Psalm 107:30

Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

107:23-32 Let those who go to sea, consider and adore the Lord. Mariners have their business upon the tempestuous ocean, and there witness deliverances of which others cannot form an idea. How seasonable it is at such a time to pray! This may remind us of the terrors and distress of conscience many experience, and of those deep scenes of trouble which many pass through, in their Christian course. Yet, in answer to their cries, the Lord turns their storm into a calm, and causes their trials to end in gladness.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Then are they glad because they be quiet - Because the storm subsides, and they have the feeling of safety from danger.

So he bringeth them - Rather, "And he guides them."

Unto their desired haven - The word translated "haven" occurs nowhere else. By some it is rendered "shore," but the word "haven" or "port" seems best to express the sense of the passage: "the haven of their desire." No one can appreciate this fully who has not been long at sea, and who has not experienced the intense desire once more to see "land." Even then no one experiences it fully who has not some object there which he desires to see, or to accomplish. If his business is there, if it is his native land, if his father, mother, wife, or children are there, if it is the place of his father's sepulchre, and the place where he was born and reared, how intense becomes the desire to see that land once more. So God brings his people to rest in heaven - their haven, their home. After being tossed by the tempests of life, after encountering its storms and dangers, after the fear and agitation experienced, he stills the storms; the way becomes smooth and calm; the end of the voyage is serene; and death is like the ship smoothly gliding into port with its sails all set. The soul enters heaven - the desired haven - the port that was longed for; a safe haven, beyond all storms or tempests; an eternal home!

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

29-32. He maketh … calm—or, "to stand to stillness," or "in quiet." Instead of acts of temple-worship, those of the synagogue are here described, where the people with the

assembly—or session of elders, convened for reading, singing, prayer, and teaching.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Then are they glad because they be quiet,.... The mariners are glad that the waves are quiet, and they free from danger, and at ease and in repose themselves.

So he bringeth them unto their desired haven; the port, city, border or tract of land (q), they are bound to; which they desire to be at, and eagerly look out for, and rejoice when arrived at it. This is all the Lord's work in providence: mariners too often take it to themselves, as if it was owing to their own skill and management that they have brought home the ship safe to the appointed port; but it is owing to the secret guidance and protection of divine Providence, which should be acknowledged. The late Mr. Hussey (r) thinks, that all this is not to be understood of seamen and naval affairs in common, but is a prophecy of what should befall the disciples of Christ, when on shipboard with him; who are the persons that went "down to the sea of Galilee" in a ship;

whose business in the great waters was fishing; when, by the will of God, there came down a "stormy wind", which "lifted up the waves" of the sea, so that the ship in which they were was filled with them, and in danger of being sunk; when they went up and down, as here described, and reeled as they went along on the deck, to awake their Master their hearts melting, and they at their wit's end through fear, when they saw such wonders, what no common mariner ever did; the Godman and Mediator rising and in a majestic manner rebuked the winds and waves, and caused a calm, and so brought them to the country of the Gadarenes, whither they were bound; see Luke 8:23. But it may be applied, in a more spiritual manner, to the people of God in common who are embarked in the cause of Christ, and in a church state, comparable to a ship, of which Christ is the master, governor, and pilot; and who are sailing through the tempestuous sea of this world, and are tossed with tempests in it; and have business to do here, not only of a civil, but of a spiritual nature and who not only see the wondrous works of creation and providence, but of grace and redemption; the deep things of God, the mysteries of his grace and love: and who sometimes are covered with the billows and waves of affliction, and in the utmost distress; which are all under the direction and at the command of God, to whom they apply for relief; and he commands a calm in their breasts, and causes their afflictions to cease, which produce joy and gladness in them; and at last they are brought safe to heaven, their desired haven, which they are bound unto, are seeking after, and desirous of; and where they are at entire rest, brought hither by the Lord himself.

(q) Vid. Kimchii Sepher Shorash. rad. (r) Warning from the Winds, p. 21-26.

Geneva Study Bible

Then are they glad because they be {o} quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.

(o) Though before every drop seemed to fight one against the other, yet at his command they are as still as if they were frozen.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

30. because they be quiet] Because the waves are calmed. Cp. Jonah 1:11.

unto their desired haven] Lit. the haven, or possibly, the mart, of their desire. The word mâchôz, which occurs here only, is rendered harbour by the Ancient Versions, but in the Talmud it means town. The destination of the sailors, where they intend to dispose of their wares, is obviously meant. The R.V. has wisely restored Coverdale’s musical phrase, the haven where they would be.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 30. - Then are they glad because they be quiet; or, "because they be at rest," i.e. no longer tempest-tossed. So he bringeth them unto their desired haven; literally, the haven of their desire; i.e. the haven where they desire to be. Psalm 107:30

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Others have returned to tell of the perils of the sea. Without any allegory (Hengstenberg) it speaks of those who by reason of their calling traverse (which is expressed by ירד because the surface of the sea lies below the dry land which slopes off towards the coast) the sea in ships (read boŏnijoth without the article), and that not as fishermen, but (as Luther has correctly understood the choice of the word) in commercial enterprises. These have seen the works and wonders of God in the eddying deep, i.e., they have seen with their own eyes what God can do when in His anger He calls up the powers of nature, and on the other hand when He compassionately orders them back into their bounds. God's mandate (ויּאמר as in Psalm 105:31, Psalm 105:34) brought it to pass that a stormy wind arose (cf. עמד, Psalm 33:9), and it drove its (the sea's) waves on high, so that the seafarers at one time were tossed up to the sky and then hurled down again into deep abysses, and their soul melted בּרעה, in an evil, anxious mood, i.e., lost all its firmness. They turned about in a circle (יחוגּוּ( elc from חגג equals חוּג) and reeled after the manner of a drunken man; all their wisdom swallowed itself up, i.e., consumed itself within itself, came of itself to nought, just as Ovid, Trist. i. 1, says in connection with a similar description of a storm at sea: ambiguis ars stupet ipsa malis. The poet here writes under the influence of Isaiah 19:3, Isaiah 19:14. But at their importunate supplication God led them forth out of their distresses (Psalm 25:17). He turned the raging storm into a gentle blowing ( equals דּממה דּקּה, 1 Kings 19:12). הקים construed with ל here has the sense of transporting (carrying over) into another condition or state, as Apollinaris renders: αὐτίκα δ ̓ εἰς αὔρην προτέρην μετέθηκε θύελλαν. The suffix of גּלּיהם cannot refer to the מים רבּים in Psalm 107:23, which is so far removed; "their waves" are those with which they had to battle. These to their joy became calm (חשׁה) and were still (שׁתק as in Jonah 1:11), and God guided them ἐπὶ λιμένα θελήματος αὐτῶν (lxx). מחוז, a hapax-legomenon, from Arab. ḥâz (ḥwz), to shut in on all sides and to draw to one's self (root Arab. ḥw, gyravit, in gyrum egit), signifies a place enclosed round, therefore a haven, and first of all perhaps a creek, to use a northern word, a fiord. The verb שׁתק in relation to חשׁה is the stronger word, like יבשׁ in relation to חרם in the history of the Flood. Those who have been thus marvellously rescued are then called upon thankfully to praise God their Deliverer in the place where the national church assembles, and where the chiefs of the nation sit in council; therefore, as it seems, in the Temple and in the Forum.

(Note: In exact editions like Norzi, Heidenheim, and Baer's, before Psalm 107:23, Psalm 107:24, Psalm 107:25, Psalm 107:26, Psalm 107:27, Psalm 107:28, and Psalm 107:40 there stand reversed Nuns (נונין הפוכין, in the language of the Masora נונין מנזרות), as before Numbers 10:35 and between Numbers 10:36 and Numbers 11:1 (nine in all). Their signification is unknown.)

Now follow two more groups without the two beautiful and impressive refrains with which the four preceding groups are interspersed. The structure is less artistic, and the transitions here and there abrupt and awkward. One might say that these two groups are inferior to the rest, much as the speeches of Elihu are inferior to the rest of the Book of Job. That they are, however, nevertheless from the hand of the very same poet is at once seen from the continued dependence upon the Book of Job and Isaiah. Hengstenberg sees in Psalm 107:33-42 "the song with which they exalt the Lord in the assembly of the people and upon the seat of the elders." but the materia laudis is altogether different from that which is to be expected according to the preceding calls to praise. Nor is it any the more clear to us that Psalm 107:33. refer to the overthrow of Babylon, and Psalm 107:35. to the happy turn of affairs that took place simultaneously for Israel; Psalm 107:35 does not suit Canaan, and the expressions in Psalm 107:36. would be understood in too low a sense. No, the poet goes on further to illustrate the helpful government of God the just and gracious One, inasmuch as he has experiences in his mind in connection therewith, of which the dispersion of Israel in all places can sing and speak.