Psalms 107:35 · Bible study
Psalms 107:35 Commentary: Desert to Springs
Hebrew · 9 what the commentators say
Meaning in one sentence
God transforms barren desert into pools of water. Study the literal and spiritual meanings of Psalm 107:35 with commentary and historical context.
Research Summary
- Meaning: God alone transforms what is barren into a source of life.
- Key words: midbar (wilderness/desert), agam (standing pool), motsa (springs, source of water).
- Main debate: Literal providential transformation vs. figural spiritual renewal (Gentile inclusion, outpouring of the Spirit).
- Theological theme: Sovereign grace; God reverses judgment with blessing and provides for the needy.
- Best use: Hope for those in spiritual drought; assurance of God’s creative power; a text for thanksgiving.
Translation Comparison
BSB Berean Standard Bible 2020
He turns a desert into pools of water and a dry land into flowing springs.
WEB World English Bible 2000
He turns a desert into a pool of water, and a dry land into water springs.
KJV King James Version 1769
He turneth the wilderness into a standing water, and dry ground into watersprings.
ASV American Standard Version 1901
He turneth a wilderness into a pool of water, And a dry land into watersprings.
YLT Young's Literal Translation 1898
He maketh a wilderness become a pool of water, And a dry land become fountains of waters.
Darby Darby Bible 1890
He maketh the wilderness into a pool of water, and the dry land into water-springs;
Translations in other languages (9 available)
Vuelve el desierto en estanques de aguas, y la tierra seca en manantiales|strong="H4161, H4325".
Ele torna o deserto em lagoa, e a terra seca em nascentes de águas.
Il change le désert en étang,
Er machte das Trockene wiederum wasserreich und im dürren Lande Wasserquellen
Hij stelt de woestijn tot een waterpoel, en het dorre land tot watertochten.
Egli cambia il deserto in uno stagno, e la terra arida in fonti d’acqua.
Pustynie obraca w jeziora, a ziemię suchą w strumienie wód.
他使曠野 變 為水 潭，叫旱 地 變為水 泉。
He makes a waste land into a place of water, and a dry land into water-springs.
Verse in Context
Original Language (Biblical Hebrew)
Old Testament · Biblical Hebrew · Psalms 107:35
Source: STEPBible TAGNT/TEHB (CC-BY 4.0). Click or tap a morphology code to see the full parsing.
Scholars' Consensus
Commentators across traditions agree that Psalm 107:35 displays God’s sovereign power to reverse barrenness, whether in nature, history, or human hearts. Barnes highlights a literal reading: God causes “gushing fountains to break forth, and to flow continually, diffusing fertility and beauty everywhere.” Gill offers a figural interpretation: the wilderness represents the Gentile world, once spiritually dry, now “watered with the word and ordinances, and the grace of God.” Keil and Delitzsch connect the verse to the post-exilic return, when a wasted land was “changed into flourishing fruitful fields under the hands of a poor and grateful generation.” Though their frameworks differ, all see God alone as the agent who brings life where there was none. The verse stands as a hinge: after judgment in vv.33, 34, mercy flows, showing that the same God who withers can also refresh.
How settled is the interpretation?
Interpretive difficulty: Medium
Main views:
- Literal/Providential: Barnes and Keil & Delitzsch emphasize actual land fertility as God’s direct work in history, citing parallels like Numbers 21:16 and Isaiah 35:7.
- Historical/Post-Exilic: Keil & Delitzsch tie the verse to the return from Babylon; the land was rebuilt by a grateful generation (Jeremiah 29:5–6).
- Figural/Spiritual: Gill applies the wilderness to the Gentile world, now watered by the word and Spirit; Matthew Henry also sees a type of spiritual renewal.
What is clear: God alone has the power to transform what is dry and barren into a source of life and refreshment—a truth that holds for both physical land and the human soul.
What Scholars Agree and Debate
| Topic | Agreed | Debated |
|---|---|---|
| Interpretation of the transformation | God sovereignly turns barrenness into fruitfulness; the agent is God alone. | Some read the change as literal land fertility (Barnes), others as historical post-exilic restoration (Keil & Delitzsch), and still others as a figure of spiritual renewal, the Gentile world watered by the Gospel (Gill) or the outpouring of the Spirit. |
| Relationship to preceding judgment | The transformation reverses the judgment described in vv.33, 34, where fruitful land becomes salt waste. | Whether the judgment was for the specific wickedness of a people (v.34) or a more general principle, and whether the transformation hinges on repentance (Targum: 'when they return unto the law') or comes as sheer grace. |
| Historical setting | Psalm 107 likely reflects a post-exilic or general providential pattern of God dealing with nations. | Some tie it closely to the return from Babylon (Keil & Delitzsch, noting parallels to Jeremiah 29:5, 6), while others see a broader depiction of God’s control over any land or people (Lange, Cambridge). |
| Application to individuals vs. communities | The verse offers hope that God can bring life out of barrenness. | Whether the primary application is to nations/land (the literal/historical reading) or to individual spiritual life (the figural reading); most traditions allow both. |
Historical & Cultural Context
Psalm 107 is a liturgical thanksgiving, built around repeated refrains that summon the redeemed to praise. Four strophes (vv.4, 32) describe God delivering wanderers, prisoners, the sick, and sailors. Then the style shifts: from v.33 to v.42 the refrain disappears, and the psalm becomes a general meditation on God’s providence over nations and landscapes (Cambridge Bible). These verses echo Isaiah 35:7 and 41:18, prophets who spoke of waters bursting in the desert as a sign of restoration.
Verses 33, 34 set the stage: God turns rivers into wilderness and fruitful land into salt waste “for the wickedness of those who dwell in it.” Verse 35 reverses the curse. The dry land becomes a pool, and that transformed soil hosts the hungry who build cities and plant vineyards (vv.36, 38). Keil and Delitzsch read this as a concrete post-exilic experience: exiles returning from Babylon found a land long desolate, yet through God’s blessing their industry prospered. The Targum (cited by Gill) connects the transformation to repentance: “when they return unto the law.”
In ancient Israel, water defined life. A desert turning into a standing pool (agam) or flowing springs (motsa) was not a small mercy, it meant survival, fertility, and the possibility of community. The language is deliberately physical, yet the psalmist sees God’s hand behind every such change. For readers in every generation, the scene invites awe: the Lord who can make the desert bloom is the same Lord who governs the rise and fall of peoples.
Textual Notes
The supplied sources note no significant textual variants for this verse. The Masoretic Text reads uniformly across witnesses. The Septuagint and Syriac versions convey the same meaning. The Hebrew verb yāsēm (a Hiphil imperfect) consistently indicates God as the subject who brings about the change.
Reception History
Targum (cited by Gill) interprets the transformation as contingent on repentance: “when they return unto the law.” Medieval Jewish exegetes often read the psalm with an eye to the Babylonian exile and the return, a pattern of national death and resurrection. In Christian tradition, the verse has been widely applied to spiritual renewal: the wilderness of the human heart, or the Gentile world, becomes fruitful through the Gospel and the Holy Spirit (Gill, Wesley). Reformation commentators such as Calvin used the psalm to emphasize God’s providential hand in all human affairs, both adverse and prosperous. The verse has also been sung in hymns of thanksgiving and used in lectionaries for occasions of harvest or national blessing. Across eras, readers have found in this one line a compact promise that the God who creates water from rock (Psalm 114:8) also brings life where there was none.
Preaching This Verse
Three-point outline
- God reverses barrenness. The verse follows judgment (vv.33, 34) and announces mercy. Where there was salt waste, God brings water. This is not random; it is a purposeful act of the Creator.
- God provides for the hungry. The transformation is not decorative. Verse 36 shows that the water enables the hungry to settle, build cities, and plant vineyards. God’s renewal serves human flourishing.
- God multiplies the humble. Verses 37, 38 describe abundant harvests and multiplied livestock. The blessing overflows, and the righteous see it and rejoice (v.42). God’s work in the land points to His care for His people.
Five-point outline
- The pattern of judgment and mercy. Verses 33, 34 (judgment) → v.35 (mercy). God does not leave the land in salt forever.
- The agent of change. “He turns”, God alone performs this work. Human effort cannot create water in a desert.
- The transformed place. Desert becomes pool; dry land becomes springs. The image is both literal and layered.
- The settled people. The hungry are given a home (v.36). God’s provision leads to community, stability, and worship.
- The call to see. The psalm ends with an invitation: “Whoso is wise… shall understand the lovingkindness of the Lord” (v.43). The transformation is a sign meant to be read.
Illustration hooks
- A drought-stricken farm after the first soaking rain, the cracked ground softens, and within weeks the fields are green. The change feels almost impossible, yet it happens.
- A person who has walked through spiritual dryness, seasons of doubt or distance, and then encounters God’s grace in a fresh way. The desert becomes a place of springs.
- A declining church that experiences renewal, not through a program but through prayer and the Spirit’s work. What was barren becomes a source of life for others.
Questions your congregation is asking
- Why does God allow “desert” seasons in my life if He has the power to change them?
- How can I cooperate with God when He begins to turn my dry ground into springs?
- What does it mean to see God’s lovingkindness in both the waste and the well?
Leading a Discussion
Psalm 107:35 sits at the hinge of a passage that moves from judgment to blessing. Before this verse, God turns rivers into desert and fruitful land into salt waste. After it, He brings the hungry to dwell in that transformed land. Talk about a time of spiritual or physical dryness in your own life. What would it look like for God to turn that dry ground into a spring?
Discussion questions
- Read Psalm 107:33, 38. What does this passage tell you about God’s character?
- Compare vv.33, 34 with v.35. What causes the change from desert to pool?
- Verse 36 mentions the hungry. Why does the psalmist connect the transformation of land directly to human need?
- In what ways have you seen God turn a “desert” into a “pool”, in nature, in a community, or in your own life?
- How might this verse challenge you to trust God during a season of barrenness?
- The psalm ends with an invitation to the wise to observe these things (v.43). What kind of wisdom is needed to see God’s hand in the ordinary patterns of land and life?
- How can your group cultivate that wisdom together during the coming week?
Word Study
The key original-language words in this verse. Select any word for its full lexicon entry — meaning, every occurrence in Scripture, and related words.
Cross-References
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (TSK, public domain)
| Numbers 21:16 | From there they traveled to Beer; that is the well of which Yahweh said to Moses, “Gather the people together, and I will give them water.” |
| Numbers 21:18 | the well, which the princes dug, which the nobles of the people dug, with the scepter, and with their poles.” From the wilderness they traveled to Mattanah; |
| II Kings 3:16 | He said, “Yahweh says, ‘Make this valley full of trenches.’ |
| II Kings 3:20 | In the morning, about the time of offering the sacrifice, behold, water came by the way of Edom, and the country was filled with water. |
| Psalms 114:8 | who turned the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of waters. |
| Isaiah 35:6 | Then the lame man will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing; for waters will break out in the wilderness, and streams in the desert. |
| Isaiah 35:7 | The burning sand will become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water. Grass with reeds and rushes will be in the habitation of jackals, where they lay. |
| Isaiah 41:17 | The poor and needy seek water, and there is none. Their tongue fails for thirst. I, Yahweh, will answer them. I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. |
Interlinear and lexical data from STEPBible (CC BY 4.0). Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0). Commentaries are public domain.
For personal reflection
Read the devotional page — prayer, application, and "for families"
What the Commentators Say
9 public-domain commentaries, condensed into plain language.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible Protestant 1832
Barnes stresses that God does more than simply water dry ground with rain. He turns barren wilderness into standing pools and causes permanent, gushing springs to break forth, transforming the landscape into one of lasting fertility and beauty.
Calvin's Commentaries Reformed 1564
Calvin insists that nothing in life happens by random chance or fortune. Every adversity is God's summons to account for sin, and every prosperity is a display of His grace. Those who fail to see God's hand in such events are guilty of ignoring clear evidence of His providence.
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges Anglican 1880
The commentary draws attention to a shift in the psalm's style, where specific examples of deliverance give way to broader proofs of God's providential rule over nations and peoples. The wise person, it argues, will recognize in these patterns how the Lord deals with humanity.
Geneva Bible Notes Reformed 1599
The Geneva Bible notes highlight God's power to reverse barrenness by turning wilderness into pools of water and dry land into flowing springs. The miracle is not gradual improvement but sudden transformation: what was dead and empty becomes abundant and life-giving by God's direct action.
Gill's Exposition of the Bible Baptist 1748
Gill draws a parallel between God turning dry wilderness into watered land and the spiritual transformation of the Gentile world. Before Christ, that world was barren, but through the Gospel and the Spirit it became fruitful. The Targum connects this change to the people returning to the law.
Keil & Delitzsch OT Commentary Protestant 1876
Keil-Delitzsch observe that the returned exiles worked hard and used their skill to settle the land, but the text insists this prosperity was not ultimately their own doing. What seemed like human achievement was actually God's work: He turned barren wilderness into fruitful fields. Their industry played a part, but the blessing came from Him.
Lange's Commentary Reformed 1857
Lange reads the psalm as a collection of general human troubles and divine rescues, not as a historical account of the Babylonian exile. Each strophe describes a different real-life peril—wandering, imprisonment, sickness, sea voyage—as repeated experiences, not singular events. The examples are literal, not figurative.
Matthew Henry's Commentary Reformed/Presbyterian 1710
Henry draws attention to the surprising reversals God brings about through his providence. Fertile land becomes barren because of human sin, yet God also turns deserts into springs where the hungry settle. These changes are not random; they show that every shift in fortune comes from the Lord's hand.
Wesley's Explanatory Notes Methodist/Wesleyan 1754
Water - Into a well - watered and fruitful land.