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Let the Redeemed of
the Lord Say So — Page 3
Sermon on Psalm 107
Now let’s look at the second stanza—the West. In the Hebrew mind, the West was the place where the sun set, and so represented darkness—that place where God no longer speaks to enlighten His people as He once had through His prophets. So, we find the people of God in the darkness of bondage of Babylon because they had rebelled and spurned the counsel of the Most High.
Again, they cried out to the Lord, the Lord saved them, and freed them from their chains, and just as promised in Isaiah 45, the Lord used Cyrus to “shatter gates of bronze and cut bars of iron asunder.” His loyal love is everlasting!
And Stanza 3—from the North. There are several aspects of the North which are important to the Hebrews. It is the direction from which all conquests would come—even by Egypt, Jeremiah tells us! (Jer 47:1). But the North is also the symbol of idolatry, as the mountain of the North (Zaphon) was the dwelling place of Baal. And idolatry was the primary reason for why the Lord sent Judah into exile and why the Lord destroyed the Northern Kingdom.
Now, some of your translations here might say in verse 17: “Fools, because of their rebellious way, and because of their iniquities, were afflicted.” And the interpretation of this passage has been that the people of God were afflicted with illness, and needed physical healing. Now, I believe strongly that God sometimes chooses to heal people physically, but this passage is not suggesting that. This word “afflicted,” or what we have on our chart, “humbled themselves,” is used in the same exact Hebrew form in other passages like Ezra 8:21 where the people of God are preparing to return from exile and they are humbling themselves by fasting.
What we see here is a people riddled with guilt for the sins which they have committed, and they find food morally detestable. They cried out to the Lord, He delivered them by sending His healing word, and they were able to, in verse 22, offer “sacrifices of thanksgiving”—the Todah—that communal meal sacrifice described in Leviticus 3 & 7 that is laid on top of the sin and guilt offerings after sins are paid for—the sacrifice which is ultimately fulfilled in the Marriage Supper of the Lamb and which we continue to participate as we partake in the Eucharist, “the Thanksgiving,” which is a reminder of our atoning sacrifice, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
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