Psalms 107:8 Meaning and Explanation
“Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!”
King James Version (KJV)
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Read Full Chapter →Rescue has a way of fading from memory once the danger passes. This line answers a question many of us feel after deliverance: what does God actually want from us in return? The answer here is remarkably modest and remarkably difficult. He wants the rescued to speak, to name his goodness out loud where others can hear it.
A longing cry rises from the psalmist: that people everywhere would thank the LORD for his goodness and for the wonderful rescues he works on behalf of ordinary human beings.
The Context of Psalms 107:8
Psalm 107 opens the fifth book of the Psalter with a call to thanksgiving addressed to the redeemed, those the LORD gathered from east and west, north and south. The poem then walks through four portraits of distress: desert wanderers, prisoners in darkness, the sick who loathe food, and sailors caught in a storm. Each portrait follows the same shape, with people crying out in trouble and the LORD delivering them. Verse 8 is the first of four identical refrains, repeated again at verses 15, 21, and 31, marking the close of each rescue account.
What Does Psalms 107:8 Mean?
The line begins as a sigh. 'Oh that men would praise' is a wish, an ache for something the psalmist has no power to compel. He names two grounds for praise and holds them together. The first is who God is, his goodness, the settled kindness of his character. The second is what God has done, his wonderful works, the specific and startling acts the psalm has just described. The closing phrase, 'to the children of men,' widens the frame to humanity as such. Wandering, imprisonment, sickness, and storm belong to everyone, and so does the mercy that comes to meet them.
Placed where it is, the refrain does real structural work. Four times the psalm tells of people at the end of their resources, four times they cry out, four times the LORD delivers, and four times this same line follows. Deliverance is incomplete until it is confessed. That pattern reaches back to the exodus, where Israel was rescued and then taught to rehearse the rescue in song and feast. It reaches forward too. Verse 2 charges the redeemed to say so, verse 22 asks for sacrifices of thanksgiving, and verse 32 moves the praise into the congregation. Gratitude here is public, ordered, and shared.
Among the four rescues, the last one reads like a scene the Gospels would later record. Verse 29 says the LORD makes the storm a calm so that the waves are still, and the sailors are brought to their desired haven. On the Sea of Galilee the disciples were reeling in just that way when Jesus rebuked the wind and there was a great calm. Their question afterward, what manner of man is this, is the psalm's question turned toward a person standing in the boat. The wish of verse 8 belongs in the mouth of anyone who has watched a storm answer a word.
Psalms 107:8 in the Original Language
niphla'ot (נִפְלָאוֹת), 'wonderful works' -- deeds that lie beyond ordinary human power to produce or explain, the same word used for the plagues and the sea crossing. The stress falls on how far the act exceeds what people could arrange for themselves.
Bible Verses Related to Psalms 107:8
“Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy;”
- Psalm 107:2
“Come and see the works of God: he is terrible in his doing toward the children of men.”
- Psalm 66:5
“The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.”
- Psalm 145:9
“And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan.”
- Luke 17:16
Where Psalms 107:8 Echoes in Scripture
Mary's song in Luke 1:53 picks up the very promise attached to this refrain. Psalm 107:9 says the LORD satisfies the longing soul and fills the hungry soul with goodness; Mary declares that he has filled the hungry with good things. She is describing what God is doing through the son she carries, and she reaches for the language of this psalm to do it. The wish of verse 8 becomes, in her mouth, a completed song of praise.
How to Apply Psalms 107:8 Today
Most of us have a rescue we have never spoken about out loud. A bill that got paid, an illness that turned, a marriage that held, a night of despair that ended in morning. The psalm invites us to give those stories words and a hearer. We might tell one of them at a family table this week, or write it down where our children will find it later, or bring it to a gathering where thanksgiving is the point. Naming God's goodness in specific terms keeps our memory honest and gives someone else a reason to hope.
Reflection & Prayer
Which deliverance in our own history have we quietly filed away without ever thanking God for it? Consider naming it today. A prayer: Lord, you have been good to me in ways I have half forgotten. Bring them back to mind, and loosen my tongue to say so where others can hear. Let my thanks be as specific as your kindness has been. Amen.