Psalms 107

Psalms 107AFTER propounding as his theme the goodness of God in delivering his people, and especially in bringing them back from their dispersions, Psalms 107:1-3, the Psalmist celebrates this great event, under the various figures of safe conduct through a desert and arrival in a populous city, Psalms 107:4-9; emancipation from imprisonment, Psalms 107:10-16; recovery from deadly sickness, Psalms 107:17-22; deliverance from the dangers of the sea, Psalms 107:23-32; then describes, in more direct terms, the fall of the oppressor, the restoration of Israel, and his happy prospects, Psalms 107:33-42; ending, as he began, with an earnest exhortation to remember and commemorate Jehovah’s goodness, Psalms 107:43. The psalm is so constructed as to admit of being readily applied, either literally or figuratively, to various emergencies: but its primary reference to the return from exile seems to be determined by Psalms 107:2-3. According to Hengstenberg’s hypothesis, this psalm was added to the double trilogy by which it is preceded (Psalms 101-106.), immediately after the return from exile, when the holy city was re-peopled, and the first harvest had been gathered, but the rebuilding of the temple had not yet begun. The whole seven then compose one series or system, intended to be used together in the public worship of the ancient church.

1. (Psalms 107:1) Give thanks unto Jehovah, for he (is) good, for unto eternity (is) his mercy. The repetition of the first words of the foregoing psalm, as the beginning of the one before us, strongly favours the opinion, that the latter was designed to be a kind of supplement or appendix to the former.

2. (Psalms 107:2) (So) say the Redeemed of Jehovah, whom he has redeemed from the hand of distress (or of the enemy). What they are to say is not the exhortation in the first clause, but the reason for it in the last clause, of the foregoing verse. Let them acknowledge his unceasing mercy, who have just experienced so remarkable a proof of it. The ambiguous word should probably be taken in the same sense which it elsewhere has throughout this psalm. See below, Psalms 107:6; Psalms 107:13; Psalms 107:19; Psalms 107:28, and compare Psalms 106:44. Indeed, the two senses may be reconciled by simply supposing the distress to be personified. Compare the unambiguous expression in Psalms 106:10. The Redeemed of the Lord is a favourite expression of Isaiah (Isaiah 35:9-10; Isaiah 62:12; Isaiah 63:3).

3. (Psalms 107:3) And from the lands has gathered them, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the sea. The Babylonish exile is continually spoken of as a dispersion, either because it is considered as including other minor deportations, or because the migration of the great mass of the people into Babylonia was unavoidably accompanied, followed, or preceded, by a less extensive and more scattering migration of many individuals and families to other quarters. On the false assumption of a perfect parallelism as indispensable, some have supposed that sea is here put for the south. But this is not the only case in which the enumeration of the cardinal points is complete only in number. See Isaiah 49:12, and compare Isaiah 43:5-6; Isaiah 56:8. The mention of the sea instead of the south may perhaps have reference to the prophecy in Deuteronomy 28:68. The verse before us records the answer to the prayer in Psalms 106:47, and thus affords another indication, that the writer of the later composition had the earlier in his eye, and wrote with some intention to illustrate or complete it.

4. (Psalms 107:4) They wandered in the wilderness, in a desert way; a city of habitation found they not. Here begins the first metaphorical account of the Captivity and Restoration, in which the exiles are described as wanderers in a desert way, i. e. as some suppose a pathless desert, which sense, however, can scarcely be extracted from the Hebrew words. Others understand the phrase to mean a way, i.e. a course, a region to be traversed, which is desert; but this supposes way to be the subject and desert the qualifying term, as they would be in English, but in Hebrew the precise sense is a desert of way, or a way-desert, which some interpreters explain to mean a desert in reference to its ways or paths, thus arriving, by a different course, at the meaning first suggested, namely that of a pathless wilderness. City of habitation may mean a habitable or inhabited city in general, or a city for them to inhabit in particular. The latter is more probable, because the word translated habitation is not an abstract but a local noun, meaning the place where men sit or dwell, according to the primary and secondary meaning of the verbal root. See above, on Psalms 1:1.

It may here be either governed by city, as above, or in apposition with it, a city, a dwelling-place, i.e. a city in which they might dwell. There is obvious allusion to Jerusalem, as well as to the great Arabian wilderness, although the contrast of the city and the desert suggests the idea of suffering and relief, by a natural as well as a historical association. See Ezekiel 29:5, and compare Job 12:24,

5. (Psalms 107:5) Hungry–also thirsty— their soul in them shrouds itself. This verse continues the description of the wanderers in the desert. To avoid the ambiguity of an exact version, in which hungry and thirsty might seem to agree with soul, the substantive verb may be supplied in the first clause, (they are) hungry, also thirsty. The primary sense of the reflexive verb at the end of the sentence seems to be that of covering one’s self with darkness, or sinking overwhelmed beneath some great calamity. See above, on Psalms 77:3, and compare the cognate forms in Psalms 61:2; Psalms 65:13; Psalms 102:1, Isaiah 57:16.

6. (Psalms 107:6) And they cried to Jehovah in their distress; from their straits he frees them. Both the nouns, according to their etymology, convey the idea of pressure, compression, painful restraint. In their distress, literally in the distress to them, that which they had or suffered. See above, on Psalms 106:44, and compare Deuteronomy 4:30. The change from the past tense to the future seems intended merely to describe the ‘act denoted by the second or more recent.

7. (Psalms 107:7) And he led them in a straight course, to go to a city of habitation. No exact version can preserve or imitate the paronomasia arising from the etymological affinity of the first verb and noun, analogous to that between the English walk and to walk, though the Hebrew forms are only similar and not identical. The idea of physical rectitude or straightness necessarily suggests that of moral rectitude or honesty, commonly denoted by the Hebrew word.

8. (Psalms 107:8) Let (such) give thanks to Jehovah (for) his mercy, and his wonderful works to the sons of man. Some interpreters make this the close of a long sentence, beginning with Psalms 107:4, and adopt, in all the intervening verses, a relative construction, as if he had said, let such as wandered in the wilderness, whose soul fainted in them, who cried unto the Lord, whom he led, etc., let such give thanks unto his name. But although this is certainly the logical connection of the passage, its involution and complexity of form are as far as possible removed from the simplicity of Hebrew syntax, which prefers a distinct enunciation of particulars to all such artificial combinations. This verse constitutes the burden or chorus of the psalm.

9. (Psalms 107:9) For he has satisfied the craving soul, and the hungry soul has filled with good. This is merely the conclusion of the first scene or picture, with a change of figure but a very slight one, as the want of food is one of the most painful and familiar hardships of a journey through a desert, and as such would necessarily occur to every Israelite who knew the story of the error in the wilderness. The first verb has the same sense as in Psalms 104:18; the last noun the same sense as in Psalms 103:4; Psalms 104:28. The unusual word translated craving is borrowed from Isaiah 29:8.

10. (Psalms 107:10) Dwelling in, darknees and death-shade, bound in, affliction and iron. Here begins the second picture, which exhibits the same sufferers, no longer as wanderers in the desert, but as closely confined prisoners. The darkness primarily meant is that of the dungeon, but not without reference to the frequent use of darkness in general as an emblem of misery. See above, on Psalms 68:6. The idea of darkness is then expressed in a still stronger form by the striking compound death-shade or shadow of death, a, bold but beautiful description of the most profound obscurity. See above, on Psalms 23:4.

The leading words of the two clauses might, in one respect, be more exactly rendered, inhabitants of darkness, prisoners of affliction. See above, on Psalms 78:61. There is no mixture of literal and figurative terms in the last clause, but only the addition of a specific to a general term. The affliction particularly meant is that produced by iron, i. e. chains or fetters. See above, on Psalms 105:18, and with the verse before us compare Isaiah 42:7; Isaiah 49:9, Job 36:8, Luke 13:16.

11. (Psalms 107:11) Because they resisted the words of the Mightiest, and the counsel of the Highest condemned. This verse introduces what was wanting in the first scene, the fact that these were not innocent sufferers. However cruel or unjust their sufferings at the hands of men, they were but condign punishments as sent by God. This is a point of contact and resemblance with the preceding psalm, which is not without importance. Resisted, rebelled against, a favourite expression in these psalms. See above, on Psalms 105:28; Psalms 106:7; Psalms 106:33; Psalms 106:43.

Words or sayings, commonly applied to promises, and even here combining that idea with the sense of command, because the command which they resisted or rebelled against had reference to the plan or counsel of the Lord for the deliverance of his people. The word translated mightiest is one of the divine names, here represented by an English superlative, in order to preserve the antithesis with Most High in the other clause.

12. (Psalms 107:12) And he brought down, with trouble, their heart; they stumbled and there was no helper. The remedial design and effect of their punishment are beautifully set forth in the first clause. The word translated trouble means originally work or labour, then the pain attending it or flowing from it. Stumbled may here be put for fell, or have the milder sense of tottering or stumbling, as distinguished from a total fall. No helper, or none helping, except God, as intimated in the next verse; or against God, when he chose to punish them.

13. (Psalms 107:13) And they cried to Jehovah in their distress; out of their straits he saves them. An exact repetition of Psa 107:6, except that the first verb is exchanged for a cognate one, differing only in a single letter, and the last verb for a synonyme still more familiar. As to the consecution of the tenses, see above, on Psalms 107:6.

14. (Psalms 107:14) He brings them out from darkness and deathshade, and their bonds he severs. The terms used in describing the deliverance are studiously made to correspond with the account of the captivity in ver. 10. It is more remarkable, though possibly fortuitous, that the words of the second clause are the same which David puts into the mouth of the revolted nations, Psalms 2:3. The English word severs is here used instead of breaks, in order to represent the more uncommon and poetical term used in Hebrew.

15, 16. (Psalms 107:15-16) Let (such) give thanks unto Jehovah (for) his mercy, and his wonderfal works to the sons of man, because he has broken doors of brass, and bars of iron has cut asunder. The burden in Psalms 107:15 is in all respects identical with Psalms 107:8, but the supplementary verse differs, according to the prominent figures in the two scenes or pictures. As the idea of famine was selected, in Psalms 107:9, from among the hardships of the wilderness, so here the fastenings of the prison are presented in precisely the same manner. In this striking regularity of form, combined with vividness and beauty of conception, there is evidence of art and skill as well as genius. The verb in the first clause of Psa 107:16 is an intensive form of the verb to break, and might here be rendered shattered, shivered, or the like. The corresponding verb in the last clause is a similar intensive of the verb to cut. The whole verse is copied from Isaiah 45:2, where we find the promise, of which this is the fulfilment.

17. (Psalms 107:17) Fools by their course of transgression, and by their crimes, afflict themselves. Here begins the third scene or picture, at the very opening of which the charge of folly is added to the previous one of guilt. The reflexive meaning of the verb is essential, and cannot be diluted into a mere passive without weakening the whole sentence, the very point of which consists in making them the guilty authors of their own distresses. The word for transgression is the one that originally means revolt from God, apostasy. See above on Psalms 36:1. Course, literally way or path. By, literally from, as when we speak of an effect as arising or proceeding from a cause.

18. (Psalms 107:18) All food their soul abhors, and they draw near to the very gates of death. This verse abruptly brings before us the same persons whom we lately beheld wandering in the desert, and then chained in a dark dungeon, now suffering from disease, such as not only mars their pleasures, but threatens to abbreviate their lives. Compare Psalms 102:3, Job 33:20. The expression very gates, in the translation of the last clause, is intended to convey the full force of the Hebrew preposition which is stronger than to. See above, on Psalms 57:10. With the last clause compare Psalms 9:14; Psalms 88:3, Job 33:22, Isaiah 38:9.

19. (Psalms 107:19) And they cry to Jehovah in their distress; out of their straits he saves them. See above on Psalms 107:6; Psalms 107:13, with the last of which this agrees exactly.

20. (Psalms 107:20) He sends his word and heals them, and makes them escape from their destructions, i.e. those which threatened them, and from which escape appeared impossible. He sends his word, he issues his command, exerts his sovereign power and authority. The last word in the Hebrew occurs only here and once in Lamentations (Lamentations 4:20). The modern interpreters have pits or graves; but such a derivation from the verbal root is without example or analogy. See above, on Psalms 16:10. With the first clause compare Psalms 30:2; Psalms 33:9, Isaiah 57:18; with the last Psalms 103:4.

21, 22. (Psalms 107:21-22) Let (such) give thanks unto Jehovah, (for) his mercy and his wonderful works to tke sons of man; and let them sacrifice sacrifices of thanksgiving, and recount his deeds with (joyful) singing. The freedom from technical and artificial rules of rhetoric or versification, even in those parts of the composition which exhibit most of art and skill, is peculiarly observable in this verse, where, instead of adding to the uniform chorus or refrain some particular image from the scene just closing, as in Psalms 107:9; Psalms 107:16, the Psalmist continues and completes the sentence by repeating the exhortation to give thanks, in another but still figurative form, derived from the musical and sacrificial customs of the temple worship. They must not only utter thanks but offer them in sacrifice. They must not only offer them in sacrifice, but sing them. With the first clause compare Psalms 50:14.

23. (Psalms 107:23) Going down the sea in ships, doing business in the many waters. Here again the scene is shifted, and the exiles pass before us, not as wanderersin the desert, or as captives in the dungeon, or as suffering from sickness, but as mariners engaged in an adventurous voyage. Descending, going down, seems to be an idiomatic phrase, borrowed from Isaiah 42:10, and equivalent to going out to sea in English. The expression may have reference to the general elevation of the land above the water (see above, on Psalms 24:2, but is directly opposite to our phrase, the high seas, and to the classical usage of ascending ships, i.e. embarking, and descending, i.e. landing. Doing business has its ordinary sense, as applied to trade or traffic. The last words may also be translated great or mighty waters; but the usage of the Psalms is in favour of the version many waters, which, more over, forms a beautiful poetical equivalent to sea or ocean.

This image could not fail to suggest, however, indirectly, the idea of the world with commotions, of which the constant emblem is the sea. See above, on Psalms 46:3; Psalms 65:7; Psalms 89:9; Psalms 93:3-4, and compare Matthew 8:23; Matthew 8:26, Mark 4:36-41, Luke viii. 22-25.

24. (Psalms 107:24) THEY saw the works of Jehovah, and his wonders in the deep. The pronoun at the beginning is emphatic, (it is) they (that) see (or saw) the works of the Lord, as if others could lay claim to no such privilege or honour. Both the senses of the phrase God’s works are appropriate in this connection, his works of creation and his works of providence. The last word is another poetical equivalent to sea or ocean. See above, on Psalms 69:2.

25. (Psalms 107:25) And he said— and there arose a stormy wind, and it lifted up his waves. He now parenthetically specifies some of the divine works which he had just mentioned in the general. The form of expression at the beginning, as in all like cases, involves an allusion to the history of the creation, where each creative act is preceded by God’s saying, let it be. So here the full sense is, and God said (let a stormy wind arise) and a stormy wind arose. See above, on Psalms 33:9. Arose, literally stood, stood up, as in Psalms 106:30.

A stormy wind, literally a wind of storm or tempest. Instead of his waves we may read its waves, and refer the pronoun to the remoter antecedent (sea) in Psalms 107:23. Deep, in Psalms 107:24, is of a different gender. It is equally correct, however, and more natural, to refer it to Jehovah, as the maker of the sea and the ruler of its waves. Compare the expression thy waves and thy billows in Psalms 42:8. See also Isaiah 51:15, Jeremiah 31:35.

26. (Psalms 107:26) They rise (to) the heavens; they sink (to) the depths; their soul with evil dissolves itself. That the verbs in the first clause relate not to the waves but to the mariners, is evident from the last clause. The words rise and sink are used instead of ascend, descend, or go up, go down, because the Hebrew verbs have no etymological affinity, nor even a single letter common to their roots. The ellipsis of the preposition to is frequent, or rather verbs of motion in Hebrew may be construed directly with a noun, where our idiom requires the intervention of a particle. Evil in the last clause may denote their evil state or painful situation, with all the circumstances comprehended in it; or, more specifically, their distress and painful feelings. Compare Genesis 41:29.

The reflexive form of the last verb is not essential to the meaning of the sentence, as in Psalms 107:17, and may therefore be explained as an intensive or emphatic passage, it is melted. See above, on Psalms 22:14. With the whole verse compare Psalms 104:8. 27. (Psalms 107:27) They reel and stagger like a drunken (man), and all their wisdom is confounded. By wisdom we are here to understand reason, common sense, that which makes men rational and raises them above the brutes. This is plain from the comparison with drunkenness, the only point of which must be the loss of reason. The reeling and staggering may relate to the irregular and violent motion of a vessel in a storm, or, as the last clause does, to the mariners themselves.

The last verb literally means is swallowed up, or retaining the reflexive form, still more strongly, swallows itself up. But see above, on the last word of Psa 107:26, 28. (Psalms 107:28) And they cried to Jehovah in their distress, and out of their straits he brings them forth. The consecution of the tenses corresponds to the relation of the acts which they denote, as viewed by a spectator. “Now they have cried to the Lord, and now he is bringing them forth.” The verse differs from Psalms 107:13; Psalms 107:19, in the first verb, which agrees with Psalms 107:6, and in the last verb, which is unlike both. 29. (Psalms 107:29) He stills the storm, to a calm, and silent are their waves. This is an amplification of the last phrase in Psalms 107:28, and shews how it is that he brings them forth. The first verb strictly means he makes it stand, but in a sense directly opposite to that of a synonymous though different verb in Psalms 107:25. Calm, literally silence, stillness. Their waves, the waves from which they suffer, by which they are buffeted. Compare his waves, in Psalms 107:25.

30. (Psalms 107:30) And they are glad that they are quiet, and he guides them to their desired haven. The connection might be rendered clearer by translating with the English Bible, then are they glad, etc. The last word in the verse occurs only here, and is by some translated shore, by others goal: but it is safer to retain the old interpretation, which affords a perfectly good sense, and rests upon the joint authority of the Rabbinical tradition and the Septuagint version.

31, 32. (Psalms 107:31-32) Let (such) give thanks to Jehovah (for) his mercy, and his wonderful works to the sons of man ; and let them exalt him in the congregation of the people, and in the session of the elders praise him. Here again we have a striking instance of variety combined with uniformity. The burden or chorus, as in Psalms 107:22, is followed by a solemn exhortation to connect the required thanksgiving with the forms of public worship. But instead of the temple with its sacrifices and its chants, the reference in this case, it should seem, is to the spiritual worship of the synagogue. The word translated congregation is one constantly applied to Israel, as actually gathered at the place of worship. See above, on Psalms 22:22.

The word session is employed in the translation of the last clause, not for the sake of a verbal coincidence with Presbyterian institutions, a coincidence, however, which is not to be denied, but because it adequately represents the Hebrew in its double acceptation, as denoting both the act and the place cf sitting, and especially of sitting together. See above, on Psalms 107:4. The elders, here as elsewhere, are the heads of tribes and families, the hereditary chiefs and representatives of Israel.

33. (Psalms 107:33) He turns streams into a wilderness, and springs of water to a thirsty place. As the shifting of the scene is not renewed in the remainder of the psalm, which, on the other hand, if viewed as a distinct and independent portion of the poem, mars its symmetry of structure, it seems best to regard these verses as an episode belonging to the last scene and containing the praises of the people and their elders. The figures in this verse are often used, particularly by Isaiah, to denote an entire revolution, whether physical or moral, social or political. Compare Isaiah 44:26-27; Isaiah 50:2, Jeremiah 50:38; Jeremiah 51:36. It thus prepares the way for the subsequent rejoicings in the downfall of Babylon and the restoration of the exiled Jews.

34. (Psalms 107:34) A fruitful land to saltness, for the wickedness of those dwelling in it. The sentence is continued from the foregoing verse, the nouns being governed by the verb he turns. The first phrase literally means a land of fruit. The next noun may be taken either in the abstract sense of saltness or the concrete one of a saline soil or region, and by implication barren. For, literally from, as in Psalms 107:17 above. Compare the threatening in Isaiah 13:19, and the great historical type of all such judgments, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

35. (Psalms 107:35) He turns a desert to a pool of water, and a dry land into springs of water. This is the reverse of the description in Psalms 107:33, to which the terms are studiously conformed. In both cases the first verb literally means he sets or puts, and the noun translated springs means issues or places where the waters issue. Compare Isaiah 35:7; Isaiah 41:18; Isaiah 43:20.

36. (Psalms 107:36) And has settled there famished (men), and they have established a city to dwell in. There is no need of assuming, that the desert thus transformed is Palestine or Canaan. It is better to adhere to the general import of the figures, which is change for the better. Settled, literally caused to dwell. The primary meaning of the last clause is that those once homeless have a home; but there is of course a reference to the repossession and rebuilding of Jerusalem. The last phrase in Hebrew is the same with that translated city of habitation in Psalms 107:4.

37. (Psalms 107:37) And have sowed fields, and panted vineyards, and made fruits of increase. The form of all these verbs requires them to be understood, like those of Psa 107:36, as referring to time actually past, from which some have inferred that the date of the psalm itself lay between the first ingathering of the fruits by the returned Jews and the founding of the temple, to which there is here no allusion. The word translated increase is applied elsewhere to the annual productions of the earth. See Leviticus 25:16. To make these is to gain or acquire them by cultivation, as we speak of making money, but of raising corn. See above, on Psalms 60:12.

38. (Psalms 107:38) And he has blessed them, and they have increased greatly, and (even) their cattle he does not diminish. Increased, not in numbers merely, but in wealth, strength and prosperity. See Deuteronomy 30:16. The verb to diminish is borrowed from Leviticus 26:22. The negation may be understood as a meiosis, meaning to increase or multiply. The whole of this description agrees well with the encouraging appearances, by which the Restoration was attended and immediately followed, before the colony experienced reverses or had lost the fresh impression of their recent sufferings and privations, which are mentioned in the next verse.

39. (Psalms 107:39) And they were diminished and brought low, from oppression, suffering, and grief. The only grammatical construction of the verbs is that which refers them to a former time, i.e. to the condition of the people under Babylonian oppression. The sense is therefore quite mistaken in the English, though correctly given in the ancient versions. The contrast is intended to enhance the joy and thankfulness of the restored exiles. These, now so prosperous, are the very men who lately were in abject misery.

40. (Psalms 107:40) Pouring contempt on princes— and he has made them wander in a waste (where there is) no way. From the exiles he reverts to their Deliverer, and describes him as spurning the most lordly of their persecutors— nay, as making them take the place of those whom they oppressed, which idea is conveyed by the figure before used of wanderers in a pathless desert. See above, on Psalms 107:4, and compare Job 12:21; Job 12:24. The word for waste or void is one of those used in Genesis 1:2, to describe the original condition of the earth.

41. (Psalms 107:41) And has raised the poor from affliction, and made like a flock families. The first verb suggests the twofold idea of elevation from a wretched state, and security from future danger. For its ordinary sense, see above, on Psalms 20:1; Psalms 91:14. The last clause simply means, he has increased the people who were so reduced in strength and numbers.

42. (Psalms 107:42) The righteous shall see and rejoice, and all iniquity stop her mouth. The righteous are the true Israel, as in Psalms 33:1, Numbers 23:10, Daniel 11:17. With the last clause compare Job 5:16, Isaiah 52:15.

43. (Psalms 107:43) Who (is) wise and will observe these things, and attentively consider the mercies of Jehovah? The change of number in the Hebrew does not affect the meaning. Whoever is wise will observe these things, and all who are wise will consider them. With this conclusion compare Isaiah 42:23, Jeremiah 9:11.