[PSALM CVII.]
1 Give thanks to Jehovah, for He is good,
For His loving-kindness [endures] for ever.
2 Let the redeemed of Jehovah say [thus],
Whom He has redeemed from the gripe of distress,
3 And gathered them from the lands,
From east and west,
From north and from [the] sea.
4 They wandered in the wilderness, in a waste of a way,
An inhabited city they found not.
5 Hungry and thirsty,
Their soul languished within them,
6 And they cried to Jehovah in their distress,
From their troubles He delivered them,
7 And He led them by a straight way,
To go to an inhabited city.
8 Let them give thanks to Jehovah [for] His loving-kindness,
And His wonders to the sons of men.
9 For He satisfies the longing soul,
And the hungry soul He fills with good.
10 Those who sat in darkness and in deepest gloom,
Bound in affliction and iron,
11 Because they rebelled against the words of God,
And the counsel of the Most High they rejected.
12 And He brought down their heart with sorrow,
They stumbled, and helper there was none.
13 And they cried to Jehovah in their distress,
From their troubles He saved them.
14 He brought them out from darkness and deepest gloom,
And broke their bonds [asunder].
15 Let them give thanks to Jehovah [for] His loving-kindness,
And His wonders to the sons of men.
16 For He broke the doors of brass,
And the bars of iron He hewed in pieces.
17 Foolish men, because of the course of their transgression,
And because of their iniquities, brought on themselves affliction.
18 All food their soul loathed,
And they drew near to the gates of death.
19 And they cried to Jehovah in their distress,
From their troubles He saved them.
20 He sent His word and healed them,
And rescued them from their graves.
21 Let them give thanks to Jehovah [for] His loving-kindness
And His wonders to the sons of men.
22 And let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving,
And tell His works with joyful joy.
23 They who go down to the sea in ships,
Who do business on the great waters,
24 They see the works of Jehovah,
And His wonders in the foaming deep.
25 And He spoke and raised a stormy wind,
Which rolled high the waves thereof.
26 They went up to the sky, they went down to the depths,
Their soul melted in trouble.
27 They went round and round and staggered like one drunk,
And all their wisdom forsook them [was swallowed up].
28 And they cried to Jehovah in their distress,
From their trouble He brought them out.
29 He stilled the storm into a light air,
And hushed were their waves.
30 And they were glad because these were quieted,
And He brought them to the haven of their desire.
31 Let them give thanks to Jehovah [for] His loving-kindness
And His wonders to the sons of men.
32 And let them exalt Him in the assembly of the people,
And praise Him in the session of the elders.
33 He turned rivers into a wilderness,
And water-springs into thirsty ground,
34 A land of fruit into a salt desert,
For the wickedness of the dwellers in it.
35 He turned a wilderness into a pool of water,
And a dry land into water-springs.
36 And He made the hungry to dwell there,
And they found an inhabited city.
37 And they sowed fields and planted vineyards,
And these yielded fruits of increase.
38 And He blessed them and they multiplied exceedingly,
And their cattle He diminished not.
39 And they were diminished and brought low,
By the pressure of ill and sorrow.
40 "He pours contempt on princes,
And makes them wander in a pathless waste."
41 He lifted the needy out of affliction,
And made families like a flock.
42 The upright see it and rejoice,
And all perverseness stops its mouth.
43 Whoso is wise, let him observe these things,
And let them understand the loving-kindnesses of Jehovah.
Notwithstanding the division of Books which separates Psalm cvii. from the two preceding, it is a pendant to these. The "gathering from among the heathen" prayed for in Psalm cvi. 47 has here come to pass (ver. 3). The thanksgiving which there is regarded as the purpose of that restoration is here rendered for it. Psalm cv. had for theme God's mercies to the fathers. Psalm cvi. confessed the hereditary faithlessness of Israel and its chastisement by calamity and exile. Psalm cvii. begins with summoning Israel as "the redeemed of Jehovah," to praise Him for His enduring loving-kindness in bringing them back from bondage, and then takes a wider flight, and celebrates the loving Providence which delivers, in all varieties of peril and calamity, those who cry to God. Its vivid pictures of distress and rescue begin, indeed, with one which may fairly be supposed to have been suggested by the incidents of the return from exile; and the second of these, that of the liberated prisoners, is possibly coloured by similar reminiscences; but the great restoration is only the starting-point, and the bulk of the psalm goes further afield. Its instances of Divine deliverance, though cast into narrative form, describe not specific acts, but God's uniform way of working. Wherever there are trouble and trust, there will be triumph and praise. The psalmist is propounding a partial solution of the old problem—the existence of pain and sorrow. They come as chastisements. If terror or misery drive men to God, God answers, and deliverance is assured, from which fuller-toned praise should spring. It is by no means a complete vindication of Providence, and experience does not bear out the assumption of uniform answers to prayers for deliverance from external calamities, which was more warranted before Christ than it is now; but the essence of the psalmist's faith is ever true—that God hears the cry of a man driven to cry by crushing burdens, and will give him strength to bear and profit by them, even if He does not take them away.
The psalm passes before us a series of pictures, all alike in the disposition of their parts, and selected from the sad abundance of troubles which attack humanity. Travellers who have lost their way, captives, sick men, storm-tossed sailors, make a strangely miscellaneous company, the very unlikenesses of which suggest the width of the ocean of human misery. The artistic regularity of structure in all the four strophes relating to these cannot escape notice. But it is more than artistic. Whatever be a man's trouble, there is but one way out of it—to cry to God. That way is never vain. Always deliverance comes, and always the obligation of praise lies on the "redeemed of Jehovah."