Albert Barnes Commentary Psalms 107:3

"And gathered out of the lands, From the east and from the west, From the north and from the south." — Psalms 107:3 (ASV)

And gathered them out of the lands - The countries where they were scattered. During the times of the captivity, the people were not all taken to one place, nor did they all abide in one place. In the long exile of seventy years in Babylon, they would naturally have been much scattered in the different provinces; and the attempt to gather them together, and to restore them again to their native land, might have been attended with much difficulty.

From the east ... - From all quarters; from the places where they were scattered abroad. That is, someone taking a position in Babylon would see them dispersed from that location as a center into all the surrounding country.

And from the south - Margin, as in Hebrew, “from the sea.” In general, in the Old Testament, the word “sea” is used for the west, because the western boundary of the land of Palestine was the Mediterranean Sea. . But the supposed position of the speaker here is “Babylon,” and on that account the south might be fitly designated by the word “sea,” as, to the south of Babylon, the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean would soon be reached.