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Study Guide

When you are grateful, give thanks to the LOR

This session explores Psalm 107, which vividly illustrates how YHWH rescues people from various distressing situations—wandering in the desert, imprisonment, sickness, and perilous seas—and inspires gratitude through His deliverance. The psalm's structure reflects a pattern of human need, divine intervention, and thankful praise, emphasizing God's enduring love and justice. Participants discuss personal experiences of seeking help, biblical concepts of redemption, and contemporary parallels to homelessness, hunger, imprisonment, and spiritual sickness. Psalm 107 serves as a gateway to Book 5 of the Psalms, celebrating God's saving acts from the exodus to His enduring presence in the lives of His people.

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**Session 8: When you are grateful, give thanks to the LORD for he is good (Psalm 107)**

**Summary**: Psalm 107 presents four scenarios in which YHWH saves people from their distress. Each of the four scenes is structured the same way: an expression of the need of the people, their crying out to God, YHWH’s rescue of them, and then their thanksgiving. The psalm concludes with a fifth section restating the principle of how God in his justice and love reverses various life situations and is therefore worthy of our gratitude.

**Background**: Psalm 107 is the first psalm of Book 5, and it serves as an introduction to this final group of 44 psalms. The primary theme of Book 5 is “Hallelujah! The LORD saves!” In general, these psalms celebrate the various ways that YHWH has saved his people beginning with the exodus (113-118), the giving of the law (119), and his presence with them through the seasons of life (the songs of ascents, 120-134). Book 5 concludes with five psalms of doxology (146-150).

**Opening Questions:**

1. Describe a time when you were lost. Did you ask for directions or figure it out on your own?

2. How good are you at asking for help?

3. Have you ever had a near-death experience?

**Study Questions:**

1. The phrase, “the steadfast love [hesed] of the LORD endures forever” is the most common phrase in the Psalms. What does it mean?

2. What does it mean to be redeemed (vss. 2-3)?

3. Why would people in the ancient world find themselves homeless and hungry? (vss. 4-7)

4. What types of homelessness and hunger exist in the world today? How is the church in your community addressing their needs?

5. Describe the plight of the prisoners in vss. 10-14. How does the LORD rescue them?

6. What types of prisoners exist in the world today? How is the church in your community addressing their needs?

7. What are the symptoms of the sin-sick in vss. 17-20?

8. Who are the sin-sick in the world today? How is the church in your community offering healing?

9. In each of these three scenarios (wandering, imprisoned, and sin-sick), what is required for change to begin?

10. How is the danger on the sea different from the first three scenarios?

11. How do these four scenarios point us to the ministry of Jesus?

**Application Questions:**

1. Which of these four groups do you most identify with today? Lost, in bondage, sin-sick, seasick in the storms of life?

2. What keeps you from crying out to God for help?

3. The response to God’s salvation includes giving thanks, offering sacrifices, singing joyful songs, and public worship and witness. Which of these comes more easily for you?

4. God saves people today through the work of the church and through the preaching of the gospel.

What are you doing to address the needs of the lost, imprisoned, sin-sick, and seasick?

**Other psalms of thanksgiving: 9, 18, 34, 65, 100, 118, 135, 136, 138, 144, 145**

When you are grateful, give thanks to the LORD for he is good

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When you are grateful, give thanks to the LORD for he is good Instructions