God Loves Wanderers
Remember, the objective of Psalm 107 is to invite us in to experience the steady and sturdy love of God so that we might burst with thankfulness unto Him. The psalm works to this end by using images and stories that expand our understanding of God’s love. The particular image the psalm uses is that of a compass (v. 3). With this image the psalm illustrates that God loves people from all over the map—from east to west, and from north to south. In the body of the psalm are four stories about people that God delivered out of the overflow of his always and forever love. These stories reveal a God who doesn’t just love people from all over, but a God who pours out His never-giving-up love on all kinds of people. The reach of God’s love has no bounds! God loves all kinds from all over with a sure and steady love.
One particular kind that God draws into his divine love are wanderers.
Psalm 107’s first story features a gaggle of desert wanderers. The wanderers are making their way through a desert looking for a secure city, food to fill, and water to quench. Of course, their desert-search-party is pointless! They’ll never find what they’re looking for in the desert wastes. Here, it’s important to understand that the psalm is speaking poetically. That is, the wanderers aren’t literally in a desert looking for these things. Rather, the psalm is likening this desert search to those who wander through life looking for something to satisfy the deep longings of the human heart.
On this point, St. Augustine is helpful. Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD) was a theologian and philosopher in northern Africa. In AD 400, he finished his spiritual autobiography entitled, Confessions. In it he writes to God, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” From birth the human heart is on a quest for something that truly satisfies. According to Augustine, searching for this life in anything or anywhere other than the one, triune God who is Father, Son, and Spirit, is like kicking rocks in the desert looking for springs of water.
“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” — Augustine of Hippo
Should I, or someone else, try to compile a list of all the things we look to for the good life there would be no end. We wanderers look to romance, friendships, and self-fashioned identities for the life that satisfies. We look to income, advancement, and new trinkets to fill the void in our bellies. We look to politicians, public policies, and punditry put downs to sooth our parched lips. However, all these things are nothing more than desert wastes in which to faint, and faint we will, but we don’t have to.
The gang of wanderers reached the end of themselves (v. 6), then they cried to the Lord in their trouble and he delivered them from their distress. The psalm announces, “He led them by a straight way till they reached a city to dwell in.” That is, the Lord heard them and led them to the satisfied life.
Many years later, Jesus preached on a hillside about a straight way leading to life, offered true bread to a hungry crowd, and promised living water to the tired and abused. All that we’re looking for is found in the crucified and risen Jesus, who is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the bread of life and the source of living water. Jesus freely offers, “Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” You see, Jesus was crucified in the desert wastes so that wanderers like us could know the steadfast love of God that’s better than life. In the love of God our wandering hearts finally make it home.
