Psalm 107:10-22 NKJV
10 Those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death,
Bound in affliction and irons—
11 Because they rebelled against the words of God,
And despised the counsel of the Most High,
12 Therefore He brought down their heart with labor;
They fell down, and there was none to help.
13 Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,
And He saved them out of their distresses.
14 He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death,
And broke their chains in pieces.
15 Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness,
And for His wonderful works to the children of men!
16 For He has broken the gates of bronze,
And cut the bars of iron in two.
17 Fools, because of their transgression,
And because of their iniquities, were afflicted.
18 Their soul abhorred all manner of food,
And they drew near to the gates of death.
19 Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,
And He saved them out of their distresses.
20 He sent His word and healed them,
And delivered them from their destructions.
21 Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness,
And for His wonderful works to the children of men!
22 Let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving,
And declare His works with rejoicing.
Psalm 107 describes a series of trials and tribulations suffered by God’s servants, along with His continued intervention to deliver them out from all such adversities. As the psalm — through the use of waterless, trackless wasteland language — brings to remembrance the return from the Babylonian Exile as well as to the earlier wandering of the Exodus generation, it may also include any experience of being lost and trying to find one’s way back home. Also applicable would be any one or all of us, exiled from the Garden and wandering away from the face of God. That part of the psalm could then be seen as a parable of ourselves “without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.” (Eph. 2:12)
It’s not hard to have this palm speak to us in our frustrating lives within this valley of sorrows. Our good and gracious Lord knows that this is a life of hardship and suffering and that’s exactly why he gives us these inspired words to cry out to Him.
The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther writes this: “The 107th psalm is a psalm of thanks for the help that God shows to all people in their distress, whether they are Gentile or Jew. This help the heathen have sought by various idols and we Christians and the heathen have sought by various saints up until now (and to a great extent still do): For example, “St. Leonard has released the prisoners , St. Bastian delivers from pestilence, St. George protects in battle, St. Erasmus makes one rich, and St. Christopher has become the god of sea and water.” We have thus divided all of God’s help among the saints, as the heathen among their idols, and have stolen and robbed from God —to whom alone this psalm is dedicated and to whom alone the psalm calls on us to thank.” (Readings the Psalms with Luther, CPH, pg. 257)
Let us pray: Lord, continue, in Your mercy, to keep the love of Christ Jesus’ merits before our eyes, to let us know of Your ever-sufficient grace in our on-going times of need. Amen.