{"collection":"Bible & Christianity","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bib/cmt/jfb/psa107.htm","path":"bib/cmt/jfb/psa107.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/bib/cmt/jfb/psa107.htm","text":"A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]\nThis call for thankful praise is the burden or chorus (compare Psa 107:8, Psa 107:15, &c.).\nredeemed of the Lord--(compare Isa 35:9-10).\nsay--that is, that His mercy, &c.\nhand of--or, \"power of enemy.\"\ngathered--alluding to the dispersion of captives throughout the Babylonian empire.\nfrom the south--literally, \"the sea,\" or, Red Sea (Psa 114:3), which was on the south.\nA graphic picture is given of the sufferings of those who from distant lands returned to Jerusalem; or,\ncity of habitation--may mean the land of Palestine.\nfainted--was overwhelmed (Psa 61:3; Psa 77:3).\nTo 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.\nTheir 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.\nshadow of death--darkness with danger (Psa 23:4).\nbroken--literally, \"shivered\" (Isa 45:2).\nWhether the same or not, this exigency illustrates that dispensation of God according to which sin brings its own punishment.\nare afflicted--literally, \"afflict themselves,\" that is, bring on disease, denoted by loathing of food, and drawing\nnear unto--literally, \"even to\"\ngates--or, \"domains\" (Psa 9:13).\nsent his word--that is, put forth His power.\ntheir destructions--that is, that which threatened them. To the chorus is added the mode of giving thanks, by a sacrifice and joyful singing (Psa 50:14).\nHere are set forth the perils of seafaring, futility of man's, and efficiency of God's, help.\ngo . . . sea--alluding to the elevation of the land at the coast.\nThese see . . . deep--illustrated both by the storm He raises and the calm He makes with a word (Psa 33:9).\nwaves thereof--literally, \"His waves\" (God's, Psa 42:7).\nare . . . end--literally, \"all their wisdom swallows up itself,\" destroys itself by vain and contradictory devices, such as despair induces.\nHe maketh . . . calm--or, \"to stand to stillness,\" or \"in quiet.\" Instead of acts of temple-worship, those of the synagogue are here described, where the people with the\nassembly--or session of elders, convened for reading, singing, prayer, and teaching.\nHe 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.\nwander . . . wilderness--reduced to misery (Job 12:24).\nIn this providential government, good men will rejoice, and the cavils of the wicked will be stopped (Job 5:16; Isa 52:15), and all who take right views will appreciate God's unfailing mercy and unbounded love.","title":"A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments: Psalms: Psalms Chapter 107","type":"page"}