Some wandered in desert wastelands, finding no way to a city where they could settle. – Psalm 107:4

Today’s Scripture Reading (June 12, 2016): Psalm 107

Home. For each of us, there is that place where we just seem to belong. In our always moving society, home sometimes changes. Yet we always seem to remember fondly certain places where we have lived, and we leave a part of who we are there. For me, home has included large cities like Toronto (actually Newmarket just outside of Toronto), Calgary, and Edmonton – and small towns like Sundre and Claresholm. Each place owns a part of me. And for a period of time, I called each place home.

This Psalm probably more properly belongs at the end of the Babylonian Exile. The exile was a time that was probably characterized by the idea that the people of Judah were not allowed to be home. They were living in a strange land and with a strange people. The land was so strange that it could never really become home. The people were there for a while, they built houses and raised families, and they told the stories of a place far away that they called home – a place to which they dreamt they would one day be able to return. It was a fantastic place where God reigned and where the songs of God were sung. Home included the great walled city of Jerusalem and the wonderful Temple that Solomon built. And, finally, the day arrived when the people were given a chance to finally return to this place called home. Of course, the people given the opportunity to return home had never lived there before. Home only existed in the stories that they were told of this place where their ancestors had once lived.

It must have been quite a shock to arrive home and find that none of what they had been told about in stories of home actually existed anymore. Instead of a city teeming with people, all that was left were ruins inhabited by all kinds of scavengers. No city, no temple, no home – just the ever present desert.

At its heart, Psalm 107 is a song of redemption. But redemption isn’t possible unless we understand that we are lost and need to be redeemed. As those first people returned home to Jerusalem, the understanding that they were in need of redemption and that their city and country stood in that same need was probably overwhelming. This wasn’t home, but it could become home again. But only if God moved.

And, of course, we know that God was about to move.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 111 & 112