Psalm 107:13 means that when people are in trouble and turn to the LORD in desperation, he rescues them from their distress. The verse is a short, confident report of what happened: a group of people who were in serious danger called out to God, and he delivered them. It is spoken by the psalmist, who is recounting God’s faithful acts to encourage others to thank him.
Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses.
Psalm 107:13 (WEB)
What Psalm 107:13 Means
The phrase “then they cried to the LORD” describes a moment of turning. Before this point, the people in the psalm had been living in the consequences of their own rebellion, and their trouble had worn them down. Crying out is what people do when they have run out of their own strength and recognize they need someone stronger than themselves. The verse does not describe a polished prayer. It describes a raw cry.
The second half, “he saved them out of their distresses,” carries the weight of the verse. The word “distresses” points to narrow, pressing places, the kind of situation where there is no room to move. The psalmist’s claim is that the LORD opened a way out. The verse does not promise that every hard circumstance will end on demand, and it does not say that prayer works like a formula. What it affirms is God’s willingness to act on behalf of people who come to him in need.
The Context of Psalm 107:13
Psalm 107 belongs to the Psalter, the collection of songs and prayers in the Old Testament, and it is traditionally associated with King David, though the psalm itself does not name its author. It seems to have been written for the worship life of Israel, possibly for gatherings of people who had returned from exile or who had experienced God’s deliverance in their own history. The psalm opens by calling the redeemed to give thanks, and it then offers a series of short portraits of different people in trouble: travelers lost in the wilderness, prisoners in chains, the sick, and sailors caught in storms.
The verses just before and after verse 13 make its meaning clearer. Verses 10 through 12 describe people in darkness, bound in affliction, who fell down with no one to help. Verse 14 then says that the LORD brought them out of darkness and broke their chains. Read in this setting, verse 13 is the hinge of the story: it is the moment when a people in bondage turn toward God, and the deliverance that follows is the answer to that turning.
Key Phrases in Psalm 107:13
Psalm 34:17
The righteous cry, and the LORD hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles.
(WEB)
This verse echoes the pattern of Psalm 107:13 by describing the righteous crying out and the LORD hearing and delivering them from their troubles. Reading the two together shows that the cry for help is a recurring theme across the Psalms, and that God’s answer is consistently one of deliverance rather than indifference.
Psalm 50:15
Call on me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”
(WEB)
This verse includes God’s call to his people to call upon him in the day of trouble, with the promise that he will deliver them. It pairs naturally with Psalm 107:13 because it presents the same invitation from God’s side, showing that the cry for help is something God himself asks for.
A Short Prayer From Psalm 107:13
Lord, I am tired of pretending I have this under control. Some days the trouble feels too narrow for me to breathe, and I do not know where to turn except to you. So I am turning now. I am crying out to you with the words I have, even if they are messy. Pull me out of the places that are pressing in on me, and show me the open ground you have prepared. Thank you that you hear the cry of people in trouble and that you act to save. Amen.
