Psalm 107:30, “…He brought them to their desired haven.”
In Psalm 107:23-32, the people of God are pictured as sailors in the midst of a violent storm. They cry to YHWH and He stills the storm and brings them to their desired haven. What I want to focus on this morning is that last part….bringing the storm-weary sailors to the haven of their desire…
In John 6:16-20, John echoes Psalm 107 in his account of Jesus walking on the water out to his disciples’ storm-tossed boat. Unlike the synoptic Gospels, John tells us that as soon as Jesus gets into the boat, “immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.” YHWH incarnate enters His people’s sinking boat and they are instantly at their destination; they are instantly at “their desired haven.”
John skips the stilling of the storm, he skips Peter walking on the water, he skips the rest of the boat’s journey from the middle of the lake to the shore, he jumps over all of that and simply tells us that the moment Jesus is with them, they are where they need to be. That is the point John is making….to have Jesus IS to be at the “desired haven”….indeed, Jesus Himself is the haven that our storm-tossed souls desire (consider that the same Greek word for “desire” applied to the haven in Psalm 107 is applied to Jesus in John 6:20).
YHWH has brought, is bringing, and will bring His people to the haven of their desire…to the place of deep and true rest…to white shores, and beyond, to the Far Green Country of Triune joy. And John’s allusion to Psalm 107 in his account of Jesus’ walking on the water seems to imply that Jesus Himself IS this haven, is this rest, and is this heavenly country for which our souls long. To have Christ “in our boat”—to abide in Him as a branch in the vine, and for Him to abide in us—this is ALREADY to be at our desired haven….ALREADY to be at the land to which we are going…ALREADY to have eternal life, since eternal life is the intimate knowledge of God that comes when we receive Jesus as the revelation of God by the illuminating work of the Spirit.
