Context No. 2561 of 4322 · Psalms

Psalms 107:1-16: in context

1Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his loving kindness endures forever. 2Let the redeemed by the LORD say so, whom he has redeemed from the hand of the adversary, 3and gathered out of the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south. 4They wandered in the wilderness in a desert way. They found no city to live in. 5Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. 6Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses. 7He led them also by a straight way, that they might go to a city to live in. 8Let them praise the LORD for his loving kindness, for his wonderful deeds to the children of men! 9For he satisfies the longing soul. He fills the hungry soul with good. 10Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron, 11because they rebelled against the words of God, and condemned the counsel of the Most High. 12Therefore he brought down their heart with labor. They fell down, and there was no one to help. 13Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses. 14He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and broke away their chains. 15Let them praise the LORD for his loving kindness, for his wonderful deeds to the children of men! 16For he has broken the gates of bronze, and cut through bars of iron.

Psalm 107 opens with a summons: give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, and let the redeemed of the LORD say so. Then it tells their stories in turn, wanderers lost in the desert, hungry and fainting; prisoners bound in darkness and iron. In each case the same refrain: then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them, leading the lost to a city, breaking the prisoners' chains.

The instruction is to say so. God's deliverances are not meant to be kept as private memories; the redeemed are told to speak, to tell what he did. There is a reticence in many of us about naming the times God rescued us, as if it were too personal, or we fear it sounds boastful. But the psalm commands the opposite: let the redeemed say so, so that others hear that the God who satisfies the hungry and breaks the gates of bronze is real. A rescue kept silent helps no one. Testimony is how one person's deliverance becomes another person's hope.

Do I actually say so, telling of the times God delivered me, or do I keep his rescues to myself as if they were too private to name?

Sources

Psalm 107:2: Let the redeemed by the LORD say so, whom he has redeemed from the hand of the adversary.
Psalm 107:6: Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses.
Psalm 107:16: For he has broken the gates of bronze, and cut through bars of iron.