Illuminated Coptic sanctuary banner

Psalm 107 (LXX 106) - Give Thanks to the Lord, for He Is Good

16 min read

Jump to chapter (153)
PsalmsSelect a chapter to jump directly
Intro123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142434445464748495051525354555657585960616263646566676869707172737475767778798081828384858687888990919293949596979899100101102103104105106107108109110111112113114115116117118119120121122123124125126127128129130131132133134135136137138139140141142143144145146147148149150151•
Audio narrationAlso in your podcast app

This narration is from a previous version of the study. The text on this page is current.

Psalm 107 opens Book V of the Psalter with a great litany of redemption. The redeemed are gathered from east and west and north and south. Then four pictures of distress come before us: wanderers without a home, prisoners in darkness, the sick brought low through iniquity, and mariners in a storm. Each scene moves from affliction to a cry, from deliverance to thanksgiving. St Augustine says the Psalm was set before the people of God so “that it might know itself therein as in a mirror.”1

The mirror does not flatten every trouble into the same story. The Lord meets people in different kinds of need, and the redeemed are invited to recognize and speak of His mercy. Christians hear in this hymn the care of Christ, who gathers His Church, nourishes the hungry, heals and leads His people toward life in Him.

Psalm 107 (LXX 106) - Give Thanks to the Lord, for He Is Good

Psalm Metadata

FieldNotes
NKJV / Masoretic numberingPsalm 107
Septuagint / Coptic numberingPsalm 106
Accepted authorNo human author is named in the superscription, which reads Alleluia.
Period in author’s lifeNo precise personal event is given; the Psalm is a communal thanksgiving, likely post-exilic in shape, at the head of Book V.
Christ prophecy statusTypological and ecclesial. The redeeming, gathering, healing, and storm-stilling work of God reaches its fullest light in Christ and His Church.
Coptic lectionary/service useDocumented Saturday of the second week of the Holy Fifty Days Liturgy selects Brenton LXX 106:20 and 106:22; its Gospel is John 6:1-14. A retained Funeral of Priests sequence before the Pauline selects 106:31-32, 41b, and 42-43, not the whole of verse 41.
Numbering issueThe embedded text is Brenton LXX Psalm 106. The documented Liturgy prints Psalm 107:20 and Psalm 107:22, matching Brenton 106:20 and 106:22, not the intervening verse. The Funeral of Priests prints 107:31, 32, 41, 42, 43 but selects Brenton 106:31-32, 41b, and 42-43.

Historical and Scriptural Context

Psalm 107 stands at the threshold of the final book of the Psalter. The preceding Psalm asks God to gather His people from the nations; here those gathered are called to give thanks (Psalm 106:47, LXX Psalm 105:47). Exile and restoration offer a plausible setting for the hymn, though the Psalm does not name a precise date or event of composition.

Augustine hears the gathering as the voice of the Church throughout the world. His biblical witness reads “sea” where the Brenton text displayed here reads “south”; his image of a people gathered from every direction does not require us to change this edition.2 The four scenes that follow invite the Church to remember God’s mercy without assuming that every sufferer has arrived at distress in the same way.

Geographical Significance ⛰️

The Psalm moves through wilderness, city, prison-darkness, sickness, sea, haven, desert, fruitful land, and settled habitation. These are not merely symbols. The wanderers need a road, the hungry need food, and the sailors need a safe harbor. The same images also give Christians words for the journey of faith and for the hope of a home with God.

🕯️ Light from the Word

Psalm 106:1-3, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good

106:1 Alleluia. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his mercy endures for ever. 106:2 Let them say so who have been redeemed by the Lord, whom he has redeemed from the hand of the enemy; 106:3 and gathered them out of the countries, from the east, and west, and north, and south.

The Psalm begins with God’s goodness, then gives the redeemed a voice: let them say so. They have not only escaped an enemy; they have been gathered from scattered places into a people who can remember together. Thanksgiving here is more than a private feeling. It is a truthful acknowledgment of mercy that others can hear and share.

Augustine sees the gathering as embracing the Church across the world. A person who has known mercy need not invent a dramatic story to join this praise. The Psalm invites the gathered people to notice the Lord’s help and to give Him thanks.

Psalm 106:4-9, they wandered in the wilderness

106:4 They wandered in the wilderness in a dry land; they found no way to a city of habitation. 106:5 Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. 106:6 Then they cried to the Lord in their affliction, and he delivered them out of their distresses. 106:7 And he guided them into a straight path, that they might go to a city of habitation. 106:8 Let them acknowledge to the Lord his mercies, and his wonderful works to the children of men. 106:9 For he satisfies the empty soul, and fills the hungry soul with good things,

The wanderers lack both a destination they can reach and the strength to reach it. Hunger and thirst make the danger bodily and immediate. When they cry out, God does not simply point toward a city: He guides them on the road to a place where they may live.

Augustine follows the movement from need to prayer, guidance and nourishment. God’s help, he says, draws people to love their Helper.3 We too can receive the city as an image of settled life with God, our lasting home. The Gospel’s images of Christ as the Way and the Bread of life deepen that hope (John 14:6; John 6:35), without making the wanderers’ actual hunger and thirst unimportant.

Psalm 106:10-16, them that sit in darkness and the shadow of death

106:10 even them that sit in darkness and the shadow of death, fettered in poverty and iron; 106:11 because they rebelled against the words of God, and provoked the counsel of the Most High. 106:12 So their heart was brought low with troubles; they were weak, and there was no helper. 106:13 Then they cried to the Lord in their affliction, and he saved them out of their distresses. 106:14 And he brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and broke their bonds asunder. 106:15 Let them acknowledge to the Lord his mercies, and his wonders to the children of men. 106:16 For he broke to pieces the brazen gates, and crushed the iron bars.

In Brenton’s text the sentence begun in verse 9 continues into verse 10: among those whom God satisfies are people sitting in darkness. This particular scene names rebellion against God’s words. Its chains are not merely an unfortunate mood; the Psalm takes seriously the weight of resisting God. It does not, however, make innocent imprisonment or involuntary mental darkness proof of rebellion. We must not use these captives’ story to accuse someone else who suffers.

Even here, rebellion is not the end of the story. When the captives cry out, the Lord hears and breaks their bonds. Augustine sees in the shattered gates the power of divine help where self-reliance has failed.4 Christians may also hear a Paschal hope: Christ enters death and breaks its power. That hope is not a promise that every physical prison or affliction will end immediately.

Psalm 106:17-22, he sent his word, and healed them

106:17 He helped them out of the way of their iniquity; for they were brought low because of their iniquities. 106:18 Their soul abhorred all meat; and they drew near to the gates of death. 106:19 Then they cried to the Lord in their affliction, and he saved them out of their distresses. 106:20 He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them out of their destructions. 106:21 Let them acknowledge to the Lord his mercies, and his wonderful works to the children of men. 106:22 And let them offer to him the sacrifice of praise, and proclaim his works with exultation.

Verse 17 says both that these people were brought low because of their iniquities and that God helped them out of the way of their iniquity. His help reaches them in their distress and leads them away from its named cause. Verse 18 shows how grave their condition has become: even food is repellent, and they are near death.

Augustine applies the loss of appetite to weariness toward what nourishes the soul: “It is a sort of corruption of the mind to loathe what is sweet.”5 He also warns those who delight in God’s word not to take credit for their appetite or despise those who struggle. Spiritual appetite is a gift, not a reason for pride.

There is a difference between knowingly refusing what draws us toward God and being unable to feel delight in prayer or the sacraments. Illness, depression, trauma, exhaustion and desolation are not proof of rebellion or spiritual guilt. No one should be shamed for such suffering. Patient prayer, trusted pastoral support and appropriate medical or mental health care can belong together, without a promise of an instant cure.

The Psalm answers the cry with God’s healing word. Theodoret of Cyrus reads that word in the light of the Incarnation and the healing of souls.6 Christians can bring both repentance and woundedness to Christ, trusting His saving presence rather than attempting to heal themselves by force of feeling.

Psalm 106:23-32, they that go down to the sea in ships

106:23 They that go down to the sea in ships, doing business in many waters; 106:24 these men have seen the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep. 106:25 He speaks, and the stormy wind arises, and its waves are lifted up. 106:26 They go up to the heavens, and go down to the depths; their soul melts because of troubles. 106:27 They are troubled, they stagger as a drunkard, and all their wisdom is swallowed up. 106:28 Then they cry to the Lord in their affliction, and he brings them out of their distresses. 106:29 And he commands the storm, and it is calmed into a gentle breeze, and its waves are still. 106:30 And they are glad, because they are quiet; and he guides them to their desired haven. 106:31 Let them acknowledge to the Lord his mercies, and his wonderful works to the children of men. 106:32 Let them exalt him in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the seat of the elders.

The mariners are not faithless men; they are competent men. They know the sea, yet the waves rise beyond their ability to master them. The Psalm does not accuse them of the particular rebellion named in the prison scene. It gives us a literal storm, a cry for help, a quiet sea and the gladness of reaching the desired haven.

God’s word both raises the storm in the poem and calms it. The sailors’ skill is real, but it is not absolute mastery. Trusting God does not mean refusing ordinary skill or the help of others. It means that, even when our best counsel reaches its limits, we may still call on Him.

Augustine also hears in the storm the seditions and dissensions that trouble a community, when the counsels of those steering and those aboard seem to fail.7 Alongside the sailors’ rescue, Christians remember the Lord who calmed the sea in the Gospel. The passage ends not with silent relief but with praise in the congregation: mercy received becomes a gift to share.

Psalm 106:33-43, who is wise, and will observe these things

106:33 He turns rivers into a desert, and streams of water into a dry land; 106:34 a fruitful land into saltness, for the wickedness of them that dwell in it. 106:35 He turns a wilderness into pools of water, and a dry land into streams of water. 106:36 And there he causes the hungry to dwell, and they establish for themselves cities of habitation. 106:37 And they sow fields, and plant vineyards, and they yield fruit of increase. 106:38 And he blesses them, and they multiply exceedingly, and he diminishes not the number of their cattle. 106:39 Again they become few, and are brought low, by the pressure of evils and pain. 106:40 Contempt is poured upon their princes, and he causes them to wander in a desert and trackless land. 106:41 But he helps the poor out of poverty, and makes him families as a flock. 106:42 The upright shall see and rejoice; and all iniquity shall stop her mouth. 106:43 Who is wise, and will observe these things, and understand the mercies of the Lord?

The final movement widens the view. Verse 34 names real judgment for the wickedness of a land’s inhabitants. Then the wilderness receives water, and the hungry have a place to settle, sow fields and plant vineyards. Verse 41 names the poor and God’s help out of poverty. These are images of providence, but they are also reminders that food, water, land and households matter to the Lord.

The Psalm does not give us a formula for explaining every loss. Verse 39 speaks of the pressure of evils and pain without naming a fresh cause in personal guilt. We should neither call every hardship punishment nor treat prosperity as proof of virtue. The passage asks for reverent attention to God’s mercy, not confident diagnoses of another person’s suffering.

Augustine reads the becoming few as a warning about heresy and schism, and sees the many households as an image of the one Church made up of many churches.8 Communion is a gift, not immunity for abuse. Seeking safety from an abusive person or situation is not automatically schism, and harm must not be hidden in the name of unity.

The closing question invites the wise to observe the mercies of the Lord, not to congratulate themselves on their own insight. We learn to notice what God gives, to praise Him, and to care for those whose need is before us.

The Church’s Voice in Worship 📖

On May 2, 2020, the Saturday of the second week of the Holy Fifty Days, the Liturgy printed Psalm 107:20 and Psalm 107:22, corresponding to Brenton LXX 106:20 and 106:22, not the intervening verse. The selected verses speak of the healing word and the offering of praise. The Gospel at that same Liturgy was John 6:1-14, where Christ gives thanks and feeds the multitude. Heard together, the readings invite thanksgiving to the Lord who heals and provides; they do not mean that the whole Psalm was read at that service.9

A Coptic Reader Funeral of Priests record retained on October 7, 2026, prints Psalm 107:31, 32, 41, 42, 43 in a Psalm sequence before the Pauline. Its selected words correspond to LXX 106:31-32, 41b and 42-43. The image of families like a flock is present; the opening of verse 41 about helping the poor out of poverty is not part of this selection. The sequence brings thanksgiving and remembrance of God’s mercy into a service of mourning. Matthew 25:14-23 occurs later in the rite, not as the direct Gospel pairing for this Psalm sequence.10

Iconography Connection 🖼️

Psalm 107 connects naturally with icons of Christ calming the storm, the Good Shepherd gathering the lost, and the Resurrection as the final liberation from darkness and death. These images invite us to contemplate the Lord who gathers, saves and leads His people toward life.

Spiritual Fruit 🍇

  1. Remember and give thanks. Name a mercy you have received, and, when fitting, share it so that another person may take courage.
  2. Do not hide your hunger. Bring your need to God and notice someone who needs food, water or a place of safety.
  3. Come honestly to Christ. Confess deliberate refusal; if prayer feels empty through illness or distress, seek patience and suitable care rather than presuming guilt.
  4. Call on the Lord in the storm. Use the skills and help available to you without expecting them to give you mastery over everything.
  5. Observe mercy with humility. Resist explaining another person’s loss as punishment, and look for a concrete way to help someone in need.

Footnotes

  1. Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 107, §1. ↩ ↩2

  2. Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 107, §3. ↩

  3. Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 107, §4. ↩

  4. Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 107, §5. ↩

  5. Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 107, §6. ↩

  6. Theodoret of Cyrus, Commentary on the Psalms, Psalm 107, §10, p. 192. ↩

  7. Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 107, §7. ↩

  8. Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 107, §9. ↩

  9. CopticChurch.net, readings for May 2, 2020, Liturgy, Psalm and Gospel. ↩

  10. Coptic Reader, Funeral of Priests, Psalm sequence before the Pauline, retained October 7, 2026; Coptic Reader app, general app link. ↩

Reading statusLoading your browser-local progress
Saved only in this browser
Referenced Fathers:

Created: | Updated:

Related Studies & References

Referenced in Other Studies