Psalms 107:17-22 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Fools That is, wicked men whom he calls fools, because through their own sin and folly they wrong themselves, and act against their own interest; not only their spiritual, but their secular interest; they often even prejudice their bodily health by their intemperance, and endanger their lives by indulging their appetites and fleshly lusts, as well as bring upon themselves many other evils and miseries: because of their transgressions Hebrew, מדרךְ פשׁעם, because of the way of their transgressions, that is, their custom and course of sinning, as the word way is often used; are afflicted With wasting sickness, as appears from Psalms 107:18; Psalms 107:20. Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat They not only have no desire for it, nor power to digest it, but they nauseate it; nay, they loathe and detest the very sight and smell of that which should nourish and support them; in which case, if not relieved, they must waste away, and soon draw near to the gates of death. But from those dreadful gates the power of God can snatch them, when they are just about to enter them. “To an infirm and emaciated body he can restore health; strength, and beauty; for diseases are his ministers and messengers; they visit us at his command, and at his command they retire, and we recover again. Now here, namely, in the recovery of men from sickness, we have a third image of the benefits conferred on our nature by the Redeemer. “The mind of man,” we must remember, “by reason of sin, is not less subject to infirmities than his body; these infirmities reduce him to a state of languor and listlessness; he finds himself incapable of action, indisposed for the reception of divine truths, without taste for knowledge, or inclination for virtue; he even nauseates the book of God, and the bread of heaven; and the life of faith is in great danger. But the case is not desperate, while there is breath enough left to call in, by prayer, the Physician of spirits. The most inveterate malady gives place to his efficacious medicines; appetite revives, health returns, and the believer is reinstated in the vigour and beauty of holiness. Let all, who have been thus healed and saved from destruction, either of body or soul, acknowledge to Jehovah his mercy, and his wonders wrought for the children of Adam; let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing.” Horne.