Psa 107:23-32 | TDavid | STEP | EXPOSITION Verse 23 . They that go down to the sea in ships. Navigation was so little practised among the Israelites that mariners were invested with a high mystery, and their craft was looked upon as one of singular daring degree of and peril. Tales of the sea thrilled all hearts with awe, and he who had been to Ophir or to Tarshish and had returned alive was looked upon as a man of renown, an ancient mariner to be listened to with reverent attention. Voyages were looked on as descending to an abyss, "going down to the sea in ships"; whereas now our bolder and more accustomed sailors talk of the "high seas." That do business in great waters. If they had not had business to do, they would never have ventured on the ocean, for we never read in the Scriptures of any man taking his pleasure on the sea: so averse was the Israelitish mind to seafaring, that we do not hear of even Solomon himself keeping a pleasure boat. The Mediterranean was "the great sea" to David and his countrymen, and they viewed those who had business upon it with no small degree of admiration. EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS As a specimen of medieval spiritualizing we give the following from the Hermit of Hampole: -- Verse 23 . They that go down to the sea in ships , etc. They that (are true prelates and preachers,) go down from the sublimity of contemplation, to the sea, that is, suiting themselves to the lowly, that they also may be saved, in ships, that is, in the faith, hope and charity of the church, without which they would be drowned in the waters of pleasure, that do business, that is, continue preaching, in great waters, that is, among many people in order that they may become fishers of men. --Richardus Hampolitanus. Verse 23-27. While thus our keels still onward boldly strayed -- Now tossed by tempest, now by calms delayed; To tell the terrors of the deep untried, What toils we suffered, and what storms defied; What rattling deluges the black clouds poured, What dreary weeks of solid darkness lowered; What mountain surges mountain surges lashed, What sudden hurricanes the canvas dashed; What bursting lightnings, with incessant flare, Kindled in one wide flame the burning air; What roaring thunders bellowed over our head, And seemed to shake the reeling ocean's bed: To tell each horror in the deep revealed, Would ask an iron throat with tenfold vigour steeled. Those dreadful wonders of the deep I saw, Which fill the sailor's breast with sacred awe; And what the sages, of their learning vain, Esteem the phantoms of a dreamful brain. --Luiz de Camoens (1524-1579), in "the Lusiad." Verse 23-31 . No language can be more sublime than the description of a storm at sea in this Psalm . It is the very soul of poetry. The utmost simplicity of diction is employed to convey the grandest thoughts. The picture is not crowded; none but the most striking circumstances are selected; and everything is natural, simple, and beyond measure interesting. The whole is an august representation of the Providence of God, ruling in what appears the most ungovernable province of nature. It is God who raises the storm; it is God who stilleth it. The wise men of this world may look no farther than the physical laws by which God acts; but the Holy Spirit, by the Psalmist, views the awful conflict of the elements as the work of God. --Alexander Carson. Verse 23-32 . This last picture springs naturally from the mention in of the sea; and here the psalmist may have directed his imagination to the usual tempestuousness of the season at which the psalm was sung . --Joseph Francis Thrupp.

Psalms 107:23-32

EXPOSITION

Verse 23. They that go down to the sea in ships. Navigation was so little practised among the Israelites that mariners were invested with a high mystery, and their craft was looked upon as one of singular daring degree of and peril. Tales of the sea thrilled all hearts with awe, and he who had been to Ophir or to Tarshish and had returned alive was looked upon as a man of renown, an ancient mariner to be listened to with reverent attention. Voyages were looked on as descending to an abyss, "going down to the sea in ships"; whereas now our bolder and more accustomed sailors talk of the "high seas."

That do business in great waters. If they had not had business to do, they would never have ventured on the ocean, for we never read in the Scriptures of any man taking his pleasure on the sea: so averse was the Israelitish mind to seafaring, that we do not hear of even Solomon himself keeping a pleasure boat. The Mediterranean was "the great sea" to David and his countrymen, and they viewed those who had business upon it with no small degree of admiration.

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

As a specimen of medieval spiritualizing we give the following from the Hermit of Hampole: --

Verse 23. They that go down to the sea in ships, etc. They that (are true prelates and preachers,) go down from the sublimity of contemplation, to the sea, that is, suiting themselves to the lowly, that they also may be saved, in ships, that is, in the faith, hope and charity of the church, without which they would be drowned in the waters of pleasure, that do business, that is, continue preaching, in great waters, that is, among many people in order that they may become fishers of men. --Richardus Hampolitanus.

Verse 23-27. While thus our keels still onward boldly strayed --

Now tossed by tempest, now by calms delayed;

To tell the terrors of the deep untried,

What toils we suffered, and what storms defied;

What rattling deluges the black clouds poured,

What dreary weeks of solid darkness lowered;

What mountain surges mountain surges lashed,

What sudden hurricanes the canvas dashed;

What bursting lightnings, with incessant flare,

Kindled in one wide flame the burning air;

What roaring thunders bellowed over our head,

And seemed to shake the reeling ocean's bed:

To tell each horror in the deep revealed,

Would ask an iron throat with tenfold vigour steeled.

Those dreadful wonders of the deep I saw,

Which fill the sailor's breast with sacred awe;

And what the sages, of their learning vain,

Esteem the phantoms of a dreamful brain.

--Luiz de Camoens (1524-1579), in "the Lusiad."

Verse 23-31. No language can be more sublime than the description of a storm at sea in this Psalm. It is the very soul of poetry. The utmost simplicity of diction is employed to convey the grandest thoughts. The picture is not crowded; none but the most striking circumstances are selected; and everything is natural, simple, and beyond measure interesting. The whole is an august representation of the Providence of God, ruling in what appears the most ungovernable province of nature. It is God who raises the storm; it is God who stilleth it. The wise men of this world may look no farther than the physical laws by which God acts; but the Holy Spirit, by the Psalmist, views the awful conflict of the elements as the work of God. --Alexander Carson.

Verse 23-32. This last picture springs naturally from the mention in Psalms 107:3 of the sea; and here the psalmist may have directed his imagination to the usual tempestuousness of the season at which the psalm was sung. --Joseph Francis Thrupp.

EXPOSITION

Verse 24. These see the works of the LORD. Beyond the dwellers on the land they see the Lord's greatest works, or at least such as stayers at home judge to be so when they hear the report thereof. Instead of the ocean proving to be a watery wilderness, it is full of God's creatures, and if we were to attempt to escape from his presence by flying to the uttermost parts of it, we should only rush into Jehovah's arms, and find ourselves in the very centre of his workshop.

And his wonders in the deep. They see wonders in it and on it. It is in itself a wonder and it swarms with wonders. Seamen, because they have fewer objects around them, are more observant of those they have than landsmen are, and hence they are said to see the wonders in the deep. At the same time, the ocean really does contain many of the more striking of God's creatures, and it is the scene of many of the more tremendous of the physical phenomena by which the power and more majesty of the Lord are revealed among men. The chief wonders alluded to by the Psalmist are a sudden storm and the calm which follows it.

All believers have not the same deep experience; but for wise ends, that they may do business for him, the Lord sends some of his saints to the sea of soul trouble, and there they see, as others do not, the wonders of divine grace. Sailing over the deeps of inward depravity, the waste waters of poverty, the billows of persecution, and the rough waves of temptation, they need God above all others, and they find him.

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

Verse 24. These see the works of the LORD. There are sinners who, like Jonah, fleeing from the face of God, go down to the sea, to the cares and pleasures of the world, away from the solid land of humility, quiet, and grace. They occupy themselves in many waters, in needless toils and excessive pleasures, and yet even there God does not leave them, but causes them to see his works and wonders even in the deep of their sins, by giving them timely and sufficient warnings, and alarming them with fear of the abyss. --Le Blanc, in Neale and Littledale.

EXPOSITION

Verse 25. For he commandeth: his word is enough for anything, he has but to will it and the tempest rages.

And raiseth the stormy wiled. It seemed to he asleep before, but it knows its Master's bidding, and is up at once in all its fury.

Which lifteth up the waves thereof. The glassy surface of the sea is broken, and myriads of white heads appear and rage and toss themselves to and fro as the wind blows upon them. Whereas they were lying down in quiet before, the waves rise in their might and leap towards the sky as soon as the howling of the wind awakens them.

Thus it needs but a word from God and the soul is in troubled waters, tossed to and fro with a thousand afflictions. Doubts, fears, terrors, anxieties lift their heads like so many angry waves, when once the Lord allows the storm winds to beat upon us.

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

Verse 25-31. Think, O my soul, devoutly think,

How, with affrighted eyes

Thou saw'st the wide extended deep

In all its horrors rise!

Confusion dwelt in every face,

And fear in every heart;

When waves on waves, and gulfs on gulfs,

Overcame the pilot's art.

Yet then from all my griefs, O Lord,

Thy mercy set me free,

Whilst in the confidence of prayer

My soul took hold on thee. For though in dreadful whirls we hung

High on the broken wave,

I knew thou wert not slow to hear,

Nor impotent to save. The storm was laid, the winds retired,

Obedient to thy will;

The sea that roared at thy command,

At thy command was still. In midst of dangers, fears, and death,

Thy goodness I will adore,

And praise thee for thy mercies past;

And humbly hope for more. My life, if thou preservest my life,

Thy sacrifice shall be;

And death, if death must be my doom,

Shall join my soul to thee. --Joseph Addison.

EXPOSITION

Verse 26. They mount up to the heaven. Borne aloft on the crest of the wave, the sailors and their vessels appear to climb the skies, but it is only for a moment, for very soon in the trough of the sea they go down again to the depths. As if their vessel were but a sea bird, the mariners are tossed "up and down, up and down, from the base of the wave to the billow's crown."

Their soul is melted because of trouble. Weary, wet, dispirited, hopeless of escape, their heart is turned to water, and they seem to have no manhood left.

Those who have been on the spiritual deep in one of the great storms which occasionally agitate the soul know what this verse means. In these spiritual cyclones presumption alternates with despair, indifference with agony! No heart is left for anything, courage is gone, hope is almost dead. Such an experience is as real as the tossing of a literal tempest and far more painful. Some of us have weathered many such an internal hurricane, and have indeed seen the Lord's wondrous works.

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

Verse 26. They mount up to the heaven. There be three heavens.

Verse 26. They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths. To larboard all their oars and canvas bend;

We on a ridge of waters to the sky

Are lifted, down to Erebus again

Sink with the falling wave; thrice howled the rocks

Within their stony caverns, thrice we saw

The splashed up foam upon the lights of heaven. --Virgil.

HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS

Verse 26. The ups and downs of a convicted sinner's experience.

EXPOSITION

Verse 27. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man. The violent motion of the vessel prevents their keeping their legs, and their fears drive them out of all power to use their brains, and therefore they look like intoxicated men.

And are at their wit's end. What more can they do? They have used every expedient known to navigation, but the ship is so strained and beaten about that they know not how to keep her afloat.

Here too the spiritual mariner's log agrees with that of the sailor on the sea. We have staggered frightfully! We could stand to nothing and hold by nothing. We knew not what to do, and could have done nothing if we had known it. We were as men distracted, and felt as if destruction itself would be better than our horrible state of suspense. As for wit and wisdom, they were clean washed out of us, we felt ourselves to be at a nonplus altogether.

HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS

Verse 27. The awakened sinner staggered and nonplussed.

EXPOSITION

Verse 28. Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble. Though at their wit's end, they had wit enough to pray; their heart was melted, and it ran out in cries for help. This was well and ended well, for it is written,

And he brought them out of their distresses. Prayer is good in a storm. We may pray staggering and reeling, and pray when we are at our wit's end. God will hear us amid the thunder and answer us out of the storm. He brought their distresses upon the mariners, and therefore they did well to turn to him for the removal of them; nor did they look in vain.

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

Verse 28. They cry unto the LORD. His attributes are much honoured in calling upon him, especially in times of danger and distresses.

Verse 28. Then they cry. Tempestuous storms and deadly dangers have brought those upon their knees, that would never had bent in a calm: "Then they cry." If any one would know at what time the sailors take up the duty of prayer, let me say it is when death stares them in the face. If ever you see the heavens veiled in sable blackness, the clouds flying, and the winds roaring under them; you may conclude that some of them (though God knows but few) are at prayer, yea, hard at it with their God. But never believe it that there is any prayer amongst them when the skies are calm, the winds down, and the seas smooth. David tells you not of their praying in good and comfortable weather, but that it is in time of storms, for I believe that neither he nor I ever saw many of them on that strain ...

God hears oftener from an afflicted people, than he either does or can from a people that are at ease, quiet, and out of danger. Then they cry. The prodigal son was very high, and resolved never to return till brought low by pinching and nipping afflictions, then his father had some tidings of him. Hagar was proud in Abraham's house, but humbled in the wilderness. Jonah was asleep in the ship, but awake and at prayer in the whale's belly, Jonah 2:1. Manasses lived in Jerusalem like a libertine, but when bound in chains at Babel, his heart was turned to the Lord, 2 Chronicles 33:11-12. Corporal diseases forced many under the gospel to come to Christ, whereas others that enjoyed bodily health would not acknowledge him. One would think that the Lord would abhor to hear those prayers that are made only out of the fear of danger, and not out of the love, reality, and sincerity of the heart. If there had not been so many miseries of blindness, lameness, palsies, fevers, etc., in the days of Christ, there would not have been that flocking after him. -- Daniel Pell.

Verse 28. Then they cry unto the LORD. "Then", if ever: hence that speech of one, Qui nescit orare, discat navigare, He that cannot pray, let him go to sea, and there he will learn. --John Trapp.

Verse 28. Then they cry, etc. Gods of the sea and skies (for what resource have I but prayer?) abstain from rending asunder the joints of our shattered bark. --Ovid.

EXPOSITION

Verse 29. He maketh the storm a calm. He reveals his power in the sudden and marvellous transformations which occur at his bidding. He commanded the storm and now he ordains a calm: God is in all natural phenomena, and we do well to recognise his working.

So that the waves thereof are still. They bow in silence at his feet. Where huge billows leaped aloft there is scarce a ripple to be seen. When God makes peace it is peace indeed, the peace of God which passeth all understanding. He can in an instant change the condition of a man's mind, so that it shall seem an absolute miracle to him that he has passed so suddenly from hurricane to calm. O that the Lord would thus work in the reader, should his heart be storm beaten with outward troubles or inward fears. Lord, say the word and peace will come at once.

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

Verse 29. He maketh the storm a calm, etc. The image is this. Mankind before they are redeemed are like a ship in a stormy sea, agitated with passions, tossed up and down with cares, and so blown about with various temptations, that they are never at rest. This is their calmest state in the smiling day of smooth prosperity: but afflictions will come, the afflictions of sin and Satan, and the world will raise a violent storm, which all the wit and strength of man cannot escape. He will soon be swallowed up of the devouring waves: unless that same God who created the sea speak to it, "Peace, be still." We are all in the same situation the apostles were, when they were alone in the evening in the midst of the sea, and the wind and the waves were contrary; against which they toiled rowing in vain, until Christ came to them walking upon the sea, and commanded the winds to cease and the waves to be still. Upon which there was a great calm; for they knew his voice, who had spoken them into being, and they obeyed. His word is almighty to compose and still the raging war of the most furious elements. And he is as almighty in the spiritual world, as he is in the natural. Into whatever soul he enters, he commands all the jarring passions to be still, and there is indeed a blessed calm. O may the Almighty Saviour speak thus unto you all, that you may sail on a smooth unruffled sea, until you arrive safe at the desired haven of eternal rest! --William Romaine.

Verse 29. If the sailor can do nothing so wise and oftentimes indeed can do nothing else than trust in the Lord, so is it with us in the storms of life. Like the mariner, we must use lawful means for our protection; but what are means without the divine blessing? -- William S. Plumer.

EXPOSITION

Verse 30. Then are they glad because they be quiet. No one can appreciate this verse unless he has been in a storm at sea. No music can be sweeter than the rattling of the chain as the shipmen let down the anchor; and no place seems more desirable than the little cove, or the wide bay, in which the ship rests in peace.

So he bringeth them unto their desired haven. The rougher the voyage the more the mariners long for port, and heaven becomes more and more "a desired haven", as our trials multiply. By storms and by favourable breezes, though tempest and fair weather, the great Pilot and Ruler of the sea brings mariners to port, and his people to heaven. HE must have the glory of the successful voyage of time, and when we are moored in the river of life above we shall take care that his praises are not forgotten. We should long ago have been wrecked if it had not been for his preserving hand, and our only hope of outliving the storms of the future is based upon his wisdom, faithfulness and power. Our heavenly haven shall ring with shouts of grateful joy when once we reach its blessed shore.

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

Verse 30. Desired haven. At such a time as this sweet April morning, indeed, a breakwater like this (of Portland) may seem of little value, when the waves of the ocean only just suffice to break its face into gems of changing brilliance, and to make whispering music; while vessels of all sizes, like those whose clustering masts we see yonder under the promontory, ride with perfect security in the open road. But in the fierce gales of November or March, when the shrieking blasts drive furiously up the Channel, and the huge mountain billows, green and white, open threatening graves on every side, how welcome would be a safe harbour, easy of access, and placed at a part of the coast which else would be unsheltered for many leagues on either side! Blessed be God for the gift of his beloved Son, the only Harbour of Refuge for poor tempest tossed sinners! We may think lightly of it now, but in the coming day of gloom and wrath, when "the rain descends, and the floods come, and the winds blow", they only will escape who are sheltered there! --Philip Henry Gosse, in "The Aquarium", 1856.

EXPOSITION

Verse 31. Oh that men would praise the Loud for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! Let the sea sound forth Jehovah's praises because of his delivering grace. As the sailor touches the shore let him lift the solemn hymn to heaven, and let others who see him rescued from the jaws of death unite in his thanksgiving.

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

Verse 31. Oh. This verse seems to include the ardent earnestness of the psalmist's spirit, that seamen would be much in thankfulness, and much and frequent in praising of the Lord their deliverer out of all their distresses. "Oh", seems he to say, that I could put men upon this duty, it would be more comfortable to me, seems the psalmist to say, to find such a principle in the hearts of those that are employed in the great waters, than any one thing in the world again whatsoever. "Oh" is but a little word consisting of two letters, but no word that ever man utters with his tongue comes with that force and affection from the heart as this doth. "Oh" is a word of the highest expression, a word when a man can say no more. This interjection oftentimes starts out of the heart upon a sudden from some unexpected conception, or admiration, or other. -- Daniel Pell.

EXPOSITION

Verse 32. Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people. Thanks for such mercies should be given in public in the place where men congregate for worship.

And praise him in the assembly of the elders. The praise should be presented with great solemnity in the presence of men of years, experience, and influence. High and weighty service should be rendered for great and distinguished favours, and therefore let the sacrifice be presented with due decorum and with grave seriousness. Often when men hear of a narrow escape from shipwreck they pass over the matter with a careless remark about good luck, but it should never be thus jested with.

When a heart has been in great spiritual storms and has at last found peace, there will follow as a duty and a privilege the acknowledgment of the Lord's mercy before his people, and it is well that this should be done in the presence of those who hold office in the church, and who from their riper years are better able to appreciate the testimony.