Psalms 107:2

"Let them say who are redeemed of the Lord, whom He has redeemed from the hand of their enemies" [Psalm 107:2]. Redeemed indeed it seems was also the people of Israel from the land of Egypt, from the hand of slavery, from fruitless labours, from miry works; yet let us see whether those who say these things, are they who were freed by the Lord from Egypt. It is not so. But who are they? "Those whom He redeemed." Still one might take it also of them, as redeemed from the hand of their enemies, that is, of the Egyptians. Let them be expressed exactly who they are, for whom this Psalm would be sung. "He gathered them from the lands;" these might still be the lands of Egypt, for there are many lands even in one province.

Let them say so who have been redeemed by the Lord, whom he redeemed from the hand of the enemy. He is speaking properly about the calling of the Gentiles: for this psalm holds this mystery. "Who have been redeemed" — in the Lord's passion. "Let them say so who have been redeemed": for he himself is the savior and the redeemer and the price. "Let them say so who have been redeemed": he himself redeemed, he himself gives the price, his own blood. But why did he give as the price his own blood? That he might redeem us from the hand of the enemy. For we were held captive in the hand of the devil: and for this reason he came and redeemed us, that he might set us free from the hand of the devil. "Whom he redeemed from the hand of the enemy." "That you may destroy the enemy and the defender." "Whom he redeemed from the hand of the enemy." "An enemy man oversowed the tares." And the enemy is the devil. "Whom he redeemed from the hand of the enemy." He is an enemy, and yet he is the possessor. Therefore he holds us in his hand: not because he loves, but because he hates. "Whom he redeemed from the hand of the enemy." Great is the majesty and great the power of the Lord's blood, which loosed the hand of the devil. For just as there are certain animals which grip something enclosed within themselves (this both the doctors and the natural philosophers say), so that unless it be broken, it is not parted from them, nor does it let go what it holds shut inside; but if oil be applied, at once it is dissolved, and what had been gripped tight is scattered and divided into parts: so too the blood of Christ loosed the most hardened hand of the devil. He was unwilling to let us go: the Lord poured out his blood like the oil of mercy, and through it he set us free. "From the regions he gathered them." See how great is the hand of the devil. "Whom he redeemed from the hand of the enemy." But these whom he redeemed from the hand of the enemy — they were being held in all regions in the hand of the enemy. "From the regions he gathered them": throughout the whole world the hand of the devil possessed us.