Psalm 107:1-43
1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
his love endures forever.
2 Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story—
those he redeemed from the hand of the foe,
3 those he gathered from the lands,
from east and west, from north and south. (Psalm 107:1-3)
This psalm re-creates a service of thanksgiving that glorifies God for his goodness and his everlasting mercy (v. 1). Notice that in v. 3 it says the Lord gathered “the redeemed of the Lord” (v. 2) “from east and west, from north and south.” These words lead many students of the Psalms to think that this psalm was used in some kind of thanksgiving service in the Second Temple — in the period after Israel’s return from the Babylonian captivity. You may know from Israel’s history that after the reign of King Solomon, in 933 BC, Israel was divided in two — into a northern and a southern kingdom. Two hundred years later, in 722 BC, the northern kingdom was scattered and completely assimilated by the Assyrian empire. A hundred and fifty years later, in 586 BC, the Babylonians, who were in power at that time, took Judah and the remaining tribes into captivity. And although most of them never returned, about fifty years later, in 536 BC, under the leadership of Zerubbabel a group of some 50,000 people returned to the land of Judah. Twenty years later, in 516, during the ministry of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, the Second Temple was completed. And so, as they sang this psalm, the Israelites rejoiced and celebrated the fact that God had gathered them from their exile and brought them back from their captivity into the Promised Land, into their homeland.
In the central part of the psalm its author invites “the redeemed of the Lord” to give their testimonies of God’s supernatural intervention in four different situations. This allows us, in our study, to divide the psalm into four songs or stanzas. What the four groups of people described in these four songs have in common is that, having fallen into their distress, they pray — they cry out to the Lord, and in answer to their prayer God delivers them from their “distress” and their troubles. In verses 6, 13, 19, and 28 the same words recur as a refrain and are evidently especially important for understanding the psalm. They show us the key to the change in the sufferers’ condition — namely, their prayer to God.
Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress. (Psalm 107:6)
Four times another refrain also recurs — the reason God answers the prayers of the suffering — so that those who are redeemed by him may glorify him (vv. 8, 15, 21, 31).
Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love
and his wonderful deeds for mankind. (Psalm 107:8)
This reason for God’s intervention in our lives is in harmony with what the apostle Paul says in his prayer for the Ephesians (Ephesians 1:6, 12, 14). There the apostle stresses that when God does something, it is “to the praise of his glory” (Ephesians 1:12, 14) and “to the praise of his glorious grace” (Ephesians 1:6). So we may boldly conclude that the ultimate goal of God’s redemptive work is his own glory.
THE SONG OF THE LOST (vv. 4-9)
The first of the four songs in this psalm is the song of the lost. These are the restless, searching people. First, they wander aimlessly and get nowhere (v. 4).
4 Some wandered in desert wastelands,
finding no way to a city where they could settle. (Psalm 107:4)
Second, because of their aimless wandering they are left without food and water and are literally threatened with death by starvation (v. 5).
5 They were hungry and thirsty,
and their lives ebbed away. (Psalm 107:5)
We cannot imagine what it is to literally die of hunger — we simply cannot grasp it, because we have never experienced it. Yet even today there are thousands of people in the world, most of them children, who die of hunger every day. According to a truly grim statistic, every 2.43 seconds a human being on our planet dies of starvation. In this year alone, more than 9 million people have died of hunger. (http://www.starvation.net/)
Then, in that desperate condition, they cry out to God, and he answers both of their needs — first, he sets their feet on the straight path that leads them to a safe place (vv. 6-7), and second, he quenches their thirst and satisfies their hunger (v. 9).
6 Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
7 He led them by a straight way
to a city where they could settle.
8 Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love
and his wonderful deeds for mankind,
9 for he satisfies the thirsty
and fills the hungry with good things. (Psalm 107:6-9)
This story of the lost and God’s intervention in their lives reminds me of Hagar. In Genesis 21:14-19 we read what happened to her when Sarah made Abraham drive her out of the house together with her son Ishmael:
14 Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with the boy. She went on her way and wandered in the Desert of Beersheba. 15 When the water in the skin was gone, she put the boy under one of the bushes. 16 Then she went off and sat down about a bowshot away, for she thought, “I cannot watch the boy die.” And as she sat there, she began to sob. 17 God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. 18 Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.” 19 Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink. (Genesis 21:14-19)
It is as if verses 4-9 were written precisely for this case. Hagar and Ishmael wander in the desert and get lost. Their water runs out, and, hungry and thirsty, they prepare to meet death. They weep. And God hears their weeping from heaven and answers them. And not only does he answer them, but he also opens their eyes to see a well of water that quenches their thirst.
9 for he satisfies the thirsty
and fills the hungry with good things. (Psalm 107:9)
So what can those who are lost do? What can those who are dying of hunger do? What can we do if — God forbid — we come to the point of starvation? We cannot produce food out of thin air. So what can we do? We can pray! We can do what the lost did — “they cried out to the Lord in their trouble” (v. 6). “And he delivered them from their distress” (v. 6).
7 He led them by a straight way
to a city where they could settle. (Psalm 107:7)
“He led them by a straight way” — this is the same terminology as in Isaiah 40:3.
3 A voice of one calling:
“In the wilderness prepare
the way for the Lord;
make straight in the desert
a highway for our God. (Isaiah 40:3)
What can the lost do? What can the starving do? They can pray. And what can we do? We can pray.
On the one hand, it is hard for us to put ourselves in the place of the starving and the lost, but on the other hand, if we are speaking of spiritual hunger and spiritual wandering, we had all strayed from the way and were dying in our sin. But God in his mercy sent us Jesus, the bread that comes down from heaven, of which, if anyone eats, he will live forever (John 6:31-35, 50-51), and set us on a path that leads to salvation (John 14:6).
The “city where they could settle” spoken of in v. 7 reminds us of the heavenly city that God has prepared for us. In Hebrews 11:9-10, 13-16 it says that Abraham himself and the patriarchs waited for this city and reached out for it:
9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country — a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. (Hebrews 11:9-10, 13-16)
Not only Abraham, but we too seek the heavenly city. Hebrews 13:14 says:
14 For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. (Hebrews 13:14)
THE SONG OF THE OPPRESSED (vv. 10-16)
After the song of the lost we can hear the song of the prisoners, the oppressed. Who are they? They are the hostile ones, the rebels in this life. It is hard to tell whether a literal prison is meant here or whether it speaks figuratively of “the prison of exile.” But either way, for these people too the key to changing their situation is prayer. The contrast in their condition before and after prayer is remarkable. Before prayer they are oppressed (v. 10a), bound in chains (v. 10b), and subjected to slave-like, forced labor. Trying to do things by their own strength, they are utterly exhausted and helpless — so much so that they cannot rise from their fall.
10 Some sat in darkness, in utter darkness,
prisoners suffering in iron chains, (Psalm 107:10)
Why are they “in darkness, in utter darkness”? Why are they bound in sorrow and iron? The reason for their bondage is stated quite plainly — their rebellion against God’s word and their contempt for God’s counsel. The people of Israel went into the prison of slavery because of their disobedience — because of their own sin and their rejection of the warnings of God’s prophets.
11 because they rebelled against God’s commands
and despised the plans of the Most High.
12 So he subjected them to bitter labor;
they stumbled, and there was no one to help. (Psalm 107:11-12)
It is interesting to talk with someone who is in prison. I personally have not spoken with many; judging from films and other people’s accounts — to put it cynically — if you listen to them, they all claim to be innocent. But there are also those who are simply broken by ending up in prison, and there, in prison, they turn to God. And in the end, it does not matter so much whether you brought it on yourself or not — either way, you are in a terrible, desperate situation. What can you do? What can those who have ended up in prison do? What can those who, in one way or another, are oppressed do? They can pray. What can we do if we are in such a hard and desperate situation? We can pray.
13 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he saved them from their distress.
14 He brought them out of darkness, the utter darkness,
and broke away their chains. (Psalm 107:13-14)
Although they are in bondage because of their own disobedience, for the oppressed too the turning point in their situation is sincere, heartfelt, earnest prayer to the Lord. In answer to their prayer God “breaks away their chains” and frees them from their bondage. And again the goal of God’s intervention is the same — that they may “give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind.”
15 Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love
and his wonderful deeds for mankind,
16 for he breaks down gates of bronze
and cuts through bars of iron. (Psalm 107:15-16)
This song reminds me of the fact that God hears the prayers we offer in our distress. When we are in trouble and cry out to God, he hears our cry (Psalm 65:2). In Exodus 2:23-25 we read:
23 During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. 24 God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. 25 So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them. (Exodus 2:23-25)
You see, when Israel fell into slavery and in its slavery cried out to the Lord, God “was concerned about them.” And he not only “was concerned about them,” but he also sent them a deliverer, Moses. When he appeared to him in the midst of the burning bush, he said to him (Exodus 3:7-8):
7 The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey — the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. (Exodus 3:7-8)
What can we do when we have fallen into circumstances and a situation we cannot change? Even if we ourselves are to blame for the mess we have gotten into? We can pray!
THE SONG OF THE FOOLS (vv. 17-22)
The third song is the song of the fools. The fools are not those who cannot think, but those who do not see things in perspective and do not consider the consequences of their actions.
17 Some became fools through their rebellious ways
and suffered affliction because of their iniquities. (Psalm 107:17)
“There is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked” (Isaiah 48:22). As a result of their sin the fools fall ill. And they not only fall sick but lose their appetite and refuse to go on eating. They not only simply fall ill but are bound to a deathbed and are about to lose their lives. They become so sick that they lose consciousness and perhaps even reach a state of coma.
18 They loathed all food
and drew near the gates of death. (Psalm 107:18)
And they “drew near the gates of death” because of their own sin — “because of their iniquities.” Because of the extremism of some popular preachers, many people are afraid even to say a word about the connection between our sins and our illnesses. We are afraid that people will oversimplify things and put an equals sign between sickness and sin — that if someone is ill, they will assume it is necessarily due to some sin of his. Of course, this is not so (John 9:1-3).
1 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. (John 9:1-3)
We cannot put an equals sign between sickness and sin. Nevertheless, the Bible is quite clear that there is definitely a connection between sin and sickness. In Matthew 8:17 the evangelist quotes Isaiah 53:4, but here he links the bearing of our diseases not with the cross but with the healing ministry of Jesus.
16 When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. 17 This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases.” (Matthew 8:16-17)
So, on the one hand we are right to claim that our redemption includes our healing as well. On the other hand, we all know very well that healing is not something automatic. And on a third hand, just because some people exaggerate by claiming that healing is automatic — when we know very well that it is not — that should not make us forget what the Bible says about healing, namely, that God continues to work miracles and to heal even today.
It is hard to be ill. And most often the hardest part of being sick is not the physical pain of the symptoms of the illness, but the emotional trauma we go through simply because of the fact that we are ill. Sickness cuts us off from our normal life, from our family, from our friends, and from our work. We know of many cases when we prayed for people for God to heal them and believed with all our heart for their healing, but they died — often even very young. But let us not forget the many cases when we prayed to God for healing and rescue from deadly and incurable diseases, and he said, “Yes!” and worked miracles in our lives and healed us.
There are different kinds of illnesses. There are those that simply come upon us. And there are those that we bring upon ourselves by our disobedience. But what can we do when we fall ill? We can pray.
In their distress, in their sickness, the fools too, like the lost and the oppressed, “cry out to the Lord in their trouble.” And again prayer changes things. God hears their prayer and “sends out his word and heals them.” After the prayer they are healed and free from the trap of the illness they had fallen into.
19 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he saved them from their distress.
20 He sent out his word and healed them;
he rescued them from the grave.
21 Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love
and his wonderful deeds for mankind.
22 Let them sacrifice thank offerings
and tell of his works with songs of joy. (Psalm 107:19-22)
This song reminds me of King Hezekiah. In 2 Kings 20:1-6 we read his famous story.
1 In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, “This is what the Lord says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.” 2 Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, 3 “Remember, Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. 4 Before Isaiah had left the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him: 5 “Go back and tell Hezekiah, the ruler of my people, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the temple of the Lord. 6 I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.’” (2 Kings 20:1-6)
THE SONG OF THOSE IN CRISIS (v. 23)
And so, in this psalm we have four songs of redeemed people (v. 2). So far we have heard the songs of the lost (the starving), the oppressed (the prisoners), and the fools (the sick); it remains to hear the song of the seafarers (the sailors). They represent those people who dare to stand against the forces of nature and every kind of difficulty, but as they venture into the uncharted territory of the unknown and the “mighty waters,” they fall into a crisis that only God can resolve.
23 Some went out on the sea in ships;
they were merchants on the mighty waters.
24 They saw the works of the Lord,
his wonderful deeds in the deep.
25 For he spoke and stirred up a tempest
that lifted high the waves.
26 They mounted up to the heavens and went down to the depths; (Psalm 107:23-26)
Some people fall into the trap of the ocean. The ocean is something so vast and boundless. It cannot be mastered or controlled by man. In these verses, as in the previous situations, we see the complete helplessness of those who have fallen into trouble. They “reel and stagger like drunkards” and are simply dying of fear.
in their peril their courage melted away.
27 They reeled and staggered like drunkards;
they were at their wits’ end. (Psalm 107:26-27)
Perhaps a hurricane at sea has never overtaken us, but we have all been in hopeless situations — situations in which “all our courage melts away.” What can we do in such a situation? What can we do when we are in despair and in danger? We can pray.
What do they do in this situation? They pray, of course — they “cry out to the Lord.” And, of course, he brings them out of their dead end.
28 Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,
and he brought them out of their distress.
29 He stilled the storm to a whisper;
the waves of the sea were hushed. (Psalm 107:28-29)
After God’s intervention those who were in crisis are joyful — they celebrate and rejoice because of the peace God brings them. Besides, they are happy that with God’s help they reach their goal — their “desired haven.”
30 They were glad when it grew calm,
and he guided them to their desired haven.
31 Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love
and his wonderful deeds for mankind.
32 Let them exalt him in the assembly of the people
and praise him in the council of the elders. (Psalm 107:30-32)
This reminds me of the sailors in the story of the prophet Jonah (Jonah 1:1-17).
1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”
3 But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.
4 Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. 5 All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. 6 The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish.”
7 Then the sailors said to each other, “Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.” They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. 8 So they asked him, “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What kind of work do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?” 9 He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” 10 This terrified them and they asked, “What have you done?” (They knew he was running away from the Lord, because he had already told them so.) 11 The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?” 12 “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.”
13 Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. 14 Then they cried out to the Lord, “Please, Lord, do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, Lord, have done as you pleased.” 15 Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm.
16 At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him.
17 Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. (Jonah 1:1-17)
God is in control. He controls the wind. He controls the sea. He controls the fish in the sea. He is the one to whom we must pray when we have fallen into a hopeless situation.
GOD’S WAYS (vv. 33-43)
In the rest of the psalm we find several examples that demonstrate the ways in which God does things. The generalizations we can draw from them are that God’s ways are “unsearchable” — most varied. God can use both crises and blessings to speak to us and to bring us to himself.
First, God uses opposition (confrontation) to bring us to himself (vv. 33-34). C. S. Lewis said: “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to our conscience, but shouts to us in our pain. Pain is the megaphone by which God rouses a deaf world.”
33 He turned rivers into a desert,
flowing springs into thirsty ground,
34 and fruitful land into a salt waste,
because of the wickedness of those who lived there. (Psalm 107:33-34)
Notice the direction in these verses — from good to bad. From fertility to drought, from blessing to curse. And all of this is because of the sins of the people.
Second, God uses not only confrontation but also prosperity and miracles to bless those who are in need.
35 He turned the desert into pools of water
and the parched ground into flowing springs;
36 there he brought the hungry to live,
and they founded a city where they could settle.
37 They sowed fields and planted vineyards
that yielded a fruitful harvest;
38 he blessed them, and their numbers greatly increased,
and he did not let their herds diminish.
39 Then their numbers decreased, and they were humbled
by oppression, calamity and sorrow; (Psalm 107:35-39)
Verses 40 and 41 are a summary of the preceding verses. God humbles the proud and exalts the humble, pours contempt on the mighty and delivers the poor from their troubles.
40 he who pours contempt on nobles
made them wander in a trackless waste.
41 But he lifted the needy out of their affliction
and increased their families like flocks. (Psalm 107:40-41)
The last verse of the psalm describes people’s reactions to God’s methods. God’s deeds are just. The righteous rejoice in them. The unrighteous, on the other hand, are silenced — like the Pharisees who tried to catch Jesus in his words but simply could not. Their mouths were shut and they had nothing to say.
42 The upright see and rejoice,
but all the wicked shut their mouths. (Psalm 107:42)
No one can complain about God. God is a God of salvation, freedom, healing, and peace! In Jesus Christ we are saved. He reconciled us to God. He is the Way that leads to the heavenly city. In Jesus Christ we are freed from the chains of sin, the flesh, Satan, and death. “And by his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5)!
It seems to me that a description of Jesus’ ministry is given in this psalm. He fed the hungry; he set the bound free. He forgave the sins of the sick and healed them. He calmed the storm. This is one of the reasons we know that Jesus Christ is God. The things God does in this psalm are the same things Jesus does in his ministry.
43 Let the one who is wise heed these things
and ponder the loving deeds of the Lord. (Psalm 107:43)
Ask yourself the question: “How does everything I have heard this morning apply personally to me?” Apply it to yourself, and you will be blessed!
In fact, this psalm is not a lament or a prayer. It is a psalm of thanksgiving. The situations sung of in it are already past. In them, those who had fallen into distress cried out to the Lord, and he answered. And the psalmist says:
1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
his love endures forever. (Psalm 107:1)
And these are only examples of the things from which God frees and saves us. We may never have been literally dying of hunger. We may never have been literally in prison. We may never have been on a deathbed. We may never have been in the middle of the ocean during a hurricane. But we all know what it is to be in a hopeless situation — one in which we can do nothing, cannot change anything at all — utterly exhausted and helpless. Nothing! Except to turn to God and pray for him to help us. We have all been in such a position. And he has answered! And we have thanked him. In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord: our heavenly Father, we thank you! Amen.