Psalm 107:20

He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(20) He sent His word.—In history (see Psalm 105:19), as in the natural world (Psalm 147:18), God’s word is His messenger. (Comp. Isaiah 55:10-11.)

Destructions.—This follows the LXX., who derive as in Psalm 103:4. A better derivation, however, gives “pits,” either with metaphorical allusion to the “depths” of suffering, or literally, of the “graves” to which the sufferers had drawn near.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

107:17-22 If we knew no sin, we should know no sickness. Sinners are fools. They hurt their bodily health by intemperance, and endanger their lives by indulging their appetites. This their way is their folly. The weakness of the body is the effect of sickness. It is by the power and mercy of God that we are recovered from sickness, and it is our duty to be thankful. All Christ's miraculous cures were emblems of his healing diseases of the soul. It is also to be applied to the spiritual cures which the Spirit of grace works. He sends his word, and heals souls; convinces, converts them, makes them holy, and all by the word. Even in common cases of recovery from sickness, God in his providence speaks, and it is done; by his word and Spirit the soul is restored to health and holiness.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

He sent his word, and healed them - He did it by a word; it was necessary for him merely to give a command, and the disease left them. So it was in the life of the Saviour, who often healed the sick by a "word" Matthew 8:8; Luke 7:7; and so now restoration from disease often seems to be accomplished as if some word had been spoken by one who had power, commanding the disease to depart. In all cases, also, whatever means may be used, healing power comes from God, and is under his control. Compare Psalm 30:2.

And delivered them from their destructions - From what would have destroyed them, if it had not been checked and removed.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

20. sent his word—that is, put forth His power.

their destructions—that is, that which threatened them. To the chorus is added the mode of giving thanks, by a sacrifice and joyful singing (Ps 50:14).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

His word; his command, or his blessing, which came with power.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

He sent his word, and healed them,.... It was his will and pleasure they should be healed, and accordingly they were; he issued his orders for the removal of the affliction, and it was done; diseases are his servants, which come and go at his command; so Christ, in the days of his flesh, healed by speaking a word, Matthew 8:3. This is true of Christ the essential Word, who was sent in the fulness of time, and was made flesh and dwelt among men, and went about healing all manner of diseases among the people; and who is also the physician of souls who came with healing in his wings; that is, with pardon of sin, for which his blood was shed: he is the only physician, the skilful, universal, and infallible one, and does all freely, and in a most marvellous manner, by his stripes, blood and wounds, and by an application of these to diseased persons sensible of their case. It may also be applied to the word of the Gospel; the law is the means of wounding, it is the killing letter; the Gospel is the means of healing, the doctrines of it are the leaves of the tree of life, which are for the healing of the nations; it is the doctrine of remission of sins by the blood of Christ, and by it Christ speaks peace and pardon to wounded consciences.

And delivered them from their destructions; from the destruction of the body, of the beauty and strength of it by diseases; restoring to health is a redeeming of the life from destruction; from the grave, the pit of corruption and destruction, so called because in it bodies corrupt, putrefy, and are destroyed by worms; and such who are savingly convinced of sin, and blessed with pardoning grace and mercy, are delivered from the everlasting destruction of body and soul in hell.

Geneva Study Bible

{h} He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their {i} destructions.

(h) By healing them he declares his good will toward them.

(i) Meaning their diseases, which had almost brought them to the grave and corruption.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

20. He sent &c.] R.V. sendeth … healeth … delivereth. Jehovah’s word is here almost personified as a delivering angel. It is His messenger (Psalm 147:15; Psalm 147:18), which performs His will (Isaiah 55:11; cp. Psalm 9:8). It is His instrument in His dealings with men (Psalm 105:19) as well as in the work of creation (Psalm 33:6). Such passages prepare the way for the use in the Targums of the periphrasis ‘the Word of Jehovah’ (Mçmrâ or Dibbûrâ) for Jehovah in His intercourse with men; and for the fuller revelation of the personal Word, the Logos (John 1:1). In connexion with this thought, it should be noted that in Job 33:23 the restoration of the sick man to health of mind and body is attributed to the intervention of “an angel, an interpreter” (or mediator).

from their destructions] Lit. pitfalls (Lamentations 4:20); the graves into which they had all but fallen. Cp. Job 33:18; Job 33:22; Job 33:24; Job 33:28; Psalm 103:4.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 20. - He sent his word. and healed them; rather, he sends Ms word, and heals them (see the Revised Version). The "word" intended may be a message sent by a human messenger, like the "word" sent to Hezekiah in. his sickness (2 Kings 20:4; Isaiah 38:4); or it may be a thought suggested to the mind either directly by God, or by an angel, like that spoken of in Job 33:23, 24; or, lastly, it may be the actual Word of God (John 1:1), the Son, sent by the Father. But this last sense can scarcely have been in the writer's mind. And delivered them from their destructions; or, "from their grave-pits" (Kay, Cheyne). The word used occurs only here and in Lain. 4:20, where it is translated "pits." Psalm 107:20

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Others were brought to the brink of the grave by severe sickness; but when they draw nigh in earnest prayer to Him who appointed that they should suffer thus on account of their sins, He became their Saviour. אויל (cf. e.g., Job 5:3), like נבל (vid., Psalm 14:1), is also an ethical notion, and not confined to the idea of defective intellect merely. It is one who insanely lives only for the passing hour, and ruins health, calling, family, and in short himself and everything belonging to him. Those who were thus minded, the poet begins by saying, were obliged to suffer by reason of (in consequence of) their wicked course of life. The cause of their days of pain and sorrow is placed first by way of emphasis; and because it has a meaning that is related to the past יתענּוּ thereby comes all the more easily to express that which took place simultaneously in the past. The Hithpa. in 1 Kings 2:26 signifies to suffer willingly or intentionally; here: to be obliged to submit to suffering against one's will. Hengstenberg, for example, construes it differently: "Fools because of their walk in transgression (more than 'because of their transgression'), and those who because of their iniquities were afflicted - all food," etc. But מן beside יתענּוּ has the assumption in its favour of being an affirmation of the cause of the affliction. In Psalm 107:18 the poet has the Book of Job (Job 33:20, Job 33:22) before his eye. And in connection with Psalm 107:20, ἀπέστειλεν τὸν λόγον αὐτοῦ καὶ ἰάσατο αὐτοὺς (lxx), no passage of the Old Testament is more vividly recalled to one's mind than Psalm 105:19, even more than Psalm 147:18; because here, as in Psalm 105:19, it treats of the intervention of divine acts within the sphere of human history, and not of the intervention of divine operations within the sphere of the natural world. In the natural world and in history the word (דּבר) is God's messenger (Psalm 105:19, cf. Isaiah 55:10.), and appears here as a mediator of the divine healing. Here, as in Job 33:23., the fundamental fact of the New Testament is announced, which Theodoret on this passage expresses in words: Ὁ Θεὸς Λόγος ἐνανθρωπήσας καὶ ἀποσταλεὶς ὡς ἄνθρωπος τὰ παντοδαπὰ τῶν ψυχῶν ἰάσατο τραύματα καὶ τοὺς διαφθαρέντας ἀνέῤῥωσε λογισμούς. The lxx goes on to render it: καὶ ἐῤῥύσατο αὐτοὺς ἐκ τῶν διαφθορῶν αὐτῶν, inasmuch as the translators derive שׁחיתותם from שׁחיתה (Daniel 6:5), and this, as שׁחת elsewhere (vid., Psalm 16:10), from שׁחת, διαφθείρειν, which is approved by Hitzig. But Lamentations 4:20 is against this. From שׁחה is formed a noun שׁחוּת (שׁחוּת) in the signification a hollow place (Proverbs 28:10), the collateral form of which, שׁחית (שׁחית), is inflected like חנית, plur. חניתות with a retention of the substantival termination. The "pits" are the deep afflictions into which they were plunged, and out of which God caused them to escape. The suffix of וירפאם avails also for ימלּט, as in Genesis 27:5; Genesis 30:31; Psalm 139:1; Isaiah 46:5.