Imagine Psalm 107

I still have the children’s Bible my maternal grandparents gave me on March 23, 1955. What was so special about that day? It was too early to be Easter Sunday. Besides, March 23 fell on a Wednesday that year. So why did my grandparents give me a Bible, mid-week, more than five months before my fifth birthday?

I’ll probably never know; but the important thing was that the Bible had pictures mixed in with the text. As I look at those pictures today, they aren’t anything special. But those illustrations were an important part of my childhood education. I looked at them a lot, especially during worship services that were long and uninteresting to me. I escaped by studying the details of the Garden of Eden, David and Goliath, or Daniel in the Lions’ Den.

Pictures have communicated God’s story for centuries. Yet, most illustrated Bibles don’t include pictures from a large portion of the Old Testament, particularly the psalms. Take Psalm 107 as an example. I wonder if it has ever been expressed as a picture book. It has enough images to keep a curious kid attentive for hours.

Imagine Psalm 107 as a picture book. It begins with an Introduction that conveys the purpose of the psalm: to give those whom God has rescued a place to tell their story—to give thanks to the Lord for he is good; his love endures forever (vv. 1-3). An Afterword counsels the wise to be attentive and to meditate on the great love of the Lord (vs. 43).

The illustrations begin by portraying poor souls wandering in wastelands, not finding a city where they might settle. There are people sitting in darkness and in the deepest gloom. Prisoners suffer in iron chains for their rebellion against the words of God. Some, who turned into fools through their disobedience, undergo affliction. Sailors in ships and merchants on mighty waters are overwhelmed by storms. You couldn’t find better material for an illustrator.

Naturally, all of these poor souls cry out to the Lord in their trouble. Every time, and without exception, the Lord saves the distressed from their misery. So they are to give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind.

The illustrator shows people giving thanks—for the Lord satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things. The Lord breaks down gates of bronze and cuts through bars of iron. The artist portrays the redeemed giving thank offerings and singing songs of joy. Can you picture God’s people exalting the Lord in the assembly, praising him in the council of the elders?

Near the end (vv. 33-42), the psalmist stops the pattern of disaster, plea, deliverance and thanksgiving to make the point that the Lord is sovereign over all the ups and downs of life. Again, the illustrator has powerful images to work with: deserts, parched ground, fruitful lands, flowing springs, sowed fields and planted vineyards.

Can you imagine a book like this for children? You might be right; they wouldn’t understand it. Besides, adults would be uncomfortable with kids looking at pictures of gloom and doom. But the images of people crying out for help, receiving the Lord’s deliverance and giving thanks to Him would feed their souls. Some of them would meditate on the pictures, hours at a time, and give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.