Psalms 107:11 Meaning and Explanation
“Because they rebelled against the words of God, and contemned the counsel of the most High:”
King James Version (KJV)
This study note uses an AI-assisted editorial workflow with source, duplication, and quality checks. See how verse explanations are prepared.
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →Psalm 107 is a thanksgiving psalm, and it does not soften how people got into trouble. This line names the cause plainly before the deliverance arrives four verses later. Reading it slowly is worth the discomfort, since a psalm willing to say why we ended up in irons is also a psalm we can trust when it says who let us out.
The psalm gives the reason behind the prisoners' darkness described a verse earlier. Their bondage followed from rebellion against what God had spoken and from contempt for the counsel of the Most High.
The Context of Psalms 107:11
Psalm 107 opens by calling the redeemed of the LORD to give thanks, then presents four scenes of distress and rescue. The first covers wanderers in the wilderness, verses 4 through 9. The second covers prisoners, verses 10 through 16. Verse 10 sets that scene, describing those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, bound in affliction and iron. Verse 11 supplies the explanation with because. Verses 12 through 14 then follow the pattern the whole psalm uses: distress, a cry, and rescue. Verse 15 closes the section with the refrain about praising the LORD.
What Does Psalms 107:11 Mean?
Because opens the line, which makes the whole verse an explanation rather than a fresh statement. Two parallel actions follow. Rebelled against the words of God describes active resistance to what was spoken, so the offense concerns a message already delivered and understood. Contemned the counsel of the most High describes an attitude toward advice, treating it as worthless. Counsel is the gentler of the two words, since counsel guides where a command binds, and despising it reveals a settled disposition. The title most High raises the stakes, naming the one whose words were dismissed. Together the clauses describe a knowing refusal instead of an accident or a misunderstanding.
This verse does real work inside the psalm's argument. Verse 10 could be read as simple misfortune, and verse 11 removes that reading, which makes the rescue in verses 13 and 14 an act of mercy toward people who had earned their situation. The psalm is honest about that in every section, and it still ends each one with praise. Israel's own history stands behind the imagery, since prophets described exile in terms of chains and darkness following long resistance to God's word. Verse 43 finally names what a wise reader gathers from all four scenes, the lovingkindness of the LORD, and this verse keeps that lovingkindness from being mistaken for indifference.
Scripture keeps this frankness all the way through. Paul writes to the Romans that God commends his love toward us in that Christ died for us while we were yet sinners, which is the same sequence this psalm follows: guilt named first, mercy given anyway. The prisoners in verse 10 sit in the shadow of death, and Zacharias uses that very phrase when he prophesies about the coming of a light to those who sit in darkness. Reading Psalm 107 with those passages in view shows a consistent way of speaking about rescue, one that never requires us to pretend about how we arrived.
Psalms 107:11 in the Original Language
elyon (עֶלְיוֹן), 'most High' -- a Hebrew title meaning highest or uppermost, used of God from Genesis onward. The word carries the sense of one who stands above every other authority, which sharpens the offense described here. Counsel from that source was treated as though it came from a lesser voice.
Bible Verses Related to Psalms 107:11
“Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron;”
- Psalm 107:10
“He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in sunder.”
- Psalm 107:14
“They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.”
- Proverbs 1:30
“We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned.”
- Lamentations 3:42
Where Psalms 107:11 Echoes in Scripture
Proverbs 1:30 speaks in nearly the same terms, where wisdom says they would none of my counsel and despised all my reproof, and verse 31 describes them eating the fruit of their own way. The psalm and the proverb agree on both halves of the pattern, contempt for counsel followed by consequences the person carries. Set beside each other, they suggest that Israel's teachers and singers were working from a shared conviction about how words rejected eventually shape a life.
How to Apply Psalms 107:11 Today
Contempt is quieter than rebellion and often does more damage. It shows up as a smile at counsel we have no intention of taking, or as a habit of hearing advice only from people who agree with us. A useful practice is to write down the last three warnings we received and check what we did with each. Another is to keep one person in our life whose correction we have agreed in advance to take seriously. Psalm 107 assures us that God rescues people who ignored him, and it also shows us how much trouble the ignoring caused.
Reflection & Prayer
What counsel have we been treating politely while quietly setting it aside? A prayer: Most High God, your words are worth more than my preferences. Forgive the times I have heard you and gone my own way, and soften whatever in me is used to dismissing correction. Thank you that your mercy has never waited for me to deserve it.