Psalms 107 commentary

In these verses there is reference to the deliverance from Egypt, and perhaps that from Babylon: but the circumstances of travellers in those countries are also noted. It is scarcely possible to conceive the horrors suffered by the hapless traveller, when crossing the trackless sands, exposed to the burning rays of the sum. The words describe their case whom the Lord has redeemed from the bondage of Satan; who pass through the world as a dangerous and dreary wilderness, often ready to faint through troubles, fears, and temptations. Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, after God, and communion with him, shall be filled with the goodness of his house, both in grace and glory.

This description of prisoners and captives intimates that they are desolate and sorrowful. In the eastern prisons the captives were and are treated with much severity. Afflicting providences must be improved as humbling providences; and we lose the benefit, if our hearts are unhumbled and unbroken under them. This is a shadow of the sinner's deliverance from a far worse confinement. The awakened sinner discovers his guilt and misery. Having struggled in vain for deliverance, he finds there is no help for him but in the mercy and grace of God. His sin is forgiven by a merciful God, and his pardon is accompanied by deliverance from the power of sin and Satan, and by the sanctifying and comforting influences of God the Holy Spirit.

If we knew no sin, we should know no sickness. Sinners are fools. They hurt their bodily health by intemperance, and endanger their lives by indulging their appetites. This their way is their folly. The weakness of the body is the effect of sickness. It is by the power and mercy of God that we are recovered from sickness, and it is our duty to be thankful. All Christ's miraculous cures were emblems of his healing diseases of the soul. It is also to be applied to the spiritual cures which the Spirit of grace works. He sends his word, and heals souls; convinces, converts them, makes them holy, and all by the word. Even in common cases of recovery from sickness, God in his providence speaks, and it is done; by his word and Spirit the soul is restored to health and holiness.

Let those who go to sea, consider and adore the Lord. Mariners have their business upon the tempestuous ocean, and there witness deliverances of which others cannot form an idea. How seasonable it is at such a time to pray! This may remind us of the terrors and distress of conscience many experience, and of those deep scenes of trouble which many pass through, in their Christian course. Yet, in answer to their cries, the Lord turns their storm into a calm, and causes their trials to end in gladness.

What surprising changes are often made in the affairs of men! Let the present desolate state of Judea, and of other countries, explain this. If we look abroad in the world, we see many greatly increase, whose beginning was small. We see many who have thus suddenly risen, as suddenly brought to nothing. Worldly wealth is uncertain; often those who are filled with it, ere they are aware, lose it again. God has many ways of making men poor. The righteous shall rejoice. It shall fully convince all those who deny the Divine Providence. When sinners see how justly God takes away the gifts they have abused, they will not have a word to say. It is of great use to us to be fully assured of God's goodness, and duly affected with it. It is our wisdom to mind our duty, and to refer our comfort to him. A truly wise person will treasure in his heart this delightful psalm. From it, he will fully understand the weakness and wretchedness of man, and the power and loving-kindness of God, not for our merit, but for his mercy's sake.

PSALM 107

The Psalmist teaches us, in the first place, that human affairs are not regulated by the fickle and uncertain wheel of fortune, but that we must observe the judgments of God in the different vicissitudes which occur in the world, and which men imagine happen by chance. Consequently, adversity and all the ills which mankind endure, as shipwrecks, famines, banishments, diseases, and disasters in war, are to be regarded as so many tokens of God’s displeasure, by which he summons them, on account of their sins, before his judicial throne. But prosperity, and the happy issue of events, ought also to be attributed to his grace, in order that he may always receive the praise which he deserves, that of being a merciful Father, and an impartial Judge. About the close of the psalm, he inveighs against those ungodly men who will not acknowledge God’s hand, amid such palpable demonstrations of his providence. “The author of this psalm is not known; but it was probably David, although some think it better to consider it as having been written after the return from the Babylonish captivity. This psalm is of very singular construction, and was obviously intended to be sung in responses. It has a frequently recurring double burden or intercalary verse. The first burden is found in verses 6, 13, 19, 28; the second 8, 15, 21, 31; that is, after the description of a class of calamities comes the first chorus expressing the cry to the Lord for deliverance; then a single verse describes the deliverance as granted, after which follows the chorus of thanksgiving — and thus on to verse 35, where the system ends. The last two burdens are, however, separate by two verses instead of one, as before. It will also be observed, that the second chorus has sometimes annexed another reflective distich, illustrative of the sentiment, as in verses 9, 16. There are many other examples of a similar arrangement to be found in the Psalms; but in Lowth’s opinion, few of them are equal, and none superior, to this.” — Illustrated Commentary upon the Bible. The beauties of this very interesting and highly instructive composition are many and striking, of which the least intelligent reader who peruses it with any degree of attention must be convinced. In point of poetical beauty, it may, according to the best judges, be classed with the most admired productions of Theocritus, Bion, Moschus, or Virgil. “It may undoubtedly be enumerated,” remarks Lowth, “among the most elegant monuments of antiquity; and it is chiefly indebted for its elegance to the general plan and conduct of the poem. It celebrates the goodness and mercy of God towards mankind, as demonstrated in the immediate assistance and comfort which he affords, in the greatest calamities, to those who devoutly implore his aid: in the first place, to those who wander in the desert, and who encounter the horrors of famine; next, to those who are in bondage; again, to those who are afflicted with disease; and, finally, to those who are tossed about upon the ocean. The prolixity of the argument is occasionally relieved by narration; and examples are superadded of the divine severity in punishing the wicked, as well as of his benignity to the devout and virtuous.” — Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews, volume 2, page 376. “Had such an Idyl,” says Dr Adam Clarke, “appeared in Theocritus or Virgil, or had it been found as a scene in any of the Greek Tragedies, even in æschylus himself, it would have been praised up to the heavens, and probably been produced as their masterpiece.”

Psalm 107:1-9

1. Praise Jehovah, because he is good: because his mercy endureth for ever. 2. Let the redeemed of Jehovah say this, “Let the redeemed of the Lord say, viz., what is said in the latter part of the preceding verse, that his mercy endureth for ever. — See Psalm 118:1, and following verses.” — Phillips. whom he hath redeemed out of the hand of the afflicted. “מיד-צר, from the hand or power of the enemy. Luther has translated it, aus Noth, from want; in which translation he is followed by Hengstenberg, who observes, that צר, want, ‘is here personified, and is represented as a dangerous enemy, who has Israel in his hand. In the whole psalm the discourse is not concerning enemies, but only concerning want or misery.’ — See verses 6, 13. He is probably right, for it is doubtful whether צר, ever signifies an enemy, except, perhaps, in a few passages in the latter books of the Bible.” — Phillips. 3. Whom he hath gathered out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south. The original word is ומים, “and from the sea;” to which agree all the ancient versions, and the Chaldee interprets it of the Southern Sea. ים is often put for the Mediterranean Sea; which being west of Judea, this word came to signify generally the west, when employed to express one of the cardinal points, Genesis 12:8; Exodus 10:19. But it is also used for the Red Sea, as in Psalm 114:3, where ים is put absolutely for סוף, which lay to the south of Judea, and hence the word might denote the south point. Hare, Secker, Kennicott, and Horsley, would read מימין, “from the south.” Gesenius and Hengstenberg are of opinion, apparently without sufficient reason, that ים, both in this passage and in Isaiah 49:12, where it is also joined with צפון, the north, has the signification of west. 4. They wandered from the way in the solitary desert, “Ou, Ils se sont fourvoyez au desert tous seulets.” — Fr. marg. “Or, they wandered solitary in the desert.” they did not find a city of habitation. 5. Both hungry and thirsty, so that their soul fainted within them. 6. In their straits they called upon Jehovah, and he delivered them from all their afflictions. 7. And he directed them by a right way, that they might come to a city of habitation. 8. Let them praise the mercy of Jehovah in his prescience, and his marvelous works in the presence of the sons of men. 9. Because he hath satisfied the longing soul, and hath filled the hungry soul with goodness.

1 Praise Jehovah. We have already explained this verse, for it formed the commencement of the preceding psalm. And it appears that it was not only frequently used among the Jews, but also so incorporated with other psalms, that when one part of the chorus on the one side was singing a portion of the psalm, the other part of the chorus on the opposite side in its turn, after each succeeding verse, responded, Praise Jehovah, because he is good, etc The penman of this psalm, whoever he was, has, instead of the ordinary preface, inserted this beautiful sentiment, in which praise and thanksgiving to God were so frequently expressed by the Israelitish Church. Immediately he proceeds to speak more particularly. And first, he exhorts those to offer up a tribute of gratitude to God; who, after having been delivered from slavery and imprisonment, and after a long and painful journey, arrived in safety at their place of abode. These he calls the redeemed of God; because, in wandering through the trackless desert, and howling wilderness, they many a time would have been prevented from returning home, had not God, as it were, with his outstretched hand, appeared as their guard and their guide. He does not here refer to travelers indiscriminately, but to such as either by hostile power, or by any other kind of violence, or by stern necessity, having been banished to distant regions, felt themselves to be in the midst of imminent dangers; or it may be, that he refers to those who had been made prisoners by enemies, pirates, or other robbers. He reminds them that it was by no casual occurrence that they had been driven about in that manner, and had been brought back to their native country, but that all their wanderings had been under the superintending providence of God.

But the second verse might be conjoined with the first, as if the prophet were commanding the persons whom he was addressing to sing this celebrated ode. It may with equal propriety be read by itself thus: Let the redeemed of Jehovah, who have returned from captivity to their own land, come forth now, and take part in the celebration of God’s praises, and let them publish his loving-kindness which they have experienced in their deliverance. Among the Jews, who had occasion to undertake extensive journeys, such occurrences as these were very common; because they could hardly leave their own land, without from all quarters encountering ways rugged, and difficult, and perilous; and the same observation is equally applicable to mankind in general. He reminds them how often they wandered and turned aside from the right way, and found no place of shelter; a thing by no means rare in these lonely deserts. Were a person to enter a forest without any knowledge of the proper direction, he would, in the course of his wandering, be in danger of becoming the prey of lions and wolves. He has, however, particularly in his eye those who, finding themselves unexpectedly in desert places, are also in danger of perishing for hunger and thirst. For it is certain that such persons are hourly in hazard of death, unless the Lord come to their rescue.

PSALM 107

Psa 107:1-43. Although the general theme of this Psalm may have been suggested by God's special favor to the Israelites in their restoration from captivity, it must be regarded as an instructive celebration of God's praise for His merciful providence to all men in their various emergencies. Of these several are given--captivity and bondage, wanderings by land and sea, and famine; some as evidences of God's displeasure, and all the deliverances as evidence of His goodness and mercy to them who humbly seek Him.

1-2. This call for thankful praise is the burden or chorus (compare Psa 107:8, 15, &c.).

3. gathered--alluding to the dispersion of captives throughout the Babylonian empire.

from the south--literally, "the sea," or, Red Sea (Psa 114:3), which was on the south.

4-7. A graphic picture is given of the sufferings of those who from distant lands returned to Jerusalem; or,

city of habitation--may mean the land of Palestine.

8-9. To the chorus is added, as a reason for praise, an example of the extreme distress from which they had been delivered--extreme hunger, the severest privation of a journey in the desert.

10-16. Their sufferings were for their rebellion against (Psa 105:28) the words, or purposes, or promises, of God for their benefit. When humbled they cry to God, who delivers them from bondage, described as a dark dungeon with doors and bars of metal, in which they are bound in iron--that is, chains and fetters.

shadow of death--darkness with danger (Psa 23:4).

17-22. Whether the same or not, this exigency illustrates that dispensation of God according to which sin brings its own punishment.

are afflicted--literally, "afflict themselves," that is, bring on disease, denoted by loathing of food, and drawing

23-32. Here are set forth the perils of seafaring, futility of man's, and efficiency of God's, help.

go ... sea--alluding to the elevation of the land at the coast.

33-41. He turneth rivers into a wilderness, &c.--God's providence is illustriously displayed in His influence on two great elements of human prosperity, the earth's productiveness and the powers of government. He punishes the wicked by destroying the sources of fertility, or, in mercy, gives fruitfulness to deserts, which become the homes of a busy and successful agricultural population. By a permitted misrule and tyranny, this scene of prosperity is changed to one of adversity. He rules rulers, setting up one and putting down another.

42-43. In this providential government, good men will rejoice, and the cavils of the wicked will be stopped (Job 5:16; Is 52:15), and all who take right views will appreciate God's unfailing mercy and unbounded love.

O give thanks - Here is a duty prescribed; and the reasons of it are immediately laid down.

1. He is good. This is his nature.

2. His mercy endureth for ever.

This is the stream that flows from the fountain of his goodness.

Let the redeemed of the Lord say so - For they have had the fullest proof of this goodness, in being saved by the continuing stream of his mercy.

And gathered them out of the lands - Though many Jews returned into Jerusalem from various parts of the world, under the reigns of Darius Hystaspes, Artaxerxes, and Alexander the Great; yet this prophecy has its completion only under the Gospel, when all the ends of the earth hear the salvation of God.

They wandered in the wilderness - Here begins the Finest comparison: the Israelites in captivity are compared to a traveler in a dreary, uninhabited, and barren desert, spent with hunger and thirst, as well as by the fatigues of the journey, Psa 107:5.

Then they cried unto the Lord - When the Israelites began to pray heartily, and the eyes of all the tribes were as the eyes of one man turned unto the Lord, then he delivered them out of their distresses.

That they might go to a city of habitation - God stirred up the heart of Cyrus to give them liberty to return to their own land: and Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah, at different times, brought many of them back to Judea.

O that men would praise the Lord - This is what is called the intercalary verse, or burden of each part of this responsive song: see the introduction. God should be praised because he is good. We naturally speak highly of those who are eminent. God is infinitely excellent, and should be celebrated for his perfections. But he does wonders for the children of men; and, therefore, men should praise the Lord. And he is the more to be praised, because these wonders, נפלאות niphlaoth, miracles of mercy and grace, are done for the undeserving. They are done לבני אדם libney adam, for the children of Adam, the corrupt descendants of a rebel father.

For he satisfieth the longing soul - This is the reason which the psalmist gives for the duty of thankfulness which he prescribes. The longing soul, נפש שוקקה nephesh shokekah, the soul that pushes forward in eager desire after salvation.

Such as sit in darkness - Here begins the Second similitude, which he uses to illustrate the state of the captives in Babylon viz., that of a prisoner in a dreary dungeon.

1. They sit in or inhabit darkness. They have no light, no peace, no prosperity.

2. "In the shadow of death." The place where death reigns, over which he has projected his shadow; those against whom the sentence of death has been pronounced.

3. They are bound in this darkness, have no liberty to revisit the light, and cannot escape from their executioners.

4. They are afflicted, not only by want and privation in general, but they are tortured in the prison, עני oni, afflicted, humbled, distressed.

5. Their fetters are such as they cannot break; they are iron. The reason of their being in this wretched state is given.

Because they rebelled against the words of God -

1. God showed them their duty and their interest, and commanded them to obey his word; but they cast off all subjection to his authority, acted as if they were independent of heaven and earth, and broke out into open rebellion against him.

2. He counsealed and exhorted them to return to him: but they contemned his advice, and turned his counsel into ridicule.

3. As lenient means were ineffectual, he visited them in judgment: hence it is added,

He brought down their heart with labor - He delivered them into the hands of their enemies. and, as they would not be under subjection to God, he delivered them into slavery to wicked men: "So they fell down, and there was none to help;" God had forsaken them because they had forsaken him.

Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble - This was the salutary effect which their afflictions produced: they began to cry to God for mercy and help; and God mercifully heard their prayer, and reversed their state; for,

He brought then out of darkness -

1. Gave them again peace and prosperity.

2. Repealed the sentence of death.

3. "Unbound the poor prisoners."

4. Broke their iron bonds in sunder.

O that men, etc. - This is the intercalary verse, or burden, of the second part, as it was of the first. See Psa 107:8.

For he hath broken - This is the reason given for thanks to God for his deliverance of the captives. It was not a simple deliverance; it was done so as to manifest the irresistible power of God. He tore the prison in pieces, and cut the bars of iron asunder.

Fools because of their transgression - This is the Third comparison; the captivity being compared to a person in a dangerous malady. Our Version does not express this clause well: Fools מדרך פשעם midderech pisham, because of the way of their transgressions, are afflicted. Most human maladies are the fruits of sin; misery and sin are married together in bonds that can never be broken.

Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat - A natural description of a sick man: appetite is gone, and all desire for food fails; nutriment is no longer necessary, for death has seized upon the whole frame. See a similar image, Job 33:20 (note).

Then they cry - The effect produced by affliction as before.

He sent his word, and healed them - He spoke: "Be thou clean, be thou whole;" and immediately the disease departed; and thus they were delivered from the destructions that awaited them.

O that men, etc. - The intercalary verse, or burden, as before.

And let them sacrifice - For their healing they should bring a sacrifice; and they should offer the life of the innocent animal unto God, as he has spared their lives; and let them thus confess that God has spared then when they deserved to die; and let them declare also "his works with rejoicing;" for who will not rejoice when he is delivered from death?

They that go down to the sea in ships - This is the Fourth comparison. Their captivity was as dangerous and alarming as a dreadful tempest at sea to a weather-beaten mariner.

These see the works of the Lord - Splendid, Divinely impressive, and glorious in fine weather.

His wonders in the deep - Awfully terrible in a tempest.

For he commandeth - And what less than the command of God can raise up such winds as seem to heave old Ocean from his bed?

They mount up to the heaven - This is a most natural and striking description of the state of a ship at sea in a storm: when the sea appears to run mountains high, and the vessel seems for a moment to stand on the sharp ridge of one most stupendous, with a valley of a frightful depth between it and a similar mountain, which appears to be flying in the midst of heaven, that it may submerge the hapless bark, when she descends into the valley of death below. This is a sight the most terrific that can be imagined: nor can any man conceive or form an adequate idea of it, who has not himself been at sea in such a storm.

Their soul is melted because of trouble - This is not less expressive than it is descriptive. The action of raising the vessel to the clouds, and precipitating her into the abyss, seems to dissolve the very soul: the whole mind seems to melt away, so that neither feeling, reflection, nor impression remains, nothing but the apprehension of inevitable destruction! When the ship is buffeted between conflicting waves, which threaten either to tear her asunder or crush her together; when she reels to and fro, and staggers like a drunken man, not being able to hold any certain course; when sails and masts are an incumbrance, and the helm of no use; when all hope of safety is taken away; and when the experienced captain, the skillful pilot, and the hardy sailors, cry out, with a voice more terrible than the cry of fire at midnight, We are All lost! we are all Lost! then, indeed, are they at their wit's end; or, as the inimitable original expresses it, וחל חכמתם תתבלע vechol chochmatham tithballa, "and all their skill is swallowed up," - seems to be gulped down by the frightful abyss into which the ship is about to be precipitated. Then, indeed, can the hand of God alone "bring them out of their distresses." Then, a cry to the Almighty (and in such circumstances it is few that can lift up such a cry) is the only means that can be used to save the perishing wreck! Reader, dost thou ask why I paint thus, and from whose authority I describe? I answer: Not from any books describing storms, tempests, and shipwrecks; not from the relations of shipwrecked marines; not from viewing from the shore a tempest at sea, and seeing a vessel beat to pieces, and all its crew, one excepted, perish. Descriptions of this kind I have read, with the shipwrecked mariner I have conversed, the last scene mentioned above I have witnessed: but none of these could give the fearful impressions, the tremendous and soul-melting apprehensions, described above. "Where then have you had them?" I answer, From the great deep. I have been at sea in the storm, and in the circumstances I describe; and, having cried to the Lord in my trouble, I am spared to describe the storm, and recount the tale of his mercy. None but either a man inspired by God, who, in describing, will show things as they are, or one who has been actually in these circumstances, can tell you with what propriety the psalmist speaks, or utter the thousandth part of the dangers and fearful apprehensions of those concerned in a tempest at sea, where all the winds of heaven seem collected to urge an already crazy vessel among the most tremendous rocks upon a lee shore! God save the reader from such circumstances!

When, in the visitation of the winds, He takes the ruffian billows by the top, Curling their monstrous heads, and hanging them, With deafening clamours,on the slippery clouds, That with the hurly death itself awakes! Henry IV.

A storm at sea - the lifting the vessel to the clouds - her sinking into the vast marine valleys - the melting of the soul - and being at their wit's end, are well touched by several of the ancient poets. See particularly Virgil's description of the storm that dispersed the fleet of Aeneas, who was himself not unacquainted with the dangers of the sea: -

Tollimur in coelum curvato gurgite, et idem

Subducta ad manes imos descendimus unda.

Aen. iii., 364.

Now on a towering arch of waves we rise,

Heaved on the bounding billows to the skies.

Then, as the roaring surge retreating fell,

We shoot down headlong to the gates of hell.

Pitt.

Rector in incerto est, nec quid fugiatve, petatve,

Invenit: ambiguis ars stupet ipsa malis. "The pilot himself is in doubt what danger to shun; or whither to steer for safety he knows not: his skill is nonplussed by the choice of the difficulties before him."

See more in the analysis.

He maketh the storm a calm - He causes the storm to stand dumb, and hushes the waves. See the original, where sense and sound emphatically meet: - גליהם ויחשו לדממה סארה יקם galleyhem vaiyecheshu lidemamah searah yakem He shall cause the whirlwind to stand dumb, and he shall hush their billows.

Then are they glad because they be quiet - The turbulence of the sea being hushed, and the waves still, they rejoice to see an end to the tempest; and thus, having fine weather, a smooth sea, and fair wind, they are speedily brought to the desired haven.

O that men - The intercalary verse, or burden, as before. See Psa 107:8.

Let them exalt him also in the congregation - Their deliverance from such imminent danger, and in a way which clearly showed the Divine interposition, demands, not only gratitude of heart and the song of praise at the end of the storm, but when they come to shore that they publicly acknowledge it in the congregation of God's people. I have been often pleased, when in sea-port towns, to see and hear notes sent to the minister from pious sailors, returning thanks to the Almighty for preservation from shipwreck, and, in general, from the dangers of the sea; and for bringing them back in safety to their own port. Thus "they exalt the Lord in the congregation, and praise him in the assembly of the elders." And is it not something of this kind that the psalmist requires?

He turneth rivers into a wilderness - After having, as above, illustrated the state of the Jews in their captivity, and the deliverance which God wrought for them, he now turns to the general conduct of God in reference to the poor and needy; and his gracious Interpositions in their behalf, the providential supply of their wants, and his opposition to their oppressors. On account of the wickedness of men, he sometimes changes a fruitful land into a desert. See the general state of Egypt in the present time: once a fertile land; now an arid, sandy wilderness. Again, by his blessing on honest industry, he has changed deserts into highly fertile ground. And, as for the wickedness of their inhabitants, many lands are cursed and rendered barren; so, when a people acknowledge him in all their ways, he blesses their toil, gives them rain and fruitful seasons, and fills their hearts with joy and gladness.

And there he maketh the hungry to dwell - All this seems to apply admirably to the first colonists of any place. They flee from a land of want, an ingrata terra that did not repay their toil, and they seek the wilderness where the land wants only cultivation to make it produce all the necessaries of life. He, by his providence, so guides their steps as to lead them to rivers which they can navigate, and from which they can procure plenty of fish, and shows them wells or springs which they have not digged. The hungry dwell there; and jointly agree, for convenience and defense, to build them a city for habitation. They sow the fields which they have cleared; and plant vineyards, and orchards which yield them in creasing fruits, Psa 107:37, and he multiplies their cattle greatly, and does not suffer them to decrease, Psa 107:38. What a fine picture is this of the first peopling and planting of America, and of the multiplication and extension of that people; of the Divine blessing on their industry, and the general and astonishing prosperity of their country! May they never again know what is spoken in the following verse:

Again, they are minished - Sometimes by war, or pestilence, or famine. How minished and brought low was the country already spoken of, by the long and destructive war which began in 1775, and was not ended till 1783! And what desolations, minishings, and ruin have been brought on the fertile empires of Europe by the war which commenced in 1792, and did not end till 1814! And how many millions of lives have been sacrificed in it, and souls sent unprepared into the eternal world! When God makes inquisition for blood, on whose heads will he find the blood of these slaughtered millions? Alas! O, alas!

He poureth contempt upon princes - How many have lately been raised from nothing, and set upon thrones! And how many have been cast down from thrones, and reduced to nothing! And where are now those mighty troublers of the earth? On both sides they are in general gone to give an account of themselves to God. And what an account!

Where there is no way - Who can consider the fate of the late emperor of the French, Napoleon, without seeing the hand of God in his downfall! All the powers of Europe were leagued against him in vain, they were as stubble to his bow. "He came, He saw, and He conquered" almost every where, till God, by a Russian Frost, destroyed his tens of thousands of veteran troops. And afterwards his armies of raw conscripts would have over-matched the world had not a particular providence intervened at Waterloo, when all the skill and valor of his opponents had been nearly reduced to nothing. How terrible art thou, O Lord, in thy judgments! Thou art fearful in praises, doing wonders.

The dreary rock of St. Helena, where there was no way, saw a period to the mighty conqueror, who had strode over all the countries of Europe!

Yet setteth he the poor on high - This probably refers to the case of the Israelites and their restoration from captivity. But these are incidents which frequently occur, and mark the superintendence of a benign Providence, and the hand of a just God; and are applicable to a multitude of cases.

The righteous shall see it - The wicked are as inconsiderate as they are obstinate and headstrong.

And rejoice - To have such ample proofs that God ruleth in the earth, and that none that trust in him shall be desolate.

All iniquity shall stop her mouth - God's judgments and mercies are so evident, and so distinctly marked, that atheism, infidelity, and irreligion are confounded, and the cause of error and falsehood has become hopeless. It was only the mouth that could do any thing; and that only by lies, calumnies, and blasphemies: but God closes this mouth, pours contempt upon the head and judgment upon the heart. This may also be applied to the case of the Israelttes and the Babylonians. The former, when they turned to God, became righteous; the latter were a personification of all iniquity.

Whoso is wise - That is, He that is wise, he that fears God, and regards the operation of his hand will observe - lay up and keep, these things. He will hide them in his heart, that he sin not against Jehovah. He will encourage himself in the Lord, because he finds that he is a never-failing spring of goodness to the righteous.

They shall understand the lovinq-kindness of the Lord - חסדי יהוה chasdey Yehovah, the exuberant goodness of Jehovah. This is his peculiar and most prominent characteristic among men; for "judgment is his strange work." What a wonderful discourse on Divine Providence, and God's management of the world, does this inimitable Psalm contain! The ignorant cannot read it without profit; and by the study of it, the wise man will become yet wiser.

Gathered - Into their own land.

No city - Or rather, no town inhabited, where they might refresh themselves.

The Lord - Heb. Unto Jehovah, to the true God. For the Heathens had, many of them, some knowledge of the true God.

Forth - Out of the wilderness.

Darkness - In dark prisons or dungeons.

Heart - The pride and obstinacy of their hearts. Fell - They fell into hopeless miseries.

Afflicted - With sickness.

Word - His command, or blessing.

Exalt him - In public assemblies, and before all persons, as they have opportunity. Elders - The magistrates or rulers; let them not be ashamed nor afraid to speak of God's wonderful works, before the greatest of men.

Rivers - Those grounds which are well watered, and therefore fruitful. And so the water - springs, here, and the standing water, ver.35 are taken. Into - Into a dry ground, which is like a parched and barren wilderness.

For - He doth not inflict these judgments without cause, but for the punishment of sin in some, and the prevention of it in others.

Water - Into a well - watered and fruitful land.

Hungry - Poor people who could not provide for themselves.

They - These men, who when they are exalted by God, grow insolent and secure. Low - By God's just judgment.

Contempt - Renders them despicable. Wander - Banishes them from their own courts and kingdoms, and forces them to flee into desolate wildernesses for shelter.

1. O Give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever .

This whole verse occurs also Psal. 106. 1. Only there the address is made to the Israelites, and here to all mankind.

Marginal references: Psal. 106. 1. & 118. 1. and 136. 1.

2. Let the redeemed of the LORD say so , whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy .

All they whom God hath redeemed, as it is expressed in the next clause, or delivered from all the following calamities.

To wit, that the Lord is good, &c. as it is v. 1.

Of such as had taken them Captives, either in Battel, or in their Travels, to which they were led by their own inclinations, or by their necessary occasions.

3. And gathered them out of the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north , and from the south .

Bringing them into their own land, out of the several quarters of the World into which they had been carrled,

Heb. from the Sea. Which in Scripture commonly notes the West, because the great Mid-land Sea was on the West of Canaan; but here, as it appears from the opposition of this to the North, it notes the South, so called from the Red-sea, which was on the South, and which is sometimes called the Sea, simply and without addition, as Psal. 72. 8. & 114. 3.

Marginal references: Heb. from the Sea.

4. They wandred in the wilderness in a solitary way, they found no city to dwell in .

Mistaking their way, which they might easily do in the vast and sandy desarts of Arabia.

Or rather, no City or Town inhabited, where they might refresh themselves, as Travellers used to do; for they did not go into the Wilderness to seek for a City or Habitation there, but only intended to pass through it, as appears by the context, and by the nature of the thing.

5. Hungry and thirsty, their Soul fainted in them .

Partly for want of necessary Provisions, and partly through anguish of spirit.

6. Then they cryed unto the LORD , in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses .

Heb. Unto Iehovah, to the true God. For the Heathens, of whom he speaks, had many of them some knowledge of the true God, and did in their manner worship him with and in their Idols; and especially in their distresses, when they discovered the impotency of their Idols, they did direct their Prayers immediately to the true God, of which there are many instances of Heathen Writers.

In answer to their Prayers, which he did not, because their Prayers were acceptable to him, but partly out of the benignity and compassionateness of his nature to all his creatures; partly to encourage and preserve the use of Prayer and Religion among the Gentiles, and to oblige them to a more diligent search after the knowledge of the true God, and of his Worship; and partly to give his own People assurance of his great readiness to hear and answer all those Prayers, which with upright hearts they offered to him according to his word.

7. And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation .

Out of the Wilderness where they had lost their way, v. 4.

See before on v. 4.

8. Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men .

Heb. Let them praise. Or, They shall praise, i. e. They are highly obliged to praise.

Not only to his peculiar people, but to all mankind, to whom he is very kind and bountiful.

Marginal references: Heb. let them [illegible: 1 word] to the LORD his goodness. So Gr.

9. For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness .

Either the thirsty, opposed to the hungry here following: or the hungry, as this general phrase is limited and expounded in the next clause.

With the fruits of his goodness, with good things, Psal. 103. 5. with food and gladness, Act. 14. 17. with that good which they wanted and desired.

10. Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death , being bound in affliction and iron .

In a disconsolate and fo[illegible: 1+ letters]lorn condition, in dark prisons or dungeons.

With afflicting or grievous irons. Or, in the cords of affliction, as they are called Iob 36. 8. and particularly in iron fetters.

11. Because they rebelled against the words of God , and contemned the counsel of the most High.

Against Gods commands made known either 1. by his written Word delivered to the Jews, of which the Gentiles were not ignorant, which therefore they should have diligently inquired after and searched into, as the Queen of Sheba came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and as divers of the Heathens travelled into very remote parts to gain a more perfect knowledge of the Arts and Sciences: which will justly be laid to their charge, and condemn them for their neglect of that Divine wisdom, which was treasured up in the holy Scriptures. Or, 2. by the Prophets, who some times were sent to the Gentiles. Or, 3. by the Law and light of Nature, and by it's Interpreters, their wise and learned Philosophers, who delivered many excellent rules and precepts of piety and virtue which were sufficient, though not for their salvation without Christ, yet for the conduct of their lives in a great measure, and to leave them without excuse for their gross disobedience thereunto.

12. Therefore he brought down their heart with labour , they fell down, and there was none to help .

The pride and rebellion and obstinacy of their hearts.

Or, with trouble or troubles.

They fell into their enemies hands, and into hopeless and remediless miseries.

16. For he hath broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sunder .

He restored them to liberty in spight of all impedimen's and oppositions.

17. Fools , because of their transgression , and because of their iniquities, are afflicted .

i. e. Wicked men, whom he calls fools, because of the mischiefs which through their own folly they bring upon themselves.

Heb. because of the way of their transgression, i. e. their custom and course of sinning, as the word, way, is used Psal. 1. 1. Prov. 2. 12. They did not fall into sin once or twice, as good men may do, but it was their usual practice, and therefore they are justly punished.

With wasting sickness, as appears from v. 18, 20. Compare Iob 33. 19, &c. Psal. 39. 12, &c.

Marginal references: Psal. 38. 5.; Heb. from the way of.

18. Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat , and they draw near unto the gates of death .

Either themselves with all their soul: or their appetite, as the soul is taken, Iob 33. 20. Isa. 29. 8.

Which is an usual effect of great sickness.

They are sick well-nigh unto death.

Marginal references: Job 33. 20.; Psal. 9. 13. & 8[illegible: 1+ letters]. 3.

20. He sent his word , and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.

His command, or his blessing, which came with power.

22. And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving , and declare his works with rejoycing.

Either properly so called; or, praises and thanksgivings to God, which in Scripture are called Sacrifices, because they are no less acceptable to God than costly Sacrifices.

Marginal references: Lev. 7. 12. Psal. 50. 14.; Heb. singing.

23. They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters:

He saith, go down, either because the Sea or the shore of it is commonly lower than their habitations from whence they come, or than the natural or artificial banks which are raised to prevent the inundation of the waters: or because the Sea is lower than the earth, as may be gathered from the rivers which run down into it.

Whose occupation lies there, either as Merchants, or as Mariners.

24. These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep.

His wonderful works, either, 1. of Creation, fishes of various kinds and shapes, and some of prodigious greatness, which are unknown to other men. Or, 2. of Providence, in raising and laying storms, of which he speaks in the following verses.

25. For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind which lifteth up the waves thereof.

The winds and storms come not by chance, but by the disposition of Divine providence.

Marginal references: Heb. maketh to stand.

26. They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths , their soul is melted, because of trouble .

Towards the bottom of the Sea.

Through the perplexity of their minds, and fear of sudden and violent death.

27. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man , and are at their wits end.

Not so much from the giddiness of their heads, which is not usual in persons accustomed to the Sea, as through the violent and various motions of the Sea and the ship.

Marginal references: Heb. all [illegible: 1 word] wisdom is swallowed up.

32. Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people , and praise him in the assembly of the elders .

Not only in their own hearts and families, but even in publick assemblies, and before all persons, as they have opportunity.

The Magistrates or Rulers; who are here opposed to the people. The sence is, let them not be ashamed nor afraid to speak of Gods wonderful works and praises before the greatest of men, as mean persons commonly are. Compare Psal 119. 46. Or he mentions the Elders particularly, because they were most apt to neglect and forget God, and to exa[illegible: 1+ letters]t themselves above and against him; and therefore it was meet and necessary that they should be acquainted with the Almighty power and universal providence and dominion of God, that they themselves might learn subjection and reverence to God, and might promote it among their people.

33. He turneth rivers into a wilderness , and the water-springs into dry ground:

Either 1. properly so called; which he can divert or dry up when he pleaseth, as sometimes he hath done. Or father 2. those grounds which are well watered, and therefore very fruitful, as the next verse explains this. And so the water-springs here and v. 35. and the standing water v. 35. are taken.

Into a dry ground, as it follows, which is like a parched and barren wilderness.

34. A fruitful land into barrenness , for the wickedness of them that dwell therein .

Heb. Into saltness, which procures barrenness. See Deut. 29. 23. Iudg. 9. 45.

He doth not inflict these judgments by choice or without cause, but for the punishment of sin in some, and the prevention of it in others.

Marginal references: Heb. saltness.

35. He turneth the wilderness into a standing water , and dry ground into water-springs.

Into a well-watered and fruitful land.

Marginal references: Isa. 41. 18.

36. And there he maketh the hungry to dwell, that they may prepare a city for habitation;

Poor people who could not provide for themselves, or were banished from their own land by potent oppressors, and were driven into wildernesses, like them Iob 30. 3. which God in pity to them made fruitful.

37. And sow the fields, and plant vineyards, which may yield fruits of increase .

Heb. and they shall make or procure from their fields and vineyards.

Such fruits as they use to produce.

38. He blesseth them also, so that they are multiplied greatly, and suffereth not their cattel to decrease .

Preserves them from abortion and deadly diseases, and on the contrary causeth them to increase, as he said in the former branch, which is here repeated in other words after the same manner.

39. Again they are minished and brought low , through oppression, affliction and sorrow .

These poor men, who when they are exalted and blessed by God, kick at him, and grow insolent and secure, as the manner of men is.

Are by Gods just judgment diminished in their numbers and in their blessings.

Or, through wicked oppression (by the tyranny of others, whom God sends to spoil them of their abused riches) and by other griefs or grievous calamities which God inflicts.

40. He poureth contempt upon princes , and causeth them to wander in the wilderness where there is no way .

Those who were honourable and adored like Gods by their people, and terrible to all their enemies, he renders them despicable to their own Subjects, and to other Nations; and this he doth suddenly, abundantly, and unavoidably, as this phrase of pouring it out upon them seems to imply.

Either 1. he giveth them up to foolish and pernicious counsels, by which they are exposed to contempt, and brought to their wits end, not knowing what course to take. Or 2. he banisheth them from their own Courts and Kingdoms, and forceth them to flee into desolate wildernesses for shelter and subsistence.

Marginal references: Job 12. 21, 24.; Or, void place.

41. Yet setteth he the poor on high from affliction, and maketh him families like a flock .

And whilst he bringeth down great potentates, at the same time he advanceth those who were obscure and contemptible.

Which increase very much in a little time.

Marginal references: 1 Sam. 2. 8. Psal. 113. 7, 8.; Or, after.

42. The righteous shall see it , and rejoice , and all iniquity shall stop her mouth .

Or rather, these things, as it is expressed in the next verse. They shall diligently observe these wonderful works of Gods mercy and justice.

Not only in the mercies of God vouchsafed to them and to other persons in want and misery, but also in Gods judgments upon his implacable enemies, which afford matter of rejoicing to good men, as hath been once and again declared in this book, both for the honour which God hath by them, and for the sins and calamities of others, which by this means are prevented.

i. e. Unrighteous or ungodly men, the abstract being put for the concrete, as faithfulnesses for the faithful, Psal. 12. 2. and pride for the proud, Psal. 36. 12.

Shall be put to silence. So this or the like phrase is used Iudg. 18. 19. Iob 5. 16. & 21. 5. & 29. 9. They who used to speak loftily and wickedly, and to sit their mouth against the heavens, as they did Psal. 73. 8, 9 to reproach God and his providence as either negligent or unrighteous in the management of the world, shall now be forced to acknowledge his power and justice in those judgments which he hath brought upon them.

Marginal references: Job 22. 19.; Job 5. 16.

43. Whose is wise, and will observe those things , even they shall understand the kindness of the LORD .

Or, Who (for the Hebrew particle, mi, is interrogative) is wise! for (as this conjunctive particle is frequently used) he will observe these things. All who are truly wise will consider all these events, and lay them to heart, as being very useful for their own instruction.

Or, each of them, all such wise and considering persons.

Will see and acknowledge that God is kind or good to all, and that his tender mercies are over all his works, as it is said, Psal. 145. 9. and singularly kind and gracious to all wise and godly men.

Marginal references: Hos. 14. 9.

An Admonition to Fellow-Countrymen to Render Thanks on account of Having Got the Better of Calamities

With this Psalm begins the Fifth Book, the Book אלה הדברים of the Psalter. With Ps 106 closed the Fourth Book, or the Book במדבר, the first Psalm of which, Ps 90, bewailed the manifestation of God’s wrath in the case of the generation of the desert, and in the presence of the prevailing death took refuge in God the eternal and unchangeable One. Ps 106, which closes the book has בּמּדבּר (Psa 106:14, Psa 107:26) as its favourite word, and makes confession of the sins of Israel on the way to Canaan. Now, just as at the beginning of the Book of Deuteronomy Israel stands on the threshold of the Land of Promise, after the two tribes and a half have already established themselves on the other side of the Jordan, so at the beginning of this Fifth Book of the Psalter we see Israel restored to the soil of its fatherland. There it is the Israel redeemed out of Egypt, here it is the Israel redeemed out of the lands of the Exile. There the lawgiver once more admonishes Israel to yield the obedience of love to the Law of Jahve, here the psalmist calls upon Israel to show gratitude towards Him, who has redeemed it from exile and distress and death.

We must not therefore be surprised if Ps 106 and Ps 107 are closely connected, in spite of the fact that the boundary of the two Books lies between them. “Ps. 107 stands in close relationship to Ps 106. The similarity of the beginning at once points back to this Psalm. Thanks are here given in Psa 107:3 for what was there desired in v. 47. The praise of the Lord which was promised in Psa 106:47 in the case of redemption being vouchsafed, is here presented to Him after redemption vouchsafed.” This observation of Hengstenberg is fully confirmed. The Psa 104:1 really to a certain extent from a tetralogy. Ps 104 derives its material from the history of the creation, Ps 105 from the history of Israel in Egypt, in the desert, and in the Land of Promise down to the Exile, and Psalms 107 from the time of the restoration. Nevertheless the connection of Ps 104 with Psa 105:1 is by far not so close as that of these three Psalms among themselves. These three anonymous Psalms form a trilogy in the strictest sense; they are a tripartite whole from the hand of one author. The observation is an old one. The Harpffe Davids mit Teutschen Saiten bespannet (Harp of David strung with German Strings), a translation of the Psalms which appeared in Augsburg in the year 1659, begins Ps 106 with the words: “For the third time already am I now come, and I make bold to spread abroad, with grateful acknowledgment, Thy great kindnesses.” God’s wondrous deeds of loving-kindness and compassion towards Israel from the time of their forefathers down to the redemption out of Egypt according to the promise, and giving them possession of Canaan, are the theme of Ps 105. The theme of Ps 106 is the sinful conduct of Israel from Egypt onwards during the journey through the desert, and then in the Land of Promise, by which they brought about the fulfilment of the threat of exile (Psa 106:27); but even there God’s mercy was not suffered to go unattested (Psa 106:46). The theme of Psalms 107, finally, is the sacrifice of praise that is due to Him who redeemed them out of exile and all kinds of destruction. We may compare Psa 105:44, He gave them the lands (ארצות) of the heathen; Psa 106:27, (He threatened) to cast forth their seed among the heathen and to scatter them in the lands (בּארצות); and Psa 107:3, out of the lands (מארצות) hath He brought them together, out of east and west, out of north and south. The designed similarity of the expression, the internal connection, and the progression in accordance with a definite plan, are not to be mistaken here. In other respects, too, these three Psalms are intimately interwoven. In them Egypt is called “the land of Ham” (Psa 105:23, Psa 105:27; Psa 106:22), and Israel “the chosen ones of Jahve” (Psa 105:6, Psa 105:43; Psa 106:5, cf. Psa 23:1-6). They are fond of the interrogative form of exclamation (Psa 106:2; Psa 107:43). There is an approach in them to the hypostatic conception of the Word (דּבר, Psa 105:19; Psa 106:20). Compare also ישׁימון Psa 106:14; Psa 107:4; and the Hithpa. התהלּל Psa 105:3; Psa 106:5, השׁתּבּח, Psa 106:47, התבּלּע Psa 107:27. In all three the poet shows himself to be especially familiar with Isa 40:1, and also with the Book of Job. Psalms 107 is the fullest in reminiscences taken from both these Books, and in this Psalm the movement of the poet is more free without recapitulating history that has been committed to writing. Everything therefore favours the assertion that Ps 105, Ps 106, and Ps 107 are a “trefoil” (trifolium) - two Hodu-Psalms, and a Hallalujah-Psalm in the middle.

Ps. 107 consists of six groups with an introit, Psa 107:1-3, and an epiphonem, Psa 107:43. The poet unrolls before the dispersion of Israel that has again attained to the possession of its native land the pictures of divine deliverances in which human history, and more especially the history of the exiles, is so rich. The epiphonem at the same time stamps the hymn as a consolatory Psalm; for those who were gathered again out of the lands of the heathen nevertheless still looked for the final redemption under the now milder, now more despotic sceptre of the secular power.

Psa 107:1-3

The introit, with the call upon them to grateful praise, is addressed to the returned exiles. The Psalm carries the marks of its deutero-Isaianic character on the very front of it, viz.: “the redeemed of Jahve,” taken from Isa 62:12, cf. Psa 63:4; Psa 35:9.; קבּץ as in Isa 56:8, and frequently; “from the north and from the sea,” as in Isa 49:12 : “the sea” (ים) here (as perhaps there also), side by side with east, west, and north, is the south, or rather (since ים is an established usus loquendi for the west) the south-west, viz., the southern portion of the Mediterranean washing the shores of Egypt. With this the poet associates the thought of the exiles of Egypt, as with וּממּערב the exiles of the islands, i.e., of Asia Minor and Europe; he is therefore writing at a period in which the Jewish state newly founded by the release of the Babylonian exiles had induced the scattered fellow-countrymen in all countries to return home. Calling upon the redeemed ones to give thanks to God the Redeemer in order that the work of the restoration of Israel may be gloriously perfected amidst the thanksgiving of the redeemed ones, he forthwith formulates the thanksgiving by putting the language of thanksgiving of the ancient liturgy (Jer 33:11) into their mouth. The nation, now again established upon the soil of the fatherland, has, until it had acquired this again, seen destruction in every form in a strange land, and can tell of the most manifold divine deliverances. The call to sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving is expanded accordingly into several pictures portraying the dangers of the strange land, which are not so much allegorical, personifying the Exile, as rather exemplificative.

Psa 107:4-9

It has actually come to pass, the first strophe tells us, that they wandered in a strange land through deserts and wastes, and seemed likely to have to succumb to death from hunger. According to Psa 107:40 and Isa 43:19, it appears that Psa 107:4 ought to be read לא־דרך (Olshausen, Baur, and Thenius); but the line is thereby lengthened inelegantly. The two words, joined by Munach, stand in the construct state, like פּרא אדם, Gen 16:12 : a waste of a way = ἔρημος ὁδός, Act 8:26 (Ewald, Hitzig), which is better suited to the poetical style than that דּרך, as in משׁנה־כּסףp, and the like, should be an accusative of nearer definition (Hengstenberg). In connection with עיר מושׁב the poet, who is fond of this combination (Psa 107:7, Psa 107:36, cf. בּית־מושׁב, Lev 25:29), means any city whatever which might afford the homeless ones a habitable, hospitable reception. With the perfects, which describe what has been experienced, alternates in Psa 107:5 the imperfect, which shifts to the way in which anything comes about: their soul in them enveloped itself (vid., Psa 61:3), i.e., was nigh upon extinction. With the fut. consec. then follows in Psa 107:6 the fact which gave the turn to the change in their misfortune. Their cry for help, as the imperfect יצּילם implies, was accompanied by their deliverance, the fact of which is expressed by the following fut. consec. ויּדריכם. Those who have experienced such things are to confess to the Lord, with thanksgiving, His loving-kindness and His wonderful works to the children of men. It is not to be rendered: His wonders (supply אשׁר עשׂה) towards the children of men (Luther, Olshausen, and others). The two ל coincide: their thankful confession of the divine loving-kindness and wondrous acts is not to be addressed alone to Jahve Himself, but also to men, in order that out of what they have experienced a wholesome fruit may spring forth for the multitude. נפשׁ שׁוקקה (part. Polel, the ē of which is retained as a pre-tonic vowel in pause, cf. Psa 68:26 and on Job 20:27, Ew. §188, b) is, as in Isa 29:9, the thirsting soul (from שׁוּק, Arab. sâq, to urge forward, of the impulse and drawing of the emotions, in Hebrew to desire ardently). The preterites are here an expression of that which has been experienced, and therefore of that which has become a fact of experience. In superabundant measure does God uphold the languishing soul that is in imminent danger of languishing away.

Psa 107:10-16

Others suffered imprisonment and bonds; but through Him who had decreed this as punishment for them, they also again reached the light of freedom. Just as in the first strophe, here, too, as far as יודוּ in Psa 107:15, is all a compound subject; and in view of this the poet begins with participles. “Darkness and the shadow of death” (vid., Psa 23:4) is an Isaianic expression, Isa 9:1 (where ישׁבי is construed with ב), Psa 42:7 (where ישׁבי is construed as here, cf. Gen 4:20; Zec 2:11), just as “bound in torture and iron” takes its rise from Job 36:8. The old expositors call it a hendiadys for “torturing iron” (after Psa 105:18); but it is more correct to take the one as the general term and the other as the particular: bound in all sorts of affliction from which they could not break away, and more particularly in iron bonds (בּרזל, like the Arabic firzil, an iron fetter, vid., on Psa 105:18). In Psa 107:11, which calls to mind Isa 5:19, and with respect to Psa 107:12, Isa 3:8, the double play upon the sound of the words is unmistakeable. By עצה is meant the plan in accordance with which God governs, more particularly His final purpose, which lies at the basis of His leadings of Israel. Not only had they nullified this purpose of mercy by defiant resistance (המרה) against God’s commandments (אמרי, Arabic awâmir , âmireh) on their part, but they had even blasphemed it; נאץ, Deu 32:19, and frequently, or נאץ (prop. to pierce, then to treat roughly), is an old Mosaic designation of blasphemy, Deu 31:20; Num 14:11, Num 14:23; Num 16:30. Therefore God thoroughly humbled them by afflictive labour, and caused them to stumble (כּשׁל). But when they were driven to it, and prayed importunately to Him, He helped them out of their straits. The refrain varies according to recognised custom. Twice the expression is ויצעקו, twice ויזעקו; once יצילם, then twice יושׁיעם, and last of all יוציאם, which follows here in Psa 107:14 as an alliteration. The summary condensation of the deliverance experienced (Psa 107:16) is moulded after Isa 45:2. The Exile, too, may be regarded as such like a large jail (vid., e.g., Isa 42:7, Isa 42:22); but the descriptions of the poet are not pictures, but examples.

Psa 107:17-22

Others were brought to the brink of the grave by severe sickness; but when they draw nigh in earnest prayer to Him who appointed that they should suffer thus on account of their sins, He became their Saviour. אויל (cf. e.g., Job 5:3), like נבל (vid., Psa 14:1), is also an ethical notion, and not confined to the idea of defective intellect merely. It is one who insanely lives only for the passing hour, and ruins health, calling, family, and in short himself and everything belonging to him. Those who were thus minded, the poet begins by saying, were obliged to suffer by reason of (in consequence of) their wicked course of life. The cause of their days of pain and sorrow is placed first by way of emphasis; and because it has a meaning that is related to the past יתענּוּ thereby comes all the more easily to express that which took place simultaneously in the past. The Hithpa. in 1Ki 2:26 signifies to suffer willingly or intentionally; here: to be obliged to submit to suffering against one’s will. Hengstenberg, for example, construes it differently: “Fools because of their walk in transgression (more than 'because of their transgression'), and those who because of their iniquities were afflicted - all food,” etc. But מן beside יתענּוּ has the assumption in its favour of being an affirmation of the cause of the affliction. In Psa 107:18 the poet has the Book of Job (Job 33:20, Job 33:22) before his eye. And in connection with Psa 107:20, ἀπέστειλεν τὸν λόγον αὐτοῦ καὶ ἰάσατο αὐτοὺς (lxx), no passage of the Old Testament is more vividly recalled to one’s mind than Psa 105:19, even more than Psa 147:18; because here, as in Psa 105:19, it treats of the intervention of divine acts within the sphere of human history, and not of the intervention of divine operations within the sphere of the natural world. In the natural world and in history the word (דּבר) is God’s messenger (Psa 105:19, cf. Isa 55:10.), and appears here as a mediator of the divine healing. Here, as in Job 33:23., the fundamental fact of the New Testament is announced, which Theodoret on this passage expresses in words: Ὁ Θεὸς Λόγος ἐνανθρωπήσας καὶ ἀποσταλεὶς ὡς ἄνθρωπος τὰ παντοδαπὰ τῶν ψυχῶν ἰάσατο τραύματα καὶ τοὺς διαφθαρέντας ἀνέῤῥωσε λογισμούς. The lxx goes on to render it: καὶ ἐῤῥύσατο αὐτοὺς ἐκ τῶν διαφθορῶν αὐτῶν, inasmuch as the translators derive שׁחיתותם from שׁחיתה (Dan 6:5), and this, as שׁחת elsewhere (vid., Psa 16:10), from שׁחת, διαφθείρειν, which is approved by Hitzig. But Lam 4:20 is against this. From שׁחה is formed a noun שׁחוּת (שׁחוּת) in the signification a hollow place (Pro 28:10), the collateral form of which, שׁחית (שׁחית), is inflected like חנית, plur. חניתות with a retention of the substantival termination. The “pits” are the deep afflictions into which they were plunged, and out of which God caused them to escape. The suffix of וירפאם avails also for ימלּט, as in Gen 27:5; Gen 30:31; Psa 139:1; Isa 46:5.

Psa 107:23-32

Others have returned to tell of the perils of the sea. Without any allegory (Hengstenberg) it speaks of those who by reason of their calling traverse (which is expressed by ירד because the surface of the sea lies below the dry land which slopes off towards the coast) the sea in ships (read boŏnijoth without the article), and that not as fishermen, but (as Luther has correctly understood the choice of the word) in commercial enterprises. These have seen the works and wonders of God in the eddying deep, i.e., they have seen with their own eyes what God can do when in His anger He calls up the powers of nature, and on the other hand when He compassionately orders them back into their bounds. God’s mandate (ויּאמר as in Psa 105:31, Psa 105:34) brought it to pass that a stormy wind arose (cf. עמד, Psa 33:9), and it drove its (the sea’s) waves on high, so that the seafarers at one time were tossed up to the sky and then hurled down again into deep abysses, and their soul melted בּרעה, in an evil, anxious mood, i.e., lost all its firmness. They turned about in a circle (יחוגּוּ( elc from חגג = חוּג) and reeled after the manner of a drunken man; all their wisdom swallowed itself up, i.e., consumed itself within itself, came of itself to nought, just as Ovid, Trist. i. 1, says in connection with a similar description of a storm at sea: ambiguis ars stupet ipsa malis. The poet here writes under the influence of Isa 19:3, Isa 19:14. But at their importunate supplication God led them forth out of their distresses (Psa 25:17). He turned the raging storm into a gentle blowing (= דּממה דּקּה,   1Ki 19:12). הקים construed with ל here has the sense of transporting (carrying over) into another condition or state, as Apollinaris renders: αὐτίκα δ ̓ εἰς αὔρην προτέρην μετέθηκε θύελλαν. The suffix of גּלּיהם cannot refer to the מים רבּים in Psa 107:23, which is so far removed; “their waves” are those with which they had to battle. These to their joy became calm (חשׁה) and were still (שׁתק as in Jon 1:11), and God guided them ἐπὶ λιμένα θελήματος αὐτῶν (lxx). מחוז, a hapax-legomenon, from Arab. ḥâz(ḥwz), to shut in on all sides and to draw to one’s self (root Arab. ḥw , gyravit , in gyrum egit), signifies a place enclosed round, therefore a haven, and first of all perhaps a creek, to use a northern word, a fiord. The verb שׁתק in relation to חשׁה is the stronger word, like יבשׁ in relation to חרם in the history of the Flood. Those who have been thus marvellously rescued are then called upon thankfully to praise God their Deliverer in the place where the national church assembles, and where the chiefs of the nation sit in council; therefore, as it seems, in the Temple and in the Forum.In exact editions like Norzi, Heidenheim, and Baer’s, before Psa 107:23, Psa 107:24, Psa 107:25, Psa 107:26, Psa 107:27, Psa 107:28, and Psa 107:40 there stand reversed Nuns (נונין הפוכין, in the language of the Masora נונין מנזרות), as before Num 10:35 and between Num 10:36 and Num 11:1 (nine in all). Their signification is unknown.

Now follow two more groups without the two beautiful and impressive refrains with which the four preceding groups are interspersed. The structure is less artistic, and the transitions here and there abrupt and awkward. One might say that these two groups are inferior to the rest, much as the speeches of Elihu are inferior to the rest of the Book of Job. That they are, however, nevertheless from the hand of the very same poet is at once seen from the continued dependence upon the Book of Job and Isaiah. Hengstenberg sees in Psa 107:33-42 “the song with which they exalt the Lord in the assembly of the people and upon the seat of the elders.” but the materia laudis is altogether different from that which is to be expected according to the preceding calls to praise. Nor is it any the more clear to us that Psa 107:33. refer to the overthrow of Babylon, and Psa 107:35. to the happy turn of affairs that took place simultaneously for Israel; Psa 107:35 does not suit Canaan, and the expressions in Psa 107:36. would be understood in too low a sense. No, the poet goes on further to illustrate the helpful government of God the just and gracious One, inasmuch as he has experiences in his mind in connection therewith, of which the dispersion of Israel in all places can sing and speak.

Psa 107:33-38

Since in Psa 107:36 the historical narration is still continued, a meaning relating to the contemporaneous past is also retrospectively given to the two correlative ישׂם. It now goes on to tell what those who have now returned have observed and experienced in their own case. Psa 107:33 sounds like Isa 50:2; Psa 107:33 like Isa 35:7; and Psa 107:35 takes its rise from Isa 41:18. The juxtaposition of מוצאי and צמּאון, since Deu 8:15, belongs to the favourite antithetical alliterations, e.g., Isa 61:3. מלחה, that which is salty (lxx cf. Sir. 39:23: ἅλμη), is, as in Job 39:6, the name for the uncultivated, barren steppe. A land that has been laid waste for the punishment of its inhabitants has very often been changed into flourishing fruitful fields under the hands of a poor and grateful generation; and very often a land that has hitherto lain uncultivated and to all appearance absolutely unprofitable has developed an unexpected fertility. The exiles to whom Jeremiah writes, Psa 29:5 : Build ye houses and settle down, and plant gardens and eat their fruit, may frequently have experienced this divine blessing. Their industry and their knowledge also did their part, but looked at in a right light, it was not their own work but God’s work that their settlement prospered, and that they continually spread themselves wider and possessed a not small, i.e., (cf. 2Ki 4:3) a very large, stock of cattle.

Psa 107:39-43

But is also came to pass that it went ill with them, inasmuch as their flourishing prosperous condition drew down upon them the envy of the powerful and tyrannical; nevertheless God put an end to tyranny, and always brought His people again to honour and strength. Hitzig is of opinion that Psa 107:39 goes back into the time when things were different with those who, according to Psa 107:36-38, had thriven. The modus consecutivus is sometimes used thus retrospectively (vid., Isa 37:5); here, however, the symmetry of the continuation from Psa 107:36-38, and the change which is expressed in Psa 107:39 in comparison with Psa 107:38, require an actual consecution in that which is narrated. They became few and came down, were reduced (שׁחח, cf. Pro 14:19 : to come to ruin, or to be overthrown), a coarctatione malitiae et maeroris. עצר is the restraint of despotic rule, רעה the evil they had to suffer under such restraint, and רגון sorrow, which consumed their life. מעצר has Tarcha and רעה Munach (instead of Mercha and Mugrash, vid., Accentuationssystem, xviii. 2). There is no reason for departing from this interpunction and rendering: “through tyranny, evil, and sorrow.” What is stiff and awkward in the progress of the description arises from the fact that Psa 107:40 is borrowed from Job 12:21, Job 12:24, and that the poet is not willing to make any change in these sublime words. The version shows how we think the relation of the clauses is to be apprehended. Whilst He pours out His wrath upon tyrants in the contempt of men that comes upon them, and makes them fugitives who lose themselves in the terrible waste, He raises the needy and those hitherto despised and ill-treated on high out of the depth of their affliction, and makes families like a flock, i.e., makes their families so increase, that they come to have the appearance of a merrily gamboling and numerous flock. Just as this figure points back to Job 21:11, so Psa 107:42 is made up out of Job 22:19; Job 5:16. The sight of this act of recognition on the part of God of those who have been wrongfully oppressed gives joy to the upright, and all roguery (עולה, vid., Ps 92:16) has its mouth closed, i.e., its boastful insolence is once for all put to silence. In Psa 107:43 the poet makes the strains of his Psalm die away after the example of Hosea, Hosea 14:10 [9], in the nota bene expressed after the manner of a question: Who is wise - he will or let him keep this, i.e., bear it well in mind. The transition to the justice together with a change of number is rendered natural by the fact that מי חכם, as in Hos. loc. cit. (cf. Jer 9:11; Est 5:6, and without Waw apod. Jdg 7:3; Pro 9:4, Pro 9:16), is equivalent to quisquis sapeins est. חסדי ה (חסדי) are the manifestations of mercy or loving-kindness in which God’s ever-enduring mercy unfolds itself in history. He who is wise has a good memory for and a clear understanding of this.

Exhortation to Celebrate God's Praises.

1 O give thanks unto the Lord , for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. 2 Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy; 3 And gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south. 4 They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in. 5 Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. 6 Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses. 7 And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation. 8 Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! 9 For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.

Here is, I. A general call to all to give thanks to God, v. 1. Let all that sing this psalm, or pray over it, set themselves herein to give thanks to the Lord; and those that have not any special matter for praise may furnish themselves with matter enough from God's universal goodness. In the fountain he is good; in the streams his mercy endures for ever and never fails.

II. A particular demand hereof from the redeemed of the Lord, which may well be applied spiritually to those that have an interest in the great Redeemer and are saved by him from sin and hell. They have, of all people, most reason to say that God is good, and his mercy everlasting; these are the children of God that were scattered abroad, whom Christ died to gather together in one, out of all lands, John xi. 52; Matt. xxiv. 31. But it seems here to be meant of a temporal deliverance, wrought for them when in their distress they cried unto the Lord, v. 6. Is any afflicted? Let him pray. Does any pray? God will certainly hear and help. When troubles become extreme that is man's time to cry; those who but whispered prayer before then cry aloud, and then it is God's time to succour. In the mount he will be seen. 1. They were in an enemy's country, but God wrought out their rescue: He redeemed them from the hand of the enemy (v. 2), not by might or power, it may be (Zech. iv. 6), nor by price or reward (Isa. xlv. 13), but by the Spirit of God working on the spirits of men. 2. They were dispersed as out-casts, but God gathered them out of all the countries whither they were scattered in the cloudy and dark day, that they might again be incorporated, v. 3. See Deut. xxx. 4; Ezek. xxxiv. 12. God knows those that are his, and where to find them. 3. They were bewildered, had no road to travel in, no dwelling place to rest in, v. 4. When they were redeemed out of the hand of the enemy, and gathered out of the lands, they were in danger of perishing in their return home through the dry and barren deserts. They wandered in the wilderness, where there was no trodden path, no company, but a solitary way, no lodging, no conveniences, no accommodations, no inhabited city where they might have quarters or refreshment. But God led them forth by the right way (v. 7), directed them to an inn, nay, directed them to a home, that they might go to a city of habitation, which was inhabited, nay which them themselves should inhabit. This may refer to poor travellers in general, those particularly whose way lay through the wilds of Arabia, where we may suppose they were often at a loss; and yet many in that distress were wonderfully relieved, so that few perished. Note, We ought to take notice of the good hand of God's providence over us in our journeys, going out and coming in, directing us in our way, and providing for us places both to bait in and rest in. Or (as some think) it has an eye to the wanderings of the children of Israel in the wilderness for forty years; it is said (Deut. xxxii. 10), God led them about, and yet here he led them by the right way. God's way, though to us it seems about, will appear at last to have been the right way. It is applicable to our condition in this world; we are here as in a wilderness, have here no continuing city, but dwell in tents as strangers and pilgrims. But we are under the guidance of his wise and good providence, and, if we commit ourselves to it, we shall be led in the right way to the city that has foundations. 4. They were ready to perish for hunger (v. 5): Their soul even fainted in them. They were spent with the fatigues of their journey and ready to drop down for want of refreshment. Those that have constant plenty, and are every day fed to the full, know not what a miserable case it is to be hungry and thirsty, and to have no supply. This was sometimes the case of Israel in the wilderness, and perhaps of other poor travellers; but God's providence finds out ways to satisfy the longing soul and fill the hungry soul with goodness, v. 9. Israel's wants were seasonably supplied, and many have been wonderfully relieved when they were ready to perish. The same God that has led us has fed us all our life long unto this day, has fed us with food convenient, has provided food for the soul, and filled the hungry soul with goodness. Those that hunger and thirst after righteousness, after God, the living God, and communion with him, shall be abundantly replenished with the goodness of his house, both in grace and glory. Now for all this those who receive mercy are called upon to return thanks (v. 8): Oh that men (it is meant especially of those men whom God has graciously relieved) would praise the Lord for his goodness to them in particular, and for his wonderful works to others of the children of men! Note, (1.) God's works of mercy are wonderful works, works of wonderful power considering the weakness, and of wonderful grace considering the unworthiness, of those he shows mercy to. (2.) It is expected of those who receive mercy from God that they return praise to him. (3.) We must acknowledge God's goodness to the children of men as well as to the children of God, to others as well as to ourselves.

The Divine Goodness towards Prisoners.

10 Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron; 11 Because they rebelled against the words of God, and contemned the counsel of the most High: 12 Therefore he brought down their heart with labour; they fell down, and there was none to help. 13 Then they cried unto 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 brake their bands in sunder. 15 Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! 16 For he hath broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sunder.

We are to take notice of the goodness of God towards prisoners and captives. Observe, 1. A description of this affliction. Prisoners are said to sit in darkness (v. 10), in dark dungeons, close prisons, which intimates that they are desolate and disconsolate; they sit in the shadow of death, which intimates not only great distress and trouble, but great danger. Prisoners are many times appointed to die; they sit despairing to get out, but resolving to make the best of it. They are bound in affliction, and many times in iron, as Joseph. Thus sore a calamity is imprisonment, which should make us prize liberty, and be thankful for it. 2. The cause of this affliction, v. 11. It is because they rebelled against the words of God. Wilful sin is rebellion against the words of God; it is a contradiction to his truths and a violation of his laws. They contemned the counsel of the Most High, and thought they neither needed it nor could be the better for it; and those that will not be counselled cannot be helped. Those that despise prophesying, that regard not the admonitions of their own consciences nor the just reproofs of their friends, contemn the counsel of the Most High, and for this they are bound in affliction, both to punish them for and to reclaim them from their rebellions. 3. The design of this affliction, and that is to bring down their heart (v. 12), to humble them for sin, to make them low in their own eyes, to cast down every high, proud, aspiring thought. Afflicting providences must be improved as humbling providences; and we not only lose the benefit of them, but thwart God's designs and walk contrary to him in them if our hearts be unhumbled and unbroken, as high and hard as ever under them. Is the estate brought down with labour, the honour sunk? Have those that exalted themselves fallen down, and is there none to help them? Let this bring down the spirit to confess sin, to accept the punishment of it, and humbly to sue for mercy and grace. 4. The duty of this afflicted state, and that is to pray (v. 13): Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, though before perhaps they had neglected him. Prisoners have time to pray, who, when they were at liberty, could not find time; they see they have need of God's help, though formerly they thought they could do well enough without him. Sense will make men cry when they are in trouble, but grace will direct them to cry unto the Lord, from whom the affliction comes and who alone can remove it. 5. Their deliverance out of the affliction: They cried unto the Lord, and he saved them, v. 13. He brought them out of darkness into light, welcome light, and then doubly sweet and pleasant, brought them out of the shadow of death to the comforts of life, and their liberty was to them life from the dead, v. 14. Were they fettered? He broke their bands asunder. Were they imprisoned in strong castles? He broke the gates of brass and the bars of iron wherewith those gates were made fast; he did not put back, but cut in sunder. Note, When God will work deliverance the greatest difficulties that lie in the way shall be made nothing of. Gates of brass and bars of iron, as they cannot keep him out from his people (he was with Joseph in the prison), so they cannot keep them in when the time, the set-time, for their enlargement, comes. 6. The return that is required from those whose bands God has loosed (v. 15): Let them praise the Lord for his goodness, and take occasion from their own experience of it, and share in it, to bless him for that goodness which the earth is full of, the world and those that dwell therein.

The Divine Goodness towards the Afflicted.

17 Fools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted. 18 Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat; and they draw near unto the gates of death. 19 Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saveth them out of their distresses. 20 He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions. 21 Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! 22 And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing.

Bodily sickness is another of the calamities of this life which gives us an opportunity of experiencing the goodness of God in recovering us, and of that the psalmist speaks in these verses, where we may observe,

I. That we, by our sins, bring sickness upon ourselves and then it is our duty to pray, v. 17-19. 1. It is the sin of the soul that is the cause of sickness; we bring it upon ourselves both meritoriously and efficiently: Fools, because of their transgression, are thus afflicted; they are thus corrected for the sins they have committed and thus cured of their evil inclinations to sin. If we knew no sin, we should know no sickness; but the transgression of our life, and the iniquity of our heart, make it necessary. Sinners are fools; they wrong themselves, and all against their own interest, not only their spiritual, but their secular interest. They prejudice their bodily health by intemperance and endanger their lives by indulging their appetites. This their way is their folly, and they need the rod of correction to drive out the foolishness that is bound up in their hearts. 2. The weakness of the body is the effect of sickness, v. 18. When people are sick their soul abhors all manner of meat; they not only have no desire to eat nor power to digest it, but they nauseate it, and their stomach is turned against it. And here they may read their sin in their punishment: those that doted most on the meat that perishes, when they come to be sick are sick of it, and the dainties they loved are loathed; what they took too much of now they can take nothing of, which commonly follows upon the overcharging of the heart with surfeiting and drunkenness. And when the appetite is gone the life is as good as gone: They draw near unto the gates of death; they are, in their own apprehension and in the apprehension of all about them, at the brink of the grave, as ready to be turned to destruction. 3. Then is a proper time for prayer: Then they cry unto the Lord, v. 19. Is any sick? Let him pray; let him be prayed for. Prayer is a salve for every sore.

II. That it is by the power and mercy of God that we are recovered from sickness, and then it is our duty to be thankful. Compare with this Job xxxiii. 18, 28. 1. When those that are sick call upon God he returns them an answer of peace. They cry unto him and he saves them out of their distresses (v. 19); he removes their griefs and prevents their fears. (1.) He does it easily: He sent his word and healed them, v. 20. This may be applied to the miraculous cures which Christ wrought when he was upon earth, by a word's speaking; he said, Be clean, Be whole, and the work was done. It may also be applied to the spiritual cures which the Spirit of grace works in regeneration; he sends his word, and heals souls, convinces, converts, sanctifies them, and all by the word. In the common instances of recovery from sickness God in his providence does but speak, and it is done. (2.) He does it effectually: He delivereth them out of their destructions, that they shall neither be destroyed nor distressed with the fear of being so. Nothing is too hard for that God to do who kills and makes alive again, brings down to the grave and raises up, who turneth man almost to destruction, and yet saith, Return. 2. When those that have been sick are restored they must return to God an answer of praise (v. 21, 22): Let all men praise the Lord for his goodness, and let those, particularly, to whom God has thus granted a new life, spend it in his service; let them sacrifice with thanksgiving, not only bring a thank-offering to the altar, but a thankful heart to God. Thanksgivings are the best thank-offerings, and shall please the Lord better than an ox or bullock. And let them declare his works with rejoicing, to his honour and for the encouragement of others. The living, the living, they shall praise him.

The Divine Goodness to Mariners.

23 They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; 24 These see the works of the Lord , and his wonders in the deep. 25 For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof. 26 They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble. 27 They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits' end. 28 Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses. 29 He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. 30 Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven. 31 Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! 32 Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders.

The psalmist here calls upon those to give glory to God who are delivered from dangers at sea. Though the Israelites dealt not much in merchandise, yet their neighbours the Tyrians and Zidonians did, and for them perhaps this part of the psalm was especially calculated.

I. Much of the power of God appears at all times in the sea, v. 23, 24. It appears to those that go down to the sea in ships, as mariners, merchants, fishermen, or passengers, that do business in great waters. And surely none will expose themselves there but those that have business (among all Solomon's pleasant things we do not read of any pleasure-boat he had), but those that go on business, lawful business, may, in faith, put themselves under the divine protection. These see the works of the Lord, and his wonders, which are the more surprising, because most are born and bred upon land, and what passes at sea is new to them. The deep itself is a wonder, its vastness, its saltness, its ebbing and flowing. The great variety of living creatures in the sea is wonderful. Let those that go to sea be led, by all the wonders they observe there, to consider and adore the infinite perfections of that God whose the sea is, for he made it and manages it.

II. It especially appears in storms at sea, which are much more terrible than at land. Observe here, 1. How dangerous and dreadful a tempest at sea is. Then wonders begin to appear in the deep, when God commands and raises the strong wind, which fulfils his word, Ps. cxlviii. 8. He raises the winds, as a prince by his commission raises forces. Satan pretends to be the prince of the power of the air; but he is a pretender; the powers of the air are at God's command, not at his. When the wind becomes stormy it lifts up the waves of the sea, v. 25. Then the ships are kicked like tennis-balls on the tops of the waves; they seem to mount up to the heavens, and then they couch again, as if they would go down to the depths, v. 26. A stranger, who had never seen it, would not think it possible for a ship to live at sea, as it will in a storm, and ride it out, but would expect that the next wave would bury it and it would never come up again; and yet God, who taught man discretion to make ships that should so strangely keep above water, does by his special providence preserve them, that they answer the end to admiration. When the ships are thus tossed the soul of the seaman melts because of trouble; and, when the storm is very high, even those that are used to the sea can neither shake off nor dissemble their fears, but they reel to and fro, and tossing makes them giddy, and they stagger and are sick, it may be, like a drunken man; the whole ship's crew are in confusion and quite at their wits' end (v. 27), not knowing what to do more for their preservation; all their wisdom is swallowed up, and they are ready to give up themselves for gone, Jonah i. 5, &c. 2. How seasonable it is at such a time to pray. Those that go to sea must expect such perils as are here described, and the best preparation they can make for them is to make sure a liberty of access to God by prayer, for then they will cry unto the Lord, v. 28. We have a saying, "Let those that would learn to pray go to sea;" I say, Let those that will go to sea learn to pray, and accustom themselves to pray, that they may come with the more boldness to the throne of grace when they are in trouble. Even heathen mariners, in a storm, cried every man to his god; but those that have the Lord for their God have a present and powerful help in that and every other time of need, so that when they are at their wits' end they are not at their faith's end. 3. How wonderfully God sometimes appears for those that are in distress at sea, in answer to their prayers: He brings them out of the danger; and, (1.) The sea is still: He makes the storm a calm, v. 29. The winds fall, and only by their soft and gentle murmurs serve to lull the waves asleep again, so that the surface of the sea becomes smooth and smiling. By this Christ proved himself to be more than a man that even the winds and the seas obeyed him. (2.) The seamen are made easy: They are glad because they are quiet, quiet from the noise, quiet from the fear of evil. Quietness after a storm is a very desirable thing, and sensibly pleasant. (3.) The voyage becomes prosperous and successful: So he brings them to their desired haven, v. 30. Thus he carries his people safely through all the storms and tempests that they meet with in their voyage heaven-ward, and lands them, at length, in the desired harbour. 4. How justly it is expected that all those who have had a safe passage over the sea, and especially who have been delivered from remarkable perils at sea, should acknowledge it with thankfulness, to the glory of God. Let them do it privately in their closets and families. Let them praise the Lord for his goodness to themselves and others, v. 31. Let them do it publicly (v. 32), in the congregation of the people and in the assembly of the elders; there let them erect the memorials of their deliverance, to the honour of God, and for the encouragement of others to trust him.

Wonders of Divine Providence.

33 He turneth rivers into a wilderness, and the watersprings into dry ground; 34 A fruitful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein. 35 He turneth the wilderness into a standing water, and dry ground into watersprings. 36 And there he maketh the hungry to dwell, that they may prepare a city for habitation; 37 And sow the fields, and plant vineyards, which may yield fruits of increase. 38 He blesseth them also, so that they are multiplied greatly; and suffereth not their cattle to decrease. 39 Again, they are minished and brought low through oppression, affliction, and sorrow. 40 He poureth contempt upon princes, and causeth them to wander in the wilderness, where there is no way. 41 Yet setteth he the poor on high from affliction, and maketh him families like a flock. 42 The righteous shall see it, and rejoice: and all iniquity shall stop her mouth. 43 Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the lovingkindness of the Lord .

The psalmist, having given God the glory of the providential reliefs granted to persons in distress, here gives him the glory of the revolutions of providence, and the surprising changes it sometimes makes in the affairs of the children of men.

I. He gives some instances of these revolutions.

1. Fruitful countries are made barren and barren countries are made fruitful. Much of the comfort of this life depends upon the soil in which our lot is cast. Now, (1.) The sin of man has often marred the fruitfulness of the soil and made it unserviceable, v. 33, 34. Land watered with rivers is sometimes turned into a wilderness, and that which had been full of water-springs now has not so much as water-streams; it is turned into dry and sandy ground, that has not consistency and moisture enough to produce any thing valuable. Many a fruitful land is turned into saltness, not so much from natural causes as from the just judgment of God, who thus punished the wickedness of those that dwell therein; as the vale of Sodom became a salt sea. Note, If the land be bad, it is because the inhabitants are so. Justly is the ground made unfruitful to those that bring not forth fruit unto God, but serve Baal with their corn and wine. (2.) The goodness of God has often mended the barrenness of the soil, and turned a wilderness, a land o drought, into water-springs, v. 35. The land of Canaan, which was once the glory of all lands for fruitfulness, is said to be, at this day, a fruitless, useless, worthless spot of ground, as was foretold, Deut. xxix. 23. This land of ours, which formerly was much of it an uncultivated desert, is now full of all good things, and more abundant honour is given to that part which lacked. Let the plantations in America, and the colonies settled there, compared with the desolations of many countries in Asia and Europe, that formerly were famous, expound this.

2. Necessitous families are raised and enriched, while prosperous families are impoverished and go to decay. If we look broad in the world, (1.) We see many greatly increasing whose beginning was small, and whose ancestors were mean and made no figure, v. 36-38. Those that were hungry are made to dwell in fruitful lands; there they take root, and gain a settlement, and prepare a city for habitation for themselves and theirs after them. Providence puts good land under their hands, and they build upon it. Cities took rise from rising families. But as lands, will not serve for men without lodgings, and therefore they must prepare a city of habitation, so lodgings, though ever so convenient, will not serve without lands, and therefore they must sow the fields, and plant vineyards (v. 37), for the king himself is served of the field. And yet the fields, though favoured with water-springs, will not yield fruits of increase, unless they be sown, nor will vineyards be had, unless they be planted; man's industry must attend God's blessing, and then God's blessing will crown man's industry. The fruitfulness of the soil should engage, for it does encourage, diligence; and, ordinarily, the hand of the diligent, by the blessing of God, makes rich, v. 38. He blesses them also, so that they are, in a little time, multiplied greatly, and he diminishes not their cattle. As in the beginning, so still it is, by the blessing of God, that the earth and all the creatures increase and multiply (Gen. i. 22), and we depend upon God for the increase of the cattle as well as for the increase of the ground. Cattle would decrease many ways if God should permit it, and men would soon suffer by it. (2.) We see many that have thus suddenly risen as suddenly sunk and brought to nothing (v. 39): Again they are diminished and brought low by adverse providences, and end their days as low as they began them; or their families after them lose as fast a they got, and scatter what they heaped together. Note, Worldly wealth is an uncertain thing, and often those that are filled with it, ere they are aware, grow so secure and sensual with it that, ere they are aware, they lose it again. Hence it is called deceitful riches and the mammon of unrighteousness. God has many ways of making men poor; he can do it by oppression, affliction, and sorrow, as he tempted Job and brought him low.

3. Those that were high and great in the world are abased, and those that were mean and despicable are advanced to honour, v. 40, 41. We have seen, (1.) Princes dethroned and reduced to straits. He pours contempt upon them, even among those that have idolized them. Those that exalt themselves God will abase, and, in order thereunto, will infatuate: He makes them to wander in the wilderness, where there is no way. He baffles those counsels by which they thought to support themselves, and their own power and pomp, and drives them headlong, so that they know not what course to steer, nor what measures to take. We met with this before, Job xii. 24, 25. (2.) Those of low degree advanced to the posts of honour (v. 41): Yet setteth he the poor on high, raiseth from the dust to the throne of glory, 1 Sam. ii. 8; Ps. cxiii. 7, 8. Those that were afflicted and trampled on are not only delivered, but set on high out of the reach of their troubles, above their enemies, and have dominion over those to whom they had been in subjection. That which adds to their honour, and strengthens them in their elevation, is the multitude of their children: He maketh him families like a flock of sheep, so numerous, so useful, so sociable with one another, and so meek and peaceable. He that sent them meat sent them mouths. Happy is the man that has his quiver filled with arrows, for he shall boldly speak with the enemy in the gate, Ps. cxxvii. 5. God is to be acknowledged both in setting up families and in building them up. Let not princes be envied, nor the poor despised, for God has many ways of changing the condition of both.

II. He makes some improvement of these remarks; such surprising turns as these are of use, 1. For the solacing of saints. They observe these dispensations with pleasure (v. 42): The righteous shall see it and rejoice in the glorifying of God's attributes and the manifesting of his dominion over the children of men. It is a great comfort to a good man to see how God manages the children of men, as the potter does the clay, so as to serve his own purposes by them, to see despised virtue advanced and impious pride brought low to the dust, to see it evinced beyond dispute that verily there is a God that judges in the earth. 2. For the silencing of sinners: All iniquity shall stop her mouth; it shall be a full conviction of the folly of atheists, and of those that deny the divine providence; and, forasmuch as practical atheism is at the bottom of all sin, it shall in effect stop the mouth of all iniquity. When sinners see how their punishment answers to their sin, and how justly God deals with them in taking away from them those gifts of his which they had abused, they shall not have one word to say for themselves; for God will be justified, he will be clear. 3. For the satisfying of all concerning the divine goodness (v. 43): Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, these various dispensations of divine providence, even they shall understand the lovingkindness of the Lord. Here is, (1.) A desirable end proposed, and that is, rightly to understand the loving kindness of the Lord. It is of great use to us, in religion, to be fully assured of God's goodness, to be experimentally acquainted and duly affected with it, that his lovingkindness may be before our eyes, Ps. xxvi. 3. (2.) A proper means prescribed for attaining this end, and that is a due observance of God's providence. We must lay up these things, mind them, and keep them in mind, Luke ii. 19. (3.) A commendation of the use of this means as an instance of true wisdom: Whoso is wise, let him by this both prove his wisdom and improve it. A prudent observance of the providences of God will contribute very much to the accomplishing of a good Christian.

PSAL. CVII.

COnfesse ye to Iehovah, for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever. Let the redeemed of Iehovah say it, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the distresser. And gathered them out of the lands, from East and from West, from North and from the sea. They wandred in the wildernesse, in the desart without way; they found not a dwelling Citie. Hungry and also thirstie, their soule was overwhelmed in them. And they cried unto Iehovah in their distresse; he rid them free out of their anguishes.

And he led them in a right way, for to come unto a dwelling Citie. Let them confesse to Iehovah his mercie, and his marvellous works to the sonnes of Adam. For he hath satisfied the thirsty soule, and filled the hungry soule with good.

They that sit in darknesse and the shadow of death, bound in affliction and iron. Because they turned rebellious against the Words of God, and despised the counsell of the most high. And hee humbled their heart with molestation; they stumbled down, and there was no helper. And they cried unto Iehovah in their distresse; he saved them out of their anguishes. Hee brought them forth from darknesse and shadow of death, and brake their bands. Let them confesse to Iehovah his mercy, and his marvellous works to the sonnes of Adam. For he hath broken the doores of brasse, and hewed asunder the barres of iron.

Fooles, for the way of their trespasse, and for their iniquities are afflicted. Their soule abhorreth all meat, and they approach to the gates of death. And they cry unto Iehovah in their distresse; he saveth them out of their anguishes. Hee sendeth his word and healeth them, and delivereth from their corruptions. Let them confesse to Iehovah his mercy, and his marvellous workes to the sons of Adam. And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of confession, and tell his works with shouting.

They that goe downe to the sea in ships, that doe their labour in the many waters; They doe see the workes of Iehovah, and his marvellous acts in the deepe. For hee saith, and raiseth up the stormy wind; and it lifteth up the waves thereof. They mount up to the Heavens, they goe downe to the deeps; their soule in evill melteth away. They reele and stagger like a drunken man; and all their wisdome is swallowed up. And they cry unto Iehovah in their distresse, and he bringeth them out from their anguishes. He setteth the storme to a silent calme, and the waves thereof are quiet. And they rejoyce because they are stilled, and hee leads them unto the haven of their desire. Let them confesse to Iehovah his mercy, and his marvellous workes to the sonnes of Adam. And let them exalt him in the Church of the people, and praise him in the sitting of the Elders.

He putteth rivers to a wildernesse, and issues of waters to a thirstinesse. A land of fruit to saltnesse, for the evill of them that dwell therin. He putteth the wildernesse to a poole of waters, and the land of drought to issues of waters. And seateth there the hungry, and they firmely prepare a dwelling Citie. And sow the fields, and plant Vineyards; and they yeeld fruitfull revenue. And hee blesseth them, and they are multiplied greatly; and their cattle hee diminisheth not. And they are diminished and bowed down, by restraint, evill and sorrow. He powreth contempt on bounteous Princes, and maketh them erre in deformed wildernesse without way. And raiseth up the needy from afflicting poverty, and putteth his families as a flocke. The righteous shall see and rejoyce, and all injurious evill stop her mouth. Who is wise and will observe these things; and they shall understand the mercies of Iehovah.

Annotations. THe fifth booke] see Psal. 42 1. Vers. 2. whom he hath] or, that he hath redeemed them. of the distresser] or of distresse. Vers. 3. the sea] that is, the south, where the red sea was situate from Iudea (as the Chaldee explaineth it, the southerne sea,) for the maine sea was westward, Ios. 23. 4. and so is often used for the West. Vers. 4. desart way] Heb. desart of way, meaning where no way was, as vers. 40. see also Esa. 43. 19. This estate figureth out mens dispersion among the peoples of the world, Ezek. 20. 35, 36. when men are without the law, Rom. 2. 14. dwelling citie] Heb. citie of habitation or seating; so verse 7 36. that is, no harbour or place of refreshing, for wilde and venomous beasts onely haunted there, Ier. 2. 6. Deut. 8. 15. Compare also Eccles. 10. 15. Gen. 21. 14, 15, 16. Vers. 5. overwhelmed] fainted: see Psal. 61. 3. Vers. 7. citie] this the Chaldee expoundeth of Ierusalem. Vers. 9. with good] or good things, as the Greeke explaineth it: see Psal. 65. 5. Luk. 1. 53. Vers. 10. shadow of death] that is, terrible darknesse, meaning hereby sore afflictions in body and soule. See Psal. 23. 4. Esa. 49. 9. and 9. 2. Mat. 4. 15. Luk. 1. 79. affliction] as with cords and fetters: see Iob 36. 8, 9, &c. Vers. 16. barres] that is, all the most strong hinderances: so Isa. 45. 2. Vers. 17. Fooles] evill disposed persons, so named of their unadvised rashnesse: see Psal. 38. 6. are afflicted] or, bring affliction on themselves. Vers. 18. soule] that is, appetite: see the like in Iob 33. 20. and the contrary in Psal. 78. 18. gates] that is, imminent perill of death: see Psal. 9. 14. Iob 33. 22. Vers. 20. healeth them] example in Hezekiah, 2 King. 20. 1. 4, 5, 7. and the contrary in Asa, 2 Chron. 16. 12, 13. for God woundeth and healeth, Deut. 32. 39. Hos. 6. 1. Iob 33. 19, 24. corruptions] that is, corrupting diseases, or corrupting graves whereinto they are ready to come: see Psal. 7. 16. Iob 33. 28, 30. Vers. 22. of confession] that is, thank-offerings: see Psal. 50. 14. Vers. 23. doe labour] that is, occupie or get their living: so Rev. 18. 17. Vers. 25. raiseth up] or maketh stand, which noteth also the continuance of the storme. See an example, Ion. 1. 4. Vers. 29. he setteth] or restoreth firme. See Mat. 8. 26. Ion. 1. 15. Vers. 30. because they] or, when they, that is, the waves. Vers. 32. the sitting] or the Assise (session) of the Elders or Senators, the governours of the people, whom the Chaldee calleth Wise men. And from this Psalme, and this verse of it, the Hebrewes have this Canon: Foure must confesse (unto God;) The sicke when he is healed, the prisoner when he is released out of bonds; they that goe downe to sea, when they are come up (to land;) and waifaring men, when they are come to the inhabited land. And they must make confession before ten men, and two of them wise men, Psal. 107. 32. And the manner of confessing and blessing is thus; He standeth among them, and blesseth the Lord, the King eternall, that bounteously rewardeth good things unto sinners, &c. Maimony in Misr. treat. of Blessings, chap. 10. sect. 8. Vers. 33. He putteth rivers] that is, hee turneth watry fruitfull places to a dry barren desart. Rivers here (as waters in Isa. 32. 20. Eccles. 11. 1.) are put for most fertile grounds, as wildernesse for a dry barren ground, Deut. 8. 15. issues] that is, places where water-springs are. thirstinesse] that is, a thirsty dry land. Vers. 34. saltnesse] that is, a salt barren land: so Ier. 17. 6. Iob 39. 6. for salt causeth barrennesse, Deu. 29. 23. Iudg. 9. 45. The Chaldee paraphraseth, The fruitfull land of Israel he layeth waste like Sodom, which was overthrowne for the evill of them that dwelt therein. Vers. 35. land of drought] that is, a dry barren land: compare Isa. 41. 18. Vers. 37. yeeld fruitfull revenue] Heb. make fruit of revenue (or increase.) see Psal. 1. 3. Vers. 39. And they are] that is, And againe, when he curseth them, they are minished, &c. the contrary to the former blesseth is to bee understood, as in the Law, Deut. 28. 4, 18. Or, as the Chaldee expoundeth it, And when they sinne, they are diminished. restraint] either of libertie by imprisonment, as Isa. 53. 8. or of any blessing. Vers. 40. contempt] a base contemptible estate: so Iob 12. 21. deformed wildernesse] or wilde ground, unordered: so Iob 12. 24. Vers. 41. raiseth up] or setteth in a high place safely; so 1 Sam. 2. 8. Psal. 1▪ 13. 7, 8. Vers. 42. all injurious evill] that is, all evill persons that deny Gods providence, or blame his administration, shall have their mouthes stopped: so Iob 5. 16. and so pride is for proud persons, Psal. 36. 12. Vers. 43. Who is wise?] a complaint how few there be that marke these things, and an intimation that every wise man will observe them: so Hos. 14. 10. Ier. 9. 12. and they shall] or, as before, who will understand.

PSAL. CVII.

VErſ. 1. O give thanks unto the Lord for he is good] He is good, and doth good, Pſal. 119.68. not to his Iſrael only, as is ſet forth in the two foregoing Pſalms, but to all mankind, which is Divini ingenii cura, as One ſaith, whatever Atheiſts and Epicures ſay to the contrary, denying a divine providence, witneſs that profane Diſtitch of theirs. Nempe nibil poſitum eſt, & ſers incerta vagutar, Fortque refertque vices, & habent mortalia caſunt.

For his mercy endureth for ever] Notwithſtanding mens many and mighty provocations.

Verſ. 2. Let the Redeemed of the Lord] Four ſorts of whom are afterwards inffanced; 1 Exiles; 2 Priſoners; 3 Sick perſons; 4 Sea-men. Theſe, and the like muſt praiſe him in to ſpecial manner for their deliverance.

From the hand of the emmy] Or, of diſtreſs.

Verſ. 3. And gathered them cut of the lands] He beginneth with wayfaring men, and exiles, becauſe according to Tyr[illegible: 1 letter]aens, Non exul cure dicitur eſſe Deo.

And from the South] Heb. From the Sea, that is (as the Chaldee expoundeth it) from the Southern Sea, called the Red Sea.

Verſ. 4. They wandred in the wilderneſs, &c.] This is a ſad caſe, Mendicum pa[illegible: 1 letter]ria amiſſa laribuſque vagari. [non-Latin text not transcribed].

And yet this is the caſe of all Gods Redeemed ones whiles they are here, Heb. 11. I Pet. 2.12. Per varies caſus per tot diſcrimina rerum Tendimus in patriam veram vitamque perennem.

Verſ. 5. Hungry and thirſty, &c.] The Lords exiles meet many times with the like exigents in the wilderneſs of this wicked world; but let them be content, and ſay, We are well for the preſent, and it will be better with us hereafter. Exul erat Chriſtus comites nes exulis bujus Eſſe decet, cujut nos quoque membra ſumus. Meloncthon.

Verſ. 6. Then they cryed unto the Lord] Though under a wrong name it may be, as of Jupiter Mercury, &c. and in an uncertain way, as He[illegible: 2 letters]ba did with her, O Jupiter quicquid es ſine coelum boc, ſine mens, que vebitur in coele, &c. And as thoſe Mariners in Jonah 1.5. who cryed, Every man to his god, and left they might all miſtake the true God, they awaken Jonah, to call upon his God.

And be delivered them out of their diſtreſſes] Out of his general goodneſs, and compaſſion to the poor creature; Like as he heareth the young Ravens that cry unto him, no otherwiſe than by implication only, and out of meet neceſſity, God is the Saviour of all men, but eſpecially of theſe that beleeve.

Verſ. 7. And he led them forth by the right way] Better than that Dee Vibilia among the Romans, of whom they fancied, that ſhe ſet them right when out of the way at any time; or Minerva among the Athenians, who, they ſaid, turned all their evil counſels to the beſt unto them.

That they might go to a City of habitation] Grow to a ſtate of ſettlement, to Jeruſalem, ſaith the Chaldee, to that City which hath a foundation may we ſay, whoſe Maker and Founder is God, Heb. 11.10.

Verſ. 8. O that men would praiſe the Lord, &c.] Heb. That they would confeſs it to the Lord, both in ſecret, and in ſociety. This is all the rent that God requireth; he is content that we have the comfort of his bleſſings, ſo he may have the honour of them; This was all the fee Chriſt looked for, for his cures, Go and tell what God hath done for thee. Words ſeem to be a poor and ſlight recompence; but Chriſt, ſaith Nazianzen, calleth himſelf the Word.

Verſ. 9. For he ſatisfieth the longing ſoul. &c.] This is a reca[illegible: 1 letter]i[illegible: 1 letter]ulation of the firſt part, verſ. 5, 6, 7. and ſetteth forth the reaſon why the Redeemed ſhould praiſe God out of the ſweet experience they have had of his wonderful providence and goodneſs toward them.

And filleth the hungry ſoul with good things] This flower the bleſſed Virgin picketh out of Davids garden (among many others out of other parts of holy Scripture, wherein it appeateth ſhe was ſingularly well verſed) and puts it into her Poſie, Luke 1.53.

Verſ. 10. Such as ſit in darkneſs, &c.] Here come in the ſecond fort of Gods redeemed or reſcued Ones, viz. captives and priſoners, whoſe dark and doleful condition is in this verſe deſcribed.

And in the ſhadow of death] In dark caves and horrid priſons, where there is Luctus ubique, pavor, & plurima mortis imago. Such was Joſephs firſt priſon, Jeremies miry dungeon, Lollards Tower, the Biſhop of Londons Cole-houſe, &c.

Being bound in affliction and ir[illegible: 2 letters] ] Or, in poverty and iv[illegible: 1 letter]n, as Manaſſeb was. Many are the miſeries that poor priſoners undergo: Good [illegible: 1 word] had the experience of it, and Zegedians, and the Matty[illegible: 2 letters], and divers of Gods dear ſervants in the late wa[illegible: 2 letters] h[illegible: 1 letter]t[illegible: 1 letter].

A certain-pious Prince diſcourſing of the dangers that were to b[illegible: 1 letter]e then expected for the profeſſion of Religion, ſaid, Nibiſſe mag[illegible: 1 letter]s metuere qu[illegible: 1 letter]m diururnos carceres, that he feared nothing ſo much as perpetual impriſonment.

Verſ. 11. Becauſe they rebelled againſt the words of God] Sin is at the bottome of all mens miſeries, as the procreant cauſe thereof; For God afflicteth not willingly, nor grieveth the children of men, Lam. 3.35. but they rebel againſt his words written in the Scriptures, or at leaſt in their hearts; and ſo he is concerned in point of honour to ſubdue them.

And contemned the counſel] A foul fault. See Luke 7.30.

Verſe. 12. Therefore he brought down their heart] That proud peece of fleſh, Quod erat elatum & verba Dei contempſit, ſaith Kimchi, which had ſtouted it out with God, and thought to have carried it away with a ſtrong hand; as Manoſſeh that ſturdy Rebel, till God had hampered him, and laid him in cold irons.

Verſ. 13. Then they cryed unto the Lord] See verſ. 6.

And be ſaved them, &c.] This is comfort to the greateſt finners; if they can but find a praying heart, God will find a pitying heart, and rebels ſhall be received with all ſweetneſs, if at length they return, though brought in by the croſs.

Verſ. 14. He brought them out of darkneſs] He ſent his Mandamus, as Pſal. 44.4. and that did the deed, as Act. 5.19. and 12.7.

Verſ. 15. Oh that men, &c.] See verſ. 8.

Verſ. 16. For he hath broken the gates of braſs] If Sampſon could do ſo, how much more the Almighty, whom nothing can withſtand? Nature may be ſtopped in her courſe, as when the fire burnt not. Men may not be able to do as they would. Angels good or bad may be hindred, becauſe in them there is an eſſence and an executive power, between which God can ſtep at his pleaſure, and interpoſe his Veto; But who, or what ſhall hinder the moſt High?

Verſ. 17. Fo[illegible: 1 letter]ls becauſe of their tranſgreſſion] Propter, viam defectionis ſuae, by means of their defection, their departing away from the living God, through an evil heart of unbeleef, Heb. 3.12.

And becauſe of their iniquities] The flood-gates whereof are ſet open as it were by that their defection from God; For now what ſhould hinder?

Are afflicted] Heb. Do afflict themſelves, procure their own ruthe, if not ruine, and ſo prove ſinners againſt their own ſouls, as thoſe Num 16.

Verſ. 18. Their ſoul abborreth] That is, their[illegible: 1 letter]ſt mach loatheth it as unſavoury, though it be never ſo dainty; An appetite to our meat is an unconceivable mercy, and as we ſay, A ſign of health.

And they draw neer to the gates of death] Jam ipſum mortis limen pulſant; as till then, little ſenſe of ſin or fear of the wrath to come. See Job 33.19, 20, 21, 22, 23. with the Notes.

Verſ. 19. Then they cry, &c.] Quando medicus & medicine non proſunt, ſaith Kimchi, when Phyſicians have done their utmoſt. See verſ. 6.

Verſ. 20. He ſent his word and bealed them] He commanded deliverance, and it was done; unleſs there be an alluſion to the eſſential Word, who was afterwards to take fleſh, and to heal the diſeaſed.

And delivered them from their deſtructions] Heb. From their corrupting-pits or graves, which do now even gape for them. And he calleth them theirs, quia per peccatum faderunt eas. ſaith Kimchi, becauſe by their ſin themſelves have digged them.

Verſ 21. Oh that men, &c.] See verſ. 8.

And for his wonderful works] Men are miſericordiis & miraculis obſeſſe, and it were no hard matter to find a miracle in moſt of our mercies.

Verſ. 22. And let them ſacrifice, &c.] If they have eſcaped ſickneſs, let them offer a Paſſeover; and if they have recovered, a Thank-offering. Heathens in this caſe praiſed their Eſculapius; Papiſts their Sebaſtian, Valentine, Apollonia, &c. Ear[illegible: 1 letter] of wax they offer to the Saint, who as they ſuppoſe cureth the ears; eyes of wax to the Saint that cureth the eyes, &c. But it is Jehovah only who healeth us.

And declare his Works, &c.] Memorize, and magnifie them.

Verſ. 23. They that go down is the Sea in ſhips] Here we have a fourth ſpecimen or inſtance of Gods gracious and wiſe diſpenſations towards men, in their trading or traffiquing by Sea. Theſe are ſaid to go down to Sea, becauſe the banks are above it; but the water is naturally higher then the land, and therefore Saylers obſerve, that their ſhips flye faſter to the ſhore than from it. But what a bold man, ſaith the Poet, was he that fi[illegible: 1 letter]ſt put forth to Sea? Illi robur, & et triplex Circa pectus erat, qui fragilem truci Commiſit pelage ralem Primus, Hec timuit praetipitem Africum, &c.Harat. Od lib. [illegible: 1 letter].3.

That do buſineſs in great waters] Merchants and Matriners, who fiſh, and find Almug, or Coral, ſaith Kimcht, who do export and import commodities of all ſorts.

Verſ. 24. Theſe ſee the works of the Lord &c.] In Sea-monſters, as Whales and Whirlepools, and ſudden change of weather, and the like, not a few; Ebbs and Flows, Pearls, Iſlands, &c. Theſe are juſt wonders, and may fully convince the verieſt Atheiſt that is.

Verſ. 25. For he commandeth and raiſeth the ſtormy wind, &c.] Of this Seneca, though an heathen could ſay, Inter caetera providentiae uivina opera boc quoque dignum eſt admiratione, &c. Among other works of the Divine providence, this is admirable, that the winds lye upon the Sea for the furtherance of Navigation, &c.

Verſ 26. They mount up to heaven, they go down &c.] An elegant hypolypoſis or deſcription of a ſtorm at Sea; like whereunto is that in Virgil. Tollimur in coelum curvate gurgite, & iidem Subducta admanes imos deſcendimus undâ.Tollimur in c[illegible: 3 letters]um, nanc [illegible: 1 word]. tadimus undas.

Their ſoul is melted becauſe of trouble] They are ready to dye, through ſear of death. Junius underſtandeth it of extreme vomiting, as if they were caſting up their very n[illegible: 3 letters]ts. Anocbarſes for this cauſe doubted whether he ſhould reckon Marriners amongſt the living or the dead. And another ſaid, that any man will go to Sea at firſt I wonder not; but to go a ſecond time thither, is little better than madneſs.

Verſ. 27. They reel to and fro, &c.] Nutart nautae, & vacillant cerebro & pedibus.

And are at their wits end] All their skill and ſtrength faileth them at once; they can do no more for their lives. Heb. All their wiſdome is ſwallowed up; that is, the art of Navigation is now to no uſe with them.

Verſ. 28. Then they cry unto the Lord] Then, if ever: Hence that ſpeech of One, Qui neſcit ora[illegible: 1 letter]e, diſcat navigate, He that cannot pray, let him go to Sea, and there he will learn. See verſ. 6.

Verſ. 29. He maketh the ſtorm a calm] He, that is God Almighty, whoſe the Sea it, and he made it, Pſal. 100. not the Pagans, Neptune, or the Papagans, St. Nicholas.

So that the waves thereof are ſtill] If therefore the voluptuous humors in our body (which is but as a cup made of the husk of an Acorn in reſpect of the Sea) will not be pacified, when the Lord ſaith unto us, Be ſtill; every drop of water in the Sea, will be a witneſs of our monſtrous rebellion and diſobedience.

Verſ. 30. Then are they glad becauſe they be quiet] All is huſht on the ſudden, as Mat. 8.26. both their fears, and the Seas outrages being quickly reduced to a peaceable period.

So he bringeth them to their deſired haven] This is more than they then wiſhed for, God is many ties better to men than their prayers.

Verſ. 31. Oh that men would, &c.] See verſ. 8.

Verſ. 32. Let them exalt him alſo in the Congregation, &c.] i.e. In all publick meetings Eccleſiaſtical and Civil.

Verſ. 33. He turneth vivers into a wilderneſs] Hitherto the Pſalmiſt hath ſet forth Gods good providence in delivering men from divers deaths and dangers; now hee declareth the ſame in his juſt and powerful tranſmutations in nature, whilſt according to the good pleaſure of his will, he changeth mens condition, either from good to evil, or from evil to good, beyond all expectation; It is even He that doth it, whatſoever a company of dizzy-headed men dream to the contrary, as One phraſeth it. It is God who dryeth up thoſe Rivers, whereby the land was made fat and fertile, Iſa. 41.17.

Verſ. 34. fruitful land into barrenneſs] Heb. Sal[illegible: 2 letters]eſs. See Luke 14.34, 35. Deut. 29.23. Jud. 9.45. Sals beendeth barrenneſs, by eating up the lat and moiſture of the earth. Some think the Pſalmiſt here alludeth to Sod[illegible: 1 letter]me and her ſiſters turned into the dead Sea.

For the wickedneſs of them that dwell therein] Hereof Judea is at this day a noble inſtance (beſides many parts of Aſia, and Africa, once very fruitful, now, ſince they became Mabemetan, dry and deſert) Judea, ſaith One, hath now onely ſome few parcels of rich ground found in it; that men may gueſs the goodneſs of the cloath by the fineneſs of the ſhreds. Greece which was once Sol & ſal gentium, ſaith Another, terrarum flos, fons lite rarum, nunc vel Priams miſerands manus—nunc in Graecia deſideremus Graeciam; 'tis nothing like the place it was once.

Verſ. 35. He turneth the wilderneſs, &c.] Some place a again, God (to ſhew his power and providence) of ſteril maketh to become fertil; Pol[illegible: 2 letters]ia for inſtance, and other Northern Countries. Germany and France were of old full of Woods and Lakes, as Ceſar and Tacitus teſtifie, now 'tis otherwiſe. So in America at this day. So divers deſert places of Egypt and Ethiopia, when once they became Chriſtian, became fruitfull.

Verſ. 36. And there he maketh the hungry to dwell] As our Engliſh, and other Plantations in America, where ſundry poor people get fair eſtates.

That they may prepare a City] The building of Cities is of God, and ſo is their conſervation.

Verſ. 37. And ſow the fields, and plant vineyards] Theſe are noble imployments, ſuch is the ancient Patriarchs we re much in, and the moſt honorable among the Romons, as Coriolanus, M. Curius, Cate Major, &c. Our forefathers, if they could call any one, Bonum colonum, a good husbandman, they thought it praiſe enough ſaith Cicero.

Which may yield] The thankful earth yeelding by Gods bleſſing, her gratum onus, full burden to the laborious tiller.

Verſ. 38. He bleſſeth them alſo, &c.] See Prov. 10.12. Pſal. 127.1. Jam. 4 15. They are out, that reſt in natural cauſes.

Verſ. 39. Again they are miniſhed] Minorati ſunt; This alſo is of the lord, who hath treaſuries of plagues, and cannot be exhauſted.

Verſ. 40. He poureth contempt, &c.] See Job. 12.21, 24. with the Notes. Poena tyrannoram eſt contemptus, exilium, nex, ſaith Genebrard. All their policy or King craft cannot ſave them.

Verſ. 41. Yet ſetteth be abe poor] The godly poor, as he did David.

And maketh him families like a flock] of ſheep, which multiply exceedingly in a ſhort ſpace.

Verſ. 42. The righteous ſhall ſee it, and rejoyce] It ſhall cheer them up to ſee that the reigns of Government are in Gods hand; and to behold ſuch love in ſuch providence.

And all iniquiry ſhall ſtop her mouth] Shall be down in the mouth, as we uſe to fay. See Job 5.16. and have her tongue chambered.

Verſ. 43. Whoſe is wiſe] Heb. who is wiſe? q d. not many. Rari quippe boni. Exclamatio querulatori[illegible: 1 letter] Piſcat. None but thoſe that obſerve providences, and lay up experiences; which if men would do, they might have a Divinity of their own, were they but well read in the ſtory of their own lives.

Even they ſhall understand, &c.] And as for thoſe providences that for preſent he underſtandeth not, rejicit in Dei abyſſ[illegible: 1 letter]s; he beleeveth there is a reaſon for them, and that they ſhall one day be unridled.

O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good. It is all we can give him, and the least we can give; therefore let us diligently render to him our thanksgiving. The psalmist is in earnest in the exhortation, hence the use of the interjection "O", to intensity his words: let us be at all times thoroughly fervent in the praises of the Lord, both with our lips and with our lives, by thanksgiving and thanks living. JEHOVAH, for that is the name here used, is not to be worshipped with groans and cries, but with thanks, for he is good; and these thanks should be heartily rendered, for his is no common goodness: he is good by nature, and essence, and proven to be good in all the acts of his eternity. Compared with him there is none good, no, not one: but he is essentially, perpetually, superlatively, infinitely good. We are the perpetual partakers of his goodness, and therefore ought above all his creatures to magnify his name. Our praise should be increased by the fact that the divine goodness is not a transient thing, but in the attribute of mercy abides for ever the same, for his mercy endureth for ever. The word endureth has been properly supplied by the translators, but yet it somewhat restricts the sense, which will be better seen if we read it, "for his mercy forever." That mercy had no beginning, and shall never know an end. Our sin required that goodness should display itself to us in the form of mercy, and it has done so, and will do so evermore; let us not be slack in praising the goodness which thus adapts itself to our fallen nature.

Let the redeemed of the LORD say so. Whatever others may think or say, the redeemed have overwhelming reasons for declaring the goodness of the Lord. Theirs is a peculiar redemption, and for it they ought to render peculiar praise. The Redeemer is so glorious, the ransom price so immense, and the redemption so complete, that they are under sevenfold obligations to give thanks unto the Lord, and to exhort others to do so. Let them not only feel so but say so; let them both sing and bid their fellows sing. Whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy. Snatched by superior power away from fierce oppressions, they are bound above all men to adore the Lord, their Liberator. Theirs is a divine redemption, "he hath redeemed" them, and no one else has done it. His own unaided arm has wrought out their deliverance. Should not emancipated slaves be grateful to the hand which set them free? What gratitude can suffice for a deliverance from the power of sin, death, and hell? In heaven itself there is no sweeter hymn than that whose burden is, "Thou hast redeemed us unto God by thy blood."

And gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south. Gathering follows upon redeeming. The captives of old were restored to their own land from every quarter of the earth, and even from beyond the sea; for the word translated south is really the sea. No matter what divides, the Lord will gather his own into one body, and first on earth by "one Lord, one faith, and one baptism", and then in heaven by one common bliss they shall be known to be the one people of the One God. What a glorious Shepherd must, he be who thus collects the blood bought flock from the remotest regions, guides them through countless perils, and at last makes them to lie down in the green pastures of Paradise. Some have wandered one way and some another they have all left Immanuel's land and strayed as far as they could, and great are the grace and power by which they are all collected into one flock by the Lord Jesus. With one heart and voice let the redeemed praise the Lord who gathers them into one.

They wandered in the wilderness. They wandered, for the track was lost, no vestige of a road remained; worse still, they wandered in a wilderness, where all around was burning sand. They were lost in the worst possible place, even as the sinner is who is lost in sin; they wandered up and down in vain searches and researches as a sinner does when he is awakened and sees his lost estate; but it ended in nothing, for they still continued in the wilderness, though they had hoped to escape from it. In a solitary way. No dwelling of man was near, and no other company of travellers passed within hail. Solitude is a great intensifier of misery. The loneliness of a desert has a most depressing influence upon the man who is lost in the boundless waste. The traveller's way in the wilderness is a waste way, and when he leaves even that poor, barren trail, to get utterly beyond the path of man, he is in a wretched plight indeed. A soul without sympathy is on the borders of hell: a solitary way is the way of despair. They found no city to dwell in. How could they? There was none. Israel in the wilderness abode under canvas, and enjoyed none of the comforts of settled life; wanderers in the Sahara find no town or village. Men when under distress of soul find nothing to rest upon, no comfort and no peace; their efforts after salvation are many, weary, and disappointing, and the dread solitude of their hearts fills them with dire distress.

Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. The spirits sink when the bodily frame becomes exhausted by long privations. Who can keep his courage up when he is ready to fall to the ground at every step through utter exhaustion? The supply of food is all eaten, the water is spent in the bottles, and there are neither fields nor streams in the desert, the heart therefore sinks in dire despair. Such is the condition of an awakened conscience before it knows the Lord Jesus; it is full of unsatisfied cravings, painful needs, and heavy fears. It is utterly spent and without strength, and there is nothing in the whole creation which can minister to its refreshment.

Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble. Not till they were in extremities did they pray, but the mercy is that they prayed then, and prayed in the right manner, with a cry, and to the right person, even to the Lord. Nothing else remained for them to do; they could not help themselves, or find help in others, and therefore they cried to God. Supplications which are forced out of us by stern necessity are none the less acceptable with God; but, indeed, they have all the more prevalence, since they are evidently sincere, and make a powerful appeal to the divine pity. Some men will never pray till they are half starved, and for their best interests it is far better for them to be empty and faint than to be full and stouthearted. If hunger brings us to our knees it is more useful to us than feasting; if thirst drives us to the fountain it is better than the deepest draughts of worldly joys; and if fainting leads to crying it is better than the strength of the mighty, And he delivered them out of their distresses. Deliverance follows prayer most surely. The cry must have been very feeble, for they were faint, and their faith was as weak as their cry; but yet they were heard, and heard at once. A little delay would have been their death: but there was none, for the Lord was ready to save them. The Lord delights to come in when no one else can be of the slightest avail. The case was hopeless till Jehovah interposed, and then all was changed immediately; the people were shut up, straitened, and almost pressed to death, but enlargement came to them at once when they began to remember their God, and look to him in prayer. Those deserve to die of hunger who will not so much as ask for bread, and he who being lost in a desert will not beg the aid of a guide cannot be pitied even if he perish in the wilds and feed the vultures with his flesh.

And he led them forth by the right way. There are many wrong ways, but only one right one, and into this none can lead us but God himself. When the Lord is leader the way is sure to be right; we never need question that. Forth from the pathless mazes of the desert he conducted the lost ones; he found the way, made the way, and enabled them to walk along it, faint and hungry as they were. That they might go to a city of habitation. The end was worthy of the way: he did not lead them from one desert to another, but he gave the wanderers an abode, the weary ones a place of rest. They found no city to dwell in, but he found one readily enough. What we can do and what God can do are two very different things. What a difference it made to them to leave their solitude for a city, their trackless path for well frequented streets, and their faintness of heart for the refreshment of a home! Far greater are the changes which divine love works in the condition of sinners when God answers their prayers and brings them to Jesus. Shall not the Lord be magnified for such special mercies? Can we who have enjoyed them sit down in ungrateful silence?

Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness. Men are not mentioned here in the original, but the word is fitly supplied by the translators; the psalmist would have all things in existence magnify Jehovah's name. Surely men will do this without being exhorted to it when the deliverance is fresh in their memories. They must be horrible ingrates who will not honour such a deliverer for so happy a rescue from the most cruel death. It is well that the redeemed should be stirred up to bless the Lord again and again, for preserved life deserves life long thankfulness. Even those who have not encountered the like peril, and obtained the like deliverance, should bless the Lord in sympathy with their fellows, sharing their joy. And for his wonderful works to the children of men. These favours are bestowed upon our race, upon children of the family to which we belong, and therefore we ought to join in the praise. The children of men are so insignificant, so feeble, and so undeserving, that it is a great wonder that the Lord should do anything for them; but he is not content with doing little works, he puts forth his wisdom, power, and love to perform marvels on the behalf of those who seek him. In the life of each one of the redeemed there is a world of wonders, and therefore from each there should resound a world of praises. As to the marvels of grace which the Lord has wrought for his church as a whole there is no estimating them, they are as high above our thoughts as the heavens are high above the earth. When shall the day dawn when the favoured race of man shall be as devoted to the praise of God as they are distinguished by the favour of God?

For he satisfieth the longing soul. This is the summary of the lost traveller's experience. He who in a natural sense has been rescued from perishing in a howling wilderness ought to bless the Lord who brings hint again to eat bread among men. The spiritual sense is, however, the more rich in instruction. The Lord sets us longing and then completely satisfies us. That longing leads us into solitude, separation, thirst, faintness and self despair, and all these conduct us to prayer, faith, divine guidance, satisfying of the soul's thirst, and rest: the good hand of the Lord is to be seen in the whole process and in the divine result. And filleth the hungry soul with goodness. As for thirst he gives satisfaction, so for hunger he supplies filling. In both cases the need is more than met, there is an abundance in the supply which is well worthy of notice: the Lord does nothing in a niggardly fashion; satisfying and filling are his peculiar modes of treating his guests; none who come under the Lord's providing ever complain of short commons. Nor does he fill the hungry with common fare, but with goodness itself. It is not so much good, as the essence of goodness which he bestows on needy suppliants. Shall man be thus royally supplied and return no praise for the largeness of love? It must not be so. We will even now give thanks with all the redeemed church, and pray for the time when the whole earth shall be filled with his glory.

Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. The cell is dark of itself, and the fear of execution casts a still denser gloom over the prison. Such is the cruelty of man to man that tens of thousands have been made to linger in places only fit to be tombs; unhealthy, suffocating, filthy sepulchres, where they have sickened and died of broken hearts. Meanwhile the dread of sudden death has been the most hideous part of the punishment; the prisoners have felt as if the chill shade of death himself froze them to the very marrow. The state of a soul under conviction of sin is forcibly symbolized by such a condition; persons in that state cannot see the promises which would yield them comfort, they sit still in the inactivity of despair, they fear the approach of judgment, and are thereby as much distressed as if they were at death's door. Being bound in affliction and iron. Many prisoners have been thus doubly fettered in heart and hand; or the text may mean that affliction becomes as an iron band to them, or that the iron chains caused them great affliction. None know these things but those who have felt them; we should prize our liberty more if we knew by actual experience what manacles and fetters mean. In a spiritual sense affliction frequently attends conviction of sin, and then the double grief causes a double bondage. In such cases the iron enters into the soul, the poor captives cannot stir because of their bonds, cannot rise to hope because of their grief, and have no power because of their despair. Misery is the companion of all those who are shut up and cannot come forth. O ye who are made free by Christ Jesus, remember those who are in bonds.

Because they rebelled against the words of God. This was the general cause of bondage among the ancient people of God, they were given over to their adversaries because they were not loyal to the Lord. God's words are not to be trifled with, and those who venture on such rebellion will bring themselves into bondage. And contemned the counsel of the Most High. They thought that they knew better than the Judge of all the earth, and therefore they left his ways and walked in their own. When men do not follow the divine counsel they give the most practical proof of their contempt for it. Those who will not be bound by God's law will, ere long, be bound by the fetters of judgment. There is too much contemning of the divine counsel, even among Christians, and hence so few of them know the liberty wherewith Christ makes us free.

Therefore he brought down their heart with labour. In eastern prisons men are frequently made to labour like beasts of the field. As they have no liberty, so they have no rest. This soon subdues the stoutest heart, and makes the proud boaster sing another tune. Trouble and hard toil are enough to tame a lion. God has methods of abating the loftiness of rebellious looks; the cell and the mill make even giants tremble. They fell down, and there was none to help. Stumbling on in the dark beneath their weary task, they at last fell prone upon the ground, but no one came to pity them or to lift them up. Their fall might be fatal for aught that any man cared about them; their misery was unseen, or, if observed, no one could interfere between them and their tyrant masters. In such a wretched plight the rebellious Israelite became more lowly in mind, and thought more tenderly of his God and of his offences against him. When a soul finds all its efforts at self salvation prove abortive, and feels that it is now utterly without strength, then the Lord is at work hiding pride from man and preparing the afflicted one to receive his mercy. The spiritual case which is here figuratively described is desperate, and therefore affords the finer field for the divine interposition; some of us remember well how brightly mercy shone in our prison, and what music the fetters made when they fell off from our hands. Nothing but the Lord's love could have delivered us; without it we must have utterly perished.

Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble. Not a prayer till then. While there was any to help below they would not look above. No cries till their hearts were brought down and their hopes were all dead —then they cried, but not before. So many a man offers what he calls prayer when he is in good case and thinks well of himself, but in very deed the only real cry to God is that which is forced out of him by a sense of utter helplessness and misery. We pray best when we are fallen on our faces in painful helplessness. And he saved them out of their distresses. Speedily and willingly he sent relief. They were long before they cried, but he was not long before he saved. They had applied everywhere else before they came to him, but when they did address themselves to him, they were welcome at once. He who saved men in the open wilderness can also save in the close prison: bolts and bars cannot shut him out, nor long shut in his redeemed ones.

He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death. The Lord in providence fetches out prisoners from their cells and bids them breathe the sweet fresh air again, and then he takes off their fetters, and gives liberty to their aching limbs. So also he frees men from care and trouble, and especially from the misery and slavery of sin. This he does with his own hand, for in the experience of all the saints it is certified that there is no jail delivery unless by the Judge himself. And brake their bands in sunder. Set them free by force, so liberating them that they could not be chained again, for he had broken the manacles to pieces. The Lord's deliverances are of the most complete and triumphant kind, he neither leaves the soul in darkness nor in bonds, nor does he permit the powers of evil again to enthral the liberated captive. What he does is done for ever. Glory be to his name.

Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men. The sight of such goodness makes a right minded man long to see the Lord duly honoured for his amazing mercy. When dungeon doors fly open, and chains are snapped, who can refuse to adore the glorious goodness of the Lord? It makes the heart sick to think of such gracious mercies remaining unsung: we cannot but plead with men to remember their obligations and extol the Lord their God.

For he hath broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of Zion in sunder. This verse belongs to that which precedes it, and Sums up the mercy experienced by captives. The Lord breaks the strongest gates and bars when the time comes to set free his prisoners: and spiritually the Lord Jesus has broken the most powerful of spiritual bonds and made us free indeed. Brass and iron are as tow before the flame of Jesus' love. The gates of hell shall not prevail against us, neither shall the bars of the grave detain us. Those of us who have experienced his redeeming power must and will praise the Lord for the wonders of his grace displayed on our behalf.

Fools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted. Many sicknesses are the direct result of foolish acts. Thoughtless and lustful men by drunkenness, gluttony, and the indulgence of their passions fill their bodies with diseases of the worst kind. Sin is at the bottom of all sorrow, but some sorrows are the immediate results of wickedness: men by a course of transgression afflict themselves and are fools for their pains. Worse still, even when they are in affliction they are fools still; and if they were brayed in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet would not their folly depart from them. From one transgression they go on to many iniquities, and while under the rod they add sin to sin. Alas, even the Lord's own people sometimes play the fool in this sad manner.

Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat. Appetite departs from men when they are sick: the best of food is nauseous to them, their stomach turns against it. And they draw near unto the gates of death. From want of food, and from the destructive power of their malady, they slide gradually down till they lie at the door of the grave; neither does the skill of the physician suffice to stay their downward progress. As they cannot eat there is no support given to the system, and as the disease rages their little strength is spent in pain and misery. Thus it is with souls afflicted with a sense of sin, they cannot find comfort in the choicest promises, but turn away with loathing even from the gospel, so that they gradually decay into the grave of despair. The mercy is that though near the gates of death they are not yet inside the sepulchre.

Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble. They join the praying legion at last. Saul also is among the prophets. The fool lays aside his motley in prospect of the shroud, and betakes himself to his knees. What a cure for the soul sickness of body is often made to be by the Lord's grace! And he saveth them out of their distresses. Prayer is as effectual on a sick bed as in the wilderness or in prison; it may be tried in all places and circumstances with certain result. We may pray about our bodily pains and weaknesses, and we may look for answers too. When we have no appetite for meat we may have an appetite for prayer. He who cannot feed on the word of God may yet turn to God himself and find mercy.

He sent his word and healed them. Man is not healed by medicine alone, but by the word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God is man restored from going down to the grave. A word will do it, a word has done it thousands of times. And delivered them from their destructions. They escape though dangers had surrounded them, dangers many and deadly. The word of the Lord has a great delivering power; he has but to speak and the armies of death flee in an instant. Sin sick souls should remember the power of the Word, and be much in hearing it and meditating upon it. Spiritually considered, these verses describe a sin sick soul: foolish but yet aroused to a sense of guilt, it refuses comfort from any and every quarter, and a lethargy of despair utterly paralyses it. To its own apprehension nothing remains but utter destruction in many forms: the gates of death stand open before it, and it is, in its own apprehension, hurried in that direction. Then is the soul driven to cry in the bitterness of its grief unto the Lord, and Christ, the eternal Word, comes with healing power in the direst extremity, saving to the uttermost.

Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men. It is marvellous that men can be restored from sickness and yet refuse to bless the Lord. It would seem impossible that they should forget such great mercy, for we should expect to see both themselves and the friends to whom they are restored uniting in a lifelong act of thanksgiving. Yet when ten are healed it is seldom that more than one returns to give glory to God. Alas, where are the nine? When a spiritual cure is wrought by the great Physician, praise is one of the surest signs of renewed health. A mind rescued from the disease of sin and the weary pains of conviction, must and will adore Jehovah Rophi, the healing God: yet it were well if there were a thousand times as much even of this.

And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving. In such a case let there be gifts and oblations as well as words. Let the good Physician have his fee of gratitude. Let life become a sacrifice to him who has prolonged it, let the deed of self denying gratitude be repeated again and again: there must be many cheerful sacrifices to celebrate the marvellous boon. And declare his works with rejoicing. Such things are worth telling, for the personal declaration honours God, relieves ourselves, comforts others, and puts all men in possession of facts concerning the divine goodness which they will not be able to ignore.

They that go down to the sea in ships. Navigation was so little practised among the Israelites that mariners were invested with a high mystery, and their craft was looked upon as one of singular daring degree of and peril. Tales of the sea thrilled all hearts with awe, and he who had been to Ophir or to Tarshish and had returned alive was looked upon as a man of renown, an ancient mariner to be listened to with reverent attention. Voyages were looked on as descending to an abyss, "going down to the sea in ships"; whereas now our bolder and more accustomed sailors talk of the "high seas." That do business in great waters. If they had not had business to do, they would never have ventured on the ocean, for we never read in the Scriptures of any man taking his pleasure on the sea: so averse was the Israelitish mind to seafaring, that we do not hear of even Solomon himself keeping a pleasure boat. The Mediterranean was "the great sea" to David and his countrymen, and they viewed those who had business upon it with no small degree of admiration.

These see the works of the LORD. Beyond the dwellers on the land they see the Lord's greatest works, or at least such as stayers at home judge to be so when they hear the report thereof. Instead of the ocean proving to be a watery wilderness, it is full of God's creatures, and if we were to attempt to escape from his presence by flying to the uttermost parts of it, we should only rush into Jehovah's arms, and find ourselves in the very centre of his workshop. And his wonders in the deep. They see wonders in it and on it. It is in itself a wonder and it swarms with wonders. Seamen, because they have fewer objects around them, are more observant of those they have than landsmen are, and hence they are said to see the wonders in the deep. At the same time, the ocean really does contain many of the more striking of God's creatures, and it is the scene of many of the more tremendous of the physical phenomena by which the power and more majesty of the Lord are revealed among men. The chief wonders alluded to by the Psalmist are a sudden storm and the calm which follows it. All believers have not the same deep experience; but for wise ends, that they may do business for him, the Lord sends some of his saints to the sea of soul trouble, and there they see, as others do not, the wonders of divine grace. Sailing over the deeps of inward depravity, the waste waters of poverty, the billows of persecution, and the rough waves of temptation, they need God above all others, and they find him.

For he commandeth: his word is enough for anything, he has but to will it and the tempest rages. And raiseth the stormy wiled. It seemed to he asleep before, but it knows its Master's bidding, and is up at once in all its fury. Which lifteth up the waves thereof. The glassy surface of the sea is broken, and myriads of white heads appear and rage and toss themselves to and fro as the wind blows upon them. Whereas they were lying down in quiet before, the waves rise in their might and leap towards the sky as soon as the howling of the wind awakens them. Thus it needs but a word from God and the soul is in troubled waters, tossed to and fro with a thousand afflictions. Doubts, fears, terrors, anxieties lift their heads like so many angry waves, when once the Lord allows the storm winds to beat upon us.

They mount up to the heaven. Borne aloft on the crest of the wave, the sailors and their vessels appear to climb the skies, but it is only for a moment, for very soon in the trough of the sea they go down again to the depths. As if their vessel were but a sea bird, the mariners are tossed "up and down, up and down, from the base of the wave to the billow's crown." Their soul is melted because of trouble. Weary, wet, dispirited, hopeless of escape, their heart is turned to water, and they seem to have no manhood left. Those who have been on the spiritual deep in one of the great storms which occasionally agitate the soul know what this verse means. In these spiritual cyclones presumption alternates with despair, indifference with agony! No heart is left for anything, courage is gone, hope is almost dead. Such an experience is as real as the tossing of a literal tempest and far more painful. Some of us have weathered many such an internal hurricane, and have indeed seen the Lord's wondrous works.

They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man. The violent motion of the vessel prevents their keeping their legs, and their fears drive them out of all power to use their brains, and therefore they look like intoxicated men. And are at their wit's end. What more can they do? They have used every expedient known to navigation, but the ship is so strained and beaten about that they know not how to keep her afloat. Here too the spiritual mariner's log agrees with that of the sailor on the sea. We have staggered frightfully! We could stand to nothing and hold by nothing. We knew not what to do, and could have done nothing if we had known it. We were as men distracted, and felt as if destruction itself would be better than our horrible state of suspense. As for wit and wisdom, they were clean washed out of us, we felt ourselves to be at a nonplus altogether.

Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble. Though at their wit's end, they had wit enough to pray; their heart was melted, and it ran out in cries for help. This was well and ended well, for it is written, And he brought them out of their distresses. Prayer is good in a storm. We may pray staggering and reeling, and pray when we are at our wit's end. God will hear us amid the thunder and answer us out of the storm. He brought their distresses upon the mariners, and therefore they did well to turn to him for the removal of them; nor did they look in vain.

He maketh the storm a calm. He reveals his power in the sudden and marvellous transformations which occur at his bidding. He commanded the storm and now he ordains a calm: God is in all natural phenomena, and we do well to recognise his working. So that the waves thereof are still. They bow in silence at his feet. Where huge billows leaped aloft there is scarce a ripple to be seen. When God makes peace it is peace indeed, the peace of God which passeth all understanding. He can in an instant change the condition of a man's mind, so that it shall seem an absolute miracle to him that he has passed so suddenly from hurricane to calm. O that the Lord would thus work in the reader, should his heart be storm beaten with outward troubles or inward fears. Lord, say the word and peace will come at once.

Then are they glad because they be quiet. No one can appreciate this verse unless he has been in a storm at sea. No music can be sweeter than the rattling of the chain as the shipmen let down the anchor; and no place seems more desirable than the little cove, or the wide bay, in which the ship rests in peace. So he bringeth them unto their desired haven. The rougher the voyage the more the mariners long for port, and heaven becomes more and more "a desired haven", as our trials multiply. By storms and by favourable breezes, though tempest and fair weather, the great Pilot and Ruler of the sea brings mariners to port, and his people to heaven. HE must have the glory of the successful voyage of time, and when we are moored in the river of life above we shall take care that his praises are not forgotten. We should long ago have been wrecked if it had not been for his preserving hand, and our only hope of outliving the storms of the future is based upon his wisdom, faithfulness and power. Our heavenly haven shall ring with shouts of grateful joy when once we reach its blessed shore.

Oh that men would praise the Loud for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! Let the sea sound forth Jehovah's praises because of his delivering grace. As the sailor touches the shore let him lift the solemn hymn to heaven, and let others who see him rescued from the jaws of death unite in his thanksgiving.

Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people. Thanks for such mercies should be given in public in the place where men congregate for worship. And praise him in the assembly of the elders. The praise should be presented with great solemnity in the presence of men of years, experience, and influence. High and weighty service should be rendered for great and distinguished favours, and therefore let the sacrifice be presented with due decorum and with grave seriousness. Often when men hear of a narrow escape from shipwreck they pass over the matter with a careless remark about good luck, but it should never be thus jested with. When a heart has been in great spiritual storms and has at last found peace, there will follow as a duty and a privilege the acknowledgment of the Lord's mercy before his people, and it is well that this should be done in the presence of those who hold office in the church, and who from their riper years are better able to appreciate the testimony.

He turneth rivers into a wilderness, and the watersprings into dry ground. When the Lord deals with rebellious men he can soon deprive them of those blessings of which they feel most assured: their rivers and perennial springs they look upon as certain never to be taken from them, but the Lord at a word can deprive them even of these. In hot climates after long droughts streams of water utterly fail, and even springs cease to flow, and this also has happened in other parts of the world when great convulsions of the earth's surface have occurred. In providence this physical catastrophe finds its counterpart when business ceases to yield profit and sources of wealth are made to fail; as also when health and strength are taken away, when friendly aids are withdrawn, and comfortable associations are broken up. So, too, in soul matters, the most prosperous ministries may become dry, the most delightful meditations cease to benefit us, and the most fruitful religious exercises grow void of the refreshment of grace which they formerly yielded. Since

"It is God who lifts our comforts high,

Or sinks them in the grave", it behooves us to walk before him with reverential gratitude, and so to live that it may not become imperative upon him to afflict us.

A fruitful land into barrenness. This has been done in many instances, and notably in the case of the psalmist's own country, which was once the glory of all lands and is now almost a desert. For the wickedness of them that dwell therein. Sin is at the bottom of sorrow. It first made the ground sterile in father Adam's day, and it continues to have a blighting effect upon all that it touches. If we have not the salt of holiness we shall soon receive the salt of barrenness, for the text in the Hebrew is —"a fruitful land into saltness." If we will not yield the Lord a harvest of obedience he may forbid the soil to yield us a harvest of bread, and what then? If we turn good into evil can we wonder if the Lord pays us in kind, and returns our baseness into our own bosoms? Many a barren church owes its present sad estate to its inconsistent behaviour, and many a barren Christian has come into this mournful condition by a careless, unsanctified walk before the Lord. Let not saints who are now useful run the risk of enduring the loss of their mercies, but let them be watchful that all things may go well with them.

He turneth the wilderness into a standing water. With another turn of his hand he more than restores that which in judgment he took away. He does his work of mercy on a royal scale, for a deep lake is seen where before there was only a sandy waste. It is not by natural laws, working by some innate force, that this wonder is wrought, but by himself —HE TURNETH. And dry ground into watersprings. Continuance, abundance, and perpetual freshness are all implied in watersprings, and these are created where all was dry. This wonder of mercy is the precise reversal of the deed of judgment, and wrought by the selfsame hand. Even thus in the church, and in each individual saint, the mercy of the Lord soon works wonderful changes where restoring and renewing grace begin their benign work. O that we might see this verse fulfilled in all around us, and within our own hearts: then would these words serve us for an exclamation of grateful astonishment, and a song of well deserved praise.

And there he maketh the hungry to dwell, where none could dwell before. They will appreciate the change and prize his grace; as the barrenness of the land caused their hunger so will its fertility banish it for ever, and they will settle down a happy and thankful people to bless God for every handful of corn which the land yields to them. None are so ready to return a revenue of praise to God for great mercies as those who have known the lack of them. Hungry souls make sweet music when the Lord fills them with his gracious gifts. Are we hungry? Or are we satisfied with the husks of this poor, swinish world? That they may prepare a city for habitation. When the earth is watered and men cultivate it, cities spring up and teem with inhabitants; when grace abounds where sin formerly reigned, hearts find peace and dwell in God's love as in a strong city. The church is built up where once all was a waste when the Lord causes the broad rivers and streams of gospel grace to flow forth.

And sow the fields, and plant vineyards, which may yield fruits of increase. Men work when God works. His blessing encourages the sower, cheers the planter, and rewards the labourer. Not only necessaries but luxuries are enjoyed, wine as well as corn, when the heavens are caused to yield the needed rain to fill the watercourses. Divine visitations bring great spiritual riches, foster varied works of faith and labours of love, and cause every good fruit to abound to our comfort and to God's praise. When God sends the blessing it does not supersede, but encourages and develops human exertion. Paul plants, Apollos waters, and God gives the increase.

He blesseth them also, so that they are multiplied greatly; and suffereth not their cattle to decrease. God's blessing is everything. It not only makes men happy, but it makes men themselves, by causing men to be multiplied upon the earth. When the Lord made the first pair he blessed them and said "be fruitful and multiply", and here he restores the primeval blessing. Observe that beasts as well as men fare well when God favours his people: they share with men in the goodness or severity of divine providence. Plagues and pests are warded off from the flock and the herd when the Lord means well towards a people; but when chastisement is intended, the flocks and herds rot from off the face of the earth. O that nations in the day of their prosperity would but own the gracious hand of God, for it is to his blessing that they owe their all.

Again they are minished and brought low through oppression, affliction, and sorrow. As they change in character, so do their circumstances alter. Under the old dispensation, this was very clearly to be observed; Israel's ups and downs were the direct consequences of her sins and repentance. Trials are of various kinds; here we have three words for affliction, and there are numbers more: God has many rods and we have many smarts; and all because we have many sins. Nations and churches soon diminish in number when they are diminished in grace. If we are low in love to God, it is small wonder that he brings us low in other respects. God can reverse the order of our prosperity, and give us a diminuendo where we had a crescendo; therefore let us walk before him with great tenderness of spirit, conscious of our dependence upon his smile.

Verses 40-41. In these two verses we see how the Lord at will turns the wheel of providence. Paying no respect to man's imaginary grandeur, he puts princes down and makes them wander in banishment as they had made their captives wander when they drove them from land to land: at the same time, having ever a tender regard for the poor and needy, the Lord delivers the distressed and sets them in a position of comfort and happiness. This is to be seen upon the roll of history again and again, and in spiritual experience we remark its counterpart: the self sufficient are made to despise themselves and search in vain for help in the wilderness of their nature, while poor convicted souls are added to the Lord's family and dwell in safety as the sheep of his fold.

The righteous shall see it, and rejoice. Divine providence causes joy to God's true people; they see the hand of the Lord in all things, and delight to study the ways of his justice and of his grace. And all iniquity shall stop her mouth. What can she say? God's providence is often so conclusive in its arguments of fact, that there is no replying or questioning. It is not long that the impudence of ungodliness can be quiet, but when God's judgments are abroad it is driven to hold its tongue.

Those who notice providence shall never be long without a providence notice. It is wise to observe what the Lord doth, for he is wonderful in counsel; has given us eyes to see with, and it is foolish to close them when there is most to observe; but we must observe wisely, otherwise we may soon confuse ourselves and others with hasty reflections upon the dealings of the Lord. In a thousand ways the lovingkindness of the Lord is shown, and if we will prudently watch, we shall come to a better understanding of it. To understand the delightful attribute of lovingkindness is an attainment as pleasant it is profitable: those who are proficient scholars in this art will be among sweetest singers to the glory of Jehovah.

Whole Psalm. Dr. Lowth, in his 20th prelection, remarks of this psalm: —No doubt the composition of this psalm is admirable throughout; and the descriptive part of it adds at least its share of beauty to the whole; but what is but most to be admired is its conciseness, and withal the expressiveness of the diction, which strikes the imagination with inimitable elegance. The weary and bewildered traveller, the miserable captive in the hideous dungeon, the sick dying man, the seaman foundering in a storm, are described in so affecting manner, that they far exceed anything of the kind, though never so laboured. I may add that had such an Idyle appeared in Theocritus or Virgil or had it been found as a scene in any of the Greek tragedians, even in Aeschylus himself, it would probably have been produced as their master piece. —Adam Clarke.

Whole Psalm. I do not believe that the special care of God over his own people is here rather indirectly than directly touched upon, and that therefore this Psalm is composed to illustrate the general care of God:

1. Because the subjects of the various deliverances are called the redeemed of Jehovah, Ps 107:2, which is the customary title of the people of God.

2. Because among the instances given, there are those which are peculiar to the people of God, as in Ps 107:3 the return of the dispersed out of every part of the globe, a singular blessing, promised in the prophecies to the people of God, see Ps 106:47.

3. The sick of Ps 106:17 are those who are spiritually sick even unto death, as is clear from the fact of their being healed by the word of God; which is not in the order of common providence. The imprisoned of Ps 107:2 are those who on account of the worship of God fall into the power of their enemies, you cannot well apply to any other than the people of God. If you understand the wicked, for others among the heathen cannot be said to be thrust into prison on account of the violation of the laws, then the liberation belongs not to them.

4. Calling upon God, especially upon Jehovah, under name He was known only to his people, you cannot apply unless in a diluted and partial sense to those who are afflicted in the general cause of providence.

5. He commands those who are delivered to celebrate the divine goodness in the congregation of the people and the assembly of the elders, Ps 107:32, which is the mark of the true Church and her usual description.

6. Lastly, instances of general providences are not wont to come under the name of dox, grace, by which these deliverances are described, not do they require such great and such careful attention in their consideration, as here the sacred poet enjoins upon the pious and the wise: such things are easily observed, and are of every day occurrence. —Venema.

Whole Psalm. The psalm divides itself into five parts; the four first, as it should seem, describing four divisions of the returning Israelites, and recounting the particular accidents that had befallen each party on their journey, and the particular mercies for which they ought to be thankful. The fifth part describes what befalls the collected nations, or a part of them, when they arrive at the land which was the object of their journey —I think the first restoration or colonization before the general gathering. Whether the four divisions of travellers are supposed to come exactly from the four distinct quarters of the earth, perhaps is not quite certain. The first divisions are plainly described (Ps 107:4-5), as coming across the desert, and meeting with all the disasters usual on that route. —John Fry.

Whole Psalm. Without insisting on an exclusive application of this psalm to Israel, there may be traced, I think, not indistinctly, the leading incidents of the nation's changeful experience in the descriptive language of the narrative part. In Ps 107:4-7 the story of the wilderness is briefly told, to the praise of the glory of his grace who satisfieth the longing soul and filleth the hungry soul with goodness. The strong discipline of national affliction which visited the rebellious house, until the turning again of their captivity, when the appointed term of Babylonish exile was accomplished, appears to form the historical groundwork of Ps 107:10-16; but in its prophetic intention this passage would demand a far wider interpretation. The resuscitation of Israel, both spiritually and politically, would alone adequately fulfil these words. The sufferings of the "foolish nation" when, filled with Jehovah's indignation they find a snare in that which should have fed them, and pine beneath the pressure of a more grievous famine than that of bread, until, in answer to their cry of sorrow, the word of saving health is sent them from above, seem to be indicated in the next division (Ps 107:17-20). The language of Ps 107:22 is in agreement with this. They who had daily gone about to establish their own righteousness are called on now to offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and to declare his works with singing. Besides the obvious force and beauty of the following verses (Ps 107:23-30) in their simple meaning and their general application, we have, I believe, a figure of Jacob's restless trouble when, like a vexed and frightened mariner, he wandered up and down the wide sea of nations without ease, a friendless pilgrim of the Lord's displeasure, until the long desired rest was gained at last, under the faithful guidance of him who seeks his people in the dark and cloudy day. Accordingly we find in the hortatory reminder of praise which follows (Ps 107:32), a mention of the gathered people and their elders, who are now called on to celebrate, in the quiet resting places of Immanuel's land, his faithful goodness and his might, who had turned their long endured tempest of affliction to the calm sunshine of perpetual peace. —Arthur Pridham, in "Notes and Reflections on the Psalms", 1869.

O give thanks unto the LORD. Unto no duty are we more dull and untoward, than to the praise of God, and thanksgiving unto him; neither is there any duty whereunto there is more need that we should be stirred up, as this earnest exhortation doth import. —David Dickson.

For he is good, etc. The first words of the psalm are abundant in thought concerning Jehovah. "For he is good." Is not this the Old Testament version of "God is love"? 1Jo 4:8. And then, For his mercy endureth for ever. Is not this the gushing stream from the fountain of Love? —the never failing stream, on whose banks the redeemed of the Lord walk, those whom he has redeemed from the hand of the enemy Hengstenberg, "hand of trouble", ru. Nor is the rich significance of these clauses diminished by our knowing that they were, from time to time, the burden of the altar song. When the ark came to its resting place (1Ch 16:34), they sang to the Lord —"For he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever!" In Solomon's temple, the singers and players on instruments were making the resplendent walls of the newly risen temple resound with these very words, when the glory descended (2Ch 5:13); and these were the words that burst from the lips of the awe struck and delighted worshippers, who saw the fire descend on the altar (2Ch 7:3). And in Ezra's days (Ezr 3:11), again, as soon as the altar rose, they sang to the Lord —"Because he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever." Our God is known to be "Love", by the side of the atoning sacrifice. Jeremiah (Jer 33:11) too, shows how restored Israel shall exult in this name. —Andrew A. Bonar.

His mercy endureth for ever. St. Paul assures us, that the covenant of grace, which is the fountain of all mercy, was made before the foundation of the world, and this he repeats in several of his epistles. The Psalmist teaches the same doctrine, and frequently calls upon us to thank God, because his mercy is for ever and ever —because his mercy is everlasting —and in the text, because "his mercy endureth for ever; "the word "endureth" is inserted by the translators, for there is no verb in the original neither in strictness of speech could there be any; because there was no time when this mercy was not exercised, neither will there be any time when the exercise of it will fail. It was begun before all worlds, when the covenant of grace was made, and it will continue to the ages of eternity, after this world is destroyed. So that mercy was, and is, and will be, "for ever", and sinful miserable man may always find relief in this eternal mercy, whenever the sense of his misery disposes him to seek for it. And does not this motive loudly call upon us to "give thanks"? Because there is mercy with God —mercy to pity the miserable —and even to relieve them —although they do not deserve it: for mercy is all free grace and unmerited love. Oh! How adorable, then, and gracious is this attribute! How sweet is it and full of consolation to the guilty. —William Romaine (1714-1795), in "A Practical Comment on the Hundred and Seventh Psalm."

Redeemed. Moses has given us in the law a clear and full idea of what we are to understand by the word gal, here rendered "redeemed." If any person was either sold for a slave or carried away for a captive, then his kinsman, who was nearest to him in blood, had the right and equity of redemption. But no other person was suffered to redeem. And such a kinsman was called "the redeemer", when he paid down the price for which his relation was sold to be a slave, or paid the ransom for which he was led captive. And there is another remarkable instance in the law, wherein it was provided, that in any case any person was found murdered, then the nearest to him in blood was to prosecute the murderer, and to bring him to justice, and this nearest relation thus avenging the murder is called by the same name, a redeemer. And how beautifully is the office of our great Redeemer represented under these three instances; he was to us such a Redeemer in spirituals, as these were in temrporals: for sin had brought all mankind into slavery and captivity, and had murdered us ...This most high God, who was also man, united in one Christ, came into the world to redeem us, and the same person being both God and man, must merit for us as God in what he did for us as man. Accordingly, by the merits of his obedience and sufferings, he paid the price our redemption, and we were no longer the servants of sin; and by his most precious blood shed upon the cross, by his death and resurrection, he overcame both death, and him who had the power of death, and by delivering us in this manner from slavery and captivity, he fulfilled the third part of the Redeemer's office: for Satan was the murderer from the beginning, who had given both body and soul a mortal wound of sin, which was certain death and eternal misery, and the Redeemer came to avenge the murder. He took our cause in hand, as being our nearest kinsman, and it cost him his own life to avenge ours. —William Romaine.

From the hand of the enemy. From all their sins which war against their souls; from Satan their implacable adversary, who is stronger than they; from the law, which threatens and curses them with damnation and death; from death itself, the last enemy, and indeed from the hand of all their enemies, be they who they may. —John Gill.

And gathered. If anything can inspire us with gratitude, this motive should prevail, because we cannot but feel the force of it, as it reminds us of that misery from which we in particular were redeemed. The Gentiles had wandered from God, and were so lost and bewildered in the mazes of error and superstition, that nothing but the almighty love of our Lord Jesus could have gathered them together into one church. —William Romaine.

Gathered them. The Syriac gives as the title of this psalm: God collects the Jews out of captivity, and brings them back out of Babylon the only begotten Son of God also, Jesus Christ, collects the nations from the four corners of the world, by calling upon man to be baptized. —E.W. Hengstenberg.

From the west. The mention of the west leads the psalmist's thoughts to Egypt; and the remembrance of the bondage and labours of the ancestors of the Israelites in Egypt, coupled with the description in a previous psalm (Ps 105:17) of the imprisonment of Joseph. —Joseph Francis Thrupp.

They wandered, etc. In these words it is not easy to ascertain the persons immediately intended. But this is a circumstance not to be lamented. It is even an advantage; it constrains us to a more spiritual and evangelical interpretation of the subject. And thus the whole representation is fully and easily embodied. For the people of God are "redeemed" —redeemed from the curse of the law, the powers of darkness, and the bondage of corruption. They are "gathered" —gathered by his grace out of all the diversities of the human race; "out of all nations and kindreds and peoples and tongues." Whatever this world is to others, they find it to be "a wilderness"; when they are often tried, but their trials urge them to prayer, and prayer brings them relief. And being divinely conducted, they at length reach their destination: and this is the conclusion of the whole, and it applies to each of them: And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation. —William Jay.

Wandered. Their passage through the wilderness was not a journeying, such as when men pass on in a road to some inhabited place; but a wandering up and down away from all path and road, and so in an endless maze of desolation. —Henry Hammond.

Wandered in the wilderness, etc. He has lost his way. When he was in the world, he had no difficulties; the path was so broad that he could not mistake it. But when the work of divine grace begins in a sinner's heart, he loses his way. He cannot find his way into the world; God has driven him out of it, as he drove Lot out of Sodom. He cannot find his way to heaven; because he at present lacks those clear testimonies, those bright manifestations whereby alone he can see his path. This is his experience then, that he has lost his way; having turned his back upon the world; and yet unable to realise those enjoyments in his soul that would make heaven his home. He has so lost his way, that whether he turns to the right hand or the left, he has no plain land marks to show him the path in which his soul longs to go. We need not stray from the text to find where the wanderer is. "They wandered in the wilderness." The wilderness is a type and figure of what this life is to the Lord's people. There is nothing that grows in it fit for their food or nourishment. In it the fiery flying serpents —sin and Satan —are perpetually biting and stinging them: and there is nothing in it that can give them any sweet and solid rest. The barren sands of carnality below, and the burning sun of temptation above, alike deny them food and shelter. But there is a word added which throws a further light upon the character of the wilderness. "They wandered in the wilderness, in a solitary way; "a way not tracked; a path in which each has to walk alone; a road where no company cheers him, and without landmarks to direct his course. This is a mark peculiar to the child of God —that the path by which he travels is, in his own feelings, a solitary way. This much increases his exercises, that they appear peculiar to himself. His perplexities are such as he cannot believe any living soul is exercised with; the fiery darts which are cast into his mind by the Wicked One are such as he thinks no child of God has ever experienced; the darkness of his soul, the unbelief and infidelity of his heart, and the workings of his powerful corruptions, are such as he supposes none ever knew but himself. It is this walking "in a solitary way", that makes the path of trial and temptation so painful to God's family. —J.C. Philpot (1802-1869), in a Sermon entitled "The Houseless Wanderer."

In a solitary way. —The greater part of the desert being totally destitute of water is seldom visited by any human being; unless where the trading caravans trace out their toilsome and dangerous route across it. In some parts of this extensive waste the ground is covered with low, stunted shrubs, which serve as landmarks for the caravans, and furnish the camels with a scanty forage. In other parts, the disconsolate wanderer, wherever he turns, sees nothing around him but a vast interminable expanse of sand and sky; a gloomy and barren void, where the eye finds no particular object to rest upon, and the mind is filled with painful apprehensions of perishing with thirst. Surrounded by this dreary solitude, the traveller sees the dead bodies of birds, that the violence of the wind has brought from happier regions; and, as he ruminates on the fearful length of his remaining passage, listens with horror to the driving blast, the only sound that interrupts the awful repose of the desert. ("Proceedings of the African Association.") —Mungo Park, 1771-1806

In a solitary way. See the reason why people in trouble love solitariness. They are full of sorrow; and sorrow, if it have taken deep root, is naturally reserved, and flies all conversation. Grief is a thing that is very silent and private. Those people that are very talkative and clamorous in their sorrows, are never very sorrowful. Some are apt to wonder why melancholy people delight to be so much alone, and I will tell you the reason of it.

1. Because the disordered humours of their bodies alter their temper, their humours, and their inclinations, that they are no more the same that they used to be; their very distemper is averse to what is joyous and diverting; and they that wonder at them, may as wisely wonder why they will be diseased, which they would not be, if they knew how to help it; but the disease of melancholy is so obstinate, and so unknown to all but those who have it, that nothing but the power of God can totally overthrow it, and I know no other cure for it.

2. Another reason why they choose to be alone, is, because people do not generally mind what they say, nor believe them, but deride them, which they do not use so cruelly to do with those that are in other distempers; and no man is to be blamed for avoiding society, when it does not afford the common credit to his words, that is due to the rest of men. But,

3. Another, and the principal reason why people in trouble and sadness choose to be alone, is, because they generally apprehend themselves singled out to be the marks of God's peculiar displeasure, and they are often by their sharp afflictions a terror to themselves, and a wonder to others. It even breaks their hearts to see how low they are fallen, how oppressed, that were once as easy, as pleasant, as full of hope as others are, Job 6:21; "Ye see my casting down, and are afraid." Ps 71:7; "I am as a wonder unto many." And it is usually unpleasant to others to be with them. Ps 88:18; "Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness." And though it was not so with the friends of Job; to see a man whom they had once known happy, to be so miserable, one whom they had seen so very prosperous, to be so very poor, in such sorry, forlorn circumstances, did greatly affect them; he, poor man, was changed, they knew him not, Job 2:12-13: "And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice and wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven. So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great." As the prophet represents one under spiritual and great afflictions, that "he sitteth alone, and keepeth silence", La 3:28. —Timothy Rogers (1660-1729) in "Trouble of Mind, and the Disease of Melancholy."

They found no city to dwell in; nor even to call at or lodge in, for miles together; which is the case of travellers in some parts, particularly in the desert of Arabia. Spiritual travellers find no settlement, rest, peace, joy, and comfort, but in Christ; nor any indeed in this world, and the things of it; here they have no continuing city, Heb 13:14. —John Gill.

Their soul fainted in them. The word here used, pje, ataph, means properly to cover, to clothe, as with a garment, Ps 73:6; or a field with grain, Ps 65:13; then, to hide oneself, Job 23:9; then to cover with darkness, Ps 77:3 and the title of Ps 102:1-28 thus it denotes the state of mind when darkness seems to be in the way —a way of calamity, trouble, sorrow; of weakness, faintness, feebleness. Here it would seem from the connexion to refer to the exhaustion produced by the want of food and drink. —Albert Barnes.

Then they cried, etc. In these words we find three things remarkable; first, the condition of God's church and people, trouble and distress: Secondly, the practice and the exercise of God's people in this state: "Then they cried unto the Lord": Thirdly, their success, and the good issue of this practice: "And he delivered them", etc. —Peter Smith, in a Sermon preached before the House of Commons, 1644.

Then they cried. The root qeu has here a peculiar force: it denotes a cry of that kind into which any one, when shaken with a violent tempest of emotion, in the extremity of his grief and anxiety, breaks with a crash and with complaining, as the heavens send forth thunder and lightning. The original idea of the word being a crash, it indicates such complaints and cries as they send forth, who are oppressed by others, or are held fast in straits, in imploring public protection and help. See De 22:24 1Ki 20:39 Isa 19:20. —Venema.

In their trouble. observe the words, "Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble." Not before, nor after, but in it. When they were in the midst of it; when trouble was wrapped round their head, as the weeds were wrapped round the head of Jonah; when they were surrounded by it, and could see no way out of it; when, like a person in a mist, they saw no way of escape before or behind; when nothing but a dark cloud of trouble surrounded their souls, and they did not know that ever that cloud would be dispersed; —then it was that they cried. —J.C. Philpot.

"Trouble." "Distresses." The condition of the Church, or its most usual lot, is to be under sorrows and afflictions. I say, most usual: "For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made", Isa 57:16. But as we say of the several callings and trades of life, this man professes such a calling, and that man another; and as the poet said of Hermogenes, Though he hold his peace (peradventure being asleep) yet he's a good singer, and a musician by profession: so say I of the people of God, their trade of life is suffering: and as Julian told the Christians, when they complained of his cruelty, It is your profession to endure tribulation. —Peter Smith.

He led them forth. Forth out of the world —forth out of a profession —forth out of a name to live —forth out of every thing hateful in his holy and pure eyes. —J.C. Philpot.

And he led them forth by the right way, etc. Alexander translates this verse —"And he led them in a straight course, to go to a city of habitation"; and adds, "No exact version can preserve or imitate the paronomasia arising from the etymological affinity of the first verb and noun, analogous to that between the English walk and to walk, though the Hebrew forms are only similar and not identical. The idea of physical rectitude or straightness necessarily suggests that of moral rectitude or honesty, commonly denoted by the Hebrew word."

A city of habitation. Not a city of inspection! Many —(Eternal God, will it be any of this company?) —will look in; and "there shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, when they shall see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of God, and they themselves shut out." Not a city of visitation. Christians shall not only enter, but abide. They shall go no more out —it is "a city of habitation." This conveys the idea of repose. The Christian is now a traveller; then he will be a resident: he is now on the road; he will then be at home: "there remaineth a rest for the people of God." It reminds us of a social state. It is not a solitary condition; we shall partake of it with an innumerable company of angels, with all the saved from among men, with patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, our kindred in Christ. "These are fellow citizens of the saints, and of the household of God." It suggests magnificence. It is not a village, or a town, but a city of habitation. A city is the highest representation of civil community. There have been famous cities; but what are they all to this! —William Jay.

He does wonders for the children of men; and therefore, men should praise the Lord. And he is the more to be praised because these wonders, twalpn, niphlaoth, miracles of mercy and grace, are done for the undeserving. There are done Mda ynbl, libney Adam, for the children of Adam, the corrupt descendants of a rebel father. —Adam Clarke.

Oh that men would praise the LORD, etc. Hebrew, That they would confess it to the Lord, both in secret, and in society. This is all the rent that God requireth; he is content that we have the comfort of his blessings, so he may have the honour of them. This was all the fee Christ looked for for his cures: go and tell what God hath done for thee. Words seem to be a poor and slight recompense; but Christ, saith Nazienzen, called himself the Word. —John Trapp.

To the children of men! We must acknowledge God's goodness to the children of men, as well as to the children of God; to others as well as to ourselves. —Matthew Henry.

For he satisfieth the longing soul. This is the reason which the psalmist gives for the duty of thankfulness which he prescribes. "The longing soul", hqqs vpn, nephesh shokekah, the soul that pushes forward in eager desire after salvation. —Adam Clarke.

Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron. Every son of Adam in his natural state before he is redeemed is in "darkness" and "the shadow of death", and is fast "bound" with the chains of sin and misery, and there is no help for him upon earth —the Almighty God and Saviour alone is able to deliver him. —William Romaine.

Because they rebelled against the words of God. There is in the Hebrew a play upon similar sounds —Himru Imree. God's words are those spoken in the Law and by the prophets. And contemned the counsel of the Most High —another play upon like sounds in the Hebrew —Hatzath Naatzu. —A.R. Fausset.

He brought down their heart. O believer, God may see you have many and strong lusts to be subdued, and that you need many and sore afflictions to bring them down. Your pride and obstinacy of heart may be strong, your distempers deeply rooted, and therefore the physic must be proportioned to them. —John Willison.

He brought down their heart with labour. Those towering passions by which they vainly vaunted themselves above the law and the worship of God, he weakened and curbed, so that they began to submit themselves to God. The root enk taken from the Arabic, describes a process of weakening by compressing the wings or shrinking the fingers, and is properly applied to birds, which when their wings are compressed are obliged to fall to the ground, or to men, who by the shrivelling up of their fingers lose the power of working; whence it is transferred to oppressions or depressions of any kind. —Venema.

They fell down, and there was none to help. Affliction is then come to the height and its complete measure, when the sinner is made sensible of his own weakness, and doth see there is no help for him, save in God alone. —David Dickson.

They fell down. They threw themselves prostrate at his feet for mercy; their heart and strength failed them, as the word signifies, and is used in Ps 31:10; terrified with a sense of divine wrath, they could not stand before the Lord, nor brave it out against him. And there was none to help. They could not help themselves, nor was there any creature that could. There is salvation in no other than in Christ; when he saw there was none to help him in that work, his own arm brought salvation to him; and when sinners see there is help in no other, they apply to him. —John Gill.

Fools. There is nothing more foolish than an act of wickedness; there is no wisdom equal to that of obeying God. —Albert Barnes.

Verses 17-20. Fools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted. Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat (they are so sick that they can relish, take down nothing,)and they draw near unto the gates of death, they are almost in, they were on the brink of hell; what course must be used for their cure? Truly this, He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions. No herb in the garden of the whole world can do these distressed creatures the least good. Friends may speak, and ministers may speak, yea, angels may speak, and all in vain; the wounds are incurable for all their words; but if God please to speak, the dying soul revives. This word is the only balm that can cure the wounded conscience: he sendeth his word and healeth them. Conscience is God's prisoner, he claps it in hold, he layeth it in fetters, that the iron enters the very soul; this he doth by his word, and truly he only who shuts up can let out; all the world cannot open the iron gate, knock off the shackles, and set the poor prisoner at liberty, till God speak the word. —George Swinnock, 1627-1673.

, etc. A Rescue from Death, with a Return of Praise. —R. Sibbes' Works, Vol. 51; Nichol's edition.

Verses 17-21.

1. The distress of the sick.

2. Their cure by the Great Physician.

3. Their grateful behaviour to him. —W. Romaine.

Verses 17-22. A Visit to Christ's Hospital.

1. The names and characters of the patients —"fools"; all sinners are fools.

2. The cause of their pains and afflictions —"because of their transgressions", etc.

3. The progress of the disease —"their soul abhorreth all manner of meat"; and, "they draw near onto the gates of death."

4. The interposition of the physician —"then they cry", etc.,

Verses 19-20.

(a) Note, when the physician comes in —when "they cry," etc.

(b) The kind of prayer —a cry.

(c) What the physician did —"saved," "healed," "delivered."

(d) How this was effected —"He sent his word," etc.

5. The consequent conduct of those who were healed; they praised God for his goodness. They added sacrifice to this praise, Ps 107:22. In addition to sacrifice the healed ones began to offer songs —"sacrifice of thanksgiving." They added a declaration of joy —"Let them declare his works with rejoicing."

Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat. Nor is it without emphasis that it is not the sick man who is said to spurn food, but his soul ...The Hebrew word vpn which properly means a breath, hence a panting appetite, is applied to a very vehement appetite for food. When, therefore, the soul is said to abhor food, it is equivalent to saying for the vehement appetite for food abhors food: that is, in the place of an appetite for food, they are oppressed with a loathing; when they ought to be moved with a sharp desire of food, that their exhausted powers might be refreshed, appetite itself becomes a loathing of food, which is a most vivid description of the utmost loathing, and utter prostration of all desire. —Venema.

Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat. The best of creature comforts are but vain comforts. What can dainty meat do a man good, when he is sick and ready to die? Then gold and silver, lands and houses, which are the dainty meat of a covetous man, are loathsome to him. When a man is sick to death, his very riches are sapless and tasteless to him; wife and children, friends and acquaintance, can yield but little comfort in that dark hour, yea, they often prove miserable comforters: when we have most need of comfort, these things administer least or no comfort at all to us. Is it not our wisdom, then, to get a stock of such comforts, as will hold and abide fresh with us, when all worldly comforts either leave us, or become tasteless to us? Is it not good to get a store of that food, which how sick soever we are, our stomachs will never loathe? yea, the sicker we are, our stomachs will the more like, hunger after, and feed the more heartily upon. The flesh of Christ is meat indeed (Joh 6:55). Feed upon him by faith, in health and sickness, ye will never loathe him. His flesh is the true meat of desires, such meat as will fill and fatten us, but never cloy us. A hungry craving appetite after Christ, and sweet satisfaction in him, are inseparable, and still the stronger is our appetite, the greater is our satisfaction. And (which is yet a greater happiness) our souls will have the strongest appetite, the most sharp set stomach after Christ, when, through bodily sickness, our stomachs cannot take down, but loathe the very scent and sight of the most pleasant perishing meat, and delicious earthly dainties. Look, that ye provide somewhat to eat, that will go down upon a sick bed; your sick bed meat is Christ; all other dainty food may be an abhorring to you. —Joseph Caryl.

Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat. The case is then growing desperate, and there seems to be no hope left, when it comes to the last stage here described, viz., to loathe and "abhor all manner of meat." The stomach turns at the sight of it, and the man has this loathing and abhorrence of "all manner of meat." What he most loved, and had the best appetite for, is now become so very offensive, that at the smell of it he grows sick and faints away. Nature cannot support itself long under this disorder. If this loss of appetite, and loathing even the smell of the most simple food continue, it must wear the patient out. Indeed, it is not always a mortal distemper; there may be an entire loathing of food, and even fainting away at the smell of it, and the patient may sometimes recover; but in the present case the distemper had continued so long, and was grown so inveterate that there were no hopes, for they draw nigh, the Psalmist says, to the gates of death. Those gates of brass and bars of iron with which death locks up his prisoners in the grave; and you may judge how great must be the strength of these gates and bars, since only one person was ever able to break through them, and if he had not been more than man, he could never have broken these gates of brass, nor cut these bars of iron in sunder. —William Romaine.

They draw near unto the gates of death. Death is a great commander, a great tyrant, and hath gates to sit in, as judges and magistrates used to `sit in the gates.' There are three things implied in this phrase.

1. First, "They draw near unto the gates of death", that is, they were "near to death"; as he that draws near the gates of a city is near the city, because the gates enter into the city.

2. Secondly, gates are applied to death for authority. They were almost in death's jurisdiction. Death is a great tyrant. He rules over all the men in the world, over kings and potentates, and over mean men; and the greatest men fear death most. He is "the king of fears", as Job calls him, Job 18:14; aye, and the fear of kings ...Therefore it is called "the gate of death." It rules and overrules all mankind. Therefore it is said "to reign", Ro 5:21. Death and sin came in together. Sin was the gate that let in death, and ever since death reigned, and will, till Christ perfectly triumph over it, who is the King of that lord and commander, and hath "the key of hell and death", Re 1:18. To wicked men, I say, he is a tyrant, and hath a gate; and when they go through the "gate of death", they go to a worse, to a lower place, to hell. It is the trap door to hell.

3. Thirdly. By the "gate of death", is meant not only the authority, but the power of death; as in the gospel, "The gates of hell shall not prevail against it", Mt 16:18; that is, the power and strength of hell. So here it implies the strength of death, which is very great, for it subdues all. It is the executioner of God's justice. —Richard Sibbes.

The sin sick soul without appetite for invitations, encouragements, or promises, however presented. Milk too simple, strong meat too heavy, wine too heating, manna too light, etc.

—Teacheth us, that even appetite to our meat is a good gift of the Lord; also that when men are in greatest extremity, then is God most commonly nigh unto them. —T. Wilcocks.

When George Wishart arrived at Dundee, where the plague was raging (1545), he caused intimation to be made that he would preach; and for that purpose chose his station upon the head of the East gate, the infected persons standing without, and those that were whole within. His text was Ps 107:20, He sent his word and healed them, etc., wherein he treated of the profit and comfort of God's word, the punishment that comes by contempt of it, the readiness of God's mercy to such as truly turn to him, and the happiness of those whom God takes from this misery, etc. By which sermon he so raised up the hearts of those that heard him, that they regarded not death, but judged them more happy that should then depart, rather than such as should remain behind, considering that they knew not whether they should have such a comforter with them. —Samuel Clarke (1599-1682), in "A General Martyrologie."

He sent his word. The same expression occurs in Ps 147:15,18; compare Isa 55:11. We detect in such passages the first glimmering of St. John's doctrine of the agency of the personal Word. The Word by which the heavens were made, Ps 33:6, is seen to be not merely the expression of God's will, but his messenger mediating between himself and his creatures. It is interesting to compare with this the language of Elihu in the parallel passage of Job 33:23, where what is here ascribed to the agency of the Word is ascribed to that of the "mediating angel, or messenger." —J.J. Stewart Perowne.

His word who healed them was his essential Word, even the second person in the Godhead, our Lord Jesus Christ, the word who was made flesh and dwelt among us: of this divine Word it was foretold in the Old Testament, that he should arise with the glory of the morning sun, bringing healing in his wings for all our maladies; and accordingly the New Testament relates, that Jesus went about all Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing ALL manner of sickness, and ALL manner of disease among the people. He healed the bodily disease miraculously, to prove that he was the Almighty Physician of the soul. And it is remarkable that he never rejected any person who applied to him for an outward cure, to demonstrate to us, that he would never cast out any person who should apply to him for a spiritual cure. —William Romaine.

And delivered them from their destructions. From their pits: or, From their sepulchres. That is, from the deaths to which they were near. Others render, From their nets or snares, Others, their destructions, the diseases in which they were miserable prisoners. —Franciscus Vatablus.

And delivered them from their destructions. From the destruction of the body, of the beauty and strength of it by diseases; restoring to health is a redeeming of the life from destruction; from the grave, the pit of corruption and destruction, so called because in it bodies corrupt, putrefy, and are destroyed by worms; and such who are savingly convinced of sin, and blessed with pardoning grace and mercy, are delivered from the everlasting destruction of body and soul in hell. —John Gill.

And let them sacrifice. For their healing they should bring a sacrifice; and they should offer the life of the innocent animal unto God, as he has offered their lives; and let them thus confess that God has spared them when they deserved to die; and let them declare also "his works with rejoicing"; for who will not rejoice when he is delivered from death? —Adam Clarke.

As a specimen of medieval spiritualizing we give the following from the Hermit of Hampole:

They that go down to the sea in ships, etc. They that (are true prelates and preachers,)go down from the sublimity of contemplation, to the sea, that is, suiting themselves to the lowly, that they also may be saved, in ships, that is, in the faith, hope and charity of the church, without which they would be drowned in the waters of pleasure, that do business, that is, continue preaching, in great waters, that is, among many people in order that they may become fishers of men. —Richardus Hampolitanus.

Verse 23-27.

While thus our keels still onward boldly strayed —

Now tossed by tempest, now by calms delayed;

To tell the terrors of the deep untried,

What toils we suffered, and what storms defied;

What rattling deluges the black clouds poured,

What dreary weeks of solid darkness lowered;

What mountain surges mountain surges lashed,

What sudden hurricanes the canvas dashed;

What bursting lightnings, with incessant flare,

Kindled in one wide flame the burning air;

What roaring thunders bellowed over our head,

And seemed to shake the reeling ocean's bed:

To tell each horror in the deep revealed,

Would ask an iron throat with tenfold vigour steeled.

Those dreadful wonders of the deep I saw,

Which fill the sailor's breast with sacred awe;

And what the sages, of their learning vain,

Esteem the phantoms of a dreamful brain. —Luiz de Camoens (1524-1579), in "the Lusiad."

Verse 23-31. No language can be more sublime than the description of a storm at sea in this Psalm. It is the very soul of poetry. The utmost simplicity of diction is employed to convey the grandest thoughts. The picture is not crowded; none but the most striking circumstances are selected; and everything is natural, simple, and beyond measure interesting. The whole is an august representation of the Providence of God, ruling in what appears the most ungovernable province of nature. It is God who raises the storm; it is God who stilleth it. The wise men of this world may look no farther than the physical laws by which God acts; but the Holy Spirit, by the Psalmist, views the awful conflict of the elements as the work of God. —Alexander Carson.

Verse 23-32. This last picture springs naturally from the mention in Ps 107:3 of the sea; and here the psalmist may have directed his imagination to the usual tempestuousness of the season at which the psalm was sung. —Joseph Francis Thrupp.

These see the works of the LORD. There are sinners who, like Jonah, fleeing from the face of God, go down to the sea, to the cares and pleasures of the world, away from the solid land of humility, quiet, and grace. They occupy themselves in many waters, in needless toils and excessive pleasures, and yet even there God does not leave them, but causes them to see his works and wonders even in the deep of their sins, by giving them timely and sufficient warnings, and alarming them with fear of the abyss. —Le Blanc, in Neale and Littledale.

Verse 25-31.

Think, O my soul, devoutly think,

How, with affrighted eyes

Thou saw'st the wide extended deep

In all its horrors rise!

Confusion dwelt in every face,

And fear in every heart;

When waves on waves, and gulfs on gulfs,

Overcame the pilot's art.

Yet then from all my griefs, O Lord,

Thy mercy set me free,

Whilst in the confidence of prayer

My soul took hold on thee.

For though in dreadful whirls we hung

High on the broken wave,

I knew thou wert not slow to hear,

Nor impotent to save.

The storm was laid, the winds retired,

Obedient to thy will;

The sea that roared at thy command,

At thy command was still.

In midst of dangers, fears, and death,

Thy goodness I will adore,

And praise thee for thy mercies past;

And humbly hope for more.

My life, if thou preservest my life,

Thy sacrifice shall be;

And death, if death must be my doom,

Shall join my soul to thee. —Joseph Addison.

They mount up to the heaven. There be three heavens. 1. Coelum aerium. 2. Coelum astriferum. 3. Coelum beatorum. It is not the latter now they go to in storms, but the two former. —Daniel Pell, in "An Improvement of the Sea", 1659.

They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths.

To larboard all their oars and canvas bend;

We on a ridge of waters to the sky

Are lifted, down to Erebus again

Sink with the falling wave; thrice howled the rocks

Within their stony caverns, thrice we saw

The splashed up foam upon the lights of heaven. —Virgil.

They cry unto the LORD. His attributes are much honoured in calling upon him, especially in times of danger and distresses.

1. When you call upon God at sea, you honour his sovereignty. God says to these proud waves, "So far and no farther!" So, "the storm and hail", they fulfil his will, and when he pleases he commands a calm.

2. Prayer in time of danger honours God's wisdom, when we see no way open for mercies and deliverance to come in at, then to look up to him, believing, "He knows how to deliver out of temptation." O how much of the wisdom of God appears in preservation in time of danger! and is it not a good token of mercy coming in when persons pray, though all visible ways are blocked up? This honours God's wisdom, which we acknowledge is never at a loss as to ways of bringing in mercy and deliverance.

3. The faithfulness of God is much honoured in times of danger, when he is called upon. The faithfulness of a friend doth most appear in a strait: now if you can rely upon his promise, God's faithfulness is the best line men sinking at sea can lay hold on. So I might add, calling upon God honours all his other attributes. —John Ryther (1632-1681) in "A Plat for Mariners; or, The Seaman's Preacher," 1675.

Then they cry. Tempestuous storms and deadly dangers have brought those upon their knees, that would never had bent in a calm: "Then they cry." If any one would know at what time the sailors take up the duty of prayer, let me say it is when death stares them in the face. If ever you see the heavens veiled in sable blackness, the clouds flying, and the winds roaring under them; you may conclude that some of them (though God knows but few) are at prayer, yea, hard at it with their God. But never believe it that there is any prayer amongst them when the skies are calm, the winds down, and the seas smooth. David tells you not of their praying in good and comfortable weather, but that it is in time of storms, for I believe that neither he nor I ever saw many of them on that strain. . . . God hears oftener from an afflicted people, than he either does or can from a people that are at ease, quiet, and out of danger. Then they cry. The prodigal son was very high, and resolved never to return till brought low by pinching and nipping afflictions, then his father had some tidings of him. Hagar was proud in Abraham's house, but humbled in the wilderness. Jonah was asleep in the ship, but awake and at prayer in the whale's belly, Jon 2:1. Manasses lived in Jerusalem like a libertine, but when bound in chains at Babel, his heart was turned to the Lord, 2Ch 33:11-12. Corporal diseases forced many under the gospel to come to Christ, whereas others that enjoyed bodily health would not acknowledge him. One would think that the Lord would abhor to hear those prayers that are made only out of the fear of danger, and not out of the love, reality, and sincerity of the heart. If there had not been so many miseries of blindness, lameness, palsies, fevers, etc., in the days of Christ, there would not have been that flocking after him. —Daniel Pell.

Then they cry unto the LORD. "Then", if ever: hence that speech of one, Qui nescit orare, discat navigare, He that cannot pray, let him go to sea, and there he will learn. —John Trapp.

Then they cry, etc. Gods of the sea and skies (for what resource have I but prayer?) abstain from rending asunder the joints of our shattered bark. —Ovid.

He maketh the storm a calm, etc. The image is this. Mankind before they are redeemed are like a ship in a stormy sea, agitated with passions, tossed up and down with cares, and so blown about with various temptations, that they are never at rest. This is their calmest state in the smiling day of smooth prosperity: but afflictions will come, the afflictions of sin and Satan, and the world will raise a violent storm, which all the wit and strength of man cannot escape. He will soon be swallowed up of the devouring waves: unless that same God who created the sea speak to it, "Peace, be still." We are all in the same situation the apostles were, when they were alone in the evening in the midst of the sea, and the wind and the waves were contrary; against which they toiled rowing in vain, until Christ came to them walking upon the sea, and commanded the winds to cease and the waves to be still. Upon which there was a great calm; for they knew his voice, who had spoken them into being, and they obeyed. His word is almighty to compose and still the raging war of the most furious elements. And he is as almighty in the spiritual world, as he is in the natural. Into whatever soul he enters, he commands all the jarring passions to be still, and there is indeed a blessed calm. O may the Almighty Saviour speak thus unto you all, that you may sail on a smooth unruffled sea, until you arrive safe at the desired haven of eternal rest! —William Romaine.

If the sailor can do nothing so wise and oftentimes indeed can do nothing else than trust in the Lord, so is it with us in the storms of life. Like the mariner, we must use lawful means for our protection; but what are means without the divine blessing? —William S. Plumer.

Desired haven. At such a time as this sweet April morning, indeed, a breakwater like this (of Portland) may seem of little value, when the waves of the ocean only just suffice to break its face into gems of changing brilliance, and to make whispering music; while vessels of all sizes, like those whose clustering masts we see yonder under the promontory, ride with perfect security in the open road. But in the fierce gales of November or March, when the shrieking blasts drive furiously up the Channel, and the huge mountain billows, green and white, open threatening graves on every side, how welcome would be a safe harbour, easy of access, and placed at a part of the coast which else would be unsheltered for many leagues on either side! Blessed be God for the gift of his beloved Son, the only Harbour of Refuge for poor tempest tossed sinners! We may think lightly of it now, but in the coming day of gloom and wrath, when "the rain descends, and the floods come, and the winds blow", they only will escape who are sheltered there! —Philip Henry Gosse, in "The Aquarium," 1856.

Oh. This verse seems to include the ardent earnestness of the psalmist's spirit, that seamen would be much in thankfulness, and much and frequent in praising of the Lord their deliverer out of all their distresses. "Oh", seems he to say, that I could put men upon this duty, it would be more comfortable to me, seems the psalmist to say, to find such a principle in the hearts of those that are employed in the great waters, than any one thing in the world again whatsoever. "Oh" is but a little word consisting of two letters, but no word that ever man utters with his tongue comes with that force and affection from the heart as this doth. "Oh" is a word of the highest expression, a word when a man can say no more. This interjection oftentimes starts out of the heart upon a sudden from some unexpected conception, or admiration, or other. —Daniel Pell.

He turneth rivers into a wilderness, etc. God is the father of the rain. If he withholds that refreshment for a long time, all nature droops, and every green thing dies. The imagery is drawn from Palestine where there were but two annual rainy seasons, and if either of them was long deferred, the effect was frightful. The channels of considerable rivers were dried up. —William S. Plumer.

Rivers...Watersprings. A church enriched with the graces of heaven is compared by the prophets to a well watered garden (Isa 63:11 Jer 31:12), to the paradise of God, watered with its four fruitful rivers: for as everything useful and ornamental in the vegetable world is raised up by water, so is everything in the spiritual world raised up by the Holy Spirit. —William Romaine.

A fruitful land into barrenness. Hereof Judaea is at this day a notable instance (besides many parts of Asia, and Africa, once very fruitful, now, since they became Mahometan, dry and desert). Judaea, saith one, hath now only some few parcels of rich ground found in it; that men may guess the goodness of the cloth by the fineness of the shreds. —John Trapp.

For the wickedness of them that dwell therein. When I meet with a querulous husbandman, he tells me of a churlish soil, of a wet seed time, of a green winter, of an unkindly spring, of a lukewarm summer, of a blustering autumn; but I tell him of a displeased God, who will be sure to contrive and fetch all seasons and elements, to his own most wise drifts and purposes. —Joseph Hall.

For the wickedness. God locks up the clouds, because we have shut up our mouths. The earth is grown hard as iron to us, because we have hardened our hearts against our miserable neighbours. The cries of the poor for bread are loud, because our cries against sin have been so low. Sicknesses run apace from house to house, and sweep away the poor unprepared inhabitants, because we sweep not out the sin that breeds them. —Richard Baxter, 1615-1691.

Dry ground into watersprings. If God afflict, his justice findeth the cause of it in man; but if he do good to any man, it is of his own good pleasure, without any cause in man: therefore no reason is given here of this change, as was of the former, but simply, "He turneth dry ground into watersprings." —David Dickson.

He poureth contempt upon princes. Mighty potentates, who have been the terror and dread of the whole world, when once denuded of their dignity and power, have become the sport even of their own dependants. —John Calvin.

Princes. Persons of high rank are the most exempt, in ordinary times, from destitution and want, and misery must reach a great height when it invades them. No part of the world probably has witnessed so many and great reverses of this kind as the regions and countries of the East. —William Walford.

He setteth the poor on high from affliction. How high? Above the reach of the curse, which shall never touch him; above the power of Satan, which shall never ruin him; above the reigning influence of sin, which "shall not have dominion over him"; above the possibility of being banished from his presence, for "Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation." This is the way God sets his people on high, instructing them in the mysteries of his word, and giving them to partake the joys that are contained therein. —Joseph Irons, 1786-1852.

The righteous shall see it. The word here rendered "righteous" is not what the Scripture commonly uses to signify righteous or justified persons; but it is another word, and conveys another idea. It signifies to direct, to set right; and the "righteous" here mentioned are they, who are directed in the right way, and walk, as Enoch did, with God in his way, and not in the way of the world. And these "shall see" the goodness and mercy of God's dealings with the fallen race of man. They shall have eyes to see the ways of his providence. The same grace which set them right, will manifest to them the reasonableness of the plan of redemption. They shall see and admire, and be thankful for the wonders of his redeeming love, which are recorded in this divine hymn. —William Romaine.

"All iniquity shall stop her mouth." "Iniquity" is here personified, and denotes the iniquitous; but the abstract is more poetical, "Stop her mouth." Tongue tied, literally, moistly shut; which, perhaps, might be not improperly vernaculized. —Alexander Geddes.

Whoso is wise, etc. Or as it may be read interrogatively, "Who is wise?" as in Jer 9:12 Ho 14:9; that is, spiritually wise, wise unto salvation; who is made to know wisdom in the hidden part; for not such as possessed of natural wisdom, or worldly wise men, much less who are wise to do evil, are here meant. "And will observe these things"; the remarkable appearances of divine Providence to persons in distress; the various changes and vicissitudes in the world; the several afflictions of God's people, and their deliverances out of them; the wonderful works of God in nature, providence, and grace; these will be observed, taken notice of, laid up in the mind, and kept by such who are truly wise, who know how to make a right use and proper improvement of them. Even they shall understand the lovingkindness of the LORD; every one of the wise men; they will perceive the kindness of God unto men, in the several dispensations of his providence towards them, and his special love and kindness towards his own people, even in all their afflictions they will perceive this to be at the bottom of every mercy and blessing; they will understand more of the nature and excellency of it, and know more of the love of God and Christ, which passeth knowledge. Or, the kindnesses of the Lord shall be understood; that is, by wise men; so R. Moses in Aben Ezra renders the words. —John Gill.

Will observe these things, etc. Will carefully note and remark what is here said of the fall and recovery of mankind, of our state by nature and by grace. True wisdom consists in observing these two things, what we are in ourselves, and what we are in Christ; in a deep sense of our misery by sin, stirring us up to seek our remedy in the Redeemer. This is wisdom. And whosoever is thus wise unto salvation shall understand the lovingkindness of the Lord; shall be able to apply what he understands of it to his own private use and benefit. The verb in the original rendered "shall understand", is in the conjugation called Hithpael, which signifies to act upon itself. Whosoever observes those things properly finds his own interest in them. He makes the understanding of them useful to himself. He does not study them as a science or theory, but as interesting points in which he is nearly concerned, and which he therefore tries to bring home for his own private advantage. When he hears of the mercies of the Lord Jesus recorded in this psalm he desires to partake of them. When he hears of the great deliverances vouchsafed to sinful ruined man, he studies to have his own share in them. What is said of these persons who wandered out of the way in the wilderness, and fell into the bondage of sin, and were afflicted with its diseases, and troubled like a stormy sea, with its continual tempests; all this he knows was his own case, and therefore what follows of their flourishing state after Christ delivered them may be his also if he cry unto the Lord, as they did, for help. And he never ceases praying and seeking, until the blessed Jesus brings him to the haven of the church, where he would be. And if he find the church diminished and brought low, he is not discouraged; but relies on the promises of his God, who will set him on high out of the reach of public calamity, when he comes to destroy an infidel church. He observes what is said on this psalm concerning those things; and he knows it to be true, by his own experience. And therefore the lovingkindness of the Lord here recorded is to him a subject of exceeding great joy, because he has tasted of it. Whoso is wise will bring his knowledge of this psalm home to his own heart, and he shall understand the lovingkindness of the Lord, he shall be able to apply what he understands to his own benefit, and shall therefore be continually praising the Lord for his goodness, and declaring the wonders which he hath done for the salvation of men. —William Romaine.

Observe these things. "To observe, signifieth not only with our eyes to behold it; but so to stir up our minds to the consideration of a thing, that one may grow the better by it", saith a grave author. Now in this notion of it, how few are they that observe "these things"? . . . If you would by observing the providence of God understand his loving kindness, and gain a spiritual wisdom, let your eye affect your heart. Mollerus telleth us, such an observation is here intended unde ad pietatem exuscitemur, ut inde meliores evadamus, "as will quicken us to piety, and help to make us better." There are many careless observers of providence, who indeed see events rather than providence; they see much that comes to pass in the world, but consider nothing of God in them...They do by the book of providence, as Augustine complained of himself, that in his unregenerate state he did by the book of Scripture; he rather brought to it discutiendi acumen, than discendi pietatem. So men bring to the great works of God rather an acute eye and wit to find out the immediate causes, and reasons natural and political, than a trembling, humble heart, that they might learn by them more to acknowledge, love, fear, adore, and revere the great and mighty God whose works these are. Let not yours be such an observation; but let your eye, beholding God in his providential dispensations, affect your hearts with that adoration and veneration, that love and fear of the great and mighty God, which such works of God do call to you for. —John Collinges (1623-1690), in "Several Discourses concerning the actual Providence of God."

Observe these things. These mighty doings of our Saviour and our God in delivering his feeble creatures from the trackless wilderness of error, —from the noisome chain of carnal lust, —from the deadly sickness of a corrupt nature, —and from the wild tempest of earthly passion, deserve the thoughtful joy of all who would be faithful servants of their Lord. The mouth of unbelief and the excuses of iniquity are stopped by the sight of the marvels of that mercy which endureth for ever. "The accuser of the brethren" is silenced and cast down. The truly wise will ponder these things, for in the knowledge of them is true wisdom; and so pondering, there shall open before them, ever plainer, fuller, clearer, brighter, the revelation of that mighty love of their eternal Father which surpasses all understanding, and is more vast than all thought. —"Plain Commentary."

How great a volume might be wrote, de observandis Providentiae, concerning the observable things of Divine Providence. I have seen a picture (one of those you call kitchen pieces) concerning which it hath been proposed to me, that for so many hours I should view it as curiously as I could; yet the proposer would for any wager undertake to show me something in it which I did not observe. Truly Providence is such a thing, I can never look upon it, I can never take the motions of it into my thoughts, but some new observation tenders itself into my thoughts, I must turn my eyes from this wonderful work, for I see they will not be satisfied with seeing, my mind will never be filled with observation. —John Collinges.

When we speak of the love and favour of God to his people, we are prone to understand by it nothing but pleasing providence, grateful to our senses: now the lovingkindness of God is not only seen in pleasing dispensations, but in adverse providence also: "Whom he loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every child whom he receiveth": "all things are yours", saith the apostle. This knowledge must be gained by observation. —John Collinges.

Whole Psalm. This psalm is like the Interpreter's house in Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress." Pilgrim is told that he will there see excellent and profitable things. The same promise is given in the introduction to this psalm, where we have,

1. The source of these excellent things —the goodness and all enduring mercy of God; mercy not exhausted by the unworthiness of its objects.

2. Their acknowledgment, "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so." Men will not own it, but the redeemed of the Lord will. It is the experience of such that is pictorially represented in this psalm. Let every one speak of God as he finds. Is he good when he takes away as well as when he gives "The redeemed of the Lord will say so." Is he merciful when he frowns as well as when he smiles? "The redeemed of the Lord say so." Does he make all things work together for good to them that love him? "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so."

3. Their end. Praise and thanksgiving: "Oh give", etc.

(a) For general mercies;

(b) For redemption;

(c) For spacial deliverances. —G.R.

Verses 1-2. The duty of praise is universal, the real presentation of it remains with the redeemed. Particular redemption should lead to specific praise, special testimony to truth and special faith in God: "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so."

The ingathering of the chosen.

1. All wandered.

2. Their ways different.

3. All observed of the Lord.

4. All brought to Jesus as to one centre. Note ways, and times of gathering.

Wandering Jews. Illustrate the roaming of a mind in search of truth, peace, love, purity, etc.

The words contain a brief history of man's fall and misery and of his restoration by Jesus Christ; which are described under these particulars.

1. The lost state of men by nature.

2. They are brought to a right sense of it, and cry to the Lord Jesus for deliverance.

3. He hears them and delivers them out of all their distresses.

4. The tribute of thanks due to him for this great deliverance. —W. Romaine.

Spiritual hunger the cause of faintness. Necessity of feeding the soul.

Divine grace stimulating our exertions. "He led them forth ...that they might go."

He who has enjoyed God's help should mark,

1. In what distress he has been;

2. How he has called to God;

3. How God has helped him;

4. What thanks he has returned; and,

5. What thanks he is yet bound to render. —Lange's Commentary.

A great general fact. The condition, the benefactor, the blessing "goodness", the result —"satisfieth." Then the further result of praise as seen in Ps 107:8.

Verses 12-13.

1. The convicted soul's abject condition —humbled, exhausted, prostrate, deserted.

2. His speedy deliverance. Cried, cried while in trouble, unto the Lord, he saved, out of their distresses.

Man's work and God's work. They cried and He saved.

God gives light, life, liberty.

Recovery from sickness must be ascribed to the Lord, and gratitude should flow forth because of it. But the text describes spiritual and mental sickness. Notice,

1. The Patient in his extremity.

(a) He is a fool: by nature inclined to evil.

(b) He has played the fool (see Ps 107:17), "transgression", "iniquities."

(c) He now has lost all appetite and is past all cure.

(d) He is at death's door.

(e) But he has begun to pray.

2. The Cure in its simplicity.

(a) Christ the Word is the essential cure. He heals the guilt, habit, depression, and evil results of sin. For every form of malady Christ has healing; hence preachers should preach him much, and all meditate much upon him.

(b) The word in the Book is the instrumental cure: its teachings, doctrines, precepts, promises, encouragements, invitations, examples.

(c) The word of the Lord by the Holy Spirit is the applying cure. He leads us to believe. He is to be sought by the sick soul. He is to be relied upon by those who would bring others to the Great Physician.

The ups and downs of a convicted sinner's experience.

The awakened sinner staggered and nonplussed.

Verses 33-34. The scene which here opens with a landscape of beauty and fertility is suddenly changed into a dry and barren wilderness. The rivers are dried up, the springs cease to flow among the hills, and the verdant fields are scorched and bare. The reason assigned for this is "the wickedness of them that dwell therein." This picture needs no interpretation to the people of God. It is precisely what happens within them when they have fallen into sin. —G.R.

The curse, cause, and cure of barrenness in a church.

Hope for decayed churches lies in God; he can work a marvellous change, he does do it —"turneth": he will do it when the cause of barrenness is removed by repentance.

Verses 35-38. Here the scene again changes. The springs again gush forth, calm lakes again repose in the midst of foliage and flowers, the hills are clothed with luxuriant vines, and the fields are covered with corn; plenty abounds both in town and country, and men and cattle increase. This picture, too, has its counterpart in experimental godliness. "Instead of the thorn shall come up", etc., "The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them", etc. The one scene precedes prayer, the other follows it. A desolate wilderness before, the garden of Eden behind. —G.R.

Verses 39-41. The scene again is reversed. There is a change again from freedom to oppression; from plenty to want; from honour to contempt. Then a revival again as suddenly appears. The poor and afflicted are lifted up, and the bereaved have "families like a flock." Such are the changeful scenes through which the people of God are led; and such the experience by which they are made meet for the pure, perfect, and perpetual joys of heaven. —G.R.

Verses 42-43. Such surprising turns are of use,

1. For the solacing of saints; they observe these dispensations with pleasure: "The righteous shall see it, and rejoice", in the glorifying of God's attributes, and the manifestation of his dominion over the children of men.

2. For the silencing of sinners: "all iniquity shall stop her mouth"; i.e. it shall be a full conviction of the folly of those that deny the divine presence.

3. For the satisfying of all concerning the divine goodness: "Whoso is wise, and will observe these things" —these various dispensations of divine providence, "even they shall understand the lovingkindness of the Lord." —M. Henry.

The best observation and the noblest understanding.