Chapter 107

First Psalm of Book 5, 107-150.

1st stanza.  Thanksgiving.

2nd.  He leads the wandering in the desert to a city.  He delivers the distressed who cry out to Him.

2021 - In vs 4 and again in 7 dwelling in a city is considered a good thing, a desirable thing.  And look at this last verse of the stanza:

9 For he satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things. [Psa 107:9 ESV].  Who would this not appeal to?  This is not a promise of God so much as an attribute of God.  This is what He does.  We might also say that if we are "fat, dumb, and happy", then our soul is not longing, and He perhaps gives us nothing.  Would this be why Israel deteriorated so many times?  God filled their every need, so they had no longing for God and His ways.  They didn't need Him - because they'd forgotten that it was He who had supplied them in the first place.  No longing soul, no hungering after God means he does not work in our lives.

Possible FB post.

Continuing this...these were the ones wandering in the desert, with no city to dwell in, no place to call home.  They longed for a "place" they could settle down.  This was their longing, their need.

3rd.  He frees those in slavery and bondage when they cry out to Him.

2021 - This is a new group being described.  There were the wanderers, and now the prisoners.  But note that they are prisoners because God made them prisoners as punishment for their rebellion.  These deserved what they got, and God is the one who dispensed justice.  As prisoners, they turn back to him, appeal to him, and he answers them.  This stanza closes like this:

16 For he shatters the doors of bronze and cuts in two the bars of iron. [Psa 107:16 ESV]

4th.  Even those in trouble because of their own foolishness He delivers.

2021 - Seems to be about the foolishness of self-destructive behavior.  Indulgence in sin to our own detriment.  Says "they loathed any kind of food".  What would cause that?  MSB note is not much help.  He thinks this might refer back to a mass disease and then a mass healing in Numbers.  I have a hard time thinking it is about historical events on that scale.  Alcoholism, drug addiction, things like this lead to a denigration of nutrition.  Vs 20 says 20 He sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction. [Psa 107:20 ESV].  I guess it could have been a disease that they brought on themselves, but addiction seems to be much more in line with the context.  This one ends with this verse:

22 And let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving, and tell of his deeds in songs of joy! [Psa 107:22 ESV]

This phrase is repeated in each stanza:

21 Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man! [Psa 107:21 ESV]

5th.  He saves distressed sailors from storms.  The storms show God's power.

2022 - This verse:

29 He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed. [Psa 107:29 ESV].

I wonder if the apostles remembered this Psalm when Jesus just said "Peace be still" and the sea settled down.  Look who this verse says has the power to still the waves.  Only God.  And they witnessed Jesus doing that with his words.  I never realized that this miracle of Christ tied back so directly to the OT, and should have established with certainty who he was.  It establishes that he was not just a man.  Only "God" could do this, so Jesus was fully God.  This is a good proof text for that position.  Also, consider this Psalm when Jesus answers the Pharisees that "If you don't believe me, believe the works".  Surely this one was way up on the list of works he had in mind when he made that statement!

Good FB post.

2021 - Another group is discussed.  Sailors.  So wanderers, prisoners, self-abusers?, and now sailors.  This does not seem like a correct understanding.  What is the common thread here?  Ends this way:

32 Let them extol him in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders. [Psa 107:32 ESV]

6th.  This stanza breaks the pattern.  Here, it first shows God's power over nature - to make the barren productive, and the opposite. 

2021 - It is saying that God, through His power, can make a fruitful dwelling place from an awful place.  I think of that land out around Four Corners.  He can make that green and fruitful.

7th.  God helps the needy and afflicted, and brings low the power of the "mighty".

8th.  One verse:

     43 Whoever is wise, let him attend to these things; let them consider the steadfast love of the LORD. [Psa 107:43 ESV]

2021 - Look at this closing.  It is telling us there is deep meaning here, and that we need to understand these lessons.  This one is worth spending more time on, worth meditating on.  Because there is a common thread here that I am missing.  The steadfast love of the Lord is the stated theme...but that doesn't help me with the significance of the 5 groups.  And why 5?  That is an unusual number for biblical things.  Maybe that is part of the key?

2022 - No matter what your position, high, low or in-between, God sees you, corrects you, saves you when you are low.  His steadfast love is there for all.  Hesed.  His steadfast love, according to Bobby Kelly's explanation of that word, is what is in view.  The fact that God's own hesed is available, lifts the weak, frees the prisoner, calms to seas, ought always to lead to praise for his name.

2024 - Yet...In each case it seems that people had rebelled against God and that is how they'd gotten into trouble in the first place.  Well...first group was just wandering in general, second group had messed up, vs. 11.  Third group messed up, vs 17.  Sailors were just frightened of the storm.  Nothing about them deserving to be in the storm.  So still no clear thread as far as I can see. 

2025 - This one seems to double back on itself several times.  It kind of teases at you and makes you think you might understand it, and then it goes in the opposite direction.