Psalms 107:8-9 - Homilies By R. Tuck

A fourfold view of God's relations.

This point is illustrated from the first thirty-two verses of the psalm, the verses taken as text being the refrain closing the first section. Summing up God's relations with his people, Delitzsch suggestively says:

1. God gave them the lands of the heathen (see Psalms 105:44 ).

2. God scattered them in the lands (see Psalms 106:27 ).

3. God gathers them from the lands (see Psalms 107:3 ). The thirty-two verses, or rather those from Psalms 107:4 to Psalms 107:32 , contain four mental pictures:

I. GOD THE REFRESHER ; or, the pilgrim's Provider and Guide. Two sources for his figures are before the mind of the psalmist.

1. The old wilderness-journey of the Israelites.

2. The recent desert-journey of the exiles from Babylon to Jerusalem. Both presented peculiarities of difficulty, trial, and need. In both God had most graciously overcome difficulties, and secured all needed supplies. In neither had his people wanted any good thing. This will readily be illustrated by details of these journeys.

II. GOD THE LIBERATOR ; or, the captive's Deliverer. Here the same two sources provide the figures. Once Israel was captive in Egypt, and then God brought his people out "with a high hand and outstretched arm."—Recently they had been captive in Babylon, and the interweavings of Divine providence, which led to their return to their own land, were no less wonderful and no less gracious. There is a higher sense in which God, through his Son Jesus Christ, now gives "liberty to the captives."

III. GOD THE HEALER ; Or, the willful man's Savior. The association of this figure is not so easy to trace. There is very probable allusion to those times of pestilence in the wilderness-journey which followed on the people's sin; and the people were led into sin by foolish, willful individuals, such as Korah or Dathan. But even when suffering was direct judgment on sin, God magnified his mercy in healing and restoring.

IV. GOD THE CONTROLLER ; or, the sailor's Preserver. Israel seems to have had no mercantile associations with the sea before the time of Solomon; but in the time of captivity the Israelites were scattered abroad, and engaged in commerce in all lands, so sea-figures had become familiar. But the reference here may be typical; the perils of the sea picturing all kinds of human peril that are beyond man's control, but within God's control. For what he is to his people, we are bidden to thank and praise the Lord.—R.T.