World English Bible
- Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his loving kindness endures forever.
- Let the redeemed by the LORD say so, whom he has redeemed from the hand of the adversary,
- and gathered out of the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.
- They wandered in the wilderness in a desert way. They found no city to live in.
- Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them.
- Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses.
- He led them also by a straight way, that they might go to a city to live in.
- Let them praise the LORD for his loving kindness, for his wonderful deeds to the children of men!
- For he satisfies the longing soul. He fills the hungry soul with good.
- Some sat 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 labor. They fell down, and there was no one to help.
- Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses.
- He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and broke away their chains.
- Let them praise the LORD for his loving kindness, for his wonderful deeds to the children of men!
- For he has broken the gates of bronze, and cut through bars of iron.
- Fools are afflicted because of their disobedience, and because of their iniquities.
- Their soul abhors all kinds of food. They draw near to the gates of death.
- Then they cry to the LORD in their trouble, and he saves them out of their distresses.
- He sends his word, and heals them, and delivers them from their graves.
- Let them praise the LORD for his loving kindness, for his wonderful deeds to the children of men!
- Let them offer the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his deeds with singing.
- Those who go down to the sea in ships, who do business in great waters,
- these see the LORD’s deeds, and his wonders in the deep.
- For he commands, and raises the stormy wind, which lifts up its waves.
- They mount up to the sky; they go down again to the depths. Their soul melts away because of trouble.
- They reel back and forth, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end.
- Then they cry to the LORD in their trouble, and he brings them out of their distress.
- He makes the storm a calm, so that its waves are still.
- Then they are glad because it is calm, so he brings them to their desired haven.
- Let them praise the LORD for his loving kindness, for his wonderful deeds for the children of men!
- Let them exalt him also in the assembly of the people, and praise him in the seat of the elders.
- He turns rivers into a desert, water springs into a thirsty ground,
- and a fruitful land into a salt waste, for the wickedness of those who dwell in it.
- He turns a desert into a pool of water, and a dry land into water springs.
- There he makes the hungry live, that they may prepare a city to live in,
- sow fields, plant vineyards, and reap the fruits of increase.
- He blesses them also, so that they are multiplied greatly. He doesn’t allow their livestock to decrease.
- Again, they are diminished and bowed down through oppression, trouble, and sorrow.
- He pours contempt on princes, and causes them to wander in a trackless waste.
- Yet he lifts the needy out of their affliction, and increases their families like a flock.
- The upright will see it, and be glad. All the wicked will shut their mouths.
- Whoever is wise will pay attention to these things. They will consider the loving kindnesses of the LORD.
Psalm 106 ended by remembering sin; Psalm 107 begins by remembering rescue. That order matters. The people of God do not move from failure to denial, but from confession to testimony. Grace is not forgetfulness; it is God’s refusal to let our ruin have the last word.
This psalm is built like a fourfold litany: distress, cry, deliverance, thanksgiving. But the four troubles are not all alike. Some are simply lost in a wasteland. Some sit in chains because they rebelled. Some are sick through their own folly. Some are not immoral at all; they are sailors caught in a storm while doing their work. Psalm 107 quietly destroys the shallow idea that all suffering has one cause. Some pain is chosen, some inherited, some encountered in duty, some in ordinary vocation. Yet one mercy meets them all.
The repeated word for God’s covenant love is hesed. The refrain says his wonders are for the “children of Adam” (bene adam): not tribal mercy, but human mercy. And the word for his saving acts, nifla’ot, is the language of the exodus—the Lord’s “wonders.” That is the psalm’s secret. God keeps performing little exoduses. He leads wanderers, breaks prison doors, heals the self-ruined, and stills chaos. What he once did for Israel at the sea, he keeps doing in human lives. Augustine read these scenes as a map of the soul; Calvin saw a summons for every class of sufferer to become a witness. Both were seeing truly.
A Western reader may miss why being led to a city is good news. In the ancient Levant, city meant safety, water, walls, trade, kinship, and worship. Salvation is not merely being rescued from something, but being brought somewhere—to a people, a home, a common praise. And the prison image is no metaphor dreamed up in comfort: Assyrian reliefs still show captives in fetters. God breaks what empires forge.
The sea scene is especially striking. Israel was never a great sea-power like Phoenicia; for Israel, the sea often signaled disorder and threat. When the psalm says the sailors’ wisdom is swallowed up, it means more than fear. Human skill reaches its limit. Technique fails. Control drowns. Many of us only discover prayer when competence finally stops pretending to be sovereignty.
The psalm ends with a remarkable claim: the wise are not those who master life, but those who learn to read it. Wisdom is to “consider” the hesed of the Lord. Mature faith is not merely surviving the storm. It is learning how to interpret rescue.
In Christ, Psalm 107 becomes flesh: he seeks the lost, proclaims liberty to captives, heals by his word, and rebukes wind and waves.
Suggested cross-references: Isaiah 35:1–10; Luke 4:18–19; Mark 4:35–41; Colossians 1:13–14.
Hymn: Eternal Father, Strong to Save
Prayer:
Lord of the desert, the prison, the sickbed, and the sea, teach us to
cry to you before our strength is gone. Break what binds us, heal what
we have broken, and lead us not only out of trouble but home into your
praise. Make us wise enough to notice your steadfast love. Amen.