Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy;
O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good; for his mercy endureth forever - from Psalms 106:1. The Psalmist puts into restored Israel mouth the same thanksgiving as she had offered in the anticipation of faith and hope toward the close of the captivity, (Psalms 106:1-48.)
Verse 2. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy. The Jews and Israel restored are "the redeemed of the Lord" (Isaiah 62:12; Isaiah 63:4; cf. Isaiah 35:10, "The ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs," etc.; 59:20; cf. Romans 11:26). Hengstenberg translates, instead of "the enemy," 'trouble,' as the Hebrew х tsaar (H6862)] is translated, Psalms 107:6; Psalms 107:13; and Psalms 106:44). But the parallel, Psalms 106:10, confirms the rendering here, though the Hebrew term for "enemy" is different there
х 'owyeeb (H341)]. Psalms 44:10; Psalms 74:10 translate the same Hebrew as here, enemy. Psalms 107:39-42 also support the English version.
Verse 3. And gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south. "South" - literally, the sea; namely, the Red Sea, if the south be meant. But it is more probable, from the usage of the expression, 'the sea,' that the Mediterranean is meant, southwest of the Holy Land toward Africa. The Psalmist contents himself with naming the places according to the number of the quarters of heaven, without exactly naming each quarter. The omission of the south, and the substitution of 'the sea,' on which the exiles returned from Egypt and other lands (Deuteronomy 28:68), is occasioned by the fact that there is nothing southward of Judea but a wilderness. Compare similarly the omission of one of the four quarters, Psalms 75:6; so also Isaiah 49:12, which, with its juxtaposition of the north and the sea, was evidently before the mind of the Psalmist: "Behold these shall come from far; and lo, these from the north, and from the west (literally, the sea), and these from the land of Sinim." Compare also the enumeration of the four quarters of heaven, Isaiah 43:5-6; Isaiah 56:8. The gathering of Israel at the return from Babylon was not so world-wide as is here described. Therefore there must he an ulterior gathering of all Israel from her present world-wide dispersion intended.