“For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.”
My Notes
What Does Psalms 107:9 Mean?
"For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness." The psalm describes God's response to the deepest human deficits: longing and hunger. "Longing" (shoqeqah — yearning, craving, parched desire) is the soul's thirst for what it lacks. "Hungry" (re'evah — famished, empty) is the soul's starvation for what it needs. God meets both: he satisfies the longing and fills the hunger. With what? Goodness — tov, the comprehensive biblical word for everything beneficial, beautiful, and wholesome.
The verse doesn't specify what the soul longs for or hungers for. The fulfillment isn't of a specific desire but of the soul's fundamental capacity for longing and hunger themselves. God fills the empty spaces — whatever they are.
Reflection Questions
- 1.What is your soul longing for right now — and have you brought that specific longing to God?
- 2.How have counterfeits (things that promise satisfaction but don't deliver) kept your hunger alive?
- 3.What does being 'filled with goodness' look like practically in your daily experience?
- 4.When has God satisfied a longing so deeply that the craving actually stopped?
Devotional
The longing soul. The hungry soul. Two descriptions of the same condition: emptiness. A space inside you that's craving something it doesn't have. A hunger so deep it's become your identity. You're not a person who happens to be hungry. You're a hungry soul.
He satisfies the longing. He fills the hungry with goodness. Not partially. Not temporarily. Satisfies. Fills. The words describe completion — the longing met, the hunger resolved, the empty space occupied by something so good that the craving stops.
The psalm doesn't name what the soul longs for. It doesn't have to. Because the answer is the same regardless of the specific longing. The soul that longs for love finds God is love. The soul that longs for security finds God is a fortress. The soul that longs for purpose finds God is the one who calls. The soul that longs for belonging finds God says "my people." The longing is general. The satisfier is specific: God himself, showing up as whatever the soul needs.
Filled with goodness — tov. The same word God used in Genesis when he looked at creation and said it was good. The goodness that fills the hungry soul is the original goodness — the kind of good that God invented on the first days of the world. Not cheap good. Not artificial good. The real thing. The goodness that was there before sin introduced its counterfeits.
If your soul is longing. If your soul is hungry. This verse says the satisfaction exists. The filling is available. Not through more consumption, more distraction, more of the counterfeits that keep the hunger alive. Through the one who satisfies longing souls and fills hungry souls with the original goodness.
He satisfies. He fills. And the soul that was empty becomes the soul that's full.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
Such as sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death,.... This is the second instance of persons in distress calling on…
For he satisfieth the longing soul - This does not mean - what is indeed true in itself - that God has made provision…
Here is, I. A general call to all to give thanks to God, Psa 107:1. Let all that sing this psalm, or pray over it, set…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture