Psalms 107:33 - Meaning and Application

The psalmist has already praised God for the way he brings relief to people in distress. Here he also gives God the glory for the changes of providence, those striking shifts God sometimes makes in human affairs.

He begins with examples of these changes. One example is that fertile land can become barren, and barren land can become fertile. A great part of life’s comfort depends on the land where we live. Human sin has often spoiled the fruitfulness of the soil and made it useless (Psalm 107:33-34). Land watered by rivers can be turned into a wilderness. Ground that once had springs can lose even its streams and become dry, sandy soil that can produce nothing of value. Many fruitful lands are turned into salt waste, not mainly by natural causes, but by God’s just judgment on the wicked who live there, as happened to the valley of Sodom. If the land is bad, it is often because the people are bad. The ground is rightly made unfruitful for those who do not bring forth fruit for God, but instead serve Baal with their grain and wine.

Yet God’s goodness has often also healed barren land and turned a wilderness into flowing springs (Psalm 107:35). Canaan, once famous for its fruitfulness, is now said to be a worthless and fruitless place, just as Moses foretold (Deuteronomy 29:23). By contrast, lands that were once uncultivated deserts have been made full of good things. Let the settlements in America, compared with the ruins of many once-famous lands in Asia and Europe, help explain this.

A second example is that needy families are raised up and enriched, while prosperous families are brought low and decline. Looking around the world, we see many who have risen greatly from small beginnings, with ancestors who were poor and unnoticed (Psalm 107:36-38). Those who were hungry are made to live in fruitful lands. There they settle down, take root, and build a city for themselves and their children. God puts good land into their hands, and they build on it. Cities often begin with growing families. But land is not enough by itself. People must also prepare a place to live, and they must sow fields and plant vineyards (Psalm 107:37), because even a king depends on the field for his support.

Still, even fertile fields will not produce a harvest unless they are sown, and vineyards will not exist unless they are planted. Human work must go along with God’s blessing, and then God’s blessing crowns human work. The richness of the soil should encourage diligence, because, as a rule, the hand of the diligent, with God’s blessing, makes rich (Psalm 107:38). God also blesses them so that, in a short time, they multiply greatly, and he does not let their cattle diminish. Just as at the beginning of creation, so still now, the earth and the creatures increase by God’s blessing (Genesis 1:22). We depend on him for the increase of cattle as much as for the increase of crops. If God were to allow it, cattle would fail in many ways, and people would soon suffer from it.

But many who rise in this way also fall just as suddenly and are brought low again (Psalm 107:39). Through hard providences, they are reduced and end their days as low as they began them, or their children after them lose as fast as they gained. They scatter what they once gathered. Worldly wealth is unstable. Often those who have been filled with it become so careless and absorbed in it that they lose it before they know what has happened. That is why Scripture calls it deceitful riches and the wealth of unrighteousness. God has many ways of making people poor. He can do it through oppression, affliction, and sorrow, as he did when he humbled Job.

Another example is that those who were high and great in the world are brought down, and those who were low and despised are lifted to honor (Psalm 107:40-41). Princes are sometimes dethroned and reduced to hardship. God pours contempt on them, even among the very people who once admired them. Those who lift themselves up, God brings low. To do that, he can leave them confused and unable to think clearly. He makes them wander in a wilderness where there is no road. He frustrates the plans by which they hoped to support their power and glory, and he drives them into helpless confusion, so they do not know which way to turn. This was also noted in Job 12:24-25.

At the same time, God raises the poor to positions of honor (Psalm 107:41). He lifts them from the dust to a throne of glory (1 Samuel 2:8; Psalm 113:7-8). Those who were troubled and trampled on are not only delivered, but set above the reach of their troubles and above their enemies. They are given rule over those who once ruled over them. Their honor is increased, and their place is made secure, by the many children God gives them. He makes their families as numerous as a flock of sheep, and sheep are useful, social, gentle, and peaceful. The same God who sends them food also sends them mouths. Happy is the man whose quiver is full of arrows, for he will not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies at the gate (Psalm 127:5). We should acknowledge God both when he sets up families and when he makes them strong.

So let no prince be envied, and let no poor person be despised, because God has many ways to change the condition of both.

These surprising turns in providence are useful in several ways. They comfort the righteous, who see them and rejoice (Psalm 107:42). They delight in the way God displays his power and makes his rule over human beings plain. It is a great comfort to a good person to see how God governs people, as a potter works with clay, so as to accomplish his own purposes through them. It is also a comfort to see humble virtue lifted up and proud ungodliness brought down to the dust, and to see clearly that there is indeed a God who judges in the earth.

These turns also silence sinners. Every kind of sin will be stopped in its tracks. They prove the foolishness of atheists and of those who deny God’s providence, that is, his wise care and rule over all things. Since practical atheism lies at the root of all sin, this also silences sin itself. When sinners see how their punishment fits their sin, and how justly God takes away the gifts they abused, they will have nothing to say for themselves. God will be shown to be right, and he will be proved innocent.

To show the goodness of God fully, the psalm says, “Whoever is wise and will observe these things, these different acts of divine providence, will understand the lovingkindness of the Lord” (Psalm 107:43). This gives us a worthy goal: to understand God’s lovingkindness rightly. In religion, it is very helpful to be sure of God’s goodness, to know it by experience, and to feel its weight in our hearts, so that his lovingkindness stays before our eyes (Psalm 26:3).

The psalm also points to the right way to reach this goal: we must carefully observe God’s providence, his wise rule over events. We should store these things in our hearts, pay attention to them, and keep them in mind (Luke 2:19). This is not a passing lesson, but something to remember and reflect on.

The psalm ends by calling this kind of attention wisdom. Whoever is wise should prove it by noticing God’s works and grow wiser through them. Careful attention to God’s dealings in life will do much to shape a mature Christian.