Breaking Every Chain
The Psalm of a Freed People
Psalm 107:1-22
1
Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his
steadfast love endures forever!
2
Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he has
redeemed from trouble
3
and gathered in from the lands, from the east and
from the west, from the north and from the south.
4
Some wandered in desert wastes, finding no way to
a city to dwell in;
5
hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them.
6
Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he
delivered them from their distress.
7
He led them by a straight way till they reached a city
to dwell in.
8
Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love, for
his wondrous works to the children of man!
9
For he satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul
he fills with good things.
10
Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death,
prisoners in affliction and in irons,
11
for they had rebelled against the words of God, and
spurned the counsel of the Most High.
12
So he bowed their hearts down with hard labor; they
fell down, with none to help.
13
Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he
delivered them from their distress.
14
He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of
death, and burst their bonds apart.
15
Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love, for
his wondrous works to the children of man!
16
For he shatters the doors of bronze and cuts in two
the bars of iron.
17
Some were fools through their sinful ways, and
because of their iniquities suffered affliction;
18
they loathed any kind of food, and they drew near to
the gates of death.
19
Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he
delivered them from their distress.
20
He sent out his word and healed them, and
delivered them from their destruction.
21
Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love, for
his wondrous works to the children of man!
22
And let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving, and tell
of his deeds in songs of joy!
In this Psalm of Thanks and Praise, Israel was like:





A Traveler Lost in the Desert (107:4-9)
A Prisoner Locked in a Dungeon (107:10-16)
A Sick Man Lying on a Deathbed (107:17-22)
A Sailor in a storm on the Deep (107:23-32)
A Farmer dependent upon God (107:33-42)
 The Land Made Barren (107:33-34)
 The Land Made Beautiful (107:35-38)
 The Sadness of Israel's Judgment (107:39-40)
 The Success of Israel's Judgment (107:41-43)
The chimes of gods great clock struck the hour in
Heaven, and at once God set in motion the decree of
Cyrus the Persian. Now free, the Babylonian captives
could go home. Their exile was over, the prophecy of
Jeremiah fulfilled, the prayer of Daniel answered.
The majority of Jews, many of them born in Babylon
since the 70-year exile began, simply yawned in the
face of God. Not for them the rigors of a four-month
march across a pitiless desert. Not for them the
hardships of pioneering in Palestine. They had made
the world their home, satisfied with worldly prospects.
So, like Demas in New Testament times, having
chosen this present evil world, they stayed on in
Babylon.
Of the exiled Jews only 42,360 returned, taking with
them about 7,000 slaves, of whom some 200 were
trained singers. There were 4,000 priests—but from
only four of the 24 priestly "courses" into which their
order had been divided since Davidic times. It says
much about Jewish backsliding in Babylon that, of the
whole tribe of Levi, only 74 Levites decided to return to
the promised land.
The first contingent to return was led back by
Zerubbabel, a prince of the house of David, the only
person of royal blood to need the mighty moving of the
Spirit of God. Zerubbabel was accompanied by a priest
named Joshua. It was not until 78 years later that Ezra
the Scribe led back a second group.
The little band of pioneers, descending at last on the
promised land, found it strewn with the debris of former
wars. There was no temple; Jerusalem was a heap of
rubble. The Edomites had seized much of the land,
and the entire central portion of the country was in the
hands of men of mixed blood known as Samaritans. It
was a discouraging start.
But the hour had struck in the counsels of God. The
time was one of fulfilled prophecy and of immense
potential. The returned remnant, acutely aware of the
sins of the nation that had brought about the captivity,
determined to "put first things first." They began by
building an altar for God and reinstituting the sacrifices.
They began at the heart of things. They put Calvary, so
to speak, into the center of the picture, since without a
proper view of sin and redemption no nation can
prosper.
Then they laid the foundation of the temple. That was
in their second year, in 535 B.C. The foundation was
laid amid the nation's mingled songs and sobs. The
musical services instituted by David were restored.
Shouts of joy rang out over Jerusalem's ruined walls
and desolate streets, and the sobs of the old men
added a note of pathos—the old men who
remembered the glories of Solomon's temple, now
gone forever.
Psalm 107 seems to be one of the psalms centering
around these events. It is a psalm we can associate
with the laying of the foundation of that temple into the
courts of which one day the Messiah Himself would
come.
human soul—and with even greater astonishment at
the lack of praise of those who claim to have been
redeemed by the precious blood of Heaven's Beloved.
This psalm begins the last of the five books of psalms,
sometimes called "The Deuteronomy Book." Just as
the last book of Moses is concerned with the Law and
with the land, so are the psalms that make up this
book. Psalms 107 through 119 were probably all sung
in connection with the laying of the foundation of the
new temple.
God Never Gives Up On Us
The stately stanzas of Psalm 107 are not concerned
simply with the people gathered back from exile. The
psalm has a strong prophetic strain. Behind the
obvious allusions to the recent ingathering of exiles,
we see the remote shadows of Israel being gathered
again in the last days—regathered to be scattered no
more. The psalm prefigures the return that has begun
in our day, but is (like the return from Babylon) far from
complete.
Since this is a long psalm we will simply highlight its
main features. Since the psalm is national in character,
we will pick up only a few of its verses for personal
application.
The psalm divides into four parts. The second section
is the major one, punctuated four times with the cry:
"Oh that men would praise the LORD for His goodness,
and for His wonderful works to the children of men."
The angels in the realms of glory must look on in
astonishment at the deadness and dullness of the
He Redeems Us From Trouble
He Gathers Us From Where Ever We Are
As a Result, He Deserves Our Thanks and Praise
"O give thanks unto the LORD, for He is good: for His
mercy endureth for ever."
The Lord deserves our praise.
There is not much we can give to God. He does not
need our money. He will use it if we give it to Him and
will reward us in Heaven for our faithful stewardship,
but He does not need money. He could create gold out
of black sand if He wished. He does not need our
service. He has countless angels far stronger, swifter,
and superior to us. What He wants is our praise and
our thanks. In other words, He wants our worship.
What the Lord Did For Israel (107:2-3)
It is what the Lord did that made Him worthy of thanks.
"Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom He hath
delivered from the hand [the Hebrew word is "clutch"]
of the enemy; and gathered them out of the lands..."
The repatriated Jews, standing around the foundation
of that new temple, were partakers in a miracle. The
greatest world power on earth had deliberately opened
its hand and let them go.
One wonders why. Probably we shall never really
understand the events of that second exodus—the
marvelous miracle of a nation reborn when all the laws
of history were set in defiance of such a thing ever
happening—unless we see standing in the shadows of
Babylon, near the throne and close to the heart of God,
the towering figure of a man named Daniel. One
suspects it was Daniel who drew Cyrus's attention to
the ancient prophecy of Isaiah in which the conqueror
was mentioned by name some 220 years before his
time (Isaiah 44:28). One suspects it was Daniel who
drew Cyrus's attention to the prophecy of Jeremiah
about the length of the captivity.
But, whatever the reason, a miracle had transpired.
The Persian bear, first seen in prophecy with three ribs
in its mouth symbolizing the kingdoms it had
destroyed, released its captives. God had come down
and, like David of old, had taken the lamb out of the
paw of the bear.
"Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom He hath
delivered from the hand of the enemy." If that
injunction was meant to stir up the souls of the Jews,
gathered back from exile, how much more it should stir
up our hearts to sing. "Let the redeemed of the LORD
say so." We have so much for which to be eternally
thankful. The Lord has delivered us from the clutches
of an enemy greater and fiercer than any human foe.
And we should never cease singing.
"If the redeemed of the LORD" do not "say so," who
will? Let us never allow the testings and troubles of life
to rob us of the joy of our salvation and of a heart full of
gratitude to God.
In this Psalm of Thanks and Praise, Israel was like:
(107:4-38)
This is the major section of the psalm. It is punctuated
by the fourfold repetition of that cry, "Oh that men
would praise the LORD for His goodness, and for His
wonderful works to the children of men!" Again and
again the psalmist will remind us: we have a lot for
which to be thankful. Because there are so many
ungrateful people in the world, let us be sure that we
remember to return thanks to God.
The psalmist looks back over Israel's years of exile.
The nation had been uprooted and deported, its throne
humbled in the dust, its temple committed to the
flames, its youth slain or carried away in chains... but
now nearly 50,000 people had come back to claim the
land afresh in view of the coming of the Messiah. The
psalmist describes the desolate years.
Five pictures rise up before his mind's eye, which He
then paints for us with a skillful hand.
Israel Was Like a Traveler Lost in the Desert
(107:4-9)
Israel Was Like a Prisoner Locked and Bound in a
Prison (107:10-16)
The psalmist describes Israel's desperate condition.
He makes a dismal confession, he comes to a
dramatic conclusion, and he ends with a determined
conviction: "They wandered in the wilderness in a
solitary way [a desert way, a trackless waste]... Hungry
and thirsty, their soul fainted in them."
We find here the same four characteristics:
Such is life when it is out of touch with God. "Then they
cried... and He delivered..."
The psalmist describes Israel's desperate condition.
They were a people "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...
Then they cried... and He saved them... He brought
them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and
brake their bands in sunder."
I’ve flown over the deserts of the Middle East on
numerous occasions. There were no paths, no tracks,
no signposts, no shelter, no food, no water, no hope
for anyone who wandered too far away. That is what
the psalmist described—
A place where there were:
 no signposts: "they wandered in the wilderness"
 no settlements: "they found no city to dwell in"
 no supplies: "hungry and thirsty their soul
fainted." That is what life is like out of the will of
God.
Israel was like a person lost in the desert, but God had
found them and led them back home. "Oh that men
would praise the LORD... for His wonderful works to the
children of men! For He satisfieth the longing soul, and
filleth the hungry soul with goodness."




a desperate condition
a dismal confession
a dramatic conclusion
a determined conviction
God had judged the nation, having found it guilty of the
most horrible crimes. The most dreadful sins had
stalked the streets unashamed. So sentence had been
passed, the prisoner led away, the iron gates slammed
shut. Darkness had closed in, and dreary days had
dragged by on leaden feet. The horror was always
there.
Death haunted the shadows, but God had come and
opened the prison doors: "Oh that men would praise
the LORD for His goodness, 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."
Thank God, who can open prison doors.
Israel Was Like a Sick Man Lying On a Deathbed
(107:17-22)
Again we have that fourfold analysis:




a desperate condition
a dismal confession
a dramatic conclusion
a determined conviction
"Fools [the perverse, those who depend on their own
wisdom which is foolishness with God] because of their
trangression, 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... He saveth... He sent His Word, and
healed them."
Sounds like: Drugs, Alcohol, Addictions of any kind…..
Sin had brought the nation to its deathbed. The
economic physicians, the political and social and
religious physicians, the liberal and conservative and
scholastic physicians, all tried their hand at doctoring
the patient (just as they are all trying their hand at
doctoring the ills of the world today), but the nation's
case grew steadily worse. Sin was at the root of the
trouble, and none of those doctors could diagnose or
prescribe for that.
The nation was brought near to extinction. Indeed, it
had already been pronounced dead by the watching
world powers. But then God stepped in with new life:
"Oh that men would praise the LORD for His goodness,
and for His wonderful works to the children of men!
And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving,
and declare His works with rejoicing."
How was it done? He "sent His Word, and healed
them."
It was brought about by a spiritual awakening—one
with messianic implications. Here we have a prophetic
anticipation of the Lord Jesus, the living Word of God
sent forth to heal human sicknesses and the soul's
diseases.
The psalmist has one more illustration for those
celebrating the revival of the nation.
Israel Was Like a Sailor Terrified in a Terrible
Storm (107:23-32)
For the fourth and final time the psalmist underlines
that:




dreadful condition
dismal confession
dramatic conclusion
determined conviction
This time he sees a storm at sea. A ship is tossed like
a cork on mountainous waves. The seasoned sailors
have ventured too far from land, the winds have arisen,
and the navigation lights are lost. The little vessel is at
the mercy of the raging deep, and all hope is lost.
"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."
Israel Was Like A Farmer Dependent Upon God
(107:33-38)
I was once on a ship which was thrown around like that
in the Mediterranean Sea. The waves were as high as
the bridge and any step the passengers took was a
peril. We staggered as if drunken, but our ship was like
a Rock of Gibraltar compared with the flimsy boats that
sailed the Great Sea in the psalmist's day.
"He turneth rivers into a wilderness, and the
watersprings into dry ground; a fruitful land into
barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwell
therein."
He sees the nation in its peril. The Gentile seas had
risen at God's command and had all but sunk Israel
completely and forever. Again God had intervened,
however: "He maketh the storm a calm... He bringeth
them unto their desired haven. Oh that men would
praise the LORD for His goodness, and for His
wonderful works to the children of men! Let them exalt
Him also in the congregation of the people, and praise
Him in the assembly of the elders."
So for the fourth time the psalmist reminds Israel of the
dreadful peril through which the nation had just
passed, pointing to both its cause and its cure.
We must come back to that little band of repatriated
Jews standing around the foundation of the new
temple in Jerusalem.
The Land Made Barren (107:33-34)
All around them the Jews could see the harvest of
hundreds of years of rebellion and apostasy. Ruined
cities. Barren fields. Desolation. This was the land that
once had flowed with milk and honey. This was God's
"paid in full" for generation after generation of life in
defiance of His Word. Israel had ignored His laws and
replaced His truths with the religious follies of the
pagans.
The psalmist did not have to turn far for illustrations.
Everywhere the land was barren. Yet at that point his
faith soars.
The Land Made Beautiful (107:35-38)
 He foresees a great increase in precipitation:
"He turneth the wilderness into a standing water,
and dry ground into watersprings."
 He foresees a great increase in population:
"And there He maketh the hungry to dwell, that
they may prepare a city for habitation."
 He foresees a great increase both in crops
and in cattle, in productivity: "And sow the
fields, and plant vineyards, which may yield fruits
of increase."
In other words, all the signs of God's displeasure
simply vanish away. The scarred and ruined property
of Israel is restored.
God transforms barrenness into beauty, sobs into
songs. When He has accomplished His purpose in the
difficulties of our lives, overnight He can restore all to
beauty.
What does that have to say to us today? Let us make it
personal.
A. Do we feel as if we are lost in a spiritual desert?
This question is not addressed to unsaved people; it
goes without saying that they are lost. It is addressed
to the Lord's people. Do we find ourselves looking this
way and that in our circumstances, without the
slightest idea which is the right way to turn or what is
the right step to take? Every step seems to be the
wrong one. Then this psalm is for us.
B. Do we find ourselves locked in a spiritual
dungeon? We feel circumstances have hemmed us
in. We seem to be bound and chained and, like a
prisoner in a death cell, we find ourselves driven to
desperation? This psalm is for us.
C. Do we find ourselves lying on a spiritual
deathbed? Our souls are sick unto death; we are
knotted up inside and our situations seem hopeless.
We find we have lost our appetites, life has lost its
charm. Things we once enjoyed are a dead weight on
our hearts. This psalm is for us.
D. Do we find ourselves lashed on the spiritual
deep? We are overwhelmed because the
circumstances through which we are passing are
ominous and frightening. We are like a drunken
person. We are at the mercy of our circumstances. We
seem to stagger from one hopeless effort to another.
E. Do we find ourselves totally dependent upon
God for His provisions and blessing on our
labors? His hand of blessing is really what we all
need. We recognized He is the one who provides all
our needs!
Then, This psalm is for us.
First, we must remember there is a cause.
We must search our hearts, go back over our lives,
allow the Spirit of God to show us why these things
have happened. If sin and forgetfulness of God are at
the bottom of the problem, we must confess that and
get right with God.
Second, we must remember there is a cure.
God has not abandoned us. He is going to work as
great a miracle for us as He did for Israel. He will bring
us right through our problems if we will let Him. We will
yet praise Him for His goodness and wonderful works.
How God Revived the Social and Religious
Prosperity of Israel (107:39-43)
The Sadness of Israel's Judgment (107:39-40)
That this people, God's people, had to be so dreadfully
scourged and scattered before they would listen to Him
is inexpressibly sad. The psalmist tells how God
diminished and brought the people low, pouring
contempt on their princes—those haughty princes of
Judah who thought they could do as they pleased.
In closing, however, the psalmist mentions the Lord's
restitution.
The Success of Israel's Judgment (107:41-43)
All turned out well: "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."
The singer beamed on the little flock gathered back
from the wilderness of the world. "Whoso is wise, and
will observe these things, even they shall understand
the lovingkindness of the LORD," he said.
 God is too wise to make mistakes,
 Too loving to be unkind,
 Too powerful to be thwarted in His ultimate
purposes for His own.
We can take heart in that. No matter what we are
facing in our lives, let us remember that God is working
out a plan, a plan dictated by His lovingkindness and
His power.




How good is the God we adore,
Our faithful, unchangeable friend—
Whose love is as great as His power
And knows neither measure nor end!