Psalms 77:3 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

I remembered God, and was troubled Yea, the thoughts of God, and of his infinite power, wisdom, truth, and goodness, which used to be very sweet and consolatory to me, were now causes of terror and trouble, because these divine attributes appeared to be all engaged against me; and God himself, my only friend, now seemed to be very angry with me, and to have become mine enemy. The word אהמיה, ehemajah, here rendered I was troubled, properly signifies, I was in a state of perturbation, like that of the tumultuous waves of the sea in a storm. I complained Unto God in prayer; and my spirit was overwhelmed So far was I from finding relief by my complaints, that they increased my misery. Hebrew, אשׁיחה ותתעשׂ Š רוחי, ashicha vetithgnatteph ruchi, I meditated, and my spirit covered, overwhelmed, or obscured itself. My own reasonings, instead of affording me light and comfort, only served to overwhelm me with greater darkness and misery. How frequently is this the case with persons in distress of soul, through a consciousness of their guilt, depravity, and weakness, and their desert of the wrath of God! This verse “is a fine description,” says Dr. Horne, “of what passes in an afflicted and dejected mind. Between the remembrance of God and his former mercies, and the meditation on a seeming desertion, under present calamities, the affections are variously agitated, and the prayers disturbed like the tumultuous waves of a troubled sea; while the fair light from above is intercepted, and the face of heaven overwhelmed with clouds and darkness.”