Every year, on the last Sunday of our year, we spend our last time of corporate worship together in Psalm 107. In this Psalm, the psalmist exhorts the people to consider God's steadfast love, and if they have seen it in their lives, then "let the redeemed of the Lord say so." In the midst of the congregation and the elders, it is important for us to declare God's goodness to one another.
And though 2020 proved to be the most challenging year most of us have faced, we still want to end our year the same we always do: giving God thanks for His mercy, grace, and kindness. It is important for us to continually keep our eyes, minds, ears, and hearts trained upon His goodness, rather than on the negative events in our world and in our life. It is only by training ourselves to look for His grace that we can be freed from the negativity and discouragement that brings us down and distracts us from God.
As we do every year, we close out 2025 remembering God's goodness to us through the lens of Psalm 107. We are reminded that if God’s steadfast love endures forever, then the redeemed of the Lord ought to say so. The Psalmist describes four types of people God redeems: the wanderers who are lost and aimless, the prisoners sitting in darkness due to rebellion, the fools suffering affliction because of their sin, and the storm-tossed who face life's overwhelming waves.
In every scenario, the solution is the same: "Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress." We see that God uses all things—even meaningful affliction—to draw us back to Him. We can trust God's hand even when it hurts, knowing He works in faithfulness.
