Psalms 107:10

METAPHOR OF A PEOPLE IMPRISONED

"Such as sat in darkness and in the shadow of death,

Being found in affliction and iron,

Because they rebelled against the words of God,

And contemned the counsel of the Most High:

Therefore he brought down their heart with labor;

They fell down, and there was none to help.

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 lovingkindness,

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."

These verses are a metaphor of the way it was with Israel in Babylon. "When Israel was in Babylon, its sojourn there was like the experience of a man shut up in prison, wrapped in darkness and gloom, and unable to free himself."[8]

There are a number of things in this paragraph which forbid its application to any other group than Israel. Note the reason for the imprisonment mentioned here (Psalms 107:11).

"They rebelled against the words of God" (Psalms 107:11). No court on earth, in that era, would have made such a reason the basis of imprisonment; but Israel's captivity in Babylon was directly and solely related to their rebellion against the Word of God (Zechariah 1:4).

"He hath broken the gates of brass" (Psalms 107:16). Leupold and other scholars speak of "bronze prison doors"[9] in this passage; but it is not the "doors" of some jail which are indicated here. Jails never had, nor do they need, "bronze doors." What is mentioned here are the famed 100 Bronze gates of the City of Babylon, especially those over the Euphrates river. When the Medo-Persians took Babylon, the river was diverted out of its normal channel; and the soldiers of the enemy marched unharmed under the bronze gates.

Psalms 107:13 and Psalms 107:15 repeat the refrains discussed under Psalms 107:6 and Psalms 107:8. The utility of this double refrain, it appears to us, is that it emphasizes the unity of what is discussed here. It is not a discussion of several kinds of God's deliverances, but of the One Great Deliverance of Israel from Babylon.

"He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death" (Psalms 107:14). This is the declaration that stands between the double refrains. The importance of this is the revelation of the Deliverer. The antecedent of "He" in this passage is Almighty God Himself; and that is utterly inconsistent with the notion that the release of a group of pilgrims from some earthly jail is meant. God made no practice whatever of emptying earthly jails, but He did deliver Israel from captivity in Babylon.