Psalm 107:10-16

Psalm 107:10-16 say this:

Some of you were locked in a dark cell,
cruelly confined behind bars,
Punished for defying God's Word,
for turning your back on the High God's counsel—
A hard sentence, and your hearts so heavy,
and not a soul in sight to help.
Then you called out to God in your desperate condition;
he got you out in the nick of time.
He led you out of your dark, dark cell,
broke open the jail and led you out.
So thank God for his marvelous love,
for his miracle mercy to the children he loves;
He shattered the heavy jailhouse doors,
he snapped the prison bars like matchsticks!

Maybe the wilderness is prison.  Maybe the prison is a real prison with real bars, or maybe the prison is not steel and concrete, but still a prison.  What dark, dark cell is your prison?  What wilderness prison keeps you separated from God?  What traps the person you love?  Notice what this psalm does not say.  It doesn’t say, “If you are innocent, God will come and free you.”  Guilty or not guilty, sinful or innocent – doesn’t matter.  We pray the words in our communion liturgy – “Free us for joyful obedience.”  God comes to us in the wilderness of prison, and he frees us.  He brings us home.