Description
Book V
(Psalms 107-150)
Book V of the Psalter opens with Psalm 107, a community hymn celebrating God’s graciousness in delivering the community of faith from exile in Babylon. The psalmist says: “Let the redeemed of YHWH say so, those he redeemed from trouble and gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south” (107:2–3), words that seem to be an answer to the plea of the psalmist in 106:47. The psalm continues with the stories of four groups of people who are rescued by God from life-threatening situations, together representing, perhaps, the “redeemed of YHWH” of verse 2: a group of wanderers, lost in the desert, who finally arrive at their destination (107:4–9);prisoners who are set free (107:10–16); “sick” persons who are healed (107:17–22); and sailors who are saved from shipwreck (107:23–32)…