Psalm 107:4

Psalm 107:4, in plain English

The first example: some people found themselves completely lost in the wilderness, with no destination in sight and no way forward.

Why it's here

The psalm now shifts into four vignettes—four different kinds of trouble—to show how God rescues people in different circumstances. This first group represents those who are literally and spiritually disoriented, wandering without direction or hope.

Who's speaking

The psalmist, describing a universal human experience

Where it sits in the story

Wilderness wandering appears throughout Scripture—from Israel's 40 years to Jesus being tested in the desert. It represents the season when you're lost and need God to show you the way.

The scholarly reading

The psalmist introduces the first of four stylized scenarios of distress, depicting wanderers lost in desolate wilderness without settlement or destination.

Language and setting

The wilderness wandering (midbar) evokes the Exodus generation's forty-year sojourn, establishing a typology of divine testing and purification. Post-exilic hearers would recognize both the metaphorical spiritual wilderness of exile and the literal dangers of the return journey. The 'city to dwell in' (ir moshav) represents stability, covenant community, and the fulfillment of promise—its absence signals radical displacement.

Voice

Still the liturgical voice, now narrating the condition of the redeemed before deliverance. The shift into descriptive storytelling (beginning verses 4-9) marks the first of four parallel narratives structured as problem-cry-deliverance-thanksgiving.

Significance

This wilderness motif undergirds the entire biblical narrative: from Israel's desert testing to John the Baptist's wilderness ministry and Christ's forty-day trial. The psalm universalizes spiritual experience—all of God's people know disorientation and lostness—making Psalm 107 resonate beyond its specific historical moment.

2Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy

3and gathered from the lands, from east and west, from north and south.

4Some wandered in desert wastelands, finding no path to a city in which to dwell.

5They were hungry and thirsty; their soul fainted within them.

6Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress.

Read all of Psalm 107 — Four stories of people in trouble — lost, imprisoned, sick, storm-tossed. Each time they cry out. Each time God delivers. Let the redeemed say so.