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.»