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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadSpurgeon Verse Expositions - Psalms 107:33 - 107:43
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Psa_107:33-34. He turneth rivers into a wilderness, and the watersprings into dry ground; a fruitful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein.
Hearken unto this, ye who are men of understanding. God can soon take away from any people the privileges which they cease to prize. He sent barrenness upon the earth in the days of our first father, Adam; and he has long cursed with barrenness the very land in which this Psalm was written. He can give us what he pleases, and he can take it all away when he pleases. And, spiritually, God can easily turn a fruitful land into barrenness. The means of grace, the ministry of his Word which was once very rich and fertile to you, may suddenly lose all its savour and all its fruitfulness. Ay, even his own Word, which may be compared to water-springs, may suddenly seem to you to be but as dry ground; and your secret devotions, your reading of godly books, your conversation with gracious men and women, all of which were like wells of water, may seem to be dried up. If you walk contrary to God, he will walk contrary to you. “He turneth a fruitful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein.” When the people of God fall from their steadfastness, when they wander from the paths of holiness, it is easy for God to let them know that the best means are only means, and that the best earthly supplies are barrenness itself apart from him. God grant that it may never be so with any of us! But now see what happens when the Lord turns his hand the other way:—
Psa_107:35. He turneth the wilderness into a standing water, and dry ground into watersprings.
He can make the sandy desert into a lake of water, he can make that which was barren as the desert of Sahara to become as fruitful as the garden of the Lord. And if you are just now mourning your barrenness, believe in the omnipotence of his grace which can work such wonderful transformations as these for you. “All my fresh springs are in thee,” said the psalmist; and so they are with us; therefore, why should not those fresh springs now flow into our nature so as to make the dry ground into water springs?
Psa_107:36-37. And there he maketh the hungry to dwell, that they may prepare a city for habitation; and sow the fields, and plant vineyards, which may yield fruits of increase.
See, brothers and sisters, when God blesses us, then we begin to work for him. When he works, we work. He blesses the barren land with fruitfulness, and then we sow the fields, and plant vineyards. We do not sit still because God is at work; nay, rather, we obey the apostolic injunction, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”
Psa_107:38-39. He blesseth them also, so that they are multiplied greatly; and suffereth not their cattle to decrease. Again, they are minished and brought low through oppression, affliction, and sorrow.
God has a great many rods, and we get a great many smarts because of our many sins. If we were but saved from our sins, we should not need all these rods, “oppression affliction, and sorrow,” — tribulation, and anguish, and pain, and distress. I will not tell you the names of all of them, but they are very many, and their strokes are very painful. May God grant that we may be quit of sin, for only so shall we be quit of many of these sorrows.
Psa_107:40. He poureth contempt upon princes, and causeth them to wander in the wilderness, where there is no way.
God makes very little of earth’s biggest men: “He poureth contempt upon princes.” He has wonderful ways of making very poor those who are very rich in themselves. He makes those who were lords of all the fields to be exiles and wanderers in the wilderness, where there is no way. Do not get proud, brethren, or else that may be your lot. He who is so near perfection that he need not pray, “God be merciful to me a sinner,” may before long be so near desperation that he will not have to pray even the publican’s prayer. Let none of us become too great, lest we soon be made very little.
Psa_107:41. Yet setteth he the poor on high from affliction, and maketh him families like a flock.
God always has an eye of pity for the poor, and especially for the spiritually poor. While “he poureth contempt upon princes” with one hand, he is lifting the poor from the dunghill with the other.
Psa_107:42. The righteous shall see it, and rejoice:
When God’s providence and grace are at work with men, the righteous shall see it, and understand it, and be glad.
Psa_107:42. And all iniquity shall stop her mouth.
She is generally very noisy and boastful; but, sometimes, when God’s judgments are abroad, she is obliged to hold her tongue. “All iniquity shall stop her mouth.” O Lord, stop it speedily, for she is making a great noise just now!
Psa_107:43. Whose is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the lovingkindness of the LORD.
Those who watch providence will never be without a providence to watch?