Psalms 77:1-8

1 I cried out to God for help. I cried out to God to hear me.

2 When I was in trouble, I looked to the Lord. During the night I lifted up my hands in prayer. But I refused to be comforted.

3 God, I remembered you, and I groaned. I thought about you, and I became weak. "Selah"

4 You kept me from going to sleep. I was so troubled I couldn't speak.

5 I thought about days gone by. I thought about the years of long ago.

6 I remembered how I used to sing praise to you in the night. I thought about it, and here is what I asked myself.

7 "Will the Lord turn away from us forever? Won't he ever show us his kindness again?

8 Has his faithful love disappeared forever? Has his promise failed for all time?

Psalms 77:1-8 Meaning and Commentary

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.