Psalm 77 GW
In Psalm 77, the psalmist finds himself in a time of deep distress.
He can’t sleep, he moans and tosses and turns. He tries to pray, but as he says, his spirit faints. He cannot concentrate. He seeks the Lord, he cries aloud to God, hoping God will hear him, but he cannot find comfort anywhere; in fact, he refuses comfort and consolation. God, he says, will not let him sleep. God props his eyelids open, and the singer is so troubled that he cannot speak.
“Why am I in this state?” This is a good question to ask when your spirit has no rest. It is the right time to consider your past. For this is not the first time you have faced this sort of thing. You have forgotten the song you used to sing when you were troubled. It helped you meditate in the right direction, and you need it now. How did it go?
The psalmist then engaged in a diligent search, and this time it was about God and his promises. From this point on his trajectory was upward, out of the pit he was in. When you are in deep trouble and depression this appears to be the way forward. Ask questions of God about his promises, like the psalmist did here.
Has the Lord promised to be with you, to walk with you through your life? Yes, he has. So if he appears to be spurning you and turning his back on you, it is either that God Almighty lied to you, a thing he said he doesn’t do, or that you are in the midst of a temporary trial, and that you will again see his face. Which is more likely?
“Has God’s steadfast love forever ceased?” If it ceased, it would not have been steadfast, would it? God proclaimed through his psalmists again and again that his love is steadfast and never shaken. It is not moved by you. Have you apostatised? Have you left God behind? Then how can it be that you are found here calling on him? Jesus taught that the one who comes to Him he would in no wise cast out. He is pleased when his people seek him.
“Are his promises at an end for all time?” The diligently searching psalmist would have to conclude this was not and could not be true. God made promises, and he is Yahweh, the covenant-keeping God. As long as he lives, so do his promises. He will do what he says he will do.
“Has God forgotten to be gracious?” Think for awhile about God forgetting to do something that is in his nature to do. The gods of the nations around Israel were certainly not gracious and kind. The true God was rather unique that way. He is gracious. We are taught in the epistles to be gracious to one another because doing so reflects the character of our God. Israel sometimes thought God had forsaken her, but God spoke this through his prophet Isaiah,
“But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me.” “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands…” Is. 49:14-16. And our Lord Jesus has quite literally engraved us on the palms of his hands. Those scars were for us. He will remember to be gracious to us.
“Has he in anger shut up his compassion?” The Lord was sometimes angry with his people when they were rebellious, when they were not seeking him, when they were ignoring him. But here you are, O Psalmist, seeking him diligently. This is not rebellion. He is not angry with you.
The psalmist then appeals to “the years” of the right hand of the Most High. There is a translation issue with this phrase. It can mean, as the lyrics of this song interpret them, that the hand of God has changed. Or it can mean, as I think is more fitting, that the psalmist is remembering God from of old, from old times, from what he has done in times past. For that is where he goes next. He begins to remember God’s great works in history, and to enumerate them to himself.
*The way out of your self-inflicted pit is to remember the great things God has done.*
From verses 13-20 the psalmist reflects on the great deliverance God brought about at the Red Sea crossing. God redeemed his people in the sight of the nations, and the nations were afraid. And they were not the only things afraid. So were the waters of the sea. They crashed, they piled up in a heap, they fell down in torrents from the sky. This gives us an insight into the Red Sea crossing we are not told in the narrative in Exodus; it was pouring rain when they crossed through the sea on dry ground. Awesome!
And the Spirit, inspiring this song of Asaph, knew things the psalmist could not have known or foreseen; how this God whose path was through the sea and through the great waters would one day walk himself on a stormy sea to a boat full of terrified disciples. He could speak, and bring the wild waves to a flat calm. His footprints no man saw, but a bunch of people saw the Man Himself. And they knew they were seeing not just a man, but God himself. I wonder if those disciples thought of Psalm 77 there on the Sea of Galilee?
If you are a songwriter, writing songs for the worship of God’s gathered people, here is some good counsel. Write songs about the great things that God has done. Not the personal, “God-did-this-for-me” things, but rather the Biblical and historical ones that all God’s people have in common. Write about creation and the flood. Write about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Write about Joseph. Write about enslavement in Egypt, or later in exile in Babylon. Write about the Red Sea. Write about the wilderness wanderings. Write about the Judges. Write about the psalms and the prophets. Write about the life and death and resurrection and enthronement of Jesus the King. Write about happenings and people in Church history. God’s people are encouraged to press on when they have his stories as their daily food.
Sing this psalm with conviction.
Here are the lyrics.
In the Day of Trouble I Seek the Lord
To the choirmaster: according to Jeduthun. A Psalm of Asaph.
77 I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, and he will hear me.
2 In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord;
in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying;
my soul refuses to be comforted.
3 When I remember God, I moan; when I meditate, my spirit faints. Selah
4 You hold my eyelids open; I am so troubled that I cannot speak.
5 I consider the days of old, the years long ago.
6 I said, “Let me remember my song in the night;
let me meditate in my heart.” Then my spirit made a diligent search:
7 “Will the Lord spurn forever, and never again be favorable?
8 Has his steadfast love forever ceased? Are his promises at an end for all time?
9 Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his compassion?” Selah
10 Then I said, “I will appeal to this, to the years of the right hand of the Most High.”
11 I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your wonders of old.
12 I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your mighty deeds.
13 Your way, O God, is holy. What god is great like our God?
14 You are the God who works wonders;
you have made known your might among the peoples.
15 You with your arm redeemed your people, the children of Jacob and Joseph. Selah
16 When the waters saw you, O God,
when the waters saw you, they were afraid; indeed, the deep trembled.
17 The clouds poured out water; the skies gave forth thunder;
your arrows flashed on every side.
18 The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind;
your lightnings lighted up the world; the earth trembled and shook.
19 Your way was through the sea, your path through the great waters;
yet your footprints were unseen.
20 You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
