The longest book, and the one shaped most visibly by the return. It opens with the redeemed “gathered out of the lands” and holds three collections in sequence: the Hallel sung at the feasts (113–118), the fifteen songs of degrees sung going up to them (120–134), and the great Hallel of Psalm 136.

At its centre stands Psalm 119, the longest chapter in the Bible — twenty-two stanzas of eight verses, one for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet, every verse on the word of God.

There is no doxology verse here. The whole of Psalm 150 is the doxology, for the book and for the Psalter: every instrument named in turn, and then “let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord.”

The Return. The redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath gathered out of the lands. The songs of degrees sung going up to the feasts; the great acrostic of Psalm 119; the Hallel; and five closing psalms of pure praise.

Psalms 137 and 126: one community, before and after the return

By the rivers of Babylon we sat down and wept, and hanged our harps upon the willows, because our captors asked for a song of Zion. Psalm 126 is the other side: when the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, then was our mouth filled with laughter.

The lesson. The Lord does not require grief to be denied before deliverance can be believed. He is a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and He took upon Himself the pains and afflictions of His people so that He would know how to succour them. The promise attached to mourning is comfort, not correction. [[Isa 53]]:3; [[Alma 7]]:11–12

Psalm 137:1–4; Psalm 126:1–2.

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