Psalms 77 - Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible

This Psalm is headed «To the chief Musician, to Jeduthun,» He was one of the great singers; there is opportunity given in the Psalms for each of the sinners to take his turn.; it does not do for any of us to be idle in reference to the praise of God. It is called, «A Psalm of Asaph.» His Psalms have usually a dark tinge about them; he was a meditative man, «a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief»; but also a man of strong faith, and of an exulting spirit. You need to do business in great waters to understand Asaph; he is one who does not wade, but he gets into «waters to swim in.»

Thus he begins:

Psalms 77:1. I cried unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice; and he gave ear unto me.

The use of the voice in prayer is not essential; but usually, when men grow earnest, they use the voice as well as the mind. It was because of the intensity of his prayer that the psalmist felt compelled to cry, not to use stilted, stately language, but the natural cry of pain: «I cried unto God with my voice.» You will find it very helpful in private prayer to use the voice; many of us do. Some have not the opportunity of doing so; but if you can be unheard of men, and can use your voice, you will find it helpful. Twice says the psalmist, «I cried unto God with my voice.»

Psalms 77:2. In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord:

This is the best place to go in the day of your trouble.

Psalms 77:2. My sore ran in the night,

A better rendering would be, My hand was stretched out in the night.» The psalmist continued to pray.

Psalms 77:2. And ceased not: my soul refused to be comforted.

Rightly so, if the comfort came from man, if the comfort were doubtful and ineffectual; wrongly so, when right comfort was presented to him, comfort from God. I am afraid that, in the time of our trouble, we often increase it by being unwilling to be comforted.

Psalms 77:3. I remembered God, and was troubled:

What! trouble even from remembering God? Then this is trouble indeed.

And yet this has been the experience of the saints of God many a time:

I remembered God,» his holiness, his justice, my offenses against him, and was troubled.»

Psalms 77:3. I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed.

Turned over, overwhelmed; without comfort, or hope of comfort.

Psalms 77:3. Selah.

Screw up the harp-strings; they have gone flat through such hard striking.

These deep notes have put the strings out of order. The man in his grief cannot sing well; and he had need to say «Selah.» Sursum corda. Lift up the heart; prepare yourself again for song.

Psalms 77:4. Thou holdest mine eyes waking: I am so troubled that I cannot speak.

Yet he was speaking; but it did not seem to him like speaking. It was rather an inarticulate wail than the language of a man.

Psalms 77:5. I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times.

A little holy history is good reading for a heavy heart. You will often stumble on a record of God's providential dealings, or a paragraph concerning his wonderful love, that will cheer your heart. Yet it did not cheer the heart of the psalmist just then.

Psalms 77:6. I call to remembrance my song in the night:

«How I used to sing like the nightingale, with the thorn at my breast, I call that to remembrance.» But we cannot always sing old songs. Old experiences may have but little fire in their ashes, though often in their ashes live their wonted fires.

Psalms 77:6. I commune with mine own, heart:

A very proper thing to do; but not much comfort generally comes of it. It is like stirring water that is already muddy; the more you stir it, the more muddy it becomes.

Psalms 77:6. And my spirit made diligent search.

When a man can deal with himself like this, his trouble will not last long. God save me from a dumb sorrow, sorrow that cannot think, and cannot judge, and cannot weigh itself!

Now listen to the psalmist's questions. Does doubt question your faith? Then let faith question your doubts. Here is a catechism for a desponding heart. I commend it to you who are in trouble. Put your soul through its paces, ask these questions.

Psalms 77:7. Will the Lord cast off for ever?

Has he ever done so? He may seem to cast off for a little while; but «Will the Lord cast off for ever?»

Psalms 77:7. And will he be favourable no more?

It is a long lane that has no turning. The Lord may take down the rod; but will he always use it? Will he always chide?

Psalms 77:8. Is his mercy clean gone for ever?

If his favor is gone, yet is his mercy gone? Does not the Psalm say, «His mercy endureth for ever»? If I cannot claim favor as a saint, may I not hope for mercy as a sinner? «Is his mercy clean gone for ever?»

Psalms 77:8. Doth his promise fail for evermore?

Oh, what a question that is! God's promise may tarry, but it never fails; and if it seem to fail for the time being, will it fail for evermore?

Psalms 77:9. Hath God forgotten to be gracious?

What hot shots these are for unbelief! I warrant you that, however deep your unbelief may be tonight, if, by earnest prayer, with the help of the Holy Spirit, you ply it with these questions, it will have to yield.

Psalms 77:9. Hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah.

Can it be so? Was it ever so to any of God's people? Now comes «Selah» again. Turn those screws once more; put the harp-strings might again. We shall have sweeter music from this time.

Psalms 77:10. And I said, This is my infirmity: but I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High.

«But I will remember» is added by the translator. Surely it was to the psalmist an infirmity to be thus in trouble; he called it Benoni, son of sorrow; but it was not infirmity to God; he called it Benjamin, son of the right hand. There is a sort of parallel between Asaph and the woman who named her child Benoni. Certainly it is a great infirmity, it is a sin, to doubt God, and to be cast down, and troubled.

Psalms 77:11. I will remember the works of the LORD: surely I will remember thy wonders of old.

Think of what God has done for his people, how he has delivered them, how he has lifted them from the dunghill, and set them among the princes, even among the princes of his people. Think of his wonders of grace, and be no more discouraged.

Psalms 77:12. I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings.

Those who talk ought to meditate; otherwise they grind wind. Those who meditate will talk; otherwise the miller grinds only for himself.

Psalms 77:13. Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary:

Or, «in holiness.» God's way is always a holy way, a righteous way.

Psalms 77:13. Who is so great a God as our God?

When we think of the greatness of God, if we simply dwell upon his power, we make a mistake. The greatness of God lies mainly in his moral attributes, in his completeness, his wholeness, his holiness.

Psalms 77:14-15. Thou art the God that doest wonders: thou hast declared thy strength among the people. Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah.

«Selah» again. In looking back, the psalmist has remembered the history of the whole nation. He thinks of what God did for his ancient people; indeed, he is on the verge of a great song; well may he tune the strings again. He has in thought gone back to the Red Sea. He is standing like Miriam, by the waters that devoured the foes of Israel, and he must sing as she did. In a high poetic strain he writes:

Psalms 77:16. The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they were afraid: the depths also were troubled.

At the very sight of God the sea began to flee, to lay bare its depths. «The floods stood upright as an heap,» in their fear and dread of the presence of God, «and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea.»

Psalms 77:17. The clouds poured out water:

The floods above answered the floods below; and came to the help of the Lord, «to the help of the Lord against the mighty.»

Psalms 77:17-18. The skies sent out a sound: thine arrows also went abroad. The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven: the lightnings lightened the world: the earth trembled and shook.

There was a great storm; thunder and lightning gathered about the sea.

When God spoke, the waters rolled back, and swallowed up all the chivalry of Egypt. Heaven and earth joined in battle against God's foes; not only did the sea flee, but there appears to have been also an earthquake.

Psalms 77:19. Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known.

Not foreknown. Who could have foretold that God would lead his people through the sea? His footsteps are not now to be found. God's ways we cannot guess; and even when we have seen them, we cannot understand them. Child of God, does the sea roll before you tonight? Are you in extreme distress? Are you crying as the psalmist did? With your voice do you cry unto God? Then expect deliverance from him.

Psalms 77:20. Thou leddest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

Moses and Aaron did not lead them; God led his people, «like a flock, by the hand of Moses and Aaron.» Here the Psalm breaks off with great abruptness. Had it been a human composition, it would have been rounded off with great discretion; but God knows best where to stop. I sometimes wish brethren would do the same in their prayers; they need not keep on till they have worn us out; they may break off short if they like. So may we in our sermons; perhaps they would be better remembered if the second half was never spoken.

The Book of Psalms, though it is divinely inspired, is also marvelously human; it is everywhere instinct with life, and life in its most, sympathetic forms. However glad you are, there is always a Psalm suitable for you to sing; and you are never so sad but a Psalm could be found to help you, in the very depths, to pour out your complaint before God. This 77 th Psalm is the song of a man in deep depression.

Psalms 77:1. I cried unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice; and he gave ear unto me.

It was only a cry; a cry monotonous, redoubled, and full of sorrow. Yet the Lord gave ear unto him who cried. There were some who would have stopped their ears, and have got out of the way, for the sound made them melancholy, and they could not bear it; but the Lord gave ear unto his sad servant's cry. Oh, how sweet is this! Though he hears the songs of angels, and though the hallelujahs of the blood-bought in glory never cease before him, yet he stoops from his throne of majesty, and listens to the cry of misery. «He gave ear unto me.» Are any of you troubled? Pour out your hearts before the Lord, and he will give ear unto you as he did to the writer of this Psalm.

Psalms 77:2. In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord:

That was a very wise thing to do; where else should he go, in the day of trouble, but to him who sent the trouble, to him who could help him to bear the trouble, to him who could sanctify the trouble, to him who could, if he pleased, remove the trouble? «In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord.» I have heard of some who fly to strong drink to drown their troubles; that will never do, it is like leaping into the fire to escape the flame. Some run to their fellow-creatures for comfort; that is a poor way of acting; better by far do as the psalmist said he did, «In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord.»

Psalms 77:2-3. My sore ran in the night, and ceased not: my soul refused to be comforted. I remembered God, and was troubled:

‘Yet he says that he sought God. It is a grand thing when your faith leads you to seek God, even though he troubles you. It is better to knock at God's door when he is angry than to go to any other door. Even if he shuts the door in your face, still wait upon him. Though he may seem not to heed your cry, there is no door like that of God. Therefore, continue there still.

Yet there are times when even believers in God are so conscious of sin, so conscious of departure from him by unbelief towards him, that, as they remember God, they are troubled.

Psalms 77:3-5. I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Selah. Thou holdest mine eyes waking: I am so troubled that I cannot speak. I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times.

What God did with others of his people in their times of trouble, how he rescued them, the splendor of his power in the ages long since gone, these are among the things which the psalmist considered. It is well sometimes to live in the past. If the present seems to be like a fire that has gone out, snatch a live coal from the altars of the past, and set the fuel alight again.

Psalms 77:6. I call to remembrance my song in the night-

«How I was once like a nightingale, and learnt to sing with a thorn at my breast; how, in former times, I triumphed in the hour of trouble and affliction.» It is good to recollect all this; for, though past experience will not do to live upon, yet sometimes we are like the men with their barges when they push ‘backwards to send the barge forward. We may think of the past to help us in the present.

Psalms 77:6-7. I commune with mine own heart: and my spirit made diligent search.

Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more? Come, what think you? Will such a loving, faithful God as ours cast off for ever? Can you harbour such a thought concerning him? Will he be favorable no more after all the favor he has already shown? Can he change?

Will he deny himself? Think you that God will play fast and loose with you? «Will he be favorable no more?»

Psalms 77:8. Is his mercy clean gone for ever?

We sing, «His mercy endureth for ever;» is that a lie? Can it be?

Psalms 77:8. Doth his promise fail for evermore?

Does it ever fail at all? And if it does tarry a while, will it always wait? Will God be found untrue at last? Come, children of God, in your trouble face these questions, and answer them; for you must get comfort out of the only reply that you can give to them.

Psalms 77:9. Hath God forgotten to be gracious?

Is he the same God that he used to be? Or has he been overtaken with a fit of forgetfulness? Has he a failing memory, like yours and mine?

Psalms 77:9. Hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah.

Can it be? Has he not said, «as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee»? Can it be, then, that in anger he has shut up his tender mercies?

Psalms 77:10. And I said, This is my infirmity:

And so it is. Worse than that; it is sometimes our iniquity, our sin, to think such hard things of God. But inasmuch as faith was there, battling, struggling, and striving, the little temporary victory which unbelief seemed to gain was the result of infirmity.

Psalms 77:10. But I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High.

The glorious years of his electing love; the years in which he has loved his people, and never changed that love; the years in which we ourselves have realized his presence, and been at his right hand, enjoying day by day a sense of his love.

Psalms 77:11-12. I will remember the works of the LORD: surely I will remember thy wonders of old. I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings.

They will bear talking of, they will bear turning over, and meditating upon; for they are full of comfort.

Psalms 77:13-14. Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary: who is so great a God as our God? Thou art the God that doest wonders: thou hast declared thy strength among the people.

Whenever the Hebrew mind was full of exulting joy concerning God's greatness and might, it seemed inevitably to turn back to Egypt and the Red Sea. Just as we, believers in Jesus, love to sing the song of the Lamb, so did these old believers sing it by anticipation. We may fitly join with them, and together we may sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and of the Lamb. Here is a part of it,

Psalms 77:15. Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah.

There is no song like that of redemption. Whatever our troubles may be if we are trusting in Christ, we are a redeemed people. Whatever our sins or infirmities, or imperfections, we are a redeemed people, like Israel of old. They were redeemed by power, as well as by price; so we read,-

Psalms 77:16-18. The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they were afraid: the depths also were troubled. The clouds poured out water: the skies sent out a sound: thine arrows also went abroad. The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven: the lightnings lightened the world: the earth trembled and shook.

This is what Egypt saw when God turned the dark side of the cloud towards the Egyptians, and greatly troubled them through that wild tempestuous night.

Psalms 77:19-20. Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known. Thou leddest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

And so will he continue to lead his people by one and another, till all their wanderings are over, and they rest in peace at his right hand for ever; «wherefore, comfort one another with these words.»

This «Psalm of Asaph» has a mournful tone in it; at times the writer is in the deeps; but we may be quite sure that be will end the Psalm cheerfully because he begins it with prayer. No matter what sorrow falls to your lot, if you can pray, you will rise out of it. When Jonah went to the bottoms of the mountains, in the belly of the fish, and took to praying, it was well with him. If thou, dear troubled soul, canst but pray, thou needest not despair.

Psalms 77:1. I cried unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice; and he gave ear unto me.

You see, he cried, and he cried again, and at his second call the door of mercy was opened to him. God sometimes makes petitioners wait that they may become more earnest, and that they may really feel the value of the thing they are seeking. So Asaph says, «I cried unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice.» That is the way to get the blessing. You will often find, dear friends, that it helps you to pray if you use your voice in prayer; there is no necessity to speak, you can pray without the use of the lips; but it often helps your thoughts if you are able to express them aloud.

Psalms 77:2. In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord: my sore ran in the night, and ceased not: my soul refused to be comforted.

He could not sleep, so he took to prayer. Which is the greater mercy, prayer or sleep, I cannot say. In the psalmist's case, I should suppose that prayer just then was better than sleep. His trouble so pressed upon him, that it gave him no respite whatever, so all through the night he continued to cry unto the Lord.

Psalms 77:3. I remembered God, and was troubled:

God is the fountain of all comfort, yet there are times when even a godly man can find no comfort in God. Asaph perhaps remembered the dark side of God's attributes. Justice seemed to stand over him with a drawn sword.

Holiness frowned upon him. Power threatened to crush him. Truth stood up to condemn him. He could not find any comfort, even in his God.

Psalms 77:3. I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Selah.

He was covered right up, like a ship that has gone down in deep water: «I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed Selah.» Whenever you see this word, «Selah,» it means lift up the notes; tune up the strings of the harp; get the mind and heart ready for something in a rather different strain.

Psalms 77:4. Thou holdest mine eyes waking: I am so troubled that I cannot speak.

You thought that the psalmist was going to say, «I cannot sleep.» He has given up the attempt to do that, so now he tries to talk; but utterance fails him. Shallow brooks sound as they flow, but deep griefs are still; and a man may be so troubled in heart that he cannot speak; he can only explain his sorrow by groaning and tears.

Psalms 77:5-6. I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times. I call to remembrance my song in the night. I commune with mine own heart: and my spirit made diligent search.

He looked back into the records of ancient history to see if God did ever forsake a praying man. He thought upon his own experience, and he recollected how, when it was night with him before, God made him to sing like a nightingale, in the darkness; so he asks himself, «Has God changed? Will he give me no songs now? Will he leave me to perish?» Thus have the best of men, in their sore troubles, had to put to themselves solemn questions, and they have not always been able to answer them.

Psalms 77:7-9. Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more? Is his mercy clean gone for ever? doth his promise fall for evermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah.

If you are a child of God, yet never had to ask these questions, you ought to be very grateful; but if you have to ask them, be very thankful that Asaph asked them before you; and believe that, as he had a comfortable answer to them, so shall you. It is always a comfort when you can see the footprints of another man in the mire and the slough, for if that man passed through unharmed, so may you, for his God shall also be your Helper. But only think of this inspired psalmist, this sweet singer of Israel, being so troubled and broken in spirit that he says, «Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies?»

Psalms 77:10. And I said, This is my infirmity:

«This is a trouble appointed to me, I must bear it.» Or, «This is because of the weakness of my faith. God has not changed; it is I who have changed.

‘This is my infirmity.'»

Psalms 77:10. But I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High.

«I will remember what God has done with that right hand of his. I will remember when I used to sit at his right hand. «'What peaceful hours I then enjoyed!

How sweet their memory still!

But now I find an aching void

The world can never fill.'»

It is a good thing to make a record of your experiences when they are sweet; you may want that record one of these days. I do not believe in keeping a diary always, for one is apt to put down more than may be true; but there are times of special mercy when I would say, «Write that down for a memorial, and keep it by you, for the day may come when that record will minister comfort to you.»

Psalms 77:11-12. I will remember the works of the LORD: surely I will remember thy wonders of old. I will meditate also of all thy work,

«I will not have any more of my works; I will meditate on thy work. I will get to thee, my God, and think of what thou hast done; especially of thy works of grace, how brightly they shine! I will meditate also of all thy work,»

Psalms 77:12-13. And talk of thy doings. Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary:

Or, «is in holiness.» God's way is sometimes in the sea, but it is always a holy way. God never deals with his people, or with any of his creatures, unjustly or unrighteously. «I cannot trace God,» said Luther once, «but I can trust him;» and from that saying of his we have coined the phrase, «To trust him when you cannot trace him.» When you are unable to see God's footprints because he rides upon the storm, yet still say, «Thy way, O God, is in holiness.»

Psalms 77:13-14. Who is so great a God as our God? Thou art the God that doest wonders: thou hast declared thy strength among the people.

See how the psalmist comforts himself with what God had done; and he went right back to the Red Sea for his illustration. Somehow, God's people in the olden times always liked to sing the song of Moses; by a kind of instinct, they thought of the Red Sea, as if to remember the redemption that God wrought out for his people when he destroyed Pharaoh and all his host. Let us go there, too, and think of the Red Sea of our Saviour's blood where all our sins were drowned.

Psalms 77:15-17. Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph Selah. The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they were afraid: the depths also were troubled. The clouds poured out water: the skies sent out a sound: thine arrows also went abroad.

I suppose that there was a storm at the time of the passage of the Red Sea, so that the deep-mouthed thunder spoke to the quaking heart of Pharaoh, while the flashing lightnings set the heavens on flame, and made Egypt's chivalry tremble as the horse and his rider went down into the sea.

Psalms 77:18-19. The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven: the lightnings lightened the world: the earth trembled and shook. Thy way is in the sea,

Where you cannot see his footprints; «in the sea,» where there seems to be no way at all, there God makes a highway. Are you in such trouble, dear friend, that you cannot see the possibility of escape? Remember this verse: «Thy way is in the sea,»

Psalms 77:19-20. And thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known. Thou leddest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

There the Psalm stops, just when you thought there was more to be said. The Holy Spirit knows how to leave off, and he closes abruptly with a sublimity seldom equaled. God's people need to know no more than this, that God is leading them. Asaph does not say that Moses and Aaron led them: «Thou leddest thy people.» Moses and Aaron were only the Lord's servants and under-shepherds: «Thou leddest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.» May he be ever our Leader! Amen.

Psalms 77:1. I cried unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice; and he gave ear unto me.

The writer was in very deep trouble. The trouble forced from him a loud and bitter cry. His heart was wrung with anguish, but the cry which was the weakness of the flesh was, by divine grace, turned upward, and so became the strength of his grace. He cried, but it was to God, not to men, as many of us do. «Unto God,» says he twice over, «did I cry.» But God hears when others hear not, and, blessed be his name, he answers when others cannot. There are so many instances in which God has heard the prayer of persons in deep trouble, that the most troubled of all men ought to be encouraged to pray. Did not Jonah pray, even out of the belly of the whale, and God delivered him? Did not Manasseh pray out of the low dungeon? Great sinner as he was, God delivered him Oh! let us believe that there is power in prayer, for God hearkens to the request of those that seek his face.

Psalms 77:2. In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord: my sore ran in the night, and ceased not: my soul refused to be comforted.

He would not take the common comfort which friendly words would have yielded him: his case was so desperate that he must have divine comfort, and nothing else. I will not be comforted till Jesus comfort me, and this is a very good and holy resolution. I wish that some who snatch at comfort unhealthy comfort too soon, would resolve upon this, «My cry shall go to God, and God only, and I will take no comfort till God the Holy Spirit bring it to me.»

Psalms 77:3. I remembered God, and was troubled:

Yet it was the right thing to do to remember God the most comfortable thing in the world, and though it failed at first, it did not fail in the long run,

Psalms 77:3. I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed.

It is no new thing, then, for the best of God's people to be in the deepest trouble. The path which you are traveling, O mourner, is well marked with footprints.

Psalms 77:3-5. Selah. Thou holdest mine eyes waking: I am so troubled that I cannot speak. I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times.

Turned through the experience of thy people written in thy Word to see if ever thou didst forsake one of them.

Psalms 77:6. I call to remembrance my song in the night:

To see whether thou didst forsake me in days gone by marked my past experience of thy faithfulness.

Psalms 77:6-9. I commune with mine own heart: and my spirit made diligent search. Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more? Is his mercy clean gone for ever? Doth his promise fail for evermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies?

Will he be favorable no more? Very proper questions to put. They answer themselves when we put them plainly, but while they lie festering in our spirits, misshapen things like ghosts that haunt our heart, then they alarm us. It is well to come to plain dealings, with our soul and to say, «Why art thou cast down, O my soul; why art thou disquieted within me?»

Psalms 77:9-10. Selah. And I said,

When I came to reckon all up, and make a righteous judgment; when I bid my fears lie still awhile, and let me listen to reason, I said:

Psalms 77:10. This is my infirmity: but I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High.

I will remember God's faithfulness in the past, in years when I lived at his right hand and basked in the sunlight of his love: I will snatch firebrands from the altars of the past to light up the fires of today.

Psalms 77:11-13. I will remember the works of the LORD: surely I will remember thy wonders of old. I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings. Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary:

Or better, «Thy way is in holiness.» What thou doest is right, my God. I feared and trembled, but now I know it is so.

Psalms 77:13-14. Who is so great a God as our God? Thou art the God that doest wonders: thou hast declared thy strength among the people.

Oh! if we could all tell out what God has done for us, we could prove it true that God has declared his strength among us; the might of his grace has he displayed in our case.

Psalms 77:15. Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob an Joseph.

Saints in the olden times were very fond of falling back upon the redemption of Israel out of Egypt. It was a favorite subject of their contemplation; it yielded them great comfort, and very, very frequently they turned it into sacred song. Now in heaven we shall do the same, for we shall sing the song of Moses end the Lamb. Let not the Church in modern times forget to draw consolation out of that well. Here the Psalmist gives us a description, as I think it is, of the passage of the Red Sea giving it as a sort of type of the way in which God will always deliver his people to the world's end.

Psalms 77:16-20. The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they were afraid: the depths also were troubled. The clouds poured out water: the skies sent out a sound: thine arrows also went abroad. The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven: the lightnings lightened the world: the earth trembled and shook. Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known. Thou leddest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

For one moment just look at this picture. You will be delivered, and God will be glorified in your deliverance just as he was in the coming out of Egypt, but it will be by a mysterious way, perhaps way little guessed at by you. God's path will be in the great waters. You will see the power, but before you see it you will little guess how it will be displayed. Only follow where he leads, for as amidst the thunder and the lightning he led his people as calmly on as a shepherd leads his flock, so shall you, whatever happens, with Jehovah for your shepherd, be led safely on till you come to the celestial city. Let us sing the song of the Red Sea.

This exposition consisted of readings from Psalms 77:1; Revelation 1:15-20.