Psalms 107:4

They wandered in the wilderness.

The sinner homeless

The old legend of the Wandering Jew tells us how he who had struck and insulted Jesus as He left the Judgment Hall was condemned to wander homeless through many lands, a stranger, unwelcomed and uncared for, who found no city to dwell in. The legend is not without its teaching. Those who wilfully sin against Jesus and the Truth wander through the wilderness of the world out of the right way. They are in a barren and dry land where no water is--no water of life, no water of grace, no water of penitent tears. They are homeless, they find no city to dwell in. Like the Prodigal, they have left their Father’s House, their true home; they have wandered from the true Food, and they are hungry; they have deserted the true Fountain, and they are athirst--“Hungry and, thirsty, their soul fainted in them.” They have shut themselves out of God’s House, and it is no longer home to them. (H. J. Wilmot Buxton, M.A.)