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Psalm 107:27

They reel back and forth, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end.

25For he commands, and raises the stormy wind, which lifts up its waves.
26They mount up to the sky; they go down again to the depths. Their soul melts away because of trouble.
27They reel back and forth, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end.
28Then they cry to the LORD in their trouble, and he brings them out of their distress.
29He makes the storm a calm, so that its waves are still.
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← Psalm 107:26Psalm 107:28 →
Notice

The sailors’ staggering makes helplessness physical: the storm takes away their footing, and being at their wits’ end means they have run out of answers.

Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.

Where does the sailors’ loss of footing resemble what you are facing today?

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What would you want to say to God from your own wits’ end?

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Connect

Where else Scripture says this

8 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.

This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Job 12:25They grope in the dark without light. He makes them stagger like a drunken man.Both passages compare people’s loss of steadiness to a drunken man’s staggering, describing human helplessness in bodily terms.
Isaiah 19:14The LORD has mixed a spirit of perverseness in the middle of her; and they have caused Egypt to go astray in all of its works, like a drunken man staggers in …Both use a drunken man’s staggering to describe disorientation, though Isaiah speaks of Egypt going astray and the psalm describes sailors.
Isaiah 19:3The spirit of the Egyptians will fail within them. I will destroy their counsel. They will seek the idols, the charmers, those who have familiar spirits, and …The sailors reach the end of their resourcefulness, while Egypt loses its counsel; both passages describe the collapse of human capacity.
Isaiah 29:9Pause and wonder! Blind yourselves and be blind! They are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.Both describe staggering through the language of drunkenness; Isaiah excludes wine as the cause, while the psalm places the sailors in a storm.
Job 37:20Will it be told him that I would speak? Or should a man wish that he were swallowed up?The connection is limited: one describes sailors at their limit; the other asks whether a person should wish to be swallowed up.
Isaiah 24:20The earth will stagger like a drunken man, and will sway back and forth like a hammock. Its disobedience will be heavy on it, and it will fall and not rise …Both use a drunken man’s staggering and back-and-forth movement, applying the picture to sailors in the psalm and the earth in Isaiah.
Acts 27:15–20Both describe people overwhelmed at sea: the psalm’s sailors stagger, and the ship in Acts cannot face the wind.
Acts 27:18As we labored exceedingly with the storm, the next day they began to throw things overboard.Both portray distress at sea under a storm’s force, with staggering in the psalm and cargo thrown overboard in Acts.
Where this verse fits

Anxiety or panic. fear for the future.

What the Bible says about anxiety →What the Bible says about fear →
One step

Something small to carry out of this verse

Tell God about one trouble you cannot solve

prayeroncelight
Encouragement

Reaching your wits’ end does not put prayer beyond reach. In the next verse, these same staggering sailors cry to YHWH, and he brings them out of their distress.

Now put it in your words.

Start an entry on Psalm 107:27. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.

Keep goingPsalm 107 · the whole chapter with its connection mapPsalms · every chapterBuild a reading plan through Psalms

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).