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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadSpurgeon Verse Expositions - Psalms 107:1 - 107:32
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Psa_107:1. O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.
Because we are sinners God’s goodness takes the form of mercy. Mercy —this was what we wanted; therefore, instead of mere benevolence towards the good, God’s love takes the form of mercy towards the guilty, and this mercy is for ever — it always was, always is, and always shall be.
Psa_107:2. Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy;
Let the redeemed be the first to sing, and let them sing the sweetest of all. O children of God, you are meant to be leaders in the chorus of God’s praise. All nature is a great organ, and if you be what you should be, you are the men whose fingers of gratitude are to touch the keys and bring forth thunders of praise unto God.
Psa_107:3. And gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south.
It is a part of redemption’s work to gather out all people — fetch them into a separated condition. The voice of redemption sounds — “come out from among them and be ye separate. Touch not the unclean thing.” And the hand of redemption gathers out God’s chosen and brings them into a saved unity where they enjoy fellowship with each other and with God.
Now here he gives a description of the gratitude which is due to God from different persons who have been partakers of his mercy. First, souls are here compared to lost travelers.
Psa_107:4-6. They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses.
Some of you know what this means. You have lost your way. You know not how to find it. Spiritually you are in a wilderness, and you would, if you could, get to the city of Jerusalem. You would get to the very heart of God, but you cannot. You find no city to dwell in — no peace — no rest. Moreover, your spiritual wants are very pressing. You are hungry and you are thirsty, but it is a wilderness, and you cannot find a morsel of food. No manna drops for you. Your soul is ready to faint. You feel as if you could not go another step nor search another inch. To lie down and die is all that you can do. But the vultures are in the air; and you are afraid even of despair. You are hard pressed. Notice it is said, “Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble.” Why did not they do so before? Because men do not begin to pray to God as long as they have any hope beside. But when all hope is gone, then comes the first real living agonizing cry to heaven; and no sooner is that heard than God answers it. “He delivered them out of their distresses.”
Psa_107:7-9. And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation. Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.
Is there a longing soul here tonight? Amidst these thousands, surely there must be some! Well, dear soul, God will satisfy you. He will not merely stay your hunger for a little while, and help you to break your fast, but your longing shall be satisfied. And if you are hungry, he will fill you, and fill you not only with good, but with goodness itself — the very quintessence of everything that is excellent. Next, the psalmist describes prisoners. We have a picture of the spiritual state of man from another point of view.
Psa_107:10-13. Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron; because they rebelled against the words of God, and condemned the counsel of the most High: therefore he brought down their heart with labour; they fell down, and there was none to help. Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses.
These were prisoners in a prison where they were forged to work, and where they found no rest. A picture of a dark soul — a soul over which death spread his dragon-wings. You know what it means to be brought into spiritual death — to feel the chill of spiritual death even to your very marrow, paralyzing you, and binding all your hopes in everlasting frost, do you not? Have you been in dread of the wrath to come? Have you set to work to redeem yourselves, and toiled like slaves, but toiled in vain? Has your heart been brought down from your high notions, and your proud desires, and your boastings, and your loftinesses? Then is fulfilled in you the words of this text — “Therefore he brought down their heart with labour: they fell down, and there was none to help.” “Then,” but not till then, — “then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses.” Proud hearts will not pray. When a man can help himself, he will not cry to God. As long as he has any hope left within the compass of his nature, he will not turn to the God who made him. But what a blessed despair that is which drives us to God! It is like the wave that sweeps the mariner up on to the rook where he is safe. May such a wave of despair catch some of us, and hurl us into safety! They cried and he saved them.
Psa_107:14-16. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in sunder. Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men! For he hath broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sunder.
The third picture of our lost estate is given us under the image of a sick man.
Psa_107:17-19. Fools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted. Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat; and they draw near unto the gates of death. Then they cry —
Even these fools! “Then they cry” —
Psa_107:19-22. Unto the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses. He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions. Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men! And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing.
One more picture is given, and that is of a soul at sea, tossed with tempest and not comforted — spiritually shipwrecked.
Psa_107:23-28. They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; these see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep. For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof. They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wit’s end. Then they cry —
Never till they get to their wit’s end do men cry to God. When nothing else is to be done, and all human might has utterly failed, then they cry. Now, you that have ever been in this storm — you know what it means. You recollect how you were sailing smoothly along with fair weather, and suddenly a spiritual cyclone took a hold of you, and twisted your soul round about — threw you sometimes up with presumptuous hopes, and then down again with awful despairs. You could not stand or hold to anything, even the truth you did know you could not believe, and the promises which you could believe you could not apply to yourself. There was no hold-fast for you. You reeled and staggered, and your courage was gone. Your soul was melted because of trouble. There seemed nothing before you but the abyss. Deep called to deep, and Jehovah’s waterspouts sent forth a sound. Now, you thought “surely the end is come,” and then it was that you began to pray.
Psa_107:28-32. Unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses. He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven. Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders.
The psalmist exhorteth the redeemed, in praising God, to observe the different forms of his mercy. He views the chosen people as travelers, captives, sick men, and seamen, and in each of these classes he exhorts them to praise the Lord.
Psa_107:1. O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good:
He is essentially good. His name God is only a shorter form of good. Yet, if we were to lengthen it, there could be no more goodness found in it than is found in the three letters, “God.”
Psa_107:1. For his mercy endureth for ever.
That is the form which his goodness takes in relation to us, his sinful creatures; as we deserve nothing, everything that he gives us is a gift of mercy, and what a range his mercy takes! “His mercy endureth for ever.”
Psa_107:2. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy;
If nobody else will say that God is good, let his redeemed ones say it. If others are silent, let them speak to his praise, if others are doubtful, let them declare positively that the Lord is good, and that his mercy endureth for ever.
Psa_107:3. And gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south.
We were scattered in various directions by our own folly and sin;-“ Each wandering in a different way, but all the downward road;-and he gathered us unto that blessed Shiloh of whom Jacob said, “Unto him shall the gathering of the people be.”
Psa_107:4. They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way;
Ah, the way of a sinner, convinced of sin, is indeed a solitary way; he has a sorrow which he cannot tell to anybody else, a stranger intermeddleth not with his grief
Psa_107:4. They found no city to dwell in.
There are no cities in the wilderness for people to dwell in. We look for a city that is out of sight at present, “ a city which hath foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God.” Here, in this fleeting world, we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come.
Psa_107:5-6. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses.
They were a long while before they prayed to the Lord, but it was not a long while before he answered their prayer. When they were brought to that then, that is to say, when they were so hungry, and so thirsty, and so faint that they could do nothing else but cry, then, the moment that they cried unto the Lord, “ he delivered them out of their distresses.”
Psa_107:7. And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation.
“He led them . . . that they might go.” The leadings of divine grace do not destroy the activities of the human will. God does not treat us as if we were blocks of wood or stone, but he treats us as reasonable beings.
Psa_107:8-9. Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.
We hardly looked for that verse to follow the preceding one. We might have thought that the psalmist would have written, “for he brings them to a city of rest.” God always exceeds our expectations. He not only brings his wandering people home, but he feeds them bountifully when they are there. He holds high festival within Zion’s gates, and the citizens of the new Jerusalem are fed with the finest of the wheat. Surely souls so blessed must praise Jehovah for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men. Now comes another picture, the picture of the captives:-
Psa_107:10-11. Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron; because they rebelled against the words of God, and condemned the counsel of the most High:
They “sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,” for they have lost all energy. They sit down in dumb despair, for at last their sins have found them out. They rejected God, and he has left them to suffer the consequences of their sin: “ being bound in affliction and iron “
Psa_107:12-13. Therefore he brought down their heart with labour; they fell down, and there was none to help. Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble,-
This seems to be always the last thing that people in trouble do; until they hunger, and thirst, and their soul faints, as in the former case, or until they fall down utterly helpless, as in this case, they will not pray. But “then they cry unto Jehovah in their trouble,”-
Psa_107:13-16. And he saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in sunder. Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! For he hath broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sunder.
All glory be to the great Liberator’s name! Now comes the picture of sick men, which is also the portrait of ourselves:-
Psa_107:17. Fools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted.
Perhaps affliction comes to their bodies, but more especially it attacks their hearts,-they have heart disease, a mortal tremor within, or a terrible fever of fear.
Psa_107:18. Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat;
You cannot comfort them, they cannot or will not receive the truth that would sustain them, they have lost all appetite for spiritual food.
Psa_107:18. And they draw near unto the gates of death.
They seem to come close to those great iron gates that shut out all hope for ever, they can hear them grind upon their massive hinges; they begin to realize what the wrath of God means.
Psa_107:19. Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble,
Fools though they are, they have sense enough to do this.
Psa_107:19. And he saveth them out of their distresses.
So that a true prayer from one who is near unto the gates of death is a prevailing prayer. We earnestly urge all to repent long before they come to a dying bed, but if they are on a dying bed, if they are literally near unto the gates of death, here is evidence that, if they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, he will not close his ears or his heart to their prayer.
Psa_107:20. He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.
The Word of God has a sort of omnipotent power in it. By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made, and by the Word of the Lord are sick souls healed. That Word can do anything that God purposes. “Where the word of a king is, there is power;” but where the Word of God is, there is omnipotence.
Psa_107:21-22. Oh that man would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing.
Now we come to the seafaring men:-
Psa_107:23-24. They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; these see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep.
These words apply not only to seamen literally, but also to others who are called to endure great storms while sailing across the sea of this mortal life,
Psa_107:25-26. For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof. They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
For even he who has his “ sea legs “ on finds them of little use to him when such a storm as this is tossing everything in a dreadful hurly burly. “They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths,” and this experience is repeated, perhaps, hundreds of times, day and night, sometimes for weeks together.
Psa_107:27. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wit’s end.
But, oh! when souls are caught in a storm of conviction of sin, this is a true description of their spiritual distress,-they are at their wits end, and do not know what to do. Everything about them is shaking, and they themselves are reeling to and fro, sometimes this way and sometimes that;-staggering, scarcely able to believe anything, seeing some things double, and everything out of place.
Psa_107:28. Then they cry-
Yes, then, when they are reeling and staggering; that is a queer condition-is it not?-in which to be praying, reeling to and fro, and staggering like a drunken man: “Then they cry.”-
Psa_107:28. Unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
Then God will hear the prayer of a staggering man, and the prayer that has not any sense in it because the man who prays is at his wit’s end. By “sense” I mean not following the consecutiveness of an orderly petition; the prayer itself seeming to reel to and fro. The suppliant is so overpowered by sorrow that he might be thought to be drunken, as she was to whom Eli so harshly spoke bidding her put away her wine from her, whereas she was overcome by sorrow. God hears us when we cannot hear ourselves pray, and when we cannot put the words of our supplication in proper order, God knows what we mean to say, and gives us what we really need.
Psa_107:29. He maketh the storm a calm,-
What a change! And what a blessing it is to get into one of God’s calms, for they are far beyond the ordinary calm of nature; then do we enjoy “ the peace of God, which passeth all understanding.”
Psa_107:29-32. So that the wave thereof are still. Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven. Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders.