Psa 107:4-7 | TDavid | STEP | EXPOSITION Verse 4 . They wandered in the wilderness. They wandered, for the track was lost, no vestige of a road remained; worse still, they wandered in a wilderness, where all around was burning sand. They were lost in the worst possible place, even as the sinner is who is lost in sin; they wandered up and down in vain searches and researches as a sinner does when he is awakened and sees his lost estate; but it ended in nothing, for they still continued in the wilderness, though they had hoped to escape from it. In a solitary way. No dwelling of man was near, and no other company of travellers passed within hail. Solitude is a great intensifier of misery. The loneliness of a desert has a most depressing influence upon the man who is lost in the boundless waste. The traveller's way in the wilderness is a waste way, and when he leaves even that poor, barren trail, to get utterly beyond the path of man, he is in a wretched plight indeed. A soul without sympathy is on the borders of hell: a solitary way is the way of despair. They found no city to dwell in. How could they? There was none. Israel in the wilderness abode under canvas, and enjoyed none of the comforts of settled life; wanderers in the Sahara find no town or village. Men when under distress of soul find nothing to rest upon, no comfort and no peace; their efforts after salvation are many, weary, and disappointing, and the dread solitude of their hearts fills them with dire distress. EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS Verse 4 . They wandered , etc. In these words it is not easy to ascertain the persons immediately intended. But this is a circumstance not to be lamented. It is even an advantage; it constrains us to a more spiritual and evangelical interpretation of the subject. And thus the whole representation is fully and easily embodied. For the people of God are "redeemed" -- redeemed from the curse of the law, the powers of darkness, and the bondage of corruption. They are "gathered" -- gathered by his grace out of all the diversities of the human race; "out of all nations and kindreds and peoples and tongues." Whatever this world is to others, they find it to be "a wilderness"; when they are often tried, but their trials urge them to prayer, and prayer brings them relief. And being divinely conducted, they at length reach their destination: and this is the conclusion of the whole, and it applies to each of them: And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation. -- William Jay. Verse 4 . Wandered . Their passage through the wilderness was not a journeying, such as when men pass on in a road to some inhabited place; but a wandering up and down away from all path and road, and so in an endless maze of desolation. --Henry Hammond. Verse 4 . Wandered in the wilderness , etc. He has lost his way. When he was in the world, he had no difficulties; the path was so broad that he could not mistake it. But when the work of divine grace begins in a sinner's heart, he loses his way. He cannot find his way into the world; God has driven him out of it, as he drove Lot out of Sodom. He cannot find his way to heaven; because he at present lacks those clear testimonies, those bright manifestations whereby alone he can see his path. This is his experience then, that he has lost his way; having turned his back upon the world; and yet unable to realise those enjoyments in his soul that would make heaven his home. He has so lost his way, that whether he turns to the right hand or the left, he has no plain land marks to show him the path in which his soul longs to go. We need not stray from the text to find where the wanderer is. "They wandered in the wilderness." The wilderness is a type and figure of what this life is to the Lord's people. There is nothing that grows in it fit for their food or nourishment. In it the fiery flying serpents -- sin and Satan -- are perpetually biting and stinging them: and there is nothing in it that can give them any sweet and solid rest. The barren sands of carnality below, and the burning sun of temptation above, alike deny them food and shelter. But there is a word added which throws a further light upon the character of the wilderness. "They wandered in the wilderness, in a solitary way;" a way not tracked; a path in which each has to walk alone; a road where no company cheers him, and without landmarks to direct his course. This is a mark peculiar to the child of God -- that the path by which he travels is, in his own feelings, a solitary way. This much increases his exercises, that they appear peculiar to himself. His perplexities are such as he cannot believe any living soul is exercised with; the fiery darts which are cast into his mind by the Wicked One are such as he thinks no child of God has ever experienced; the darkness of his soul, the unbelief and infidelity of his heart, and the workings of his powerful corruptions, are such as he supposes none ever knew but himself. It is this walking "in a solitary way", that makes the path of trial and temptation so painful to God's family. --J.C. Philpot (1802-1869), in a Sermon entitled "The Houseless Wanderer." Verse 4 . In a solitary way . -- The greater part of the desert being totally destitute of water is seldom visited by any human being; unless where the trading caravans trace out their toilsome and dangerous route across it. In some parts of this extensive waste the ground is covered with low, stunted shrubs, which serve as landmarks for the caravans, and furnish the camels with a scanty forage. In other parts, the disconsolate wanderer, wherever he turns, sees nothing around him but a vast interminable expanse of sand and sky; a gloomy and barren void, where the eye finds no particular object to rest upon, and the mind is filled with painful apprehensions of perishing with thirst. Surrounded by this dreary solitude, the traveller sees the dead bodies of birds, that the violence of the wind has brought from happier regions; and, as he ruminates on the fearful length of his remaining passage, listens with horror to the driving blast, the only sound that interrupts the awful repose of the desert. ("Proceedings of the African Association.") --Mungo Park, 1771-1806 Verse 4 . In a solitary way . See the reason why people in trouble love solitariness. They are full of sorrow; and sorrow, if it have taken deep root, is naturally reserved, and flies all conversation. Grief is a thing that is very silent and private. Those people that are very talkative and clamorous in their sorrows, are never very sorrowful. Some are apt to wonder why melancholy people delight to be so much alone, and I will tell you the reason of it. Because the disordered humours of their bodies alter their temper, their humours, and their inclinations, that they are no more the same that they used to be; their very distemper is averse to what is joyous and diverting; and they that wonder at them, may as wisely wonder why they will be diseased, which they would not be, if they knew how to help it; but the disease of melancholy is so obstinate, and so unknown to all but those who have it, that nothing but the power of God can totally overthrow it, and I know no other cure for it. Another reason why they choose to be alone, is, because people do not generally mind what they say, nor believe them, but deride them, which they do not use so cruelly to do with those that are in other distempers; and no man is to be blamed for avoiding society, when it does not afford the common credit to his words, that is due to the rest of men. But, Another, and the principal reason why people in trouble and sadness choose to be alone, is, because they generally apprehend themselves singled out to be the marks of God's peculiar displeasure, and they are often by their sharp afflictions a terror to themselves, and a wonder to others. It even breaks their hearts to see how low they are fallen, how oppressed, that were once as easy, as pleasant, as full of hope as others are, ; "Ye see my casting down, and are afraid." ; "I am as a wonder unto many." And it is usually unpleasant to others to be with them. ; "Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness." And though it was not so with the friends of Job; to see a man whom they had once known happy, to be so miserable, one whom they had seen so very prosperous, to be so very poor, in such sorry, forlorn circumstances, did greatly affect them; he, poor man, was changed, they knew him not, : "And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice and wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven. So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great." As the prophet represents one under spiritual and great afflictions, that "he sitteth alone, and keepeth silence", . --Timothy Rogers (1660-1729) in "Trouble of Mind, and the Disease of Melancholy." Verse 4 . They found no city to dwell in; nor even to call at or lodge in , for miles together; which is the case of travellers in some parts, particularly in the desert of Arabia. Spiritual travellers find no settlement, rest, peace, joy, and comfort, but in Christ; nor any indeed in this world, and the things of it; here they have no continuing city, . --John Gill. HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS Verse 4 . Wandering Jews. Illustrate the roaming of a mind in search of truth, peace, love, purity, etc. Verse 4-10 . The words contain a brief history of man's fall and misery and of his restoration by Jesus Christ; which are described under these particulars. The lost state of men by nature. They are brought to a right sense of it, and cry to the Lord Jesus for deliverance. He hears them and delivers them out of all their distresses. The tribute of thanks due to him for this great deliverance. --W. Romaine.

Psalms 107:4-7

EXPOSITION

Verse 4. They wandered in the wilderness. They wandered, for the track was lost, no vestige of a road remained; worse still, they wandered in a wilderness, where all around was burning sand. They were lost in the worst possible place, even as the sinner is who is lost in sin; they wandered up and down in vain searches and researches as a sinner does when he is awakened and sees his lost estate; but it ended in nothing, for they still continued in the wilderness, though they had hoped to escape from it.

In a solitary way. No dwelling of man was near, and no other company of travellers passed within hail. Solitude is a great intensifier of misery. The loneliness of a desert has a most depressing influence upon the man who is lost in the boundless waste. The traveller's way in the wilderness is a waste way, and when he leaves even that poor, barren trail, to get utterly beyond the path of man, he is in a wretched plight indeed. A soul without sympathy is on the borders of hell: a solitary way is the way of despair.

They found no city to dwell in. How could they? There was none. Israel in the wilderness abode under canvas, and enjoyed none of the comforts of settled life; wanderers in the Sahara find no town or village. Men when under distress of soul find nothing to rest upon, no comfort and no peace; their efforts after salvation are many, weary, and disappointing, and the dread solitude of their hearts fills them with dire distress.

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

Verse 4. They wandered, etc. In these words it is not easy to ascertain the persons immediately intended. But this is a circumstance not to be lamented. It is even an advantage; it constrains us to a more spiritual and evangelical interpretation of the subject. And thus the whole representation is fully and easily embodied. For the people of God are "redeemed" -- redeemed from the curse of the law, the powers of darkness, and the bondage of corruption. They are "gathered" -- gathered by his grace out of all the diversities of the human race; "out of all nations and kindreds and peoples and tongues." Whatever this world is to others, they find it to be "a wilderness"; when they are often tried, but their trials urge them to prayer, and prayer brings them relief. And being divinely conducted, they at length reach their destination: and this is the conclusion of the whole, and it applies to each of them: And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation. -- William Jay.

Verse 4. Wandered. Their passage through the wilderness was not a journeying, such as when men pass on in a road to some inhabited place; but a wandering up and down away from all path and road, and so in an endless maze of desolation. --Henry Hammond.

Verse 4. Wandered in the wilderness, etc. He has lost his way. When he was in the world, he had no difficulties; the path was so broad that he could not mistake it. But when the work of divine grace begins in a sinner's heart, he loses his way. He cannot find his way into the world; God has driven him out of it, as he drove Lot out of Sodom. He cannot find his way to heaven; because he at present lacks those clear testimonies, those bright manifestations whereby alone he can see his path. This is his experience then, that he has lost his way; having turned his back upon the world; and yet unable to realise those enjoyments in his soul that would make heaven his home. He has so lost his way, that whether he turns to the right hand or the left, he has no plain land marks to show him the path in which his soul longs to go.

We need not stray from the text to find where the wanderer is. "They wandered in the wilderness." The wilderness is a type and figure of what this life is to the Lord's people. There is nothing that grows in it fit for their food or nourishment. In it the fiery flying serpents -- sin and Satan -- are perpetually biting and stinging them: and there is nothing in it that can give them any sweet and solid rest. The barren sands of carnality below, and the burning sun of temptation above, alike deny them food and shelter.

But there is a word added which throws a further light upon the character of the wilderness. "They wandered in the wilderness, in a solitary way;" a way not tracked; a path in which each has to walk alone; a road where no company cheers him, and without landmarks to direct his course. This is a mark peculiar to the child of God -- that the path by which he travels is, in his own feelings, a solitary way. This much increases his exercises, that they appear peculiar to himself. His perplexities are such as he cannot believe any living soul is exercised with; the fiery darts which are cast into his mind by the Wicked One are such as he thinks no child of God has ever experienced; the darkness of his soul, the unbelief and infidelity of his heart, and the workings of his powerful corruptions, are such as he supposes none ever knew but himself. It is this walking "in a solitary way", that makes the path of trial and temptation so painful to God's family. --J.C. Philpot (1802-1869), in a Sermon entitled "The Houseless Wanderer."

Verse 4. In a solitary way. -- The greater part of the desert being totally destitute of water is seldom visited by any human being; unless where the trading caravans trace out their toilsome and dangerous route across it. In some parts of this extensive waste the ground is covered with low, stunted shrubs, which serve as landmarks for the caravans, and furnish the camels with a scanty forage. In other parts, the disconsolate wanderer, wherever he turns, sees nothing around him but a vast interminable expanse of sand and sky; a gloomy and barren void, where the eye finds no particular object to rest upon, and the mind is filled with painful apprehensions of perishing with thirst. Surrounded by this dreary solitude, the traveller sees the dead bodies of birds, that the violence of the wind has brought from happier regions; and, as he ruminates on the fearful length of his remaining passage, listens with horror to the driving blast, the only sound that interrupts the awful repose of the desert. ("Proceedings of the African Association.") --Mungo Park, 1771-1806

Verse 4. In a solitary way. See the reason why people in trouble love solitariness. They are full of sorrow; and sorrow, if it have taken deep root, is naturally reserved, and flies all conversation. Grief is a thing that is very silent and private. Those people that are very talkative and clamorous in their sorrows, are never very sorrowful. Some are apt to wonder why melancholy people delight to be so much alone, and I will tell you the reason of it.

Verse 4. They found no city to dwell in; nor even to call at or lodge in, for miles together; which is the case of travellers in some parts, particularly in the desert of Arabia. Spiritual travellers find no settlement, rest, peace, joy, and comfort, but in Christ; nor any indeed in this world, and the things of it; here they have no continuing city, Hebrews 13:14. --John Gill.

HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS

Verse 4. Wandering Jews. Illustrate the roaming of a mind in search of truth, peace, love, purity, etc.

Verse 4-10. The words contain a brief history of man's fall and misery and of his restoration by Jesus Christ; which are described under these particulars.

--W. Romaine.

EXPOSITION

Verse 5. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. The spirits sink when the bodily frame becomes exhausted by long privations. Who can keep his courage up when he is ready to fall to the ground at every step through utter exhaustion? The supply of food is all eaten, the water is spent in the bottles, and there are neither fields nor streams in the desert, the heart therefore sinks in dire despair. Such is the condition of an awakened conscience before it knows the Lord Jesus; it is full of unsatisfied cravings, painful needs, and heavy fears. It is utterly spent and without strength, and there is nothing in the whole creation which can minister to its refreshment.

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

Verse 5. Their soul fainted in them. The word here used, pj[, ataph, means properly to cover, to clothe, as with a garment, Psalms 73:6; or a field with grain, Psalms 65:13; then, to hide oneself, Job 23:9; then to cover with darkness, Psalms 77:3 and the title of Ps 102:1-28 thus it denotes the state of mind when darkness seems to be in the way -- a way of calamity, trouble, sorrow; of weakness, faintness, feebleness. Here it would seem from the connexion to refer to the exhaustion produced by the want of food and drink. -- Albert Barnes.

HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS

Verse 5. Spiritual hunger the cause of faintness. Necessity of feeding the soul.

EXPOSITION

Verse 6. Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble. Not till they were in extremities did they pray, but the mercy is that they prayed then, and prayed in the right manner, with a cry, and to the right person, even to the Lord. Nothing else remained for them to do; they could not help themselves, or find help in others, and therefore they cried to God. Supplications which are forced out of us by stern necessity are none the less acceptable with God; but, indeed, they have all the more prevalence, since they are evidently sincere, and make a powerful appeal to the divine pity. Some men will never pray till they are half starved, and for their best interests it is far better for them to be empty and faint than to be full and stouthearted. If hunger brings us to our knees it is more useful to us than feasting; if thirst drives us to the fountain it is better than the deepest draughts of worldly joys; and if fainting leads to crying it is better than the strength of the mighty,

And he delivered them out of their distresses. Deliverance follows prayer most surely. The cry must have been very feeble, for they were faint, and their faith was as weak as their cry; but yet they were heard, and heard at once. A little delay would have been their death: but there was none, for the Lord was ready to save them. The Lord delights to come in when no one else can be of the slightest avail. The case was hopeless till Jehovah interposed, and then all was changed immediately; the people were shut up, straitened, and almost pressed to death, but enlargement came to them at once when they began to remember their God, and look to him in prayer. Those deserve to die of hunger who will not so much as ask for bread, and he who being lost in a desert will not beg the aid of a guide cannot be pitied even if he perish in the wilds and feed the vultures with his flesh.

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

Verse 6. Then they cried, etc. In these words we find three things remarkable; first, the condition of God's church and people, trouble and distress: Secondly, the practice and the exercise of God's people in this state: "Then they cried unto the Lord": Thirdly, their success, and the good issue of this practice: "And he delivered them", etc. --Peter Smith, in a Sermon preached before the House of Commons, 1644.

Verse 6. Then they cried. The root q[c has here a peculiar force: it denotes a cry of that kind into which any one, when shaken with a violent tempest of emotion, in the extremity of his grief and anxiety, breaks with a crash and with complaining, as the heavens send forth thunder and lightning. The original idea of the word being a crash, it indicates such complaints and cries as they send forth, who are oppressed by others, or are held fast in straits, in imploring public protection and help. See Deuteronomy 22:24 1 Kings 20:39 Isaiah 19:20. --Venema.

Verse 6. In their trouble. observe the words, "Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble." Not before, nor after, but in it. When they were in the midst of it; when trouble was wrapped round their head, as the weeds were wrapped round the head of Jonah; when they were surrounded by it, and could see no way out of it; when, like a person in a mist, they saw no way of escape before or behind; when nothing but a dark cloud of trouble surrounded their souls, and they did not know that ever that cloud would be dispersed; -- then it was that they cried. --J.C. Philpot.

Verse 6. "Trouble." "Distresses." The condition of the Church, or its most usual lot, is to be under sorrows and afflictions. I say, most usual: "For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made", Isaiah 57:16. But as we say of the several callings and trades of life, this man professes such a calling, and that man another; and as the poet said of Hermogenes, Though he hold his peace (peradventure being asleep) yet he's a good singer, and a musician by profession: so say I of the people of God, their trade of life is suffering: and as Julian told the Christians, when they complained of his cruelty, It is your profession to endure tribulation. --Peter Smith.

EXPOSITION

Verse 7. And he led them forth by the right way. There are many wrong ways, but only one right one, and into this none can lead us but God himself. When the Lord is leader the way is sure to be right; we never need question that. Forth from the pathless mazes of the desert he conducted the lost ones; he found the way, made the way, and enabled them to walk along it, faint and hungry as they were.

That they might go to a city of habitation. The end was worthy of the way: he did not lead them from one desert to another, but he gave the wanderers an abode, the weary ones a place of rest. They found no city to dwell in, but he found one readily enough. What we can do and what God can do are two very different things. What a difference it made to them to leave their solitude for a city, their trackless path for well frequented streets, and their faintness of heart for the refreshment of a home! Far greater are the changes which divine love works in the condition of sinners when God answers their prayers and brings them to Jesus. Shall not the Lord be magnified for such special mercies? Can we who have enjoyed them sit down in ungrateful silence?

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

Verse 7. He led them forth. Forth out of the world -- forth out of a profession -- forth out of a name to live -- forth out of every thing hateful in his holy and pure eyes. --J.C. Philpot.

Verse 7. And he led them forth by the right way, etc. Alexander translates this verse -- "And he led them in a straight course, to go to a city of habitation"; and adds, "No exact version can preserve or imitate the paronomasia arising from the etymological affinity of the first verb and noun, analogous to that between the English walk and to walk, though the Hebrew forms are only similar and not identical. The idea of physical rectitude or straightness necessarily suggests that of moral rectitude or honesty, commonly denoted by the Hebrew word."

Verse 7. A city of habitation. Not a city of inspection! Many -- (Eternal God, will it be any of this company?) -- will look in; and "there shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, when they shall see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of God, and they themselves shut out." Not a city of visitation. Christians shall not only enter, but abide. They shall go no more out -- it is "a city of habitation." This conveys the idea of repose. The Christian is now a traveller; then he will be a resident: he is now on the road; he will then be at home: "there remaineth a rest for the people of God." It reminds us of a social state. It is not a solitary condition; we shall partake of it with an innumerable company of angels, with all the saved from among men, with patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, our kindred in Christ. "These are fellow citizens of the saints, and of the household of God." It suggests magnificence. It is not a village, or a town, but a city of habitation. A city is the highest representation of civil community. There have been famous cities; but what are they all to this! -- William Jay.

HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS

Verse 7. Divine grace stimulating our exertions. "He led them forth ... that they might go."