Psalms 77:2-6

2 In the 1day of my trouble I sought the Lord; 2In the night my 3hand was stretched out without weariness; My soul 4refused to be comforted.
3 When I remember God, then I am 5disturbed; When I 6sigh, then 7my spirit grows faint. Selah.
4 You have held my eyelids * open; I am so troubled that I 8cannot speak.
5 I have considered the 9days of old, The years of long ago.
6 I will remember my 10song in the night; I 11will meditate with my heart, And my spirit ponders:

Psalms 77:2-6 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.

Cross References 11

  • 1. Psalms 50:15; Psalms 86:7
  • 2. Psalms 63:6; Isaiah 26:9
  • 3. Job 11:13; Psalms 88:9
  • 4. Genesis 37:35
  • 5. Psalms 42:5, 11; Psalms 43:5
  • 6. Psalms 55:2; Psalms 142:2
  • 7. Psalms 61:2; Psalms 143:4
  • 8. Psalms 39:9
  • 9. Deuteronomy 32:7; Psalms 44:1; Psalms 143:5; Isaiah 51:9
  • 10. Psalms 42:8
  • 11. Psalms 4:4

Footnotes 3

  • [a]. Lit "and did not grow numb"
  • [b]. "Selah" may mean: "Pause, Crescendo" or "Musical interlude"
  • [c]. Lit "searched"
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