They wandered in the wilderness in a desert way, they found no city of habitation;
This verse opens the psalm's first picture of distress: a people on the move, with no road under them and no home ahead. Who are these wanderers, and how does anyone get out of a trackless place?
Verse 4 sits inside a song of rescued people looking back on their road. One writer reads the whole psalm as a record of God's mercy set against all His people went through:
It describes toils and trials. In them the people looked to the Lord, and He answered and stepped in for the tossed and tried soul. It calls men to acknowledge and praise Him. It carries this blessed truth at the front: His mercy endures for ever. Man fails; God's mercy to His people does not. They were strangers and pilgrims where there was no resting-place and no home. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainting in them, they cried to the Lord. He led them in a right way to where their foot and heart found rest.
Commentators differ on which journey the verse describes. Some read it as Israel's ancient desert march; others place it later, on the road home at the end of days.
The psalm itself speaks of the restoration. There was a similar deliverance from Egypt, but the psalm will not mention it at all. They will not say that the LORD lives who brought them up out of the land of Egypt. Because of the word "wandered," I take verse 4 to describe their return in the latter day.
Read that way, the wandering has run for centuries, and it ends only when they turn to God:
They have long been wanderers in a solitary way, with the mark of Cain on them, always seeking to possess the earth… Until, brought to seek from God alone, they cried to the LORD in their trouble and found deliverance from Him. A crooked way is a long one.
The wanderers are also alone. That loss touches something people were made for.
These verses show them as wanderers, solitary and depressed. They have no settled dwelling, and they lack the fellowship for which man was first designed (v. 4)… And He exchanged their solitary or desolate way for "the right way." We can read this for our own good, remembering that the Lord Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life" (John 14:6). If Christ is our Object, we are in the right way. This leads to a proper end in view — "a city for a dwelling place" (v. 7). The right way always leads to the right end.
Giving a home to the lonely is God's own settled purpose:
In general we can gladly take up the word, "God settles the solitary in a home" (Psalm 68:6). This was always His mind.
The picture is not only Israel's. It fits anyone hunting for satisfaction in a world that cannot supply it.
First, we see man as a wanderer, looking for rest in a wilderness world. All his efforts only end in soul thirst — "hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them." In the ways of the Lord He lets us prove that nothing in this world of unrest can satisfy the soul.
The desert has no marked path. That missing road says something about where people stand with God.
To be guided — that is the thing: "Some wandered in desert wastes." There is no way in this world. So how did the Israelites get any way at all? The cloud went before them. Having to find a way to walk in proves that we are all away from God… "When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them." Then I get a way, but it is a divine way, and I am following Christ in it.
Believers can fall into the same pattern, going over old ground instead of moving on.
Instead of moving forward in obedience to God, we have to go back and learn again what the Red Sea deliverance means… This is wandering instead of going steadily forward. Psalm 107:4 speaks of Israel wandering in the wilderness in a desolate way. Too many believers take almost their whole life to learn this lesson.
- Road — There is no way in this world. Having to search for one proves we are away from God, and a way appears only when Someone goes ahead.
- Wandering — A crooked way is a long one. Going back over old ground is wandering, not walking, and some spend most of a lifetime at it.
- Hunger — Every effort to find rest in a wilderness world ends in soul thirst. Nothing here satisfies.
- Cry — When they cried, mercy answered; man fails, but God's mercy to His people does not.
- City — God settles the solitary in a home. The right way trades a desolate road for a city to live in, and it always ends where it should.
Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them
Verse 5 is the low point of the psalm's first picture: people lost in open country, worn down by hunger and thirst until their strength gives out. It raises the question the rest of the psalm answers — what does God do with people at the end of themselves?
Psalm 107 belongs to the last book of Psalms. One writer traces its whole scene, from the failure of the people to the mercy that meets them.
Psalm 107. In the last book of psalms we find many songs of praise. We also find all the moral circumstances of Israel on their return to blessing... It carries this blessed truth at the front: His mercy endures for ever. His love and goodness never change, and they have been celebrated ever since Israel's failure was first fully proved. Man fails, God's mercy to His people does not... They were strangers and pilgrims where there was no resting-place and no home. They were hungry and thirsty, their soul fainting in them. They cried to the Lord, and He led them in a right way to where their foot and heart found rest.
The wandering is Israel's story, but the need it names belongs to everyone.
In these verses they appear as wanderers, alone and depressed. They have no settled home, and they lack the fellowship for which man was first designed (v. 4). They lack food and drink — that is, the spiritual nourishment everyone needs — and they are faint and ready to die (v. 5). At last, the depth of their distress moves them to cry out to the Lord.
Another writer marks the turn. Help came only when they were brought to seek from God alone.
They have long been wanderers in a solitary way... Hungry and thirsty, with more than physical need, their soul fainted in them. Until, brought to seek from God alone, they cried to the Lord in their difficulty, and found deliverance from Him. A very simple and a very common story, but which needs, for all that, constant repetition.
The wanderers are not idle. They are searching for rest, and the search itself ends in thirst.
(vv. 4-9) First, man is viewed as a wanderer, seeking to find rest in a wilderness world. All his efforts only end in soul thirst — "hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them." In the ways of the Lord we learn by experience that nothing in all this restless scene can satisfy the soul. In the depths of their need men cry to the Lord. Then they discover that He can lead them by "the right way," which brings them to the rest of God — "a city of habitation."
The fainting has a purpose. God is after something higher than relief.
Now God would turn the thoughts of men to the highest good. He desires that they should find in Him their wealth and joy. And we learn that it is often only in hours of distress that men will turn to Him. Multitudes have found this, and the Scriptures say it plainly.
The empty soul of verse 5 needs filling. One writer names the only One who can do it.
Turn from the chaff and the straw of a mock Christianity, with its endless round of entertainment. Christ alone can meet the deep and desperate need of your perishing soul. He not only saves, but, glory to His name, "He satisfies the longing soul."
Read as Israel's history, the wandering of verse 5 does not last. One writer looks ahead to the day it is over.
Those who are of God are no longer entering into rest; they have gone in. The day is come. Glory dwells in the land, and Israel is gathered there out of the lands — from the east and the west, from the north and the south. They had wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way, and they found no city to dwell in. This is all past — past for ever. God has led them out by the right way, and they have come to a city to live in, yes, to His city.
- Wandering. People with no settled home and no company, finding no city to live in. The search itself wears them out.
- Fainting. The hunger and thirst are "more than physical need." The soul starves for what only God supplies, and is faint and ready to die.
- Crying. The depth of the distress is what moves them to call on the Lord. Often only in hours of distress will people turn to Him.
- Filling. The answer to a fainting soul is not better circumstances but a Person. He saves, and more than that, He satisfies the longing soul.
- Homecoming. The right way leads to the right end — a city to live in. Mercy endures for ever, because God's goodness does not fail where people do.
Then they cried unto Jehovah in their trouble, [and] he delivered them out of their distresses,
Psalm 107 opens the last book of the Psalms, and follows people in deep trouble who call on the Lord. Verse 6 is the first turning point — lost, starving travellers stop coping, they cry, and God acts.
The verses just before this describe wanderers in a desert with no home and no food. One writer takes that as a picture of every human search for rest.
First, man is viewed as a wanderer, seeking to find rest in a wilderness world. All his efforts only end in soul thirst — "Hungry and thirsty; their soul fainted in them." In His ways the Lord lets us prove that nothing in all this restless world can satisfy the soul.
The trouble in this psalm is not an accident that fell on innocent people. One writer traces the psalm to its root, and to the welcome waiting at the end.
This is the lesson of the psalm that opens the fifth book. It is so simple that you can hardly call it a lesson. Yet it is the moral of all man's history: ruin that man brought on himself; the cry for the Father's house forced out of him only by the famine; and still the open arms that receive a wanderer home. Thank God, for a soul truly awake to its need, those arms can do a work nothing else can. The lost one, now found, is brought to life from the dead.
The verse sets no conditions. It does not call these people worthy, only desperate.
We learn from this, as from many other events in the Word, that the thoughts of God's people never turn to Him in vain. Whatever their circumstances, and whatever caused them, He is ready to answer even while they call. "They cry to the Lord in their trouble, and He brings them out of all their distresses." How great are the compassions of our God!
The turning word in the verse is "then." One writer marks the moment the cry comes, and names the one exception to God's answer.
When they reach their wits' end, and can do nothing for themselves, then they cry to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivers them out of their distresses. He never heard a cry of need from anyone without answering it; not perhaps in our way, but in His own. There was only one perfectly righteous and dependent Man on this earth who cried and was not heard, and that was Jesus on the cross. "O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer." That was the one exception to all God's known ways down here.
Their rescue is not just an escape. One writer follows it into the next verse, to see where God takes them.
Finally, the depth of their distress moves them to cry out to the Lord. Nor was this in vain: "He delivered them out of their distresses" (v. 6). And He exchanged their lonely, desolate way for "the right way." We can apply this to ourselves. The Lord Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life" (John 14:6). If Christ is our object, we are in the right way. This leads also to a proper end in view — "a city for a dwelling place" (v. 7). The right way always leads to the right end.
One writer sets the psalm in Israel's history: a people brought back and led through trouble. What holds it together is not their record but God's mercy.
In the last book of Psalms we find, besides many songs of praise, all the moral circumstances of Israel on their return to blessing… This psalm describes toils and trials. In them the tossed and tried soul looked to the Lord, and He answered and stepped in on its behalf. It calls on men to acknowledge and praise Him. It carries this blessed truth at the front: His mercy endures for ever. Man fails, God's mercy to His people does not. His redeemed and gathered ones are the people who have to bear witness to this.
The trouble takes many forms, so no reader can place himself outside its reach.
Whatever hard circumstances come on them, however different in kind, they cry to the Lord, and He delivers them out of their distresses… No circumstance mentioned here puts the redeemed beyond the reach of the Lord's deliverance.
- Cause — we ruin ourselves; the famine forces out the cry; nothing in this world can satisfy the soul.
- Cry — need is the only qualification; "the thoughts of God's people never turn to Him in vain."
- Christ — the Lord never heard a cry of need without answering it; one cry alone went unheard, Christ's on the cross.
- Course — deliverance is not just out of trouble but onto "the right way," and the right way leads to the right end: a city to live in.
- Chorus — the rescued are the witnesses. Man fails, God's mercy does not, and no trouble in this psalm is beyond His reach.
And he led them forth by a right way, that they might go to a city of habitation.
The psalm opens with people lost in a desert: hungry, thirsty, with no city to live in. Verse 7 is God's answer to their cry, and it raises two questions: what makes a way right, and what is the city at the end of it?
Verse 7 sits in a psalm about people God has redeemed and gathered back. One writer traces their story from homelessness to rest.
It carries this blessed truth at the front: His mercy endures forever. The psalm celebrates God's unchanging love and goodness, from the moment Israel's failure was fully proved onward. Man fails; God's mercy to His people does not. It is His redeemed and gathered ones who are the people that have to bear witness to this. They were strangers and pilgrims where there was no resting place and no home. They were hungry and thirsty, and their soul fainted in them. They cried to the Lord, and He led them in a right way to where their foot and heart found rest.
Verse 7 is an exchange. Older translations, which these writers quote, read "a right way" where the ESV has "a straight way." What these people had was a lonely track. What God gives is a road with a destination.
He exchanged their solitary or desolate way for "the right way." We can apply this to ourselves. The Lord Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life" (John 14:6). If Christ is our Object, we are in the right way. This leads also to a proper end in view — "a city for a dwelling place" (v. 7). The right way always leads to the right end.
The wandering before verse 7 is not wasted. It proves what this world cannot give.
First, man is viewed as a wanderer, seeking to find rest in a wilderness world. All his efforts only end in soul thirst — "Hungry and thirsty; their soul fainted in them." In the ways of the Lord, God lets us prove that nothing in all this restless world can satisfy the soul. In the depth of their need men cry to the Lord. Then they discover that He can lead them by "the right way," the way that brings them to the rest of God — "a city of habitation."
One writer ties this line to Israel's road out of Egypt, where God kept them off the direct route.
You belong to the Lord, but you are still in the world, and God would lead you out, as He led Israel out of Egypt. "He led them forth by the right way" (Ps. 107:7). "When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, 'Lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.' But God led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea" (Ex. 13:17-18).
Commentators differ on why that longer road counted as right. Another looks at the ground itself. The upper road would have been far too hard for a large caravan loaded with baggage, so they took the easiest and most direct route (H Forbes Witherby).
If God picks the route, no part of the journey is accidental. One writer turns that into comfort for anyone still travelling.
The poor, weary pilgrim finds great comfort in this: God marks out every stage of his wilderness journey by His infinite love and unerring wisdom. He is leading His people by a right way, home to Himself. And He Himself carefully orders every circumstance in their lot and every ingredient in their cup, with their present profit and their everlasting happiness in view.
Is the city only a picture of the people themselves? One writer says no, and points to the city God has prepared.
The new Jerusalem is certainly what its earthly picture was — a "city of habitation." It is not just a figure for the saints themselves. The patriarchs of old were content to wait in patient faith for the end of their pilgrim journey. They "looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God." God will not disappoint what they expected — "he has prepared for them a city" (Heb. 11:10, 16).
- Cry. Wandering, hunger, and a fainting soul drive people to call on the Lord. Verse 7 is His answer, not their achievement.
- Way. God does more than rescue them from the desert. He trades their lonely track for the right way, and Christ Himself is that way.
- Route. Right does not mean short. He led Israel around by the wilderness rather than the near road, sparing them a war they were not ready for.
- Care. God measures out every stage of the journey in love and wisdom, so nothing in the pilgrim's cup is unplanned.
- City. The right way always ends at the right end. That end is a city to live in — the one the patriarchs waited for and God has prepared.