Here we go then:

Psalm 107:1-16
Exodus 15:22-27
Hebrews 3:1-6

I have to confess, that readings today's reading left me thinking "why let a bit of odd chronology get in the way of your reading scheme..." in a kind of sarcastic way.  We stay in Psalm 107 but we move backwards to read the beginning having last week read the middle why?  And the Exodus takes us back to the grumbling at Meribah that contributed to Aaron's exclusion from the Land of Promise... why go backwards via a different book?  Who, other than God who inspired it, knows the mind of the lectionary compilers?!

In the absence of much other inspiration, I'll look at the psalm...

O give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever.
Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, those he redeemed from trouble
and gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.
Some wandered in desert wastes, finding no way to an inhabited town;
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, until they reached an inhabited town.
Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love, for his wonderful works to humankind.
For he satisfies the thirsty, and the hungry he fills with good things.
Some sat in darkness and in gloom, prisoners in misery and in irons,
for they had rebelled against the words of God, and spurned the counsel of the Most High.
Their hearts were bowed down with hard labor; they fell down, with no one to help.
Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress;
he brought them out of darkness and gloom, and broke their bonds asunder.
Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love, for his wonderful works to humankind.
For he shatters the doors of bronze, and cuts in two the bars of iron.

Psalm 107:1 - 16 NRSV

The picture that is painted is a lot of very ordinary human travail - wandering lost and confused (literally or metaphorically), hunger, thirst, faint heartedness, gloom and despond, chains (literal and metaphorical) hard work, fatigue, isolation and abandonment...  And into each and every one of these comes the Lord as deliverer - saviour if you like, rescuer, redeemer, liberator.  It would be easy and unhelpful to make a twee leap here, to say 'all' that is needed is a 'cry to the Lord' and all will be well.  Twee and unhelpful, because it is never that simple.  The liberation, healing, redemption, rescuing, whatever word we want to employ, has to be worked out in real time, at real cost, among and through real people.

The psalm carries echoes of the Exodus story - hard labour, wilderness wanderings and so on - something that was worked out over at least a generation.  We easily lose that when we read in a few lines the whole story.  The psalm, and indeed the whole Pentateuch, are written looking backwards, picking out key moments and key themes, to express an understanding.  They are not the private journals of the people going through the experience (if such things might even have existed) they are the considered reflections.  Although anyone reading this knows that, sometimes it helps us to be reminded that the ancients experienced a reality every bit as slow moving as our own, and probably only in hindsight spotted where God had been there all along.

Oh give thanks to the Lord, whose steadfast love endures for ever!

Let all who have experienced God's liberation and salvation say so.

Sometimes we wander in wildernesses of our own making, unable to see the way forward

God comes alongside us and gently nudges us back to the path

Sometimes we are physically, mentally, spiritually exhausted

God guides us to spaces for rest and refreshment

Sometimes we are oppressed, victims of others' sin

God hears our cry and prepares our release

Sometimes it seems God is silent or sleeping

Sometimes it seems God is absent

God does not work nine-to-five

EU working hours directive

NICE guidelines

PERT/GANT chart plans

These are not God's way

"Soon" says God, "very soon"

"When?" we say, "how long?"

God of all eternity,

liberator

redeemer

saviour

sustainer

Help us to look back

Glimpsing your grace at work in our lives

Then face forward again

And journey onward with you

Amen