Psalms 77:1-12

1 I yell out to my God, I yell with all my might, I yell at the top of my lungs. He listens.

2 I found myself in trouble and went looking for my Lord; my life was an open wound that wouldn't heal. When friends said, "Everything will turn out all right," I didn't believe a word they said.

3 I remember God - and shake my head. I bow my head - then wring my hands.

4 I'm awake all night - not a wink of sleep; I can't even say what's bothering me.

5 I go over the days one by one, I ponder the years gone by.

6 I strum my lute all through the night, wondering how to get my life together.

7 Will the Lord walk off and leave us for good? Will he never smile again?

8 Is his love worn threadbare? Has his salvation promise burned out?

9 Has God forgotten his manners? Has he angrily stalked off and left us?

10 "Just my luck," I said. "The High God goes out of business just the moment I need him."

11 Once again I'll go over what God has done, lay out on the table the ancient wonders;

12 I'll ponder all the things you've accomplished, and give a long, loving look at your acts.

Psalms 77:1-12 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.