Psalms 107:20 Meaning: When God Sends His Word to Heal
He sends his word, and heals them, and delivers them from their graves.
He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.
He sendeth his word, and healeth them, And delivereth them from their destructions.
He sendeth His word and healeth them, And delivereth from their destructions.
He sendeth his word, and healeth them, and delivereth them from their destructions.
Meaning in one sentence
Understand Psalm 107:20 meaning: God sends His word to heal the sick and deliver from the pit.
Context
Psalm 107 is a song of thanksgiving for God's rescue in a handful of life's hardest moments. The section that includes verse 20 describes people who brought sickness on themselves by their own choices. They lost their appetite and came near the gates of death. But when they finally cried out to the Lord, He answered them, not with a new medicine or a second opinion, but with His word. The psalmist pictures God speaking, and that word itself becoming the cure. The same God who spoke creation into being speaks healing into a failing body.
Key Words
Three Hebrew words carry the weight. Word (dạvar) can mean a speech, a command, or the thing itself. In this verse, God sends His word as if it were a messenger that carries His authority and power. Heals (rạpãh) is the ordinary word for restoring health, but it also carries the sense of mending what is broken, whether body, relationship, or spirit. Pit (shẽchit) means a grave or a trap, the place of destruction. God's word doesn't just patch up symptoms; it pulls a person back from the edge of the abyss. That is the kind of rescue the psalmist is talking about, whole, complete, and powered by God alone.
How Christians Read This Verse
Christians across traditions read this verse while holding the same truth from slightly different angles. Reformed commentators like Calvin and the Geneva Bible see the word as God's direct command that accomplishes healing without any intermediary. The Cambridge Bible notes that the word is almost personified here, pointing forward to the full revelation of the personal Word in John's Gospel. Gill and other Baptist writers apply it directly to Christ as the essential Word sent to heal both body and soul, as well as to the Gospel message itself. All agree that the healing comes from God and that He uses His word to bring it about.
A common misunderstanding
Some people read this verse and think it means that repeating Bible verses like a formula will automatically heal them. In fact, the emphasis is on God's sovereign act of sending His word, it is His initiative, not a technique we control. The word here is His powerful command or Christ Himself, not just a Scripture we recite. Healing comes when God responds to the cry of the needy, not when we follow a method.
Living This Out
Maybe this week you are praying for someone who is sick, or you are the one who feels close to the pit. Let that be the cry the psalmist describes. You don't need eloquent words, just honesty. And then watch for how God might send His word: through a doctor's skill, through a phrase of Scripture that lands like a command, through a friend's prayer that feels like a rope thrown into the grave. Trust that the same God who spoke healing into the psalmist's world is still speaking today.
Main takeaway: God’s word has the power to heal the sick and rescue from the brink of death when we cry out to Him.
For Families
For ages 5, 8
God can heal people just by speaking. When you are sick, you can ask Him to send His word and make you better. He is strong enough to help.
For ages 9, 12
This verse shows that God doesn’t always heal with medicine or a doctor, sometimes He simply speaks and it happens. That’s because His word is powerful, like when He created the world. When you or someone you love is really sick, you can cry out to God like the people in this psalm did. He hears and He can send help in ways you might not expect.
Questions People Ask
What is the 'word' that God sends in Psalm 107:20?
The Hebrew word dạvar can mean a speech, command, or the thing itself. In the context, God's word is His powerful command that accomplishes healing. Many Christians have seen this as a preparation for the personal Word, Jesus Christ, who is the ultimate expression of God's word of healing.
What does 'delivers them from their graves' mean?
The Hebrew word for 'graves' (or 'destructions') is shẽchit, which means a pit or a trap. It pictures the brink of death or the grave itself. God's deliverance is so complete that He pulls people back from the point of no return, whether from a terminal illness or a life-threatening situation.
Does Psalm 107:20 promise physical healing for everyone who prays?
The verse describes one of several rescue stories in the psalm, not a blanket guarantee for every situation. It shows what God can and does do, but He remains free to heal in His own way and time. The main point is to encourage us to cry out to Him and trust His power, not to claim a specific outcome.
How does this verse connect to Jesus?
The Cambridge Bible and many others see the personification of God's word here as preparing the way for the Logos, the Word made flesh, in John 1. Jesus healed many by a word and ultimately delivers from the pit of sin and death. The verse foreshadows the healing and rescue that Christ brings in full.
What is the context of Psalm 107:20 within the psalm?
The psalm has four or five stanzas, each describing a group in distress, wanderers, prisoners, the sick, sailors, and sometimes farmers. Verses 17, 20 focus on people who fell sick because of their own sin. When they cried out, God saved them. Verse 20 is the climax: He sent His word and healed them, delivering them from the pit.
For pastors & researchers
Hebrew interlinear, 8 commentaries & word study