Today’s Passage: Psalm 107
This psalm tells four separate stories of desperation, but every one of them follows the exact same pattern: trouble, a cry to God, and rescue.
Context Opening Book V of the Psalter
Psalm 107 opens the fifth and final of the Psalter’s traditional divisions, Book V (Psalms 107-150). This series has now touched the seams of nearly all five books, Book III opening with Psalm 73’s honest wrestling, Book IV closing with Psalm 106’s confession, and now Book V opening here with an invitation to give thanks. Fittingly, this final section of the Psalter opens not with lament but with testimony.
As you read, hold this: watch the refrain repeat four separate times, almost word for word, “Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and He delivered them.” Different crises, identical rescue.
Psalm 107:1-9 (BSB)
¹ Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His loving devotion endures forever. ² Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy ³ and gathered from the lands, from east and west, from north and south. ⁴ Some wandered in desert wastelands, finding no path to a city in which to dwell. ⁵ They were hungry and thirsty; their soul fainted within them. ⁶ Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress. ⁷ He led them on a straight path to reach a city where they could live. ⁸ Let them give thanks to the LORD for His loving devotion and His wonders to the sons of men. ⁹ For He satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.
Word study Redeemed — ga'al (Psalm 107:2)
“Redeemed” translates גָּאַל (ga'al, gah-AL) — Strong's H1350, ga’al, a legal and family term for a kinsman who buys back a relative from slavery or debt, a rescue by someone with the right and the resources to act. The psalm’s opening command is not merely to feel grateful, but to actually say so publicly, “let the redeemed of the LORD say so,” turning private rescue into public testimony.
Psalm 107:10-16 (BSB)
¹⁰ Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in affliction and chains, ¹¹ because they rebelled against the words of God and despised the counsel of the Most High. ¹² He humbled their hearts with hard labor; they stumbled, and there was no one to help. ¹³ Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and He saved them from their distress. ¹⁴ He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death and broke away their chains. ¹⁵ Let them give thanks to the LORD for His loving devotion and His wonders to the sons of men. ¹⁶ For He has broken down the gates of bronze and cut through the bars of iron.
The second vignette differs from the first in one important way: this distress was self-inflicted, rebellion against God, not simply misfortune. The rescue pattern stays exactly the same anyway.
Psalm 107:17-22 (BSB)
¹⁷ Fools, in their rebellious ways, and through their iniquities, suffered affliction. ¹⁸ They loathed all food and drew near to the gates of death. ¹⁹ Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and He saved them from their distress. ²⁰ He sent forth His word and healed them; He rescued them from the Pit. ²¹ Let them give thanks to the LORD for His loving devotion and His wonders to the sons of men. ²² Let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving and declare His works with rejoicing.
Psalm 107:23-32 (BSB)
²³ Others went out to sea in ships, conducting trade on the mighty waters. ²⁴ They saw the works of the LORD, and His wonders in the deep. ²⁵ For He spoke and raised a tempest that lifted the waves of the sea. ²⁶ They mounted up to the heavens, then sunk to the depths; their courage melted in their anguish. ²⁷ They reeled and staggered like drunkards, and all their skill was useless. ²⁸ Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and He brought them out of their distress. ²⁹ He calmed the storm to a whisper, and the waves of the sea were hushed. ³⁰ They rejoiced in the silence, and He guided them to the harbor they desired. ³¹ Let them give thanks to the LORD for His loving devotion and His wonders to the sons of men. ³² Let them exalt Him in the assembly of the people and praise Him in the council of the elders.
Study notes A scene Jesus later steps directly into
This psalm’s fourth vignette, a terrified crew on a storm-tossed sea, describes almost exactly what happens centuries later in the Gospels, except this time, God’s rescue arrives in a human body, in the boat with the frightened disciples.
"Then Jesus got up and rebuked the wind and the sea. 'Silence!' He commanded. 'Be still!' And the wind died down, and it was perfectly calm." Mark 4:39 (BSB)
Where this psalm says God “calmed the storm to a whisper,” the Gospels record Jesus doing that very thing with a spoken word, standing in the boat itself. The pattern this psalm describes from a distance becomes, in the Gospels, something the disciples watched happen right in front of them.
Psalm 107:33-43 (BSB)
³³ He turns rivers into deserts, springs of water into thirsty ground, ³⁴ and fruitful land into fields of salt, because of the wickedness of its dwellers. ³⁵ He turns a desert into pools of water and a dry land into flowing springs. ³⁶ He causes the hungry to settle there, that they may establish a city in which to dwell. ³⁷ They sow fields and plant vineyards that yield a fruitful harvest. ³⁸ He blesses them, and they multiply greatly; He does not let their herds diminish. ³⁹ When they are decreased and humbled by oppression, evil, and sorrow, ⁴⁰ He pours out contempt on the nobles and makes them wander in a trackless wasteland. ⁴¹ But He lifts the needy from affliction and increases their families like flocks. ⁴² The upright see and rejoice, and all iniquity shuts its mouth. ⁴³ Let him who is wise pay heed to these things and consider the loving devotion of the LORD.
The psalm’s closing meditation widens the pattern one more time: the same God who rescues desperate individuals also reverses fortunes on a much larger scale, humbling the proud and lifting the needy.
Personal Application
- This psalm’s refrain repeats four times: cry out, then rescue. Is there a current trouble you have not yet honestly cried out to God about, perhaps because it feels too small or too self-inflicted?
- Verse 2 commands the redeemed to actually “say so,” turning private rescue into public testimony. Is there a specific way God has rescued you that you have never actually told anyone?
Decision of the day: Tell one specific story of a time God rescued you, out loud, to at least one other person today, following this psalm’s own command to let the redeemed actually say so.
Pray to Close
The truth to carry from this psalm: whatever kind of trouble you are in, wandering, trapped, sick, or storm-tossed, the same God who has rescued others is the God who hears an honest cry.
Praise: for the LORD whose loving devotion endures forever, in every kind of distress this psalm names.
Confess: any trouble you have been silently enduring rather than honestly crying out about.
Ask: for the courage to actually say so, publicly, the next time God answers your own cry.
Worship for Today
Eye of the Storm · Ryan Stevenson
This song’s confession, that God is “the peace in my troubled sea,” echoes this psalm’s own storm-tossed sailors crying out and finding the waves calmed to a whisper, the same rescue still available in every kind of storm.
Listen: