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COMMENTARY ON PSALM 107 Alleluia. E HAVE OFrEN DEMONSTRATED that the Old Testament is a shadow of the New.l It is no less easy to grasp that from this psalm, too: it both prophesies the Jews' liberation and foretells the salvation of all human beings. It has a close connection with the previous ones: the hundred and fourth [psalm] contains an outline of the promises made by God to the patriarchs and the gifts provided to their offspring, while the one after that brought out in addition to the favors the Jews' ingratitude as well and the punishments inflicted on them for it. This one, on the other hand, foretells the freedom from captivity on account of the ineffable loving-kindness shown by God. And since our situation is foreshadowed in theirs, we recognize also in this psalm the prophecies ofour salvation ; the greater part of the inspired composition bears on us rather than on them. (2) Confess to the Lord that he is good, because his mercy is forever (v. I). Once again the inspired word urges singing the praises of God the benefactor, and it says loving-kindness is the basis of the hymn singing. Let those redeemed by the Lord, whom he redeemed from the hand ofthefoe, say so (v. 2}.Jews freed from the slavery of Babylonians ought to have sung his praises, and it always behooves us to do it, freed as we are from the devil's tyranny. He gathered them.from aU quarters, from east and west, from north and sea (v. 3). We have not found this realized in the case ofJews: they live scattered throughout the whole world. The Church from 1. Shadow and reality is another way Theodoret has of formulating the hermeneutic he declared in his preface for approaching the Psalms; earlier in the series he took more seriously the ·shadow" of the historical facts. especially when encouraged by psalm titles, whereas he can also find an eschatological sense in them. as he proceeds to do here in a unique way. 188 COMMENTARY ON PSALM 107 189 the nations, on the other hand, he summoned and assembled in all parts of the world, east and west, south and north, and it is possible to see such gatherings everywhere on land and sea. (3) In the case ofJews, however, this has happened faintly, some returning from Babylon, some few assembled at that time from Egypt and nearby nations. [1737] Some wandered in the waterless wilderness (v. 4): Babylon was a wilderness and waterless, being bereft of God; and the throng of the Jews, in thrall to it, was deprived of spiritual watering. Those from the nations who have come to faith were living, as it were, in a waterless wilderness , "having no hope and being godless,"2 the divine Apostle says. They found no way to an inhabited city: neither Jews had the strength to escape their captors and recover their own homeland , nor did those from the nations who have come to faith find the way leading to the divine city before the Incarnation of the Savior. City here is to be understood as the devout way of life. (4) Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them (v. 5). Hunger for the divine teaching oppressed the one and the other : Jews in servitude in Babylon were deprived of priests and could not perform worship according to the Law, while the nations in turn did not accept a divine Law nor enjoy spiritual teaching, though these are the means by which souls are normally nourished. God, to be sure, threatened Jews with this hunger: "I shall inflict famine on the land," he is saying, "not a famine of bread or a thirst for water, but a hunger for hearing the word of the Lord."3 They cried to the Lord in their distress, and he delivered them from their needs (v. 6). The more devout among the Jews offered supplication to God; the inspired composition of Daniel also teaches us this: he, Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael cried aloud for all and sought divine mercy.4 The nations , on the other hand, groaned as they wrestled with calamities of all kinds, and had recourse to inconsolable weeping and wailing, being without hope of resurrection. While they did not seek from the God of all release from the troubles besetting them, he in his love nevertheless saw them groaning and ex2 . Eph 2.12. 3. Amos 8.1 I. 4...

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