Alright, lesson 13, we're starting the fifth and the final book of the Psalter. We've made so much headway, only a few more lessons to go. We're going to be looking at Psalms 107 to 112 in this lesson. Only six, but they're really, really important, especially, well, I was especially 110, which is true, that's super duper important, but 107, the first Psalm of book five is super fun.
I really love it a lot. But for the last time, I'm going to give you a overall review overview of the Psalter's organization and its structure. I've been doing this every time we started a new book together, books one, two, three, and four, I took a little bit of time, five, eight minutes, something like that, to review where we've been and where we're going. And so since we're looking at the very final and fifth book here, I think we're going to do this one last time here, just so you can see how far we've really, really come.
So as I've said many times before, the Psalter is tracking Israel's royal history, right? I would have a ton of throwbacks to the Exodus because the Exodus is the paradigm of salvation and redemption and deliverance. And so Israel is hoping for a new Exodus, like I said, in a million psalms, well, a million, you know, dozens of Psalms. I'm going to see a ton also here in book five.
So we're tracking Israel's royal history predominantly from David all the way to the restoration of the David Kingdom. And it moves along a trajectory from lament to praise. All right, many, many commentaries and commentators scholars will point this out moving from lament to praise. The whole Psalter goes from lament to praise with the predominant lament Psalms, at least individual lament Psalms being in book one, and then book five, we're going to see there's a ton of praise Psalms as well.
So the whole sultry moves from lament to praise, individual books, kind of have a movement sometimes from lament to praise and certain Psalms have movements from lament to praise, especially those two Dasams where it starts off with some great difficulty and it's just a horrible situation God delivers that person and then they're praising God for that deliverance and giving thanks and offering up things, giving sacrifices, which are the two dot. All right, so that trajectory is really, really important. And within this trajectory, you've got five books. Each of them conclude with a doxology, as we've seen many times, usually the last verse, maybe two verses at the end of a book.
It's not really a final verse or two of that in that particular song, but it's really the final verses of the entire book itself, right? So no matter where you are in those five books, every single time it praises God, bless is the Lord and give some things for for all that he's done. Right. Okay, so it's not an accident that there are five books because like this little quote I've shared with you four times, five times already, it says rabbinic tradition concludes from this five fold structure that the Psalms constitute a Davidic Torah, that is a Davidic counterpart to the five books of the Mosaic law.
So that's beautiful. It's awesome. You got five books of the law, Moses, five books of the Psalter, because they really reflect something about each other to praise God is to follow his law. And to follow his law is to praise him.
And so as I've mentioned before, some are long gone, I picked up this quote that the five books of the law are like five fingers on one hand, the five books of the of the Psalter, like five fingers of the other hand, and when they class them together, you've got a beautiful moment of prayer or the soul is lifted up to God. So I just always really love that imagery there. So what are the five books and what are the main themes of these five books? I really hope by now you do have these Psalms memorized, not like every verse.
That's what I mean. I mean, like each book, what Psalms are they? So for example, book one is Psalms one to 41. So I do think it would be well worth your while to just memorize the beginning and end up each of these books.
They'll really help you in your prayer and you're going to Mass. We have a particular Psalm in the literature. You're like, Oh, okay, I get it. That's Psalm or that's a song from book three and book three is really about, you know, the father of the kingdom.
And so there's going to shed some light on the focus of the readings for that day. So I encourage you to do that. So book one is Psalms one, three, forty one. One and two, of course, is the intro, the prologue.
I've said that a billion times to you that you're going to have the themes of these first two Psalms found and develop throughout the rest of the Psalter. Okay, so nevertheless, Psalms one, three, forty one. And what is the theme of book one? It is focusing on the suffering, but righteous, David, King who calls out to God and is delivered by God.
The majority of those Psalms are personal lament Psalms of King David himself. I mean, the highest concentration of Davidic Psalms are right there in book one. I mean, I mean, like a percentage wise, the majority of the Psalms in book one are from David's one. I mean, and so it's focusing on David, King, you know, things are pretty rough and David's life and he has to overcome a lot of obstacles and he's trusting God all the time and God delivers him.
And it's really beautiful. And then book two, which is Psalms 42 to 72, that is focusing on the glory of the Davidic Kingdom, right? And really as it builds up to King Solomon, right? That beautiful Psalm of Psalm 72, the enthronement Psalm, really amazing.
It's the high point of the Psalter in many respects. Everything is going really, really well. There's fewer of the met Psalms, more praise Psalms in book two, but it's really focusing on the glory of the Davidic Kingdom. Then book three, if you remember, is pretty bleak.
It's pretty dark and depressing and melancholic. That Psalms 73 to 89 is a very short book and it's focusing on the fall of the Davidic Kingdom. Things are tough. I mean, their sin has brought them to the lowest place they've ever been.
Right. And the kingdom has been destroyed. The king has gone to temple in the city. They're reduced to rubble.
It's not very good. So there's a lot of community laments in book three. And then book four, Psalms 92, 106, another very short book. I mean, thank God, book three and four, the two darkest books of the Psalter.
Thank goodness that they're short, right? You don't want to be reading all these melancholic Psalms all day long. That would be pretty rough. Anyway, book four is 91, six.
That's focusing on the exile of the kingdom, really going back to basics, right? Trying to reflect on the fact that God is their king. They don't have a king anymore. God is their king and they're going to go and reflect on the wise advice of Moses.
Remember, so Psalm 90 is the only Psalm that's tried to to Moses. So Moses says things like, look, life is short, praise God, worship him. Do your best. You know, I'm paraphrasing, of course, but certainly life is short.
You don't know what it's going to end. And you've got Psalm 90 is a very beautiful prologue for the entire book. As I shared with you last couple of lessons. And now here we are finishing off everything in book five, which is Psalms 107 to 150.
And this is focusing on the restoration of the David Kingdom and the restoration of God's people as well. So Jerusalem Zion is rebuilt. A lot of Psalms celebrating that. His people have come back from exile, which is awesome too.
Now, although things are being restored, it's not completely restored. This is partial fulfillment. It's not yet fully realized because if you know your history, their biblical history, the king never came back, right? They never had a king.
They had a pledge of a bit of a kingdom when Joshua, we have to go back and study Ezra and the Amai and all this, but there is a pledge and a hope that God has not forgotten his promises, but really for over 500 years, they do not have a king or a kingdom. They have a temple, which is kind of pathetic replica of Solomon's temple. Some of the people came back from Judah and Benjamin and the Levites, not all of them, and not even the rest of the tribes have come back. So there's this expectation that God through the prophecies of the Psalms themselves, as well as the prophecies of the canonical prophets, God will bring us people back eventually.
The Davidic kingdom will be restored and the king will return. And ultimately, that's going to be the message of Christ. The first words out of his mouth are repent for the kingdom of heaven, which is the same thing as the kingdom of David is restored, is upon you. So that's your trajectory that we spend all this time in this Bible study, looking at, focusing on the Davidic king, the glory of the kingdom, the fall of the kingdom, and the exile of the kingdom, and now the restoration of the kingdom.
It's a very well-structured Psalter here. And although sometimes you see it like it seems to be meandering thematically, that's just not really the case. I think I've tried my best over the past 12 lessons to show you the very links and a chain to show you the progression of the Psalms moving one into another, following this trajectory of the royal history from Lamente-Praise. All right.
So on that point, then I have a quotation for you from your Catholic introduction to the Old Testament about book five, because book five is the longest. I mean, book one is a close second, right? Because book one goes from one to 41. And this is 107 to 150.
So they're really, really close. But it is the longest and it's the most well organized with the Psalter as we're going to see in the next few lessons. So here's a quote for you that will kick us off today. It says the abrupt mood shift between the end of book four and the beginning of book five is indicative of the overall contrast between the two books.
Book four ends with a plea for restoration from exile. And I'm going to review this with you in just a little bit. So hang tight. So book four ends with a plea for restoration for exile from exile, whereas book five begins with a Thanksgiving song that's a todasam praising God for restoring his people from exile.
The dominant mood throughout book five will be one of praise in certain Psalms will specifically reflect the joy of the worship or going up to the rebuilt temple. One way to analyze the structure of book five is as three cycles that move from Lamente to praise. That would be Psalms 107 to 119. Second cycle is 122, 136.
And the third and final cycle is 137 to 50, 150. The last Davidic Psalm of each cycle marks a transition after which Lamente ceases and unqualified praise takes over end quote. All right. So there is a great structure here, three cycles.
And I'll just say really quickly here. This is how I decided to structure the next number of lessons. So today we're doing part one of the first cycle, which is Psalms 107 to 112. Part two of the first cycle is the next lesson with 112 to 119.
If in the penultimate lesson will be 120 to 136 and our final lesson will be the third cycle 137 to 150. So there is a method to the madness of how I organize the lessons for this fifth book of this altar. All right. So I hope you get a sense there.
I hope that was very helpful in the past 10 minutes or so. We're looking at where we've come where we're going and book five is going to be great. I think I really enjoyed book four, honestly, all right. When you're focusing on the exile of the kingdom and how God is your king and life is short.
There's a lot of praise Psalms in there. I mean, the king hasn't come restoration hasn't taken place. That's certainly true. But the mood does lift up tremendously as you move from book three to before, but even more so when you get to book five, there's just a lot of wonderful Psalms here.
So I think you're going to really enjoy them a lot. So with that, let's look at Psalm 107. Psalm 107 is a Thanksgiving Psalm because it begins. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, where he is good as mercy into his forever.
So it's a Thanksgiving Psalm here. Now there is a very clear link in the chain here. Like this quotation I just read for you says, but I'm going to actually share the verses with you right now. So book four ends in one, oh, six verse 47 saying this, save us, Oh, Lord, our God, and gather us from among the nations that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise.
That is the final verse of Psalm 106. It then verse 48 there is just the doxology, right? Which technically is not part of the song, but you know what I mean? So the whole book ends book four ends on save us, Lord, regather us from the long donations.
We want to praise you and give thanks to your holy name and glory and your praise, etc, etc. So we're crying out to you to regather your people. All right. That's how the whole book ends.
Then the first Psalm of book five, Psalm 107 opens up with this statement that God has basically heard their prayer and regathered his people. So let's go to verse two. I'll read verse one over again for you because it's lovely. Oh, give thanks to the Lord for he is good.
So we're giving thanks because God has heard our prayer. Give thanks to the Lord for his mercy and doers forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. So that word redeemed is important.
So they were lost, they were enslaved, their exiled and God has brought them back. They are redeemed. Something great has happened. So let the redeemed for the Lord say so whom he has redeemed from trouble.
And here's the main point in verse three. And he has gathered in from the lands from the east and west and north and south. So verses one through three is a super strong opening to book five and it really sets the tone for the entire theme of book five, which is the restoration of the Vedic Kingdom and the restoration of God's people. Remember, it's always partial.
It's not fulfilling, complete and total and ultimately until Jesus Christ. But what a way to open up the song, right? So Psalm 107 is opening up saying you have heard our prayer. We do give you thanks.
You have redeemed us. You have regarded us from the lands from the north, east, south and west. All right. So that's your link in the chain.
That's so clear and so obvious. All right. So God has redeemed and gathered as people now as we're going to see he's redeeming both his own people to Jews. And there's no obviously historical, there's Benjaminites and Levites involved in all that.
But he will regather the Gentiles as well. And I do have some very famous quotations for you from the prophets, which I actually don't have time to get into. I just decided I have the references here. Isaiah 43.
You know what? I'm going to do it. Why not? Let's do it.
Isaiah 43. I always say we have the time and I'm just recording. Let's just have fun together. Right.
So Isaiah 43 versus five through six says this. Fear not for I'm with you. I will bring your offspring from the east and from the west. I will gather you.
I will say to the north give up into the south. Do not withhold. Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth. Everyone who is called by my name, who my creator from my glory, who my form and made that is awesome.
Right now, I would have to explain. There's a whole other concept going on here in the book of Isaiah. We're in the second half of the book of Isaiah now, which is the book of consolation, which is the book of redemption. Right.
God is re-gathering as people in this new Exodus. But the language is very, very similar to what we just saw in the in Psalm 107. And you got to read the whole context. I skipped over some really, I should have gone all the way back to chapter four to the verse one honestly, but I can't do that part.
But the whole concept of I'm gathering you from the east and the west and the north and the south. Everyone called by my name, whom I created and whom I formed. That's dynamite right there. Right.
So the prophets have the same concept in mind that God is going to re-gather his people. And there are some other passages as well. For example, Isaiah 56 versus verse eight, just a pick one here. It says, the says Lord God who gathers the outcasts of Israel.
I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered. So God will gather his own people, the Jews and the Germanites and Levites. But what about all the other tribes? What about all the Gentiles as well who come to fear the name of the Lord?
They too will be gathered. All right. So you get the point. There's some other references here, but the Psalm, Psalm 107, as well as many other songs that we've studied together, plus the prophets really give this perspective that God is re-gathering his people.
Now that re-gathering language is new Exodus, which will be accomplished with Jesus Christ, because just like they were enslaved to Egypt and exiled from the land and then brought back by Moses, and then as well as Joshua. So too, are they now exiled amongst the nations, northeast, south and west, and there will be a new Moses, Jesus Christ, a new Joshua, Jesus Christ, who will gather his people back to his own, back to his own land, to his own kingdom, which is the church. And the land was going to be the promised land of heaven. So that's really cool.
This is a fantastic way to start off a book five. All right, let's keep going now. So versus, okay, versus four and following now is going to describe four types of people or four peoples in different situations, difficult situations that God has redeemed. Right.
So there's a refrain here. If you read carefully, I'm going to try to emphasize this clearly for you as we go through this. There's always this refrain about, again, four types of people in four different types of difficult circumstances. It says that they cry out to the Lord and they're trouble and he delivered them from their distress.
And in response, it says, let us thank the Lord for his merciful love, for his wonderful work to the sons of men. That refrain is mentioned four different times, which you can clearly see why this is a really beautiful Thanksgiving Psalm because the refrain is we are in big, big trouble for whatever reason. Right. We cry out to the Lord in distress and trouble.
And then he delivers us and we think in first verse one of four works. All right. So that is the superstructure of the first half of Psalm 107. Now, what are the four types of people?
First, it's the one more thing before I get into this. You're going to notice and I'll break it down for you that there's Exodus imagery all over the place, which it should not surprise you at all by now. Like I just said, the Exodus is the paradigm of redemption and deliverance. God did it once from Egypt.
He's going to do it again for all the, for all the exiles scattered throughout the world, plus the Gentiles that are with them. All right. So keep that in mind. So verses four through nine are those people who wander in the desert.
So it begins some and that's how you know we're talking about a new group of people because it says some of some people did this. Some people were experiencing that. So that's how you know we're talking about a new group. All right.
Verse four, some wandered in desert wastes finding no way to a city to dwell in hungry and thirsty. Their soul fainted within them. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble and he delivered them from their distress. He led them by a straight way till they reached a city to dwell in.
Let them think the Lord for his merciful love for his wonderful works to the sons of men. For he satisfies him who is thirsty and the hungry, he feels with good things. All right. We'll stop right there.
That last verse by the way, verse nine should sound very familiar, but I'll come back to that in just a little while. So the first type of person in the great difficulty are those who are wandering in desert wastes. They have no city to live in. They're hungry and they're thirsty and their soul is fainted within them.
That should sound really familiar. That's 100% a throwback to the story of the Exodus to those people, the first generation of Israelites and the second generation who are wandering in the desert. So there's so many passages you can go to independent to from Exodus all the way down to the Deuteronomy. I do have Deuteronomy 119, a mention here.
I believe your comments are used to that one as well. There's just a ton, right? So I'm not going to go back and read that for you. Obviously Israel is wandering in the desert and they're hungry and they're thirsty.
Unfortunately, they're whining about it and not trusting God and it says they murmur against Moses, which really is a word has a connotation of mutiny and rebellion and disobedience, right? But they're hungry and thirsty all the time and they don't learn their lesson. God constantly has to discipline them and punish them and then Moses intercedes and then something great happens like Moses strikes the rock and water pours forth to satisfy their thirst or God provides man up and quail in the water. So that's very, very clear.
Versus four through nine are not just, I should say this, not just those people in Exodus who left Egypt, but also the people who are leaving Babylon and other nations as well. They too have to realize the journey from Babylon back to the promised land was a second wandering in the wilderness, trusting in the Lord. He provides for their hunger and their thirst. He protects them from beasts and from robbers and so on and so forth.
So what they experienced before, they're now crying out to God to experience again. All right, then you got the second group of people in verse 10. Some sat in darkness and in gloom, prisoners in affliction and in irons. For they had rebelled against the words of God and had spurned the counsel of the most high.
Their hearts were bowed down with hard labor. They fell down with none to help. Here's your refrain. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble and he delivered them from distress.
He brought them out of darkness and gloom and broke their bonds asunder. Here's the second part of the refrain. Let them thank the Lord for a steadfast love, for his wonderful works to the sons of men. For he shatters the doors of bronze and cuts into the bars of iron.
All right, so here's your second group sitting in darkness and gloom. Clearly they're prisoners. Okay, well, certainly this is true of Israel and Egypt when they were slaves. Okay, but also Israel was taken as prisoners by Assyria in 722 BC where the 10 tribes of the Northern Kingdom were captured and killed and exiled and imprisoned.
And also Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC, right? So just like they were imprisoned in Egypt, now they're imprisoned in bonds and prisoners in darkness and gloom now. Now, King Cyrus broke the bonds and the bars of iron when he released the Jews from captivity. And you can find this prophesied in Isaiah 45, verse 2, and the whole context is amazing how Cyrus is prophesied by name a couple hundred years before everything happened.
But then Ezra is also very explicit in fulfilling the Isaiah 45, just those first few verses of Isaiah chapter, Ezra chapter 1, how King Cyrus, who is the Lord's anointed one, which is amazing because how can a foreign pagan king be God's anointed one, his Messiah? That's crazy. A lot to say about that, but I'm going to tease you a little bit and we'll have to talk about it when we get to Isaiah. But he breaks their bonds and their bars of iron and releases the Jews, right?
So the second group of people who are imprisoned, both under Egypt and now under Babylon, they're freed. Then we have the third group of people in verses 17. Some were sick through their sinful ways and because of their inequities suffered affliction. They loathed any kind of food and they drew near to the gates of death.
Here's your refrain. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble and he delivered them from their distress. He sent forth his word and healed them and delivered them from the destruction. Part B of the refrain.
Let them thank the Lord for a steadfast love, for his wonderful works to the sons of men. And let them offer thanksgiving sacrifices and tell of his deeds and songs of joy. So this third group of people are sick because they're sinful and says they loathe any kind of food. This is all definitely a throwback to the Exodus because it says explicitly many parts.
They loathe the manna, right? So their rebellion, their sinfulness, is causing them to get sick because they loathe God's promises and his gifts. We find this also in stories like the bronze serpent, where they rebel against Moses and God and they're sick from the snakebites. More than God heals them from their illnesses when they look upon the bronze serpent.
So there's a number of references you can think back to the Exodus story. Then of course we'll apply to the return from Babylonian captivity and ultimately Jesus Christ. I did throw a couple of passages in here for you, Matthew 8, John 4, where God, honestly, Jesus heals everybody. He's always healing the blind, he's always healing the leper, the paralytics and so on and so forth.
So ultimately Jesus heals his own people here in this ministry. Alright, the final group of people, verse 23 and following. Some went down to the sea and ships, doing business on the great waters. They saw the deeds of the Lord, his wondrous works in the deep.
For he commanded and raised the storm he went, which lifted up the waves of the sea. They mounted up to heaven, they went down to the depths. Their courage melted away in their evil plight. They reeled and staggered like drunken men and were at their wits end.
Then they cried to the Lord and they're troubled, he delivered them from their distress. He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed. Then they were glad because they had quieted and he brought them to their desired haven. Let them thank the Lord for his merciful love, for his wonderful works of the sons of men.
Let them extol him in the congregation of the people and praise him in the assembly of the elders. So here's our fourth and final group, those who are at peril on the seas. Now some commentators will point out that Israel did pass through the Red Sea. Of course, we know that story very, very well.
But not only that, the Israelites are really the Jews. Actually, Israelites in general under King Solomon, they also voyaged on the seas to rebuild the temple, which ultimately was destroyed. Then they have to rebuild the temple when they came back from Babylonic captivity, and certainly they're going to have to get back on the seas and ships in order to find resources to rebuild the temple. Right?
So they're struggling in this, I think the concept here is even, so both in redemption and coming back from captivity, but also in rebuilding the temple and rebuilding Jerusalem, they're suffering all kinds of difficulties in trials. But the Lord takes care of everything, and it says that he'd come in the verse between the nine. He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed. And then they were glad because they had quiet, and he brought them to their desired haven.
Alright, so God is master over all the elements. Now we've seen this type of passage before about God is the only one who has mastery over the sea and calms the waves and makes it quiet. We saw that back in Psalm 65, Psalm 89, Psalm 104, and yet here we have it again in Psalm 107. And each of those previous times I had mentioned to you that this is fulfilled in Jesus.
If you go to Matthew 8, famous famous story where Jesus is asleep in the boat and the storm is raging and everyone is freaking out. And they say, Jesus, don't you care that we're expiring that we're perishing? And he just gets up and yons and stretches and calms the sea. And I'm like, whoa, who is this?
That even the wind and the waves obey him? Well, their reaction is perfectly justified because the Old Testament here in Psalms as well is pretty much everywhere else. Is that only God can calm the storm and the seas? God created the world and he has mastery over the world.
So when Jesus gets up and calms the sea, it shows that he is God. It's just one of these, because remember Jesus proclaims that he is God in very Jewish ways, both in words and in deeds. So we will say things like, I am, before Abraham was, I am, he will say, I am Lord of the Sabbath. These are all divine claims.
But then he also calms the seas, which the apostles know that only God can do. So he's God. But there's one more little connection here that I want to make for you. It's very clear here in Psalm 107 about this group of people who are struggling on the ocean in their ships and God calms the seas, which Jesus does.
But this whole Psalm introduces book five of the Psalter, right? And book five of the Psalter is about the restoration of the kingdom, right? So when Jesus calms the waves himself, basically what he is proclaiming through that miracle is that the restoration is here. They've been waiting for 500 years for the David King to come back and restore the kingdom.
Well, guess what? The wait is over. Jesus is here. So he calms the sea and the waves, fulfilling Psalm 107 and other Psalms as well, but certainly 107 to say the restoration is here.
Everything that you're reading about in book five, Jesus has now come to fulfill. So there's that one little further connection that we can make, I believe, on that. So those are four types of people, but the Psalms aren't over yet. It goes on in verses 33 to 38 to proclaim God's wonderful works in ways that you wouldn't expect, what we call the theme of reversals, where, in fact, I'm going to read these for you, but I'm going to also boil it down to how this refers to a previous story of the Old Testament, and they're all new Exodus expectations, Old Exodus, new Exodus.
God is in control. He does things that you wouldn't expect in order to take care and provide for his people. So let's go to verse 33. He turns rivers into a desert.
That's clearly a theme of reversal. Rivers shouldn't be a desert, but God does it. Springs of water into a thirsty ground. A fruitful land.
Okay, by the way, verse 33, rivers into a desert. Springs of water into a thirsty ground. This could be a throwback to the story of Elijah. If you remember, in Elijah's ministry, in the books of the kings, Isaiah proclaimed a three-year drought and a resulting famine as well.
So not even do showed up in the land because of Israel's disobedience and the unveiling of the deuteronomic curses. No water came upon the land. So the fruitful, rich land, lush land irrigated very, very well is now just parched and thirsty in a desert. So that could be a throwback to the story of Elijah.
And then they honestly, I should say really quickly, that makes a lot more sense because Elijah is a new Moses figure who is trying to deliver a new land. Who is trying to deliver the people from their spiritual bondage. And you just got to go back. I can't get into all those connections between Elijah and Moses right now, but just go back and listen to the Bible study in 1st and 2nd Kings.
Then I get into all that stuff. Over and over and over again, Elijah is a new Moses figure trying to bring about a new Exodus. So there is obviously a connection there. Then verse 34, a fruitful land into a salty waste because of the wickedness of its inhabitants.
Well, what might that refer to but a lot? Sodom and Gomorrah in the surrounding cities were truly a very lush and verdant and prosperous land. But because of their disobedience and their sin, it was reduced to a salty waste, as well as referred to through the fire and brimstone. And of course, Lot's wife ended off very poorly by turning into a pillar of salt.
Verse 35, he turns a desert into pools of water. That's a reversal. He parched land into springs of water. This is kind of the reverse of verse 33.
But now that was a desert in parched land is now flowing with water. When did he do this? During the Exodus, right? Not just during the Exodus, but also during Elijah's time at the end of those three years.
Not just so Moses strikes a rock and then all the people and animals can satiate their thirst. Elijah prays to the Lord and this little cloud comes upon the horizon, alternately drenched in floods and everything because they're waiting for all this water. So again, the Lord is in control and there's all this Exodus background here. Let's keep going on.
Verse 36, there he lets the hungry dwell and they establish a city to live in. They sow fields and plant vineyards and get a fruitful yield. By his blessing, they multiply greatly and he does not let their cattle decrease. When they are diminished and brought low through oppression and trouble and sorrow, he pours contempt upon princes and makes them wander in trackless wastes.
But he raises up the needy out of affliction and makes their families like flocks, the upright sea and are glad and all wickedness stops in his mouth. I believe this is probably a reference here to the conquest of the land. After all these things happen, he did give them a city to dwell in within the land where they could sow their fields and plant their vineyards and get a fruitful yield, etc., and then anybody who fought against them, like these princes, he brings low and conquers them. So that, to me, would definitely be the time under Joshua and the judges where after the Exodus takes place where the desert becomes very lush and flowing with rivers of water from the rock and so on and so forth, he gives them this land as well.
So this whole concept here that you see of the theme of reversals of the land becoming a wasteland and so on and so forth is really echoed in verse 9. We read it, I told you I'd come back to it, so I'm going to tell you what's going on right now. In that first group of people, those who wandered in desert places finding those cities to dwell in, well now we just read that God did give them a city to dwell in under Joshua. But there's this interesting line that says in verse 9, he satisfies him who is thirsty and the hungry he fills with good things.
So first and foremost, that is referring to the Israelites, thirsting and hungering in the wilderness. It's all new Exodus stuff, right? Well, original Exodus and pointing forward to new Exodus. And the new Exodus connection here is important because if you remember if it's echoing somewhere in the back of your brain, well that sounds very much like what Mary says in her magnificots, her great song, I soul magnified as the Lord.
The whole song there in Luke chapter 1 in verse 55, Mary basically quotes that exact verse. He fills the hungry with good things, satisfies the thirsty. So what's going on here? Mary is quoting Psalm 107 verse 9, among other things.
Again, quoting from the very first Psalm in book 5, which is all about the restoration of the David Kingdom. She knows and proclaims in her beautiful song and her hymn that the restoration is here, that the king has returned and is now in her womb, growing beautifully in her sacred, pure womb because he is going to restore the David Kingdom. So on the one hand, that line does refer back to the original Exodus and the desert wanderings. But when Mary quotes it, she's saying that the new Exodus has come, that all of us were thirsty and were hungry in the desert wanderings of our life, we're going to be satisfied with good things and filled with good things because the king has come back.
I hope you're tracking with me because that's phenomenal. And to be quite honest with you, I didn't see that connection and think about this in depth and tell us to prepare this lesson because it's just amazing how much you learned it, the more time you spend on this stuff. So it never stops studying scripture constantly learning there. But Mary is quoting Psalm 107 specifically to say that the restoration has come.
Book 5 is being completed. All right, I just love that so much. Okay, then the whole song ends in verse 43, whoever is wise, let him give heed to these things, let men consider the steadfast love of the Lord. So it's kind of a call to action to trust in the Lord.
He did all these great things in the past. He's going to do it again. The new Exodus will come. So be wise, take heed to these things, remember them and stay faithful to God's hands.
And then be faithful to God's said, his steadfast love. All right, and that whole appeal to be wise is going to be important to later on in Psalm 111 verse 10. We'll talk about that soon enough, but all the wisdom literature be wise. Well, what is wisdom?
We're going to talk about that in Psalm 111 a little bit. So one more little quote here before we move on. And that's a quote from St. Augustine that I pulled from your revival about taking heed and being wise and considering God's steadfast love.
So St. Augustine commenting on this final verse says, why will the wise man always keep these things in mind because he will understand the mercies of the Lord, not his own merits or his strengths or his power? And how will he constantly recall them through humility? So that's so important and relevant for us as well.
Remember, we, you and I and everyone else who have been baptized, we are being regathered from our exile scattered among the nations coming into the restored kingdom of David, which is the kingdom of God, through the Messiah Jesus Christ. So our salvation is and must always be understood as a redemption in a new Exodus. So the wise man will take heed to all these things that took place in the Bible and praise God for his mercy in steadfast through humility. So the Augustine says not our own strengths, our own power.
We can't come back from exile on our own, only God can. So you can see why I just really love here we are over half an hour talking about just one Psalm. I really, really enjoy it because Psalm 107 is very much a prologue for the whole book, book five. Like Psalm 90 was a prologue for book four, the Psalm 90 is the Psalm of Moses.
And then so you can kind of see the themes of Psalm 90 be unpacked throughout the rest of the book four. The same thing is going to happen here in book five. Psalm 107 serves as a bit of a prologue, rejoicing what God has done in the past through the Exodus from Egypt and taking heed through wisdom of all these things, clinging to the Lord, remembering his hyssus. His steadfast love and mercy, his covenant fidelity because he's going to do it again.
So I love it. I absolutely love it. That is Psalm 107. Let's move on now.
Psalm 108, 109 and 110 really should be seen as a great block of Psalms here because it's all prophetic. It's all prophetical of Jesus Christ. So broadly speaking, I will do these one after the other, but Psalm 108 is about the return of the Messiah, the anointed one, the king, the divinity king. He returns in these victorious over his enemies.
Psalm 109 is how the Messiah, the king suffers greatly at the hands of his betrayers and the people who persecute him. And then Psalm 110 is how the Messiah is glorified and sits at the right hand of majesty, the right hand of God. So I go, okay, well, this makes sense on its own because we're talking about the restoration of the kingdom, but again, it can only be understood in terms of Christ. They had no king from the time when Cyrus allowed them to return back home to the time of Jesus Christ.
There was no king. So Psalm 108 in many respects is about Jesus coming on earth, right, taking flesh. He has come. The king has returned to his people through the incarnation.
But then Psalm 109 is about the Messiah, Jesus Christ, who suffers at the hands of his enemies, the Sanhedrin, but of course Judas who portrays him. And then Psalm 110 is about his Paschal mysteries, especially the resurrection and the ascension, because it's through the ascension that he sits at the right hand of the Father. So Psalm 108 is the incarnation. 109 is the suffering of Christ, and 110 is the glorification of Christ.
That's how I think it's very beautiful to see these three Psalms, again pointing forward to the future about restoration that will ultimately take place in Jesus. Okay, so that's how we're teaming this up. Let's look at Psalm 108 now. Hey, this is Dr.
Nick. Thank you so much for listening to this course sample. Please become a student over at scripture and tradition.com where you can listen to this entire course, but also all the other courses that we have available in the S&T audio library where you can listen to them on demand, however, and whenever you want. So thank you so much.
God bless you and keep studying your Bible.