Psalms 107:33 Meaning and Explanation
“He turneth rivers into a wilderness, and the watersprings into dry ground;”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →Water decides where people can live. A river or a spring makes a settlement possible, and the loss of one empties a region. Verse 33 states that such reversals lie within God's hands, which is a harder thought than the rescue stories that came before. The psalm asks us to hold that power together with the goodness it has just been celebrating.
God is described as able to reverse the fertility of a land, drying up rivers and springs. The line begins a closing section on his freedom to change any landscape or circumstance.
The Context of Psalms 107:33
The four rescue portraits end at verse 32 with a call to exalt the LORD in the congregation. Verses 33 through 43 form the psalm's closing meditation, moving from particular deliverances to the way God governs land, harvest, and nations generally. Verse 33 opens a pair of reversals: fertile country made barren in verses 33 and 34, and wilderness made fruitful in verses 35 through 38. Verse 34 supplies the reason for the first reversal, naming the wickedness of the inhabitants. Verse 43 closes the psalm by calling the wise to observe these things.
What Does Psalms 107:33 Mean?
The subject 'He' carries over from the LORD praised in verse 32, and the verb 'turneth' is present tense in the KJV, describing something God does rather than something he did once. Two water sources are named. 'Rivers' are the large flowing supply that irrigates whole valleys. 'Watersprings' are the smaller local sources that keep a village alive when rivers fail. Both become their opposites: wilderness and dry ground. The line moves from abundance to absence in a handful of words, matching how quickly a drought can arrive. The semicolon holds the thought open so verse 34 can finish it.
This closing section widens the psalm's claim. The four rescue stories showed God answering cries from individuals in trouble. Verses 33 and following show the same God shaping the conditions whole populations live under. Scripture speaks this way about the exodus, where the sea was made dry land, and about judgment on proud nations whose rivers were dried up. The order of the pairing matters as well. Verse 33 puts loss first and verse 35 answers it with wilderness turned into standing water, so the section ends on restoration. Read alone, verse 33 sounds severe. Read as the first half of a pattern, it prepares the reversal that follows.
Nahum opens his book by declaring that the LORD rebukes the sea and makes it dry, drying up all the rivers, and sets that power directly beside his goodness as a stronghold in the day of trouble. Prophets appeal to this ability as evidence that God can save. Jesus works within the same authority when he speaks to wind and water on the lake and the storm goes still, and the disciples ask what manner of man this is that even the wind and the sea obey him. Power over water in Scripture belongs to the Creator, and the Gospels report that power operating in Jesus. Verse 33 sits at the root of that recognition.
Psalms 107:33 in the Original Language
midbar (מִדְבָּר), 'wilderness' -- open uncultivated country, dry enough that settlement is difficult and grazing is thin. The word describes terrain more than emptiness, so turning a river region into midbar means the land stops supporting the life that once gathered there.
Bible Verses Related to Psalms 107:33
“He turneth the wilderness into a standing water, and dry ground into watersprings.”
- Psalm 107:35
“Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there none to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver? behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stinketh, because there is no water, and dieth for thirst.”
- Isaiah 50:2
“I will make waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs; and I will make the rivers islands, and I will dry up the pools.”
- Isaiah 42:15
“And that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the LORD overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath:”
- Deuteronomy 29:23
Where Psalms 107:33 Echoes in Scripture
Isaiah 50:2 uses this psalm's exact reversal as an argument. The LORD asks whether his hand is shortened at all, that it cannot redeem, and then says that at his rebuke he dries up the sea and makes the rivers a wilderness. The drying of rivers there proves capacity rather than cruelty. Psalm 107:33 makes the same point inside a thanksgiving song, listing the power to empty a land among the reasons the psalm invites the wise to observe how God works.
How to Apply Psalms 107:33 Today
Circumstances that felt permanent can change, and this verse asks us to make peace with that. Income, health, relationships, and reputations all rest on supplies we did not create. Holding them with open hands is realism as much as piety. Two habits help. Gratitude while the river runs keeps us from mistaking supply for entitlement, and generosity while there is plenty prepares us for seasons when there is less. The verse also warns against building a life on the assumption that conditions owe us stability. The one who turns rivers into wilderness remains the same one whose mercy verse 1 says endures forever.
Reflection & Prayer
Which flowing supply in our life have we started to treat as guaranteed? Consider thanking God for it specifically today, while it is still running. A prayer of open hands: Lord, everything I depend on comes from you and can be recalled by you. Teach me gratitude while I have plenty, and steady trust if the ground goes dry. Amen.