Thi 107 s psalm is distinguished for beautiful and inimitable description

²⁸⁰     . In the preceding part of it, the weary and bewildered traveler, — the forlorn and wretched captive, shut up in the dungeon and bound in fetters, — the sick and dying man, — are painted in the most striking and affecting manner. In this verse there is a transition to ships, and the dangers of mariners foundering in a storm, which is continued to the close of the 30th verse. This has often been admired as one of the sublimest descriptions of a sea-storm anywhere to be found, either in the Sacred Writings, or in profane authors. that go down to the sea in ships, trading in the great waters, 24. See the works of Jehovah, his wonders in the deep. 25. He speaks, and raiseth the stormy wind, and causeth the billows thereof to mount on high. 26. They mount up to the heavens, they descend into the deeps; their soul breaketh because of trouble. 27. They are tossed and totter like a drunken man, and all their senses are overwhelmed. ²⁸¹²⁸¹     Horsley reads, “And all their skill is drowned;” “that is,” says he, “their skill in the art of navigation is drowned; a metaphor taken from the particular danger which threatens them.” Phillips reads, And all their wisdom is absorbed or swallowed up; which, in like manner, he explains as denoting that “their alarm is so great, that their knowledge deserts them; they lose all self-possession, and become entirely unfit for managing the ship.” And they cry to Jehovah in their straits, ²⁸²²⁸²     Instead of in their straits, Phillips reads, from their prison-houses, places of confinement. “By their prison-houses,” says he, “we understand the ship in which they were confined; to be liberated from which, and consequently from the risk of a watery grave, they cried unto the Lord.” and he rescues them from their troubles. 29. He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. 30. And they rejoice because they are calmed; and he brings them to the coast which they desired. 31. Let them celebrate the mercy of Jehovah in his presence, and his wonders among the sons of men; 32. And let them exalt him in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders. ²⁸³²⁸³     “עם, the people, is here evidently opposed to זקנים, elders, and both signify the whole assembly or congregation. For, among the Jews, the doctors, rulers of the synagogue, and elders, had a distinct apartment from the people, and the service being much in antiphona, or response, part was spoken by them that officiated in the seat of the elders, and the rest by the multitude of common men, the ἰδιῶται, that answered Amen at least, at their giving of thanks.” — Hammond.