Psalm 107:4-9

“Some wandered in desert wastes,
finding no way to a city to dwell in;
hungry and thirsty,
their soul fainted within them.
Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble,
and He delivered them from their distress.
He led them by a straight way
till they reached a city to dwell in.
Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love,
for His wondrous works to the children of man!
For He satisfies the longing soul,
and the hungry soul He fills with good things.”

Psalm 107:4-9

Let the redeemed of the LORD say so. Who are the people the LORD has redeemed?

He has redeemed the people wandering in desert wastes. Hard places feel very much like desert wastelands.

Upon entering the time of His ministry, Lord Jesus entered the wilderness and was tempted by the devil by the pride of life, lust of the flesh, and lust of the eyes. It is not surprising really that many of us, after becoming Christians, wander around in the desert for a time and then sometimes again and again. The desert is a place of refinement, of cutting out all the things that keep us from calling on the name of the LORD in our distress – our pride, our flesh, our desire. The desert teaches us about longing. We long for a place to dwell, food to eat, and water to drink.

Hidden among the essentials we need are the other longings. The desire to be important, needed, and loved. The desire to be worthy and enough. We think the earthly places will fulfill our weak longings, but only one will satisfy, and it requires our utter emptiness. These longings – they drive all of who we are, but He longs to tell us who we are to Him. Loved, needed, adored, important, enough, and even when we are in the in between places of becoming, He sees us whole, for it is when words of wholeness are spoken over us that we become who He says we are. Chosen, Adopted, Whole, Included, Praised, Marked.

We long, we thirst, we strive, we hunger for life. True, abundant life that fills us again and again. A well that never runs dry. There is only one way to this kind of life, and it is through Jesus, as He so aptly told the woman at the well during His ministry.

Our Lord Jesus knows the desert places. It is any accident that the Israelites wandered, that Jesus went to the wilderness, and that we, ourselves, find ourselves in weary places? No, it is surely no accident.

The Lord Jesus sees our distressed souls, and He is with us. We are being carried through the desert at times when we think we are fighting back the quicksands seeking to swallow us whole. <–Click to tweet.

The desert feels like a crooked place, a place of hopelessness and loss, and indeed, parts of it are hopeless and some things are being lost, but we are finding the greater thing and Person instead. King Jesus.

Jesus leads us on a straight path, straight into His city, into His eternal kingdom. We long for Heaven as if it begins tomorrow or some day when we die, but it begins now, the moment we call upon His sweet name.

We need to thank the LORD for the goodness of the loss and the goodness of the filling, for when we lose the things we crave, we find the Person we most need. <–Click to tweet. He is wonderful, satisfying our deepest places and filling us with good things, even in the midst of the desert places. He is providing manna and water when sometimes we least see it.

Today, I pray we can see the wonderful Provision of the good, shepherd king.

If you enjoyed this post, you may like this song by Need to Breathe, Wasteland.