This psalm closes Book IV of the Psalter with four distinct scenes of trouble — lost wanderers, chained prisoners, the desperately sick, and sailors caught in a storm — each one following the exact same pattern: real distress, an honest cry, and a rescue that actually comes.
A study in Psalm 107 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 14 min read
They Wandered In The Wilderness
“O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy; and gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south.”
Psalm 107:1-3
“Let the redeemed of the LORD say so” is a direct instruction, not merely an invitation — the psalm assumes gratitude that stays entirely private, never actually spoken, has left something important undone.
“They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses.”
Psalm 107:4-6
This is the first of four scenes, and its pattern will repeat three more times across the psalm, almost word for word — genuine trouble named specifically, an honest cry, and deliverance that actually follows.
He Hath Broken The Gates Of Brass
“Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron; because they rebelled against the words of God, and contemned the counsel of the most High.”
Psalm 107:10-11
Unlike the first scene, this second group’s trouble is explicitly their own fault, named directly rather than glossed over — the psalm does not require innocence as a condition for the rescue about to be described.
“Then they cried unto Jehovah in their trouble, And He saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, And brake their bonds in sunder. Oh that men would praise Jehovah for His loving-kindness, And for His wonderful works to the children of men! For He hath broken the gates of brass, And cut the bars of iron in sunder.”
Ellen G. White · Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, p. 113
White’s quotation flows here directly out of Psalm 106’s confession, the same unbroken passage spanning three full psalms — deliverance for the genuinely guilty following right on the heels of deliverance for the merely lost.
He Sent His Word, And Healed Them
“Fools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted. Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat; and they draw near unto the gates of death. Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he saveth them out of their distresses. He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.”
Psalm 107:17-20
“He sent his word, and healed them” is a strikingly simple description of how this third rescue actually happened — not an elaborate intervention, but a word sent, sufficient on its own to reach all the way to the gates of death and turn someone back from them.
He Maketh The Storm A Calm
“They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; these see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep. For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof. They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end.”
Psalm 107:23-27
“At their wits’ end” is a phrase this exact psalm gave the English language — sailors so thoroughly overwhelmed that every skill and strategy they might otherwise rely on has genuinely run out.
“Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses. He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.”
Psalm 107:28-30
This exact scene would repeat, literally, a thousand years later — another set of sailors, on a much smaller lake, caught in a storm they could not control, crying out to a Rescuer standing right there in the boat with them.
“But He who spoke peace to the billows of Galilee has spoken the word of peace for every soul. However fierce the tempest, those who turn to Jesus with the cry, ‘Lord, save us,’ will find deliverance… ‘He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. Then are they glad because they be quiet; so He bringeth them unto their desired haven.’”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 336
White applies this ancient psalm directly to Christ calming the storm on the Sea of Galilee — not a separate, later miracle disconnected from this song, but the same Voice this psalm has already described a thousand years in advance, still doing exactly what it always did.
Whoso Is Wise, And Will Observe These Things
“He poureth contempt upon princes, and causeth them to wander in the wilderness, where there is no way. Yet setteth he the poor on high from affliction, and maketh him families like a flock. The righteous shall see it, and rejoice: and all iniquity shall stop her mouth.”
Psalm 107:40-42
The psalm widens here one final time, from personal rescue to the broader pattern of history itself — the powerful brought low and the powerless lifted up, the same reversal already visible across every individual scene this psalm has just described.
“Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the lovingkindness of the LORD.”
Psalm 107:43
The psalm’s final line, closing all of Book IV of the Psalter, hands its four scenes directly to the reader as an assignment — not merely stories to admire, but a pattern meant to actually be observed and understood, in whatever wilderness, prison, sickbed, or storm the reader’s own life happens to include.
