Psalm 107
At this point we begin the Fifth and last Book of the Psalms. If we have profited by our study of the first four books, we have discovered how admirably they supplement the writings of the prophets from Isaiah to Malachi, and illuminate the portions of the New Testament which speak of what is to take place on earth in connection with the Jews and the whole nation of Israel. How marvelous in its scope and its unity is the Word of God!
We have been considering in the psalms recently examined, the reign of the Son of David, Jehovah-Jesus, with its consequences, — His rule established, enemies put down, His earthly people blessed as they have never been before, in the thousand years of righteousness and peace foretold by other scriptures for this sin-racked, sorrow-laden world. At this point the Divine Author pauses, as it were, and then in the psalms which follow, gives us a comment on, or review of, the subjects and circumstances presented in the preceding 106 psalms.
Psalm 107 forms a sort of introduction to the Fifth Book. It is a call for the giving of thanks to Jehovah because He is good; because His loving kindness endureth forever, and because of His wondrous works to the children of men (verses 1, 8, 15, 21, 31). The redeemed ones here spoken of comprise all the twice-born souls who will form the Israel of God, and we observe in verses 2 and 3 the two classes into which they fall.
The Jews who are delivered in and near the Holy Land when at extremity of trial, as we have learned from Matthew 24:9-309Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. 10And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. 11And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. 12And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. 13But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. 14And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. 15When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) 16Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains: 17Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: 18Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. 19And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! 20But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: 21For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. 23Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. 24For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. 25Behold, I have told you before. 26Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. 27For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 28For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together. 29Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: 30And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. (Matthew 24:9‑30); Psalms 54, 55, 56, 69, 70, and other passages, are referred to in verse 2; while the redeemed of the lost ten tribes of Israel, yet to be brought back from other lands (Matthew 24:3131And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. (Matthew 24:31); Isaiah 11:11-1311And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. 12And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. 13The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim. (Isaiah 11:11‑13); Jeremiah 31:7-97For thus saith the Lord; Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations: publish ye, praise ye, and say, O Lord, save thy people, the remnant of Israel. 8Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together: a great company shall return thither. 9They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn. (Jeremiah 31:7‑9); Ezekiel 20:34-4434And I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out. 35And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face. 36Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord God. 37And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant: 38And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me: I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am the Lord. 39As for you, O house of Israel, thus saith the Lord God; Go ye, serve ye every one his idols, and hereafter also, if ye will not hearken unto me: but pollute ye my holy name no more with your gifts, and with your idols. 40For in mine holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of Israel, saith the Lord God, there shall all the house of Israel, all of them in the land, serve me: there will I accept them, and there will I require your offerings, and the firstfruits of your oblations, with all your holy things. 41I will accept you with your sweet savor, when I bring you out from the people, and gather you out of the countries wherein ye have been scattered; and I will be sanctified in you before the heathen. 42And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall bring you into the land of Israel, into the country for the which I lifted up mine hand to give it to your fathers. 43And there shall ye remember your ways, and all your doings, wherein ye have been defiled; and ye shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that ye have committed. 44And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have wrought with you for my name's sake, not according to your wicked ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, O ye house of Israel, saith the Lord God. (Ezekiel 20:34‑44)) are seen in verse 3 together with the Jews.
With what rejoicing, what heartfelt thanksgiving will the redeemed of Israel consider their former and present case, we may gather from these psalms. The long years of oppression and of homeless wandering, away from God in heart, are then forever past, but their deliverance is owned as entirely God’s doing.
Three times in this Psalm (verses 4-9; 10-16; 17-22), in deepening understanding, the objects of divine forbearance view their former condition, and (later) what in themselves was the cause of it.
In the first of these, they were simply homeless and needy, and as such they cried to Jehovah and found deliverance in Him; He had brought them to a city of habitation.
But a deeper work is going on in their souls, we judge, and they see themselves more as God saw them; they now reckon that they had been in a pitiable state—prisoners bound in affliction and iron, in darkness and the shadow of death, and that this was due to their rebellion against His words, and despising His counsel; He had bowed down their hearts with labor; they stumbled, and there was none to help. In such evil case as this, had the redeemed of Jehovah been, but, crying to Him in their trouble, He had brought them out and freed them.
Again, in verse 17, the matter is taken up, and this third time the evil is judged at its source: it is not so much the trouble into which they were, but their own character as they now see themselves: fools persons without understanding, and wicked besides. Jehovah answered their cry, sent His Word and healed them, delivered them from their pitfalls.
In verses 23-30 the sovereign power of God, both in bringing man into troubled circumstances, and in taking him out of them when he has learned his helplessness and cries out for deliverance, is set out in the example of the shipmen in a great storm at sea.
Verses 33 to 41 carry on the thought of Jehovah’s power, exercised in delivering His redeemed ones, to consider what He will do in altering the course of things on this earth.
The psalm closes with a word of encouragement: first to the righteous or upright, and after to the wise. The saint of God rejoices in all that His Lord does (verse 42), and the wise—those saints who seek to add to their knowledge of Him—will understand His loving kindnesses. May we be not only “upright,” but “wise” before God.
ML 09/13/1931