Psalms 107:25 Meaning and Explanation
“For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →Weather feels like the last thing anyone controls. That is precisely why the psalmist puts it here. Sailors who had seen the works of the LORD in the deep are about to see something harder to admire, and the psalm insists on saying who raised the wind before it says who calmed it.
The storm that terrifies the sailors is traced to God's command. He speaks, the gale rises, and the sea heaves, which means the crisis in this scene begins where the rescue will also begin.
The Context of Psalms 107:25
The fourth and final rescue scene runs from verse 23 to verse 32. It opens with merchants who go down to the sea in ships and do business in great waters, people whose work regularly takes them where the wonders of God are visible. Verse 25 introduces the trouble. Verses 26 and 27 describe the ship rising and falling and the crew losing all composure, verse 28 records their cry, and verses 29 and 30 bring the calm and the safe arrival. This scene is the longest of the four.
What Does Psalms 107:25 Mean?
Two verbs govern the line. 'He commandeth' places the storm under speech, the same way the psalms elsewhere describe creation obeying a spoken order. 'Raiseth' then does the work, lifting a wind already named as stormy. The last clause follows the chain one link further: the wind lifts the waves. Sea, wind, and word stand in a clear order of authority, with the smallest force at the bottom of the sentence and God's voice at the top. The verse contains no human actor at all. Sailors, ships, cargo, and skill appear in the surrounding verses; here the stage belongs to God and the weather he sends.
This is the hardest of the four scenes to read comfortably, since the trouble is traced directly to God. The psalm states it plainly and without embellishment, and it does so for a reason the rest of the section makes clear. If the storm arrived by accident, the prayer of verse 28 would have no address. Because the same voice that raised the wind can still it, the sailors have someone to call. Israel's poets took real comfort in this. A God who governs the sea is a God who can be petitioned about the sea, and the alternative leaves a crew alone with the weather.
Other passages tell the same story in narrative. A great wind sent out over the sea overtakes a ship carrying a fleeing prophet, and the sailors on board eventually learn whose hand is in it. The psalms of creation include the stormy wind among the servants that fulfil God's word, listing it beside fire, hail, and snow. Read alongside those texts, verse 25 belongs to a settled Old Testament conviction rather than a single poet's guess. Weather answers to someone and can be brought to him in prayer. The chapter builds its whole fourth scene on that footing, and the calm of verse 29 depends on it entirely.
Psalms 107:25 in the Original Language
se'arah (סְעָרָה), 'stormy' -- a tempest or gale, the same noun used for the whirlwind out of which God answered Job. It names weather violent enough to end a voyage, which is why the psalm can set it beside a direct command from God without softening either one.
Bible Verses Related to Psalms 107:25
“But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken.”
- Jonah 1:4
“Fire, and hail; snow, and vapours; stormy wind fulfilling his word:”
- Psalm 148:8
“The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.”
- Nahum 1:3
“And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.”
- Mark 4:39
Where Psalms 107:25 Echoes in Scripture
Jonah 1:4 reports that the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, so that the ship was in danger of breaking up. The sentence structure matches this verse closely: God acts first, the weather responds, and the crew is left to react. Jonah's account then supplies what Psalm 107 leaves general, showing frightened sailors praying, casting lots, and finally acknowledging the God who made the sea and the dry land.
How to Apply Psalms 107:25 Today
Storms in life rarely announce their purpose, and this verse resists tidy explanations for any particular one. What it does give us is an address. If the wind is under God's command, prayer about the wind makes sense, and we are freed from the exhausting task of managing the universe ourselves. It also asks for honesty. We can say to God that this is hard and that we know it did not arrive behind his back. Sailors in the psalm keep working the ship while they pray, and both belong together in a genuine crisis.
Reflection & Prayer
What are we facing that we have been treating as random, and how would prayer change if we brought it to the one who governs wind and water? A prayer: Lord of sea and sky, this trouble is bigger than my skill. I do not understand why it came. I bring it to you anyway, and I will keep rowing while I wait.