Book
Five (Psalms
107-150): Celebrates restoration, features the Songs of Ascent, and ends in
massive praise.
“O
give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.” (107:1)
“Christ
has, on occasion, been rightfully angry with backsliding Israel, but that has
always been brief and temporary – “a small moment”. Compassion and mercy always
return and prevail in a most reassuring way. The mountains and the hills may
disappear. The water of the great seas may dry up. The least likely things in
the world may happen, but the Lord’s kindness and peace will never be taken
from his covenant people. He has sworn with a heavenly oath that he will not be
wroth with them forever.” (Jeffrey R. Holland, Christ and the New Covenant [1997],
290)
The
final chapters of the book of Psalms gives a clear understanding to the reader
that Judah had learnt well about sorrow in its’ captivity: “By the rivers of
Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion” (137:1).
These chapters are grounded in God’s mercy and
hope of the nation’s restoration: “Let Israel hope in the Lord: for with the
Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption. And he shall redeem
Israel from all his iniquities” (130:7,8). In remembering past deliverance from
their enemies and bondage, the reliance on the Lord’s mercy became foremost in
their minds. Psalm 136 is so heavy on gratitude that every one of 26 verses
ends in “for his mercy endureth for ever”.
Judah
was delivered from the Babylonian and Persian captivity in two colonies between
515 B.C. and 458 B.C. The temple was rebuilt and Jerusalem’s restoration began and
became what it is today. Not all the Jews chose to return to their land,
however, and so began a voluntary world-wide dispersion referred to as diaspora
which endures to this day.
“The
Lord never intended for Israel and Judah to remain scattered. Isaiah prophesied
that “the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant
of his people…and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together
the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth” (Isaiah 11:11-12).
Psalm 147:2 reads: “The Lord doth build up Jerusalem: he gathereth together the
outcasts [diasporai] of Israel.” Nephi added this significant idea to
the teachings of the restoration of the Jews: “After [the Jews] have been
scattered…even down from generation to generation….they shall be persuaded to
believe in Christ, the Son of God, and the atonement” (2 Nephi 25:16).
“Elder
Wilford Woodruff, issued an epistle to the world on 22 February 1879 and, in
part, addressed himself to the dispersed of Judah: “For the fulness of the
Gentiles has come in, and the Lord has decreed that the Jews should be gathered
from all the Gentile nations where they have been driven, into their own land,
in fulfilment of the words of Moses their lawgiver. And this is the will of
your great Eloheim, O House of Judah, and whenever you shall be called upon to
perform this work, the God of Israel will help you. You have a great future and
destiny before you and you cannot avoid fulfilling it; you are the royal chosen
seed, and the God of your father’s house has kept you distinct as a nation for
eighteen hundred years, under all the oppression of the whole Gentile world.
You may not wait until you believe on Jesus of Nazareth, but when you meet with
Shiloh your king, you will know him, your destiny is marked out, you cannot
avoid it.” (Old Testament Student Manual Enrichment: The Persian Empire, the
Return of the Jews, and the Diaspora; In Matthias F. Cowley, Wilford
Woodruff, pp 509-10)
The
Messiah will come. He will descend on the Mount of Olives with the nail prints
in His hands and His feet and the Kingdom of Judah will come to know that there
is no Saviour beside Him; none else in heaven
above, or earth beneath, or waters beneath the earth, nothing, nobody, nowhere,
there is none other name given under heaven save it be this Jesus Christ
whereby man can be saved (Isaiah 43:10-11; 45,5,6,14,18,22; 46:9; Deut 4:35,39;
5:8; 1 kings 8:60, 2 Nephi 2:8; 25:20; 31:21; Moses 6:52; D&C 76:1)
Then they
will say:
We are Israel, Thy chosen seed
Who in times past disregarded Thee
But now through Thy infinite love
We are gathered to Thee.
In Thine mercy Thou has sought to gather
us
In Thine heart Thou hast chosen to
cherish us;
In Thee is deliverance from our barren
years
In Thee is mercy for our penitent tears.
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