Psalm 107:10-22

This psalm covers various situations believing people might find themselves in during the course of a lifetime. Whatever comes our way we can turn to God in prayer and find His help.

Here are two further examples. Both have to do with disobedience to God’s Word (11, 17). In both sets of circumstances there is a price to pay for rebellion against God. In the first example it is ‘captivity’ written on the bill (10-16); in the second it is ‘sickness’. We cannot sin as God’s people and think we will get away with it. Someone said that sin in a Christian is never less than serious. It seems that God has set things up so that when we set our faces against Him we experience consequences that drive us back to Him. Then, when we come to Him sincerely, with genuinely repentant hearts, He will be gracious and merciful to us, rescuing us from dire situations, and putting songs of praise to God in our hearts and mouths (15, 21, and 22). Haven’t you proved the essential truth of this psalm over and again?

In (10-16) the psalmist describes people whose circumstances have become confined and constricted because of rebellion against God’s Word (11). He may have in mind a literal imprisonment or enslavement, as happened to the Israelites at various points in their history. But there is also a spiritual darkness and bondage that can come upon people who fight against the truth. They resist the liberating knowledge that would otherwise set them free (John 8:31, 32). How miserable it is to be out of step with God and know that you are. Yet God will even deliver rebels if they genuinely call out to Him for mercy. ‘’In the garden (Gn.3) it was the purpose of the serpent to make the word of God seem unnaturally restrictive, an unwarranted denial of human liberty. Too late the man and his wife discovered that it was only by binding themselves to obey God’s word that they enjoyed liberty (cf. Ps. 119:45)…How often divine mercy protects us from the results of our own false choices we shall never know, but sometimes, with equal love, the barrier is allowed to fall and we experience the bitter bondage we have brought on ourselves. But even then we can pray (13) and find that…grace responds to prayer in deliverance (14-16).’’ J.A. Motyer: The ‘New Bible Commentary’, p.558.

As already noted, (17-22) deal with a similar situation, but here the outcome is one of suffering ‘’affliction’’ (17). This may refer to physical, mental or spiritual illness. As Motyer says, sin is our all-time ‘’own goal’’. Through it we bring great damage to ourselves. But when these people cry to God, He will send ‘’forth his word’’ and heal them (20). So God’s Word brings judgment on those who disobey it, but healing to those who accept and believe and obey it. ‘’Just as the source of our spiritual plight is rejection of the word (11), so the return to spiritual wholeness (20) is through the return of the word into our lives.’’ J.A. Motyer: The ‘New Bible Commentary’, p. 558.

‘’When the heart is quiet in God, the eye looks out on the scenes of nature and life around it, and detects everywhere, even where to ordinary men every appearance seems in the contrary direction, the loving-kindness of the Lord. As life advances, and one climbs the hill, one is able to review the path by which life has been directed and controlled. We observe with the wisdom which we have obtained by long experience, and we understand God’s reasons for many rebuffs, denials, and bitter disappointments. I believe that we shall one day turn to Him, and say, when we know all, ‘’Thou couldst not have done otherwise. We would not have wished otherwise.’’ ‘’ F.B. Meyer: Great verses through the Bible, p.233.

Prayer: Lord, I need your healing Word today.