Dr. Christopher Graham

Sea Sunday 2026
Dr. Christopher Graham
Psalm 107

1 O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is gracious, and his mercy endures for ever. Let those whom the Lord has redeemed give thanks . . . 43 Whoever is wise will ponder these things, and shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord.
Last week, in Psalm 145, we heard David’s invitation to look, to reflect, to meditate upon the works of God, and then to give him praise. What are the works of God? As Fr. Doug pointed out, “This would refer to both God’s creation and to God’s redemption.” He then helped us follow the psalmist’s lead, specifically regarding creation. As we will see, this week’s psalm is devoted to praise resulting from God’s redemption.
This week’s psalm is framed by the Psalmist’s opening and closing; v. 2: “Let those whom the Lord has redeemed give thanks.” At the end, in v. 43 Whoever is wise will ponder these things, and shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord.

As we look at the body of the psalm this morning, then, we need to keep these purposes in mind. To move both those who have experienced God’s redemptive work AND those who need to hear and experience that work themselves.
With regard to the former, the clear assumption of the psalmist is that those who have experienced God’s redemption are far and wide. He immediately employs a merism in verse 3 to signal this, “east, west, north, south,” which presages the sections that follow in which different groups who have experienced redemption are highlighted:
• vv. 4–9: Those wandering in the wilderness, the desert experiencing hunger and thirst.
• vv. 10–16: Those enslaved in darkness, in the shadow of death, in misery and iron,
• vv. 17–22: The whose foolish and wickedness brought them to death’s door.
• vv. 23–32: Those who go down to the sea in ships, who carry out their business in great waters

Each of these sections serves as a sort of stanza with a repeating pattern, though they expand in substance and detail as we move from the first to the last. Given that it is Sea Sunday and that the last stanza is the fullest of the four, we will look at this last group in verses 23-32 as a sort of template for the others.
In each case, the psalmist first explains the life-threatening plight:
Vv. 25–27: “For at his word the stormy wind arises, which lifts up the waves. They are carried up to heaven and down again to the deep; their soul melts away because of the trouble. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end.”

If you will allow me this morning, one sea story. I was a 19-year old engine cadet on the M/V American Condor, a car carrier running between the East Coast of the United States and Europe in 1990. Winter in the North Atlantic is particularly brutal and sure enough we were taking 25 degree rolls as get got closer to Europe. When you walked down the passageway, you truly walked like the psalmist said reeling back and forth. You learned how to wedge yourself in your bunk at night. Years later I realized that I had developed a particular habit from that cruise. I had come home from the grocery store and placed my groceries in my sink and thought, why did I do that? Because on ship, that was where you could place things without them falling off onto the deck. So one particularly rough morning, I came down for our morning briefing in the machine shop of the engine room and when I opened the doors, I saw all of these old salts sitting there in their life jackets. Now no alarm had sounded and the machine shop was not one of the stations if the alarm had sounded. So I assumed this was just another one of their tricks that they liked to play on young cadets. But no, they were genuinely worried. And about that time, we took a heavy roll and heard a loud bang right outside the door. We rushed up to get out and take care of it but couldn’t get out. On the next roll we heard a grinding sound and opened the door to find that a spare one-ton cylinder head broke loose, had slid vacross the deck in front of the door on the first roll, and was not sliding back across to the other side.

Times like these make for great sea stories after the fact, but at the time, they are frightening because they life-threatening. In our psalm, each stanza briefly describes the life-threatening situation. Each stanza also describes the resolution of the situation:
2G-30 For he makes the storm to cease, so that the waves are still. Then they are glad, because they are at rest, and so he brings them into the haven where they desire to be.
For those wandering in the desert facing thirst and hunger, they are given a straight way to a place with provision (5, 7). Those who suffer crushing, dark heaviness that imprisons them find light and release from bondage (12, 14), those whose afflictions lead to loss of appetite up to the point of death find a life-giving word that saves them from destruction (18,20).

I would simply draw from these sections that the crises and the redemption/salvation spoken of here are clear and present dangers to their very life in the present. These are things that could truly kill them, and the resolution is a restoration of their present life. This psalm (and many other psalms) assume that our lives here and now really matter to God. That God intends for us to have a life in the here and now that can be full and fulfilling. In his lecture on Psalm 90, Martin Luther says “It is the most terrible of disasters and the one most deserving of tears—when people who are about to die still imagine they will go on living; when, overwhelmed by miseries, they still dream of happiness; and when, in the most critical perils that surround them, they are deliriously self-assured” (Luther Works 13, Concordia: St. Louis, 1956, p. 129). Gracia Grendal has said, “People who are unable to see the truth of what is going on about them: death, suffering, disasters make poor believers.”

In each stanza, two lines are repeated. The first between the descriptions of the crises and resolutions. First, (vv6, 13, 1G, 28): So when they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, he delivers them out of their distress.
The second after the resolution.: (vv. 8, 15, 21, 31) Oh, that they would therefore praise the Lord for his goodness and declare the wonders that he does for the children of men

These lines marry the two purposes of the psalm found at the beginning and end of the psalm. Remember the closing exhortation of v. 43 “Whoever is wise will ponder these things, and shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord.”
Why should those who are in tough times, life-threatening times, yield themselves to the Lord? Because the God who responds does so from hesed, from a faithful lovingkindness. Even before the first exhortation, the Psalmist sets the tone of the psalm: 1 O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is gracious, and his mercy endures for ever.
All of God’s work is rooted in his loving faithfulness and his faithful love. And this we see displayed most clearly in the work of Christ. As Bernard of Clairvaux said in our prefatory reading this morning
“Creation was not so vast a work as redemption; for it is written of man and of all things that were made, ‘He spake the word, and they were made’ (Ps. 148.5). But to redeem that creation which sprang into being at His word, how much He spake, what wonders He wrought, what hardships He endured, what shames He suffered! Therefore what reward shall I give unto the Lord for all the benefits which He hath done unto me? In the first creation He gave me myself; but in His new creation He gave me Himself, and by that gift restored to me the self that I had lost.
Bernard of Clarivaux, On Loving God 5 https://www.ccel.org/ccel/bernard/loving_god.all.html

People all around us face tough times, and the one who gave them breath now has his ear inclined to help them in their distress when that breath is threatened. What the psalmist is saying and displaying here is that the way to get that message across is through sharing your testimony. Which is why the second purpose is repeated even more than the first.

v. 2 Let those whom the Lord has redeemed give thanks . . .
It is echoed in the words repeated in each of the stanzas: (vv. 8, 15, 21, 31) Oh, that they would therefore praise the Lord for his goodness and declare the wonders that he does for the children of men.
And again at the end: v. 42 The righteous will consider this and rejoice, and the mouth of all wickedness shall be stopped.
There is efficacious power in our thanksgiving shared through the rehearsing of God’s redeeming work in my life and our life. To speak of God’s faithfulness in my life and our life is to speak of his presence in our world. It reminds those who need to hear it that the Almighty, the Creator of all that is seen and all that is unseen does not sit far off but is here. That today we have communion with and have a place in the very Christ who ascended to the right of the Father. That this king still acts on our behalf.

Sharing our story says, “Trust him, because of how He has treated me.” And of the ways to rehearse it, song may be the most powerful.
The third and fourth stanzas actually elaborate on how “the groups should praise the Lord for his goodness and declare the wonders that he does for the children of men.”
v. 22 That they would offer unto him the sacrifice of thanksgiving * and tell of his works with gladness! Should actually be “with joyful singing”
v. 32 That they would exalt him also in the congregation of the people * and praise him in the seat of the elders!

The prose of Romans 8:15–16 “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” Should break into “Long my imprisoned spirit lay Fast bound in sin and nature’s night. Thine eyes diffused a quickning ray, I woke; the dungeon flamed with light. My chains fell off. My heart was free. I rose, went forth and followed thee.”
The exhortation of Isaiah: 6 “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; 7 let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”
Break into the testimony:

My heart was distressed ’neath Jehovah’s dread frown, And low in the pit where my sins dragged me down;
I cried to the Lord from the deep miry clay, Who tenderly brought me out to golden day. He brought me out of the miry clay,
He set my feet on the Rock to stay; He puts a song in my soul today,
A song of praise, hallelujah!

This morning we share together as objects of God’s loving kindness. We share together in singing of God’s redemptive love in our lives. We sing of our Redeemer.
1 O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is gracious, and his mercy endures for ever. Let those whom the Lord has redeemed give thanks . . . 43 Whoever is wise will ponder these things, and shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord.