Psalm 107:35

He turneth the wilderness into a standing water, and dry ground into watersprings.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(35) Standing water.—Or, a pool of water. (See Isaiah 35:7; Isaiah 41:18-19; Isaiah 42:15.)

The dependence of this psalm on these passages in Isaiah is indubitable. But the images are employed in a different manner. The prophet only thinks of the joy of returning Israel (Psalm 107:39-41). But here the thought is that in the reverses of fortune, which even the chosen nation must be prepared for, God will intervene to protect and save. But the construction is very awkward, owing to the mode in which, in Psalm 107:40, two clauses from Job 12:21; Job 12:24 are introduced.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

107:33-43 What surprising changes are often made in the affairs of men! Let the present desolate state of Judea, and of other countries, explain this. If we look abroad in the world, we see many greatly increase, whose beginning was small. We see many who have thus suddenly risen, as suddenly brought to nothing. Worldly wealth is uncertain; often those who are filled with it, ere they are aware, lose it again. God has many ways of making men poor. The righteous shall rejoice. It shall fully convince all those who deny the Divine Providence. When sinners see how justly God takes away the gifts they have abused, they will not have a word to say. It is of great use to us to be fully assured of God's goodness, and duly affected with it. It is our wisdom to mind our duty, and to refer our comfort to him. A truly wise person will treasure in his heart this delightful psalm. From it, he will fully understand the weakness and wretchedness of man, and the power and loving-kindness of God, not for our merit, but for his mercy's sake.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

He turneth the wilderness into a standing water - A pool; a lake. See the notes at Isaiah 35:6-7.

And dry ground into water-springs - Not merely watering it with rain from heaven, but causing gushing fountains to break forth, and to flow continually, diffusing fertility and beauty everywhere.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

33-41. He turneth rivers into a wilderness, &c.—God's providence is illustriously displayed in His influence on two great elements of human prosperity, the earth's productiveness and the powers of government. He punishes the wicked by destroying the sources of fertility, or, in mercy, gives fruitfulness to deserts, which become the homes of a busy and successful agricultural population. By a permitted misrule and tyranny, this scene of prosperity is changed to one of adversity. He rules rulers, setting up one and putting down another.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Into a standing water; into a well-watered and fruitful land.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

He turneth the wilderness into a standing water,.... On the other hand, when it is the pleasure of God, a country uncultivated and like a desert, he makes it fruitful as one that is well watered and tilled; as this country of ours, and the land in America, once waste places, now fruitful ones.

And dry ground into water springs: which is expressive of the same thing, and may he figuratively understood of the Gentile world; which, before the coming of Christ, and the preaching of the Gospel, and the pouring down of the Spirit, was like a wilderness and dry ground; but now watered with the word and ordinances, and the grace of God, and in many places has become fruitful in grace and good works. The Targum prefaces this verse thus,

"when they return unto the law, he turneth, &c.''

Geneva Study Bible

He {q} turneth the wilderness into a standing water, and dry ground into watersprings.

(q) For the love that he bears to his Church, he changes the order of nature for their convenience.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

35. He hath turned a wilderness into a pool of water, and a dry land into watersprings:

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 35. - He turneth the wilderness into a standing water; rather, a wilderness (comp. Isaiah 35:7; Isaiah 41:18). And dry ground into water springs. The entire verse is antithetical to ver. 33. Psalm 107:35

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Since in Psalm 107:36 the historical narration is still continued, a meaning relating to the contemporaneous past is also retrospectively given to the two correlative ישׂם. It now goes on to tell what those who have now returned have observed and experienced in their own case. Psalm 107:33 sounds like Isaiah 50:2; Psalm 107:33 like Isaiah 35:7; and Psalm 107:35 takes its rise from Isaiah 41:18. The juxtaposition of מוצאי and צמּאון, since Deuteronomy 8:15, belongs to the favourite antithetical alliterations, e.g., Isaiah 61:3. מלחה, that which is salty (lxx cf. Sir. 39:23: ἅλμη), is, as in Job 39:6, the name for the uncultivated, barren steppe. A land that has been laid waste for the punishment of its inhabitants has very often been changed into flourishing fruitful fields under the hands of a poor and grateful generation; and very often a land that has hitherto lain uncultivated and to all appearance absolutely unprofitable has developed an unexpected fertility. The exiles to whom Jeremiah writes, Psalm 29:5 : Build ye houses and settle down, and plant gardens and eat their fruit, may frequently have experienced this divine blessing. Their industry and their knowledge also did their part, but looked at in a right light, it was not their own work but God's work that their settlement prospered, and that they continually spread themselves wider and possessed a not small, i.e., (cf. 2 Kings 4:3) a very large, stock of cattle.