Psalm CVII

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.

10 Such as sit in darkness and in 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.

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 destruction.

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.

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.

The connection.

320 PSALM evil. SONG OF THE GATHERED ONES.

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

wit’s 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 into 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.

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 ccatle 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.

SCAKCELY has the ascending cry of the preceding Psalm ceased, when the answer* comes. For here is all Israel gathered. We say, all Israel; for it is Israel peculiarly who form the subject of it. At the same time, on the same principle that

* The Jewish Fifth division of the Psalms begins here, apparently for no other reason than because Psa. cvi. ended with an Amen. Properly there is a close connection between Psa. cv, cvi., and cvii., equivalent to Part I., Part IT., Part III., of one and the same narrative.

scenes.

PSALM CVII. — SONG OF THE GATHERED ONES. 321

leads us to admit every member of Christ’s body to share in David’s hopes and faith, and in the Son of David’s confidence and victory, we find this a Psahn which every one of God’s redeemed, in any age, can sympathise in, and can sing with reference to themselves,

Henffstenberg thinks it suited peculiarly to a joyful, na- its typical and

o o r J J J ’ emblematic

tional service of thanksgiving, such as that Feast of Tabernacles in Ezra’s day (chap, iii.), after the few bands of the dispersed of Israel had returned to their land. If it would be appropriate in such circumstances, much more will it be so when all Israel, from all lands of their dispersion, have returned home. And thus it is that Dr Allix describes it — “A Hymn of the Synagogue, gathered from its last dispersion” — applicable to that day foretold by Isa. xi. 11, when the Lord recovers the remnant of his people, the second time, “from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and frorn Hamath, and from the isles of the sea.” Some have experience of their forefathers’ trials in the desert (ver. 4-7); some have come from the prison-house (ver. 1 0-1 4); some have been emaciated by sickness (ver. 1 7-20); others have been all but swallowed up by the sea (ver. 23-30); — all have been witnesses of the Lord’s curse on their own land and nation for sin, and now have become witnesses of the blessing when sin is removed. A nation that has had, and is to have, such experience is the fittest of all to form a type, or be the pattern, of God’s discovery of his ways in grace, to men of every nation, and kindred, and tongue, whom he redeems. It is such manifestations as these that make “the righteous see and rejoice;” it is such views of God’s ways that cause “all iniquity to stop her mouth” (ver. 42); and it is thus that men discover Jehovah’s thoughts that are higher than our thoughts,

“Whoso is wise will consider these things, And will understand the mercies (““nDn) of the Lord.”

The kingdom will be the time and place for a thorough and searching inquiry into the Lord’s past ways. We try this inquiry now, and what we do succeed in discerning is most profitable. But our eyes are dim. O for the time when Israel,

322 PSALM evil. — SONG OF THANKS FROM GATHERED ISRAEL

and we beside them, shall look back on the Lord’s ways, such ways as are described here, and understand the Lord’s character and the Lord’s loving-kindness! From the heights of glory we shall be able to look far down into the depths of grace.

Eut no wonder it closes thus, when we dwell upon its many subjects of praise and thanksgiving. Its first words are abundant in thought concerning Jehovah — “For he is good.” Is not this (as we saw in Psa. c.) the Old Testament version of “God is love?” (1 John iv. 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,” 1’^). 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 (1 Chron. xvi. .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 (2 Chron. v. 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 (2 Chron. vii. 8). And in Ezra’s days (iii. 11), again, as soon as the altar rose, they sang to the Lord — “Because he is good; for his mercy to Israel endureth for ever.” Our God is known to be “Love,” by the side of the atoning sacrifice. Jeremiah, (xxxiii. 11) too, shews how restored Israel shall exult in this name.

Dwell next on the experience of his redeemed, “from east and west,” so far separate from each other; and from “north,’^ the most obscure quarter of earth, and from “the sea” (U^), the tempest-tossed region. They have witnessed strange scenes, and the love of God in them all. Think of the wanderers in the desert (ver. 4) realising their fathers’ history, and joining to it Hagar and Ishmael’s thirst and despondency — how they were delivered after all, and led to the city, to Jerusalem (Targum and Hengstenberg) — the city where they found the habitation of God, and where they were made to dwell.

“Let these praise the Lord for his goodness, And for his tconderful doings to the sons of men; For he satisfieth the longing sold {P!ppliy, going hither and thither

in vain), AndfiUeth the hungry soid with good” (^ilO; his own name, ver. 1.)

Think of another scene. Yonder is a prison-house (ver, 10), and there you find transgressors, such as Manasseh or Zedekiah, brought low, because they despised the words of (7^) the Mighty God, and left in the dungeon to consider their ways. Their cry goes up to the mercy-seat — they are delivered; they are blessed.

“Let them praise the Lord for his goodness,” djc. Think of another scene — the bed of sickness, “Fools afflicted because of their course of transgression,’” (ver. 17). Hear the groan, look on the languid eye, observe the sore anguish of these death-stricken ones. But, like the man described in Job xxxiii. 19-23, to whom the Interpreter comes, these cry to the Lord and find mercy.

And so is it with those tempest-tossed ones (ver. 22), who for a time were like Jonah and the mariners that were with him.* The Lord commandeth, and the stormy wind ariseth, (ver. 25).

“Which, liftdh up His leaves;’’ {i.e., Jehovah’s waves Psa. xliii. 7; Jonah ii. 3).

But what a calm when Jehovah hears their cry! — like the sea of Galilee that morning when The Master arose and rebuked winds and waves with his “Peace; be still.” Was there need then to exhort men to adore and praise? Did they not cry one to another, “What manner of man is this?” Even so here; when “their waves” (ver. 29) — i. e., the waves that tossed them, sent out by God (ver. 25), and made terrible to them — are lulled by him who hears their cry.

* “Me miserum! quanti montes volvuutur aquarum!
Jamjam tacturos sidera summa putes.
Quantse diducto subsidunt aquore valles!
Jamjam tacturos Tartara regna putes.
Rector in incerto est, nee quod fugiatve, petatve
Invenit! ambiguis ars stupet ipsa malis.”

—Ovid, Eleff. I., ver. 28.

324 PSALM evil. — SONG OF THE GATHKRED ONES.

“Let them praise the Lord fur his goodness,” d-c. Let them praise Him in the place where the Elders sit together — deliberating on the ways of God.

But now Israel, from all lands, meet on their proper soil — Palestine. They see it had become waste and desolate, like Sodom (Deut. xxix. 23), though once as the garden of Eden; and they own it is for “the wickedness of those that dwelt there,” (ver. 34). They remember how, when their fathers emerged from the wilderness, they found it a land flowing with milk and honey; and how to them it was exchanging a desert for water-springs — there they dwelt, built their cities, reared Jerusalem, and there they multiplied (ver. 35-38). It was sin that “dimiuished them,” and “poured contempt on their princes,” (ver. 39, 40). God is good; God is Love. God would have blessed them for ever, nor ever once have broken a link of the chain, but for sin. And now He has returned in free love to them.

“He setteth the poor on high, And maketh families to him, like a flock of sheep.” (Ver. 41.)

Shall not gathered Israel bless the Lord? and shall not all the

earth hear, and see, and learn?

“The righteous shall see and rejoice,
And all iniquity stop her mouth.
Whoso is wise will consider these things,
And will understand the mercies of the Lord.”

By such closing words are all men invited to come and join the Lord’s redeemed, in their blessings and in their joyful song, helping them to raise to the Lord this

Song of thanks from gathered Israel and the redeemed.