Then they cry unto Jehovah in their trouble, [and] he saveth them out of their distresses;
Psalm 107 tells of people in trouble of many kinds, and each group reaches the same turning point — a cry to the Lord. Verse 19 is the third of those cries, and it comes from people whose suffering grew out of their own folly.
The verses just before call this group "fools." They refuse food and come close to death. One writer traces the whole path from folly to rescue:
Fools are those who leave God out of their lives, such as in Psalm 14:1 and in Luke 12:16-20. Psalm 14 shows what this refusal of God leads to: "They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds." Their folly is why God sends trouble on them. They refuse the food of God, so they soon hate every kind of food (v. 18), and they come near to the gates of death. How many atheists are shaken to the depths of their souls when they sink this low, with death staring them in the face! If this drives them to cry out to the Lord in real earnest, God in His grace will surely save them out of their distresses (v. 19). But it matters that His Word is the means of healing them (v. 20), for if men refuse the Word of God, they are left in their misery.
This trouble is not random. It strikes the body, it grows out of the sufferers' own choices, and the rescue looks beyond relief:
Thirdly, men's own folly and transgressions may leave them sick in body, so that they come near to death. Then in their distress they cry to the Lord. He sends His healing word to deliver them from destruction, so that they may praise the Lord for His goodness and declare His wonderful works (Luke 8:38-39).
Verse 19 repeats almost word for word what was said in verses 6 and 13, and what will be said again in verse 28. The psalm is deliberately built that way, using Israel's history as the display case:
Israel gives us the great object lesson of man's folly and distress — in the land, out of it, and on the sea. They cry to the Lord, and He hears them in His unfailing mercy. At last He delivers them from the enemy and gathers them out of the lands on every side (not merely a few Jews from Babylon) to enjoy the kingdom. This is in no way the church, which is blessed with Christ in the heavenly places. Yet the church may well profit from all of it, and enjoy the truth and the mercy described here.
So what does the healing word actually reach? One writer names the need behind the sickness:
So it is the deepest and most basic need that is met here. They had rejected Christ, the bread of life, and so they are bound to be on the way to death. Only His word can heal this desperate state, and so they are rescued from their pitfalls. They have every reason now to give Him their thanks.
One writer turns this into a rule for our own lives:
Mark this fact well, for it will help us in our own experience as we go on with our subject. We learn from it, as from many other accounts in the Word, that the thoughts of God's people never turn to Him in vain. Whatever their circumstances, and whatever caused them, He is ready to answer even while they call. "Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress." How great are the compassions of our God!
Commentators are careful here. The cry of verse 19 is real and it is answered — but one writer distinguishes it from the settled prayer of someone who belongs to God:
Psalm 107 shows us how men under stress of many kinds do cry out to God, and how in mercy He delivers them. The redeemed of the Lord are special witnesses of this, and if they are wise they see God's loving-kindness when He steps in… Yet only repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ put the soul into right relations with God. Only these make possible that close and trusting prayer which is the privilege of His children.
- Folly — the sufferers here are "fools": people who leave God out of their lives. Their trouble follows their own transgressions.
- Famine — refusing the food of God, they end up loathing all food and drawing near to the gates of death.
- Cry — the turning point is a call for help, and the same call runs through the whole psalm.
- Word — the answer meets the deepest need, because only His word can heal this condition.
- Thanks — the rescue has an aim: they praise the Lord for His goodness and tell others what He has done.
He sendeth his word, and healeth them, and delivereth them from their destructions.
Psalm 107 gathers pictures of people in trouble who cried to the Lord, and He rescued them. This verse belongs to the third picture: men who wrecked themselves by their own folly and came to the edge of death. So what does God send them? Not a rebuke, and not a cure of their own making, but His word.
The psalm does not call these people fools for a lack of intelligence. Their folly is a settled attitude. The verse before shows where it leads: food turns their stomach, and they come near the gates of death.
Fools are those who leave God out of their lives, such as in Psalm 14:1 and in Luke 12:16-20... Because of their folly, God brings affliction on them. Because they refuse the food of God, they soon come to hate every kind of food (v. 18), and they draw near to the gates of death. How many atheists, brought to such a state with death staring them in the face, are shaken to the depths of their souls! If this drives them to cry out to the Lord in real earnest, God will surely save them out of their distresses in His grace (v. 19). But note that His Word is the means of healing them (v. 20). If men refuse the Word of God, they are left in their misery. The remnant of Israel is in view here, and they will be fully delivered from their destructions.
The sickness here goes deeper than the body. One writer ties the cure to the One they had rejected.
So the deepest and most basic need of all finds its answer here. They had rejected Christ, the bread of life, so death is the only road left to them. His word alone can heal this desperate state, and so it rescues them from their pitfalls. They have every reason now to give Him their thanks.
The people in this section are not innocent sufferers. What they get is the opposite of what their record earns.
Mercy is surely there. This could be true even where their affliction and distress was discipline, and the fruit of rebellion. But here where the heart turned to the Lord, mercy met it, and there was deliverance. God breaks the gates of bronze and iron that shut them in, even where their own sin and their foolish turning away from the Lord had brought it all on them. He sent His word that they might be healed, and so delivered.
One writer links this verse to the Roman officer in the Gospels. He asked Jesus to heal his servant, and he did not need Jesus to come to the house.
The centurion trusted the power of Jesus, above all as the One who administers the kingdom of God. In fact, he did not think Jesus needed to be there in person. As he said, the Master had only to speak the word of command, and his servant would be healed (cp. Ps. 107:20). These words of the Roman officer showed his complete confidence in the supreme power Jesus held. The Lord recognized this when He said, "Not even in Israel have I found such faith."
One preacher read this line where it was needed most. When plague struck the Scottish town of Dundee, the town kept the sick outside the gate and the healthy inside. Wishart climbed the gate itself so both sides could hear him.
To reach his hearers on both sides, he climbed the gate — called the Cowgate. He opened his Bible and read from Psalm 107, "He sent out his word and healed them." The mercy of God in Christ, he told them, was free to all. Whoever truly turned to Him would receive that blessing — and the spite of men could neither add to it nor take it away.
The healing is not the end of the story. The rescue gives the healed something to say.
Because of their folly and their sins, men may suffer in body, so that they draw near to death. Then in their distress they cry to the Lord. He sends His healing word to deliver them from destruction, so that they may praise the Lord for His goodness and declare His wonderful works (Luke 8:38-39).
- Folly. The trouble here is self-inflicted. "Fools" are people who leave God out, and their affliction follows their own choices.
- Cry. The turning point is not self-improvement but a cry out of distress. Mercy meets the heart that turns, even when the suffering was deserved discipline.
- Word. God's answer is a word sent. The real sickness is the rejection of Christ, so only His word can heal it. Refuse the word, and the misery remains.
- Reach. The word works at any distance. Spoken from far off, it healed a servant. Read out over a plague gate, it still offered mercy free to all.
- Praise. Rescue has a purpose. Those healed thank God for His goodness and tell others what He has done.
Let them give thanks unto Jehovah for his loving-kindness, and for his wondrous works to the children of men,
The same call to thank the Lord sounds four times in Psalm 107. Here it follows the rescue of people whose own folly had brought them to the gates of death. So why is rescue like that so often ignored, and what thanks is God asking for?
The psalm runs through one situation after another: wanderers, prisoners, the sick, sailors. Every section lands on the same words. Two things draw the praise: His goodness, and His wonderful works. One writer sets out the design behind that repetition:
The psalm celebrates the two parts of that deliverance in which the mercy has been shown. They are redeemed from the hand of the enemy. They are gathered back from east, west, north, and south. This is the double character of Israel's restoration... But the real theme of the psalm is the goodness of Jehovah. It goes through deliverances of every kind, each one an answer to the cry of distress from a man who has brought himself low by his own folly. And it longs for men to praise Jehovah for His goodness, and for His wonderful works for the children of men. Israel is the one in whom this can be fully learnt.
The refrain reaches wider than one nation. Another writer names both circles:
Here Israel is seen back in their land, called to celebrate the goodness of the Lord. That goodness is set out in God's ways with the nation in particular, and with mankind in general (vv. 8, 15, 21, 31).
The people singing this refrain are described just above it. God had afflicted them for their own folly. One writer explains what that folly was:
They had become a foolish nation. Fools are those who leave God out of their lives, such as in Psalm 14:1 and in Luke 12:16-20... Because of their folly, God sees to it that they are afflicted. Because they refused the food of God, they soon hate every kind of food (v. 18), and they draw near to the gates of death. How many atheists are shaken to the depths of their souls when they are brought this low, with death staring them in the face!
Their real trouble lay deeper than their bodies. One writer traces it to its root:
It is the deepest and most basic need that is met here. They had rejected Christ, the bread of life, and that could only put them on the way to death. Only His word can heal that condition, and so they are rescued from their pitfalls. Well may they now give Him their thanks.
The next verse turns this call into an act. The same notes quote Pridham on who is now asked to bring the offering:
Those who had once tried in vain to establish their own righteousness are now called to offer the sacrifices of thanksgiving (Heb. 13), and to declare His works with singing.
Every time, the thanks comes after trouble. One writer says why trouble so often comes first:
Now God would turn the thoughts of men to the highest good. He wants them to find their wealth and joy in Him. And we learn — from the experience of multitudes, and from the plain teaching of the Scriptures — that it is often only in hours of distress that men will turn to Him.
Read across the four sections, the pattern is a training of the heart:
So we are allowed to see the way God has taken with His people. In learning their own weakness, they may discover the goodness of the Lord. God deals with men in soul, spirit, body, and circumstances, so that they may find their resource in the goodness and enduring mercy of the Lord.
- Folly — a fool is someone who leaves God out of his life. These people suffered for their own folly, until death stared them in the face and shook them to the depths.
- Word — they had rejected Christ, the bread of life. Only His word could heal that condition, and it did.
- Goodness — the theme of the whole psalm is the goodness of the Lord. It answers the cry of a man who has brought himself low.
- Thanks — the wish of verse 21 becomes the act of verse 22. People who once tried to build their own righteousness now bring sacrifices of thanksgiving and sing of His works.
- Reach — the refrain widens past one nation to mankind in general. Israel is where God's ways can be fully learnt.