Psalms 107:37 · Bible study
Psalms 107:37 Commentary: Sowing, Planting, and Divine Blessing
Hebrew · 8 what the commentators say
Meaning in one sentence
How Psalm 107:37 shows God turning barren land into fruitful fields through human labor and divine blessing. Exegesis, context, and application.
Research Summary
- Meaning: God transforms wasteland into farmland, and the people He settles respond by working the land; the resulting harvest is a sign of His blessing.
- Key words: va/yizre'u (sowed, Qal wayyiqtol), na.ta (planted), pri tevu'ah (fruit of produce, crop yield). The verbs are narrative past, indicating specific acts of faithful labor.
- Main debate: Whether the imagery is purely literal (returning exiles farming the land) or spiritual (Gill: fields as the world, vineyards as churches). Both readings agree that fruitfulness comes from God.
- Theological theme: Providence, God governs the cycle of barrenness and fruitfulness; human work participates in but does not cause that blessing.
- Best use: Comfort for those in dry seasons; encouragement to partner with God through ordinary labor; reminder to thank God for harvests, not just for dramatic rescues.
Translation Comparison
BSB Berean Standard Bible 2020
They sow fields and plant vineyards that yield a fruitful harvest.
WEB World English Bible 2000
sow fields, plant vineyards, and reap the fruits of increase.
KJV King James Version 1769
And sow the fields, and plant vineyards, which may yield fruits of increase.
ASV American Standard Version 1901
And sow fields, and plant vineyards, And get them fruits of increase.
YLT Young's Literal Translation 1898
And they sow fields, and plant vineyards, And they make fruits of increase.
Darby Darby Bible 1890
And sow fields, and plant vineyards, which yield fruits of increase;
Translations in other languages (9 available)
Y siembran campos, y plantan viñas, y rinden crecido fruto.
E semeiam campos, e plantam vinhas, que produzem fruto valioso.
Ils ensemencent des champs, plantent des vignes,
und Äcker besäen und Weinberge pflanzen möchten und die jährlichen Früchte gewönnen.
En bezaaien akkers, en planten wijngaarden, die inkomende vrucht voortbrengen.
Vi seminano campi e vi piantano vigne, e ne raccolgono frutti abbondanti.
Którzy posiewają pole, a sadzą winnice, i zgromadzają sobie pożytek z urodzaju.
又種 田地，栽 葡萄園，得享所出的 土產。
And put seed in the fields and make vine-gardens, to give them fruit.
Verse in Context
Original Language (Biblical Hebrew)
Old Testament · Biblical Hebrew · Psalms 107:37
Source: STEPBible TAGNT/TEHB (CC-BY 4.0). Click or tap a morphology code to see the full parsing.
Scholars' Consensus
Commentators agree this verse pictures the outcome of God's transformation of desert into fertile ground (vv. 35, 36). The verbs are wayyiqtol forms, past-tense narrative events, not general truths. Keil and Delitzsch note the exiles would recall Jeremiah's instructions (Jeremiah 29:5) as they resettled. Matthew Henry highlights the reversal: land made barren by sin (v. 34) is now fruitful under the hands of a poor and grateful generation. Calvin stresses that human affairs are not governed by fortune but by God's hand, prosperity is a token of His grace. Barnes focuses on the culture of the vine as central to Palestinian agriculture. Gill offers a spiritual reading: sowing the Word, planting churches, and bearing fruit. But all agree: the agricultural success flows from God's transformation, not human effort alone.
How settled is the interpretation?
Interpretive difficulty: Low
What is clear: Human industry, when matched with God's transformation of barren land, yields fruitfulness that is a sign of divine blessing.
What Scholars Agree and Debate
| Topic | Agreed | Debated |
|---|---|---|
| Literal vs. spiritual reading of the agriculture | The verse describes real farming, sowing, planting, harvesting, as a sign of God's blessing. | Gill reads the fields and vineyards allegorically (world and church; seed as the Word), while others like Barnes and Matthew Henry keep the meaning literal, tied to post-exilic resettlement. |
| Historical setting | The section from v. 33 to 42 does not have the refrain; it describes God's control over national fortunes. | Lange denies a direct connection to the Babylonian exile, seeing general truths; Keil and Delitzsch tie it specifically to the returning exiles' experience. |
| Human labor vs. divine blessing | Both are present: God transforms the land, and people sow and plant. | Calvin emphasises God as the sole source (prosperity as a token of grace); Gill allows more room for human instrumentality (ministers sow the Word). The balance between the two is handled differently across traditions. |
| The role of the land's condition | The land's fruitfulness depends on God's sovereign action. | Matthew Henry stresses that human sin turns land barren, and God's grace restores it. Others focus more on God's freedom to bless or judge apart from human merit. |
Historical & Cultural Context
Psalm 107 divides sharply after verse 32. The repeated refrain that structured the first four strophes disappears, replaced by a more general meditation on God's control over national and land fortunes (Cambridge Bible, Lange). Verses 33, 42 describe reversals, God turns rivers into desert and desert into pools. These reversals echo the language of Isaiah (35:7, 41:18) and the Book of Job (Job 39:6). The verb forms in verse 37 are wayyiqtol (consecutive imperfect), indicating specific past events. Keil and Delitzsch maintain the section relates to the experience of those who have returned from exile: they have seen God change a salt waste into a place where they can dwell and farm.
In the ancient Near East, land fertility was bound to covenant obedience (Deuteronomy 28:1, 14). A salt waste (melah, v. 34) signified divine judgment. So the transformation here is a mark of restored relationship. The agricultural details are concrete: sowing fields and planting vineyards were the building blocks of settled life. Jeremiah commanded the exiles to “plant gardens and eat their fruit” (Jeremiah 29:5). Now, in the psalm, God Himself is the one who first makes settlement possible. Human labor follows divine provision, the people sow and plant only after God has turned the desert into water springs and made the hungry dwell there. This sequence matters: grace precedes work.
Lange's commentary notes that the psalm's later sections “describe the controlling power of God in the varying fortunes of men and nations,” drawing freely from earlier prophets. The agricultural image, then, is not just a pretty picture. It is a theological statement: God's providence, not random chance, governs the cycle of barrenness and fruitfulness.
Textual Notes
The supplied sources note no significant textual variants for Psalm 107:37. The verse transmits uniformly across the manuscript traditions represented in the WEB, KJV, ASV, BSB, YLT, and Darby. The Greek Septuagint and Latin Vulgate render the same agricultural sequence.
Reception History
The verse has been read throughout church history as a picture of God's providential care after judgment. Early Christian commentators saw in it a pattern of spiritual restoration: God turns the wasteland of the soul into a fruitful place where good works can grow. Reformation-era exegetes like Calvin and Matthew Henry emphasised the lesson that human affairs are not governed by fortune but by God's hand. In hymnody, the themes of sowing, planting, and harvest find expression in songs like “Bringing in the Sheaves” and in the tune “Kremser” used for Psalm 107. The verse is also echoed in preaching on stewardship and the dignity of manual labor. Modern readers appreciate it as a source of hope during seasons of personal barrenness, a promise that God can make a salt waste bloom again.
Preaching This Verse
Three-point outline
- God transforms the landscape first. Before anyone can sow or plant, God turns desert into pools (v. 35). Human work is never the first move. Grace prepares the ground.
- Human labor participates in God's provision. The hungry are not given food ready-made; they are given a land to cultivate. Sowing fields and planting vineyards are acts of partnership with the Creator.
- Fruitfulness testifies to God's blessing. The phrase “fruits of increase” (Hebrew pri tevu'ah) links crop yield to God's gift. The harvest is both the result of hard work and a sign of divine favor.
Five-point outline
- The context: a reversal of fortunes. Verses 33, 34 show God judging wickedness by turning fruitful land to salt. Verse 37 is the flip side, grace, not judgment.
- God makes a home for the hungry. He “makes the hungry live” (v. 36). Settlement precedes farming.
- Agriculture as worship. Sowing and planting are responses to God's prior work. They are not neutral; they are acts of gratitude.
- Place matters. A land that yields increase is a gift. The psalm ties physical geography to spiritual reality.
- From survival to abundance. The progression from city-building to farming to large livestock (v. 38) shows God's generosity, He gives more than enough.
Illustration hooks
- Starting a garden in tough soil. Anyone who has broken ground in rocky, dry earth knows the feeling of impossible odds, then water and care bring green shoots. The psalm echoes that slow miracle.
- The first harvest after a drought. Farmers know the anxiety of watching sky and soil. A harvest after barren years feels like resurrection. This verse names the Source.
- Refugees rebuilding. A family resettling after war or disaster, learning the land, planting again. Their work mirrors the exiles' experience: God restores a place to call home.
Questions your congregation is asking
- Is my hard work what brings success, or is it God's blessing? Does this verse say both?
- What do I do when the land of my life seems salty and barren, where is God in that season?
- How can I see my daily labor as a partnership with God, not just a duty?
Leading a Discussion
Psalm 107:37 sits in a section where God reverses barrenness into fruitfulness. The people who once wandered now settle, sow, and harvest. This passage invites us to talk about how God works through both supernatural transformation and human effort. It also asks us to examine whether we see our daily work as something God blesses or as something we accomplish alone.
Discussion questions
- Read Psalm 107:33, 38. What contrast do you see between verses 33, 34 and verses 35, 37? Why does the poet place these reversals side by side?
- The Hebrew verbs in verse 37 are past tense (“they sowed,” “they planted”). How does that change the way you read the verse, is it a pattern or a report?
- What does the phrase “fruits of increase” (or “fruitful harvest”) say about the relationship between human work and divine blessing? Which gets the final credit?
- Cross-reference Jeremiah 29:5 (“Plant gardens and eat their fruit”). How does that command relate to the promise in Psalm 107:37? In what ways are exiles and settlers called to the same kind of faithfulness?
- In your own life, when has God “turned a desert into a pool” before you could even begin to sow? Share a time when you saw grace precede your effort.
- This passage describes farming, but what “fields” and “vineyards” might correspond to in your daily work, your job, family, relationships, or a personal project? How could you see God’s blessing on that work?
- How does this reading challenge or comfort you if you are in a “barren” season right now, where the soil feels too salty for anything to grow?
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)
| Genesis 26:12 | Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year one hundred times what he planted. Yahweh blessed him. |
| Psalms 65:9 | You visit the earth, and water it. You greatly enrich it. The river of God is full of water. You provide them grain, for so you have ordained it. |
| Psalms 65:13 | The pastures are covered with flocks. The valleys also are clothed with grain. They shout for joy! They also sing. |
| Isaiah 37:30 | “‘This shall be the sign to you: You will eat this year that which grows of itself, and in the second year that which springs from it; and in the third year sow and reap and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. |
| Isaiah 65:21 | They will build houses and inhabit them. They will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. |
| Jeremiah 29:5 | “Build houses and dwell in them. Plant gardens and eat their fruit. |
| Jeremiah 31:5 | Again you will plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria. The planters will plant, and will enjoy its fruit. |
| Ezekiel 28:26 | They will dwell in it securely. Yes, they will build houses, plant vineyards, and will dwell securely when I have executed judgments on all those around them who have treated them with contempt. Then they will know that I am Yahweh their God.”’” |
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
8 public-domain commentaries, condensed into plain language.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible Protestant 1832
Barnes notes that the mention of planting vineyards is not incidental but reflects how central viticulture was to Palestinian agriculture. He clarifies that the "fruits of increase" simply means the produce the earth yields.
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 note highlights the tangible, material blessings God gives His people: productive fields and fruitful vineyards. The emphasis is on divine provision through ordinary agricultural labor, where the land itself brings forth an abundant increase as a direct gift from the Lord.
Gill's Exposition of the Bible Baptist 1748
Gill reads the physical acts of sowing fields and planting vineyards as figures for spiritual work: the world is the field where ministers sow God's word, and churches are the vineyards Christ plants. Both produce increase - grain and wine literally, and the fruit of righteousness for God's glory.
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 argues that Psalm 107 is not primarily about the Babylonian exile, but a general thanksgiving using four everyday examples of distress—wandering, imprisonment, sickness, and seafaring. He insists these are literal, repeated human experiences meant to demonstrate God's deliverance and call all people to praise, not figurative descriptions of one historical event.
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.