Psalm 107:37

And sow the fields, and plant vineyards, which may yield fruits of increase.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

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

And sow the fields, and plant vineyards - Cultivate the earth. The culture of the vine was an important feature in agriculture in Palestine, and hence, it is made so prominent here.

Which may yield fruits of increase - The fruits which the earth produces.

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

May yield, Heb. and they shall make or procure from their fields and vineyards.

Fruits of increase; such fruits as they use to produce.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And sow the fields, and plant vineyards,.... And so raise a sufficient supply of corn and wine for the support of themselves and families. In a spiritual sense the "fields" are the world, and the seed which is sown is the word; the persons that sow it are the ministers of the Gospel, which, by a divine blessing, brings forth fruit, in some thirty, some sixty, and some an hundred fold: the "vineyards" are the churches, planted by Christ and by his ministers, as his instruments; believers are the pleasant plants in them, and young converts are the tender grapes

Which may yield fruits of increase; or "fruit" and "increase"; the fields yield all sorts of grain for food, and the vineyards wine for drink. So the seed of the word being sown, and churches planted, they increase with the increase of God, and bring forth fruits of righteousness to the glory of his name.

Geneva Study Bible

And sow the fields, and plant vineyards, which may yield fruits of {r} increase.

(r) Continual increase and yearly.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

37. And sowed fields and planted vineyards,

Which yielded fruitful produce.

With Psalm 107:36 cp. Psalm 107:4-5. In Psalm 107:37 the R.V. and get them fruits is possible, but not in accordance with the general usage of the phrase.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 37. - And sow the fields; literally, and sow fields - the first act of a settled population. And plant vineyards. The second act in a wine-producing country. Bread and wine were recognized in the East as the prime necessaries of life (see Genesis 14:18; Judges 9:13; Judges 19:19; 2 Samuel 6:19; Nehemiah 5:15; Psalm 104:15; Daniel 1:5, etc.). Which may yield fruits of increase; rather, and get them; literally, make them. The expression, "fruits of increase," points to the abundance of the harvest and vintage. Psalm 107:37

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.