3 I remembered you, God, and I groaned; I meditated, and my spirit grew faint. In v. 3, he describes this further: I think of God; I groan--and the word groan can mean everything from a quiet noise to a raging explosion. And will He be favorable no more? Here the psalmist is recounting his story: urgent, persistent, prolonged prayer, and yet the prayer seems to go unanswered. He was real and reverent, honest yet humble. I thought about the former days, the years of long ago; I remembered my songs in the night. He forced himself to rehearse the past blessings of God's faithfulness, where hope for the future is strengthened. Ordering Christmas Gifts? . The holy God is also a mighty God, and the holy, mighty God is also a faithful God: faithful to his people! For Jeduthun. And the more he thinks, the lower he gets: I mused, and my spirit grew faint. The clouds poured down water. First he proclaims God's holiness: "God, Your way is holy (that is, unique, one-of-a-kind, set apart from the ways of men). I think of God; I groan; I meditate; my spirit becomes weak.". Psalm 77. Write down what God has done for you. All of our hearts have felt it. Here is a man who faced a very distressing circumstance (which is never named for us) which sent him flying to God for help. The psalmist is filled with doubts, sleepless and weary. You kept my eyes from closing; I was too troubled to speak. In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord: My sore ran in the night, and ceased not : my soul refused to be comforted. Psa_77:10 True focus is all important. Six heart-aching, heart-breaking rhetorical questions. He is the great shepherd of the sheep who will shepherd us all the days of this life and into all eternity. Sometimes all you can see is darkness…. For the Lamb at the centre of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. Your path led through the sea…. Instead, he got honest with God. But more than that, he is meditating on the Scriptures, the Bible, the Word of God. A Psalm of Asaph. Psalm 77: The psalm is the voice of an individual, but since he speaks on behalf of the nation, the psalm may best be called a national lament psalm. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’. Psalm 77. ‎Show Renaissance PGH Sermons, Ep Psalm 77 | Pondering God in Trouble - Apr 19, 2020 Kathryn Greene-McCreight, in her book Darkness is My Only Companion describes her tortured journey through ten years of extreme depression and bipolar disorder and how gathering with God's church helped her. " Down in v. 16-18, he throws down the gauntlet against the false Canaanite gods of the sea, the thunder and the storm. This is known to every person who has looked upon a landscape through a field-glass or has seen its beauties gathered up in a camera. Hence, for the help of all such, the psalm has been given. In his battle with depression, he doesn't pretend. Has his unfailing love vanished forever? 7 Will the Lord cast off forever? Verse 9 hints that the problem, whatever it was, could have come as a result of the unfaithfulness of God’s people, but we just don’t know. (Deut. His distress is still real, but the sting of his grief has been pulled—the sense that he is alone, alienated and abandoned. 110.) Here is a man who had almost lost his faith because of the thought that God had changed his mind, that God is capricious and cannot be trusted -- a thought that troubles many from time to time. Cries In The Night (77:1-2) Asaph begins the psalm by recording how he was crying out to the Lord. Down in v. 7-9, Asaph fills in some of the content of his prayers: "Will the Lord reject forever and never again show favor? Some here know the private battle of a weary sadness that can take on many forms and show itself in many ways. So much so that he cannot sleep and cannot speak. The brain is busy, the mind consumed. Great piece may God keep you rooted and grounded in him to bear much fruit. Whenever the. One writer calls depression "the common cold of emotional disorders." Psalm 77 - For the director of music. The psalmist has fallen into a pit of despair, distress and depression. Of Asaph. The storm clouds thundered; Your arrows flashed back and forth. come to an end without hope . The complaints seem to be of personal grievances, but the encouragements relate to the public concerns of the church, so that it is not certain whether it was penned upon a personal or a public account. He knows what's happening in me and to me. But as so often in the psalms, lament turns to hope and praise. Is that what Asaph grasped when meditating the Word? The brain is busy, the mind consumed. Jeremiah was so profoundly sad that he is known to this day as the weeping prophet and confessed that he wished he'd never been born. The busy brain is always at work, observing, hearing, seeing, processing, thoughts whirling around and around. ‘Will the Lord reject forever? And of course that simply pushes the depressed deeper into the hole and teaches the discouraged that unless they want to hear the cheap clichés again, they had better fake happiness. This is my anguish: We appreciate the honest anguishof Asaph in this psalm. I … Psalm 77:10. 110.). Christian meditation. . But I will remember: In the midst of the painful anguish between what he believed and what he felt, Asaph spoke … I will reflect on all You have done and meditate on Your actions. (2) Psalms 77:4-9 tell how his remembrance of a brighter past suggests that perhaps God has now cast off his people forever. He was faced with the arduous task of being the leader and general answer man for over a million Hebrew people, as well as the administrator of God's Law - a role to which he was assigned by God, but one made more complicated by the tendency of the Israelites to gripe, doubt God, and attack Moses. My friend, let the wisdom of one in the hard fellowship of the depression come to you. With your mighty arm you redeemed your people, the descendants of Jacob and Joseph. How will he ever find any hope if he believes that even God is against him, has forsaken him? My heart mused and my spirit inquired. Really honest! He doesn't fake happiness. Job is singled as a man of God, blameless and upright, whose staggering losses and long and painful illness brought him low: "My days . During the flight he turned the autopilot off and handed the controls over to me. 1-10) and a hymn (vss. Stop the pity party and pull yourself together! We'd love to hear from you. Your email address will not be published. Asaph deliberately focused his thoughts on those past times when God seemed so near and he could push back the darkness with song. What an important step when you feel locked down by depression! God shepherded his people in the days of Moses and brought them through the sea. Any hint of depression around the church, and clichés start to surface. . He closes v. 3 saying that when he meditates - when he ponders the situation, trying to think his way through his problems - my spirit becomes weak. But of course, real life has its downs as well as its ups…, Psalm 77:1-3 Elijah, one of the greatest prophets of old, asked for his life to be taken. And all this is okay as long as everything is on the up-and-up. (Job 7:6, 7) Moses is described as the meekest man on earth (Numbers 12:3) and rises as one o… Psalm 77 in particular looks back to the great acts of salvation that God has wrought, and in them finds hope for God’s ongoing acts of grace and faithfulness. Perhaps you can identify with Asaph's feelings. Easier said than done, especially for an introvert! Your ways, O God, are holy. A friend flew up to Geraldton, picked me up in a light aircraft to fly me back to Perth. See our holiday shipping schedule to receive your gifts on time. PSALM LXXVII (77) To the chief Musician. Jonah, the first foreign missionary, became deeply despondent when God did not destroy Nineveh. Something bad had happened to him or to his people, the *Jews. Psalm 77. Moja ręka w nocy niestrudzenie się wyciąga, moja dusza odmawia przyjęcia pociechy. What is the content of the psalmist’s meditation? Asaph draws pictures with words that depict desperation. PSALM 77:10 THE TRUE FOCUS. Notice how much mental energy is going into this. ... We can not only point to these in the Scripture testimony of patriarchs, kings, prophets, and apostles, but also to the usages of enlightened governments, to the kings, nobles, warriors, and statesmen. Keep your attitude up! Psalm 77:4-6 From Ps 77:10-15 his meditations run toward God, and in the close he seems as in a vision to behold the wonders of the Red Sea and the wilderness. Commentary on Psalm 77:1-10 (Read Psalm 77:1-10) Days of trouble must be days of prayer; when God seems to have withdrawn from us, we must seek him till we find him. He's waiting to hear from you. my eye will never again see anything good." Choose to redirect your thoughts in order to stoke your hope for the future. The escape of sleep eluded him. Is [His] promise at an end for all generations? He has the supernatural ability to do all that is necessary to fulfill His promises, and He loves me enough to come after me. I remembered you, God, and I groaned; I meditated, and my spirit grew faint. Then there's Nehemiah and Ezekiel and Peter and more in the pages of Scripture. But friends, God is a God of hope, and he wants to give his people a future filled with hope. It is a portraiture to which the experience of myriads of souls has answered and will answer. Has God forgotten to be gracious? . Your thunder was heard in the whirlwind, your lightning lit up the world; the earth trembled and quaked. I cried unto God with my voice, Even unto God with my voice ; and he gave ear unto me. 1 I cried out to God for help; I cried out to God to hear me. What adds to the burden of the depressed and despondent is the common and misguided notion that good Christians don't get depressed. A Bible devotion from Psalm 77, Great is Thy Faithfulness, from Psalms Devotions 2. We, too, have a shepherd – Jesus is the good shepherd who gave his life for the sheep. Did this mean that God had forgotten his people? 1:12). a. . At this point, as if lost in an ecstasy, he hurriedly closes the Psalm with an abruptness, the effect of which is quite startling. What god is great like God? Keep the nose up or you’ll crash and burn! The end of the psalm tells us that God gave help in the past. In Psalm 77, he shares with us his experience of returning from one of these dry seasons in his life. Obviously he is recalling previous blessings. Psalm 77 is a intensely helpful passage when you're in the pit. List the top ten answers to prayer in your life. Will he never show his favour again? What god is so great as our God? 9 Has God forgotten to be gracious? Free shipping on books, Bibles, gifts, VBS and Church Supplies of $50 or more. (Psalms 77:16-20 RSV) This psalm opened with a cry of doubt and despair. PSALM 77 Świetna przeszłość pociechą w niedoli Głos mój się wznosi do Boga i wołam, głos mój - do Boga, by mnie usłyszał. Now it's your turn! My heart mused and my spirit inquired. . Let me outline a few steps that give us a pattern we can follow to regain emotional equilibrium when life gets you down. During one of many sleepless nights, Asaph concludes that God was keeping him awake for a reason: "You have kept me from closing my eyes, he says in v. 4. He was a descendent of Jacob! The earth shook and quaked. After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb…And they cried out with a loud voice: ‘Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.’ …. Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. I remembered you O God, and I groaned; I mused, and my spirit grew faint. Then one of the elders asked me, ‘Who are they and where did they come from?’ I answered, ‘Sir, you know.’ And he said, ‘These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. As he surveys all this evidence he comes to a conclusion: Psalm 77:10 (NASB) These truths can help you find new strength and vitality. Now, it seems that God has rejected him; his unfailing love has failed; his limitless compassion has exhausted itself and found its limit; his promise has fallen to the ground, empty and broken. Lloyd Stilley is pastor of first Baptist Church, Gulf Shores, Alabama p.m. CT -... Depression and despair my friend, let the wisdom of one in the of! I thought about the former days, the word trouble in v. 16-18, writes... He thinks, the psalm by recording how he deals with the situation moja odmawia! Psalmist has fallen into a pit of despair, distress and depression in me to. 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