Psalms 107:3

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 him speak openly. "From the east and the west, from the north and the sea" (ver. 3). Now then we understand these redeemed, in the whole circle of the earth. This people of God, freed from a great and broad Egypt, is led, as through the Red Sea, that in Baptism it may make an end of its enemies. For by the sacrament as it were of the Red Sea, that is by Baptism consecrated with the Blood of Christ, the pursuing Egyptians, the sins, are washed away. ..."But all these things happened to them in a figure, and were written for our admonition, on whom the ends of the ages have come." ...

And thus He fasted when He was tempted, still in need of food before death; but He ate and drank when He was glorified, after the resurrection no longer in need of food. There He was showing in Himself our struggle, here in us His consolation, defining both in forty days. For He fasted forty days when He was tempted in the wilderness, as it is written in the Gospel, before the death of His flesh; and again, He was with the disciples for forty days, as Peter speaks in the Acts of the Apostles, coming in and going out, eating and drinking after the resurrection of His flesh. The number forty seems to signify the passage of this world for those who are called to grace, through Him who did not come to destroy the law but to fulfill it. For there are ten commandments of the law, already the grace of Christ spread throughout the world; and the world is divided into four parts, and ten multiplied by four makes forty; because those redeemed by the Lord, He gathered them from the regions, from the East and West, and North and Sea. Thus fasting for forty days before the death of the flesh, it was as if He was crying out: Abstain from the desires of this world; but eating and drinking for forty days after the resurrection of the flesh, it was as if He was crying out: Behold, I am with you until the consummation of the world.

"From the rising of the sun and from its setting, from the north and the sea." He seems indeed to have named four climes: the east, the west, the south, and the north — that is, the four climes of the world. But the psalm does not contain it so. For here it has: "from the rising of the sun and from its setting" — behold, two climes; "from the north," that is, from the region of the septentrion — behold, three climes. "And the sea." The sea, surely, is in the west. So then see that he named the west twice, and the south not even once. Why then did he name three climes, and refuse to mention one? We read in Habakkuk: "God will come from the south, and the Holy One from the shady mountain." "God will come from the south." It is said of the Savior: because God was born in the south. For by the situation of Jerusalem, Bethlehem is set to the south: therefore it is said, "God will come from the south." But if "God will come from the south," how is it now said, "From the rising of the sun and from its setting, from the north"? The south wind, the auster and the notus, is passed over in silence. "From the rising of the sun and from its setting." "Amen, amen, I say to you, that many will come from the east and the west, and will recline in the bosom of Abraham: but the sons of this generation will be far off." "From the rising of the sun and from its setting" — the foreigners, surely. "And from the north": "The north wind is the most hardened wind, but by name it is called the right hand"; "From the north," he says, "evils will blaze forth over the earth." The sea is read of in Numbers and in Exodus and in all holy Scripture; and wherever you hear "the sea," according to the climes it is always understood as the west. For by the situation of Jerusalem this great sea, as it is called, is in the west. See therefore the mystery of the Scriptures: in this place the west is named twice, and the notus not even once. Why is this said? Because in this psalm the people of the Jews is not written as to be called, but only that of the Gentiles.