Context No. 2856 of 4322 · Psalms
Context · Reflection
Psalms 77:1-20: in context
1My cry goes to God! Indeed, I cry to God for help, and for him to listen to me. 2In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord. My hand was stretched out in the night, and didn’t get tired. My soul refused to be comforted. 3I remember God, and I groan. I complain, and my spirit is overwhelmed. Selah. 4You hold my eyelids open. I am so troubled that I can’t speak. 5I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times. 6I remember my song in the night. I consider in my own heart; my spirit diligently inquires: 7“Will the Lord reject us forever? Will he be favorable no more? 8Has his loving kindness vanished forever? Does his promise fail for generations? 9Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he, in anger, withheld his compassion?” Selah. 10Then I thought, “I will appeal to this: the years of the right hand of the Most High.” 11I will remember the LORD’s deeds; for I will remember your wonders of old. 12I will also meditate on all your work, and consider your doings. 13Your way, God, is in the sanctuary. What god is great like God? 14You are the God who does wonders. You have made your strength known among the peoples. 15You have redeemed your people with your arm, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah. 16The waters saw you, God. The waters saw you, and they writhed. The depths also convulsed. 17The clouds poured out water. The skies resounded with thunder. Your arrows also flashed around. 18The voice of your thunder was in the whirlwind. The lightnings lit up the world. The earth trembled and shook. 19Your way was through the sea, your paths through the great waters. Your footsteps were not known. 20You led your people like a flock, by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
The psalmist is in deep trouble, crying out to God through the night, his soul refusing to be comforted. He asks the questions that terrify anyone in a long dark season: Has the Lord rejected us forever? Has his loving kindness ceased for good? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his compassion?
Then comes the turn, and it is deliberate, not automatic. I will appeal to this, he says: the years of the right hand of the Most High. I will remember the LORD's deeds; I will meditate on all your work. He rehearses the exodus, the waters that saw God and fled, God leading his people like a flock through the sea. The psalm does not climb out of despair by feeling better. It climbs out by remembering. When present feeling swears God has forgotten, the psalmist turns his mind to the hard record of what God has actually done.
When my feelings insist God has forgotten me, will I deliberately turn, like this psalm, to remember what he has actually done?
Sources
- Psalm 77:11: "I will remember the LORD's deeds; for I will remember your wonders of old."
- Psalm 42:5: "Why are you in despair, my soul? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him."
- Lamentations 3:22: "It is because of the LORD's loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassion doesn't fail."