"Let the redeemed of YAHWEH say this, those HE redeemed from the hand of the foe, those HE gathered from the lands, from east and west, from north and south.
Some strayed in the wilderness and were lost, far away from the city.
They wandered about hungry and thirsty, their lives ebbing away.
Then they cried to YAHWEH in anguish, and HE rescued them from their distress.
HE led them by a straight way, to a city where they could dwell.
Let them thank YAHWEH for HIS love and wondrous deeds for humans.
HE quenches the thirst of the soul and satisfies the hunger of the heart."
- Psalm 107:2-9
(What we call 'redemption' comes to us in two stages--one already achieved but the other not yet, not till the end of our lives. We are a pilgrim Church, and we still have to pass through the desert. But the first stage of salvation is the guarantee of the second, and we pass through all this confident of GOD's protection.
The Gospels present situations similar to those described by the psalm: the hungry people fed by JESUS [cf. Mark 6:30-46]; the chained and manacled person possessed by the devil in the sepulcher is liberated by JESUS [cf. Mark 5:1-20]; various sorts of sicknesses are cured [cf. Mark 6:53-56 and 7:24-37; the storm is calmed [cf. Mark 4:35-41]... Whoever prays with this psalm will acquire wisdom, nourished by memory and unceasing meditation on the love that GOD shows us throughout history and life.)
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