
they fell down, with no one to help.
Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he saved them from their distress;”

The West symbolized a place of darkness and death - it is where the sun sets. The Psalmist tells a story of prisoners who are set free. Like those wandering in the desert, those in the bonds of darkness cry out to God in their distress and God hears them and sets them free.

When I think of those in similar situations today, I think of how God is at work among prison ministries, seeking rehabilitation in a system set up against it. And in the work of exoneration and clearing the names of the innocent. If you haven’t seen the movie “Just Mercy” about a death row lawyer who works to exonerate those who are wrongfully convicted, often because of bias against their race, I highly recommend renting the 2019 film. Or picking up the book the movie is based on, the memoir of the defense lawyer. Every time someone is freed from chains, God is at work there.

God is at work even on death row and so we join our voices with the Psalmist:
“Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love,
for his wonderful works to humankind.”

AND, when I think of those who are in chains of darkness, I also think of those who are in the chains of mental health, depression, and despair.

I have a friend and colleague who is a mental health chaplain. And he could not share specific stories with me because of HIPAA but he did share with me that he sees God at work every day. And he said, “God is at work at a table in the mental health unit at Lutheran Hospital as patients gather together to talk about spirituality at a common table. Here patients who are Christian and Wiccan, atheist and believer, addict and sober wonder together how to heal and how to hear the still small voice with many names that calls out with love and says: you belong.”

God is at work in the midst of mental health crisis and so we join our voices with the Psalmist:
“Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love,
for his wonderful works to humankind.”

So let us turn to the north.
“Some were sick through their sinful ways
and because of their iniquities endured 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 saved them from their distress;”

Now the North is a little bit of a harder/not as direct translation for us. For the word “sick” can be translated as “foolish ones” and in the Ancient Near East, sickness was often seen as God’s punishment for sin and traditionally, God’s punishment was thought to come from the North. We don’t have the same understanding of sickness today and in fact I would emphatically say that sickness is not a punishment from God. Period.

And when I think of those who are in similar situations today, sick and calling out to God for help, well, I think of the sick. And those who need physical healing. And there are stories of healing out there. So many stories - between the miracle of modern medicine and unexplainable recoveries that we often consider miracles. And yet, miracles and healing are tricky ground. We can certainly give thanksgiving and glory to God for when healings happen and God is at work there. And, I think every single one of us can think of stories of how someone’s community surrounded someone in love and support when they got sick.

How a friend got sick in the early months of dating her now husband and he showed up every day just to bring her soup and hold her hand.
How meal trains pop up and keep new moms and families fed while they're in the thick of recovery and parenting.
How cards and visits and phone calls overwhelm someone with love after a surgery.
How benefit dinners are organized by churches and communities after a diagnosis and the cost of healthcare is overwhelming.
How in the times of sickness, we can see more clearly than other times what we are called to do: to hold one another - in prayer and physically. To care for one another, to show up with love and the healing power of relationship.

And that is us at work, yes, and it’s God at work IN us among the sick. God at work in our world is usually just people being loving to one another!

God is at work in the midst of sickness and so we join our voices with the Psalmist:
“Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love,
for his wonderful works to humankind.”

And now, let us turn to the south.
“Some went down to the sea in ships,
doing business on the mighty 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 calamity;
they reeled and staggered like drunkards
and were at their wits’ end.
Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he brought them out from their distress;”

Now, to the North of Israel/Palestine is the Mediterranean Sea. But wait, didn’t you say south? Well, yes. The Psalmist and translators wanted to point to the four compass directions. And the word translated sea and south in Hebrew are very close. And the Mediterranean Sea was known to be dangerous waters. There are many tales, Biblical and not, of sailors tossed in storms on those seas.

When I think of those in similar situations today, I am sure God is at work in the seas and among sailors, but the point to me is that God is with those in great danger and physical peril. And my brain and heart go out to Ukrainians. And there are so many stories that have come out of Ukraine and there will be many, many more.

While it is hard to see God in the midst of great violence and death - God is there. Weeping with those who weep and mourning with those who mourn and taking a stance against violence and war. And God too is wherever neighbor helps neighbor. Wherever refugees are welcome. Wherever love remains.

Like in the case of 23-year-old nurse Oksana Balandina who lost both her legs and a couple of fingers on her hand in a Russian artillery strike. In order to strengthen her faith in a good future, her fiancé decided to marry her straight away.

Or like the citizens of the town of Moldova who have taken their bedsheets off their own beds when they ran out of sheets for beds in the refugee camp.

How, and this one was particularly touching to me, how Polish mothers left strollers, many filled with children’s clothes and supplies at the train station in Poland at the Ukrainian border. So that when mothers and their children arrived, escaping violence, it would make their welcome that much easier - to have a stroller for their children. It was an act of solidarity, mothers to mothers.

Yes, even in the worst possible situations, God is at work in love and solidarity and welcome.

And so we join our voices with the Psalmist:
“Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love,
for his wonderful works to humankind.”

East, West, North and South.
God is at work in every corner of our world.

Today just a small handful of stories were told - they aren’t the full picture of what God is doing in this world - that’s billions of stories. Look for them, read them, share them - and create them.


God is at work everywhere in our world. Wherever we look in this world, whatever direction we look in, we will be able to find God at work in our world. Even when we look right here - closer to home. And God is at work here and God is at work within you.

We pray today that God could use us to help others see God at work. Use us to answer their calls of distress. And that through our actions, all people would have cause to sing praises to God along with the Psalmist:
“Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love,
for his wonderful works to humankind.”

Amen.