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In Praise of God's Goodness
Psalm 107_1_9
Good News Translation (GNT)
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1 "Give thanks to the Lord, because he is good;
his love is eternal!"
2 Repeat these words in praise to the Lord, all
you whom he has saved. He has rescued
you from your enemies
3 and has brought you back from foreign
countries, from east and west, from north
and south.(a)
4 Some wandered in the trackless desert and
could not find their way to a city to live in.
5 They were hungry and thirsty and had given up
all hope.
6 Then in their trouble they called to the Lord,
and he saved them from their distress.
7 He led them by a straight road to a city where
they could live.
8 They must thank the Lord for his constant love,
for the wonderful things he did for them.
9 He satisfies those who are thirsty and fills the
hungry with good things.
Footnotes
Psalm 107:3 Probable text south;
Hebrew the Mediterranean Sea
(meaning "west").
Commentary taken from 'word-on-the-web'
supplied by Scripture Union
'In Praise of God's Goodness'
Psalm 107:1-9
The psalmist may be referring
to specific experiences of
God's people in exile in Babylon
or simply tragedies that happen
in any place and at any time.
The point is that if,
in answer to a cry for help,
God comes to the rescue,
the right response is to thank him.
This is a psalm of God's love
and faithfulness in the most
dire and seemingly
hopeless circumstances.
With image mounting upon image,
the psalmist graphically depicts
the anguish and distress that
despairing people down through the
ages have always felt,
especially when they know that
their agony may be self-inflicted.
They are lost, hungry and
thirsty and imprisoned.
They are at their wits' end.
They sit in the deepest gloom,
close to the gates of death,
life itself ebbing away.
Yet all this dark despair is
punctuated by glorious refrains
of the faithfulness of God.
The key word is that wonderful
Hebrew word 'hesed'.
This is the supreme attribute of God,
standing eternally above and
beyond all God's other attributes
of justice, knowledge and power.
It flows through the Scriptures,
leaving Bible translators feeling
inadequate to find words to
communicate its profound meaning.
English translators through the
centuries have struggled to
express its depths.
No single English Bible always
translates 'hesed' the same way.
Words like faithfulness, goodness,
steadfastness, loving kindness,
mercy, constancy and
unfailing love have all
been used but nowhere
do they quite suffice.
The power of this psalm lies
in its universality.
We may not have experienced
all these feelings, but in the
narratives of our lives we have all
felt some of them.
We have all felt lost, lonely
or trapped. We know what it is to
find life directionless,
threatening or painful.
When, at the end, all the stanzas
of our life can be written,
may they be punctuated by refrains
of gratitude to God for his
immeasurable grace towards us.
Other versions are available here
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