Thanksgiving to the Lord for His Great Works of Deliverance
1 Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!
For His mercy endures forever.
2 Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,
Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy,
3 And gathered out of the lands,
From the east and from the west,
From the north and from the south.
4 They wandered in the wilderness in a desolate way;
They found no city to dwell in.
5 Hungry and thirsty,
Their soul fainted in them.
6 Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,
And He delivered them out of their distresses.
7 And He led them forth by the right way,
That they might go to a city for a dwelling place.
8 Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness,
And for His wonderful works to the children of men!
9 For He satisfies the longing soul,
And fills the hungry soul with goodness.
10 Those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death,
Bound in affliction and irons—
11 Because they rebelled against the words of God,
And despised the counsel of the Most High,
12 Therefore He brought down their heart with labor;
They fell down, and there was none to help.
13 Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,
And He saved them out of their distresses.
14 He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death,
And broke their chains in pieces.
15 Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness,
And for His wonderful works to the children of men!
16 For He has broken the gates of bronze,
And cut the bars of iron in two.
17 Fools, because of their transgression,
And because of their iniquities, were afflicted.
18 Their soul abhorred all manner of food,
And they drew near to the gates of death.
19 Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,
And He saved them out of their distresses.
20 He sent His word and healed them,
And delivered them from their destructions.
21 Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness,
And for His wonderful works to the children of men!
22 Let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving,
And declare His works with rejoicing.
23 Those who go down to the sea in ships,
Who do business on great waters,
24 They see the works of the Lord,
And His wonders in the deep.
25 For He commands and raises the stormy wind,
Which lifts up the waves of the sea.
26 They mount up to the heavens,
They go down again to the depths;
Their soul melts because of trouble.
27 They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man,
And are at their wits’ end.
28 Then they cry out to the Lord in their trouble,
And He brings them out of their distresses.
29 He calms the storm,
So that its waves are still.
30 Then they are glad because they are quiet;
So He guides them to their desired haven.
31 Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness,
And for His wonderful works to the children of men!
32 Let them exalt Him also in the assembly of the people,
And praise Him in the company of the elders.
33 He turns rivers into a wilderness,
And the watersprings into dry ground;
34 A fruitful land into barrenness,
For the wickedness of those who dwell in it.
35 He turns a wilderness into pools of water,
And dry land into watersprings.
36 There He makes the hungry dwell,
That they may establish a city for a dwelling place,
37 And sow fields and plant vineyards,
That they may yield a fruitful harvest.
38 He also blesses them, and they multiply greatly;
And He does not let their cattle decrease.
39 When they are diminished and brought low
Through oppression, affliction, and sorrow,
40 He pours contempt on princes,
And causes them to wander in the wilderness where there is no way;
41 Yet He sets the poor on high, far from affliction,
And makes their families like a flock.
42 The righteous see it and rejoice,
And all iniquity stops its mouth.
43 Whoever is wise will observe these things,
And they will understand the lovingkindness of the Lord.
It is thought that [this psalm] was composed for the first celebration of the feast of tabernacles, after the return from the exile [Isaiah 43:5-6; 56:8], when Israel was gathered as one man at Jerusalem, and sacrifices were offered (Ezra 3:1-3).
The Psalm begins with an exhortation to praise, on account of God’s gracious deeds: and in the following verses we are presented with four tableaux: Of the caravan in the wilderness (vs.4-9); of the prisoner (vs.10-16); of the sick (vs.17-22); of the mariner int he storm (vs.23-32). In each of these paragraphs there is a great similarity of order: first the trouble, then the cry for help, then the gracious deliverance, and, lastly, the exhortation to give thanks. After this, there is a glad reference to the restored nation (vs.33-43), which, in spite of the hate of its enemies, had been reinstated in its own land, and was already preparing to rebuild the Holy City. — Meyer, page 130.
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Though the Hebrew text of this psalm has no heading, early Jewish tradition attributes it to David. Consistent with its placement at the beginning of the fifth and final of the “books” of the Psalms, this psalm focuses on—and hence introduces—the main theme of the fifth book, which, parallel to the fifth book of the Pentateuch (i.e., Deuteronomy), concerns the restoration of God’s people to the Promised Land and their living therein under the perfect and intimate rule of their divine King. …
In view of its theme, this psalm hold a central place in the Jewish liturgical-festal consciousness, being recited on the eve of Israeli Independence Day and, in the Sephardic (i.e., Oriental/Eastern Jewish) traditions, on every day of Passover. — Wechsler, pages 254-255.
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This psalm—and hence the Fifth Book of Psalms—commences with the exhortation par excellence, for praising God—to wit: because His lovingkindness endures forever. This statement, which is the most repeated qualification of praise in the book of Psalms, occurs most often in this Fifth Book—not surprisingly, since it is god’s lovingkindness more than anything else, that is represented by His regathering of Israel to their Land and consequent fulfillment of all that He promised to eventually do for them therein. That the psalmist is indeed envisioning the final, complete, and everlasting fulfillment of all God’s promises (per the Abrahamic Covenant) both to and through Israel is evident from (1) the past tense, indicating that these actions are (as viewed from a prophetic perspective) completed, (2) the specific phraseology describing Israel’s gathering from all points of the compass, which hearkens to the prophetic phraseology elsewhere employed to describe Israel’s final regathering and redemption (cf. Isaiah 43:5-6; 56:12; Ezekiel 11:17; 20:33ff.); and (3) the specific use (in v.2a) of the term [translated] “redeemed,” signifying, as in Isaiah 35:9 and 62:12, both spiritual and physical redemption. — Wechsler, pages 255-256.
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In [verses 4-22] the psalmist takes up the theme of the manifestation of God’s lovingkindness in His chastisement of Israel. It is for this reason that, in the midst of his review of God’s chastisement of Israel from the Exodus generation (which “rebelled against the words of God—v.11) to the Babylonian exile (see esp. v.20, employing the same specific phraseology applied to this exile as a means of divine chastisement—e.g., in Lamentations 4:20; Hosea 7:1; 14:4), the psalmist exhorts his people to give thanks to the Lord for His lovingkindness (v.15)—not only for redeeming them from the afflictions of those chastisements, but also for bringing those chastisements upon them in the first place (cf. Proverbs 3:11-12; Hebrews 12:4-11). — Wechsler, pages 256-257
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