Some wandered in desert wastes,
finding no way to a city to dwell in;
Hungry and thirsty,
their soul fainted within them.
Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
He led them by a straight way
till they reached a city to dwell in.
Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
for his wondrous works to the children of man!
For he satisfies the longing soul,
and the hungry soul he fills with good things.
Psalm 107:4-9
Alone in an unforgiving terrain, wanders a people in crisis; a people who are on the brink of death, whose need for water, food, shelter, and safety is consuming them. Seemingly forsaken by those who live in safety, these people search and search for the security of home, but are continually unable to find what they so desperately need. As they face the reality of death, seeing their inability to nourish themselves or to arrive at a place of safety, the people finally call out to the LORD. He delivers them, leading them by “a straight way” until they reach the security and provision of a city.
Wandering in “desert wastes” was no unfamiliar experience in Israel’s story. My guess is that this portion of Psalm 107 is primarily referring to the part of Israel’s history in which God’s people find themselves between Egypt and the Promised land. That being said, the general theme of wandering hopelessly, then being saved through God’s steadfast love, is a theme that weaves its way through many, many Old Testament accounts. I think taking a moment to reflect on how the themes of wandering and deliverance appear in some of these texts (historical narratives of the Psalmist’s people), will help us more fully grasp the significance and relevance of the Psalmist’s words.
I’m trying to get better at limiting my word count, so I am not going to flesh out the following passages as thoroughly as I would like to. Instead, I will present a passage, bring out how the themes mentioned above play a significant role, and then will move on to the next. If you can, please go to the passages I reference and read them in their full context!
Before summarizing the passages, I want to point out something that I think is important. There appear to be multiple, distinct, but overlapping primary causes throughout the OT when it comes to why people are wandering. One cause is God sending or calling out. Another is man casting out. Yet another cause is man wandering out. Some biblical accounts of wanderers involve only one cause, while there are several instances that involve a somewhat complex layering of multiple causes. Now, I am in no way saying that God’s providence is not intimately involved in every cause; rather, I am acknowledging this nuance of causation, because the reality of wandering is that the causes are often varied and complex, resulting in situations that feel or that are seemingly too difficult or complicated to solve. The Bible does not shy away from grappling with the conflicting realities involved in these stories of wandering and desperation, and because of this, the accounts of rescue and restoration are all the more meaningful.
Stories of Wandering
Sarai and Hagar (Gen. 16, 21:8-21):
In this story we encounter a servant (Hagar) who is abused and hated by her mistress (Sarai). The pregnant servant flees because of her mistress’s harsh treatment. In the wilderness she found by the angel of the LORD, who blesses her (16:10), which results in her praising Him (“‘Truly here I have seen Him who looks after me.’” 16:13b). In chapter 21 of Genesis the same servant, this time with her child, is sent into the wilderness by the same masters from whom she fled previously. She wanders alone with her child in the wilderness until her water is gone, and all hope in God’s promises and even in basic survival for herself and her child are gone. While awaiting the death of her child, Hagar cries out to God in weeping. God, once again, finds her and her child in their plight, confirms the blessing He had previously promised her, and leads her to water and life (21:8-21).
This story shows a scenario in which an individual is hated because of her perpetrator’s guilt, and who is oppressed and harassed. Her wandering is largely in part to the hard hearts of others, and from a cultural standpoint, her hope of being rescued and restored is non-existent. Though she wandered, alone, in literal wilderness, she also wandered in the wilderness of the abandonment of her mistress’s love and fair treatment. She walked alone in the desert of hardship that came with sexual coercion, pregnancy outside of familial security, and ostracization. Though God is indeed present with Hagar in this narrative, and though Abram and Sarai’s actions are deplorable and against God’s moral law, there is a deeper biblical symbolism here contrasting the situation of those who are separated from God’s covenant family, with the situation of those within God’s covenant family. Even so, God reaches beyond the allotted covenant family and promises life to the wandering slave (Galatians 4). And, as we read the rest of her story, we find that God indeed followed up on His promised blessings to her.
Jacob(Gen. 28, 31, 32, Gen. 35,)
Jacob, unlike Hagar, was the instigator of his own misfortune. Seeking to establish himself in the security of the covenant LORD’s blessing, he tricks, lies, and steals from his father and brother, stirring up his brother’s anger against himself. Rather than resting in the safety of God’s covenant, Jacob finds himself running for his life from his home and from his family. Under the instruction of his father, Jacob flees towards his mother’s brother’s house in escape of his brother, and in pursuit of a wife. God meets him on the journey, and promises to keep him and bless him, guaranteeing to bring him back to the land which he had been forced to leave because of his own treachery (Gen. 27-28). Jacob does not receive the LORD’s promises with faith at this point, which seems consistent with Jacob’s deceptive disposition in general. Instead, he hinges his acceptance of the covenant God on the fulfillment of the covenant promises made by God to him. Postponing his own peace and security in God’s personal promises to him, Jacob continues on his journey to check off the boxes required to produce the inheritance promised by God to his father (birth-right, check. Non-pagan wife, check. Inheritance of land, not yet check). The entire situation is extremely ironic, but not at all unfamiliar.
After Jacob marries both of Laban’s daughters and endures ill treatment from his father-in-law, God tells him to return home. At this point Jacob has trusted God through the tricks and treachery of Laban, and God has continually remained steadfast to His promises to bless Jacob. God meets Jacob on his journey homeward, wrestling him throughout the night, renames Jacob and blesses him (32:22-32). We see God confirm His renaming of Jacob and His blessings on him once again in 35:1-16, and in the story of Joseph we see the fulfillment of His promises completed (Gen. 46). Jacob, throughout a life of fear, coercion, escape, doubt, and grief, is continually met in the midst of his personal and situational dark wanderings by a God who is steadfast in His covenant love and promises, even until the day Jacob (Israel) dies.
More Complex Causes, Same Faithful God:
Adam and Eve were sent out from Eden by God, because of their sin (Gen. 3:22), into a vast, untamed wilderness. Because of our first parents being sent out of Eden’s exclusive paradise, the promised Offspring (3:15) brought the path to paradise to the entire world (Gen 3:20). God met Adam and Eve in the desperation and hopelessness of deadly generational sin, and preserved the path to salvation for all generations (Gen. 4, Acts 17:24-31).
Noah and his family were sent out from mankind by God, rescued from the wilderness of mankind’s wickedness, and from the deadly sea of God’s judgment. They were led by God into the haven of the ark of God’s covenant promises of protection, love, and restoration. The ark itself is a symbol of being carried safely through the darkness of one’s own sin and death into the domain of life and light, by the work of God (through Christ, 1 Peter 3:18-22), and we see God bringing his people, just as in Psalm 107, through vast wasteland into a new and fruitful future (Gen. 6-10).
Abraham and Sarah were sent out from the darkness of their pagan people (Gen. 12), and were led by God through unknown lands, barrenness, doubt, and the frustration of self-inflicted sinful scenarios (see the story of Sarai and Hagar mentioned above, and Gen. 12:10-20), and into the light of His covenant promises (Gen. 15, 17, 21:1-7).
The stories of God meeting individuals in the midst of their desperation, wandering, and need (caused by others, themselves, or other extenuating circumstances), directing their paths into His provision and love, and into the expanding realities of His covenant, are numerous. Leah (Gen. 29:31-35), Joseph (Gen. 37, 39, 41, 4), Tamar (Gen. 38), Ruth and Naomi (see the book of Ruth), and the author of the Psalm, himself (David: see 1st and 2nd Samuel, and the Psalms for more accounts of his wandering and despair), are a few stories that I highly recommend reading through to get a bigger picture of this, but there are many more.
Finally, and probably most significantly in relation to the Psalm 107 passage, is the Exodus of God’s people, in which God sends them out from Pharo, out of Egypt, out of slavery, through the desert wilderness (Exodus 1-12), and finally, after much wandering in doubt, fear, and sin, into the safe haven of the promised land. In their journey with Him towards the promised land, God provides water and bread (symbolizing Christ: John 6:31-40, 1 Corinthians 10:1-3), and a moral law through which we see Israel being called out from Pagan idolatry and sin (end of Exodus through Deuteronomy), and being brought into God’s Covenant Law and the promise of not only physical salvation, but spiritual salvation as well. Though Israel remains focused on the external, and routinely turns towards despair or hope in physical, immediate realities (think of the golden calf, and the continual bent towards despair, dissatisfaction, doubt, fear, impulsive, short-lived thankfulness when things went well, and the many, many other instances of these patterns in their history), God through His law and prophets calls His people to a heart-level love and trust in Him, and towards hope in unseens realities. Ultimately, through Sabbath, through festivals, through the law, through the prophets, and even through discipline, God meets His people in their fleshly wanderings and calls them into the safety and provision of Himself. Not only does He call them into this Sabbath reality, He promises to bring them safely into it (Deuteronomy 30:1-10). Throughout the end of Deuteronomy, we are presented with the reality that Israel will continue to wander far from God, both in heart and in actions (Deut. 32). We also see that the blessing of God’s steadfast love will remain true despite the fickleness of His people’s love (Deut. 33). God allows His people to feel their lostness when they are wandering far from Him, but He also judges those who drive them away from physical and spiritual safety, who oppress and harm them. At the end of the day, God’s people are a people rescued from their wanderings, rescued from their enemies, and a people rescued from themselves; they are a people whose safe dwelling place is God Himself.
Words of Meditation
In tying up all of these thoughts, I’d like to take a minute to contemplate how it is that we wander? How do we starve? Like the people in the Old Testament narratives, some possible ways could be caused by external sources: from external situations and/or relationships, physical ailments, from oppressors, from the doubts and fears of others. Also like the people in the sold Testament narratives, other causes could be internal: from the confusion or darkness of our own choices and beliefs, or lack of belief, from our doubts, fears, and ignorance; from our pride or from an unmet need for love.
Though we find ourselves in barren wastelands, whether driven there by the oppression or neglect of others, by the wrong religion of idolatry of others or ourselves, or simply because life on this side of the fall can be mercilessly broken both externally and internally, like the Psalmist, we can rejoice and give thanks because the steadfast love of the LORD endures forever. He is a God who sees and knows, He is a God of justice, He is a God of mercy, He is good, and He is indeed gathering His people from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.
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