Psalm 107

Psalm 107

My work involves travel, and sometimes, even with a GPS, we get lost.   

We’ve all had our times in the wilderness, and I think there is an aspect to that experience that is being lost.  Separated.  Distanced from what you know, from the way out, from the control we would like to feel.  We get lost. 

A little more than 2,500 years ago, the Israelites were lost.  They were exiled into Babylon, separated from the only home they remembered.  Their Temple was destroyed, and I imagine they thought their God was no place to be found.  Eventually, a remnant of them returned to Jerusalem, rebuilt the city wall and the Temple.  They found their way home.  It might have been during this time that Psalm 107 was written, stemming from that experience of being lost.   

While they were exiled – lost – while they were in the wilderness -- they found something very precious.  They discovered, or maybe reaffirmed, the presence of God IN the wilderness.  And one of the ways they expressed that revelation was through the song that is Psalm 107.

So, can you imagine the Israelites coming back home after being in exile, singing of their experiences during worship?   Of course you can – we sing about our own experiences of God in worship all the time.  Over the next few days, we'll look at Psalm 107, and what this song tells us about the experience of God in the Wilderness, to think about what wilderness is, why we might be there, and how God redeems us through that experience.