Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 107:1
O give thanks unto the LORD, for [he is] good: for his mercy [endureth] forever.
1, 2. The Psalm begins, like Psalms 106, with the regular liturgical doxology. This “the redeemed of Jehovah” are called to recite ( Psa 107:2) in grateful acknowledgement of His mercy and in fulfilment of Jeremiah’s prophecy (Psa 33:11) that there should again be heard in Jerusalem “the voice of them that say, Give thanks to Jehovah of hosts, for Jehovah is good, for his mercy endureth for ever.” Cp. Psa 118:1-4.
the redeemed of the Lord ] The phrase is taken from Isa 62:12 (cp. Isa 35:9-10; Isa 51:10-11; Isa 63:4), and clearly denotes the Israelites who had been released from exile in Babylon and elsewhere, and brought home to Jerusalem.
from the hand of the enemy ] Rather, from the clutch (lit. hand) of adversity. Cp. the use of the same word in Psa 107:6 &c. (A.V. trouble).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
1 3. An invitation to the returned exiles to join in grateful confession of Jehovah’s lovingkindness.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good – See the notes at Psa 106:1.
For his mercy endureth for ever – He is unchanging in his mercy. It is an attribute of his very nature. He is constantly manifesting it. The word rendered mercy here, however – chesed – is more general in its signification than our word mercy. Our word means favor shown to the guilty; the Hebrew word means kindness, goodness, benignity in general. It is this which is celebrated in the psalm before us.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 107:1-31
O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good; for His mercy en-dureth for ever.
Men and mercy
I. Men consciously needing the mercy of Heaven. Morally, we are all distressed travellers, captives, invalids, mariners. The worst feature of this moral distress is that the subjects are not conscious of it.
II. Men effectually delivered by the mercy of Heaven.
1. Just in time. Each had reached the extremity. The lamp of hope was all but extinct, and black despair was settling on the soul, when mercy came to the rescue.
2. After the prayer, God listens to the cries of His distressed children.
III. Men urged to acknowledge the mercy of Heaven.
1. The mercy of Heaven is generally unacknowledged.
2. The acknowledgment of this mercy is an urgent obligation.
(1) Because a proper recognition of Gods mercy is essential to the extinction of the evil in man.
(2) Because a proper recognition of Gods mercy is essential to the generating of good in man. (Homilist.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
PSALM CVII
A thanksgiving of the people for deliverance from difficulties
and dangers; their state compared to a journey through a
frightful wilderness, 1-9;
to confinement in a dreary dungeon, 10-16;
to a dangerous malady, 17-22;
to a tempest at sea, 23-32.
The psalmist calls on men to praise God for the merciful
dispensations of his providence, in giving rain and fruitful
seasons, after affliction by drought and famine, 33-38;
for supporting the poor in affliction, and bringing down the
oppressors, 39-41.
The use which the righteous should make of these providences,
42;
and the advantage to be derived from a due consideration of
God’s merciful providence, 43.
NOTES ON PSALM CVII
This Psalm has no title, either in the Hebrew, or any of the Versions; the word “Hallelujah,” which is prefixed to some of the latter, is no title, but was most probably borrowed from the conclusion of the preceding Psalm. The author is unknown; but it was probably like Psalms cv. and cvi., made and sung at the dedication of the second temple. The three Psalms seem to be on the same subject. In them the author has comprised the marvellous acts of the Lord towards his people; the transgressions of this people against God; the captivities and miseries they endured in consequence; and finally God’s merciful kindness to them in their restoration from captivity, and re-establishment in their own land.
This Psalm seems to have been sung in parts: the Ps 107:8, 15, 21, and 31, with the 6, 13, 19, and 28, forming what may be called the burden of the song. In singing of which the whole chorus joined.
We may easily perceive that the Psalm must have been sung in alternate parts, having a double burden, or intercalary verse often recurring, and another immediately following, giving a reason for the former. See the Ps 107:8 and 9, the 15 and 16, the 21 and 22, the 31 and 32, and the 42 and 43, which may be reckoned under the same denomination.
Dr. Lowth, in his 29th prelection, has made some excellent remarks on this Psalm. “It is observable,” says he, “that after each of the intercalary verses one is added, expressive of deliverance or praise. I would farther observe, that if the Psalm be supposed to be made with a view to the alternate response of one side of the choir to the other, then it may be considered as if it were written exactly after the method of the ancient pastorals, where, be the subject of their verse what it will, each swain endeavours to excel the other; and one may perceive their thoughts and expressions gradually to arise upon each other; and hence a manifest beauty may be discovered in this Divine pastoral. We will suppose, then, that the author composed it for the use of his brethren the Jews, when, in the joy of their hearts, they were assembled after their return from captivity. At such a time, what theme could be so proper for the subject of his poem, as the manifest goodness of Almighty God? The first performers, therefore, invite the whole nation to praise God for this; a great instance of it being their late return from captivity. At Ps 107:10, the other side take the subject, and rightly observe that the return of their great men, who were actually in chains, was a more remarkable instance of God’s mercy to them, than the return of the people in general, who were only dispersed, we may suppose, up and down the open country. Then the first performers beautifully compare this unexpected deliverance to that which God sometimes vouchsafes to the languishing dying man, when he recalls, as it were, the sentence of death, and restores him to his former vigour. The others again compare it, with still greater strength and expression, to God’s delivering the affrighted mariner from all the dreadful horrors of the ungovernable and arbitrary ocean. But the first, still resolved to outdo the rest, recur to that series of wonderful works which God had vouchsafed to their nation, Ps 107:32, and of which they had so lately such a convincing proof. Wherefore at last, as in a common chorus, they all conclude with exhorting each other to a serious consideration of these things, and to make a proper return to Almighty God for them.
“No doubt the composition of this Psalm is admirable throughout; and the descriptive part of it adds at least its share of beauty to the whole; but what is most to be admired is its conciseness, and withal the expressiveness of the diction, which strikes the imagination with inimitable elegance. The weary and bewildered traveller, the miserable captive in the hideous dungeon, the sick and dying man, the seaman foundering in a storm, are described in so affecting a manner, that they far exceed any thing of the kind, though never so much laboured.” I may add that had such an Idyl appeared in Theocritus or Virgil, or had it been found as a scene in any of the Greek tragedians, even in AEschylus himself, it would have been praised up to the heavens, and probably been produced as their master-piece.
Verse 1. O give thanks] Here is a duty prescribed; and the reasons of it are immediately laid down.
1. He is good. This is his nature.
2. His mercy endureth for ever.
This is the stream that flows from the fountain of his goodness.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
This whole verse occurs also Psa 106:1; only there the address is made to the Israelites, and here to all mankind.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1, 2. This call for thankfulpraise is the burden or chorus (compare Psa 107:8;Psa 107:15, &c.).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
O give thanks unto the Lord,…. As all men should do, at all times and for all things; the psalm begins as the former does, and gives the same reasons for thanksgiving.
For he is good; and does good, and is the author of all good.
For his mercy endureth for ever; and men in every age are partakers of it.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The introit, with the call upon them to grateful praise, is addressed to the returned exiles. The Psalm carries the marks of its deutero-Isaianic character on the very front of it, viz.: “the redeemed of Jahve,” taken from Isa 62:12, cf. Psa 63:4; Psa 35:9.; as in Isa 56:8, and frequently; “from the north and from the sea,” as in Isa 49:12: “the sea” ( ) here (as perhaps there also), side by side with east, west, and north, is the south, or rather (since is an established usus loquendi for the west) the south-west, viz., the southern portion of the Mediterranean washing the shores of Egypt. With this the poet associates the thought of the exiles of Egypt, as with the exiles of the islands, i.e., of Asia Minor and Europe; he is therefore writing at a period in which the Jewish state newly founded by the release of the Babylonian exiles had induced the scattered fellow-countrymen in all countries to return home. Calling upon the redeemed ones to give thanks to God the Redeemer in order that the work of the restoration of Israel may be gloriously perfected amidst the thanksgiving of the redeemed ones, he forthwith formulates the thanksgiving by putting the language of thanksgiving of the ancient liturgy (Jer 33:11) into their mouth. The nation, now again established upon the soil of the fatherland, has, until it had acquired this again, seen destruction in every form in a strange land, and can tell of the most manifold divine deliverances. The call to sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving is expanded accordingly into several pictures portraying the dangers of the strange land, which are not so much allegorical, personifying the Exile, as rather exemplificative.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Exhortation to Celebrate God’s Praises. | |
1 O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. 2 Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy; 3 And gathered them 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 solitary way; they found no city to dwell in. 5 Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. 6 Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses. 7 And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation. 8 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! 9 For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.
Here is, I. A general call to all to give thanks to God, v. 1. Let all that sing this psalm, or pray over it, set themselves herein to give thanks to the Lord; and those that have not any special matter for praise may furnish themselves with matter enough from God’s universal goodness. In the fountain he is good; in the streams his mercy endures for ever and never fails.
II. A particular demand hereof from the redeemed of the Lord, which may well be applied spiritually to those that have an interest in the great Redeemer and are saved by him from sin and hell. They have, of all people, most reason to say that God is good, and his mercy everlasting; these are the children of God that were scattered abroad, whom Christ died to gather together in one, out of all lands, Joh 11:52; Mat 24:31. But it seems here to be meant of a temporal deliverance, wrought for them when in their distress they cried unto the Lord, v. 6. Is any afflicted? Let him pray. Does any pray? God will certainly hear and help. When troubles become extreme that is man’s time to cry; those who but whispered prayer before then cry aloud, and then it is God’s time to succour. In the mount he will be seen. 1. They were in an enemy’s country, but God wrought out their rescue: He redeemed them from the hand of the enemy (v. 2), not by might or power, it may be (Zech. iv. 6), nor by price or reward (Isa. xlv. 13), but by the Spirit of God working on the spirits of men. 2. They were dispersed as out-casts, but God gathered them out of all the countries whither they were scattered in the cloudy and dark day, that they might again be incorporated, v. 3. See Deu 30:4; Eze 34:12. God knows those that are his, and where to find them. 3. They were bewildered, had no road to travel in, no dwelling place to rest in, v. 4. When they were redeemed out of the hand of the enemy, and gathered out of the lands, they were in danger of perishing in their return home through the dry and barren deserts. They wandered in the wilderness, where there was no trodden path, no company, but a solitary way, no lodging, no conveniences, no accommodations, no inhabited city where they might have quarters or refreshment. But God led them forth by the right way (v. 7), directed them to an inn, nay, directed them to a home, that they might go to a city of habitation, which was inhabited, nay which them themselves should inhabit. This may refer to poor travellers in general, those particularly whose way lay through the wilds of Arabia, where we may suppose they were often at a loss; and yet many in that distress were wonderfully relieved, so that few perished. Note, We ought to take notice of the good hand of God’s providence over us in our journeys, going out and coming in, directing us in our way, and providing for us places both to bait in and rest in. Or (as some think) it has an eye to the wanderings of the children of Israel in the wilderness for forty years; it is said (Deut. xxxii. 10), God led them about, and yet here he led them by the right way. God’s way, though to us it seems about, will appear at last to have been the right way. It is applicable to our condition in this world; we are here as in a wilderness, have here no continuing city, but dwell in tents as strangers and pilgrims. But we are under the guidance of his wise and good providence, and, if we commit ourselves to it, we shall be led in the right way to the city that has foundations. 4. They were ready to perish for hunger (v. 5): Their soul even fainted in them. They were spent with the fatigues of their journey and ready to drop down for want of refreshment. Those that have constant plenty, and are every day fed to the full, know not what a miserable case it is to be hungry and thirsty, and to have no supply. This was sometimes the case of Israel in the wilderness, and perhaps of other poor travellers; but God’s providence finds out ways to satisfy the longing soul and fill the hungry soul with goodness, v. 9. Israel’s wants were seasonably supplied, and many have been wonderfully relieved when they were ready to perish. The same God that has led us has fed us all our life long unto this day, has fed us with food convenient, has provided food for the soul, and filled the hungry soul with goodness. Those that hunger and thirst after righteousness, after God, the living God, and communion with him, shall be abundantly replenished with the goodness of his house, both in grace and glory. Now for all this those who receive mercy are called upon to return thanks (v. 8): Oh that men (it is meant especially of those men whom God has graciously relieved) would praise the Lord for his goodness to them in particular, and for his wonderful works to others of the children of men! Note, (1.) God’s works of mercy are wonderful works, works of wonderful power considering the weakness, and of wonderful grace considering the unworthiness, of those he shows mercy to. (2.) It is expected of those who receive mercy from God that they return praise to him. (3.) We must acknowledge God’s goodness to the children of men as well as to the children of God, to others as well as to ourselves.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
BOOK IV
Psalms 107
A Psalm of Gratitude
Scripture v. 1-43:
This psalm of gratitude seems to have been written after Israel’s return from Babylonian captivity, when God had redeemed them from among the Gentiles in four parts of the earth. God still gathers, redeems men for salvation and service.
Verse 1 calls for thanks to the Lord for his existing goodness and mercy, that roll on, continue forever, without ceasing, 1Ch 16:8; Psa 25:8; Deu 4:31.
Verse 2 appeals “Let the redeemed of the Lord (Israel’s regathered remnant) say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy,” in Babylon, Isa 12:4; Psa 31:5; 1Sa 17:37. The Jews restored to their land are the “ransomed of the Lord,” Isa 62:12; Isa 63:4; Isa 35:10; Isa 59:20; Rom 11:26.
Verse 3 adds that He “gathered (assembled) them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south,” all parts of the Babylonian empire where they may have been sold, carried away as slaves, or servants of the Gentiles in Babylonian captivity. This also seems to allude to the greater gathering of them, from their present worldwide dispersion, at the end of this age, Deu 30:3; Luk 21:24; Act 15:16-17.
Verses 4, 5 tell of their solitary wilderness wandering, with no city to reside in, when in hunger and thirst their soul fainted, yet He safely led on. Gen 47:9; Num 14:33; Deu 28:48; Num 21:4; Exo 2:23.
Verses 6,7 recount that in this trouble and distress they cried to the Lord and He did deliver them, as He ever does to the faith-crying soul, Exo 14:30; Psa 40:13; Psa 145:18-19; Rom 10:13; It is added that He led them forth by the right way His leadings are never wrong that they might go to a “city of habitation,” one that God has prepared for His own, Heb 11:10; Deu 8:2; Isa 26:7; Joh 14:13; 1Co 2:9; 2Co 5:1; Ezr 8:21; Isa 63:12.
Verse 8 exclaims “O that men would praise the Lord for (both) his goodness and his wonderful works to (toward) the children of men!” In redemption they are liberated from slaves’ dark bondage to a new city of peace, Heb 11:10. For such He should be continually praised, Psa 9:11; Psa 25:8; Php_4:4.
Verse 9 reasons, “He satisfieth (continually) the longing (yearning) soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness,” the longings of His people for peace and provisions, Isa 29:8; Isa 55:13; Psa 108:5; Psa 104:13; Psa 104:16; Mat 11:28-29; Mar 5:6; Luk 1:53.
Verse 10-12 relate that those who “rebelled against the word of God,” were caused to sit, bound in affliction and iron, in darkness and the “shadow of death,” because they had treated with contempt .the counsel of the most High God, for which they were so often judged, chastened, through enemy oppression, Job 36:8; La 3:42; 1Sa 2:5; Psa 73:24; Psa 119:24; Isa 5:19; Jer 44:16; Luk 7:30; Act 20:27; Isa 63:5.
Verse 13 adds “Then (in their oppression) they cried to the Lord, from their trouble and anxieties,” and He heard or responded to their cries, Exo 2:23; Psa 27:1; Psa 145:18-19.
Verse 14 continues “He brought them out (rescued them) of the shadow of death and brake (severed ) their bands in sunder,” setting them free, even as Christ makes the penitent believer free, Joh 8:32; Joh 8:36; Deu 33:29; Job 5:19; Isa 42:7.
Verse 15 exclaims again the refrain that men should praise the Lord for His goodness and wonderful works toward “the children of men,” v. 8; Php_4:4.
Verse 16 reaffirms that He has broken the gates of brass and cut the bars of iron in sunder, liberating, setting the captives free, Isa 45:2; Luk 4:16-18.
Verse 17 asserts that fools are afflicted (punished) because of their willful transgressions and responsible inquiries, for which they are accountably judged by an holy law principle, Psa 53:1; Lev 26:16; Job 15:31; Deu 28:67; Pro 13:15.
Verse 18 declares that the souls of the sinfully stupid abhor all manner of meat (food); and thus draw near the gates of death. But they are no more fools or stupid than sinners who refuse the bread and water of life, for their dying souls, 1Sa 1:7; Lev 26:17; Ecc 5:17.
Verse 19 states that “Then (in throes of death) they cry to the Lord in their (starvation) trouble, and he saves (delivers) them out of and away from their distress,” Through His Divine compassion as expressed Exo 2:23; Exo 3:7; 2Co 1:3-4.
Verse 20 asserts that “He sent his word and healed them and delivered them from their (just) destruction, “Mat 8:8; Psa 41:4; Exo 14:30. See also La 4:20; Isa 38:10; Psa 103:4.
Verse 21 resounds the refrain, a third time, that men might give praise and glory to God for: 1) His goodness, and 2) His wondrous works toward the children of men, in redemption and their daily care, v.8,15; La 3:22,23; Psa 9:11; Psa 25:8; Rom 11:33.
Verse 22 calls the redeemed to sacrifice the sacrifice of Thanksgiving, and to declare and to witness (tell of His works) with rejoicing, continually, Psa 116:17; Deu 8:10; Col 1:12; 1Ch 16:8; Heb 13:15.
Verses 23, 24′ assert that the mariners (shipmen) who go down to the sea in ships, and do business in great waters, upon the high seas, see the works of the Lord and His wonders in the deep, where ever they sail or anchor, 1Ki 9:27; Isa 42:10; Psa 8:3; Isa 51:10. However tempest tossed the sea may be, God is in it; Even so He watches over His own, Dan 7:2; Mar 4:37-39.
Verses 25, 26 declare that He directs the stormy winds that stir up waves toward heaven, causes them to go down in rhythm, Jon 1:4; So that their soul is melted because of trouble, the storm tossed souls of the oppressed of Israel among the heathen. Only He can remove or calm the billows, Psa 148:8; Jon 1:11; Psa 22:14; Isa 13:7; Nah 2:10; Exo 6:9.
Verse 27, 28 relate that “they reel and stagger, to and fro,” like a drunkard, at their wit’s end, with their wisdom used up; Then in desperation, they cry to the Lord and He brings them out of their distress, their depressing problems of every kind. If a storm at sea will not drive one to prayer, he is hopeless, Jon 1:14.
Verses 29, 30 certify that the Lord of the winds and waters cause the storm to become a calm, so that the waves are cowed, or stilled like a pet dog. Then are the mariners made glad, because the waves are quiet, and so He brings them to their desired haven, or landing, Psa 65:7; Isa 50:2; Jon 1:15; Mat 8:26; See also Mat 8:26; Psa 79:9.
Verse 31 relates the fourth refrain of this Psa 107:8; Psa 107:15; Psa 107:21, calling on men to glorify, praise, or extol the Lord for His self-existing goodness and for His wondrous, gracious works among men, Psa 9:11; Psa 25:8; Psa 150:1; Psa 150:6.
Verse 32 exhorts that men exalt the Lord in the congregation of the people and in the assembly (public gathering) of the elders, the leaders of Israel, God’s chosen and elect, Psa 29:2; Psa 145:5; Exo 3:16; Ezr 3:1; Ezr 1:5.
Verses 33-36 declare that God turns rivers into a wilderness and the spring waters into dry ground; sending it to bless the earth, make it fruitful, 1Ki 17:1; and contrariwise because of wickedness He turns fruitful places into barrenness for those who reside there, sending famine and want, Lev 26:26; Deu 29:23 explains how He sent it to Sodom and Gommorrah, Isa 13:19.
Verses 35,36 add that He turns the wilderness into a standing water (overflows it) and dry ground into water springs, so that He causes the hungry to dwell or reside there, that they may construct a city for habitation, as related Isa 35:1; resuming the desired sentiment expressed v.4,5,7; Hebrews 11; Hebrews 10; Act 17:26.
Verse 37 Indicates that He also makes His people to sow fields and plant vineyards that may yield fruits of increase to sustain them, Psa 65:9-12; Gen 26:12.
Verse 38 declares that it is by God’s blessings (unmerited) that temporal prosperity comes bountifully upon men, to cause their families and cattle to be in health and increase, as set forth, Gen 24:35; Jos 1:8; Psa 144:13; Gen 15:5; Deu 7:14.
Verse 40 certifies that the Lord also pours out Divine contempt upon pride-filled rulers causing them to be driven into rugged ways of wilderness wanderings, as Israel had been, Psa 2:4; Job 12:24; Gen 19:11; Job 9:13.
Verse 41 relates that in contrast He sets (elevates) the poor the afflicted Jews on high, from affliction, and makes them to have large families like a flock, a blessing in old age, Psa 68:6; Psa 75:7; Psa 91:14; Job 5:15.
Verse 42 asserts that the righteous (Israel) should see (recognize) this prosperity as Divinely sent and rejoice, Isa 51:1; Isa 26:2. “And all iniquity shall stop her mouth,” alludes to the heathen powers of Babylon, Edom, and the Philistines who had derided, insulted once prostrate Judah, Zec 1:15; Oba 1:11-15.
Verse 43 concludes that those who are wise and would observe these things, would understand, grasp, or comprehend the loving-kindness of the Lord, having their happiness increased thereby, Hos 6:3; Mat 13:12. See also Jer 9:12; Jer 9:24; Dan 12:10; Deu 4:6; Psa 17:7.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
1 Praise Jehovah. We have already explained this verse, for it formed the commencement of the preceding psalm. And it appears that it was not only frequently used among the Jews, but also so incorporated with other psalms, that when one part of the chorus on the one side was singing a portion of the psalm, the other part of the chorus on the opposite side in its turn, after each succeeding verse, responded, Praise Jehovah, because he is good, etc The penman of this psalm, whoever he was, has, instead of the ordinary preface, inserted this beautiful sentiment, in which praise and thanksgiving to God were so frequently expressed by the Israelitish Church. Immediately he proceeds to speak more particularly. And first, he exhorts those to offer up a tribute of gratitude to God; who, after having been delivered from slavery and imprisonment, and after a long and painful journey, arrived in safety at their place of abode. These he calls the redeemed of God; because, in wandering through the trackless desert, and howling wilderness, they many a time would have been prevented from returning home, had not God, as it were, with his outstretched hand, appeared as their guard and their guide. He does not here refer to travelers indiscriminately, but to such as either by hostile power, or by any other kind of violence, or by stern necessity, having been banished to distant regions, felt themselves to be in the midst of imminent dangers; or it may be, that he refers to those who had been made prisoners by enemies, pirates, or other robbers. He reminds them that it was by no casual occurrence that they had been driven about in that manner, and had been brought back to their native country, but that all their wanderings had been under the superintending providence of God.
But the second verse might be conjoined with the first, as if the prophet were commanding the persons whom he was addressing to sing this celebrated ode. It may with equal propriety be read by itself thus: Let the redeemed of Jehovah, who have returned from captivity to their own land, come forth now, and take part in the celebration of God’s praises, and let them publish his loving-kindness which they have experienced in their deliverance. Among the Jews, who had occasion to undertake extensive journeys, such occurrences as these were very common; because they could hardly leave their own land, without from all quarters encountering ways rugged, and difficult, and perilous; and the same observation is equally applicable to mankind in general. He reminds them how often they wandered and turned aside from the right way, and found no place of shelter; a thing by no means rare in these lonely deserts. Were a person to enter a forest without any knowledge of the proper direction, he would, in the course of his wandering, be in danger of becoming the prey of lions and wolves. He has, however, particularly in his eye those who, finding themselves unexpectedly in desert places, are also in danger of perishing for hunger and thirst. For it is certain that such persons are hourly in hazard of death, unless the Lord come to their rescue.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
INTRODUCTION
Many expositors are of opinion that this Psalm was written to celebrate the return of the Jews from the Babylonian exile. This opinion is based chiefly on Psa. 107:2-3. But the Psalm as a whole does not seem to us to favour such a conclusion. Perowne says: It is obvious that this Psalm is not historical. It describes various incidents of human life, it tells of the perils which befall men, and the goodness of God in delivering them, and calls upon all who have experienced His care and protection gratefully to acknowledge them; and it is perfectly general in its character. The four or five groups, or pictures, are so many samples taken from the broad and varied record of human experience. Such a Psalm would have been admirably adapted to be sung in the Temple-worship, at the offering of the thank-offerings.
But, whatever may have been the circumstances under which the Psalm was written, or the particular occasion for which it was intended, there can be no doubt as to the great lesson which it inculcates. It teaches us not only that Gods Providence watches over men, but that His ear is open to their prayer. It teaches us that prayer may be put up for temporal deliverance, and that such prayer is answered. It teaches us that it is right to acknowledge with thanksgiving such answers to our petitions. This was the simple faith of the Hebrew Poet.
The author of the Psalm is not known.
DISTRESSED TRAVELLERS AND THEIR DIVINE HELPER
(Psa. 107:1-9)
It is probable, as Perowne suggests, that the first three verses are a liturgical addition, framed with particular reference to the return from Babylon, and prefixed to a poem originally designed to have a wider scope. The Psalm begins with the same liturgical formula as the preceding; and the Poet proceeds to represent the people of God as
1. Redeemed by Him. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy. The allusion is probably to the deliverance of the Jews from the captivity in Babylon. The people of God now are redeemed from sin by the precious blood of Christ. They have had precious experiences of the goodness of the Lord, and are under special obligations to praise Him.
2. Gathered by Him. Gathered them out of the lands from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south. The Lord gathered the exiles out of all the lands into which they had been driven in the day of their distress. He gathers men now into His Church. And He is gathering His people to their home in heaven. From all lands they are being assembled in our Fathers home on high.
Then the Poet proceeds to represent the people as distressed travellers, relieved by Divine goodness, and calls upon them to praise the Lord. Consider
I. The distressed travellers. They wandered in the wilderness, &c.
1. They were travellers through a pathless desert. They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way. A solitary way is not a correct translation. Perowne: In a pathless waste. Hengstenberg: The pathless desert. A wilderness is a scene of dreary desolation; and in this case the travellers are represented as having no path along which to travel through this dreary desert. The track is lost, perhaps obliterated by some violent sand-storm.
2. They were travellers through a homeless desert. They found no city to dwell in. There were no habitable places in the wilderness through which they journeyed.
3. They were travellers through an inhospitable desert. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. Their life was faint and exhausted by reason of hunger and thirst. We have here a picture of the pilgrimage of life. Apart from Divine guidance, man is a traveller who has lost his way; the track is clean gone; he is perplexed, bewildered. In this world there is no place of settled residence for man. Here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come. And unless man look to God for support, he will find in this world nothing to sustain his spiritual nature, nothing to satisfy the hunger and thirst of the soul.
II. The all-sufficient Helper. The Lord interposed in their need, and delivered them from all their distresses.
1. The Divine help was granted in answer to prayer. Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them out of their distresses. Perowne: So it ever is: only the pressure of a great need forces men to seek God. Prayer is not only the resource of good men, but of all men in trouble. It is a natural instinct even of wicked men to turn to God at such times. The fact that all men thus cry to God in their distresses impliesFaith
(1) in the existence of God; that He is.
(2) In His power to help His creatures; that He is able to relieve the distressed.
(3) In His regard for His creatures; that He is interested in their welfare.
(4) In His accessibleness to His creatures; that they may approach Him in prayer; that He is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Prayer is a great and glorious reality. There is ONE who hears and answers prayer.
2. The Divine help was adequate to their need. They were in a pathless desert, and He granted to them direction, guidance. He led them forth by the right way. They were in a homeless desert, and He directed them homeward. He led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation. They were fainting in an inhospitable desert, and He gave them abundant provision. For He satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness. Both the hunger and the thirst He effectually relieves. And still for all who seek Him there is all-sufficient help in Him. He is the infallible Guide through life. His smile transforms a barren wilderness into a richly provided banqueting house. And he has prepared for us a home, peaceful and permanent, beautiful and blessed.
III. The manifest obligation. Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men.
1. Gods gracious doings for man are wonderful. His goodness, and His wonderful works to the children of men. They are wonderful in themselves, and in their object. The children of men are unworthy of the least of His favours. Yet He guides them, sustains them, &c.
2. Men are prone to overlook the gracious doings of God for them. His mercies often lie
Forgotten in unthankfulness,
And without praises die.
Men have to be urged to the celebration of the praise of their Divine Benefactor. Oh that men would, &c.
3. Men are under the most sacred obligation to celebrate the gracious doings of God for them. God rightly expects that those who receive His mercy will celebrate His praise. He requires this. Gratitude urges to this. Not to thank Him is to manifest extreme baseness.
The stall-fed ox, that is grown fat, will know
His careless feeder, and acknowledge too;
The generous spaniel loves his masters eye,
And licks his fingers though no meat he by;
But man, ungrateful man, thats born and bred
By Heavens immediate power; maintained and fed
By His providing hand; observed, attended,
By His indulgent grace; preserved, defended
By His prevailing arm: this man, I say,
Is more ungrateful, more obdure than they.
Man, O most ungrateful man, can ever
Enjoy Thy gift, but never mind the Giver;
And like the swine, though pampered with enough,
His eyes are never higher than the trough!
F. Quarles.
THE WAY OF THE REDEEMED
(Psa. 107:7. He led them forth by the right way.)
I. The way of the redeemed.
1. Long.
2. Difficult.
3. Lonely.
4. A desert way.
II. The rectitude of the way. It is the right way. Consider
1. That it is the Divine way. He led them forth as a shepherd his flock.
2. To what it leads. The city of habitation.
Two lessons.
1. Take an enlarged view of the Divine conduct. Think of the goal, as well as of the way which leads to it. The way is painful; but consider why you are called to tread it. Remember the end of it all.
2. Ever seek the Divine guidance. God goes before; follow, trust Him.W. M., in The Pulpit Analyst.
THE AFFLICTED CAPTIVES AND THEIR GLORIOUS EMANCIPATOR
(Psa. 107:10-16)
We have in these verses
I. The picture of a painful captivity. Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron. The Poet represents the captivity as characterised by
1. Distress. They sit in darkness. The dark prison-house is an emblem of misery. To the patriotic and pious Jews the Babylonian Captivity was a source of much trouble and distress.
2. Apprehension. In the shadow of death. Death seemed to stand fully disclosed to their view, and to cast his chilling and fearful shadow upon them. The captives, in their distress, were as men constantly menaced by death.
3. Painful restriction. Bound in affliction and iron. The captives were not literally bound thus; but their distress seemed to them like that of the man who is held in iron fetters.
The most terrible captivity is moralthe bondage of sin. The wicked man is in darkness; the beauties of the spiritual universeof Oruth, righteousness, love,he sees not. The second death projects its dread shadow over him. He is the slave of sinful appetites, habits, and passions; is holden with the cords of his sins. Physical captivity is a calamity; moral captivity is a crime. Death will terminate the former; it has no power to affect the latter. The man who dies in sin enters eternity a manacled slave.
II. The reason of this painful captivity. Because they rebelled against the words of God, and contemned the counsel of the Most High. The words of God are His commands delivered unto them in His law, and by His servants the prophets. The counsel of the Most High is the advice which was given to them by the prophets of the Lord. Their painful captivity was the result of their wilful disobedience. The Poet in this verse exhibits sin in two aspects
1. Sin in its guilt. It is rebellion against the authority of the greatest and holiest Beingthe Supreme Being.
2. Sin in its folly. It is the rejection of the counsel of the wisest and kindest Being. God will command nothing which He would not advise, and which it would not be wisdom to obey.
III. The design of this painful captivity. He brought down their heart with labour; they fell down, and there was none to help. Their heart had proudly risen up in rebellion against God and contempt of His counsel, and their captivity was designed by its sufferings to subdue their pride. here rendered labour, signifies also affliction, trouble. God sought to humble them for them sins, to show them their own helplessness, and that their strength and succour were in Him alone. Afflictions are teachers. The man who is not altogether foolish, when visited by them, will strive to ascertain and appropriate the lessons which they have to impart.
IV. The deliverance from this painful captivity
1. Was effected in answer to prayer. Then they cried unto the Lord, &c (See remarks on Psa. 107:6.)
2. Was effected by the Lord. HE brought them out, &c. HE hath broken the gates, &c. In the deliverance of the Jews from Babylon, the hand of the Lord was clearly displayed. Our Lord proclaims liberty to the captives of evil, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound by sin. There is no power in the universe, but that of God in Christ Jesus, that can emancipate the slaves of sin.
3. Was gloriously complete. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in sunder. He hath broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sunder. The delivery was as great as the distress. The gates of brass refer probably to Babylon; and the idea is that their deliverance had been as if the brazen gates of that great city had been broken down to give them free egress from their captivity. (Comp. Isa. 45:2.) The Poet mentions three features of their deliverance, which taken together strikingly exhibit its completeness. Their fetters were riven asunder, they were brought out of their cold and gloomy prison, and the city gates were broken down, so that they could go forth entirely from the land of their captivity.
4. Demanded grateful acknowledgment. Oh, that men would praise the Lord, &c. (See remarks on Psa. 107:6.)
CONCLUSION.This subject has a practical and urgent application to all moral captives, all slaves of sin. Yours is a bondage far more terrible than that of Israel in Babylon. But from bondage such as yours Jesus Christ is the great and glorious Emancipator. From your dark prison-house cry unto Him for deliverance, and you shall speedily walk forth a free man in the bright universe of God.
HUMAN SICKNESS AND DIVINE HEALING
(Psa. 107:17-22)
Consider
I. Human sickness. It is here set forth
1. In its cause. Fools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities are afflicted. Perownes translation is better: Foolish men, because of the way of their transgression and because of their iniquities, bring affliction upon themselves. The chief ideas here are two:
(1) Wickedness is folly. The transgressor is a fool. The foolishness is not intellectual, but moral. The wicked are fools because of the moral infatuation of their conduct; they despise counsel; they are heedless of warning; they betray their own interests; they will only be brought to reason by chastisement.
(2) Wickedness leads to sickness. The Psalmist expressively indicates that the suffering was selfproduced; the sufferers had brought it upon themselves. Many physical afflictions are the direct result of sin. Gluttony and drunkenness lead to untold sickness and suffering. All suffering results from sin. Abolish moral evil, and physical evil would soon be utterly unknown.
2. In its effect. Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat, and they draw near unto the gates of death. The Psalmist describes the sufferer as loathing food, turning from it in disgust, and drawing near to death. Sheol, the realm of death, he represents as a city which is entered through gates. And the sufferer is solemnly near to those gates; in a little while, unless relief be imparted to him, he will have passed through them for ever.
II. Divine healing. This the Poet exhibits as
1. Effected in answer to prayer. Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, &c. (See remarks on Psa. 107:6.) Prayer is a salve for every sore.
2. Effected with supreme ease. He sent His word and healed them. Perowne detects here the first glimmering of St. Johns doctrine of the agency of the personal Word. The Word by which the heavens were made (Psa. 33:6) is seen to be not merely the expression of Gods will, but His messenger mediating between Himself and His creatures. At the command of the Lord diseases flee. He has but to utter His word, and the result is achieved. Doubtless many have been lifted up from the gates of death by God in answer to prayer. And in all cases of restoration from sickness to health, whatever means may be used, the healing power comes from God, and is under His control.
3. Demanding grateful acknowledgment. Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, &c. (See remarks on Psa. 107:8.)
CONCLUSION.This sketch of human disease and Divine healing may fairly be regarded as a parable of sin and salvation.
1. Sin produces an awful deterioration in human nature, and, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
2. The Lord is the almighty and all-merciful Saviour from sin.
3. Prayer is the condition of deliverance from sin. Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near.
DISTRESSED SEAMEN AND THE SOVEREIGN OF THE SEA
(Psa. 107:23-32)
This is the most highly finished, the most thoroughly poetical, of each of the four pictures of human peril and deliverance. It is painted as a landsman would paint it, but yet only as one who had him-self been in perils of waters could paint the stormthe waves running mountains high, on which the tiny craft seemed a plaything, the helplessness of human skill, the gladness of the calm, the safe refuge in the haven.Perowne. Notice
I. Gods sovereignty over the sea. He commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof. Again: He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. The force and fury of the storm are not blind, irresponsible, reckless things. They are not merely the outworking of natural laws. Behind the laws there is the Lawgiver. Behind the force of the winds and waves there is the Force of all forcesthe great God. The old Hebrew poets and prophets spake literal truth when they represented the ocean as entirely under the sway of Jehovah.
Who lifts up on high
The oceans maddening waves, tremendous sight?
Or bids them sleep along the feeble sands!
Tis God alone.Pollok.
To regard God as the Ruler of the sea It
1. Philosophic. It is unsatisfactory to tell me that certain laws, or forces of Nature, or certain combinations of her elements, are the cause of storms and calms. But it is thoroughly reasonable to attribute them to the Creator and Lord of Nature, a Being of infinite wisdom and almighty power.
2. Scriptural. The Bible ascribes all the phenomena of Nature to the agency of the Divine Being.
3. Assuring. It is some satisfaction to know that the furious elements are not governed by blind laws or stonyhearted fate, but by the wise and holy God. When the angry ocean engulfs hundreds of human beings, much sorrow and distressing mystery are the result. Yet the sorrow and distress would be far greater if, in the dreadful storm, we beheld only the work of mere laws or relentless fate. But God is wise, and strong, and kind. We know His will is good. We bow reverently before the mystery, and wait for more light. It is assuring to know that our Father rules the winds and waves.
II. Mans impotency when the sea rebels against him. They mount up to the heaven, &c. (Psa. 107:26-27). Man has great power over the sea. He employs it in his service. To a great extent he can control it even in its angry moods. In its depths he hides the medium of communication with far distant lands. He can navigate it in almost all weathers. Yet there are limits to mans power over the sea, and when he attains these limits, his impotence is complete. There is a Hitherto shalt thou come, but no farther, and when man has reached that boundary, if he attempt to advance beyond, the sea will whelm him.
How great is man! See how he curbs the elements and employs them in his service.
How insignificant is man! See how the stormy waves sport with him, buffet him, engulf him. When the ocean speaks in thunder, and surges in might and fury, mens souls are melted because of trouble. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits end.
But even when impotent and defeated by the warring elements, man is greater than they; for he is conscious of his impotence and defeat, while they know not of their triumph.
III. Mans resource when the sea rebels against him. Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble. In the storm, when Jonah was fleeing from Joppa to Tarshish, the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god. In the storm on the sea of Galilee, when the disciples of Christ thought they were perishing, they cried, Lord, save us: we perish. Even the professed atheist ceases the insane boast of atheism and cries to God for mercy in the storm when hope of deliverance by mere human skill is gone. In a heavy storm, when wreck seemed inevitable, the captain of a ship inquired anxiouslyIs there a praying man on board? But no one responded. He inquired again. And eventually it was found that there was a person on board, who had formerly been a Wesleyan, but who had cast away his confidence. Can you pray? said the captain to him. I could once, sir, he tremblingly replied, but I have left off praying. Try again, said the captain. And all the crew bowed down to that Almighty Being
Who rides upon the stormy sky,
And calms the roaring seas;
whilst the poor backslider tried to pray, and did pray, fervently, powerfully, and successfully; for the storm subsided and the vessel was preserved.
How affecting, in the wreck of the London, to find the people gathering round the Rev. Mr. Draper, and in prayer to God learning how to sink into the deep, not with the wild shriek of despair, or the heartless indifference of stoicism, or the atheistic excitement of epicureanism, but with the calm heroism of Christian faith! Prayer to God is the resource of imperilled mariners. That men thus cry to God in their trouble, as by an instinct of their being, suggests
1. The absurdity of atheism. Atheism is a contradiction of the consciousness of man as man.
2. The reality of prayer. The existence of the instinct which leads men to cry unto the Lord in their distresses, suggests that there is some One who hears prayer, that the utterance of petition is not in vain.
But is it only when you are at your wits end that you cry unto God? Do you ignore Him when the south wind blows softly, yet cry unto Him when the wild tempest raves? Is such conduct worthy of you? What right have you to expect that He whom you seek only when you are in trouble will answer your selfish cry?
IV. Gods answer to mans cry. He bringeth them out of their distresses, &c. Sometimes this is true literally. The heathen mariners on their voyage to Tarshish in the storm, with their dim lights as to religion, cried earnestly to their gods, and the true God directed them as to how they should proceed so as to secure the allaying of the storm. The disciples of the Lord Jesus cried to Him in the tempest, and He hushed it into peace. We could cite numerous instances of modern times, in which earnest prayer in the storm has been followed by a calm. But God does not always literally allay the storm, and save from it those who cry unto Him. He, however, calms the inward tempest, so that the waves of anxiety and terror are still. He did so in those on board the London, who sank in the act of worship. If He does not avert the calamity in answer to the prayer of the imperilled, He nerves them for the calamity, in their case takes away the sting and evil of it, and makes it the occasion of blessing to them. In answer to the cry of those in peril on the sea, God does not always bring the ship into the desired haven; but He bringeth them unto their desired haven,that calm haven where no storm raves, but all is peaceful, serene, and blessed.
V. Mans obligation for Gods interposition. Oh, that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, &c. (See remarks on Psa. 107:8.)
TERRESTRIAL REVOLUTIONS
(Psa. 107:33-43)
The character of the Psalm, says Perowne, changes at this point. We have no longer distinct pictures as before: the beautiful double refrain is dropped, the language is harsher and more abrupt. Instead of fresh examples of deliverance from peril, and thanksgiving for Gods mercies, we have now instances of Gods providential government of the world exhibited in two series of contrasts. The first of these is contained in Psa. 107:33-39, and expresses a double changethe. fruitful well-watered land smitten, like the rich plain of Sodom, with desolation, and changed into a salt-marsh; and anon, the wilderness crowned with cities, like Tadmor (of which Pliny says, vasto ambitu arenis includit agros), and made fertile to produce corn and wine. The second is contained in Psa. 107:40-41, and expresses the change in the fortunes of man (as the last series did those of countries)viz., how the poor and the humble are raised, and the rich and the proud overthrown.
Here are three chief points for consideration:
I. Revolutions in countries. Psa. 107:33-39. Here is
1. A picture of a fertile land reduced to barrenness. He turneth rivers into a wilderness, &c. (Psa. 107:33-34).
(1) This change was effected by God. HE turneth, &c. He can dry up rivers, and make the fruitful plain a salt waste or sandy desert.
(2) This change was effected by God by reason of the wickedness of its inhabitants. For the wickedness of them that dwell therein. There is an allusion here to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the change of the plain well watered everywhere, as the garden of the Lord, into a salt sea and a salt soil on which nothing grows. If the land be bad, it is because the inhabitants are so.
2. A picture of a barren land made fertile. (Psa. 107:35-38.) The 35th verse is taken from Isa. 41:18. The arid wilderness is transformed into a well-watered country, the barren desert into a scene of fruitfulness and beauty; where solitude reigned, a populous city is found; and where no life was, both human and animal life increases and multiplies. This transformation is brought about by
(1) The labour of man. They prepare a city for habitation; and sow the fields, and plant vineyards, which may yield fruits of increase. Labour is an eternal and immutable condition of prosperity both for individuals and for communities.
(2) The blessing of God. The Divine blessing precedes and prepares for human labour. He turneth the wilderness into a standing water, &c. The Divine blessing succeeds and crowns human labour. He blesseth them also, so that they are multiplied, &c. Some expositors have connected these verses with certain historical events; but, as Perowne points out, the language employed is far too general to be limited to one event. It describes what frequently has occurred. The histories of Mexico and of Holland might furnish examples of such a contrast. Matthew Henry says: The land of Canaan, which was once the glory of all lands for fruitfulness, is said to be at this day a fruitless, useless, worthless spot of ground, as was foretold (Deu. 29:23). This land of ours, which formerly was much of it an uncultivated desert, is now full of all good things.
3. A reminder that the temporal prosperity of communities is inconstant and uncertain. Again, they are minished and brought low through oppression, affliction, and sorrow.
(1) The most prosperous communities are not exempt from calamities.
(2) The most prosperous communities are sometimes brought low by calamities. Barnes: God so deals with the race as in the best manner to secure the recognition of Himself;not always sending prosperity, lest men should regard it as a thing of course, and forget that it comes from Him;and not making the course of life uniformly that of disappointment and sorrow, lest they should feel that there is no God presiding over human affairs. He visits now with prosperity, and now with adversity;now with success and now with reverses, showing that His agency is constant, and that men are wholly dependent on Him. Matthew Henry: Worldly wealth is an uncertain thing, and often those that are filled with it, ere they are aware, grow so secure and sensual with it that, ere they are aware, they lose it again.
II. Revolutions in human life. Here is
1. The humiliation of the highest. He poureth contempt upon princes, and causeth them to wander in the wilderness where there is no way. If men of exalted rank do evil and dishonour God He will bring them down from their elevation, make them to be scorned of men, and reduce them to helpless embarrassment. He bringeth the princes to nothing, He maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.
2. The exaltation of the lowest. Yet setteth He the poor on high from affliction, and maketh him families like a flock. God exalts the poor above their enemies, and out of the reach of their troubles. He raises them from suffering and adversity into joy and prosperity. He blesses them with large increase in their families,maketh families like a flock, a figure denoting a great multitude. Amongst the Hebrews large families were accounted a blessing. Over all these revolutions God presides. His kingdom ruleth over all. God is to be acknowledged, says Matthew Henry, both in setting up families and in building them up. Let not princes be envied, nor the poor despised, for God has ways of changing the condition of both.
III. The salutary impression of such revolutions. The Psalmist represents the result as threefold.
1. To the righteous, joy. The righteous shall see it and rejoice. The manifestation of Gods righteous government of the world is a source of gladness to the upright.
2. To the wicked, silence. All iniquity shall stop her mouth. The Divine dealings shall be manifestly so just, and so worthy of universal approval, that even though the wicked are disposed to complain against God, they will be able to find nothing which will justify them in such complaints.Barnes.
3. To the thoughtful, increased acquaintance with God. Whoso is wise and will observe these things, even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord.
(1) In the revolutions in human history there is a manifestation of the goodness of God. His rule is beneficent.
(2) This manifestation of the goodness of God is perceived only by the attentive observer of those revolutions. The significance of Gods works and ways cannot be discovered by a glance, or by the superficial observer. But he who will consider them attentively and reverently, shall find in them sufficient reason for intelligent and hearty confidence in Him.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
THE PSALMS
BOOK THE FIFTH[474]
[474] See Table II., ante.
Psalms 107
DESCRIPTIVE TITLE
Examples of Mens Straits, leading to Prayer; and of Jehovahs Deliverance, calling for Praise.
ANALYSIS
After a Summons to Thanksgiving addressed to the Redeemed, Psa. 107:1-3, Examples are given:
1.
Of Hungry Wanderers, Psa. 107:4-9;
2.
Of Guilty Prisoners, Psa. 107:10-16;
3.
Of Dying Transgressors, Psa. 107:17-22;
4.
Of Imperilled Sailors, Psa. 107:23-32;
whose Straits move them to Prayer, and whose Prayer brings them from Jehovah Deliverance. Further Examples are suggested:
5.
Of a Fruitful Land, first Sterilised, then Blessed, Psa. 107:33-38;
6.
Of Nobles, first Diminished, then Multiplied, Psa. 107:39-42
(These suggestions are without the Refrains with which the previous Examples are finished.) A Brief Admonition Closes the Psalm.
(P.R.I.) Praise ye Yah![475]
[475] See notes to Psalms 105. Sep and Vul. have this P.R.I. here.
1
Give ye thanks to Jehovah for he is good,
for to the ages is his kindness.
2
Let the redeemed of Jehovah[476] say
[476] Cp. Isa. 62:12 (also Isa. 63:4; Isa. 35:9).
whom he hath redeemed out of the hand of the adversary;
3
And out of countries hath gathered them,
out of the east and out of the west,
out of the north and out of the south.[477]
[477] So Gt.Gn. And so Dr. M.T.: the sea.
4
Men have wandered about in a desert in a waste,
way to a city to dwell in have they not found:
5
Hungry yea thirsty
their soul within them fainteth.
6
So they make outcry unto Jehovah in the strait they are in,
that out of their distresses he will rescue them.
7
And he leadeth them in a way direct,
that they may come to a city to dwell in.
8
Let them give thanks to Jehovah for his kindness,
and his wondrous doings for the sons of men:
9
Because he hath satisfied the longing soul,
and the hungry soul hath filled with good.
10
Men are sitting in darkness and death-shade,
prisoners in humiliation and iron,
11
Because they have rebelled against the sayings of GOD,
and the counsel of the Highest have spurned,[478]
[478] Or: despised.
12
And he humbleth with travail their heart,
they have staggered and there is no one to help.
13
So they cry out unto Jehovah in the strait they are in,
that out of their distresses he will save them.
14
And he leadeth them forth out of darkness and death-shade,
and their bands he bursteth asunder.[479]
[479] Or: he teareth open.
15
Let them give thanks to Jehovah for his kindness,
and his wondrous doings for the sons of men:
16
Because he hath shattered the doors of bronze,
and the bars of iron hath hewn asunder.[480]
[480] Isa. 45:2.
17
Foolish men because of their way of transgression,
and because of their iniquities bring on themselves humiliation:
18
All food their soul abhorreth,
and they draw near unto the gates of death.
19
So they cry out unto Jehovah in the strait they are in,
that out of their distresses he will save them.
20
He sendeth forth his word[481] and healeth them,
[481] Job. 33:23, Joh. 1:1.
and rescueth [them] out of their pits.[482]
[482] That is, their gravesDr. PitfallsDel. From the pit their lifeBr. (conj.).
21
Let them give thanks to Jehovah for his kindness,
and his wondrous doings for the sons of men;
22
And let them sacrifice sacrifices of thanksgiving,
and tell of his works[483] with jubilation.[484]
[483] Or: doings.
[484] Or: a ringing cry.
23
Men go down to the sea in ships,
doing business through great waters:
24
They have seen the works of Jehovah,
and his wondrous doings in the deep;
25
And he commandeth and there ariseth[485] a tempestuous wind,
[485] So it shd. be (w. Sep.)Gn.
and it lifteth on high the waves thereof:
26
They mount the heavens they descend the deeps,
their soul by trouble dissolveth:
27
They reel and stagger like a drunken man,
and all their wisdom is engulfed.
28
So they make outcry unto Jehovah in the strait they are in,
that out of their distresses he will bring them forth.
29
He stilleth the storm to a whisper,[486]
[486] He husheth the storm to a gentle airPer. He turned the storm into a gentle breezeDel.
and silent are their waves:
30
Then are they glad because they subside,
and he guideth them to their desired haven,[487]
[487] Longed-for-havenDel. Haven of their desireDr. City of their desireO.G.
31
Let them give thanks to Jehovah for his goodness,
and his wondrous doings for the sons of men;
32
And let them extol him in an assembly of people,
and in a seated company of elders let them praise him.
33
He turneth rivers into a desert,
and springs of water into thirsty ground:
34
A land of fruit into a waste of salt,
for the wickedness of them who dwell therein.
35
He turneth a desert into a pool of water,
and a parched land into springs of water;
36
And causeth to dwell there the hungry,
and they establish a city to dwell in;
37
And sow fields and plant vineyards,
and obtain fruits to be gathered in.
38
So doth he bless them and they multiply greatly,
and their cattle suffereth he not to be few.
40
He poureth contempt upon nobles,[488]
[488] Psa. 107:39-40 are transposed according to the judgment of Ginsburg on the inverted nun found here in the margin.
and letteth them wander in a pathless waste;[489]
[489] Heb. tohu: cp. Gen. 1:2. Cp. Job. 12:21-24.
39
And they become few and are brought low
by the pressure of misfortune and sorrow.[490]
[490] So Del. Through coercion, adversity, and sorrowDr.
41
And he setteth the needy on high out of humiliation,
and maketh families like a flock.[491]
[491] Cp. Job. 21:11.
42
The upright see and are glad,[492]
[492] Cp. Job. 5:16.
and all perverseness hath shut her mouth.[493]
[493] Cp. Job. 22:19.
43
Who is wise?let him observe these things,[494]
[494] Cp. Hos. 14:9.
and diligently consider the kindness of Jehovah.
(Nm.)
PARAPHRASE
Psalms 107
Say Thank You to the Lord for being so good, for always being so loving and kind.
2. Has the Lord redeemed you? Then speak out! Tell others He has saved you from your enemies.
3 He brought the exiles back from the farthest. corners of the earth.
4 They were wandering homeless in the desert,
5 Hungry and thirsty and faint.
6 Lord, help! they cried, and He did!
7 He led them straight to safety and a place to live.
8 Oh, that these men would praise the Lord for His loving-kindness, and for all of His wonderful deeds!
9 For He satisfies the thirsty soul and fills the hungry soul with good.
10 Who are these who sit in darkness, in the shadow of death, crushed by misery and slavery?
11 They rebelled against the Lord, scorning Him, who is the God above all gods.
12 That is why he broke them with hard labor; they fell and none could help them rise again.
13 Then they cried to the Lord in their troubles, and He rescued them!
14 He led them from the darkness and shadow of death and snapped their chains!
15 Oh, that these men would praise the Lord for His loving-kindness and for all of His wonderful deeds!
16 For He broke down their prison gates of brass and cut apart their iron bars.
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17 Others, the fools, were ill because of their sinful ways.
18 Their appetites were gone and death was near.
19 Then they cried to the Lord in their troubles, and He helped them and delivered them.
20 He spoke, and they were healedsnatched from the door of death.
21 Oh, that these men would praise the Lord for His loving-kindness and for all of His wonderful deeds!
22 Let them tell Him Thank You as their sacrifice, and sing about His glorious deeds.
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23 And then there are the sailors sailing the seven seas, plying the trade routes of the world.
24 They, too observe the power of God in action.
25 He calls to the storm winds; the waves rise high.
26 Their ships are tossed to the heavens and sink again to the depths; the sailors cringe in terror.
27 They reel and stagger like drunkards and are at their wits end.
28 Then they cry to the Lord in their trouble, and He saves them!
29 He calms the storm and stills the waves.
30 What a blessing is that stillness, as He brings them safely into harbor!
31 Oh, that these men would praise the Lord for His loving-kindness and all of His wonderful deeds!
32 Let them praise Him publicly before the congregation, and before the leaders of the nation.
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33 He dries up rivers,
34 And turns the good land of the wicked into deserts of salt.
35 Again, He turns deserts into fertile, watered valleys!
36 He brings the hungry to settle there and build their cities,
37 To sow their fields and plant their vineyards, and reap their bumper crops!
38 How He blesses them! They raise big families there, and many cattle!
39 But others become poor through oppression, trouble and sorrow.
40 For God pours contempt upon the haughty and causes princes to wander among ruins;
41 But He rescues the poor who are godly and gives them many children and much prosperity.
42 Good men everywhere will see it and be glad, while evil men are stricken silent.
43 Listen, if you are wise, to what I am saying. Think about the lovingkindness of the Lord!
EXPOSITION
This psalm stands high for its artistic beauty and for its broad applicability to the experiences of men, as well as for the same lofty devotion as that by which most of the psalms are distinguished. Its artistic beauty is greatly owing to the two refrains which adorn each of is four principal stanzas, one refrain shewing how trouble leads to prayer, and the other suggesting that answered prayer calls for praise; and, though this feature is missing from the concluding strains of the psalm (Psa. 107:33-42), yet this absence ceases to appear as a blemish, when once it is apprehended that the lack was intentional, and that the supernumerary lines were merely intended to shew, by two further examples, in how many other ways than those above wrought out, the prayers of men might be called for and their praises evoked. Such an apprehension enriches us by revealing psalmody in the making as well as psalmody fully prepared for public use. We first think we can see whereabouts amidst the supplementary lines the refrains might have been inserted, and then reflect on the numberless other ways in which the ever-varying experiences of life may with equal fitness fan the flames of petition and adoration. Let the redeemed from every other conceivable distress say whether it is not still true of Jehovah, that he is good, For to the ages is his kindness.
By this very suggestivenessof other like experiencesis the breadth of this psalm discovered; as also by the typical character of the instances actually given. In the first and fourth refrained stanzas, we have instances of men in distress through no apparent sin or fault of their own: in the second and third finished stanzas, are given examples in which it was sin that brought on the suffering. We can choose between them, according as we apprehend our own troubles to be punitive as well as disciplinary, or the latter only. We may be passing through troublenot because we are bad, but that we may be better. Besides this, some troubles read like parables of others to which they bear a striking resemblance. Many a man seems to himself to be like a prisoner with no imaginable way of escape; and many another, like the mariner whose soul by trouble dissolveth, And all his wisdom is engulfed. Courage, brother! HE still liveth who can still the storm to a whisper. Sooner than thou thinkest, thou mayest have cast anchor in thy desired haven!
Among other manifestations of the devotional spirit which pervades the psalms in general, this psalm is delightfully conspicuous in that, instead of employing inferior deities, one to send a trouble and another to remove it, all the vicissitudes of life are traced ultimately to Jehovahs holy will. He mercifully overrules the troubles which he inscrutably permits: he raises the storm which he abates. In no case are we debarred from recognising his hand in the controlling and moulding of our lives. Who is wise? let him observe these things, And diligently consider the kindness of Jehovah.
There is not a word in the body of this psalm to suggest a late date for its composition; and though the Sopherim may very well have adapted it for a post-exilic time by the prelude which amplifies the gathering of scattered Israel, yet it should not be forgotten that Israel suffered extensive deportations even before Hezekiahs day. Those readers who will be at the trouble of looking up the numerous references to Job and Isaiah here supplied will of course be struck with the coincidences thereby brought to light. At the same time there are two weighty considerations to be borne in mind: the one is the brightening evidence that the latter part of Isaiah was after all mainly written by the man whose name it bears; and the other the much forgotten circumstance that the Great Return from Exile from the four quarters of the earth is manifestly an event which has yet to be fulfilled.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1.
How is the artistic beauty of this psalm shown?
2.
In what way can we see psalmody in the making?
3.
There are lessons to learn from distress. Examples are givenhow do these two examples fit all men?
4.
These distresses can be read like parableshow?
5.
Is it true that all natural phenomena is to be attributed to Jehovah? Can we make Him immediately and personally responsible for the millions who have died in famine and flood?
6.
How is the problem of the late date of this psalm answered?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(1) For this doxology see Note, Psa. 106:1.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1. Give thanks unto the Lord This verse is a favourite formula of praise, (Psa 106:1; Psa 108:1; Psa 136:1,) and strikingly similar to that which Jeremiah predicted should be used at the return of the exiles from Babylon. Jer 33:11
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psalms 107
Date – Psalms 107 appears to be post-exilic since it makes reference to the gathering of Israel from foreign lands (Psa 107:3).
Psa 107:3, “And gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south.”
Theme – This is a psalm of praise and thanksgiving for God’s eternal love, with a repetitive refrain (Psa 107:1; Psa 107:8; Psa 107:15; Psa 107:21; Psa 107:31) that calls man to praise Him for his love and mercy towards them. God delivers man through His mercy when he cries out to Him in repentance.
Note some modern titles given to this Psalm:
1. Exhortation of praise
2. The Lord delivers men from manifold troubles
Structure Here is a proposed structure for Psalms 107:
I. Introduction: A Call to Praise the Lord ( Psa 107:1-3 ) The psalmist opens Psalms 107 by giving them a call to praise the Lord for Him mercy towards them.
II. Four Illustrations of God’s Love for Mankind ( Psa 107:4-32 ) – Having given a call to praise and thanksgiving to God’s redeemed for His mercy and love towards them, the Psalms provides four illustrations of God’s redemption to His people.
A. The Stranger (Psa 107:4-8)
B. The Prisoner (Psa 107:9-15)
C. The Afflicted (Psa 107:16-22)
D. The Seafarer (Psa 107:23-32)
These four illustrations repeat a common message of man’s helplessness, his cry unto God, and the Lord’s deliverance. Each illustration concludes with a call for thanksgiving unto God for His love (Psa 107:8; Psa 107:15; Psa 107:21-22; Psa 107:31-32).
III. God’s Divine Providence ( Psa 107:33-42 ) After giving four illustrations of God’s redemption from earthly distress (Psa 107:4-32), the psalmist reminds them of how His divine providence operates here on earth. He curses the wicked (Psa 107:33-34) and blesses the hungry (Psa 107:35-38), and all based upon the love of God, which moves Him to hear the cry of those in need (Psa 107:39-42).
IV. Conclusion ( Psa 107:43 ) The psalmist concludes Psalms 107 by asking the redeemed to consider God’s love towards them.
Outline Here is a proposed outline of Psalms 107:
I. Introduction Psa 107:1-3
II. Four Illustrations of God’s Love for Mankind Psa 107:4-32
A. The Stranger Psa 107:4-8
B. The Prisoner Psa 107:9-15
C. The Afflicted Psa 107:16-22
D. The Seafarer Psa 107:23-32
III. God’s Divine Providence Psa 107:33-38
A. God Curses Psa 107:33-34
B. God Blesses Psa 107:35-38
C. God Delivers the Needy Psa 107:39-42
IV. Conclusion Psa 107:43
Psa 107:1 O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.
Psa 107:1
NIV, “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.”
The Hebrew word ( ) is used six times in refrains of the Psalms 107 (1, 8, 15, 21, 31, 43).
Psa 107:2-3 God Gathers His Redeemed Psa 107:2-3 makes a reference to God gathering the people whom He has redeemed from the four corners of the earth. This is certainly a reference to the time when the children of Israel returned from Babylonian Captivity. It dates this psalm as post-exilic. This passage also predicts of the rebirth of the nation of Israel that took place in 1948.
Psa 107:2 Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy;
Psa 107:3
Isa 62:12, “And they shall call them, The holy people, The redeemed of the LORD : and thou shalt be called, Sought out, A city not forsaken.”
Psa 107:3 Comments – God’s love is extended to all mankind; however, it is only the redeemed who have acknowledged it and now recognize it in their daily lives. The sinner, lost in the darkness of sins, is not able to see God’s plan of redemption for him.
Psa 107:3 And gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south.
Psa 107:3
Psa 107:3 Comments – The event of God gathering His redeemed from the east west, north and south best describes the return of the children of Israel from Babylonian Captivity. Thus, scholars see Psa 107:3 as an indication that this Psalm is post-exilic.
God promised this divine gathering of the nation of Israel in Deu 30:1-4 when His people turn back to Him in repentance and godly sorrow. God also spoke through the prophet Ezekiel during their Captivity and reminded them of this promise.
Deu 30:4, “If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the LORD thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee:”
Eze 34:12, “As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.”
Psa 107:4-32 Four Illustrations of God’s Love for Mankind – Having given a call to praise and thanksgiving to God’s redeemed for His mercy and love towards them, the psalmist provides four illustrations of God’s redemption to His people.
1. The Stranger (Psa 107:4-8)
2. The Prisoner (Psa 107:9-15)
3. The Afflicted (Psa 107:16-22)
4. The Seafarer (Psa 107:23-32)
These four illustrations repeat a common message of man’s helplessness, his cry unto God, and the Lord’s deliverance. Each illustration concludes with a call for thanksgiving unto God for His love (Psa 107:8; Psa 107:15; Psa 107:21-22; Psa 107:31-32).
Psa 107:4-8 God Delivers Those in the Wilderness Psa 107:4-8 tells us how God delivers those who are in the wilderness who are overcome with hunger and thirst. This most closely describes the children of Israel during their wilderness journeys. In God’s love, He guided a sinful and rebellious people along their journey to the Promised Land. Why did the children of Israel have to face a need of water, and food, and fight against the Amalekites, etc? God was testing their faith in Him, to get them to turn to Him as their God.
Psa 107:8 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
Psa 107:8
1. Moses’ song after crossing the Red sea and God’s great deliverance Exo 15:1-19.
2. Miriam’s song Exo 15:20-21.
Psa 107:18 Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat; and they draw near unto the gates of death.
Psa 107:18
[106] Matthew Henry, Psalms, in Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible, New Modern Edition, Electronic Database (Seattle, WA: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 1991), in P.C. Study Bible, v. 3.1 [CD-ROM] (Seattle, WA: Biblesoft Inc., 1993-2000), notes on Psalms 107:18.
Psa 107:20 He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.
Psa 107:20
Joh 10:10, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”
2Co 6:2, “(For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)”
Psa 107:22 And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing.
Psa 107:22
Lev 7:11-12, “And this is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings, which he shall offer unto the LORD. If he offer it for a thanksgiving, then he shall offer with the sacrifice of thanksgiving unleavened cakes mingled with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil, and cakes mingled with oil, of fine flour, fried.”
We see a type of thanksgiving offering in Heb 13:15.
Heb 13:15, “By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.”
Psa 107:23-30 God Delivers from the Storm Psa 107:23-30 tells us how God delivers those who are in the storms of the sea. Although the context of this psalm is about God’s deliverance to a rebellious people, we do find a similar deliverance in the Gospels when Jesus was awakened by His disciples in the boat during the storm and He rebuked the winds and the waves (Mat 8:23-27).
Psa 107:23 They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters;
Psa 107:23
Psa 107:23 “that do business in great waters” Comments – The phrase “in great waters” is descriptive of the vast bodies of water, such as the Mediterranean Sea, in contrast to smaller inland lakes and rivers.
Psa 107:33-42 God’s Divine Providence After giving four illustrations of God’s redemption from earthly distress (Psa 107:4-32), the psalmist reminds them of how His divine providence operates here on earth. God rules over nature and over mankind. He curses the wicked (Psa 107:33-34) and blesses the hungry (Psa 107:35-38), and all based upon the love of God, which moves Him to hear the cry of those in need (Psa 107:39-42). Thus, this passage of Scripture explains God’s providential ways towards mankind.
Psa 107:34 A fruitful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein.
Psa 107:34
Gen 19:25, “And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.”
Psa 107:43 C onclusion – Psalms 107 serves as a conclusion with a final call for the redeemed to consider God’s ways of mercy and love towards them. The righteous have God’s wisdom to see God’s hand in all of this. If man will live in an attitude of worship and praise and recognition towards Him, he will be able to abide under God’s blessings, and live above the curses that plague a depraved humanity.
Psa 107:43 Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the lovingkindness of the LORD.
Thanksgiving for Deliverance from Various Troubles.
v. 1. O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, v. 2. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, v. 3. and gathered them out of the lands, v. 4. They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way, v. 5. Hungry and thirsty, v. 6. Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them out of their distresses, v. 7. And He led them forth by the right way, v. 8. Oh, that men, v. 9. For He satisfieth the longing soul, EXPOSITION
A SONG of thanksgiving, first for deliverance from the Babylonish captivity (Psa 107:1-3), and then for other deliverances (Psa 107:4-32), passing into a general account of God’s providential dealings with mankind, both in the way of chastisement and of loving-kindness, but especially the latter (Psa 107:33-42). The composition closes with a single gnomic reflection on the wisdom of pondering such matters as those brought forward by the writer.
Formally, the psalm falls into seven divisions:
(1) a thanksgiving for the return from Babylon (Psa 107:1-3);
(2) one for deliverance from the perils of travel (Psa 107:4-9);
(3) one for deliverance from prison (Psa 107:10-16);
(4) one for recovery from sickness (Psa 107:17-22);
(5) one for escape from the perils of the sea (Psa 107:23-32);
(6) a general account of God’s dealings with men (Psa 107:33-42); and
(7) a commendation of the entire subject to the consideration of God’s people. Parts 2, 3, 4, and 5 are terminated by a refrain.
Psa 107:1
O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good (comp. Psa 106:1; Psa 118:1; Psa 136:1). For his mercy endureth forever (see the comment on Psa 106:1).
Psa 107:2
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. “The redeemed of the Lord” in this place are those whom the Lord has just delivered out of exile and captivity (comp. Isa 44:22-24; Isa 51:11; Jer 31:11; Zec 10:8, etc.). The writer calls on them to give voice to the thanksgiving of Psa 107:1. Whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy; i.e. of Babylon.
Psa 107:3
And gathered them out of the lands (compare the prayer of Psa 106:47; and for the expression, “the lands”i.e. the foreign countriessee Psa 106:27; Ezr 9:1). From the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south. The present Hebrew text has , “from the sea” and so the LXX; but it is thought that probably is a corruption of (Cheyne), which would mean “from the south.”
Psa 107:4-9
The form is historical, but the intention is to describe a recurrent event. Men from time to time wanderlose their wayeither literally, or in the wilderness of life, grow faint and weary, and are ready to perish. But if they cry to God, God gives them aid, succors them, saves them. Then let them praise and thank him.
Psa 107:4
They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in. It is, perhaps, best to divide this verse as was done by the LXX; who attached , “way,” to the latter clause. So Cheyne, who translates, “They wandered in the wilderness, yea, in the desert; they found no road to a city of habitation.” So also Rosenmller.
Psa 107:5
Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. Either actual hunger and thirst, or dissatisfaction with life, may be intended.
Psa 107:6
Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble (comp. Psa 106:44, and the comment ad loc.). And he delivered them out of their distresses. “Distresses” may be a plural of amplification, or it may point to the triple sufferinghunger, thirst, faintness.
Psa 107:7
And he led them forth by the right way; or, “by a straight way”a way in which there was no crookedness. That they might go to a city of habitation. The same phrase as in Psa 107:4. A city suitable for habitation is meant.
Psa 107:8
Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness! Here the refrain occurs for the first time. Note its repetition in Psa 107:15, Psa 107:21, and Psa 107:31. It is an earnest call on those who have experienced God’s mercies to be thankful. And for his wonderful works to the children of men! or, “his wonderful doings.”
Psa 107:9
For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness. The “satisfaction” intended seems to be spiritual rather than material (comp. Psa 34:10; Luk 1:53). God alone can satisfy the cravings of man’s spiritual nature.
Psa 107:10-16
There are others afflicted differentlystruck down by some grievous calamity, imprisonment, earthly ruin, down fall of their hopes, a sense of their bondage to sinwho suffer perhaps even more than the dissatisfied wanderers. They too may cry to God in their trouble; and when they do, they experience his mercy. Let them join in the chorus of praise.
Psa 107:10
Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death (comp. Job 16:16; Job 36:8). The expressions used are purposely vague, being intended to cover various sorts of misery. Being bound in affliction and iron; i.e. “in an affliction which holds them like bands of iron” (comp. Psa 107:17).
Psa 107:11
Because they rebelled against the words of God. Such deep affliction as is here spoken of scarcely ever comes upon any but those who have offended God by resisting his will. And contemned the counsel of the most High (comp. Pro 1:25). The “counsel of God” is the course of conduct which he has prescribed to man, whether through the reason and conscience that he has implanted in him, or through his revealed Word.
Psa 107:12
Therefore he brought down their heart with labor; rather, with misery, or with sorrow. They fell down; i.e. collapsedsank to the earth. And there was none to help. They were like Job; no one gave them any help in their affliction.
Psa 107:13
Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses (comp. Psa 107:6, and see also Psa 107:19 and Psa 107:28).
Psa 107:14
He brought them out of dark ness and the shadow of death. Wherein they sat (Psa 107:10). And brake their bands in sunder. Freed them from their fetters (Psa 107:10), whatever they were.
Psa 107:15
Oh that men, etc.! A repetition of Psa 107:8.
Psa 107:16
For he hath broken the gates of brass. God completely liberates the un happy ones who turn to him; removes every restraint that confines and galls them; breaks on their behalf, as it were, “gates of brass.” And cut the bars of iron in sunder. Snaps fetters and prison bars.
Psa 107:17-22
A third class of persons under God’s displeasure are punished by grievous sickness, and brought to the very verge of the grave. They, too, in many cases, turn to God, and, “crying to him,” are delivered from their peril. It is for them, under such circumstances, to make a return by means of praise and thanks giving.
Psa 107:17
Fools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted. Some read , “sick men,” for , “fools,” here. But the change is not necessary. Folly and sin are regarded as two aspects of the same moral condition by the sacred writers, and sickness is spoken of as an ordinary punishment for them (Job 33:17-22; 2Ki 5:27; 2Ch 21:15; 2Ch 26:16-19; Act 12:23).
Psa 107:18
Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat (comp. Job 33:20; Psa 102:4). And they draw near unto the gates of death. See Psa 9:13; and compare (Eurip; ‘Hec.,’ 1)
Psa 107:19
Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he sayeth them out of their distresses (see above, Psa 107:6 and Psa 107:13).
Psa 107:20
He sent his word. and healed them; rather, he sends his word, and heals them (see the Revised Version). The “word” intended may be a message sent by a human messenger, like the “word” sent to Hezekiah in. his sickness (2Ki 20:4; Isa 38:4); or it may be a thought suggested to the mind either directly by God, or by an angel, like that spoken of in Job 33:23, Job 33:24; or, lastly, it may be the actual Word of God (Joh 1:1), the Son, sent by the Father. But this last sense can scarcely have been in the writer’s mind. And delivered them from their destructions; or, “from their grave-pits” (Kay, Cheyne). The word used occurs only here and in Lain. Job 4:20, where it is translated “pits.”
Psa 107:21
Oh that men, etc.! A repetition of Psa 107:8 and Psa 107:15.
Psa 107:22
And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving; compare the expression, “the calves of our lips” (Hos 14:2), and see also Heb 13:15. And declare his works with rejoicing; i.e. joyfully pro claim the great things that God has done for them.
Psa 107:23-32
Finally, there are eases among those whose business requires them to traverse the sea, where the danger is great, and death seems imminent. Let such persons cast themselves upon God, and “cry to him in their trouble,” and they too will be heard and delivered. Must it not be their duty also to give thanks?
Psa 107:23
They that go down to the sea in ships. That many of the Israelites engaged in maritime pursuits appears from 1Ki 9:26-28; 1Ki 10:22; 1Ki 22:48; 2Ch 20:36; as also from Jdg 5:17; Psa 48:7; Pro 23:34; Pro 30:19; and from many passages of the Apocrypha. Joppa was at all times an Israelite port, from which trade was carried on by the residents (2Ch 2:16; Ezr 3:7; Jon 1:3). That do business in great waters; i.e. the sea of Galilee and Lake Merom.
Psa 107:24
These see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep. Storms, tempests, and sudden deliverances are the “wonders” especially meant (comp. Act 27:14-44; 2Co 11:25).
Psa 107:25
For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind (comp. Psa 147:15, Psa 147:18; Jon 1:4). The operations of nature are constantly spoken of in Scripture as God’s direct doing. Which lifteth up the waves thereof; or, “the waves that are his” (compare, in Psa 147:17, Psa 147:18, “his ice, his cold, his wind”).
Psa 107:26
They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths. Tossed on the foaming billows, now carried up until they seem almost to touch the sky (see Gen 11:4), anon sinking into the trough of the sea, and as it were swallowed up in its depths. Their soul is melted because of trouble; or, “their soul melteth away in the trouble” (Cheyne).
Psa 107:27
They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man. The oldest sailor “loses his sea-legs,” and staggers about the deck like a landsman, or like one drunk. And are at their wit’s end; literally, as in the margin, and all their wisdom is swallowed. But the English idiom of the Authorized Version is a very happy, one, and exactly expresses the writer’s meaning. All the seaman’s intelligence is at fault, and can suggest nothing.
Psa 107:28
Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses. Practically identical with Psa 107:6, Psa 107:13, and Psa 107:19.
Psa 107:29
He maketh the storm a calm; i.e. he causes the wind to drop, and to be succeeded by a “great calm” (comp. Mat 8:26). Such sudden changes do sometimes occur, not only in inland seas, but on the Mediterranean (see Jon 1:15). So that the waves thereof are still; literally, the waves of them; i.e. of the great waters (see Psa 107:23).
Psa 107:30
Then are they glad because they be quiet; or, “because they be at rest,” i.e. no longer tempest-tossed. So he bringeth them unto their desired haven; literally, the haven of their desire; i.e. the haven where they desire to be.
Psa 107:31
Oh that men, etc. Repeated from Psa 107:8, Psa 107:15, and Psa 107:21.
Psa 107:32
Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people. The psalmist holds it to be not enough for men who have received deliverances to thank God in their hearts, or secretly in their chambers. He requires them to make public profession of their thankfulness “in the congregation of the people.” The Christian Church maintains the same attitude. And praise him in the assembly of the elders. The elders led the congregation and presided in it (Ezr 3:9-11; Ezr 6:16-22; Neh 8:4-9; Neh 9:4, Neh 9:5; Neh 12:27-43, etc.).
Psa 107:33-42
Professor Cheyne finds in this passagewhich he views as an “appendix” to the psalma falling off from the earlier portion of the psalm, and a set of “sentences strung together without much reflection.” But to others the transition from special deliverances to God’s general dealings with mankind seems an enlargement and an advance in the thought, although the language may be less graphic and more commonplace than in the former portion of the composition.
Psa 107:33
He turneth rivers into a wilderness. God can, and does, by the operation of his providence, turn lands naturally fertilelands abounding with streamsinto arid wastes, either by such a physical catastrophe as that which blasted the cities of the plain (Gen 19:24, Gen 19:25), or by such moral changes as have turned Babylonia from a garden into a desert, a miserable howling wilderness (comp. Psa 13:1-6 :15-22; Psa 1:2; Jer 1:13-15, 38-40; Jer 51:13, Jer 51:37-43, etc.). And the water springs into dry ground. The phrase is varied, but the meaning is the same. God has full control over nature, and can either take back his blessings, or render them of no avail.
Psa 107:34
A fruitful land into barrenness; literally, into saltness. The judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah is probably in the writer’s mind. For the wickedness of them that dwell therein. God does not capriciously withdraw his blessings from a land. If he turns a fruitful land into a barren one, we may be sure that the inhabitants have provoked him by their sins.
Psa 107:35
He turneth the wilderness into a standing water; rather, a wilderness (comp. Isa 35:7; Isa 41:18). And dry ground into water springs. The entire verse is antithetical to Psa 107:33.
Psa 107:36
And there he maketh the hungry to dwell. God gives the laud, which he has thus blessed, to some previously famishing people; as he did Canaan to Israel after they had had but scant fare in the wilderness. That they may prepare a city for habitation; literally, and they prepare. It is naturally their first thought to prepare themselves a settled dwelling-place (comp. Gen 4:17; Gen 11:4; Gen 25:16, etc.).
Psa 107:37
And sow the fields; literally, and sow fieldsthe first act of a settled population. And plant vineyards. The second act in a wine-producing country. Bread and wine were recognized in the East as the prime necessaries of life (see Gen 14:18; Jdg 9:13; Jdg 19:19; 2Sa 6:19; Neh 5:15; Psa 104:15; Dan 1:5, etc.). Which may yield fruits of increase; rather, and get them; literally, make them. The expression, “fruits of increase,” points to the abundance of the harvest and vintage.
Psa 107:38
He blesseth them also, so that they are multiplied greatly. With in creasing prosperity comes increase of population, naturallyi.e. by God’s ordinary providence. This increase is, however, only a blessing within certain limits. And suffereth not their cattle to decrease. This modest under-statement suggests an enormous increase (comp. Job 42:12).
Psa 107:39
Again. There is no “again” in the original, but merely the usual yaw conjunctive. Still, in the thought, there is no doubt an abrupt transition. The writer turns to the darker side of the picture. They are minished and brought low. God shows his providence, not merely in blessing, but also in chastising. Even the very nation which has been the most highly favored may, by misconduct, fall under his displeasure and suffer at his hands. Their population is diminished; they arc “bowed down” (Revised Version), or “brought low.” Calamities of various kinds befall them. Sometimes their decline is brought about through oppression, which may be either the cruel rule of a native monarch, such as Saul, or the still heavier yoke of a foreign power, like Egypt or Babylon. Sometimes it comes from such an affliction as bad harvests, plagues of locusts, or pestilence. Sometimes it is brought about by sorrowthe death of a good ruler in the flower of his age, the extinction of a royal stock, the destruction of a nation’s best and bravest on battle-fields, and the like. But in all calamities alike it is God’s hand that deals the blow.
Psa 107:40
He poureth contempt upon princes. A direct quotation from Job 12:21, but not therefore to be regarded as spurious, since the sacred writers often quote one another, and the psalmists especially are very much in the habit of citing, or referring to Job (see, in this very psalm, besides the present passage, Psa 107:10, Psa 107:18 (bis), Psa 107:20, Psa 107:34, Psa 107:41, and Psa 107:42). And causeth them to wander in the wilderness; rather, a wilderness (comp. Job 12:24). Where there is no way. “Wandering in a wilderness without a way denotes helpless embarrassment” (Hengstenberg).
Psa 107:41
Yet setteth he the poor on high from affliction. Even in such dread calamities, when a whole nation is punished, God’s providence protects the poor and needynot of course in all, but still in very many, eases. The mower’s scythe passes over the humblest flowers. And maketh him families like a flock (setup. Job 21:11). Those whom God thus preserves he collects into “families,” and looks after as carefully as a shepherd looks after his sheep.
Psa 107:32
The righteous shall see it, and rejoice. Experience will justify God’s ways to man. “The righteous”his peoplewill see that the general course of God’s providence is such as described (Psa 107:33-41), and will “rejoice” that it is so. And all iniquity shall stop her mouth. The gain sayers, unable to impugn the righteousness of the Divine proceedings, shall have no resource but to sit still and hold their tongues.
Psa 107:43
Whoso is wise, and will observe these things; rather, let him observe these things. It is assumed that they are open to be observed by all; they are the patent facts of human life. Even they; rather, and they. Shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord; literally, loving-kindnesses; i.e. many acts of loving-kindness.
HOMILETICS
Psa 107:1-32
Deliverance and indebtedness.
We can never measure what we owe to God for his daily loving-kindness. Indeed, it is only the wise who observe and take account of the Divine source of all human blessings, that at all understand how great is our debt of gratitude (Psa 107:43). But we are too apt to overlook God’s goodness to us even in the more striking events of life. How often in the course of our life are we cast upon the kindness of the Divine Redeemer!
I. THE MANIFOLDNESS OF OUR NEED.
1. Our necessity takes various temporal or bodily forms. It may be:
(1) Distance from home; sometimes in the land of the alien and the enemy (Psa 107:3, Psa 107:4); sometimes in oppressive and depressing solitude (Psa 107:4); sometimes in pecuniary straits.
(2) Cruel and almost intolerable restraintin the home, in the school, in the institution, in the prison (Psa 107:10-12).
(3) Bodily evilsickness, pain, prostration, dependence on the ministry of others (Psa 107:17, Psa 107:18).
(4) Perils of travel by sea or by lande.g; the journeys of Paul and all missionaries (Psa 107:23-27).
2. Our necessity often takes the much more serious aspect of spiritual evils. These may correspond to those of the flesh. They may be:
(1) Distance from God.
(2) Spiritual bondage, in which we sigh and struggle for a freedom which seems beyond our reach.
(3) Unsoundness of soul, loss of all appetite for the heavenly and the Divine.
(4) Inward commotion, profound unrest.
II. THE TRUE ACCOUNT OF OUR DISTRESS. Its origin is to be found in ourselvesin our own folly, in our own iniquity, in our willful departure from God; and in the consequent penalty which God’s righteousness exacts (see Psa 107:11, Psa 107:12, Psa 107:17).
III. THE ONE REFUGE OF THE HEART. Men that forget God at every other time remember him in the hour of trouble and of danger. When they are brought very low, when there is “none to help” (Psa 107:12), when the gates of death are seen (Psa 107:18), “then they cry unto the Lord.” The refrain of the psalm is the habit of the heart of man when his case is desperate, and his soul is “faint within him.” Nothing but the dark night will bring out the heavenly star.
IV. DIVINE INTERVENTION. (Psa 107:7, Psa 107:13, Psa 107:16, Psa 107:20, Psa 107:29, Psa 107:30.) Sometimes very markedly, sometimes indirectly and through various agencies or instrumentalities, God makes his delivering power to be felt. But in whatever way, directly or indirectly, it is in the exercise of his power and by forces which he has ordained, originated, and maintained, that the wanderer finds his way home, that the fever abates and the patient is healed, that the deer of escape is opened and the prisoner comes forth. It is of him and through his grace that the prodigal returns, that the tyrannous habit is broken, that the soul is made pure and sound, that peace and rest come back to the troubled heart, that the light of heaven shines clear on the pilgrim’s path.
V. THE PLACE OF GRATITUDE IN THE HEART AND LIFE OF MAN. (Psa 107:1, Psa 107:2, Psa 107:8, Psa 107:15, Psa 107:21, Psa 107:22, Psa 107:31, Psa 107:32.) This should be a very large place. The redeemed of the Lord should “say so.” They should sing his praise with joyful lips; they should daily offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving; they should carry with them everywhere a sense of deep indebtedness; they should feel that for the special temporal mercies of God, and also for his restoring and reconciling grace in Christ Jesus, they owe a continual, an unbroken, an abounding gratitudea gratitude that should find vent in sacred song, in blameless conduct, in cheerful submission, in earnest and persevering labors.
Psa 107:33-43
Divine revolution.
The wheel of providence “goes full circle,” lifting up the lowly and abasing the proud. God turns the rivers into a wilderness, and the wilderness into standing water, etc. (Psa 107:33, Psa 107:35).
I. THE DIVINE OVERTHROW. He cast out the guilty inhabitants of Canaan, and planted in their place the children of Israel; but when these rebelled against him, he rejected them, and sent them forth into a strange land. Thus has God humbled nations age after age; thus has he humiliated Churchesboth great ecclesiastical organizations, and such Churches as those we read of in the Apocalypse (Rev 2:1-29; Rev 3:1-22.). And thus may we expect that he will bring down all communities that forget their Creator, that are false to their Redeemer, that are unfaithful to their mission.
II. THE DIVINE UPBUILDING. (Psa 107:35-38, Psa 107:41.) A people, a Church, a society, may be very low, there may be but a spark of life in it; yet it need not despair. There is a hand which can kindle the faintest spark into a noble flame; there is One who can turn the sterile desert into the fruitful field. Far above all means and measures is the considerationIs God‘s favor gained? Our expectation is from him. “Let Israel hope in the Lord.” There are three things which avail to secure his good pleasure and his restoring power.
1. Penitence for past misdeeds and present unworthiness.
2. The faith which leads to earnest prayer for his blessing.
3. The appropriate, devoted action to which he calls us.
Under these conditions we may look for a Divine revolutionevil and sorrow overturned, righteousness and prosperity restored.
HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY
Psa 107:1-43
Wherefore men should praise the Lord.
Such is the theme of this glorious psalm. “It contains the thanksgiving of exiles (Psa 107:3) apparently not yet returned to Jerusalem, but already escaped from the thraldom of Babylon.” Note
I. ITS GENERAL LESSONS.
1. It tells of present earthly troubles. They were such as the returning exiles had met with, for Babylon was not the alone place of exile. There had been weary wanderings in the barren, waterless, and burning deserts; cruel and hopeless imprisonment; sickness nigh unto death; perils by sea (cf. Jer 16:15; Jer 40:12; Dan 9:7). And it repeatedly declares the real cause of human troublesthe wickedness of men.
2. It warrants our praying for deliverance from such troubles. It tells how all the troubled ones did this. And, indeed, it is an instinct in man to thus pray.
3. It promises that God will answer such prayers. “He delivered them” is four times affirmed (Psa 107:6, Psa 107:13, Psa 107:19, Psa 107:28).
4. It demands that therefore men should praise the Lord. It expresses a longing desire that men should do this, but also a tacit confession that many of them would not. These are the lessons that lie on the surface of the psalm. But are they true? Consider, therefore
II. THE QUESTION OF THEIR TRUTHFULNESS.
1. The psalmist had no doubt about it. But in our day many doubt it much. They say all these troubles come to men now, and instead of deliverance such as is here affirmed as ever taking place in answer to prayer, there is in the majority of such cases no deliverance at all.
2. Calvin argues (see Perowne, in loc.) that no doubt the most do perish, but, then, all deserved to; therefore if any are saved it is by the great mercy of God: God was not bound to save any of them. But how can any thoughtful soul be satisfied with such reply? It is like Calvin, but all unlike the teaching of Christ.
3. The true reply is, that God answers prayer in different ways. He will ever give the best thingof which he only can be the Judge-but that may not be the thing we cry for and when he does literally deliver, it is rarely by interfering with natural laws, but rather is it by suggesting to men’s minds how they may work out their own deliverance. He teaches them here to use the laws of nature so as to win what they desire; but he does not miraculously set those laws aside. It is true God ever answers sincere prayer, but not that he does so in the literal, direct way which the psalmist believed. But if we allow ourselves, as we surely may, to regard these distresses as patterns and images of spiritual distresses, then the declarations of the psalm are absolutely true. Therefore consider
III. ITS SPIRITUAL SUGGESTIONS.
1. That in these earthly troubles we have such as are spiritual faithfully represented.
2. That we may and should pray for deliverance from them.
3. That such prayer shall be surely answered.
4. That then it is our bounden duty to praise the Lord. “Whoso is wise will consider these things, and,” etc. (Psa 107:43).S.C.
Psa 107:8
Praise, its desirableness, absence, and source.
This psalm one of those many Scriptures which show God’s mindfulness of the needs, not alone of one land and age, but of all. For see what variety of condition, character, occupation, experience, are portrayed in this one psalmthe desert, the city, the sea, the prison, the traveler, the exile, the sailor, the disease-stricken, the captive, the storm-tossed, the rescued. And thus it is that all men, of all ages and all lands, may find, whatever their condition, in this blessed book that which meets their case, which seems written for just such as they. But the psalm mainly contemplates God’s great deliverances, and is a summons to all men to praise the Lord for his goodness. This is the burden of the text, and it plainly teaches that for men thus to praise the Lord is
I. INFINITELY DESIRABLE. The psalmist longs that they should do this; he seems eagerly waiting for that outburst or’ praise which he feels ought to be forthcoming. And it is thus to be desired:
1. Because it is so right. If this could not be said of it, nothing else that might be urged could justify such longing after it. But this can be said. For God’s goodness deserves men’s praise. Think how great, how varied, how constant, how all undeserved, how costly, is the goodness of God to men, and how it follows them continually all the days of their life here, and then goes with them into the eternal life. If a fellow man have shown to us, when in distress, great kindness, we are not slow to acknowledge it; or if we were, the verdict of our fellow-men would at once condemn us.
2. It so brightens our life. That which darkens life is the dwelling on its unhappy events, or on those which we think unhappy. But if we would brighten life, we have to reverse this process. Collect the happy facts of life, and let memory recollect and ponder them. It will be found that however great the sum of our sorrows may be, the sum of our joys is greater.
3. It gives us courage in the conflict with the social evils of the day. There are many such. They are demanding men’s attention more and more. The bitter cry of multitudes of our fellow men can be no longer stifled or ignored. And good men are setting themselves to see what can be done to remedy these wrongs. But every one knows that it is much easier to point out a wrong than to find a remedy. For there are so many who profit by the wrong, that they will never, if they can help, let go their hold of it. All man’s selfishness rises up to guard it, and its defenses are strong indeed. But what can so encourage us to assail these strongholds of wrong as the conviction, wrought by the habit of praising the Lord for his goodness, that he whom we know to be good cannot but be against such wrong, and with those who seek to remedy it? There will be heard in their souls the ancient stirring cry, “Deus vult!” and like as that emboldened men in the days of the Crusades, so for this far more important and difficult crusade it will serve the same blessed office of emboldening the hearts of those who undertake it. But such custom is
II. LAMENTABLY ABSENT. The text is both a confession and a bitter complaint of this fact. But why is this? Wherefore is it that men act towards God in a way which would cover them with shame were they to act so in regard to their fellow-men? The very words of the text suggest not a little of the answer.
1. Many do not believe in the Lord. They will not absolutely deny his existence, but they are not at all certain of it. And such uncertainty paralyzes praise. They, of course, believe in some “force,” some efficient power, which produces what they see. They cannot help believing in that. But what it is they do not pretend to say. They are materialists, evolutionists, agnostics, but no more.
2. Others question the “goodness“ for which men should praise the Lord. They are bewildered at many aspects of the natural world and of the social world, that seem to throw grave doubt on that goodness. And when they look within and see what they themselves are, how evil and wrong; and when they listen to what not a few theologians tell them of God, and the doom he destines for the mass of men, a very sea of doubt and misgiving surges over them, not to say swallows them up.
3. And others deny any “wonderful works.” They do not believe in the supernatural, and all miracle is but myth. They believe only in the reign of law, and that things happen not in any “wonderful” way, but according to fixed, orderly, and ascertained law. They have a natural explanation for everything, and need no Divine intervention to account for aught that has occurred. They believe in “wonderful works” done by “the children of men,” by their genius, skill, daring, but not in any done for them. Such are some of the silencers of men s praise and gratitude. But, whatever the cause, the effect is most sad. Man’s own self becomes, to him who believes not in God, the greatest and most important being he knows, and what but hideous selfishness can follow? And he who doubtsas, alas! so many do
“That he and we and all men move what is there for him but to sink down into a wretched pessimism, a despair of good, such as may be met with in wide regions of the thought, speech, and writing of this unbelieving age? Pride, miserable atheistic pride, is another of the Dead-Sea fruits which grow on the tree of unbelief in the supernatural. Believing that man is self-made, he has a wonderful respect for his maker, but no gratitude to God. What, then, is to be done? for surely the spirit of praise
III. IS EARNESTLY TO BE SOUGHT AFTER. But how may men be made to praise the Lord for his goodnesshow? This is, indeed, an important question, and almost as difficult as important. Not, we think, by their simply going over the mercies they have received, because, unless they believe them to be God’s mercies, the mere enumeration will do no goodwill probably only foster pride. But we believe that St. John supplies the true answer. He says, “We love him, because he first loved us.” This is the genesis of the spirit of praise, its true point and springour seeing and believing God’s love to us in Christ our Lord. So, then, would we quicken this spirit of praise in ourselves, let us get back whence it first began; and would we awaken it in others, the best, we believe the only way, is to
“Tell them the old, old story S.C.
Psa 107:4-32
Four portraits of one soul.
I. INQUIRE AS TO THE SOUL.
1. The psalm tells of ransomed exiles, of redeemed Israelites, and recounts the sad but varied experiences through which they had passed. Some had been wanderers, some captives, some stricken with mortal sickness, some all but lost at sea.
2. But in all ages of the Church this psalm has been taken as telling not merely of the literal facts which it records, but as setting forth in vivid and varied way the history of every soul as yet unsaved. It is, then, of the soul not yet saved that this fourfold portraiture is given.
II. LOOK AT THE PORTRAITS.
1. That of the wanderer. Out of the right way, in the wilderness, and going astray there; very miserable since he can find no home or rest; famine stares him in the face, and his soul faints within him. Is not this a true description of such as are unsaved? Every detail answers to his experience and condition. “All we like sheep have gone astray.” Wanderers from God, and weary because of it,such is the unsaved soul.
2. That of the captive. He is shut up in some dark dungeon, fettered hand and foot, doomed to die; he has brought it all on himself by his rebellion; the weight of his trouble has utterly east him down; he lies prostrate on the ground, without help or hope. Here, again, the real resemblance between this portrait and the unsaved soul can be readily seen. Many such can bear testimony that they have been through it all. Christ speaks of such as captives, held fast behind prison doors and bound (Luk 4:18). Then:
3. That of the man stricken with mortal disease. Fools are they, and not simply unhappy, for these also have brought their misery on themselves; they are sinners as well as foolish. But now, so stricken with sickness are they, that they turn from all food, and are at the point of death. Sin is such a disease, and they are fools who bring it on themselves; and the effects of it are just what is said, and there is but a step betwixt them and death.
4. The storm-driven mariner ready to perish. Again we have a portrait of the soul, so driven and tossed by the tempests, trials, and storms of life, that he has almost made shipwreck. We may be going on in our ordinary pursuits when these dreadful tempests rise; and then, at our wit’s end, not knowing what to do, our soul is melted because of trouble. Oat of Christ, we are ever exposed to such storms; for his word alone can still the tempest, and bring us to the haven where we would be.
III. OBSERVE THE POINTS OF DIFFERENCE AND RESEMBLANCE.
1. Of difference. The first tells of the unrest and failure of the soul to find satisfaction apart from God. The second, of the awful power, oppression, and cruelty of sin. “O wretched man that I am! who,” etc.? (Rom 7:24). The third, of the paralysis of all spiritual energies, and the drawing ever nearer death of all the faculties of the soul, which sin causes. The fourth, of the liability to sudden and overwhelming destruction of the soul unpiloted by Christ.
2. Of resemblance. All such souls have to suffer. That suffering reaches extremity ere succor comes. Nor does it come then until prayed for; but then it does come and according to the need of each. The Lord alone sends it. The effect of it is ever to wake up praise; to make the soul long that others may praise, and to grieve that they do not.S.C.
Psa 107:30
The Pilot, the passage, and the port.
“So he bringeth them to their desired haven.” These three themes are suggested by the words. Therefore consider
I. THE PILOT. He is the Lord Jesus Christ. We need his aid. Some think they can manage well enough without him, and hence refuse his aid; but no ship ever yet came safe to port without that aid. Receive him, therefore. His knowledge is perfect. His wisdom never errs. His power is omnipotent. His terms are such as all can comply withtrust and obey. His authority is from God. There are many pretended pilots; he alone is sent of God. He never fails.
II. THE PASSAGE. “So he bringeth them,” etc. How?
1. By his Holy Spirit he guides the soul.
2. By his Word. “Thy Word is a lamp unto,” etc. (Psa 119:105).
3. By his gracious providence, sending now one influence and now another to further our course.
4. By the ministries of his Churchthe means of grace, prayer, sacraments, etc.
III. THE PORT. It is our desired haven. Desired because there is:
1. Rest.
2. Safety.
3. Joy and happiness.
4. Reward.S.C.
Psa 107:43
The loving-kindness of the Lord.
I. WHAT IS IT?
1. “These things“ here spoken of are not merely the gracious deliverances which were granted in answer to the people’s cry, but the terrible troubles which led to that cry unto the Lord. The deliverances are but parts of these things.
2. And often there is no deliverance. The weary wanderer sinks down on the sands and dies; the captive perishes in his dungeon; the man stricken with mortal sickness enters those gates of death to which he had drawn near, and does not come back; the storm-beaten ship goes down with all on board.
3. Deliverances arc the exertion, not the rule. In these cases is there no loving-kindness of the Lord? Some say there is not, and they further say God is not either.
4. But these things arc part of what we are to observe. No doubt they do make the loving-kindness of the Lord difficult to understand. It seems as if the observing of them were just the thing which would hinder, not help, that understanding. But we are to look at the psalm as a whole; not at the deliverances only, nor the troubles only, but at all together.
5. So looking, we shall see that the loving-kindness of the Lord is his bringing our heart, our will, to be at one with himself. This is his great, his blessed, and most loving gift. When it is wanting, there comes rebellion and sin of all kinds, and following close after that, trouble and sorrow; but when it is present, then these things depart. When it is absent, no amount of earthly good satisfies or can make really blessed; when it is present, no amount of earthly sorrow can rob the soul of its peace and trust. This, then, is the loving-kindness of the Lordthe heart that always says to God, “Thy will be done.”
II. WHAT THIS LOVING–KINDNESS DEMANDS.
1. That the rebellious heart should be brought down and humbled. (Cf. Psa 107:12.) In each of the scenes so vividly portrayed this is what is seen: the stout self-trusting and self-satisfied heart has disappeared, and a meek and lowly one has come instead.
2. God must insist on this; for until it is brought about, there is no way open for peace with God. Will we not see this at once, and take on us the Savior’s yoke, and learn of him who was meek and lowly in heart, and so find rest in our souls?
III. WHAT IT WILL SURELY DO. It will take measures for the accomplishment of that which is so essential. There are two methods by which God’s loving-kindness brings down the proud heart.
1. By his Holy Spirit. He convinces of sin, withers up the pride and self-sufficiency which lurk within us, and leads us in all humility to the feet of the Lord. He is ever striving to do this. Happy are they who yield to him. But this may fail. Therefore:
2. His providence is set to work. The consuming fire of God’s terrible punishments burns up the rebelliousness which nothing else will purge away. The stout heart is made to yield, and the obstinate will to give way.
3. But the ordeal is fearful. Nothing but the loving-kindness of the Lord will hold men down to it. Let us not compel him thus to deal with us. Let us accept the yoke of wood, lest he put upon us the yoke of iron.
CONCLUSION.
1. Love orders our lives. That is the meaning not only of the gentle but also of the awful, ways of God.
2. Love must have the obedient heart.
3. The wise only will see all this, and they must “observe these things” in order to understand. It was the secret of Christ’s peace, for he understood the loving-kindness of the Lord.S.C.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK
Psa 107:2
The Lord’s people are a redeemed people.
“The ransomed of Jehovah” (Perowne). This has been well called “the psalm of life.” While its figures are partly suggested by the history of Israel, it is a meditative rather than historical psalm. “It presents to us, first, a magnificent series of pictures of various crises of human lifeof the distress which throws men at such times on God in prayer, and of his gracious answer of deliverance; and next, a more thoughtful contemplation of God’s government of the world by blessing and chastisement, by exaltation of the meek and humiliation of the proud.” It is evidently composed by one of the returned exiles, and represents the pious feeling of a man who is rejoicing in some new and wonderful redemption of God. In the light of the new experience he reads his own life, and the story of his race, and he can see that God has always been, in every sphere, the Redeemer, Deliverer, and Ransomer. God has a fourfold claim to be called the “Redeemer” of his people.
I. GOD‘S CLAIM ON THE GROUND OF THE GREAT REDEMPTION. That was the deliverance of Israel from the Egyptian bondage. Of it Israel was ever kept in mind by the Passover rite; by Divine revelations; by appeals of psalmist and prophet. It was a great redemption in view of
(1) the distress from which it delivered;
(2) the wisdom and power displayed in it;
(3) the issues to which it led.
Israel was bound to regard itself as a redeemed people, bound in allegiance to its Redeemer, who is to be served by thankful, loving obedience.
II. GOD‘S CLAIM ON THE GROUND OF THE MANY REDEMPTIONS.
1. These appear to view in the wilderness-journey, when again and again God delivered the people from their circumstances, their enemies, and themselves.
2. They appear to view in the period of the Judges, when God graciously responded to penitence and prayer, and raised up national deliverers.
3. They appear to view in the period of the prophets, when God held back again and again his threatened judgments. The true reading of each individual life shows the same ever delivering, rescuing, redeeming God.
III. GOD‘S CLAIM ON THE GROUND OF HIS LATEST REDEMPTION. That, to the psalmist, was the rescue from the Babylonish captivity. A wonderful restoration considered as to
(1) its time,
(2) unexpected manner,
(3) important issues,
(4) fulfillment of promises.
The feature of it that most pleased the psalmist was the gathering of the scattered Israelites, and the uniting of representatives from all the tribes to form the new nation.
IV. GOD‘S CLAIM ON THE GROUND OF HIS SPIRITUAL REDEMPTION. That which was wrought by the agency of the Lord Jesus Christ. The soul-redemption, of which all other redemptions could be only the foreshadowing and illustration. Jesus reveals God the Redeemer.R.T.
Psa 107:8, Psa 107:9
A fourfold view of God’s relations.
This point is illustrated from the first thirty-two verses of the psalm, the verses taken as text being the refrain closing the first section. Summing up God’s relations with his people, Delitzsch suggestively says:
1. God gave them the lands of the heathen (see Psa 105:44).
2. God scattered them in the lands (see Psa 106:27).
3. God gathers them from the lands (see Psa 107:3). The thirty-two verses, or rather those from Psa 107:4 to Psa 107:32, contain four mental pictures:
(1) of pilgrims in a barren land of thirst and distress;
(2) of captives languishing in a captivity, which is the punishment of sin;
(3) of foolish men smitten by God’s hand with sickness, even unto death;
(4) of sailors in extremity of danger on the sea. God is seen in his general relations to all, and in his special relations to each.
I. GOD THE REFRESHER; or, the pilgrim’s Provider and Guide. Two sources for his figures are before the mind of the psalmist.
1. The old wilderness-journey of the Israelites.
2. The recent desert-journey of the exiles from Babylon to Jerusalem. Both presented peculiarities of difficulty, trial, and need. In both God had most graciously overcome difficulties, and secured all needed supplies. In neither had his people wanted any good thing. This will readily be illustrated by details of these journeys.
II. GOD THE LIBERATOR; or, the captive’s Deliverer. Here the same two sources provide the figures. Once Israel was captive in Egypt, and then God brought his people out “with a high hand and outstretched arm.”Recently they had been captive in Babylon, and the interweavings of Divine providence, which led to their return to their own land, were no less wonderful and no less gracious. There is a higher sense in which God, through his Son Jesus Christ, now gives “liberty to the captives.”
III. GOD THE HEALER; Or, the willful man’s Savior. The association of this figure is not so easy to trace. There is very probable allusion to those times of pestilence in the wilderness-journey which followed on the people’s sin; and the people were led into sin by foolish, willful individuals, such as Korah or Dathan. But even when suffering was direct judgment on sin, God magnified his mercy in healing and restoring.
IV. GOD THE CONTROLLER; or, the sailor’s Preserver. Israel seems to have had no mercantile associations with the sea before the time of Solomon; but in the time of captivity the Israelites were scattered abroad, and engaged in commerce in all lands, so sea-figures had become familiar. But the reference here may be typical; the perils of the sea picturing all kinds of human peril that are beyond man’s control, but within God’s control. For what he is to his people, we are bidden to thank and praise the Lord.R.T.
Psa 107:13
Prayer for temporal good.
The trouble was trouble in their outward circumstances. The cry was a prayer. The answer was a gracious Divine dealing with these troublous circumstances. Whatever may be urged against its reasonableness, the fact cannot be gainsaid that Bible men and women did pray to God about their material needs, and did find those needs supplied after prayer. The philosophy may be beyond us; the fact is plain. “This psalm teaches us not only that God’s providence watches over men, but that his ear is open to their prayers. It teaches us that prayer may be put up for temporal deliverance, and that such prayer is answered. It teaches us that it is right to acknowledge with thanksgiving such answers to our petitions. This was the simple faith of the Hebrew poet.”
I. PRAYER FOR TEMPORAL GOOD IS NATURAL. It is a natural impulse which every one feels; even the atheist feels it in the time of shipwreck. It is natural to man
(1) as a creature, having creature-wants for which it cannot itself secure the supply;
(2) as a child, who has a stronger impression of material than of spiritual need. All natural impulses have a sound basis. There is that in God which responds to them.
II. PRAYER FOR TEMPORAL GOOD IS REASONABLE. Because we can see that forces are continually acting upon and modifying forces (as when I raise my arm, and make vital force counteract the natural force of gravitation); and no man has any right to say that prayer is not a higher force, which can modify, or lead to the modifying, of both vital and physical forces. Prayer may set moving the Divine forces which control and readjust the working of the material forces. It is often said that natural law never changes; but it needs to be seen that natural laws are always cross-working, and even preverting, each other’s working It cannot be unreasonable to conceive of the Divine will as a controlling law, working in material spheres.
III. PRAYER FOR TEMPORAL GOOD IS ACCEPTABLE. This may be shown by several considerations.
1. God, in every age, has asked it of man. Referable to outward needs, he says, “For all this will I be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them.”
2. Man, in every age, has prayed about such things. Illustrate by instances taken from each period of Bible history. There are supreme cases in which men have even given up working, prayed and waited for God to act. It is unfair to give such cases no consideration.
3. God has, in every age, interfered in men’s lives, in order to answer their prayers. “This poor man cried, and the Lord heard, and saved him out of all his troubles.”R.T.
Psa 107:17
Bringing affliction on ourselves.
“Foolish men,” so called “because of the moral infatuation which marks their conduct. Men of earthly, sensual, selfish minds, who turn a deaf ear to warning, and despise counsel.” The “fool“ of the Bible is usually the strongly self-willed man, who accepts no guidance or control, but persists in following the “devices and desires of his own heart.” Such a man is sure to bring trouble upon himself. It is true that all men are tempted into self-will at times; but the case introduced here is that of men who are persistent in their self-will, and let it fashion their course of conduct, their habit of life.
I. AFFLICTIONS ARE THE NATURAL CONSEQUENCE OF WILFULNESS. Because the willful spirit is sure to lead to acts which involve trouble. The world is ordered according to the will of God; and it keeps the order when man’s will is in harmony with God’s will. Illustrate by the peace of a country, and welfare of all its inhabitants, when the will of the people and the will of the governing body are in harmony. Every self-willed citizen spoils the harmony for the whole, and brings trouble on himself. So in God’s kingdom. The self-willed (foolish) man is a disturbing element; and the king, all law-abiders, and all the arrangements of the kingdom, must be against him. He cannot get his own way; he must “bring affliction on himself,” and not on himself alone. It is a searching and humbling inquiryHow many of our earthly afflictions are the direct resultthe natural consequenceof our willful persistence in wrongdoings? The humiliation of the review of life is the discovery of how many troubles were our own fault, and might have been avoided by mastering our self-will. “Many sicknesses are the direct result of foolish acts. Thoughtless and lustful men, by drunkenness, gluttony, and the indulgence of their passions, fill their bodies with diseases. Men, by a course of transgression, afflict themselves, and are fools for their pains.”
II. AFFLICTIONS ARE THE DIVINE AGENCY FOR BRINGING WILFUL ONES TO REASON. Perhaps it is true that God’s afflictions are never “judgments,” in the sense of mere vindicatory punishments. But they are not always “judgments” in the sense of “chastisements.” They arecertainly they are for the persistently willful”judgments” in the sense of “humiliations.” Their design is to break men away from their self-confidence. And therefore the affliction is so directly connected with the sin, and men are compelled, humiliatingly, to admit that they have brought their troubles on themselves.R.T.
Psa 107:22
Thanksgiving when prayer is answered.
Men are much more ready to pray than to give thanks; to express their desires than to recognize the response made to their desires. Men fail in gratitude rather than in petition. Therefore do the apostles specially urge this grace, and require its cultivation by the Christian disciples (see Php 4:6; Col 4:2; Heb 13:15). The call to thanksgiving is the refrain of the palm. Man is seen to gain no blessing save through the ministry of him who is the “Author and Giver of every good and perfect gift.” And man’s sin is seen to be restraining his lips, and failing to make due recognition of “grace abounding.” A life full of God’s benedictions should be a life full of God’s praise. In this text the general duty is presented under two figures.
I. THANKSGIVING AS A SACRIFICE. The peculiarity of a sacrifice is that it is a silent act. It is something a man does which has its own voice, and need not be accompanied with any words. When the old Jew brought his animal to the priest, according to the rules of the Mosaic ritual, he did not need to say anything by way of explanation. The priest perfectly understood what he meant. Some act of Divine mercy was filling him with thankfulness, and his offering found for it expression. Philip Henry puts this sharply: “Thanksgiving is a good thing, thanksgiving is a better.” The self-offered in sacrifice speaks our gratitude to the listening ear of God. A man can show himself grateful by his manner of life. Bouar prays
“Fill thou my life, O Lord my God,
In every part with praise,
That my whole being may proclaim
Thy Being and thy Ways.
“Not for the lip of praise alone,
Nor e’en the praising heart,
I ask but for a life made up
Of praise in every part.”
“I beseech you therefore that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice;” so says St. Paul. And it is to be a sacrifice of thanksgiving.
II. THANKSGIVING AS A TESTIMONY. “Tell out his works with gladness.” Here thanksgiving is a voiceful act. “I will not refrain my lips, O Lord, thou knowest.” “Praise is the only employment in which self finds no part. In praise we go out of ourselves, and think only of him to whom we offer it. It is the most purely disinterested of all services.”R.T.
Psa 107:30
The desired haven.
“So he bringeth them unto the haven where they would be” (Prayer-book Version). The picture of the sea connected with this text is “painted as a landsman would paint it, but yet only as one who had himself been exposed to the danger could paint the stormthe waves running mountains high, on which the tiny craft seemed a plaything; the helplessness of human skill, the gladness of the calm, the safe refuge in the haven.” It is difficult for those who love the sea to enter into the feelings with which Eastern people in olden times, and especially the Israelites, regarded it. That feeling of mystery and dread must have been intense before Solomon’s time, when a commercial navy was employed in both the Mediterranean and Red Seas. For the severity of a storm in the Mediterranean, the story of Jonah, and of St. Paul’s shipwreck, may be studied. What seems more especially to have influenced ancient minds was the constant unrest of the sea. This is reflected in many of the Bible references to it; and this has always struck both poetic and pious minds.
I. THE FASCINATION OF REST. To man it is the supreme idea of heaven; it is the perfection of bliss on earth. That not so much because of toil, as because of change and trouble. The rest man seeks is not rest from work, but rest from worry. The activity of work is, for healthy minds and bodies, the truest rest. But uncertainty, change, anxiety, make us long for the moral rest, which can only come when God’s will is no longer checked by man’s. It is not the rest of the grave man wants; it is the rest of the “desired haven”the rest of the moral issue of life. Every man is, according to his own idea, moving towards and into rest. Alas! that so many make shipwreck.
II. THE SYMBOL OF REST. A “desired haven.” Harbor after a long and stormy voyage. “In the fierce gales of November or March, when the shrieking blasts drive furiously up the channel, and the huge mountain-billows, green and white, open threatening graves on every side, how welcome would be a safe harbor, easy of access, and placed at a part of the coast which else would be unsheltered for many leagues on either side!” (Gosse). “The stately ships go on, to the harbor under the hill” (Tennyson). The point suggestive of practical teachings is thrown out by the Prayer-book Version. Our “desired haven” is, “the haven where we would be.” It is the realization of our life-objects, of our hopes; and so we are led to discuss men’s life-aims. Their rest, when they gain it, too often proves to be no rest. He only reaches rest that is rest indeed, who has voyaged life’s seas in hope of entering at last the harbor of God.R.T.
Psa 107:33-39
God’s commonplace mercies.
The difference in the style and contents of the latter part of this psalm has been noticed by almost every writer. The pictures, with their closing refrain, cease; and in a hurried way instances of God’s providential government are given. It has been thought that the psalm was completed by another poet; but in that case the structure of the psalm would have been closely imitated. The peculiarity of this portion may be explained by showing that the psalmist had spoken of God’s gracious relation to special forms of trouble; and he might leave the impression that God was only in them. And men might be feeling very deeply how commonplace their life was. Without such special experiences they might take up the notion that they were out of the spheres of special Divine mercies; and so the didactic psalmist puts in a word for these: in a few skilful sentences he sketches ordinary, commonplace life, and shows God’s relation to it. The things briefly mentioned suggest
I. THE COMMONPLACE ADVERSITIES OF LIFE. Such are the difficulties of the seasons, the rains, the floods, the drought, in their relation to agricultural life.
II. THE COMMONPLACE ENTERPRISES OF LIFE. Working for a living, tillage, building, planting, tending cattle, etc.
III. THE COMMONPLACE DISASTERS OF LIFE. Accidents, diseases, plagues, etc.
IV. THE COMMONPLACE ENMITIES OF LIFE. For few men pass through many years without suffering from the mischief-making schemes of those who, by reason of envy or masterfulness, make themselves their enemies. The psalmist urges that God is quits as truly in the commonplace as in the unusual. He is working through our everyday life experience some high and gracious moral end. And therefore every man should be quick to observe the “loving-kindness of the Lord,” and ever ready to “praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men.”R.T.
Psa 107:43
The wise observance of God’s loving-kindness.
The Prayer-book Version reads, “Whoso is wise will ponder these things;” will think about them; will brood over them. The signs of God’s active and gracious working, in men’s lives, is clear enough, but only to the “wise,” who “thoughtfully ponder what the thoughtless pass by.”
I. THE LOVING–KINDNESS OF GOD IS NOT APPARENT TO EVERYBODY. Many are stumbling over the severities of God’s dealings, and, indeed, over the presence of evil, in the senses of wrong and calamity, in his world. How can the God of love stand aloof, and permit the misery of the earth? How can the doom of vast masses of humanity be consistent with Divine love and Fatherhood? We venture to say that these difficulties are felt because men are carried away by surface appearances, and do not ponder. They look upon the events of a limited time and space, and do not try to estimate God’s dealings in view of all time and all space. Mistake follows studying parts; it is relieved by studying wholes. It. is not easy to appraise aright passing things; we cannot see how they fit. A bird’s-eye view sets things in places and relations, and so explains a great deal.
II. THE LOVING–KINDNESS OF GOD IS REVEALED TO THE UNBIASED. And they only are the “wise.” Every bias, prejudice, preconceived opinion, is a limitation of faculty, a misdirection of judgment. And if man would understand God’s ways, it is of supreme importance that he should clear his mind, and come with the simplicity of true wisdom, to such studies.
III. THE LOVING–KINDNESS OF GOD IS REVEALED TO THE THOUGHTFUL. Here the idea is that mistake is made by coming to a too hasty decision or judgment. The thoughtful man is the man who is content to keep on thinking; who wants to see things all round and all through before he makes up his mind. Quietly wait to see the loving-kindness. It is often only revealed when the ends of God’s dealings are reached.
IV. THE LOVING–KINDNESS OF GOD IS REVEALED TO THE EXPERIENCED. It is the man who only observes it who is so often misled. The man who feels it will be sure to realize the loving-kindness at last, if not at first.R.T.
HOMILIES BY C. SHORT
Psa 107:1-43
God’s watchful care.
“Whatever the circumstances under which the psalm was written, there can be no doubt as to the great lesson which it inculcates”that God watches over men, and his ear is open to their prayers. Look at some illustrations.
I. GOD HAD ANSWERED THE CRY OF THE JEWS IN EXILE, AND RESTORED THEM TO THEIR OWN COUNTRY. (Psa 107:2, Psa 107:8, Psa 107:9.) They were called on to give thanks for thou wonders, and to remember that “he filleth the hungry soul with good.” God is working toward the deliverance of all enslaved nations. This thought is amplified in Psa 107:10-16, with special reference to the sins that had plunged them into such helpless affliction, and therefore how much they should praise God for loving-kindness!
II. THE EMPHATIC THOUGHT IN Psa 107:17-22 IS THAT GOD DELIVERS WICKED MEN, WHEN THEY CALL UPON HIM, OUT OF THE VERY SHADOWS OF DEATH. God pities transgressors, and loves them with an infinite compassion in their terrors and sufferings. He sendeth his wordthe message of his mercyand healeth them; delivers them “from their graves.”
III. Another example: HE DELIVERS THE SAILOR. FROM THE STORMS OF THE SEA. (Psa 107:23-32.) Wonderful description of a storm and its subsidence. “Then are they glad because they be quiet, and he leadeth them to their desired haven.” The psalmist is writing poetry under the inspiration of a devout faith; and not science, discussing the unchangeable laws of material nature. The preacher must do his utmost to reconcile poetry and science in the theology he teaches.
IV. Now the current of thought changes its direction, but only for a moment. GOD SOMETIMES MAKES THE WICKED AN EXAMPLE OF HIS TEMPORAL JUDGMENTS. (Psa 107:33, Psa 107:34.) But this thought is uncongenial, and is soon changed again for the thought of God’s mercy. The wilderness is crowned with cities; and the poor and humble are raised to the condition of princes, and the rich and the proud overthrown. The question at the close most suggestive, that it is only the observant and the wise that can understand the loving-kindnesses of God; only they that can approach to the solution of the great problems of God’s providence.S.
Psalms 107.
The Psalmist exhorteth the redeemed, in praising God, to observe his manifold providence over travellers, over captives, over sick men, over seamen, and in divers varieties of life.
THIS psalm, according to some, was composed by David; and if so, it seems chiefly to relate to the deliverance of the Israelites out of Egypt. But, according to others, it was made by some devout person presently after their return from the Babylonish captivity. Hence the Psalmist takes occasion to magnify God’s merciful providence over other men, of any other nation as well as that of the Jews, when they addressed themselves to him in their several calamities. It was a song in parts, one verse occurring four times, to be sung by the chorus. See more on the 8th verse. The fifth book of the Psalms, according to the Hebrew division, begins here. There are those who understand this psalm as referring to the faithful believers, gathered out of all lands, and brought to that continuing city, (Heb 13:14.) which they were still seeking amid the various dangers and difficulties whereto mortals are exposed; which dangers and difficulties are here in several instances represented, and urged as reasons for praising him now, from a sense of that goodness which guides and conducts the faithful through them all to that city where they may dwell and abide for ever. See Psa 107:4. Some of the descriptions in this psalm are remarkably elegant and sublime.
THE PSALTER Psalms 107
_________________
Psalms 107
1O give thanks unto the Lord,
for he is good: For his mercy endureth for ever.
2Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,
Whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy;
3And gathered them out of the lands,
From the east, and from the west, 4They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way;
They found no city to dwell in.
5Hungry and thirsty,
Their soul fainted in them.
6Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble,
And he delivered them out of their distresses.
7And he led them forth by the right way,
That they might go to a city of habitation.
8Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness,
And for his wonderful works to the children of men!
9For he satisfieth the longing soul,
And filleth the hungry soul with goodness.
10Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
Being bound in affliction and iron;
11Because they rebelled against the words of God,
And contemned the counsel of the Most High:
12Therefore he brought down their heart with labour;
They fell down, and there was none to help.
13Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble,
And he saved them out of their distresses.
14He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death,
And brake their bands in sunder.
15Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness,
And for his wonderful works to the children of men!
16For he hath broken the gates of brass,
And cut the bars of iron in sunder.
17Fools, because of their transgression,
And because of their iniquities, are afflicted.
18Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat;
And they draw near unto the gates of death.
19Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble,
And he saveth them out of their distresses.
20He sent his word, and healed them.
And delivered them from their destructions.
21Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness,
And for his wonderful works to the children of men!
22And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving,
And declare his works with rejoicing.
23They that go down to the sea in ships,
That do business in great waters;
24These see the works of the Lord,
And his wonders in the deep.
25For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind,
Which lifteth up the waves thereof.
26They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths:
Their soul is melted because of trouble.
27They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man,
And are at their wits end.
28Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble,
And he bringeth them out of their distresses.
29He maketh the storm a calm,
So that the waves thereof are still.
30Then are they glad because they be quiet;
So he bringeth them unto their desired haven.
31Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness,
And for his wonderful works to the children of men!
32Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people,
And praise him in the assembly of the elders.
33He turneth rivers into a wilderness,
And the watersprings into dry ground;
34A fruitful land into barrenness,
For the wickedness of them that dwell therein.
35He turneth the wilderness into a standing water,
And dry ground into watersprings.
36And there he maketh the hungry to dwell,
That they may prepare a city for habitation;
37And sow the fields, and plant vineyards,
Which may yield fruits of increase.
38He blesseth them also, so that they are multiplied greatly;
And suffereth not their cattle to decrease.
39Again, they are minished and brought low through oppression, affliction and sorrow.
40He poureth contempt upon princes,
And causeth them to wander in the wilderness, where there is no way.
41Yet setteth he the poor on high from affliction,
And maketh him families like a flock.
42The righteous shall see it, and rejoice:
And all iniquity shall stop her mouth.
43Whoso is wise, and will observe these things,
Even they shall understand the lovingkindness of the Lord.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Contents and Composition. A liturgical expression of thanksgiving (Jer 33:11; Psalms 106, 118, 136) is (Psa 107:1-3) declared to be appropriate for the redeemed of Jehovah, whom He has gathered from the four quarters of the earth and from different lands. After this preface there follow four strophes of unequal length, clearly distinguished by two refrains, in which those are summoned to fulfil this duty of thanksgiving whom God has delivered from homeless wanderings (Psa 107:4-9), from the miseries of imprisonment (Psa 107:10-16), from the death-pains of sickness (Psa 107:17-22), and from the perils of a sea-voyage (Psa 107:23-32). Then two strophes (Psa 107:33-42) without a refrain, and with many passages taken literally from the Book of Job and from Isaiah 40, 66, sometimes quite loosely connected, describe the controlling power of God in the varying fortunes of men and nations. The closing verse (43) commends to the consideration of men the whole of Gods disposing guidance, which has just been described.
There are throughout the Psalm indications of a very late period of composition. We are not justified even in connecting it too closely with the Babylonish exile. The introduction might seem to allude to it; but the further we read in the following strophes, the less do they seem capable of being referred to special historical occurrences, such as the carrying away into captivity and the return, or of being rightly viewed as poetical pictures of the various distresses and deliverances of that period (most of the recent commentators since Schnurrer). For Psa 107:23 does not speak of a return home in ships, in which case, moreover, we would not be led to think of the Babylonish exile, but of the Maccaban period (Hitzig); but of the dangers encountered by those who undertake sea-voyages, whether trading merchants, or sailors, or travellers, or fishermen. And this is not a figurative representation, but an example (Hupfeld, Del., and most of the older commentators) of the hearing of prayer, and of the divine deliverance of mankind in distress, for which God should be thanked in His church. So also with the description of the preceding strophes. In each case actual events are cited from distinct classes of distressing situations, which, however, have not merely occurred on one occasion, but may be repeated. These examples, moreover, are so much the better adapted to that parenetic purpose, in whose interest the Psalm is projected, and to which it ever tends more closely, as in some of them prominence is given to human guilt and the divine mercy, and in others to human impotence and the divine power to control. The former design is observable in the second and third examples; the latter in the fourth, which at the same time effects the transition to the description of those deeds of the Highest which effect the change of circumstances,a description which is still more general in its character, and advances in sentences that are still more loosely connected.
The conjecture of Hupfeld that Psa 107:33 ff. are inserted from another composition, has accordingly little probability, even if no importance be attached to the allusion contained in Psa 107:36 to Psa 107:4-5. The first example is given in a narrative style, and stands in the closest connection with the words of the introduction. It is therefore most natural to understand this passage as alluding to the circumstances of the Babyl. Exile. The supposition, however, that this psalm was sung at the first celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles after the return, Ezr 3:1 f. (Hengst.), has nothing to indicate it, and is improbable. So with the conjectures that it completes, with the number seven, the supposed trilogies 101103, 104106 (Hengst.), or forms a trilogy with Psalms 105, 106 (Del.) It may be quite proper to bring the position of this Psalm, at the opening of the Fifth Book, into connection with its several points of resemblance to the last two Psalms of the Fourth Book, without being thereby justified in inferring an internal relationship and the same authorship.
The allegorico-prophetical interpretation of the whole Psalm, as bearing upon the fortunes of the Christian Church, whether directly (Cocc.), or as an application of the immediate reference to the Church of the Old Covenant (Venema), is only a spiritualizing interpretation based upon the untenable view that the fortunes of the Jewish people are here described (Chald., Syr.), For to them, as has been said, only the introduction, with the first strophe, can be rightly referred. Accordingly this strophe begins, Psa 107:4, with the narrative tense, while, at the beginning of the following strophes, participles occur which cannot depend on that verb, but introduce the subjects of the several strophes. The grammatical connection of the sentences, however, in this Psalm, is in general loose, and hence we are neither to supply from Psa 107:2, before the strophe, the words let them say (Schnurrer), nor to regard the closing refrain may they praise [E. V.: Oh, that men would praise!] as the real predicate (De Wette, Hengst., Hupfeld), nor to change the finite verb in Psa 107:4 into a participle (Luth., Camphausen). And the latter is the less advisable, as the participle which determines the connection of the whole passage is found already in Psa 107:2, viz. the redeemed of Jehovah (Isa 62:2), who were gathered from all quarters of the world to Jerusalem, since after the return from the exile, the restoration of the Temple and the upbuilding of the Jewish Theocracy were carried out in that city.
[The application of the whole psalm to the exile, and, consequently, the figurative interpretation of the examples, are approved by Dr. Alexander. Perowne, after giving the view of Philippson and Delitzsch in favor of the trilogy above alluded to, makes the following judicious remarks: But ingenious as this is, it rests on the assumption that the 107th Psalm, like the other two, is historical, and is designed chiefly to celebrate the return from the Babylonish captivity. The second and third verses of the Psalm are supposed to mark the occasion for which it was written. And the rest, of the Psalm is held to exhibit, by means of certain examples of peril and deliverance, either, in a figure, the miseries of the exile, or, literally, the incidents of the homeward journey. Such an interpretation, however, can hardly be maintained. It is unnatural to regard these examples, taken from every-day experience, as a figurative description of the exile; it is quite impossible in particular, that the picture of the seafarers should represent the sufferings of the Captivity, though it might certainly form one part of the story of the return; for the exiles are described, not merely as coming back from Babylon, but from all the countries of their dispersion (comp. Jer 16:15; Jer 40:12; Dan 9:7). It is obvious that the Psalm is not historical. It describes various incidents of human life; it tells of the perils which befall men, and the goodness of God in delivering them, and calls upon all who have experienced His care and protection gratefully to acknowledge them; and it is perfectly general in its character. The four or five groups or pictures are so many samples taken from the broad and varied record of human experience. In this view, which agrees substantially with that of Dr. Moll, I fully concur. It is the impression which every reader, critical or uncritical, derives first and naturally from the Psalm. It is generally held to, also, when there is no hypothesis of relationship with other Psalms to be supported J. F. M.]
Psa 107:3. From the sea [E. V., from the south]. The expression would suggest to the mind of a Hebrew the idea of the west, while the context demands that of the south. It is not upon the number (Hengst.) of the four quarters of the world that the force of the passage depends, but upon the particular designation of each of them. The explanation which refers to the Arabian Gulf (Chald., Rudiuger, Schnurrer, Dathe), is against the usage of the word. That which regards it as the Southern (Indian) Ocean, after Isa 49:11 (Hitz.), is possible, though disputed (Knobel). and yet is more probable than the unusual reference to that part of the Mediterranean Sea lying to the southwest of Palestine, and washing the shores of Egypt (Maurer, Del.). A change in the reading from to (Clericus, J. D. Mich., Muntinghe, Kster, Hupfeld), with reference to Psa 89:13, is readily suggested.
Psa 107:4. We need not depart from the accents and attach to the following member, translating: the way to a city (Sept., Vulg., Syr., Schnurrer, Rosenm.), or, after Psa 107:40, Isa 43:19, change the reading into . no way in the desert (Olsh., Baur, Hupfeld). The word in question is probably not an accusative of the closer definition (Geier, Hengstenberg, De Wette). It better accords with the poetical style to assume a construct state: desert of a way (Ewald, Hitzig, Del.), that is, a desolate (Jerome), unfrequented (Luther) way, ( , Act 8:26).
[Psa 107:8. The general reference: Oh, that men, in E. V is incorrect. Alexander: Let (such) give thanks to Jehovah (for) His mercy, and His wonderful works to the sons of men.J F. M.]
Psa 107:17. It is unnecessary to change the reading in order to obtain, instead of the idea of sinfulness (Job 5:3; Pro 2:7), that of burdening (Olshausen), or that of an exclamation: woe to them! (Hitzig).
[Psa 107:23. Alexander: Going down seems to be an idiomatic phrase borrowed from Isa 43:10, and equivalent to going out to sea, in English. The expression may have reference to the general elevation of the land above the water, but is directly opposed to our phrase the high seas, and to the classical usage of ascending ships, i.e., embarking, and descending, i.e., landing. The last words may also be translated: great or mighty waters; but the usage of the Psalms is in favor of the version: many waters, which moreover forms a beautiful poetical equivalent to sea or ocean.J. F. M.]
Psa 107:39. It is not necessary to suppose an ellipsis before this verse, or to transpose it with those next following (Olsh.). It is certainly inadmissible to take the verbs as pluperfects (De Wette, after the older expositors), or the sentence as a relative one (Hengstenberg), [opposed also by Alexander and others.J. F. M.] An allusion to enemies, or, in general, to other subjects than the preceding (Knapp), has nothing to indicate it. Most assume with Kimchi and Geier a repeated diminution in the number of the same subjects, as a punishment for a relapse into sin.
Psa 107:40 is taken from Job 12:21; Job 12:24 from Isa 41:18 f., Isa 42 b. from Job 5:16, and job 5:43, from Hos. 14:10.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The praise of God is essential matter of every prayer of thanksgiving; to offer it is the first duty of the redeemed, and at the same time the appropriate means for the building up of the redeemed Church, which, in such a sacrifice of praise, offers itself to God, and yields itself up as the people that are His. HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
He who contemplates Gods doings in history, finds everywhere: (1) an exhortation to thanksgiving for His gracious help; (2) occasion for self-humiliation beneath His powerful hand; (3) a call to surrender himself to His gracious will.It is no harder for God to deliver than to judge, but He loves the former better.What opens the heart and lips of the pious, closes the mouth of the ungodly.It is easier to cry to God in distress, than to give thanks in the Church after deliverance.There is nothing better to be wished for than to have a heart capable of appreciating Gods benefits, and an eye open to His doings; for then thanksgiving and supplication, fear and trust, anxiety and hope, are in their true relations, and after the right manner.He who has enjoyed Gods help should mark (1) in what distress he has been; (2) how he has called to God; (3) how God has helped him; (4) what thanks he has returned; and (5) what thanks he is yet bound to render.
Starke: Manifold afflictions are the true material out of which the wonder-working God forms praise and glory for His most holy name, and joy and profit for us.Gods supervision and care extend over all parts of the world; He can therefore help and stand by His own, in whatever place in the world they may be.The pilgrimage of a Christian involves wandering, insecurity, hunger, thirst, and despite, but all to the end, that the faithful guidance, the mighty help, the satisfying and revival of the Good Shepherd may be displayed.As there is but one Helper, who is God, so there is but one means of obtaining His help, and that is prayer; but the essence and soul of prayer is faith.If thou, believer, never findest upon earth where thou canst rest thy foot, God will at last reach forth His hand to thee, and receive thee into the holy city, into the dwellings of peace.The spiritual bonds of sin (2Ti 2:26) often surround the body also with fetters. Bodily imprisonment has been to many the occasion of anxiety for freedom from eternal chains.Repentance and prayer must be the first remedies employed in illness, and then the use of ordinary restoratives will not remain without a blessing from God.Recovery from a deadly disease is, as it were, already a foretaste of the resurrection from the dead.Those who have regained health forget quite easily to render thanks therefor; but God can not suffer such ingratitude. Think what a sacrifice of thanksgiving is due to God, together with the offering up of the whole life, thus presented to thee.The world has often been traversed by ships, but almost every voyage reveals some new and wonderful works of nature; who would then not exclaim: the earth, yea, also, the sea, are full of the goodness of the Lord?Let not the inhabitants of the richest and most fertile countries presume upon these advantages; God can make a garden of the Lord a lake of brimstone.If we in the meanwhile turn ourselves seriously to the Lord, and seek His grace by heartfelt prayer, He will also fulfil His promises to us.That the honor, exaltation, and power of magistrates are a gift of God, is most clearly shown, when they lose their authority, and scarcely any will obey them.
Osiander: Believers must learn to strengthen their faith from the goodness and mercy of God.Frisch: He who sins against his Creator, comes under the care of the physician. Death itself is the wages of our sins, and so also are its forerunners, that is, our diseases.If God visits us sometimes with unfruitful seasons, let us consider who we aremen who daily commit many sins, and deserve much worse than this from God.Rieger: The man of God conducts us through the world, as through a theatre, on which are displayed the miseries of mankind, and the wondrous works and kindness of God.Berlenburger Bible: Let the man who cannot pray become a sailor.Tholuck (Psa 107:20): The word of God is His ministering angel.Guenther: All those nations which have not yet known the true God, are dispersed and wandering; and all who have found their home in God, feel that they are gathered in.Diedrich: In order to learn to praise God rightly, we must first suffer much.Schaubach: We stand with awe-struck minds before this rich display of Gods wondrous power, and at the same time rejoice that in the course of long ages it has lost nothing of its fulness, but that it still never fails to revive hungering and thirsting souls.Taube: Ye people of the Lord, see how good Jehovah is! and how blessed ye can and shall be with Him!
[Bishop Horne: A truly wise person will treasure up in his heart the contents of this truly instructive and delightful Psalm. By so doing he will fully understand and comprehend the weakness and wretchedness of man, and the power and loving-kindness of God, who, not for our merit, but for His mercys sake, dispelleth our ignorance, breaketh off our sins, healeth our infirmities, preserveth us in temptation, placeth us in His Church, enricheth us with His grace, sheltereth us from persecution, blesseth us in time, and will crown us in eternity.
Scott: Let us remember to praise our God for turning the wilderness, which we Gentiles inhabited, into a fruitful land, and opening for us the wells of salvation (Isa 12:3).Let us pray that the Jewish nation, which has been so long a barren desert, may again be watered with His grace, and bring forth the fruits of faith and holiness.
Barnes: No one can study the works of God, or mark the events of His providence, without perceiving that there are innumerable arrangements which have no other end than to produce happiness.J. F. M.]
DISCOURSE: 681 Psa 107:1-3. O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy; and gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south.
THE intent of this psalm appears to be, not merely to display the providence of God as interposing in all the concerns of men, but especially the goodness of God in vouchsafing to hear the prayers of men, and to grant them deliverance in answer to their supplications. This is illustrated under a variety of interesting images. His interpositions are described in behalf of travellers lost, but conducted home in safety; of prisoners rescued from merited captivity; of persons sick and dying, restored to health; of mariners preserved, and brought to their desired haven. But we must not confine our attention to temporal deliverances only; for it is manifest in the very commencement of the psalm that respect is had to the goodness and mercy of God in their most extended operations, and especially in the great work of redemption: for it is from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south, that he has already gathered his redeemed people [Note: Mat 8:11.], and that he will yet gather them into the kingdom of his Messiah [Note: Isa 43:5-6; Isa 56:8.], even Shiloh, unto whom shall the gathering of the people be [Note: Gen 49:10.]. In considering the different images, we might notice both the temporal and spiritual deliverances which they severally refer to: but at present we shall wave all reference to them, and notice only the great work of redemption, as set forth in the words before us; wherein we see,
I.
The duty of all to give thanks to God
Consider,
1.
The grounds of it
[Wherever we turn our eyes, we cannot but see that the Lord is good. Survey the heavenly bodies, and contemplate the benefits derived from them: view the earth with its innumerable productions for the good of man: examine your corporeal frame, and think how every part performs its office for the benefit of the whole: above all, reflect on the powers and faculties of our immortal souls, and mark how by them we are elevated above all the rest of the creation, and fitted for an infinitely higher state of existence in the presence of our God: and then say whether we have not reason to proclaim the goodness of our God
But the mercy of our God is yet, if possible, a more stupendous object of admiration; because goodness manifested itself to us in innocence; whereas mercy is exercised towards us under an inconceivable load of guilt. Think how it was displayed to man at first, in promising him a Saviour: think how it wrought in due time, in sending that Saviour into the world, even the eternal Son of God, and in laying all our iniquities on him. Think how it has shewn itself to every individual amongst us, in bearing with all our iniquities, and in following us with offers of a free and full salvation. Think how it has lasted towards the children of men, and how it shall last towards all who embrace its gracious offers. Surely if our minds were affected as they ought to be with this wonderful subject, we should never cease to praise and adore our God ]
2.
The duty itself
[O give thanks unto the Lord for these things, all of you, old and young, rich and poor, one with another! If there be one amongst us that has not participated in these benefits, we will be content that he shall be silent: but the very circumstance that we are still on mercys ground is abundant evidence that we have reason to join in one universal song of praise and thanksgiving. Think of the fallen angels, who never had a Saviour provided for them: think of the millions of the human race who never heard of the Saviour that has been provided for them, or that, having heard of him, have been left to perish in a neglect of his salvation: think of these things, and then, if you can, deny your obligations to the goodness and mercy of your God ] II.
The peculiar obligations of the redeemed to do so
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so: yes, if ye whom he has delivered out of the hand of the enemy, and gathered to himself, are silent, the very stones will cry out against you. Think,
1.
From whence you have been gathered
[The remotest ends of the earth are not so far from each other, as ye were from God and in this state ye were led captive by the devil at his will ]
2.
By what means ye were redeemed
[It was by the precious blood of Gods only dear Son [Note: Eph 2:13.] It was also by the effectual working of his power: for he, as a good Shepherd, sought you out, and apprehended you, and brought you home on his shoulders rejoicing [Note: Eze 34:12. Luk 15:5.] ]
3.
To what ye are brought
[As the Lords redeemed people, ye are brought into a state of peace with God: ye have the privilege of constant communion with him: ye may expect at his hands every blessing which your souls can desire: and ye shall finally posses all the glory and felicity of heaven. Address Those who are yet insensible of Gods goodness
[Alas! how great a portion of every assembly are comprehended under this description! Well, know ye then that we require no other proof of your perishing condition. Tell us not from what sins ye are free: we will grant all that ye are pleased to say: but we declare you to be blind, ignorant, base, ungrateful creatures: ye have no hearts to adore your God; and therefore if ye die in your present state, ye can never enter into the kingdom of heaven, where the one employment of the blest inhabitants is to sing the praises of redeeming love. If ever ye be truly converted unto God, this new song will be put into your mouths, and be sung by you day and night [Note: Psa 40:1-3. with Jer 33:11.] ]
2.
Those who love the blessed work
[Some there are, and may God increase their number an hundredfold! who delight to bless and praise their God Go on then, dearly Beloved, and abound more and more. Though your songs are as yet but faint, they are truly pleasing in the ears of your reconciled God and Father. This song in particular is grateful to him. Mark what notice he took of it when sung by Solomon [Note: 2Ch 5:13.] So will he come down and fill your souls with his glory Mark also what honour he put upon it when sung by Jehoshaphat [Note: 2Ch 20:21-22.] So will he defeat all the confederacies, whether of earth or hell, that may be formed against you Sing on then with increasing gratitude, even to the end; and soon shall the golden harp be put into your hands, and you shall join with that heavenly choir in that more perfect song in which they all unite, even in singing. Salvation to God and to the Lamb for ever and ever.]
CONTENTS
The same delightful subject is continued through this Psalm as in the two preceding, but in a more general way. All men are called upon, in the review of divine goodness, to praise the Lord; and the redeemed, in a yet more awakened manner. God’s mercies are instanced in a great variety of ways, both by sea and land, in sickness and in health, and brought forward as so many motives to praise him.
Psa 107:1
The Psalm opens with giving a general invitation to all men to praise the Lord. And there is enough in every man’s life, the most unworthy the most unawakened, to prompt him to this service: for everything short of hell is mercy. And if the sinner that is living without God, could but be prevailed upon to pause and ask himself, Wherefore it is that a life such as his is still in mercy lengthened? Wherefore the bounty which he lives only to abuse, is still vouchsafed him? Such a thought, if blessed of God, might cause the tear to fall, and the heart to lift itself in praise!
From the Sea to the City
Psa 107:23-24
To return to London in this forge of human work and passion when one has been living with great nature, almost in solitude, is always a curious experience. The things which are considered of vast importance in London seem small; the battles waged ere with amazing ardour, needless and apart from the greater issues of life. Man, we think, is walking in a vain show, and disquieting himself in vain. The great things of nature, the mighty powers we have felt at work, have dwarfed the business and battles in which men are so impetuously concerned. Yet while we live in the movement of mankind, with a silent love and with faith in its salvation, knowing that in its errors there is truth, and in its wrong victorious good we ought, when we have been for a time near to the life of nature, to be able to bring back from it some thoughts which may support, dignify, and add beauty to our life with humanity.
I. I have been staying in Cornwall on the very verge of the Atlantic; all day long, around the Lizard Point, the multitudinous ships passed by. I thought of all this energy of man, of all this sorrow of the world, as I watched the ships sail by, and wondered at that unconquerable force and hopefulness of mankind which failure only urged into greater activities and wondering, I said, ‘Almighty God is at the root of man, else long ago he had despaired’.
II. Secondly, could we but realize the Infinite, set free our thought from the limiting notions of space and time, imagine even in a little way the infinite scale in which things are done, all that I have tried to say would become clearer to us. We live and die, we think, in a finite world. In reality we are sailing in the infinite, and our little life here is like the momentary opening and closing of an eyelid in comparison with the endless being which even now belongs to us, and in which we live. The conception of the Infinite has been made a thousandfold easier to us by science. But its clearest revelation is in the soul itself. The soul knows, as it knows immediately what love is, that the Infinite is the fact which underlies the universe; knows that it is consciously at one with infinity and belongs to it for ever. To realize the infinite love, to feel our childhood to it, to live in it, to die for it, and to pass, after death, into closer union with it that is to be a Christian and to have the Christian faith. And no words contain its fullness so completely as those which Jesus used, when he called the infinite Creator our Father, and us, who share in his infinity, His children.
III. This world in which we live, this limited world of time and space, this present in which we clash incessantly with transient and dying things, with interests of a day this is only our momentary home. We are to do our duty in it, to share in its higher life, to love our comrades in its fleeting scene but our true resting-place is not in the passing and the finite. We are sailing over the infinite which for the moment seems the finite, to a further infinite, on which, in a doubling and redoubling life, we shall sail forever.
S. A. Brooke, The Kingship of Love, p. 1.
Reference. CVII. 23, 24. C. Kingsley, Discipline and Other Sermons, p. 23.
‘Jesus, Lover of My Soul’
Psa 107:30
To the Oriental mind in olden times the sea appealed chiefly as an object of terror. Its masterfulness was the one thing about it which affected the imagination. I. Notwithstanding all the study that has been given to it the sea remains the most masterful thing with which man has got to do. Only He who made the sea can get it to do His bidding. He sits above the storm and is King over it.
II. The sacred writers never conceive of the universe as a great machine with a great unknown behind it, to whom any individual man or thing is of no moment whatever. When they speak, as so often they do, of the operations of nature, it is by referring not to what are called the laws of nature, but to the authors of these laws.
III. However appalling and inscrutable the phenomena of nature may be, they are included in all the things mentioned by St. Paul as working together for good. The various parts of our lives, and the manifold events which go to make up history, cannot be rightly understood, if they can be understood at all, when they are taken by themselves; each has its place in the whole, and where that place is, He who has all eternity to work in will let us know some day.
IV. I wonder whether Charles Wesley was thinking of the scene associated with our text when he wrote ‘Jesus, Lover of my Soul’. This hymn has been the salvation of many a voyager on life’s troubled sea. For in truth human life may be likened to a voyage.
W. Taylor, Twelve Favourite Hymns, p. 97.
References. CVII. 30. E. A. Askew, Sermons Preached in Greystoke Church, p. 51. Spurgeon, Down by the Sea, p. 170. J. M. Neale, Sermon Passages of the Psalms, p. 226. H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, A Year’s Plain Sermons, p. 254. CVII. 40, 41. J. M. Neale, Sermons on Passages of the Psalms, p. 238.
Dark Days and Their Compensations
Psa 107:43
Astronomy would be impossible if it were always daylight. Only in the dark do we grow aware of these companies of constellations to which the sunshine had blinded our eyes. The chief discoveries of the moral firmament only become possible to us under similar conditions. There are strange outlooks and splendours of the human spirit which never begin to reveal themselves until after the sun of prosperity and happiness has gone out of the sky.
I. This Psalm celebrates the blessed experience of those whom God takes down into the darkness that they may learn there the mysteries of His love. They are described as fainting travellers in the desert, as forlorn captives in the dungeon, as sick men about to die, as sailors ready to founder in a tempest. But in each case the result is the same. In their blackest extremity they find underneath them the Everlasting Arms, and they are brought back to praise the Everlasting Mercy. Do we not often meet with shallow Christians who are curiously uneducated in spiritual things, because their experience hitherto has included so little except sunshine?
II. How little of the Bible you can understand so long as you only read it in sunshiny weather. But in black midnight sorrows its pages begin to shine and burn like the stars. Scripture remains more or less a sealed volume to those who have never suffered. But our extremity becomes its opportunity, and we realize then that it carries the one prescription for the pain of the whole world.
III. The lovingkindness of the Lord is represented here as a great induction from the experience of His people. When we consider the manifold applications and consolations of the righteous, and learn how the saints are distressed and succoured and emptied and satisfied, there is borne in upon us a sweet and solemn sense of the everlasting faithfulness and patience of their Redeemer. The final value of a spiritual biography lies in the record of how God brought His servant through deep waters and dark nights, and how, having suffered the loss of all things, that man found his infinite compensation in the holy and acceptable and perfect will of God.
T. H. Darlow, The Upward Galling, p. 27.
References. CVII. 43. C. Bradley, The Christian Life, p. 98. E. Thring, Uppingham Sermons, vol. i. p. 392. CVII. International Critical Commentary, vol. ii. p. 357.
The Silent Church
Psa 107:43
This is the higher wisdom. The text begins with the “wise.” Wisdom is assumed, not intellectual wisdom, which is often only another name for ignorance, but moral wisdom, wisdom of the heart. Whoso hath such wisdom, and will apply it in the observation of history, providence, mysterious interposition, shall come little by little to understand not intellectually only, but morally, sympathetically; as if by identification with the thing itself the lovingkindness of the Lord. Lovingkindness is a quality of kindness; tender mercy is a quality of mercy, a peculiar, distinctive quality, an incommunicable quality. Kindness we see on every hand, and yet hardly ever see at all, in its pureness, and simplicity, and profoundest reality, because of admixtures that are human and almost inevitable. But in our searching after the heart of this kindness we come upon a quality which we distinguish by the name lovingkindness, kind kindness, refined refinement, spiritual spirituality; the innermost thought and pulse and life of things. This is no rude judgment, no superficial or hasty criticism; as who shall speak of kindness, goodness, amiability: this is discriminating, critical consideration of innermost qualities: and the Psalmist is not ashamed of the redundance, “tender mercy,” “lovingkindness.” When love is sparing of language, when love tries to be concise, love puts its own eyes out, and inflicts a stab upon its own heart. Love has a right to be redundant; it flows like a river. This is more than Hebrew multiplication of words; this cometh of the necessity of things, the heart seeing beyond kindness up to lovingkindness, beyond mercy to mercy that weeps hot tears, tender mercy, that will spare the smoking flax and the bruised reed. That is the text.
What are we called upon to do? To “observe.” But that is a scientific word. Certainly. There is no book more scientific than the Bible. Is not science called sometimes the art of observation? Here is a religious teacher who says, Be scientific observe. Sometimes we want a microscope, sometimes a telescope; everything depends upon the object on which we are fixing our observation; if it be minute, there is the microscope; if it be distant, there is the telescope; what we have to do is to observe, which few men can do. There are few born surveyors. There are men enough who can lump things, and speak about them in vague generalities, but to observe the Lord, to watch him, we must neither slumber nor sleep; we must not look at broad lines, marking historical boundaries, we must look at all the fine lines, all the minute stippling, all the interior, wondrous touch, as of spiritual fingers; then we shall come to a just induction, to a soundly theological and rational conclusion concerning things. We cannot have the rough-and-ready man in the Church, and appoint him to tell us how love is going and how providence is shaping itself, and what lights are burning on the horizon. He may have his place, but it is not in the chair of criticism. He should be swift to hear, and be quite a stammerer in speech. Would God there were more stammering in certain sections of the Church, now being overburdened and noised to death by fluency! We are not to observe a little here and a little there, but we are to observe minutely, we are to observe in detail, to observe the little spectral shapes no larger than the hand of a man, and we are to observe them growing until the accumulation fills the firmament with promise of rain. It is delightful to find a word which binds us to a scientific policy. Isaac Newton said he was not aware that he excelled any one except it might be in the faculty of paying attention shall we call it the faculty of observation? Darwin never slept; he was observing whilst he was dreaming; he left the object for a moment or two and came back to it to follow it on. And one would imagine from some of Sir John Lubbock’s most useful books, packed as they are with information, that he had spent the most of his life in an ant-heap. He knows about ants their policy, their economy, their method, their battles, their conflicts, their conquests all their wondrous system of society. When a man observes God in that way, there will be no atheists. Atheism comes from want of observation, not observation of a broad vulgar kind, as for example the eyes that take in a whole sky at a time without taking in one solitary gleam of light for careful and reverent analysis, but an observation as minute and detailed, and patient and long-continued, as a man has bestowed upon the habits of an ant. Who would go to a man who had never seen an ant, in order to learn from him the habits of the busy little creature? We smile at the suggestion. Yet there are men who go to professed atheists to know what they think of theology! That which would be ridiculous in science is supposed to be rather philosophical and somewhat broad-minded in the Church. We go to experts. We are right in doing so. We ought to go to experts in the study of history, not the broad vulgar history of kings, and rival policies, and sanguinary battles; but the inner history of thought, motive, purpose, spiritual growth, and those mysterious inventions which seem to have no beginning and no ending, circumferences without visible centre, centres without measurable circumferences, the mystery of social movement.
The Psalmist dwells mainly upon four classes of people. Probably at that age of the world there were only four classes of people available for purposes of religious illustration. He deals with exiles, with prisoners, with sick men, and with men who see the wonders of the Lord in the great waters. So, in foreign lands, where there is no home; in prison, where the life is bound in cages of iron and brass; in the sick-chamber, where the life is worn down to one pain: and the great sea, which allows navies to pass but never to leave a footprint. This observing Psalmist opens the fifth book of the Psalter by saying that if men would only carefully observe all these things, they would come out of them singing and praising God, saying, In Babylon we saw thy goodness, and in the sea of the south we beheld how thy power lowered itself into pity and mercy.
The Psalmist does not neglect he extremities of men, when they are toiling and struggling and are put to all manner of distress. Indeed, he describes some of his clients, if we may so call them, as men who are at their wits’ ends; literally, who are reeling, first on the right hand, then on the left, staggering, drunk, but not with wine. “They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in.” That is the want of men. We cannot do without the city. Solitude is good for a time; to the truly growing and reverent soul, solitude is essential, but it must be occasional, it must be well-apportioned, it must be seasonable; it must follow the battle, it must come after the strenuous strife with darkness and sin and misery and social helplessness: the summer holiday must come after the winter’s toil; then is solitude most welcome, then the wilderness is a huge garden. But taking life in its breadth and generality, men, plural Man, social man, wants a city to dwell in. The city is a poem, the city is a plan. Every citizen who pays attention to his limitations and responsibilities is more or less of a statesman. He learns something by having neighbours. He says, This is a party-wall. A common phrase; there is nothing in it in the ordinary specifications and covenants of builders and leaseholders, but looked into carefully it means, I live on this side, and my neighbour lives on that, and if the wall should fall down we have both to build it. That is life in the city. The moment a man is joined by some other man, that man’s rights are divided. If there were no other man but one in the solar system, no doubt he would be a person of great consequence to himself: but the moment a little child came into that solar system his empire would be disputed, he must consider others, he must watch the child. Thus solitude is a larger condition than mere loneliness of the body. Solitude may in its larger signification point to one of those responsibilities the exercise of which develops the best and finest powers of the human soul. The cities are only symbols. The Lord allows us to bring our stone and timber and glass together, and allows us to make thoroughfares, and to have even corporations and councils; and he allows us to go forth at our full height as men of real civic importance: all the while he is saying, There is only one city that hath foundations: all these cities of yours are huts, places to dwell in for a day and a night, but on the third day you must be out. Blessed are they who declare plainly even in London that they seek a country out of sight, a city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Live in your own city only, the hut which your own hands have made, and you lose the whole poetry of the situation. Every roof should mean in its higher symbolism a sky, every home should be the beginning of heaven. Poor wanderers! were they the exiles returning from Babylon, and coming back to the Holy Land through every gateway accessible and passable? or is this a general description of the condition of human pilgrimage? Be it local, or be it general, there is the fact, that man can only do with a limited amount of solitude. Where he has to make his road every day, where there is only one little line of path, made by the feet it may be of beasts of prey, where there are no thoroughfares, no broad open roads with beauteous fields on either side, speaking of warmth, and comfort, and hospitality, and home, man says, When will this end? where is the city, the place of habitation, the home? where can we talk together, talk one another out of our miseries, speak one another by tender eloquence into new liberties and larger rights?
The Psalmist dwells upon the limitations and restrictions of the man and the society, the whole idea of humanity: “Therefore he brought down their heart: with labour” literally, with misery “they fell down, and there was none to help.” Sometimes we are all helpless. A question arises on which no one, even the whitest-haired, even the wisest, can shed light; then we fall down. What a striking, vivid image is this of the reality of things. We fall down. We can only stand in the degree in which we are wise, or capable, or conscious of ability to meet in some degree the pressure and agony of the situation: there comes a time when we fall down not in worship but in feebleness, and when though we be a multitude in number there is none to help. What did they do?” Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble.” That has been his black Church through all the ages. Who ever went to a wedding to find the Lord? Who ever went out in high summer noon, saying, Let us pray? Then there seemed to be no need for prayer: but “in their trouble” a church without windows, a church all blackness; when they could not see one another because of the denseness of the cloud “they cried.” The voice can go forth when the vision fails. We see God best in the darkness; we never knew the meaning of the words “I am the Resurrection and the Life” till we kissed the icy lips of the one child for whom the man waited outside to carry his ashes to the grave-pit. Then, when that voice fell upon us, we: said, Lord, this must be true: yes, speak again “I am the Resurrection and the Life.” We needed some one to face that white enemy that blanches everything he looks upon; we spoke to him, and he mocked us with a grin; we implored him, and he trampled upon our prostrate form: but here is One that comes to him with majesty and says, “I am the Resurrection and the Life.” In trouble that gospel was announced. When the house was desolate because the brother was dead, God opened that window in it through which the sisters saw all heaven’s vitality.
The Psalmist, by a fine touch, artistic as well as spiritual, indicates how sometimes men are the mere sport of nature: “He commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.” Can they not throw oil upon the waters? What oil would fill the Atlantic? Can the captain not say to the waves, “Peace, be still”? Yes, but the waves do not know him, though he be robed in uniform, and be gilded with medals. Can all the passengers not combine to say, We are men and you waves must not hurt us? Yes, they can do that, they can “call spirits from the vasty deep.” To call is one thing: for the spirits to come, for the sea to obey, is another. “Commandeth” is a large word; literally, he spake, so common a word as that. All great deeds in the Bible have been done, not by commanding, which is a term indicative of high majesty, but by speaking, saying: “And the Lord said, Let there be light,” and the whole firmament gleamed with glory: “And the Lord said, Let us make man,” and man stood up almost a god: “The Lord spake,” and the sea fell into infinite undulations, and the ship was a creaking toy, now in the valley, now on the hill, in the trough and on the crest absolutely helpless. It is instructive to note sometimes how we are almost the mere sport of nature.
The Lord “sent his word and healed them,” literally, he sends his word, and heals them. Is this the word referred to in the expression “commandeth,” or spake? Should this word be printed with a capital W? Is it more than a vocable, a syllable? Does it live? Is this the Logos? There may be some who would starve the soul and say, Do not read such meanings into the Psalms: there are others who have read beyond the psalms into the gospels and are able to say, Now take back your New Testament light and hold it over your Old Testament object and read the psalm again: In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God: and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us: he sent his Word. God is always sending; the Gospel is a sent blessing; and it is sent to be sent; around the world it goes, God’s angel, God’s voice, God’s benediction.
Who is to say this? “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.” “The redeemed of the Lord” is an expression that Isaiah made use of: “And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” The redeemed have been silent too long. We want a speaking Church; we want a Church of testimony. Every man can at all events relate his own experience, modestly and tenderly. A man may not be able to expound prophets and paraphrase sweet gospels so that a thousand men shall listen to him with more or less of interest, but every man can tell what he has seen and known and felt and handled of the Word of life. “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.” Church, thou hast been silent too long. O assembly of the saints, why this speechlessness? You will be mocked, of course. If a man shall lock himself up in selfish contemplation and spend his life in self-analysis, then no notice will be taken of him; but if he come out and speak boldly, he will be taunted and sneered at and ridiculed and undervalued and misrepresented. Which is to be the guide of life, the overpowering inspiration of God, which says, Speak out! or the self-considering misinspiration of time and sense and self which says, Stay at home?
What shall be the result of this observation: Shall man see the power of God, the grandeur of God, the majesty of God? No: or through them he will see the further quality, the beauteous reality: “Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the lovingkindness of the Lord.” The exiles shall say, He was good to us in Babylon, though we knew it not at the time. The prisoners shall say, There was not one bar too many of iron or brass in the cage that held us: we see it now. Sick men shall say, In the sick-chamber where we mourned and pined in weakness God was love. And men who have been tossed to and fro on great waters shall say, The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof, and his also is the fulness of the sea. They come out of all this tumult of experience, not saying, God is great, God is majestic, God is overwhelming: hear them; they come out of all this tragedy, agony, loss, saying, “God is love.
PSALMS
XI
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PSALMS
According to my usual custom, when taking up the study of a book of the Bible I give at the beginning a list of books as helps to the study of that book. The following books I heartily commend on the Psalms:
1. Sampey’s Syllabus for Old Testament Study . This is especially good on the grouping and outlining of some selected psalms. There are also some valuable suggestions on other features of the book.
2. Kirkpatrick’g commentary, in “Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges,” is an excellent aid in the study of the Psalter.
3. Perowne’s Book of Psalms is a good, scholarly treatise on the Psalms. A special feature of this commentary is the author’s “New Translation” and his notes are very helpful.
4. Spurgeon’s Treasury of David. This is just what the title implies. It is a voluminous, devotional interpretation of the Psalms and helpful to those who have the time for such extensive study of the Psalter.
5. Hengstenburg on the Psalms. This is a fine, scholarly work by one of the greatest of the conservative German scholars.
6. Maclaren on the Psalms, in “The Expositor’s Bible,” is the work of the world’s safest, sanest, and best of all works that have ever been written on the Psalms.
7. Thirtle on the Titles of the Psalms. This is the best on the subject and well worth a careful study.
At this point some definitions are in order. The Hebrew word for psalm means praise. The word in English comes from psalmos , a song of lyrical character, or a song to be sung and accompanied with a lyre. The Psalter is a collection of sacred and inspired songs, composed at different times and by different authors.
The range of time in composition was more than 1,000 years, or from the time of Moses to the time of Ezra. The collection in its present form was arranged probably by Ezra in the fifth century, B.C.
The Jewish classification of Old Testament books was The Law, the Prophets, and the Holy Writings. The Psalms was given the first place in the last group.
They had several names, or titles, of the Psalms. In Hebrew they are called “The Book of Prayers,” or “The Book of Praises.” The Hebrew word thus used means praises. The title of the first two books is found in Psa 72:20 : “The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.” The title of the whole collection of Psalms in the Septuagint is Biblos Psalman which means the “Book of Psalms.” The title in the Alexandrian Codex is Psalterion which is the name of a stringed instrument, and means “The Psalter.”
The derivation of our English words, “psalms,” “psalter,” and “psaltery,” respectively, is as follows:
1. “Psalms” comes from the Greek word, psalmoi, which is also from psallein , which means to play upon a stringed instrument. Therefore the Psalms are songs played upon stringed instruments, and the word here is used to apply to the whole collection.
2. “Psalter” is of the same origin and means the Book of Psalms and refers also to the whole collection.
3. “Psaltery” is from the word psalterion, which means “a harp,” an instrument, supposed to be in the shape of a triangle or like the delta of the Greek alphabet. See Psa 33:2 ; Psa 71:22 ; Psa 81:2 ; Psa 144:9 .
In our collection there are 150 psalms. In the Septuagint there is one extra. It is regarded as being outside the sacred collection and not inspired. The subject of this extra psalm is “David’s victory over Goliath.” The following is a copy of it: I was small among my brethren, And youngest in my father’s house, I used to feed my father’s sheep. My hands made a harp, My fingers fashioned a Psaltery. And who will declare unto my Lord? He is Lord, he it is who heareth. He it was who sent his angel And took me from my father’s sheep, And anointed me with the oil of his anointing. My brethren were goodly and tall, But the Lord took no pleasure in them. I went forth to meet the Philistine. And he cursed me by his idols But I drew the sword from beside him; I beheaded him and removed reproach from the children of Israel.
It will be noted that this psalm does not have the earmarks of an inspired production. There is not found in it the modesty so characteristic of David, but there is here an evident spirit of boasting and self-praise which is foreign to the Spirit of inspiration.
There is a difference in the numbering of the psalms in our version which follows the Hebrew, and the numbering in the Septuagint. Omitting the extra one in the Septuagint, there is no difference as to the total number. Both have 150 and the same subject matter, but they are not divided alike.
The following scheme shows the division according to our version and also the Septuagint: Psalms 1-8 in the Hebrew equal 1-8 in the Septuagint; 9-10 in the Hebrew combine into 9 in the Septuagint; 11-113 in the Hebrew equal 10-112 in the Septuagint; 114-115 in the Hebrew combine into 113 in the Septuagint; 116 in the Hebrew divides into 114-115 in the Septuagint; 117-146 in the Hebrew equal 116-145 in the Septuagint; 147 in the Hebrew divides into 146-147 in the Septuagint; 148-150 in the Hebrew equal 148-150 in the Septuagint.
The arrangement in the Vulgate is the same as the Septuagint. Also some of the older English versions have this arangement. Another difficulty in numbering perplexes an inexperienced student in turning from one version to another, viz: In the Hebrew often the title is verse I, and sometimes the title embraces verses 1-2.
The book divisions of the Psalter are five books, as follows:
Book I, Psalms 1-41 (41 chapters)
Book II, Psalms 42-72 (31 chapters)
Book III, Psalms 73-89 (17 chapters)
Book IV, Psalms 90-106 (17 chapters)
Book V, Psalms 107-150 (44 chapters)
They are marked by an introduction and a doxology. Psalm I forms an introduction to the whole book; Psa 150 is the doxology for the whole book. The introduction and doxology of each book are the first and last psalms of each division, respectively.
There were smaller collections before the final one, as follows:
Books I and II were by David; Book III, by Hezekiah, and Books IV and V, by Ezra.
Certain principles determined the arrangement of the several psalms in the present collection:
1. David is honored with first place, Book I and II, including Psalms 1-72.
2. They are grouped according to the use of the name of God:
(1) Psalms 1-41 are Jehovah psalms;
(2) Psalms 42-83 are Elohim-psalms;
(3) Psalms 84-150 are Jehovah psalms.
3. Book IV is introduced by the psalm of Moses, which is the first psalm written.
4. Some are arranged as companion psalms, for instance, sometimes two, sometimes three, and sometimes more. Examples: Psa 2 and 3; 22, 23, and 24; 113-118.
5. They were arranged for liturgical purposes, which furnished the psalms for special occasions, such as feasts, etc. We may be sure this arrangement was not accidental. An intelligent study of each case is convincing that it was determined upon rational grounds.
All the psalms have titles but thirty-three, as follows:
In Book I, Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 10 ; Psa 33 , (4 are without titles).
In Book II, Psa 43 ; Psa 71 , (2 are without titles).
In Book IV, Psa 91 ; Psa 93 ; Psa 94 ; Psa 95 ; Psa 96 ; Psa 97 ; Psa 104 ; Psa 105 ; Psa 106 , (9 are without titles).
In Book V, Psa 107 ; III; 112; 113; 114; 115; 116; 117; 118; 119; 135; 136; 137; 146; 147; 148; 149; 150, (18 are without titles).
The Talmud calls these psalms that have no title, “Orphan Psalms.” The later Jews supply these titles by taking the nearest preceding author. The lack of titles in Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; and 10 may be accounted for as follows: Psa 1 is a general introduction to the whole collection and Psa 2 was, perhaps, a part of Psa 1 . Psalms 9-10 were formerly combined into one, therefore Psa 10 has the same title as Psa 9 .
QUESTIONS
1. What books are commended on the Psalms?
2. What is a psalm?
3. What is the Psalter?
4. What is the range of time in composition?
5. When and by whom was the collection in its present form arranged?
6. What the Jewish classification of Old Testament books, and what the position of the Psalter in this classification?
7. What is the Hebrew title of the Psalms?
8. Find the title of the first two books from the books themselves.
9. What is the title of the whole collection of psalms in the Septuagint?
10. What is the title in the Alexandrian Codex?
11. What is the derivation of our English word, “Psalms”, “Psalter”, and “Psaltery,” respectively?
12. How many psalms in our collection?
13. How many psalms in the Septuagint?
14. What about the extra one in the Septuagint?
15. What is the subject of this extra psalm?
16. How does it compare with the Canonical Psalms?
17. What is the difference in the numbering of the psalms in our version which follows the Hebrew, and the numbering in the Septuagint?
18. What is the arrangement in the Vulgate?
19. What other difficulty in numbering which perplexes an inexperienced student in turning from one version to another?
20. What are the book divisions of the Psalter and how are these divisions marked?
21. Were there smaller collections before the final one? If so, what were they?
22. What principles determined the arrangement of the several psalms in the present collection?
23. In what conclusion may we rest concerning this arrangement?
24. How many of the psalms have no titles?
25. What does the Talmud call these psalms that have no titles?
26. How do later Jews supply these titles?
27. How do you account for the lack of titles in Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 10 ?
XII
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PSALMS (CONTINUED)
The following is a list of the items of information gathered from the titles of the psalms:
1. The author: “A Psalm of David” (Psa 37 ).
2. The occasion: “When he fled from Absalom, his son” (Psa 3 ).
3. The nature, or character, of the poem:
(1) Maschil, meaning “instruction,” a didactic poem (Psa 42 ).
(2) Michtam, meaning “gold,” “A Golden Psalm”; this means excellence or mystery (Psa 16 ; 56-60).
4. The occasion of its use: “A Psalm of David for the dedication of the house” (Psa 30 ).
5. Its purpose: “A Psalm of David to bring remembrance” (Psa 38 ; Psa 70 ).
6. Direction for its use: “A Psalm of David for the chief musician” (Psa 4 ).
7. The kind of musical instrument:
(1) Neginoth, meaning to strike a chord, as on stringed instruments (Psa 4 ; Psa 61 ).
(2) Nehiloth, meaning to perforate, as a pipe or flute (Psa 5 ).
(3) Shoshannim, Lilies, which refers probably to cymbals (Psa 45 ; Psa 69 ).
8. A special choir:
(1) Sheminith, the “eighth,” or octave below, as a male choir (Psa 6 ; Psa 12 ).
(2) Alamoth, female choir (Psa 46 ).
(3) Muth-labben, music with virgin voice, to be sung by a choir of boys in the treble (Psa 9 ).
9. The keynote, or tune:
(1) Aijeleth-sharar, “Hind of the morning,” a song to the melody of which this is sung (Psa 22 ).
(2) Al-tashheth, “Destroy thou not,” the beginning of a song the tune of which is sung (Psa 57 ; Psa 58 ; Psa 59 ; Psa 75 ).
(3) Gittith, set to the tune of Gath, perhaps a tune which David brought from Gath (Psa 8 ; Psa 81 ; Psa 84 ).
(4) Jonath-elim-rehokim, “The dove of the distant terebinths,” the commencement of an ode to the air of which this song was to be sung (Psa 56 ).
(5) Leannoth, the name of a tune (Psa 88 ).
(6) Mahalath, an instrument (Psa 53 ); Leonnoth-Mahaloth, to chant to a tune called Mahaloth.
(7) Shiggaion, a song or a hymn.
(8) Shushan-Eduth, “Lily of testimony,” a tune (Psa 60 ). Note some examples: (1) “America,” “Shiloh,” “Auld Lang Syne.” These are the names of songs such as we are familiar with; (2) “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” and “There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood,” are examples of sacred hymns.
10. The liturgical use, those noted for the feasts, e.g., the Hallels and Hallelujah Psalms (Psalms 146-150).
11. The destination, as “Song of Ascents” (Psalms 120-134)
12. The direction for the music, such as Selah, which means “Singers, pause”; Higgaion-Selah, to strike a symphony with selah, which means an instrumental interlude (Psa 9:16 ).
The longest and fullest title to any of the psalms is the title to Psa 60 . The items of information from this title are as follows: (1) the author; (2) the chief musician; (3) the historical occasion; (4) the use, or design; (5) the style of poetry; (6) the instrument or style of music.
The parts of these superscriptions which most concern us now are those indicating author, occasion, and date. As to the historic value or trustworthiness of these titles most modern scholars deny that they are a part of the Hebrew text, but the oldest Hebrew text of which we know anything had all of them. This is the text from which the Septuagint was translated. It is much more probable that the author affixed them than later writers. There is no internal evidence in any of the psalms that disproves the correctness of them, but much to confirm. The critics disagree among themselves altogether as to these titles. Hence their testimony cannot consistently be received. Nor can it ever be received until they have at least agreed upon a common ground of opposition.
David is the author of more than half the entire collection, the arrangement of which is as follows:
1. Seventy-three are ascribed to him in the superscriptions.
2. Some of these are but continuations of the preceding ones of a pair, trio, or larger group.
3. Some of the Korahite Psalms are manifestly Davidic.
4. Some not ascribed to him in the titles are attributed to him expressly by New Testament writers.
5. It is not possible to account for some parts of the Psalter without David. The history of his early life as found in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1and 2 Chronicles, not only shows his remarkable genius for patriotic and sacred songs and music, but also shows his cultivation of that gift in the schools of the prophets. Some of these psalms of the history appear in the Psalter itself. It is plain to all who read these that they are founded on experience, and the experience of no other Hebrew fits the case. These experiences are found in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles.
As to the attempt of the destructive critics to rob David of his glory in relation to the Psalter by assigning the Maccabean era as the date of composition, I have this to say:
1. This theory has no historical support whatever, and therefore is not to be accepted at all.
2. It has no support in tradition, which weakens the contention of the critics greatly.
3. It has no support from finding any one with the necessary experience for their basis.
4. They can give no reasonable account as to how the titles ever got there.
5. It is psychologically impossible for anyone to have written these 150 psalms in the Maccabean times.
6. Their position is expressly contrary to the testimony of Christ and the apostles. Some of the psalms which they ascribe to the Maccabean Age are attributed to David by Christ himself, who said that David wrote them in the Spirit.
The obvious aim of this criticism and the necessary result if it be Just, is a positive denial of the inspiration of both Testaments.
Other authors are named in the titles, as follows: (1) Asaph, to whom twelve psalms have been assigned: (2) Mosee, Psa 90 ; (3) Solomon, Psa 72 ; Psa 127 ; (4) Heman, Psa 80 ; (5) Ethem, Psa 89 ; (6) A number of the psalms are ascribed to the sons of Korah.
Not all the psalms ascribed to Asaph were composed by one person. History indicates that Asaph’s family presided over the song service for several generations. Some of them were composed by his descendants by the game name. The five general outlines of the whole collection are as follows:
I. By books
1. Psalms 1-41 (41)
2. Psalms 42-72 (31)
3. Psalms 73-89 (17)
4. Psalms 90-106 (17)
5. Psalms 107-150 (44)
II. According to date and authorship
1. The psalm of Moses (Psa 90 )
2. Psalms of David:
(1) The shepherd boy (Psa 8 ; Psa 19 ; Psa 29 ; Psa 23 ).
(2) David when persecuted by Saul (Psa 59 ; Psa 56 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 52 ; Psa 54 ; Psa 57 ; Psa 142 ).
(3) David the King (Psa 101 ; Psa 18 ; Psa 24 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 110 ; Psa 20 ; Psa 20 ; Psa 21 ; Psa 60 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 41 ; Psa 55 ; Psa 3:4 ; Psa 64 ; Psa 62 ; Psa 61 ; Psa 27 ).
3. The Asaph Psalms (Psa 50 ; Psa 73 ; Psa 83 ).
4. The Korahite Psalms (Psa 42 ; Psa 43 ; Psa 84 ).
5. The psalms of Solomon (Psa 72 ; Psa 127 ).
6. The psalms of the era of Hezekiah and Isaiah (Psa 46 ; Psa 47 ; Psa 48 )
7. The psalms of the Exile (Psa 74 ; Psa 79 ; Psa 137 ; Psa 102 )
8. The psalms of the Restoration (Psa 85 ; Psa 126 ; Psa 118 ; 146-150)
III. By groups
1. The Jehovistic and Elohistic Psalms:
(1) Psalms 1-41 are Jehovistic;
(2) Psalms 42-83 are Elohistic Psalms;
(3) Psalms 84-150 are Jehovistic.
2. The Penitential Psalms (Psa 6 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 130 ; Psa 143 )
3. The Pilgrim Psalms (Psalms 120-134)
4. The Alphabetical Psalms (Psa 9 ; Psa 10 ; Psa 25 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 37 ; 111:112; Psa 119 ; Psa 145 )
5. The Hallelujah Psalms (Psalms 11-113; 115-117; 146-150; to which may be added Psa 135 ) Psalms 113-118 are called “the Egyptian Hallel”
IV. Doctrines of the Psalms
1. The throne of grace and how to approach it by sacrifice, prayer, and praise.
2. The covenant, the basis of worship.
3. The paradoxical assertions of both innocence & guilt.
4. The pardon of sin and justification.
5. The Messiah.
6. The future life, pro and con.
7. The imprecations.
8. Other doctrines.
V. The New Testament use of the Psalms
1. Direct references and quotations in the New Testament.
2. The allusions to the psalms in the New Testament. Certain experiences of David’s life made very deep impressions on his heart, such as: (1) his peaceful early life; (2) his persecution by Saul; (3) his being crowned king of the people; (4) the bringing up of the ark; (5) his first great sin; (6) Absalom’s rebellion; (7) his second great sin; (8) the great promise made to him in 2Sa 7 ; (9) the feelings of his old age.
We may classify the Davidic Psalms according to these experiences following the order of time, thus:
1. His peaceful early life (Psa 8 ; Psa 19 ; Psa 29 ; Psa 23 )
2. His persecution by Saul (Psa 59 ; Psa 56 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 7 ; Psa 52 ; Psa 120 ; Psa 140 ; Psa 54 ; Psa 57 ; Psa 142 ; Psa 17 ; Psa 18 )
3. Making David King (Psa 27 ; Psa 133 ; Psa 101 )
4. Bringing up the ark (Psa 68 ; Psa 24 ; Psa 132 ; Psa 15 ; Psa 78 ; Psa 96 )
5. His first great sin (Psa 51 ; Psa 32 )
6. Absalom’s rebellion (Psa 41 ; Psa 6 ; Psa 55 ; Psa 109 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 39 ; Psa 3 ; Psa 4 ; Psa 63 ; Psa 42 ; Psa 43 ; Psa 5 ; Psa 62 ; Psa 61 ; Psa 27 )
7. His second great sin (Psa 69 ; Psa 71 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 103 )
8. The great promise made to him in 2Sa 7 (Psa 2 )
9. Feelings of old age (Psa 37 )
The great doctrines of the psalms may be noted as follows: (1) the being and attributes of God; (3) sin, both original and individual; (3) both covenants; (4) the doctrine of justification; (5) concerning the Messiah.
There is a striking analogy between the Pentateuch and the Psalms. The Pentateuch contains five books of law; the Psalms contain five books of heart responses to the law.
It is interesting to note the historic controversies concerning the singing of psalms. These were controversies about singing uninspired songs, in the Middle Ages. The church would not allow anything to be used but psalms.
The history in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles, and in Ezra and Nehemiah is very valuable toward a proper interpretation of the psalms. These books furnish the historical setting for a great many of the psalms which is very indispensable to their proper interpretation.
Professor James Robertson, in the Poetry and Religion of the Psalms constructs a broad and strong argument in favor of the Davidic Psalms, as follows:
1. The age of David furnished promising soil for the growth of poetry.
2. David’s qualifications for composing the psalms make it highly probable that David is the author of the psalms ascribed to him.
3. The arguments against the possibility of ascribing to David any of the hymns in the Hebrew Psalter rests upon assumptions that are thoroughly antibiblical.
The New Testament makes large use of the psalms and we learn much as to their importance in teaching. There are seventy direct quotations in the New Testament from this book, from which we learn that the Scriptures were used extensively in accord with 2Ti 3:16-17 . There are also eleven references to the psalms in the New Testament from which we learn that the New Testament writers were thoroughly imbued with the spirit and teaching of the psalms. Then there are eight allusions ‘to this book in the New Testament from which we gather that the Psalms was one of the divisions of the Old Testament and that they were used in the early church.
QUESTIONS
1. Give a list of the items of information gathered from the titles of the psalms.
2. What is the longest title to any of the psalms and what the items of this title?
3. What parts of these superscriptions most concern us now?
4. What is the historic value, or trustworthiness of these titles?
5. State the argument showing David’s relation to the psalms.
6. What have you to say of the attempt of the destructive critics to rob David of his glory in relation to the Psalter by assigning the Maccabean era as the date of composition?
7. What the obvious aim of this criticism and the necessary result, if it be just?
8. What other authors are named in the titles?
9. Were all the psalms ascribed to Asaph composed by one person?
10. Give the five general outlines of the whole collection, as follows: I. The outline by books II. The outline according to date and authorship III. The outline by groups IV. The outline of doctrines V. The outline by New Testament quotations or allusions.
11. What experiences of David’s life made very deep impressions on his heart?
12. Classify the Davidic Psalms according to these experiences following the order of time.
13. What the great doctrines of the psalms?
14. What analogy between the Pentateuch and the Psalms?
15. What historic controversies concerning the singing of psalms?
16. Of what value is the history in Samuel, 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles, and in Ezra and Nehemiah toward a proper interpretation of the psalms?
17. Give Professor James Robertson’s argument in favor of the Davidic authorship of the psalms.
18. What can you say of the New Testament use of the psalms and what do we learn as to their importance in teaching?
19. What can you say of the New Testament references to the psalms, and from the New Testament references what the impression on the New Testament writers?
20. What can you say of the allusions to the psalms in the New Testament?
XVII
THE MESSIAH IN THE PSALMS
A fine text for this chapter is as follows: “All things must be fulfilled which were written in the Psalms concerning me,” Luk 24:44 . I know of no better way to close my brief treatise on the Psalms than to discuss the subject of the Messiah as revealed in this book.
Attention has been called to the threefold division of the Old Testament cited by our Lord, namely, the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms (Luk 24:44 ), in all of which were the prophecies relating to himself that “must be fulfilled.” It has been shown just what Old Testament books belong to each of these several divisions. The division called the Psalms included many books, styled Holy Writings, and because the Psalms proper was the first book of the division it gave the name to the whole division.
The object of this discussion is to sketch the psalmist’s outline of the Messiah, or rather, to show how nearly a complete picture of our Lord is foredrawn in this one book. Let us understand however with Paul, that all prophecy is but in part (1Co 13:9 ), and that when we fill in on one canvas all the prophecies concerning the Messiah of all the Old Testament divisions, we are far from having a perfect portrait of our Lord. The present purpose is limited to three things:
1. What the book of the Psalms teaches concerning the Messiah.
2. That the New Testament shall authoritatively specify and expound this teaching.
3. That the many messianic predictions scattered over the book and the specifications thereof over the New Testament may be grouped into an orderly analysis, so that by the adjustment of the scattered parts we may have before us a picture of our Lord as foreseen by the psalmists.
In allowing the New Testament to authoritatively specify and expound the predictive features of the book, I am not unmindful of what the so-called “higher critics” urge against the New Testament quotations from the Old Testament and the use made of them. In this discussion, however, these objections are not considered, for sufficient reasons. There is not space for it. Even at the risk of being misjudged I must just now summarily pass all these objections, dismissing them with a single statement upon which the reader may place his own estimate of value. That statement is that in the days of my own infidelity, before this old method of criticism had its new name, I was quite familiar with the most and certainly the strongest of the objections now classified as higher criticism, and have since patiently re-examined them in their widely conflicting restatements under their modern name, and find my faith in the New Testament method of dealing with the Old Testament in no way shattered, but in every way confirmed. God is his own interpreter. The Old Testament as we now have it was in the hands of our Lord. I understand his apostle to declare, substantially, that “every one of these sacred scriptures is God-inspired and is profitable for teaching us what is right to believe and to do, for convincing us what is wrong in faith or practice, for rectifying the wrong when done, that we may be ready at every point, furnished completely, to do every good work, at the right time, in the right manner, and from the proper motive” (2Ti 3:16-17 ).
This New Testament declares that David was a prophet (Act 2:30 ), that he spake by the Holy Spirit (Act 1:16 ), that when the book speaks the Holy Spirit speaks (Heb 3:7 ), and that all its predictive utterances, as sacred Scripture, “must be fulfilled” (Joh 13:18 ; Act 1:16 ). It is not claimed that David wrote all the psalms, but that all are inspired, and that as he was the chief author, the book goes by his name.
It would be a fine thing to make out two lists, as follows:
1. All of the 150 psalms in order from which the New Testament quotes with messianic application.
2. The New Testament quotations, book by book, i.e., Matthew so many, and then the other books in their order.
We would find in neither of these any order as to time, that is, Psa 1 which forecasts an incident in the coming Messiah’s life does not forecast the first incident of his life. And even the New Testament citations are not in exact order as to time and incident of his life. To get the messianic picture before us, therefore, we must put the scattered parts together in their due relation and order, and so construct our own analysis. That is the prime object of this discussion. It is not claimed that the analysis now presented is perfect. It is too much the result of hasty, offhand work by an exceedingly busy man. It will serve, however, as a temporary working model, which any one may subsequently improve. We come at once to the psalmist’s outline of the Messiah.
1. The necessity for a Saviour. This foreseen necessity is a background of the psalmists’ portrait of the Messiah. The necessity consists in (1) man’s sinfulness; (2) his sin; (3) his inability of wisdom and power to recover himself; (4) the insufficiency of legal, typical sacrifices in securing atonement.
The predicate of Paul’s great argument on justification by faith is the universal depravity and guilt of man. He is everywhere corrupt in nature; everywhere an actual transgressor; everywhere under condemnation. But the scriptural proofs of this depravity and sin the apostle draws mainly from the book of the Psalms. In one paragraph of the letter to the Romans (Rom 3:4-18 ), he cites and groups six passages from six divisions of the Psalms (Psa 5:9 ; Psa 10:7 ; Psa 14:1-3 ; Psa 36:1 ; Psa 51:4-6 ; Psa 140:3 ). These passages abundantly prove man’s sinfulness, or natural depravity, and his universal practice of sin.
The predicate also of the same apostle’s great argument for revelation and salvation by a Redeemer is man’s inability of wisdom and power to re-establish communion with God. In one of his letters to the Corinthians he thus commences his argument: “For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? -For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preach-ing to save them that believe.” He closes this discussion with the broad proposition: “The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God,” and proves it by a citation from Psa 94:11 : “The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.”
In like manner our Lord himself pours scorn on human wisdom and strength by twice citing Psa 8 : “At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight” (Mat 11:25-26 ). “And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children that were crying in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased, and said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?” (Mat 21:15-16 ).
But the necessity for a Saviour as foreseen by the psalmist did not stop at man’s depravity, sin, and helplessness. The Jews were trusting in the sacrifices of their law offered on the smoking altar. The inherent weakness of these offerings, their lack of intrinsic merit, their ultimate abolition, their complete fulfilment and supercession by a glorious antitype were foreseen and foreshown in this wonderful prophetic book: I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices; And thy burnt offerings are continually before me. I will take no bullock out of thy house, Nor he-goat out of thy folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, And the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all of the birds of the mountains; And the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee; For the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, Or drink the blood of goats? Psa 50:8-13 .
Yet again it speaks in that more striking passage cited in the letter to the Hebrews: “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, not the very image of the things, can never with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshipers, once purged should have no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance made of sins year by year. For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not, But a body didst thou prepare for me; In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hadst no pleasure: Then said I, Lo, I am come (In the roll of the book it is written of me) To do thy will, O God. Saying above, Sacrifice and offering and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou wouldst not, neither hadst pleasure therein, (the which are offered according to the law), then hath he said, Lo, I am come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second” (Heb 10:1-9 ).
This keen foresight of the temporary character and intrinsic worthlessness of animal sacrifices anticipated similar utterances by the later prophets (Isa 1:10-17 ; Jer 6:20 ; Jer 7:21-23 ; Hos 6:6 ; Amo 5:21 ; Mic 6:6-8 ). Indeed, I may as well state in passing that when the apostle declares, “It is impossible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins,” he lays down a broad principle, just as applicable to baptism and the Lord’s Supper. With reverence I state the principle: Not even God himself by mere appointment can vest in any ordinance, itself lacking intrinsic merit, the power to take away sin. There can be, therefore, in the nature of the case, no sacramental salvation. This would destroy the justice of God in order to exalt his mercy. Clearly the psalmist foresaw that “truth and mercy must meet together” before “righteousness and peace could kiss each other” (Psa 85:10 ). Thus we find as the dark background of the psalmists’ luminous portrait of the Messiah, the necessity for a Saviour.
2. The nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation to be wrought by the coming Messiah. In no other prophetic book are the nature, fullness, and blessedness of salvation so clearly seen and so vividly portrayed. Besides others not now enumerated, certainly the psalmists clearly forecast four great elements of salvation:
(1) An atoning sacrifice of intrinsic merit offered once for all (Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:4-10 ).
(2) Regeneration itself consisting of cleansing, renewal, and justification. We hear his impassioned statement of the necessity of regeneration: “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts,” followed by his earnest prayer: “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me,” and his equally fervent petition: “Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow” (Psa 51 ). And we hear him again as Paul describes the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputes righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, And whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin Psa 32:1 ; Rom 4:6-8 .
(3) Introduction into the heavenly rest (Psa 95:7-11 ; Heb 3:7-19 ; Heb 4:1-11 ). Here is the antitypical Joshua leading spiritual Israel across the Jordan of death into the heavenly Canaan, the eternal rest that remaineth for the people of God. Here we find creation’s original sabbath eclipsed by redemption’s greater sabbath when the Redeemer “entered his rest, ceasing from his own works as God did from his.”
(4) The recovery of all the universal dominion lost by the first Adam and the securement of all possible dominion which the first Adam never attained (Psa 8:5-6 ; Eph 1:20-22 ; Heb 2:7-9 ; 1Co 15:24-28 ).
What vast extent then and what blessedness in the salvation foreseen by the psalmists, and to be wrought by the Messiah. Atoning sacrifice of intrinsic merit; regeneration by the Holy Spirit; heavenly rest as an eternal inheritance; and universal dominion shared with Christ!
3. The wondrous person of the Messiah in his dual nature, divine and human.
(1) His divinity,
(a) as God: “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever” (Psa 45:6 and Heb 1:8 ) ;
(b) as creator of the heavens and earth, immutable and eternal: Of old didst thou lay the foundation of the earth; And the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure; Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same, And thy years shall have no end Psa 102:25-27 quoted with slight changes in Heb 1:10-12 .
(c) As owner of the earth: The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof; The world, and they that dwell therein, Psa 24:1 quoted in 1Co 10:26 .
(d) As the Son of God: “Thou art my Son; This day have I begotten thee” Psa 2:7 ; Heb 1:5 .
(e) As David’s Lord: The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, Until I make thine enemies thy footstool, Psa 110:1 ; Mat 22:41-46 .
(f) As the object of angelic worship: “And let all the angels of God worship him” Psa 97:7 ; Heb 1:6 .
(g) As the Bread of life: And he rained down manna upon them to eat, And gave them food from heaven Psa 78:24 ; interpreted in Joh 6:31-58 . These are but samples which ascribe deity to the Messiah of the psalmists.
(2) His humanity, (a) As the Son of man, or Son of Adam: Psa 8:4-6 , cited in 1Co 15:24-28 ; Eph 1:20-22 ; Heb 2:7-9 . Compare Luke’s genealogy, Luk 3:23-38 . This is the ideal man, or Second Adam, who regains Paradise Lost, who recovers race dominion, in whose image all his spiritual lineage is begotten. 1Co 15:45-49 . (b) As the Son of David: Psa 18:50 ; Psa 89:4 ; Psa 89:29 ; Psa 89:36 ; Psa 132:11 , cited in Luk 1:32 ; Act 13:22-23 ; Rom 1:3 ; 2Ti 2:8 . Perhaps a better statement of the psalmists’ vision of the wonderful person of the Messiah would be: He saw the uncreated Son, the second person of the trinity, in counsel and compact with the Father, arranging in eternity for the salvation of men: Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:5-7 . Then he saw this Holy One stoop to be the Son of man: Psa 8:4-6 ; Heb 2:7-9 . Then he was the son of David, and then he saw him rise again to be the Son of God: Psa 2:7 ; Rom 1:3-4 .
4. His offices.
(1) As the one atoning sacrifice (Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:5-7 ).
(2) As the great Prophet, or Preacher (Psa 40:9-10 ; Psa 22:22 ; Heb 2:12 ). Even the method of his teaching by parable was foreseen (Psa 78:2 ; Mat 13:35 ). Equally also the grace, wisdom, and power of his teaching. When the psalmist declares that “Grace is poured into thy lips” (Psa 45:2 ), we need not be startled when we read that all the doctors in the Temple who heard him when only a boy “were astonished at his understanding and answers” (Luk 2:47 ); nor that his home people at Nazareth “all bear him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth” (Luk 4:22 ); nor that those of his own country were astonished, and said, “Whence hath this man this wisdom?” (Mat 13:54 ); nor that the Jews in the Temple marveled, saying, “How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?” (Joh 7:15 ) ; nor that the stern officers of the law found their justification in failure to arrest him in the declaration, “Never man spake like this man” (Joh 7:46 ).
(3) As the king (Psa 2:6 ; Psa 24:7-10 ; Psa 45:1-17 ; Psa 110:1 ; Mat 22:42-46 ; Act 2:33-36 ; 1Co 15:25 ; Eph 1:20 ; Heb 1:13 ).
(4) As the priest (Psa 110:4 ; Heb 5:5-10 ; Heb 7:1-21 ; Heb 10:12-14 ).
(5) As the final judge. The very sentence of expulsion pronounced upon the finally impenitent by the great judge (Mat 25:41 ) is borrowed from the psalmist’s prophetic words (Psa 6:8 ).
5. Incidents of life. The psalmists not only foresaw the necessity for a Saviour; the nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation; the wonderful human-divine person of the Saviour; the offices to be filled by him in the work of salvation, but also many thrilling details of his work in life, death, resurrection, and exaltation. It is not assumed to cite all these details, but some of the most important are enumerated in order, thus:
(1) The visit, adoration, and gifts of the Magi recorded in Mat 2 are but partial fulfilment of Psa 72:9-10 .
(2) The scripture employed by Satan in the temptation of our Lord (Luk 4:10-11 ) was cited from Psa 91:11-12 and its pertinency not denied.
(3) In accounting for his intense earnestness and the apparently extreme measures adopted by our Lord in his first purification of the Temple (Joh 2:17 ), he cites the messianic zeal predicted in Psa 69:9 .
(4) Alienation from his own family was one of the saddest trials of our Lord’s earthly life. They are slow to understand his mission and to enter into sympathy with him. His self-abnegation and exhaustive toil were regarded by them as evidences of mental aberration, and it seems at one time they were ready to resort to forcible restraint of his freedom) virtually what in our time would be called arrest under a writ of lunacy. While at the last his half-brothers became distinguished preachers of his gospel, for a long while they do not believe on him. And the evidence forces us to the conclusion that his own mother shared with her other sons, in kind though not in degree, the misunderstanding of the supremacy of his mission over family relations. The New Testament record speaks for itself:
Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them. How is it that ye sought me? Knew ye not that I must be in my Father’s house? And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them Luk 2:48-51 (R.V.).
And when the wine failed, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. And Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. Joh 2:3-5 (R.V.).
And there come his mother and his brethren; and standing without; they sent unto him, calling him. And a multitude was sitting about him; and they say unto him. Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee. And he answereth them, and saith, Who is my mother and my brethren? And looking round on them that sat round about him, he saith, Behold, my mother and my brethren) For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother Mar 3:31-35 (R.V.).
Now the feast of the Jews, the feast of tabernacles, was at hand. His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judea, that thy disciples also may behold thy works which thou doest. For no man doeth anything in secret, and himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou doest these things, manifest thyself to the world. For even his brethren did not believe on him. Jesus therefore saith unto them, My time is not yet come; but your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that its works are evil. Go ye up unto the feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; because my time is not fulfilled. Joh 7:2-9 (R.V.).
These citations from the Revised Version tell their own story. But all that sad story is foreshown in the prophetic psalms. For example: I am become a stranger unto my brethren, And an alien unto my mother’s children. Psa 69:8 .
(5) The triumphal entry into Jerusalem was welcomed by a joyous people shouting a benediction from Psa 118:26 : “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Mat 21:9 ); and the Lord’s lamentation over Jerusalem predicts continued desolation and banishment from his sight until the Jews are ready to repeat that benediction (Mat 23:39 ).
(6) The children’s hosanna in the Temple after its second purgation is declared by our Lord to be a fulfilment of that perfect praise forecast in Psa 8:2 .
(7) The final rejection of our Lord by his own people was also clear in the psalmist’s vision (Psa 118:22 ; Mat 21:42-44 ).
(8) Gethsemane’s baptism of suffering, with its strong crying and tears and prayers was as clear to the psalmist’s prophetic vision as to the evangelist and apostle after it became history (Psa 69:1-4 ; Psa 69:13-20 ; and Mat 26:36-44 ; Heb 5:7 ).
(9) In life-size also before the psalmist was the betrayer of Christ and his doom (Psa 41:9 ; Psa 69:25 ; Psa 109:6-8 ; Joh 13:18 ; Act 1:20 ).
(10) The rage of the people, Jew and Gentile, and the conspiracy of Pilate and Herod are clearly outlined (Psa 2:1-3 ; Act 4:25-27 ).
(11) All the farce of his trial the false accusation, his own marvelous silence; and the inhuman maltreatment to which he was subjected, is foreshown in the prophecy as dramatically as in the history (Mat 26:57-68 ; Mat 27:26-31 ; Psa 27:12 ; Psa 35:15-16 ; Psa 38:3 ; Psa 69:19 ).
The circumstances of his death, many and clear, are distinctly foreseen. He died in the prime of life (Psa 89:45 ; Psa 102:23-24 ). He died by crucifixion (Psa 22:14-17 ; Luk 23 ; 33; Joh 19:23-37 ; Joh 20:27 ). But yet not a bone of his body was broken (Psa 34:20 ; Joh 19:36 ).
The persecution, hatred without a cause, the mockery and insults, are all vividly and dramatically foretold (Psa 22:6-13 ; Psa 35:7 ; Psa 35:12 ; Psa 35:15 ; Psa 35:21 ; Psa 109:25 ).
The parting of his garments and the gambling for his vesture (Psa 22:18 ; Mat 27:35 ).
His intense thirst and the gall and vinegar offered for his drink (Psa 69:21 ; Mat 27:34 ).
In the psalms, too, we hear his prayers for his enemies so remarkably fulfilled in fact (Psa 109:4 ; Luk 23:34 ).
His spiritual death was also before the eye of the psalmist, and the very words which expressed it the psalmist heard. Separation from the Father is spiritual death. The sinner’s substitute must die the sinner’s death, death physical, i.e., separation of soul from body; death spiritual, i.e., separation of the soul from God. The latter is the real death and must precede the former. This death the substitute died when he cried out: “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me.” (Psa 22:1 ; Mat 27:46 ).
Emerging from the darkness of that death, which was the hour of the prince of darkness, the psalmist heard him commend his spirit to the Father (Psa_31:35; Luk 23:46 ) showing that while he died the spiritual death, his soul was not permanently abandoned unto hell (Psa 16:8-10 ; Act 2:25 ) so that while he “tasted death” for every man it was not permanent death (Heb 2:9 ).
With equal clearness the psalmist foresaw his resurrection, his triumph over death and hell, his glorious ascension into heaven, and his exaltation at the right hand of God as King of kings and Lord of lords, as a high Driest forever, as invested with universal sovereignty (Psa 16:8-11 ; Psa 24:7-10 ; Psa 68:18 ; Psa 2:6 ; Psa 111:1-4 ; Psa 8:4-6 ; Act 2:25-36 ; Eph 1:19-23 ; Eph 4:8-10 ).
We see, therefore, brethren, when the scattered parts are put together and adjusted, how nearly complete a portrait of our Lord is put upon the prophetic canvas by this inspired limner, the sweet singer of Israel.
QUESTIONS
1. What is a good text for this chapter?
2. What is the threefold division of the Old Testament as cited by our Lord?
3. What is the last division called and why?
4. What is the object of the discussion in this chapter?
5. To what three things is the purpose limited?
6. What especially qualifies the author to meet the objections of the higher critics to allowing the New Testament usage of the Old Testament to determine its meaning and application?
7. What is the author’s conviction relative to the Scriptures?
8. What is the New Testament testimony on the question of inspiration?
9. What is the author’s suggested plan of approach to the study of the Messiah in the Psalms?
10. What the background of the Psalmist’s portrait of the Messiah and of what does it consist?
11. Give the substance of Paul’s discussion of man’s sinfulness.
12. What is the teaching of Jesus on this point?
13. What is the teaching relative to sacrifices?
14. What the nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation to be wrought by the coming Messiah and what the four great elements of it as forecast by the psalmist?
15. What is the teaching of the psalms relative to the wondrous person of the Messiah? Discuss.
16. What are the offices of the Messiah according to psalms? Discuss each.
17. Cite the more important events of the Messiah’s life according to the vision of the psalmist.
18. What the circumstances of the Messiah’s death and resurrection as foreseen by the psalmist?
Psa 107:1 O give thanks unto the LORD, for [he is] good: for his mercy [endureth] for ever.
Ver. 1. O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good ] He is good, and doeth good, Psa 119:68 , not to his Israel only, as is set forth in the two foregoing psalms, but to all mankind, which is Divini ingenii cura, as one saith, whatever atheists and epicures say to the contrary, denying a Divine providence: witness that profane distich of theirs:
Nempe nihil positum est, et sors incerta vagatur,
Fertque refertque vices, et habent mortalia casum.
For his mercy endureth for ever Give ye thanks to Jehovah,” etc. Israel affords the great object-lesson of man’s folly and distress in the land and out of it, as on the sea; crying to Jehovah and heard in His unfailing mercy; at last delivered from the enemy and gathered out of the lands on every side (not a few Jews from Babylon merely) to enjoy the kingdom. It is in no way the church blessed with Christ in the heavenly places, though the church may well profit from all, and enjoy the truth and the mercy here described.
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 107:1-3
1Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good,
For His lovingkindness is everlasting.
2Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,
Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the adversary
3And gathered from the lands,
From the east and from the west,
From the north and from the south.
Psa 107:1 Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good This is the same beginning as Psalms 106; Psalms 118; Psalms , 136 (i.e., BDB 392, KB 389, Hiphil imperative; it is the only imperative in this Psalm). This is basically the faithful follower’s worldview. No matter what circumstances in which we may find ourselves, it is the deep conviction of those who believe the Bible that God is with us, God is for us, God is able to deliver us.
For His lovingkindness is everlasting This is the covenant term hesed (see Special Topic: Lovingkindness ([hesed]). It primarily speaks of God’s steadfast, covenant loyalty. This Psalm begins and ends (cf. Psa 107:43 b) with God’s covenant love. God is not just the originator of covenants, He is the concluder of covenants
For everlasting see Special Topic: Forever (‘olam) .
Psa 107:2 Let the redeemed of the Lord say so This term is the Hebrew word go’el (BDB 145, KB 169, Qal passive participle). It primarily emphasizes a rich relative buying someone back from slavery (see SPECIAL TOPIC: RANSOM/REDEEM ). These personal family metaphors are used to describe God in the most intimate and significant of human relationships.
God’s people are called to speak forth God’s mercies. In context, this is another universal theme (cf. Psa 107:8; Psa 107:15; Psa 107:21; Psa 107:31).
The word say (BDB 55, KB 65) is a Qal imperfect used in a jussive sense. This Psalm has eleven of these grammatical forms (i.e., Psa 107:2; Psa 107:8; Psa 107:15; Psa 107:21-22 [twice], 32 [twice, 43 [twice]).
Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the adversary Because of Psa 107:3 this refers to the Assyrian and Babylonian exiles. The prayer for restoration is found in Psa 106:47 and Psalms 107 seems to be the fulfillment of that prayer.
For the idiom of hand see SPECIAL TOPIC: HAND .
Psa 107:3 south This is literally the word for sea (cf. JPSOA). The term sea (BDB 410) and the term south (lit. right hand, BDB 411 I) are spelled similarly in Hebrew. These are the four cardinal points of the compass, which would denote a universal restoration.
Most modern English translations emend sea to south because the west has already been mentioned. The UBS Text Project (p. 384) gives sea an A rating (very high probability). If the original text should be sea it refers to the islands of the Mediterranean where God’s people have been taken as prisoners/slaves.
Notice the gathering (BDB 867, KB 1062, Piel perfect) of YHWH’s redeemed in Psalms 107 is an answer to the prayer of Psa 106:47 (BDB 867, KB 1062, Piel imperative).
The first Psalm of Book V. This book contains fifteen by David, one by Solomon (Psalm 127), and the rest anonymous (probably by Hezekiah, see App-67), certainly not later than his day. See notes on passages supposed to prove a later date.
the LORD. Hebrew. Jehovah. App-4.
mercy = lovingkindness, or grace; as in Psa 107:43.
Let’s turn now in our Bibles to Psa 107:1-43 . The hundred and seventh psalm begins with an exhortation to us to
Give thanks unto the LORD ( Psa 107:1 ),
And the basis for the thanksgiving is His goodness and His mercy. Two things that we really should be thankful for: the goodness of God to us, and then God’s mercy unto us. How thankful I am for the mercy of God. Were it not for the mercy of God, where would I be tonight? Surely not here. But,
for his mercy that endureth for ever ( Psa 107:1 ).
Now, as we go through the psalm, the first verse exhorts us to praise. But then the psalm goes on and begins to talk about certain people and their condition. And then we find the oft-repeated phrase. In fact, it’s repeated about three times, or four times through the psalm, “Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and His wonderful works to the children of men!” Oh that men would really learn to just praise God for His goodness to us. I think that we reflect too little upon God, because I really don’t think that you can seriously reflect upon God without praising and without thanksgiving. When you really just start to reflect on His goodness, on His blessings, on all that He’s done, the praises just sort of come.
Second verse he said,
Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy ( Psa 107:2 );
We’ve been redeemed, Peter tells us, “not with corruptible things, as silver and gold, but by the precious blood of Jesus Christ” ( 1Pe 1:18 , 1Pe 1:19 ). You’ve been redeemed; you ought to talk about it. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. We were actually in the bondage of sin. We were slaves to Satan. Paul said, “Who in times past walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, that even now works in the children of disobedience: among whom you all had your manner of living in times past as you walked after the lust of your own heart and your own mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others” ( Eph 2:2-3 ). But from that disastrous state, the Lord has redeemed you. “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy.”
And he gathered them out of the lands, from the east, from the west, the north, the south. They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in. Then hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them out of all their distresses ( Psa 107:3-6 ).
So he is describing, really, the condition of the nation of Israel that God has gathered out of all of the lands. The people who wandered after the dispersion, “hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them out of all their distresses.”
And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation. Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, for his wonderful works to the children of men! For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness ( Psa 107:7-9 ).
Now that goes back to verse Psa 107:5 , where it speaks of their condition, “Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted.” Verse Psa 107:9 , “For He satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.” The longing soul-the soul is the consciousness of man. And somehow there is a consciousness in every man that life must be something more than what I have yet experienced. Somehow I feel there is more to life. The longing soul of man He satisfies.
Now we start into the second strophe of this psalm as he begins to describe another group.
Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron; Because they rebelled against the words of God, and contemned the counsel of the Most High ( Psa 107:10-11 ):
So the second group he is talking about, a group who are bound in afflictions and irons, men who are in real trouble. And the reason for their trouble: their rebellion against the words of God, their scorn for the counsels of God. How many times have we gotten into trouble when we rebelled against the counsels of God? I can do it my way. Just leave me alone, Lord. I’ll go my own way. And I am trying to do my own thing, and it has led me into bondage so many times. Sometimes we wonder, how in the world could I ever get in such a mess? It’s because we rebelled against the words of God. We scorned His counsel.
Therefore he brought down their heart with labor; they fell down, and there was none to help. Then ( Psa 107:12-13 )
In this sad condition,
they cried unto the LORD in their trouble ( Psa 107:13 ),
Going back to verse Psa 107:6 , the first group who cried unto the Lord in their trouble.
and he saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in two ( Psa 107:13-14 ).
Now the breaking of the bands in two go back to verse Psa 107:10 , “Being bound in affliction and iron.” God breaks the bondage that we experience.
Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! ( Psa 107:15 )
And then going back once again.
For he hath broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sunder ( Psa 107:16 ).
Now he deals with another category.
Fools, because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted ( Psa 107:17 ).
We bring a lot of grief on ourselves.
Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat ( Psa 107:18 );
Now this to me is interesting, because it seems to be describing a vegetarian and it calls them fools. And they do act a little funny at times if you observe them. They seem to be lacking protein in their diet. “Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat.”
and they draw near unto the gates of death ( Psa 107:18 ).
And again,
Then [in this condition] they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he saveth them out of their distresses. He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from his destructions ( Psa 107:19-20 ).
How many times God uses His Word to heal, to deliver, to set us free. How many times when I’ve had a particular problem and I was very concerned and as I was praying, the Lord would send His Word. He would give me a scripture in my heart. A scripture would flash in my mind, and that scripture was just what I needed. How many times when the Word of God has flashed in my mind in a particular circumstance, I said, “Thank You, Lord, I really needed that.” For the scripture was just exactly what I was needing at that time. And it ministered to me, and it was strength to me, and it brought me through.
Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing ( Psa 107:21-22 ).
Now, in the Old Testament, in order to approach God they had to come to the priest with sacrifices. And there were different sacrifices that were offered in the Old Testament. There were the sin offerings, the sacrifices for sin of which we are all very familiar. But there were also what they called the peace offerings, which was just really… the idea behind the peace offering was communion with God. It was bringing a sacrifice and they would barbecue it for you and then you’d sit down and eat with God. Part of it would be burned unto the Lord, His portion, and then you would eat your portion, and it was just an offering of communion. I want to just draw close to God and just sit down and have a meal with the Lord. And so you’d offer a peace offering unto God.
Then there was also the burnt offering sacrifices. And the burnt offering sacrifices were sacrifices of consecration unto God. God, I want to consecrate myself to You. And so I would offer to the Lord a burnt offering sacrifice which was a sacrifice signifying my commitment of myself to God. So the different sacrifices that were offered.
Now we say, “Well, we’re living now in the gospel of grace, and Jesus sacrificed Himself once and for all.” Yes, as a sin offering. And that takes care of the sin sacrifice completely. But there are sacrifices of the New Testament that we are exhorted to offer unto God. Not animal sacrifices, but fruit sacrifices. “Let us offer unto God the sacrifice of praise, even the fruit of our lips” ( Heb 13:15 ). And so praising God becomes actually a peace offering. As through praise, I come into communion with God. “For the Lord inhabits the praises of His people” ( Psa 22:3 ). The sacrifice of praise and that of commitment of myself as I am worshipping the Lord and I just yield my life to Him.
So there are sacrifices of praise and here, the psalmist said, “Let them sacrifice the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and declare His work with rejoicing.” We were talking with a group of people today and we were saying, “We need to get together some night and just talk about the Lord and all of the wonderful things He’s doing.” Just spend an evening. Just getting together talking about the goodness of God, and the work of God, and the blessings of God. What a profitable evening that would be, as we just sit together and we just talk about, “Oh, you remember what the Lord did? Oh, isn’t that glorious?” And just rejoicing, you know, as you talk about the glorious works of God.
There’s an interesting thing when people get together to talk about the Lord. The Lord is always interested in it. He’s interested in what you have to say about Him. Just like you’re interested when people talk about you; you want to know what they’re saying. And you get a chance, you know, you hear your name, and you know how you tune in on your name and you get real quiet and you listen to see what they’re saying. Well, the Bible indicates that God does something like that, too. It says, “They that love the Lord spake often of Him” ( Mal 3:16 ). And the Lord made a record of the things that they were saying. God kept a record. And in that day, they shall be accounted as jewels. God loves people to talk about Him. And so here, “Declare His works with rejoicing.”
Now we come into a fourth category of people. A fourth section of this psalm. This is for the sailors.
They that go down to the sea in ships, that do their business in great waters; These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep ( Psa 107:23-24 ).
The ocean is always a marvel. I love… I’m a very water-oriented person. I love the water. I love diving down and looking at the coral and the various fish, and it’s just the works of God. “They see the works of the LORD, His wonders in the deep.”
For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifts up the waves thereof. They mount up to heaven, they go down again into the depths: and their soul is melted because of trouble. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, they’re at their wit’s end ( Psa 107:25-27 ).
You ever been in a storm at sea? Huge waves.
And then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he brings them out of their distress. And he makes the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. Then are they glad because they’re quiet; so he brings them into their desired haven ( Psa 107:28-30 ).
The work of God bringing us into the desired haven. Beautiful.
Now the psalm ends with just exhortations unto, again, of praising the Lord for His works, and it begins to list many of the works of the Lord.
Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders. For he turneth the rivers into a wilderness, and the watersprings into dry ground; A fruitful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein. He turneth the wilderness into a standing water, and dry ground into watersprings. And there he maketh the hungry to dwell, that they may prepare a city for habitation; And sow the fields, and plant the vineyards, which may yield the fruits of increase. He blesses them also, so that they are multiplied greatly; and he allowed not their cattle to decrease. Again, they are minished and brought low through oppression, affliction, and sorrow. And he poured contempt upon the princes, and causes them to wander in the wilderness, where there is no way. Yet setteth he the poor on high from affliction, and maketh his families like a flock. The righteous shall see it, and rejoice: and all iniquity shall stop her mouth. Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the LORD ( Psa 107:32-43 ).
So the final verses just sort of a conclusion to the psalm saying that “Whoever is wise, and will observe these things.” What things? Praising, thanksgiving. “Even they shall understand the lovingkindness of the LORD.” “
Psa 107:1. O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.
In the heading of this Psalm we are reminded that the psalmist here exhorts the redeemed, in praising God, to observe his manifold providence over travelers, prisoners, sick men, seamen, and in divers varieties of life; but, inasmuch as the exhortation is specially addressed to the redeemed of the Lord, I shall endeavor to cast the red ray of redemption over it, and to explain these various circumstances as relating to the spiritual experience of Gods people, and to their deliverance out of divers perils to which their souls are exposed. O give thanks unto the Lord. This seems to imply that we are so slow to praise God that we have to be stirred up to this sacred duty. This exhortation looks as if we needed to be entreated to give thanks unto the Lord. Yet this ought not to be an uncongenial or disagreeable task. It ought to be our pleasure to praise the Lord; we should be eager to do it; and yet it is to be feared that we are often silent when we ought to be giving thanks unto his holy name. He deserves them, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.
Psa 107:2-3. Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy; and gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south.
Whenever Gods people are redeemed from the hand of the enemy, and gathered unto himself, it is always by his grace and power. They are not only gathered to him, but they are gathered by him; and therefore let them all praise his holy name.
Psa 107:4. They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in.
This is the experience of all Gods redeemed and gathered ones; they were, at one time, all lost, and wandering to and fro in the wilderness, as Gods ancient people did.
Psa 107:5-6. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses.
This is the point to which a true spiritual experience sooner or later brings all Gods elect ones; they cry unto the Lord in their trouble. The end, the design of their trouble is that they may cry unto him; and when they do so, it is absolutely certain that they shall be delivered out of their distresses.
Psa 107:7-11. And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation. Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness. Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron; because they rebelled against the words of God, and contemned the counsel of the most High:
All Gods people, all his redeemed have been made to feel, in a greater or lesser degree the agony of their spiritual bondage. They have been like captives sitting in darkness, dreading death, realizing that they are utterly unable to deliver themselves. They have been rebellious against the words of God, and have despised his counsel, so that it is absolutely needful that they should be brought to their right position, and be made to kneel before the Lord in true humility of heart.
Psa 107:12-16. Therefore he brought down their heart with labour; they fell down, and there was none to help. Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bards in sunder. Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! For he hath broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sunder.
Is any child of God thus shut up in the dark? Those of you who have ever been lost in a London fog know what a depression of spirit it brings upon you while you are in the impenetrable darkness, out of which you cannot see any way of escape. All that you can do is to stand still and cry out for help. Well, try what crying to God will do for you in your spiritual depression. Your spirit is cast down into the very deeps; then, out of the depths cry unto the Lord, as Jonah did; rest in him, trust in him, and see whether he will not bring you up into the light of his countenance.
Psa 107:17-18. Fools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted. Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat; and they draw near unto the gates of death.
All Gods redeemed people have suffered from soul-sickness, and some of them have suffered from it so acutely that they have lost all appetite for spiritual comfort. Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat; they cannot bear the sight or the thought of it. A man in this condition says, Do not bring me any food; I loathe it. The very nourishment that might have restored him he rejects because of the nausea which soul-sickness brings.
Psa 107:19-20. Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he saveth them out of their distresses. He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.
He healed them with his Word; and there is a specific, in Gods Word, for every form of spiritual malady. What we need to know is where the particular remedy for our special form of soul-sickness is to be found; and this the Holy Spirit will teach us if we will but ask him.
Psa 107:21-22. Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing.
Psa 107:1-3
BOOK V (Psalms 107-150)
This book has forty-four psalms, a number of which appear to be of late date. Dummelow noted that, “The contents, here and there, give appropriate hints as to the date in some instances. For example, Psa 107:10-16 refers to the years of captivity, as does Psalms 137. Some, but not all, of the psalms in this book are alleged to be liturgical. Psalms 108, for example, is made up of Psa 57:7-11 as united with Psa 60:5-12, “Which was obviously complied for liturgical purposes. Fifteen of the psalms in this section are ascribed to David.
Psalms 107
ISRAEL RESTORED FROM CAPTIVITY TO CANAAN
We have paid little attention in this commentary to the theory that the Five Books of Psalms, in some way, are similar to the Five Books of Moses (The Pentateuch). Nevertheless, Delitzsch’s comparison of Book Five to Deuteronomy is of interest.
“At the beginning of Deuteronomy, Israel stood on the threshold of the Land of Promise, after the two and one half tribes had settled themselves on the east of Jordan; so here, at the beginning of this Fifth Book of Psalms, we see Israel restored to the soil of its fatherland.
“There it was Israel redeemed out of Egypt; here it is Israel redeemed out of Exile. There Moses admonished the people to obey the Law of Jehovah; here the psalmist calls upon Israel to show gratitude toward God who has redeemed them from exile and distress and death.
Delitzsch was of the opinion that Psalms 104; Psalms 105 and Psalms 107, each of which is almost the same length, were all written by the same author, developing one continuous theme. “These three anonymous psalms form a trilogy in the strictest sense.
(1) Psalms 104 derives its material from the history of creation; (2) Psalms 105 takes its material from the history of Israel; and (3) Psalms 107 takes its presentation from the times of the restoration from Exile.
The organization of this psalm appears to be: (1) announcement of the theme (Psa 107:1-3); (2) the metaphor of the perils of travel (Psa 107:4-9); (3) the metaphor of release from prison (Psa 107:10-16); (4) the metaphor of recovery from sickness (Psa 107:17-22); (5) the metaphor of escape from a dangerous voyage at sea (Psa 107:23-32); (6) a general statement of God’s gracious mercies (Psa 107:33-43).
Rhodes described this psalms as, “A litany of thanksgiving by four groups of redeemed pilgrims: (a) desert travelers; (b) prisoners; (c) sick men; and (d) seafarers. However, we fail to find four different groups of people in this psalm. The psalm evidently concerns God’s people, especially with regard to their deliverance from Babylonian captivity.
As Leupold observed, “The first three verses announce the theme, namely, the Restoration of Israel from Babylon. It would seem more than strange that the psalmist would then begin to thank God for all manner of other deliverances.
The restoration of Israel from Babylon is almost incredibly wonderful. There is nothing that remotely resembles it in the whole history of mankind. Putting that unique restoration of Israel to Canaan in the same class with such things as recovering from sickness, getting lost in a desert, getting out of jail, or surviving a dangerous sea-voyage appears to us as an intellectual impossibility.
To us, therefore, these four deliverances are best understood as metaphors of what had so gloriously happened to Israel.
Psa 107:1-3
ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE THEME
“O Give thanks unto Jehovah for he is good;
For his lovingkindness endureth forever.
Let the redeemed of Jehovah say so,
Whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the adversary,
And gathered out of the lands,
From the east and from the west,
From the north and from the south.”
“Whom he hath redeemed … and gathered” (Psa 107:2-3), These verses announce the theme of the psalm, namely, the deliverance from the captivity in Babylon, and the gathering of Israel from all the lands whither the people of God had been scattered. This marvelous event included two principal things (i) “redemption” from the adversary (Babylon), and (ii) “gathering,” that is, the return of Israel to Canaan.
“Let the redeemed of Jehovah say so” (Psa 107:2). No Christian has the right to remain silent with regard to the salvation that has been conferred upon him through the gospel of Christ. Satan has tried to foster a social campaign to the effect that it is “impolite to speak of religion.” God’s saints need to be vocal about their redemption. If it was required of ancient Israel that they should extol the wonders of God’s delivering them from Babylon, is it not equally binding upon the New Israel to proclaim the wonders of “salvation in Jesus Christ?”
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 107:1. The short or momentary extension of mercy does not require so much of a condescension, but the mercy of the Lord endures forever. That does not mean that nothing can terminate it. Unless a person complies with the terms of God’s mercy he will not receive it at all. But as long as those conditions are met, the Lord never fails in his mercy toward the unforunate.
Psa 107:2. The Psalmist is a little more specific in his call for praise. The very fact that a man has been redeemed is proof of the mercy of God. No one will be redeemed on the ground of his own merit; it will be through the mercy of God.
Psa 107:3. Most of my comments on the preceding verse had in view the general fact of God’s mercy and its agency in bringing redemption to man. However, the Psalmist had in mind especially the rescuing of the nation from their enemy nations. Such favors took place in so many instances and under such a variety of circumstances that we will need to be careful in the application of the separate verses of this chapter. Even in the present verse the four points of the compass are named, which shows the writer was taking in a wide scope of history.
Psa 107:4. This verse could have been said of the children of Abraham’s descendants on more than one occasion, hence I will not try to specify anything here.
Psa 107:5. For the evidence of history as an explanation of this verse, one needs only to remember the quail and manna, the smitten rock and the water at Meribah.
Psa 107:6. They cried includes the frequent murmurings at their misfortunes. In even such cases, the Lord heard his people and provided the things needed for comfort.
Psa 107:7. Both city and habitation are from words with wide range of meaning. The outstanding thought is of a place that is settled and permanent, contrasting with the wandering life they had in the wilderness. The passages that illustrate the above thought are too numerous to cite here; let the student read Lev 25:18; Lev 26:5 for two.
Psa 107:8. No writer in the Bible had more to say about praise and thanksgiving to God than David. It is interesting to note, also, that he always had a strong motive for the praise. It was not merely a meaningless expression of sentiment.
Psa 107:9. Soul is used for the whole human being. We should get the thought that both spiritual and temporal blessings all come from God. (Jas 1:17.)
WE now begin the fifth and last book of the Psalter. In this book the music is richest and fullest. It begins in this psalm on the fundamental notes, and rises through major and minor, by the way of the songs of ascents, to the final measures of perfect praise contained in the doxology.
The first thirty-two verses contain a wonderful story of redemption, using that word in its sense of deliverance from positions and circumstances of peril. In a prologue the theme of the songs is stated. A people redeemed and gathered by Jehovah is called upon to declare the fact.
Then follows four strophes in which the redemption is illustrated in four ways. Each of these ends with the same appeal for praise, varied by description suitable to the previous illustration. The first illustration is that of homelessness. The second is that of bondage. The third is that of affliction. The last is that of a storm. The homeless, Jehovah led to a city of habitation; the enslaved, He led into liberty; the afflicted, He healed; the storm-tossed, He led to calm and a haven. All through, the connection between sorrow and sin is clearly seen.
The method of Jehovah is described as that of dealing with sin in order to the healing of sorrow. Such deliverances demand worship, and the song is a psalm of praise interspersed with sighings after more perfect praise.
At verse Psa 107:33 the psalm changes its tone, and becomes meditative. With the facts of Divine deliverances still in mind, the underlying principles of Divine activity are stated. Things which appear contradictory are seen as evidences of consistency. Jehovah turns fruitful places into a wilderness; He turns the wilderness into a fruitful place. His activities are destructive and constructive. He blesses and multiplies a people. Again they are abased and afflicted. He is the Author of good as prosperity, and evil as adversity. He dethrones the high, and exalts the lowly. Everything results from the attitude of men with whom He deals. Upright men are made to rejoice. Men of iniquity are silenced.
The concluding words draw attention to the importance of understanding these matters. The wise will give heed to them. The mercies of Jehovah are to be considered. This means much more than they are to be remembered. The Authorised understand, and the Revised consider are both partial interpretations of the Hebrew word. It very literally means to distinguish. That is to say, Gods mercies or lovingkindnesses are to be considered in their method and meaning, that they may be understood and not misinterpreted. They are not capricious, but proceed ever in harmony with fixed principles.
Psa 107:6
I. In all the changes of this mortal life, the psalmist sees no real chance, no real change, but the orderly education of a just and loving Father, whose mercy endureth for ever, who chastens men as a father chastens his children, for their profit, that they may be partakers of His holiness, in which alone are life and joy, health and wealth. It seems at first the worst of news, that which the Ninth Article tells us: that our original sin, in every person born into this world, deserves God’s wrath and curse. And so it would be the worst of news if God were merely a Judge, inflicting so much pain and misery for so much sin, without any wish to mend us and save us. But if we remember the blessed message of the Psalm; if we will remember that God is our Father, that God is educating us, that God hath neither parts nor passions, and that therefore God’s wrath is not different or contrary to His love, but that God’s wrath is His love in another shape, punishing men just because He loves men, then the Ninth Article will bring us the very best of news. If our sin had not deserved God’s anger, then He would not have been angry with it; and then He would have left it alone, instead of condemning it and dooming it to everlasting destruction as He has done; and then, if our sin had been left alone, we should have been left alone to sin and sin on, growing continually more wicked till our sin became our ruin. But now God hates our sin and loves us; and therefore He desires above all things to deliver us from sin and burn our sin up in His unquenchable fire, that we ourselves may not be burned up therein.
II. If these words seem strange to some of you, that will only be a fresh proof to me that the Bible is inspired by the Holy Ghost. Nothing shows me how wide, how deep, how wise, how heavenly, the Bible is, as to see how far average Christians are behind the Bible in their way of thinking, how the salvation which it offers is too free for them, the love which it proclaims too wide for them, the God whom it reveals too good for them, so that they shrink from taking the Bible and trusting the Bible in its fulness and believing honestly the blessed truth that God is love.
C. Kingsley, Town and Country Sermons p. 446.
Psa 107:7
Notice one or two particular features of the leadings in the wilderness.
I. The Israelites had a very little way to go, and they were a very long time about it. What seemed a matter of days took many years. Is it so with you? Have you been a very long time getting on a very little way?
II. The fightings of God’s people in the wilderness were all at the beginning and at the end of it. It is generally so with God’s saints.
III. They had strange ups and downs. Their road, as we trace it on the map, is a perfect riddle, now quite near and then back again, far, far away, almost to where they set out.
IV. It was all in dependence-most absolute and humble dependence for everything. Not a drop nor a crumb, nothing, came from the wilderness, all direct from God Himself. Who ever went the road to heaven without learning, temporally and spiritually, the same humiliating but assuring lesson?
V. The leading was the clearest where the need was the greatest, God’s universal method. In our sunny days His hand dimly seen, and His voice low, but in our darkest hours bright, distinct, glorious.
VI. It was a restless life they lived these forty years, just as perhaps life has been to us. We are but strangers and pilgrims. We must sit loose and not tarry long by the way. It is “the right way,” but it is only a way. And we are prone to say, “It was good for me to be here!” and mistake our tabernacles for our houses, while He is all the while leading us forth to go to a city of habitation.
J. Vaughan, Sermons, 12th series, p. 213.
I. The company. Any considerable company of men is imposing; but here is a company more illustrious than any other upon earth, a company overwhelming in its vastness and yet ever growing in numbers, calm in aspect and yet irresistible in power. These are “the redeemed of the Lord, whom He hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy.” We are redeemed from spiritual perils and foes: from sin, from wrath, from the lure of the world, from the wiles of the devil, and from selfishness, sluggishness, lust, passion, pride, fear, doubt, dismay. It is impossible that a man can be “led forth into the right way” until this deliverance is accomplished, until it is at least begun.
II. The Leader. The Leader of this ransomed company is the Lord Himself. “He led them forth.” The Bible abounds with intimations of the nearness of God, and particularly with assurances of His actual and perpetual presence with His people as their Guide, and Guard, and everlasting Friend. “Be still, and know that He is God”-God to supply all your need, to guide all your way, to give far more than He takes, to do for you “exceeding abundantly above all that you can ask or think.”
III. The way. This way, as God’s appointed way, is right, whatever may be its present aspect to us. Haply to some it is covered with the clouds of disappointment; to others it is bleak and cold with the gales of adversity; to others it is drenched with the rains of sorrow. It has places of heart-wringing separation from fellow-pilgrims, and even deep, dark gulfs of sin; but notwithstanding all its mystery, as God’s way, it is always right.
IV. The end. The end is arrival and rest in “the city of habitation”-in some secure and permanent abode; the wanderer finds at last a settled rest: the lost and worn traveller is conducted back into the way, and the way leads him home. And what more appropriate end could there be to such a way as that of the Christian through this life than the heaven that has been promised and prepared for all who are truly seeking it? The mystic company has not been gathered and redeemed with such cost and toil only to be scattered again and lost. The Leader has not assumed His position at their head to see them falling and vanishing away, for “He is able to make them stand.” The way has not been opened and consecrated for short distances only, with gulfs and deserts left in it that cannot be crossed; it stretches away beyond earthly territory and mortal sight, and ends at the open gate of heaven.
A. Raleigh, Farewell Sermon Preached in Glasgow, Dec. 12th, 1858.
References: Psa 107:7.-Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 143; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. ii., p. 127; T. L. Cuyler, Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iii., p. 29; J. Eadie, Good Words, 1861, p. 413; M. Nicholson, Redeeming the Time, p. 18. Psa 107:8.-Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 338.
Psa 107:14
The Bible does not aspire to provide checks for the excesses of freedom, but to instruct us in the nature of freedom, to stimulate an appetite for it, to make us ashamed of our contentment without it, to explain under what conditions we may obtain the highest measure of it.
I. Do we not hear men complaining continually that they cannot do what they would, or be what they would? Each may shift the burden on a different place, but each feels it. If the sigh for pardon has not yet risen out of our hearts, that sigh may yet be working in another form-apparently, not really another. We may cry for an Absolver, for One who will set us free from the bonds of those sins which by our frailty we have committed. The voice of God, be sure, is not monotonous; it does not speak in one accent only, and that one measured, and adapted, and reduced by human art. Whatever a man’s perplexity is, whatever it be which makes his actions irregular, his thoughts unquiet, his life contradictory, that is a band which needs to be broken for him, and which, after infinite fretting, he will find that he cannot break for himself, not if he has all the machinery of nature and art to help out his individual weakness. He must turn to the Lord of his will, to One who can meet him there, in a region which the vulture’s eye has not seen.
II. It is the Son who makes us free, because He brings us the adoption of sons. It is the faith that in Him these spirits of ours may claim God for their Father, because He has in Him claimed them for His sons and given them His Spirit, that they may cry, “Abba, Father”-it is this faith which raises us above the flesh that has claimed to be our master, when it was meant to be our slave; above that world of which we were intended to offer the fruits to God, but which has demanded our worship for itself; above that spirit of evil which would persuade us that there cannot be freedom in the service of a loving God, and if we listen to it, would make us the slaves of self-will and hatred.
F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. iii., p. 149.
References: Psa 107:14.-G. S. Barrett, Old Testament Outlines, p. 142. Psa 107:17-20.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxi., No. 1824. Psa 107:19.-Preacher’s Latern, vol. iii., p. 117. Psa 107:20.-H. Thompson, Concionalia, 2nd series, p. 529; Sermons for Sundays, Festivals, and Fasts, p. 271. Psa 107:21.-J. Baldwin Brown, Christian World Pulpit, vol. vi., pp. 312, 321, 341, 357, and 375. Psa 107:23, Psa 107:24.-C. Kingsley, Discipline, and Other Sermons, p. 23. Psa 107:23-31.-Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 236. Psa 107:30.-J. M. Neale, Sermons on Passages of the Psalms, p. 323. Psa 107:34.-J. Keble, Sermons Occasional and Parochial, p. 101. Psa 107:40.-Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iii., p. 369. Psa 107:40, Psa 107:41.-J. M. Neale, Sermons on Passages of the Psalms, p. 238. Psa 107:43.-E. Thring, Uppingham Sermons, vol. i., p. 392. Psa 108:4.-Pulpit Analyst, vol. i., p. 213. Psa 108:12.-G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 242. Psalm 108-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. i., p. 121. Psa 109:4.-Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 15.
Psa 107:30
These words naturally lead us to consider two things:-
I. The joy of being at rest. There are several kinds of rest which may indeed be subjects of thankfulness and gladness. There is the rest from enemies without; there is the rest from passions within; and there is the eternal rest of heaven. But the kind of rest of which we think today is the rest from doubt, doubt especially as to what it is needful to believe and to do if we seek to get to heaven. The very idea of rest implies something on which to rest; that is, it implies something above and beyond ourselves: it proves that in and of ourselves we can never have rest. Moses, speaking to the children of Israel, says, “Ye shall not do as we do here this day: every man that which is right in his own eyes.” And why not? “For ye are not come unto the rest and the land which the Lord your God giveth you.” No man has any more right to believe what he likes than to do what he likes; there is but one thing every one ought to do, which is right, and but one thing every one ought to believe, which is truth: and a man will as surely be punished for believing wrong as he will be for doing wrong.
II. But how can we believe? you will ask. And that brings us to our second head; namely, that we must be at rest before we can reach “the haven where we would be.” In other words, unless we believe rightly, we shall never enter into heaven. No man can live as he ought without believing as he ought. Our Saviour, Christ, has promised this. “If any man,” He says, “will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God.” Therefore it follows that no man who believes wrong can be living right.
J. M. Neale, Sermons on Passages of the Psalms, p. 226.
Reference: Psa 109:7.- J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes, p. 94.
THE DEUTERONOMY SECTION: BOOK FIVE: Psalm 107-150
The final section of the book of Psalms, the fifth, is just like Deuteronomy. It shows Gods ways with Israel, the end of these ways in deliverance not only for His people, but for their land, for the nations of the earth, for all creation. The book ends with the Hallelujah Chorus of redemption.
Psalm 107 Psalm 108
Psalm 107
Israels Deliverances
1. The wanderers regathered (Psa 107:1-9)
2. The prisoners released (Psa 107:10-16)
3. The fools healed (Psa 107:17-22)
4. Brought to the haven of rest (Psa 107:23-32)
5. The praise of His ways (Psa 107:33-43)
In the book of Deuteronomy, in Moses great prophecies, we read of the scattering of the nation, the lot which should befall them as a disobedient people, becoming wanderers among the nations. But we read also of the promised regathering and the promises of restoration (Deu 30:1-20). How harmonious it is to find the first Psalm of the Deuteronomy section celebrating this promised regathering and restoration! Again we see the divine power which guided the hand of the instrument who arranged these Psalms. And they thank and praise Him for this accomplished salvation. As wanderers amongst the nations they suffered and yet perished not as the peculiar nation; but now they are brought back to the city of habitation, to their own land. They had rebelled against the words of God and sat as prisoners in darkness and shadow of death; but now they are released and He brought them out of the darkness, out of judicial blindness, out of national and spiritual death, into life and light. They were fools on account of their transgressions; but now His Word has healed them. They were the storm tossed nation upon the restless waves of the sea, the emblems of the nations of the world; but now the storm is passed, the sea of nations is calm and He has brought them into the desired haven. For all this they praise Him. They are now Israel His glory through whom and in whom He has glorified Himself.
am 3468, bc 536 – Title The author of this Psalm is unknown; but it was evidently written to commemorate the return of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity; and it may easily be perceived that it must have been sung in alternate parts, having a double burden, or two intercalary verses often recurring. Bp. Lowth considers it as written “after the method of the ancient pastorals, where, be the subject of their verse what it will, each swain endeavours to excel the other; and one may perceive their thoughts and expressions gradually to rise upon each other.” “No doubt,” he adds, “the composition of this Psalm is admirable throughout; and the descriptive part of it adds at least its share of beauty to the whole; but what is most to be admired is its conciseness, and withal the expressiveness of the diction, which strikes the imagination with illimitable elegance. The weary and bewildered traveller – the miserable captive in the dungeon – the sick and dying man – the seaman foundering in a storm – are described in so affecting a manner, that they far exceed anything of the kind, though never so much laboured.”
Give: Psa 106:1, Psa 118:1, Psa 136:1-26, 1Ch 16:34, 1Ch 16:41, 2Ch 5:13, 2Ch 7:3, 2Ch 7:6, 2Ch 20:21
good: Psa 119:68, Mat 19:17
for his mercy: Psa 103:17, Luk 1:50
Reciprocal: Gen 13:4 – called Gen 19:16 – the Lord Gen 24:21 – wondering at Ezr 3:11 – because Psa 22:23 – all ye Psa 25:6 – for they Psa 52:1 – goodness Psa 92:1 – good Psa 100:5 – For the Psa 106:47 – to give Psa 122:4 – to give Psa 135:3 – for the Lord Isa 24:16 – uttermost part Jer 33:11 – Praise the
Constant and harmonious.
The first psalm proclaims the unchanging, harmonious goodness of Jehovah, which finds the way of blessing for His people, spite of, and yet as recognizing, their sinful and rebellious behavior. The discipline of the way is the method of a grace which will not give up the objects of it; the furnace of affliction being provided for in the original covenant with Abraham, and of this the Egyptian bondage was but one example, even as their wilderness journey as redeemed from Egypt was but the prototype of their many wanderings since. The wilderness is now once for all exchanged for the “city of habitation,” implying the abiding rest into which they are brought.
1. Jehovah is the name they celebrate, who has acted in a loving kindness which is always His characteristic, and redeemed them from the hand of the oppressor. They are gathered now from the east and west and north, and from the sea, the highway to so many countries then unknown that lie beyond it.
They have long been wanderers in a solitary way, with the brand of Cain upon them; always seeking possession of the earth, and finding in it but Aceldama, their own fatal purchase. Ahungered and athirst, with more than physical need, their soul fainted in them. Until, brought to seek from God alone, they cried unto Jehovah in their strait, and found deliverance from Him. A very simple and a very common story, but which needs, for all that, constant repetition. Now rest is before them; and their way is right (or straight) toward the city they are to inhabit. A crooked way is, on that account, a long one; and Deuteronomy marks how long they had made the way for themselves the first time in the wilderness by their crooked ways with God. Since then how long the road had been; indeed! Only the loving kindness of Jehovah could have brought them where they now were.
Let them answer to it then, and let His wondrous works be fittingly acknowledged by souls whose longing had found satisfaction; whose hunger had been appeased with good.
2. Israel come before us, however, not merely as in the wilderness, but as in the prison-house also, -in captivity to their enemies because of their sins. Thus they sat in darkness and the shadow of death, the light of life withdrawn; the iron bondage entering into their souls. There they abode without help or hope, save in the very One against whom they had rebelled, compelled now to own the supremacy of Him whose counsel they had despised. They had to realize their sin; bowed down with travail, stumbling and with none to help.
With the cry of need came, however, another experience, and He became their Saviour. His government, which had held them fast, now released them from their prison-house, and the darkness around them was dispersed. And again the call rings out for confession and praise for this great deliverance.
3. “The sufferings of the foolish nation (Deu 32:6), when; filled with Jehovah’s indignation; they find a snare in that which should have fed them (Rom 11:9-10), and pine beneath the pressure of a more grievous famine than that of bread (Amo 8:11-13), until, in answer to the cry of sorrow, the word of saving health is sent them from above (Deu 30:1-20, comp. Rom 10:1-21), seem to be indicated in the next division. The language of ver. 22 is in agreement with this. Those who had vainly gone about to establish their own righteousness are called now to offer the sacrifices of thanksgiving (Heb 13:1-25), and to declare His works with singing.” -Pridham, on the Psalms.
It is the deepest and most fundamental need, then; that is met here. Christ, the bread of life, had been rejected by them, and they are necessarily on the way to death. This strait His word alone can heal, and thus they are rescued from their pitfalls. Well may they now give Him, then, their thanks.
4. Pridham again says:
“Besides the obvious force and beauty of the following verses (23-30) in their simple meaning and their general application; we have, I believe, a figure of Jacob’s restless trouble when; like a vexed and frightened mariner, he wandered up and down the wide sea of nations without ease (Deu 28:65), a friendless pilgrim of the Lord’s displeasure, until the long-desired rest was gained at last, under the faithful guidance of Him who seeks His people in the dark and cloudy day (Eze 34:12). Accordingly we find in the hortatory remembrancer of praise that follows (ver. 32) a mention of the gathered people and their elders, who are now called on to celebrate, in the quiet resting-places of Immanuel’s land, His faithful goodness and His might who had turned the long-endured tempest of affliction to the calm sunshine of perpetual peace. (Isa 54:11-13).”
True as the special application is, yet here is the general lot of the people of God, who are, as it were, by their very occupation; mariners, called to see the works of the Lord upon the deep. The numerical structure is here as plain and significant as indeed His meaning in such trial and the fitness of it should be. The “haven” is, as we see by the number, in the new scene, which has in it the promise of eternity.
5. In the last part Jehovah’s ways in general are celebrated: ways which are characterized by power, love, and holiness.
He fashions and refashions the earth at His will, commanding fruitfulness into barrenness, but this because of the wickedness of those that dwell in it. Again He restores and makes fruitful the barren land; and here it is not said that there must be a moral reason: the Creator rejoices in the works of His hands, and requires a moral reason only for not acting according to this delight.
His love is naturally much more dwelt upon. He shows it in His provision for the hungry of that fixed abode which is the first thing needed by man for his development; with the city for association; and the fields with their need of sowing and planting for increase. So by His blessing they multiply as fenced by His hand, with the cattle He has prepared for them as servants and allies.
But evil is here, attending on man’s sin, and oppression is found and various trial. He takes up the cause of the needy and down-trodden, pouring contempt upon nobles, and making them wander in a pathless waste who cared not for the fellows God had provided for them while He lifts the needy up out of his humiliation; and makes families like a flock.
Holiness is manifest in all His ways: the upright are made glad as they see it; iniquity itself has its mouth stopped. Whoever would be wise will observe this: such shall discern the loving kindness of Jehovah.
Psa 107:1-3. O give thanks, &c. This whole verse occurs also Psa 106:1; only there the address is made to the Israelites, here, it seems, to all mankind. For his mercy endureth for ever Eternal mercy is the theme here proposed; and they who have tasted its sweets, are invited to join in setting forth its praises. Let the redeemed say so All those whom God hath redeemed, as it is expressed in the next clause, or delivered from the calamities hereafter mentioned: whom he hath redeemed from the enemy From such as had taken them captive, either in battle, or in their travels, to which they were led, either by their own inclinations or by their necessary affairs. And gathered them out of the lands, &c. Bringing them into their own land, out of the several quarters of the world into which they had been carried. And from the south Hebrew, from the sea; which, in Scripture, commonly denotes the west, because the great Mediterranean sea was on the west of Canaan; but here, as appears from the opposition of this to the north, it signifies the south, so called from the Red sea, which was on the south, and which is sometimes called The Sea, simply, and without addition. The members of the Christian Church, says Dr. Horne, are now, in the most proper and emphatical sense of the words, the redeemed of Jehovah, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy, and gathered them, by the gospel, out of all lands, and from all the four quarters of the world, to form a church, and to supply the place of the apostate Jews, whose forefathers experienced, in type and shadow, the good things prepared for them and for us, in truth and substance.
This psalm begins the fifth and last book of the Hebrew psalter. It is divided into five parts or pauses, as it would seem, in the singing and the music. The character of the composition, though diversified in subject, assimilates with the two preseding psalms. It is an admirable illustration of the doctrine of a gracious providence, and calculated to excite gratitude and confidence in the Lord.
Psa 107:4. They wanderedin a solitary way. The Lord led them in the way of the wilderness, that they might not see war.
Psa 107:8. Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, his mercy. This verse is four times repeated, after the fourfold mercies here celebrated. The first from wanderings in the desert; the second from famine and various captivities; the third from diseases and death; the fourth from dangerous voyages at sea.
Psa 107:10. Such as sit in darkness. Ancient prisons were mostly dark and noisome places, the air and effluvia calculated to generate disease and death. The jail fever in Narrow Wine Street, Bristol, spread into the city with alarming consequences. Our Howard, of immortal memory in the circles of benevolence, stirred up a great part of Europe to meliorate the condition of prisoners. This terrible fever was understood by the psalmist when he says, Their soul abhorred all manner of meat: Psa 107:18.
Psa 107:26. They go down again to the depths. I once stood on the Isle of Samson, in the Scilly Islands, during a hurricane. The mighty swells succeeded one another every minute, and distant from each other three hundred yards. Between the swells, the sea was smooth as glass. A ship passing, bare poles; that is, only sail enough to keep her head right before the wind, when on the summit of the surge, the sea made a full road over her deck, and descending, she seemed to fall so as to rise no more. When overtaken by a rolling swell, she moving at the rate of ten miles an hour, it did but gently fall on her stern, and drive her before it. The sight was truly the sublime of terror.
Psa 107:32. Let them exalt him also in the congregation. By going to the Lords house, and thanking him for bringing them home, after a long and dangerous voyage: vows must be paid to God.
REFLECTIONS.
Adoration and praise were the duties of man in a state of innocence. Holy and happy, God supplied all his wants, and evil was unknown in his heart. Of tears, supplications, and groanings for anguish and grief, which now occupy so great a part of our devotion, he had no idea: and when the curse and death shall be no more, adoration and praise shall again employ the whole of his devotion. It is no small encouragement too, that these exercises begin on earth: and the more we resemble God, the more our devotion rises in character from tears to joys, and from prayer to praise.
The Israelites are here, as in a hundred other places, called upon so to review their national mercies for a thousand years, as to be animated to the highest choruses of gratitude. The same is applicable to the christian church. God has redeemed us from Satan, a greater foe than Pharaoh; from sin, more degrading than the Egyptian servitude; from death, more to be feared than the sea. Christ the rock was smitten to give us life, and bread falls from heaven to sustain us. He found us lost in a waste howling wilderness, and became our guide. Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men. Creation reveals his perfections, and providence unfolds his cares. But above all, for his inestimable love in the redemption of the world; for the glory of the christian ministry, for the communion and fellowship of saints, for his goodness in causing calamities and afflictions to work for good, and for opening life and immortality to the weary pilgrim. Let us praise him with unceasing songs, but more abundantly by righteousness of life. Mat 5:16.
His mercy extends to prisoners and captives; they suffer awhile, and then he has compassion upon them, and often effectuates their emancipation. So when the penitent is mourning for sin, the Lord shows him mercy, enlightens his gloom, and breaks asunder all his bonds. Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness.
The mariners at sea, not less than the captives by land, experience the compassion of God. These bold men, nursed in the waves, and cradled in the storm, spread their sails, and venture into the deep. They laugh at fear, and sing to the breeze. But sometimes the clouds assume a wild and fiery aspect. They roll in succession, and cover the heavens with darkness. The mariners, familiar with danger, are cautious, but not alarmed. Presently the gale rises to a hurricane. The night is dark and portentious. The swells become more distant, but more huge; they break in torrents over the deck. They roar and foam like sparks of fire round the bow. All this they bear without dismay: they jest with danger, or perhaps blaspheme because of inconvenience. Presently the tempest, gaining in velocity, by its force carries away both masts and sails. Now the ship is entangled, and turns her deck like a rock to the fury of the ocean. Now all faces look pale, now they cling wherever they can to prevent being washed away; yet resuming courage, they cut away the rigging, and suffer the naked hull to drive before the waves. Presently, oppressed with the elements, and exhausted with fatigue, they learn that the water in the hold is gaining on the pumps. Now human courage fails, and the stoutest bow to Omnipotence; now every sin comes to remembrance, and eternity opens her portals in every descending wave. Now piety alone is great; now the believer is looking out, not for Neptunes, but Elijahs car. Now he looks for his Saviour to come at midnight, walking on the waves of the sea. The weakness he felt in his faith at the first onset, settles into a serene confidence. Grace rises superior to nature. He bids adieu to all on earth; and feeling the earnests of heaven, his soul rises in high route to immortality and bliss. But where are his ungodly mates? One is covered with pensive gloom; another is weeping bitterly for his friends, and his life; a third is making vows and promises, and crying to God, but more for a temporal than a spiritual life. Then the Lord has compassion on fainting men, then the skies clear up, and the angry elements become serene. And if God do all this for the wicked, what will he not do for the truly penitent? Verily he will pardon all their sins; he will turn away his anger by comfort, and disperse their gloom by the sunshine of eternal joy.
The desolations of one country for its wickedness, and the fertility of another, are equally subjects of praise. Sodom was made a lake. Zoan, Thebes, Babylon, Nineveh, and Tyre, are fearful examples of this kind. God seems to have cursed the very ground where so much wickedness was committed. Yea, Palestine itself, once so fruitful, is now comparatively barren. Tremble, oh christian Zion: be instructed by the past, and learn to praise the Lord.
BOOK V.PSS. CVII.CL.
CVII. A Psalm of Thanksgiving for Yahwehs Special Goodness.It is divided at Psa 107:8 f., Psa 107:15 f., Psa 107:21 f., Psa 107:31 f. by a refrain: viz. Oh that men would praise Yahweh for his goodness and for his wonderful works, etc. The Ps. therefore falls into the following divisions: Psa 107:1-9. Deliverance of homeless wanderers. In our text, as it stands, there seems to be some confusion between deliverance from adversity in general and especially from loss of way in the desert and the return from exile (Psa 107:3).
Psa 107:10-16. Deliverance from prison. In Psa 107:12 LXX has was brought down.
Psa 107:17-22. Deliverance from sickness which, according to the accepted doctrine, was the consequence of sin.
Psa 107:23-32. Deliverance from perils at sea.
After this the refrain recurs no more, and the remaining verses are an addition by a later hand, and have no strict connexion with the preceding Ps. They are chiefly borrowed from Is. and Job. They treat of Yahwehs power and righteous judgment, not specially of His mercy.
PSALM 107
The nation of Israel viewed as restored to their land, called upon to celebrate the goodness of the Lord, as set forth in the ways of God with the nation particularly, and mankind in general (vv. 8, 15, 21, 31).
(vv. 1-3) The theme of the psalm is the goodness of the Lord, and His enduring mercy. Israel, delivered from the power of the enemy, and regathered from every quarter of the globe, is called upon to celebrate this goodness.
The body of the psalm sets forth the various circumstances in the history of Israel, and mankind, in which the goodness of the Lord has been displayed in His ways with men.
(vv. 4-9) First, man is viewed as a wanderer, seeking to find rest in a wilderness world. All his efforts only end in soul thirst – Hungry and thirsty; their soul fainted in them. In the ways of the Lord we are allowed to prove that nothing in all this scene of unrest can satisfy the soul. In the depths of their need men cry to the Lord, to discover that He can lead them by the right way, that brings to the rest of God – a city of habitation. Thus we discover the goodness of the Lord that satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.
(vv. 10-16) Secondly, men are viewed in their lawlessness, rebelling against the words of God, and despising His counsel. In the former case the soul was unsatisfied; here, through rebellion against God, the spirit comes into darkness, under the sentence of death, and in bondage to the enemy. The heart is crushed and there are none to help. Then, in their distress, men cry to the Lord, to find that in His goodness He delivers them from bondage, that they might praise Him for having brought them into liberty.
(vv. 17-22) Thirdly, because of their folly and transgressions, men may be afflicted in body, so that they draw nigh to death. Then in their distress they cry to the Lord, who sends His healing word to deliver them from destruction, that they might praise the Lord for His goodness, and declare His wonderful works (Luk 8:38-39).
(vv. 23-32) Fourthly, men are put to the test by the circumstances of life. As men have to do with the business of this world, they have to meet the storms of life; they are faced with trouble, and at times are brought to their wit’s end. Then they cry to the Lord, and find that He can still the storm and bring men to their desired haven, that they may praise the Lord for His goodness, and exalt Him in the assembly of God’s people.
Thus we are permitted to see the way God has taken with His people, that, in learning their own frailty, they may discover the goodness of the Lord. Thus God deals with men in soul, spirit, body, and circumstances, in order that they may find their resource in the goodness and enduring mercy of the Lord.
(vv. 33-42) There are, moreover, the general governmental ways of God with the world. On the one hand, God may wither up the prosperity of a land, because of the wickedness of those who dwell therein (vv. 33-34): on the other hand, He can give prosperity in His care for the hungry (vv. 35-38). Nevertheless, man does not alter, if the hungry are filled and increase in worldly possessions, they, in their turn, may oppress and afflict others; hence in the ways of God they are again diminished and brought low (v. 39).
God takes up the cause of the oppressed, pouring contempt upon princes, and setting the needy one on high from affliction.
Thus the ways of God with man are marked by holiness that is not indifferent to wickedness; mercy that cares for the hungry; righteousness that deals with oppression, and compassion that espouses the cause of the poor. Who can gainsay these ways of God? The righteous shall see it; and rejoice: and all iniquity shall stop her mouth.
(v. 43) Such are the ways of God in His goodness and mercy. The wise, who observe these things, will understand the loving-kindness of the Lord.
107:1 O give thanks unto {a} the LORD, for [he is] good: for his mercy [endureth] for ever.
(a) This notable sentence was in the beginning used as the foot or tenor of the song, which was often repeated.
Psalms 107
An unknown writer sought to motivate the Lord’s redeemed people to praise Him by reviewing some of His mighty acts.
1. A call to thanksgiving and testimony 107:1-3
God’s people should thank Him because He is good and His loyal love endures forever. Those whom He has redeemed should be especially grateful for His liberating work for them and should publicly testify to His salvation. In view of Psa 107:3, this psalm may date from the postexilic period of Israel’s history (cf. Psa 107:10-16).
Psa 107:1-43
NOTWITHSTANDING the division of Books which separates Psalm evil from the two preceding, it is a pendant to these. The “gathering from among the heathen” prayed for in Psa 106:41 has here come to pass (Psa 107:3). The thanksgiving which there is regarded as the purpose of that restoration is here rendered for it. Psa 105:1-45 had for theme Gods mercies to the fathers. Psa 106:1-48 confessed the hereditary faithlessness of Israel and its chastisement by calamity and exile. Psa 107:1-43 begins with summoning Israel as “the redeemed of Jehovah,” to praise Him for His enduring lovingkindness in bringing them back from bondage, and then takes a wider flight, and celebrates the loving Providence which delivers, in all varieties of peril and calamity, those who cry to God. Its vivid pictures of distress and rescue begin, indeed, with one which may fairly be supposed to have been suggested by the incidents of the return from exile; and the second of these, that of the liberated prisoners, is possibly coloured by similar reminiscences; but the great restoration is only the starting point, and the bulk of the psalm goes further afield. Its instances of Divine deliverance, though cast into narrative form, describe not specific acts, but Gods uniform way of working. Wherever there are trouble and trust, there will be triumph and praise. The psalmist is propounding a partial solution of the old problem-the existence of pain and sorrow. They come as chastisements. If terror or misery drive men to God, God answers, and deliverance is assured, from which fuller-toned praise should spring. It is by no means a complete vindication of Providence, and experience does not bear out the assumption of uniform answers to prayers for deliverance from external calamities, which was more warranted before Christ than it is now; but the essence of the psalmists faith is ever true-that God hears the cry of a man driven to cry by crushing burdens, and will give him strength to bear and profit by them, even if He does not take them away.
The psalm passes before us a series of pictures, all alike in the disposition of their parts, and selected from the sad abundance of troubles which attack humanity. Travellers who have lost their way, captives, sick men, storm-tossed sailors, make a strangely miscellaneous company, the very unlikenesses of which suggest the width of the ocean of human misery. The artistic regularity of structure in all the four strophes relating to these cannot escape notice. But it is more than artistic. Whatever be a mans trouble, there is but one way out of it-to cry to God. That way is never vain. Always deliverance comes, and always the obligation of praise lies on the “redeemed of Jehovah.”
With Psa 107:33 the psalm changes its structure. The refrains, which came in so strikingly in the preceding strophes are dropped. The complete pictures give place to mere outline sketches. These diversities have suggested to some that Psa 107:33-43 are an excrescence; but they have some points of connection with the preceding, such as the peculiar phrase for “inhabited city” (Psa 107:4, Psa 107:5, Psa 107:36), “hungry” (Psa 107:5, Psa 107:36), and the fondness for references to Isaiah and Job. In these latter verses the psalmist does not describe deliverances from peril or pain, but the sudden alternations effected by Providence on lands and men, which pass from fertility and prosperity to barrenness and trouble, and again from these to their opposites. Lovingkindness, which hears and rescues, is the theme of the first part; lovingkindness, which “changes all things and is itself unchanged,” is the theme of the second. Both converge on the final thought (Psa 107:43), that the observance of Gods ways is the part of true wisdom, and will win the clear perception of the all-embracing “lovingkindness of Jehovah.”
New mercies give new meaning to old praises. Fresh outpourings of thankfulness willingly run in well-worn channels. The children can repeat the fathers doxology, and words hallowed by having borne the gratitude of many generations are the best vehicles for todays praise. Therefore, the psalm begins with venerable words, which it bids the recipients of Gods last great mercy ring out once more. They who have yesterday been “redeemed from captivity” have proof that “His lovingkindness endures forever,” since it has come down to them through centuries. The characteristic fondness for quotations, which marks the psalm, is in full force in the three introductory verses. Psa 107:1 is, of course, quoted from several psalms. “The redeemed of Jehovah” is from Isa 62:12.”gathered out of the lands” looks back to Psa 106:47, and to many prophetic passages. The word rendered above “distress” may mean oppressor, and is frequently rendered so here, which rendering fits better the preceding word “hand.” But the recurrence of the same word in the subsequent refrains (Psa 107:6, Psa 107:13, Psa 107:19, Psa 107:28) makes the rendering distress preferable here. To ascribe to distress a “hand” is poetical personification, or the latter word may be taken in a somewhat wider sense as equivalent to a grasp or grip, as above. The return from Babylon is evidently in the poets thoughts, but he widens it out into a restoration from every quarter. His enumeration of the points from which the exiles flock is irregular, in that he says “from north and from the sea, ” which always means the Mediterranean, and stands for the west. That quarter has, however, already been mentioned, and, therefore, it has been supposed that sea here means, abnormally, the Red Sea, or “the southern portion of the Mediterranean.” A textual alteration has also been proposed, which, by the addition of two letters to the word for sea, gives that for south. This reading would complete the enumeration of cardinal points; but possibly the psalmist is quoting Isa 49:12, where the same phrase occurs, and the north is set over against the sea-i.e., the west. The slight irregularity does not interfere with the picture of the streams of returning exiles from every quarter.
The first scene, that of a caravan lost in a desert, is probably suggested by the previous reference to the return of the “redeemed of Jehovah,” but is not to be taken as referring only to that. It is a perfectly general sketch of a frequent incident of travel. It is a remarkable trace of a state of society very unlike modem life, that two of the four instances of “distress” are due to the perils of journeying. By land and by sea men took their lives in their hands, when they left their homes. Two points are signalised in this description, -the first, the loss of the track; the second, the wanderers hunger and thirst. “A waste of a way” is of singular expression, which has suggested various unnecessary textual emendations. It is like “a wild ass of a man,” {Gen 16:12} which several commentators quote as a parallel, and means a way which is desert. {compare Act 8:26} The bewildered, devious march leads nowhither. Vainly the travellers look for some elevation,
“From whence the lightened spirit sees
That shady city of Palm Trees.”
No place where men dwell appears in the wide expanse of pathless wilderness. The psalmist does not think of a particular city, but of any inhabited spot, where rest and shelter might be found. The water skins are empty; food is finished; hopelessness follows physical exhaustion, and gloom wraps their souls; for Psa 107:5 b, literally translated, is, “Their soul covered itself”-i.e., with despondency. {Psa 77:3}
The picture is not an allegory or a parable, but a transcript of a common fact. Still, one can scarcely help seeing in it a vivid representation of the inmost reality of a life apart from God. Such a life ever strays from the right road. “The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them, because he knoweth not how to come to the city.” The deepest needs of the soul are unsatisfied; and however outward good abounds, gnawing hunger and fierce thirst torment at times; and however mirth and success seem to smile, joys are superficial, and but mask a central sadness, as vineyards which clothe the outside of a volcano and lie above sulphurous fires.
The travellers are driven to God by their “distress.” Happy they who, when lost in a desert, bethink themselves of the only Guide. He does not reject the cry which is forced out by the pressure of calamity; but, as the structure of Psa 107:6-7, shows, His answer is simultaneous with the appeal to Him, and it is complete, as well as immediate. The track appears as suddenly as it had faded. God Himself goes at the head of the march. The path is straight as an arrows flight, and soon they are in the city.
Psa 107:6 is the first instance of the refrain, which, in each of the four pictures, is followed by a verse (or, in the last of the four, by two verses) descriptive of the act of deliverance, which again is followed by the second refrain, calling on those who have experienced such a mercy to thank Jehovah. This is followed in the first two groups by a verse reiterating the reason for praise-namely, the deliverance just granted; and, in the last two, by a verse expanding the summons. Various may be the forms of need. But the supply of them all is one, and the way to get it is one, and one is the experience of the suppliants, and one should be their praise. Lifes diversities have underlying them identity of souls wants. Waiters on God have very different outward fortunes, but the broad outlines of their inward history are identical. This is the law of His providence-they cry, He delivers. This should be the harvest from His sowing of benefits-“Let them give thanks to Jehovah.” Some would translate Psa 107:8, “Let them thankfully confess to Jehovah His lovingkindness, and to the children of men [confess] His wonders”; but the usual rendering as above is better, as not introducing a thought which, however important, is scarcely in the psalmists view here, and as preserving the great thought of the psalm-namely, that of Gods providence to all mankind.
The second scene, that of captives, probably retains some allusion to Babylon, though an even fainter one than in the preceding strophe. It has several quotations and references to Isaiah, especially to the latter half (Isa 40:1-31; Isa 41:1-29; Isa 42:1-25; Isa 43:1-28; Isa 44:1-28; Isa 45:1-25; Isa 46:1-13). The deliverance is described in Psa 107:16 in words borrowed from the prophecy as to Cyrus, the instrument of Israels restoration. {Isa 45:2} The gloom of the prison house is described in language closely resembling Isa 42:7; Isa 49:9. The combination of “darkness and the shade of deepest gloom” is found in Isa 9:2. The cause of the captivity described is rebellion against Gods counsel and word. These things point to Israels Babylonian bondage; but the picture in the psalm draws its colour rather than its subject from that event and is quite general. The psalmist thinks that such bondage, and deliverance on repentance and prayer, are standing facts in Providence, both as regards nations and individuals. One may see, too, a certain parabolic aspect hinted at, as if the poet would have us catch a half-revealed intention to present calamity of any kind under this image of captivity. We note the slipping in of words that are not required for the picture, as when the fetters are said to be “affliction” as well as “iron.” Psa 107:12, too, is not specially appropriate to the condition of prisoners; persons in fetters and gloom do not stumble, for they do not move. There may, therefore, be a half-glance at the parabolic aspect of captivity, such as poetic imagination, and especially Oriental poetry, loves. At most it is a delicate suggestion, shyly hiding while it shows itself, and made too much of if drawn out in prosaic exposition.
We may perceive also the allegorical pertinence of this second picture, though we do not suppose that the singer intended such a use. For is not godless life ever bondage? and is not rebellion against God the sure cause of falling under a harsher dominion? and does He not listen to the cry of a soul that feels the slavery of subjection to self and sin? and is not true enlargement found in His free service? and does He not give power to break the strongest chains of habit? The synagogue at Nazareth, where the carpenters Son stood up to read and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me. He hath sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives.” warrants the symbolical use of the psalmists imagery, which is, as we have seen, largely influenced by the prophet whose words Jesus quoted. The first scene taught that devout hearts never lack guidance from God. The second adds to their blessings freedom, the true liberty which comes with submission and acceptance of His law.
Sickness, which yields the third type of suffering, is a commoner experience than the two preceding. The picture is lightly sketched, emphasis being laid on the cause of the sickness, which is sin, in accordance with the prevailing view in the Old Testament. The psalmist introduces the persons of whom he is to speak by the strongly condemnatory term “foolish ones,” which refers not to intellectual feebleness, but to moral perversity. All sin is folly. Nothing is so insane as to do wrong. An ingenious correction has been suggested and is accepted by Cheyne in the wake of Dyserinck, Graetz, and others, by which “sick men” is read for “foolish men.” But it does not appear to the present writer to be so impossible as Cheyne thinks to “conceive the psalmist introducing a fresh tableau by an ethical term such as fools.” The whole verse (Psa 107:17) lays more stress on the sin than on the sickness, and the initial designation of the sufferers as “fools” is quite in harmony with its tone. They are habitual evildoers, as is expressed by the weighty expression “the way (or course) of their transgression.” Not by one or two breaches of moral law, but by inveterate, customary sins, men ruin their physical health. So the psalmist uses a form of the verb in Psa 107:17 b which expresses that the sinner drags down his punishment with his own hands. That is, of course, eminently true in such gross forms of sin as sow to the flesh, and of the flesh reap corruption. But it is no less really true of all transgression, since all brings sickness to the soul. Psa 107:18 is apparently quoted from Job 33:20-22. It paints with impressive simplicity the failing appetite and consequent ebbing strength. The grim portals, of which Death keeps the keys, have all but received the sick men; but, before they pass into their shadow, they cry to Jehovah, and, like the other men in distress, they too are heard, feeble as their sick voice may be. The manner of their deliverance is strikingly portrayed. “He sent His word and healed them.” As in Psa 105:19, Gods word is almost personified. It is the channel of the Divine power. Gods uttered will has power on material things. It is the same great thought as is expressed in “He spake and it was done.” The psalmist did not know the Christian teaching that the personal Word of God is the agent of all the Divine energy in the realm of nature and of history, and that a far deeper sense than that which he attached to them would one day be found in his words, when the Incarnate Word was manifested, as Himself bearing and bearing away the sicknesses of humanity, and rescuing not only the dying from going down to the grave, but bringing up the dead who had long lain there. God, who is Guide and Emancipator, is also Healer and Life-giver, and He is all these in the Word, which has become flesh, and dwelt and dwells among men.
Another travel scene follows. The storm at sea is painted as a landsman would do it; but a landsman who had seen, from a safe shore, what he so vividly describes. He is impressed with the strange things that the bold men who venture to sea must meet, away out there beyond the point where sea and sky touch. With sure poetic instinct, he spends no time on trivial details, but dashes on his canvas the salient features of the tempest, -the sudden springing up of the gale; the swift response of the waves rolling high, with new force in their mass and a new voice in their breaking; the pitching craft, now on the crest, now in the trough; the terror of the helpless crew; the loss of steering power; the heavy rolling of the unmanageable, clumsy ship; and the desperation of the sailors, whose wisdom or skill was “swallowed up,” or came to nothing.
Their cry to Jehovah was heard above the shriek of the storm, and the tempest fell as suddenly as it rose. The description of the deliverance is extended beyond the normal single verse, just as that of the peril had been prolonged. It comes like a benediction after the hurly burly of the gale. How gently the words echo the softness of the light air into which it has died down, and the music which the wavelets make as they lap against the ships sides! With what sympathy the poet thinks of the glad hearts on board, and of their reaching the safe harbour, for which they had longed when they thought they would never see it more! Surely it is a permissible application of these lovely words to read into them the Christian hope of preservation amid lifes tempests, –
“Safe into the haven guide,
O receive my soul at last.”
God the guide, the emancipator, the healer, is also the stiller of the storm, and they who cry to Him from the unquiet sea will reach the stable shore. “And so it came to pass, they all came safe to land.”
As already observed, the tone changes with Psa 107:33, from which point onwards the psalmist adduces instances of Providential working of a different kind from those in the four vivid pictures preceding, and drops the refrains. In Psa 107:33-38 he describes a double change wrought on a land. The barrenness which blasts fertile soil is painted in language largely borrowed from Isaiah.” Psa 107:33 a recalls Isa 1:2 b; Psa 107:33 b is like Isa 35:7 a” (Delitzsch). The opposite change of desert into fertile ground is pictured as in Isa 41:18. The references in Psa 107:36 to “the hungry” and to “an inhabited city” connect with the previous part of the psalm, and are against the supposition that the latter half is not originally part of it. The incidents described refer to no particular instance, but are as general as those of the former part. Many a land, which has been blasted by the vices of its inhabitants, has been transformed into a garden by new settlers. “Where the Turks horse has trod, no grass will grow.”
Psa 107:39 introduces the reverse, which often befalls prosperous communities, especially in times when it is dangerous to seem rich for fear of rapacious rulers. “The pressure” referred to in Psa 107:39 is the oppression of such. If so, Psa 107:40, which is quoted from Job 12:21; Job 12:24, though introduced abruptly, does not disturb the sequence of thought. It grandly paints the judgment of God on such robber princes, who are hunted from their seats by popular execration, and have to hide themselves in the pathless waste, from which those who cry to God were delivered (Psa 107:41 b and 4 a). On the other hand, the oppressed are lifted, as by His strong arm, out of the depths and set on high, like a man perched safely on some crag above high-water mark. Prosperity returning is followed by large increase and happy, peaceful family life, the chief good of man on earth. The outcome of the various methods of Gods unvarying purpose is that all which is good is glad, and all which is evil is struck dumb. The two clauses of Psa 107:42 which describe this double fect, are quoted from two passages in Job-a from Job 22:19, and b from Job 5:16.
The psalm began with hymning the enduring lovingkindness of Jehovah. It ends with a call to all who would be wise to give heed to the various dealings of God, as exemplified in the specimens chosen in it, that they may comprehend how in all these one purpose rules, and all are examples of the manifold lovingkindnesses of Jehovah. This closing note is an echo of the last words of Hoseas prophecy. It is the broad truth which all thoughtful observance of Providence brings home to a man, notwithstanding many mysteries and apparent contradictions. “All things work together for good to them that love God”; and the more they love Him, the more clearly will they see, and the more happily will they feel, that so it is. How can a man contemplate the painful riddle of the world, and keep his sanity, without that faith? He who has it for his faith will have it for his experience.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Under a canopy of love
As broad as the blue sky above,”
Of Jesus and his love.”
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
FIFTH BOOK
From the north, and from the south.
2. God has not only chosen His Church, and established it upon earth as being the people of His inheritance; He preserves it also as such in this evil world, delivers it from the perils which threaten it with ruin and dissolution, gathers its dispersed members from every region under heaven, and effects its restoration from prostration and destruction. But, while it must give thanks after the deliverance, so must it, before the same, pray and cry in its distress to the living God of revelation.
3. This applies not only to the Church in its narrower sense, or to its wants as a Church, but to all the seasons of distress, and to all the deliverances of the Church and its members. Everywhere and at all times is displayed the contrast between omnipotence and impotence, righteousness and guilt, compassion and need, together with its adjustment by deeds of Divine help. To observe this is the wisdom of the pious, to act accordingly the piety of the wise.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
PRAISE TO GOD FOR REDEMPTION
But let us more especially consider,
Think now what, in the view of these things, should be the state of your minds. If those who have never yet experienced one of these benefits, have yet abundant reason to celebrate the goodness and mercy of their God, have not ye much more? O let the redeemed of the Lord say so: let them sing his praises day and night: let them adore him with their whole hearts ]
1.
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Smith’s Writings on 24 Books of the Bible
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary