Wandering in the Desert With No Place to Go!
Psalm 107
1
4 Some wandered in desert wastelands,
finding no way to a city where they could settle.
5 They were hungry and thirsty,
and their lives ebbed away.
6 Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
7 He led them by a straight way
to a city where they could settle.
8 Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love
and his wonderful deeds for mankind,
9 for he satisfies the thirsty
and fills the hungry with good things.
The psalmist in Psalm 107 gives four scenarios in people come to the end of their rope and cry out to God. The first one is a person wandering in the desert, with no way to get to the city and get the help they need, as they waste away. It is important to understand the sense of the word "wandered" in this text. One commentator puts it this way,
"Their passage through the wilderness was not a journeying, such as when men pass on in a road to some inhabited place; but a wandering up and down away from all path and road, and so in an endless maze of desolation.” (Hammond)
Another commentator likens the lost wanderer to the person who is lost in sin and realizes the futile nature of what it has promised.
"They were lost in the worst possible place, even as the sinner is who is lost in sin; they wandered up and down in vain searches and researches as a sinner does when he is awakened and sees his lost estate; but it ended in nothing.” (Spurgeon)
If you read the rest of the psalm though the next 3 scenarios are different (the prisoner, the physically afflicted,the person being tossed by the raging storm), the sequence and outcome is the same. Someone comes to realize they are in desperate straits and the only place to turn is God. In each story the next line reads:
"Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he saved them from their distress."
Does that sound familiar? Most of us had to wander around before we realized we were empty, rutterless, and living a life of meaninglessness. We were caught in a maze of self absorption, and lost in a labyrinth of self indulgence. But some realize their folly, and cry out to God. In God's great goodness and mercy he saves them from their distress and redeems their condition.
As someone has said, "The four stories show that everyone’s story is different, and everyone’s story is the same."
Importantly the psalmist calls those who have been redeemed by the Lord to give thanks and declare his saving deeds to all humankind.
finding no way to a city where they could settle.
5 They were hungry and thirsty,
and their lives ebbed away.
6 Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
7 He led them by a straight way
to a city where they could settle.
8 Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love
and his wonderful deeds for mankind,
9 for he satisfies the thirsty
and fills the hungry with good things.
The psalmist in Psalm 107 gives four scenarios in people come to the end of their rope and cry out to God. The first one is a person wandering in the desert, with no way to get to the city and get the help they need, as they waste away. It is important to understand the sense of the word "wandered" in this text. One commentator puts it this way,
"Their passage through the wilderness was not a journeying, such as when men pass on in a road to some inhabited place; but a wandering up and down away from all path and road, and so in an endless maze of desolation.” (Hammond)
Another commentator likens the lost wanderer to the person who is lost in sin and realizes the futile nature of what it has promised.
"They were lost in the worst possible place, even as the sinner is who is lost in sin; they wandered up and down in vain searches and researches as a sinner does when he is awakened and sees his lost estate; but it ended in nothing.” (Spurgeon)
If you read the rest of the psalm though the next 3 scenarios are different (the prisoner, the physically afflicted,the person being tossed by the raging storm), the sequence and outcome is the same. Someone comes to realize they are in desperate straits and the only place to turn is God. In each story the next line reads:
"Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he saved them from their distress."
Does that sound familiar? Most of us had to wander around before we realized we were empty, rutterless, and living a life of meaninglessness. We were caught in a maze of self absorption, and lost in a labyrinth of self indulgence. But some realize their folly, and cry out to God. In God's great goodness and mercy he saves them from their distress and redeems their condition.
As someone has said, "The four stories show that everyone’s story is different, and everyone’s story is the same."
Importantly the psalmist calls those who have been redeemed by the Lord to give thanks and declare his saving deeds to all humankind.
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