Psalm 107/Commentary

Psalm 107 “God To The Rescue”

“The centre-piece of this striking psalm is the set of four word-pictures of human predicaments and divine interventions. In themselves the adventures are not characteristically Israelite situations; yet the fact that this is a piece to celebrate the return of exiles raises the possibility that these episodes are four different ways of depicting the plight from which the nation had been delivered…The final section (33-43) enlarges on the great reversals of fortune which God delights to bring about in the affairs of men” (Kidner p. 383).

From verses 2-3 it seems that this psalm was written after the Babylonian Captivity and the content celebrates God’s intervention to redeem and restore the fortunes of His people.

This psalm also notes that : 1. Many of the difficult situations that people find themselves in are due to their own foolishness or selfishness (107:11,17). 2.

God doesn’t deliver people unconditionally, rather, man must cry out to Him in faith for help (107:19).

Joy Of Reunion 107:1-3 “This opening call gives the psalm its setting in the great deliverance of Israel from exile….The word redeemed brings echoes of the custom which obliged a kinsman to step in to rescue his close relative from debt or slavery…

God had done just that; and the word gathered answers the very prayer of Psalm 106:47. This matching of petition and answer has persuaded some expositors that Psalms 105-107 are a trilogy…telling the story of God’s grace in His choice and nurture of Israel (105), His forbearance and chastisement (106) and finally His reclamation of her (107)” (Kidner pp. 383-384). In these verses the faithful are called upon to confess God’s steadfast love, His faithfulness and mercy, and to affirm that God is good. This isn’t an empty boast, for these people had experienced the adversity of the exile and they had been delivered by the Lord.

“All who have experienced God’s love may join together with God’s ancient covenant people to give thanks for their deliverance” (Gaebelein p. 682).

Point To Note: The conviction that God has been “good” to me is the foundation of true faith and worship. If we would only realize how blessed we are, how undeserved our

blessings are (due to our many sins), and how many times God has forgiven us and kept us from suffering the full consequences of our sins---if we could fully appreciate such things, we wouldn’t have any trouble being motivated to love God with our entire being.

107:2 Our deliverance needs to be proclaimed. Do we joyfully and boldly proclaim our redemption? (Colossians 1:13-14) Are we echoing what the Scriptures say about God? Are we boldly proclaiming the greatness, goodness and faithfulness of the God who has delivered us?

107:3 “In verse 3 she is gathered ‘out of the lands’, and this gathering is comprehensive as she comes from east, west, north, and south” (Williams p.

276).

Wanderers Retrieved 107:4-6 The generation that God delivered from Babylonian Captivity had many things in common with the Israelite generation that wandered in the wilderness.

First and foremost, both generations were being punished for their unfaithfulness. “The desert is a place to cross through, not to aimlessly wander in. There is no city for protection, and one’s supplies of food and water may readily be depleted” (Gaebelein p. 683).

107:6 Note the key to being delivered: one needs to cry out to the Lord for deliverance. “We learn that God brings adversity upon us in order to bring us to Himself. He breaks us in order to make us into intercessors before His throne.

His judgment is not intended to make us more self-reliant, but to make us reliant upon Him…The verb delivered can mean ‘to take the prey out of an animal’s mouth’” (Williams p. 278).

Point To Note: These verses offer insight into why some Christians can’t seem to shake themselves loose from chronic and habitual sins. Deliverance can only be found when we truly cry out to God for help. Some of us may want forgiveness, and to avoid hell, but do we really want to part with our favorite temptations? If sin still seems attractive, alluring, and fun to you, then you truly haven’t realized the bondage in which you are presently living.

107:8 What is to be our response for such mercy? Gratitude, appreciation, thanksgiving, and praise needs to be in our hearts and on our lips! Do we act like thankful people? Do we talk and act like people who are just so thankful for what God has done for us?

107:9 God will meet all our true needs. “Lostness, hunger, thirst and exhaustion are all figures which our Lord was to employ in relation to His self-offer as the Way, the Bread, and Water of life and the Giver of rest” (Kidner p. 384).

Point To Note: So many people have been convinced that they will only be able to have their needs met if they selfishly put themselves first. But the truth is that our needs will only be met if we turn to God, and completely trust in Him (Matthew 16:25).

People who long for righteousness will be satisfied (Matthew 5:6). Which means, that those who long for sinful pleasures will always be in want, restless, hungry, and thirsty (Titus 3:3).

Prisoners Released 107:10-11 These people had been imprisoned as the consequence of rebelling against the words of God. This was certainly true of those who went into Babylonian Captivity (2 Chronicles 36:15ff). “When Jerusalem was destroyed

by Nebuchadnezzar, her final king, Zedekiah was taken in bronze fetters to Babylon (Jeremiah 52:11)” (Williams p. 279). “When Israel was in Babylon, its sojourn there was like the experience of a man shut up in prison” (Leupold p.

757). Rebellion against the word of God brought hardship, destruction, the loss of freedom, rights, safety, and security. In addition, the people who experienced the captivity weren’t sure if they would be put to death or forced into slavery.

107:12 God allowed Israel to suffer all these things, so that they would learn what life is like without God! He left His people to themselves so that they would find out what life is like without His love (Isaiah 3:8). And better to learn this lesson now—then to face eternity without His love!

107:13 Once again, the familiar pattern that we so often observed in the book of Judges, surfaces in this Psalm. They sincerely cried out for help and God delivered them.

107:15-16 As a result, the redeemed need to proclaim the faithfulness and mercy of their God far and wide. Do we talk like people who really appreciate the fact that they have been saved from eternal destruction?

Points To Note: 1.

“Starting with Adam and Eve in the garden, sin always begins with the rejection of God’s word. Our spiritual battles are launched in the mind.

Believe God and live. Deny God and die. There are not alternatives. For us today, the loss of vitality in the modern church is a direct result of the loss of faith in the Bible as divine revelation and, as a result, the loss of faith in the God who reveals Himself there” (Williams p. 279). 2. “Until rescued, man is not simply lost in too wide a world, like the travellers of 4ff., or trapped in too small a one, like these prisoners; he is both” (Kidner p. 385). 3. God will allow us to fall on our face if we haven’t placed our

trust in Him. “Israel, therefore, is suffering and alone, abandoned. Where are her ‘lovers’, her idols now? Where are the nations who promised to help her?” (Williams p. 280) 4. God will be there if we cry out to Him, but we need to see our need of Him---before we die! (Luke 16:19ff).

107:16 “It is worth noting that the Greek historian Herodotus records that Babylon had one hundred gates of bronze in her walls” (Williams p. 280).

The Sick Restored 107:17-18 Here is another description of God’s judgment on all who are rebellious against Him. First, they are fools. Secondly, sin often leads to physical, mental, and emotional sicknesses. The sickness under consideration here is the kind that carries blame. “In such a context, verse 18 could well call to mind in modern times the drug-addict, but only as one example of man’s perennial determination to get hurt” (Kidner p. 385). People forget that the wages of sin is often paid in this life by the mind and the body (Romans 1:27; Galatians 6:8 “shall from the flesh reap corruption”; Exodus 15:26).

Overwhelming guilt which remains hidden and unconfessed can also lead to loss of appetite (Psalms 32).

Point To Note: Rebelling against God is foolishness. Isn’t it foolish to forsake your Creator, protector, deliverer, and heavenly parent? The person who rebels against God is saying: “I can protect myself better than an all-powerful God can protect me”.

“I am wiser than my Creator”.

107:20 Only God can truly bring healing, especially emotional, mental, and spiritual which is real and lasting 107:22 Do we tell others who God delivered us from destructive addictive and sinful habits? Are we grateful to be able to sacrifice ourselves, time, talents, and financial increase for the Lord? (2 Corinthians 9:6). Do we truly realize what type of person we would have become if we had never heard the gospel? Do we appreciate the fact that God has delivered us from so many diseases that inflict sinners around us? What would be your current state of mind, your current state of mental health if you had never become a Christian? What would be your current level of happiness? “As we well know today, moral failure can have disastrous effects upon our physical health” (Williams p. 281).

The Storm-Tossed Rescued 107:23-27 “The historical circumstances of the exile and the return have been addressed. God delivers, saves, and heals. At this point the psalmist turns to

an extensive, poetic analogy of Israel’s recent history, which is drawn from the experience of sailors. Like God’s people, they too know calamity and divine intervention” (Williams p. 283).

107:25 Notice that God, not Mother Nature, commands the waters.

107:27 “And were at their wits’ end”: This is a very important verse in the psalm. This illustration speaks not of our guilt but of our littleness. “The hurricane shakes us into seeing that in a world of gigantic forces we live by permission, not by good management. The point is made explicitly in verse 27, where wits could be translated ‘seamanship’, TEV, ‘all their skill was useless’.

There are wondrous works to humble men as well as save them (24,31)” (Kidner p. 386). “What we learn from the psalm at this point is that God can use both history (the Exile) and nature to bring us to the end of ourselves, and it is only then that we are ready for God” (Williams p. 284).

Points To Note: 1.

Maybe the “Bible Belt” in America is called such, because this typically is also the portion of our country that experiences very severe storms and weather. Such can have a humbling affect on people, and bring them to their wit’s end. 2. We are blessed if we realize that we aren’t smart enough to handle everything in this life and that we really need God’s help.

107:28 Too many people read the Bible and get the impression that God will just deliver them all the time and that they don’t even have to repent or change. This Psalm makes it clear that God is always ready to deliver—but we must sincerely cry out for His help. Unrepentant people are not the kind of people to cry out to God for deliverance, rather, they often blame God or others for their problems.

107:29 This verse reminds us of an event in the life of Christ (Matthew 8:26).

107:31-32 Our praise for God also needs to be expressed in public worship services. Do we come to services eager and thankful, because we just can’t wait to tell others what God has done for us?

Disposer Supreme “The psalm now drops the pattern of calamity—cry—salvation---thanksgiving, for a conclusion which draws out the lesson of God’s sovereignty from experiences like these” (Kidner p. 386).

107:33-38 “This recalls the desert scene of verses 4-9, but now it is not man who gets lost and found, but his habitat which dies on him or presents him with abundance—so far is he from being the master of his fate. Verse 34 is

underlined by the doom of Sodom and by the warnings of the Law, ‘lest the land vomit you out, when you defile it’ (Leviticus 18:28)….Verses 35-38 …and the blessing of Deuteronomy 28:1-5, to make it doubly clear that with God poor resources become fertility and wealth. These verses are, we may suppose, not merely about deserts and farmland, but pointers to other kinds of poverty and riches, not least those of the mind and spirit. Cf., e.g., the contrasts of outward and inward poverty in Revelation 2:9 and 3:17” (Kidner p. 386).

Points To Note: 1.

Again we are reminded that God, rather than Baal or Mother Nature, commands the weather map. “As distant as this may be for us, the Bible holds that He uses nature to accomplish His moral judgments (1 Kings 17:1; James 5:17)” (Williams p. 285). 2. God is also the great reverser of fortunes, He brings down the rebellious and exalts the lowly, He brings ruin upon unfaithful nations and prosperity to poor nations which have humbled themselves (Jeremiah 18:1ff). 3. God can reverse the condition of anything and therefore the way of life of everybody! 4. I believe that the above is a truth that even professed Christians at times seem to forget. Often we are influenced by the thinking of our culture, and our modern culture really believes that with technology we can bring nature under our will and make any land produce. People forget that God has the final say over what the weather does.

107:39-42 “It is hardly a coincidence that those who sing of the great reversals of human fortunes tend to be the newly reprieved or promoted. Here it is the restored Israel that takes up the theme; elsewhere most memorably Hannah and Mary. But their songs belong to all the redeemed” (Kidner pp. 386-387).

107:42 “but all unrighteousness shuts its mouth”: Eventually all unrepentant sinners die and pass by the wayside, in addition, at the end of time, all wickedness will have been silenced.

Points To Note: 1.

The proud will be humbled. 2. The righteous will see their oppressors judged and the humble vindicated. 3. The “needy” in these verses aren’t merely people who are poor, rather they are the humble, the godly, who often suffer because of their faith. 4. These verses remind us that God not only rules nature, but He also rules in the kingdoms of men, and He exalts and humbles those in positions of power (Daniel 5:21). 5. Those in positions of power who reject God, will find themselves wandering aimlessly in a pathless wasteland. Arrogant people in positions of power often are lonely, miserable, deeply troubled, anxious, restless, unhappy, depressed, and clueless on how to find that for which they are so desperately looking.

107:43 “Who is wise? Let him give heed to these things”: The wise will agree with the analysis found in this psalm. Godly people know that God will

judge sin, even among His people and He will punish us if we spurn Him. Such people also know that one can come back to God (while there is time), but only if they come back broken, contrite, humbled and ready to depend 100% on Him. “The book of Hosea closes on just such a note as this: a sober reminder not to be carried away by eloquence, in shallow response to what God has done in depth” (Kidner p. 387).

“The righteous will become wise by studying the acts of the Lord in the affairs of men. Even in adversity, he learns to know his God better and to trust that He will make all things well. His acts of love are constant (toward the humble and repentant). The fool rages against God, but the wise will keep these things in his heart” (Gaebelein p. 688).