Psalms 107
Big idea: Four rescues, and the same two lines after each one: then they cried to Yahweh in their trouble, and he delivered them; let them praise Yahweh for his loving kindness. Lost in a desert with no city. Chained in the dark. Sick enough to refuse food. Caught in a storm at sea. The four are chosen to cover every kind of trouble a person can be in — geographic, political, physical, elemental — and every one of them ends the same way. The closing verses widen further, into rivers turning to desert and desert to pools, and finish with an instruction: whoever is wise will pay attention to these things.
Psalm 107 answers Book IV's closing plea to be gathered. Psalm 108 wakes the dawn to sing about it.
107:1–9 — They wandered in the wilderness
Book V opens with a psalm built as four case studies, each following the same four beats: trouble, a cry, a rescue, and a refrain. The first is the desert — people wandering with no city, hungry and thirsty — and what they receive is not food first but a ROAD: he led them by a straight way to a city to live in. The hunger is answered by an address.
1 Give thanks to Yahweh, for he is good, for his loving kindness endures forever. 2 Let the redeemed by Yahweh say so, whom he has redeemed from the hand of the adversary, 3 and gathered out of the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south. 4 They wandered in the wilderness in a desert way. They found no city to live in. 5 Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. 6 Then they cried to Yahweh in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses. 7 He led them also by a straight way, that they might go to a city to live in. 8 Let them praise Yahweh for his loving kindness, for his wonderful deeds to the children of men! 9 For he satisfies the longing soul. He fills the hungry soul with good.
107:10–16 — He broke away their chains
The second case is prison, and it is the only one of the four where the trouble is explicitly deserved — 'because they REBELLED against the words of God'. The psalm does not soften that and it does not let it change the outcome: they cry, and he saves. The rescue is described as demolition, bronze gates broken and iron bars cut through.
10 Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron, 11 because they rebelled against the words of God, and condemned the counsel of the Most High. 12 Therefore he brought down their heart with labor. They fell down, and there was no one to help. 13 Then they cried to Yahweh in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses. 14 He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and broke away their chains. 15 Let them praise Yahweh for his loving kindness, for his wonderful deeds to the children of men! 16 For he has broken the gates of bronze, and cut through bars of iron.
107:17–22 — He sends his word, and heals them
The third case is illness, and the detail that makes it real is the loss of appetite: their soul ABHORS all kinds of food, which is what a body does when it has given up. The rescue is the psalm's most economical — 'he SENDS HIS WORD, and heals them' — and it is the only one of the four that asks for a specific response afterwards.
17 Fools are afflicted because of their disobedience, and because of their iniquities. 18 Their soul abhors all kinds of food. They draw near to the gates of death. 19 Then they cry to Yahweh in their trouble, and he saves them out of their distresses. 20 He sends his word, and heals them, and delivers them from their graves. 21 Let them praise Yahweh for his loving kindness, for his wonderful deeds to the children of men! 22 Let them offer the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his deeds with singing.
107:23–32 — He makes the storm a calm
The fourth case is the storm, and it is the longest and best-written — a ship going up to the sky and down to the depths, sailors reeling like drunks and 'at their wits' end'. What makes it different from the other three is verse 25: the storm is not weather that happened to them. He COMMANDS it. The same one who raised it makes it a calm.
23 Those who go down to the sea in ships, who do business in great waters, 24 these see Yahweh’s deeds, and his wonders in the deep. 25 For he commands, and raises the stormy wind, which lifts up its waves. 26 They mount up to the sky; they go down again to the depths. Their soul melts away because of trouble. 27 They reel back and forth, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end. 28 Then they cry to Yahweh in their trouble, and he brings them out of their distress. 29 He makes the storm a calm, so that its waves are still. 30 Then they are glad because it is calm, so he brings them to their desired haven. 31 Let them praise Yahweh for his loving kindness, for his wonderful deeds for the children of men! 32 Let them exalt him also in the assembly of the people, and praise him in the seat of the elders.
107:33–43 — Whoever is wise will pay attention
The last movement drops the case-study form and generalises, and it does so by reversing everything twice. Rivers become desert, desert becomes pools; the needy are lifted and princes are made to wander. The psalm is arguing that these reversals are not weather but government — and then it ends with an instruction rather than a conclusion: whoever is wise will PAY ATTENTION.
33 He turns rivers into a desert, water springs into a thirsty ground, 34 and a fruitful land into a salt waste, for the wickedness of those who dwell in it. 35 He turns a desert into a pool of water, and a dry land into water springs. 36 There he makes the hungry live, that they may prepare a city to live in, 37 sow fields, plant vineyards, and reap the fruits of increase. 38 He blesses them also, so that they are multiplied greatly. He doesn’t allow their livestock to decrease. 39 Again, they are diminished and bowed down through oppression, trouble, and sorrow. 40 He pours contempt on princes, and causes them to wander in a trackless waste. 41 Yet he lifts the needy out of their affliction, and increases their families like a flock. 42 The upright will see it, and be glad. All the wicked will shut their mouths. 43 Whoever is wise will pay attention to these things. They will consider the loving kindnesses of Yahweh.
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).