🎵WEB · Psalms 107:6
What does Psalms 107:6 mean?
"Then they cried to Yahweh in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses,"
— Psalms 107:6 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
And gathered out of the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.
They wandered in the wilderness in a desert way. They found no city to live in.
Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them.
Then they cried to Yahweh in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses,
he led them also by a straight way, that they might go to a city to live in.
Let them praise Yahweh for his loving kindness, for his wonderful deeds to the children of men!
For he satisfies the longing soul. He fills the hungry soul with good.
Explanation
Psalm 107:6 describes a turning point in a larger story: people who were lost, wandering, hungry, and thirsty finally cry out to the Lord, and he rescues them from their trouble. In plain language, the verse says that when these people reached the end of their own resources and called out to God, he answered them and brought them relief. It captures a simple but profound movement — from distress, to crying out, to deliverance.
This verse comes from the opening section of Psalm 107, a communal thanksgiving psalm likely written for use in temple worship, probably after the Babylonian exile. The psalm calls on "the redeemed of the Lord" to give thanks because he has gathered them from the lands where they were scattered — east and west, north and south. Verses 4-9 describe one group of these redeemed people: wanderers in the desert, hungry and thirsty, with no city to dwell in. This same refrain — "they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them" — repeats four times in the psalm (verses 6, 13, 19, 28), each time introducing a different group in distress: wanderers, prisoners, the sick, and sailors in a storm. The psalm was likely sung by worshippers recounting God's faithfulness across different kinds of hardship, possibly reflecting on the exile and return, though the images are broad enough to apply to many life situations.
Theologically, this verse highlights God's character as one who hears and responds to the cries of those in genuine need. It is not a formula that guarantees deliverance whenever someone asks, but a testimony rooted
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