Psalm 107

"pay attention"

Psalm 107 is the start of Book V of the Psalter. Book IV is heavy with exilic themes, and Book V turns to praise, thanksgiving, and hope. Some scholars see Psalm 107 as a direct response to the cry of Psalm 106. The final petition Psalm 106 is:

Save us, Lord our God,
and gather us from the nations,
so that we may give thanks to your holy name
and rejoice in your praise.

And at the very start of Psalm 107 there is a reply:

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
his faithful love endures forever.
Let the redeemed of the Lord proclaim
that he has redeemed them from the power of the foe
and has gathered them from the lands—
from the east and the west,
from the north and the south.

The rest of Psalm 107 continues to meditate upon God's deliverance reflecting a familiar cycle in Scripture: Distress → Cry to the LORD → Deliverance → Thanksgiving. The source of the distress varies through the psalm:

Lost in the wilderness without water or food: "Some wandered in the desolate wilderness, finding no way to a city where they could live. They were hungry and thirsty." (vv. 4-5) 

Imprisoned and oppressed: "Others sat in darkness and gloom—prisoners in cruel chains." (v. 10)

Consequences of sin: "Fools suffered affliction because of their rebellious ways and their iniquities." (v. 17) 

Storms at sea: "Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress. He stilled the storm to a whisper." (v. 28-29)

After this litany of distress and deliverance, the psalm ends with a wisdom-style reflection. Narration turns to moral instruction:

When they are diminished and are humbled
by cruel oppression and sorrow,
he pours contempt on nobles
and makes them wander in a trackless wasteland.
But he lifts the needy out of their suffering
and makes their families multiply like flocks.
The upright see it and rejoice,
and all injustice shuts its mouth.

Let whoever is wise pay attention to these things
and consider the Lord’s acts of faithful love.

The chastisements of the Lord "diminish and humble." Contempt is poured out upon the nobles. By contrast, "the needy" are lifted out of their suffering and flourish. It seems, to my eye, that the punishment Israel suffers is being directed at the ruling elites. Perhaps because it was their unfaithfulness that brought about the calamity. 

Regardless, the poem ends with the call to "pay attention" to the two paths being described. The nobles wander in trackless wasteland versus the flourishing families of the needy. The wise "pay attention to these things" and "consider the Lord's acts of faithful love."

Why is it wise to "pay attention" to this cycle of sin and deliverance of pride and chastisement?

I've been reading Julian of Norwich's Revelations of Divine Love, and toward the end of her "showings" Julian spends significant time discussing how necessary it is to reflect upon our sin and failures. A lot of people miss this in Julian. Given Julian's "all shall be well" optimism and her focus upon God's love, spiritual but not religious types typically turn Julian into a sentimentalist. Julian herself recognized this as a temptation of her visions, how their optimism could take our attention away from our failures. Thus, late in the Revelations God turns Julian away from the rapturous visions and back toward her own sin:

When He showed me that I would sin, because of the joy that I had in beholding Him, I did not readily pay attention to that showing, and our courteous Lord stopped then, and would not teach me further until He gave me grace and the will to pay attention.

From this I was taught that although we are nobly lifted up into contemplation by the particular gift of our Lord, yet it is necessary for us along with that to have knowledge and awareness of our sin and our weakness. Without this knowledge we cannot have true humility, and without this humility we cannot be saved.

That's a concise summary of the conclusion of Psalm 107. For Julian, the Lord halts the positive and happy revelations because she glossed over, understandably so, the showing that pointed out her sin. Consequently, the Lord stops and has Julian go back to "pay attention" to her failures. And just like Psalm 107's call, this need to "pay attention" concerns the cultivation of humility. For without humility, Julian says, we cannot be saved. 

That said, Julian goes on to say that we can become too fixated upon our sin, growing sad, despairing, fearful, and morbid. So, while it is necessary to pay attention to our failures, Julian says "be not much bothered by sin." What we should pay most attention to is the Lord's mercy, grace, and love. Healthy spiritual vision is both bifocal and asymmetrical. Bifocal in that we pay attention to both sin and the Lord's mercy. This bifocal vision keeps us humble. But our sight is also asymmetrical in that we pay much greater attention to the Lord's love and compassion. This  bifocal and asymmetrical vision is precisely what Psalm 107 portrays.

So, pay attention to your sin. Without humility you cannot be saved. But be not much bothered by your sin. Keep your focus upon the Lord's acts of faithful love.