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Psalm 107:39
Again, they are diminished and bowed down through oppression, trouble, and sorrow.
37sow fields, plant vineyards, and reap the fruits of increase.
38He blesses them also, so that they are multiplied greatly. He doesn’t allow their livestock to decrease.
39Again, they are diminished and bowed down through oppression, trouble, and sorrow.
40He pours contempt on princes, and causes them to wander in a trackless waste.
41Yet he lifts the needy out of their affliction, and increases their families like a flock.
Notice
“Again” marks a hard reversal after blessing and increase, naming how oppression and sorrow can diminish a whole community and bring its people low.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
What does “Again” bring to mind about hardship returning after a time of increase?
Write on thisWhere have you seen oppression diminish a person's life in ways others might overlook?
Write on thisConnect
Where else Scripture says this
12 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
Exodus 2:23–24In the course of those many days, the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up to …Israel's cries under bondage show the human cost of oppression that the psalm names as a cause of being bowed down.
2 Kings 10:32In those days the LORD began to cut away parts of Israel; and Hazael struck them in all the borders of IsraelIsrael loses territory under Hazael's attacks, a concrete instance of a people being diminished through trouble.
2 Kings 14:26For the LORD saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter for all, slave and free; and there was no helper for Israel.Both describe affliction reaching across a people, with Kings naming its bitterness and the psalm describing its diminishing weight.
2 Chronicles 15:5–6In those times there was no peace to him who went out, nor to him who came in; but great troubles were on all the inhabitants of the lands.The widespread trouble and lack of peace in Chronicles share the psalm's concern with hardship that weighs on whole communities.
Judges 6:3–6So it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites, the Amalekites, and the children of the east came up against them.Enemies arrive after Israel has sown, echoing the psalm's movement from cultivated fields and increase to oppression and trouble.
Ruth 1:20–21She said to them, “Don’t call me Naomi. Call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.Naomi speaks of bitter treatment, sharing the psalm's frank acknowledgment of sorrow that brings a person low.
2 Kings 13:22Hazael king of Syria oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz.Hazael's oppression of Israel names a sustained national hardship of the kind the psalm describes.
Psalm 30:6–7As for me, I said in my prosperity, “I shall never be moved.”Psalm 30 records confidence during prosperity; Psalm 107's surrounding lines show prosperity followed by a reversal into hardship.
2 Kings 4:8One day Elisha went to Shunem, where there was a prominent woman; and she persuaded him to eat bread. So it was, that as often as he passed by, he turned in …The connection is slight: Elisha receives food, while the surrounding psalm describes provision followed by hardship; his meal involves no stated oppression.
Job 1:10–17Haven’t you made a hedge around him, and around his house, and around all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his substance …Job's possessions increase under God's blessing, matching the prosperity described just before the psalm turns to loss.
Jeremiah 51:33–34For the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel says: “The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time when it is trodden. Yet a little while, and the …Both use downward imagery: people are bowed down in the psalm, while Babylon is compared to a threshing floor being trodden.
Genesis 45:11There I will provide for you; for there are yet five years of famine; lest you come to poverty, you, and your household, and all that you have.”’Joseph names famine's threat of household poverty, sharing the psalm's recognition that trouble can diminish people's means of life.
Where this verse fits
Injustice and anger. grief. job loss or money fear.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
The psalm does not hide how far people can be brought down. Its next lines speak of God lifting the needy, without denying the affliction named here.
Now put it in your words.
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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).