Psalms 107
Psalm 107 stands at the head of Book V, the last of the five books into which the Psalter is divided, and it opens with the same words that close the book before it: O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever (v. 1). But this is not a generic call to gratitude. It is addressed to a particular crowd - Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy (v. 2) - and the rest of the psalm is what happens when those people open their mouths. They tell their stories.3
The stories come in four scenes, and the design is unmistakable once you see it. Wanderers lost in a trackless wilderness, hungry and thirsty (vv. 4-9). Prisoners shut up in darkness, bound with iron (vv. 10-16). Fools wasting away under the weight of their own sin, drawing near to the gates of death (vv. 17-22). Sailors flung up and down in a storm until their courage melts (vv. 23-32). Four different kinds of trouble - lostness, captivity, sickness, danger - and yet each scene turns on the same hinge, a refrain repeated word for word: Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses. And each closes with the same call to praise: Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!2
The repetition is the point. The psalm is teaching its readers to recognise a pattern - trouble, cry, rescue, thanks - not as a rare miracle but as the ordinary shape of how God deals with those who call upon Him. After the four scenes the psalm widens its lens to the whole sweep of providence: God turning rivers into desert and desert into springs, pouring contempt on princes and lifting the poor out of the dust (vv. 33-43). And it ends not with a command but with an invitation to a certain kind of person: Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the lovingkindness of the LORD (v. 43). The wisdom on offer is the ability to read God's steady mercy into the events of a life - to see, in every deliverance, the hand of the One who is good, and whose mercy endureth for ever.
Tap any highlighted phrase to jump to the commentary that unpacks it.
Psalm 107:1-9 · The First Picture: Wanderers in the WildernessLet the Redeemed of the LORD Say So
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, from the north, and from the south. 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.
The psalm opens with a line so familiar in Israel's worship that it functioned almost as a national refrain: O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever (v. 1). Two reasons are given for the thanks, and they are the deepest two there are. God is good - good at the root of His being, not merely useful or powerful. And His mercy endureth for ever - the steadfast, covenant love that does not run out, does not tire, does not finally give up on its object. But the psalm immediately narrows the summons. It is not addressed to everyone in general; it is addressed to the redeemed of the LORD (v. 2) - people who have actually been bought back from somewhere, hauled out of the hand of an enemy. Let the redeemed… say so. Gratitude here is not a vague mood; it is testimony. The redeemed are commanded to speak, to put words to what God has done for them, because a rescue kept silent is a rescue half-received. The four scenes that follow are simply the redeemed obeying that command - saying so.
The first picture is of people who have lost their way entirely: They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them (vv. 4-5). It is a portrait of total lostness - not a wrong turn but a trackless waste, no road, no destination, no shelter, the body failing as hunger and thirst do their work. This is the human condition stripped to its bones: alive, but with nowhere to go and no strength to get there. And then the hinge of the whole psalm turns for the first time: Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses (v. 6). Notice how little the cry contains. It is not eloquent; it is not even, in the wilderness, very organised. It is simply the cry of people at the end of themselves. And it is enough. God does not merely rescue them from the desert; He led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation (v. 7). The lost are not just saved - they are given a road and a home. The wanderer's deepest need was never only food and water; it was a way through and a place to belong, and God gives both.
Two sentences recur through this psalm so steadily that they become its backbone, and it is worth pausing on them before the scenes pile up. The first is the cry-and-rescue line: Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses (v. 6), repeated almost word for word at verses 13, 19, and 28 - with only the verb of rescue changing (delivered… saved… saveth… bringeth), as if to show the one act of deliverance wearing four faces. The second is the call to praise: Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! (v. 8), repeated identically at verses 15, 21, and 31. Set these two refrains side by side and you have the psalm's whole theology in miniature. The cry-refrain says what God does: He hears trouble and delivers. The praise-refrain says what we so often fail to do: notice it, and thank Him. The repetition is not monotony; it is teaching by rhythm. Four different troubles, one unchanging response from God - and one recurring, almost wistful longing that people would see His wonderful works for what they are. By the time the refrains have sounded four times, the reader has learned the shape of God's dealings the way a child learns a song: trouble, cry, rescue, praise - over and over, until it is impossible to forget.
Psalm 107:10-16 · The Second Picture: Prisoners in DarknessHe Brought Them Out of Darkness
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.
The second picture moves from the open desert to the locked cell: Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron (v. 10). The wanderers could at least move; these cannot. They sit - the posture of the defeated - in darkness so deep it is called the shadow of death, weighed down by chains. And this scene names something the first did not: Because they rebelled against the words of God, and contemned the counsel of the most High (v. 11). This imprisonment is not blamed on circumstance or enemy; it is the harvest of their own rebellion. They had despised God's counsel, and the result was a heart brought down… with labour until they fell down, and there was none to help (v. 12). Here is a kind of trouble many know from the inside: the prison you build yourself, the darkness that is the consequence of your own choices, the place where you finally run out of people who can get you out. And it is precisely there - in the cell they had earned - that the refrain turns again: Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses (v. 13). The God of this psalm does not wait for the prisoners to deserve release. He hears the cry of people who put themselves behind bars, and He still comes.
The rescue is described with a violence that fits the chains: He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in sunder (v. 14); he hath broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sunder (v. 16). Notice that God does not simply unlock the door with a key, as though the imprisonment were a small thing easily reversed. He breaks. The gates of brass are shattered; the iron bars are cut through; the bands are snapped in sunder, torn apart. This is the language of a power that meets the full weight of the captivity and overmatches it. The prisoners could not file through their own chains; no human hand could open gates of brass. But what holds a person hopelessly is nothing to the God who made iron and brass in the first place. There is a deep comfort in the brutality of the image. Whatever has you bound - a habit, a guilt, a consequence you cannot undo - is real iron; the psalm does not pretend the chains are imaginary. But it insists that the One who hears the prisoner's cry does not negotiate with the chains. He breaks them.
Psalm 107:17-22 · The Third Picture: Fools at the Gates of DeathHe Sent His Word, and Healed Them
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.
The third picture is the most uncomfortable, because the word it begins with is one we resist applying to ourselves: Fools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted (v. 17). In the Hebrew Scriptures a fool is not someone of low intelligence but someone who lives as though God's order did not apply to him - who knows the right way and walks the wrong one anyway. Here their folly has made them physically sick: Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat; and they draw near unto the gates of death (v. 18). The body that once craved food now turns from it; they are wasting away, and they have come right up to the gates of death, the threshold of the grave. Like the prisoners, these sufferers cannot blame anyone else; the affliction grew out of their own transgression. And like the prisoners, they are not therefore abandoned. The refrain turns a third time, in almost the same words: Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he saveth them out of their distresses (v. 19). Three scenes in, the pattern is unmistakable and deliberate. It does not matter whether the trouble was bad luck (the wanderers) or self-inflicted (the prisoners and now the fools); the cry works the same, because the goodness it appeals to is in God, not in the one who cries.
The rescue in this scene is unlike the others, and its strangeness is the point: He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions (v. 20). God does not lead these sufferers out, as He led the wanderers, or break their chains, as He broke the prisoners'. He sends his word - and the word itself does the healing. There is something arresting in the economy of it. No journey, no instrument, no medicine; a word goes out from God, and a body at the gates of death is made well. The same picture runs through the whole Hebrew Bible: God speaks, and it is done. By the word of the LORD were the heavens made (Ps. 33:6); He spake, and it was done (Ps. 33:9). His word is not mere sound; it is the carrier of His power, effective the moment it leaves Him. So when sickness has brought a person to the edge of the grave and no human help remains, the psalm points to the one thing still able to reach across the distance: a word from God, sent like a messenger, arriving with healing in it. The sufferers contributed nothing but their cry; the cure was entirely in the word that came.
Psalm 107:23-32 · The Fourth Picture: Sailors in the StormHe Maketh the Storm a Calm
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 wit's 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.
The fourth picture is the most cinematic, and the most terrifying for a people who feared the sea as a place of chaos: They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; these see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep (vv. 23-24). These are not foolish men or rebels; they are working sailors, doing their lawful business - and the trouble that overtakes them comes straight from God's hand: For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof (v. 25). The description of the storm is unforgettable: They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wit's end (vv. 26-27). The ship is thrown up to the sky and dropped into the trough; the sailors' courage melts; they stagger about the heaving deck like drunk men, and they have come to the absolute limit of their skill - at their wit's end, with no more seamanship left to try. This is the trouble that is no one's fault, that simply comes, that all the competence in the world cannot master. And it ends, like the other three, at the only place it can: Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses (v. 28).
The rescue is told in three short, swelling movements. First the calm: He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still (v. 29). The same God who commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind (v. 25) speaks again, and the sea that was mountainous lies flat. The storm did not blow itself out; He stilled it. Then the relief: Then are they glad because they be quiet (v. 30) - the simple, weak-kneed gladness of sailors who an hour ago expected to drown and now feel the deck steady under them. And then the homecoming: so he bringeth them unto their desired haven (v. 30). The word desired is tender; the haven was not just any port but the one their hearts had been straining toward through the whole black night. This is the shape of every rescue in the psalm, but here it is at its most complete: the danger stilled, the heart gladdened, the traveller brought all the way home. And so the call to praise widens in this scene beyond the others - not only Oh that men would praise the LORD (v. 31) but Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders (v. 32). The private rescue is to become public worship; what God did on the open sea is to be told in the gathered assembly.
Psalm 107:33-43 · Whoso Is Wise Shall UnderstandWhoso Is Wise Shall Understand His Lovingkindness
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.
After the four scenes, the psalm pulls back to a wider view and shows the same God at work across the whole of human fortune. The picture is one of reversal in both directions. He can take what is flourishing and dry it up: He turneth rivers into a wilderness, and the watersprings into dry ground; a fruitful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein (vv. 33-34). And He can do the reverse, taking the barren place and making it bloom: He turneth the wilderness into a standing water, and dry ground into watersprings (v. 35), settling the hungry there to build cities, sow fields, plant vineyards, and multiply (vv. 36-38). The same reversing hand works among people as among lands. He poureth contempt upon princes, and causeth them to wander in the wilderness, where there is no way (v. 40) - the mighty are brought low and made to wander like the lost men of the psalm's opening scene. Yet setteth he the poor on high from affliction, and maketh him families like a flock (v. 41) - the lowly are lifted up and given the very fruitfulness the proud have lost. This is not random fortune; it is moral governance. God is not indifferent to wickedness or to the cry of the afflicted. The world is in the hands of One who raises and lowers, who dries up and waters, according to His own righteous purpose.
The psalm ends not with a final scene but with a choice it lays before the reader: 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 lovingkindness of the LORD (vv. 42-43). Two kinds of response are possible to everything the psalm has shown. Iniquity - the proud, the rebellious - is finally silenced; it has nothing left to say in the face of a God who governs so. But the righteous see the same events and rejoice. The difference is not in the events; it is in the seeing. And so the psalm's last word is about a particular kind of wisdom: whoso is wise, and will observe these things. To observe here is to watch attentively, to ponder, to keep these things before the mind - and the reward of that attention is understanding: they shall understand the lovingkindness of the LORD. This is what all the rescues were for. They were not merely four good stories; they were lessons in how to read a life. The wise person learns to look at the deliverances, the reversals, the lifting of the poor and the humbling of the proud, and to see running through all of it a single thread - the steadfast, covenant love of God. The psalm that opened by commanding thanks for God's mercy closes by promising that the attentive will come to understand that very mercy. The thanks at the beginning becomes understanding at the end, for those willing to watch.
Further study
- The Hebrew text of Psalm 107 with Rashi, Ibn Ezra, and other classical commentators side by side - useful for ga'al (v. 2, “redeemed,” the kinsman-redeemer verb) and for chesed, the steadfast love that frames the psalm in verses 1, 8, 15, 21, 31, and 43.
- Psalm 107 ↔ John 6 · Matthew 8 · Mark 4 · Ephesians 1Intertextual BibleTraces the threads tying Psalm 107 to the rest of Scripture - the longing soul satisfied (v. 9; John 6:35), the word sent to heal (v. 20; Matt. 8:8), the storm made calm (v. 29; Mark 4:39), and the redemption from the enemy's hand (v. 2) that the apostles ground in Christ (Eph. 1:7).
- Psalm 107 - Translators' NotesNET BibleThe NET Bible's detailed footnotes on Psalm 107 - the fourfold structure of the deliverance scenes, the force of the twice-repeated refrains, and the meaning of difficult phrases such as “the shadow of death” (v. 10) and “at their wit's end” (v. 27).
Where this echoes in Scripture
Let the Redeemed of the LORD Say So
- Ephesians 1:7In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.The redemption of verse 2 - being bought back from the enemy’s hand - named by the apostle as accomplished in Christ.
- John 6:35I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.The longing soul satisfied (v. 9) given a name - the bread and water the deepest hunger was always reaching for.
- Ruth 4:14Blessed be the LORD, which hath not left thee this day without a kinsman.The kinsman-redeemer (ga’al) at work in verse 2 - the near relative who buys back what was lost.
- Exodus 6:6I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments.God as the redeemer of His people, the act the psalm celebrates in verse 2.
He Brought Them Out of Darkness
- Isaiah 9:2The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.The darkness and shadow of death of verses 10 and 14 - the very words of the great messianic promise of light.
- Matthew 4:16The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.Matthew announcing that the light for those who sit in darkness (v. 10) has come in Jesus.
- Isaiah 45:2I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron.Almost the exact words of verse 16 - the gates of brass and bars of iron God promises to shatter.
- Acts 12:7And his chains fell off from his hands.The breaking of bands of verse 14 worked again for an imprisoned apostle in the night.
He Sent His Word, and Healed Them
- John 1:14And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory,)... full of grace and truth.The word God sends to heal (v. 20) revealed as a Person who came and dwelt among us.
- Matthew 8:8Speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.The centurion grasping exactly the truth of verse 20 - that a word from God, sent across the distance, is enough to heal.
- Psalm 33:9For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.The power of God’s spoken word that lies behind the healing of verse 20.
- Psalm 30:11-12Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing... To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee.The sacrifice of thanksgiving of verse 22 - deliverance answered by declared, sung praise.
He Maketh the Storm a Calm
- Mark 4:39And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.Verse 29 enacted on the Sea of Galilee - the storm made a calm by the One who spoke to the sea.
- Mark 4:41What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?The disciples’ question answered by the psalm itself - it is the LORD who stills the storm (v. 29).
- Jonah 1:15-16So they took up Jonah... and the sea ceased from her raging. Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly.Sailors in a deadly storm brought to fear and worship when the LORD stills the sea, as in verses 28-29.
- Psalm 89:9Thou rulest the raging of the sea: when the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them.The same confession as verse 29 - the stilling of the waves belongs to the LORD alone.
Whoso Is Wise Shall Understand His Lovingkindness
- Titus 3:4-5But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared... according to his mercy he saved us.The lovingkindness of verse 43 made visible - the kindness of God appearing in the Saviour.
- 1 Samuel 2:7-8The LORD maketh poor, and maketh rich... He raiseth up the poor out of the dust... to set them among princes.The same reversal as verses 40-41 - God humbling the proud and lifting the poor - sung in Hannah’s prayer.
- Luke 1:52-53He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things.Mary’s song echoing verses 40-41 - the princes brought low, the poor and hungry raised and filled.
- Hosea 14:9Who is wise, and he shall understand these things?... for the ways of the LORD are right.Nearly the words of verse 43 - the wise are those who learn to read the ways of the LORD rightly.