Psalms 107:35 Meaning and Explanation
“He turneth the wilderness into a standing water, and dry ground into watersprings.”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →Hope needs more than encouragement; it needs precedent. Verse 35 supplies one by reversing the exact loss described two lines earlier. The same verb, the same categories of water, and the same divine subject now run toward abundance. Anyone reading this psalm from a dry stretch of life has been handed a picture of what God has done before.
The reversal runs the other direction here. God converts desert into pooled water and parched soil into flowing springs, showing that barren places are as changeable as fruitful ones under his hand.
The Context of Psalms 107:35
Verse 35 opens the second half of the psalm's closing meditation. Verses 33 and 34 described fruitful country losing its water for the wickedness of its people. Verses 35 through 38 describe the opposite motion, and they carry it past geography. The hungry are given a place to dwell in verse 36, fields and vineyards follow in verse 37, and blessing and increase arrive in verse 38. The section answers the four rescue stories earlier in the chapter by showing the same God at work on a landscape scale, ending with the wise observing his lovingkindness in verse 43.
What Does Psalms 107:35 Mean?
The verb repeats exactly: 'He turneth.' What changes is the direction of travel. 'The wilderness' names the same open dry country that verse 33 produced, and it becomes 'a standing water,' a pool that holds rather than a stream that passes through. Standing water in arid land means a permanent source, the kind people can build beside. 'Dry ground into watersprings' completes the mirror, since verse 33 had turned watersprings into dry ground. Reading the two lines together shows a deliberate design. Nothing in the vocabulary suggests difficulty. The transformation is stated as simply as the ruin was.
Placing this verse after verse 34 makes a theological claim about order. Judgment appears first and restoration follows, which matches how the psalm as a whole moves from distress to deliverance four separate times. The image also reaches back into Israel's memory of the exodus, where water came from a rock in a place with none, and forward into prophetic promise, where the desert is told it will rejoice and blossom. Verse 35 gives no cause for the change, unlike verse 34 which named wickedness. The silence is meaningful. Restoration in this psalm arrives as gift, traced to God's own goodness rather than to anything earned.
Isaiah 35 promises that waters shall break out in the wilderness and streams in the desert, and that the parched ground shall become a pool and the thirsty land springs of water. The wording overlaps this verse closely enough that the two passages read as one hope. Jesus stands in that stream of promise when he offers living water to a woman at a well and tells a crowd at the feast that rivers of living water shall flow out of those who believe on him. Dry ground made into springs is the picture Scripture keeps reaching for when it describes what God gives.
Psalms 107:35 in the Original Language
agam (אֲגַם), 'standing water' -- a pool or reedy marsh that holds water in place. The word describes a settled body rather than a passing stream, which is why the KJV adds 'standing.' In dry country such a pool can support a village year round.
Bible Verses Related to Psalms 107:35
“He turneth rivers into a wilderness, and the watersprings into dry ground;”
- Psalm 107:33
“I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.”
- Isaiah 41:18
“Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.”
- Isaiah 35:6
“Which turned the rock into a standing water, the flint into a fountain of waters.”
- Psalm 114:8
Where Psalms 107:35 Echoes in Scripture
Isaiah 41:18 sounds like this verse expanded. There the LORD promises to open rivers in high places and fountains in the midst of the valleys, to make the wilderness a pool of water and the dry land springs of water. Both the pool and the springs appear in the same order as in Psalm 107:35. Isaiah adds the reason in the following verse, that people may see and know and consider together that the hand of the LORD has done this.
How to Apply Psalms 107:35 Today
Dry seasons in a life can begin to feel like a permanent climate. This verse offers a different expectation, and it does so without promising a schedule. Waiting well takes practice. We can keep showing up to prayer and to worship when nothing seems to be growing, watch for small signs of water instead of demanding a flood, and let other people's restored seasons build our patience rather than our envy. We can also become part of the answer for someone else, since a person who brings water to a dry place is doing recognizable work in this psalm.
Reflection & Prayer
Where in our life have we quietly concluded that nothing will grow again? Hold that place in mind while reading the verse once more. A prayer for dry ground: Lord, you have made pools where there was only dust. I ask you to do it here. Until then, keep me faithful in ground that shows nothing yet. Amen.