Psalms 77

Remembering God’s Help for Israel

1

For the [music] director, on Jeduthun. Of Asaph. A psalm.

1 I cry out with my voice to God; with my voice to God, that he may hear me.

2 In the day I [have] trouble, I seek the Lord. At night my hand stretches out {continually}; my soul refuses to be comforted.

3 I remember God and I groan loudly; I meditate and my spirit grows faint.

4 You hold [open] my eyelids. I am troubled and cannot speak.

5 I think about [the] days from long ago, [the] years of ancient times.

6 I remember my song in the night. With my heart I meditate, and my spirit searches [to understand].

7 Will the Lord reject [us] forever, and will he never be pleased [with us] again?

8 Has his loyal love ceased forever? Is [his] promise ended throughout generations?

9 Has God forgotten to have compassion? Or has he closed off his mercies in anger? Selah

10 So I said, "This pierces me-- the right [hand] of the Most High [has] changed."

11 I will remember the deeds of Yah. Surely I will remember your wonders from long ago.

12 I will also muse on all your work, and meditate on your deeds.

13 O God, your way [is] distinctive. Who [is] a great god like [our] God?

14 You [are] the God who works wonders; you have made known your might among the peoples.

15 With [your] arm you redeemed your people, the children of Jacob and Joseph. Selah

16 Waters saw you, O God; waters saw you [and] they trembled. Surely [the] deeps shook.

17 [The] clouds poured out water. [The] skies {thundered}. Your arrows also {flew about}.

18 The sound of your thunder [was] in the whirlwind; lightnings lit [the] world; the earth shook and quaked.

19 Your way [was] through the sea, and your path through many waters. Yet your footprints were not discerned.

20 You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

Psalms 77 Commentary

Chapter 77

The psalmist's troubles and temptation. (1-10) He encourages himself by the remembrance of God's help of his people. (11-20)

Verses 1-10 Days of trouble must be days of prayer; when God seems to have withdrawn from us, we must seek him till we find him. In the day of his trouble the psalmist did not seek for the diversion of business or amusement, but he sought God, and his favor and grace. Those that are under trouble of mind, must pray it away. He pored upon the trouble; the methods that should have relieved him did but increase his grief. When he remembered God, it was only the Divine justice and wrath. His spirit was overwhelmed, and sank under the load. But let not the remembrance of the comforts we have lost, make us unthankful for those that are left. Particularly he called to remembrance the comforts with which he supported himself in former sorrows. Here is the language of a sorrowful, deserted soul, walking in darkness; a common case even among those that fear the Lord, ( Isaiah 50:10 ) . Nothing wounds and pierces like the thought of God's being angry. God's own people, in a cloudy and dark day, may be tempted to make wrong conclusions about their spiritual state, and that of God's kingdom in the world. But we must not give way to such fears. Let faith answer them from the Scripture. The troubled fountain will work itself clear again; and the recollection of former times of joyful experience often raises a hope, tending to relief. Doubts and fears proceed from the want and weakness of faith. Despondency and distrust under affliction, are too often the infirmities of believers, and, as such, are to be thought upon by us with sorrow and shame. When, unbelief is working in us, we must thus suppress its risings.

Verses 11-20 The remembrance of the works of God, will be a powerful remedy against distrust of his promise and goodness; for he is God, and changes not. God's way is in the sanctuary. We are sure that God is holy in all his works. God's ways are like the deep waters, which cannot be fathomed; like the way of a ship, which cannot be tracked. God brought Israel out of Egypt. This was typical of the great redemption to be wrought out in the fulness of time, both by price and power. If we have harboured doubtful thoughts, we should, without delay, turn our minds to meditate on that God, who spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, that with him, he might freely give us all things.

Footnotes

• [a]. One of David's musicians (1 Chr 16:41)
• [b]. The Hebrew Bible counts the superscription as the first verse of the psalm; the English verse number is reduced by one
• [c]. Or "make supplication to"
• [d]. Literally "it does not grow weary"
• [e]. Hebrew "word"
• [f]. Or "this is my sickness"
• [g]. A shortened form of "Yahweh"
• [h]. Hebrew "wonder"
• [i]. Or "holy" or "set apart"
• [j]. Hebrew "wonder"
• [k]. Literally "gave voice"
• [l]. Literally "walked back and forth"
• [m]. Or "in [your chariot] wheel"
• [n]. According to the reading tradition (Qere)
• [o]. Hebrew "were not known"

Chapter Summary

To the chief Musician, to Jeduthun, A Psalm of Asaph. Jeduthun was the name of the chief musician, to whom this psalm was inscribed and sent; see 1 Chronicles 25:1, though Aben Ezra takes it to be the first word of some song, to the tune of which this was sung; and the Midrash interprets it of the subject of the psalm, which is followed by Jarchi, who explains it thus, "concerning the decrees and judgments which passed upon Israel;" that is, in the time of their present captivity, to which, as he, Kimchi, and Arama think, the whole psalm belongs. Some interpreters refer it to the affliction of the Jews in Babylon, so Theodoret; or under Ahasuerus, or Antiochus; and others to the great and last distress of the church under antichrist; though it seems to express the particular case of the psalmist, and which is common to other saints.