Psalms 77:1

PSALM 77

THE PROBLEM OF HANDLING DOUBT IN DIFFICULT TIMES

The big factor in this psalm is the problem of doubt. It appears to us that Dummelow's analysis of this psalm is as good as any. And from that understanding of it, it is not hard to figure out why the psalmist is almost overcome with doubt.

"Here we have the psalmist's experience of personal perplexity and darkness, caused by the contemplation of Israel's national distress. It may be dated approximately in the time of the exile: (1) Psalms 77:1-3 describe the psalmist's trouble, in which prayer has brought no comfort. (2) Psalms 77:4-9 tell how his remembrance of a brighter past suggests that perhaps God has now cast off his people forever. (3) In Psalms 77:10-20, he turns for comfort to the story of God's wondrous works of old, such as (a) the deliverance of Israel from Egypt (Psalms 77:15); (b) the marvelous miracle of the Red Sea crossing (Psalms 77:16-19); and (c) God's guidance of Israel through the wilderness experiences (Psalms 77:20)."[1]

The terrible doubt and sorrow that depressed God's faithful remnant among the notoriously apostate people of Israel in the period ending in their Babylonian captivity must indeed have reached epic proportions. The reprobate nation fully deserved to be cut off forever, and their godless kingdom cried out to heaven for its destruction.

Of course, God did what God had to do. He liquidated the kingdom and sent the residue of it to Babylon, where, through generations of hardship, the righteous remnant were given the privilege of re-focusing their love, not upon an earthly state, but upon the godly lives required in those who really desired to be a part of God's "chosen people."

It was no slackening of God's love for his people that brought about the traumatic experience of the exile. It was required by the gross wickedness of the vast majority of racial Israel. It was impossible for the righteous minority to understand why things were everywhere turning into unqualified disaster and destruction for national Israel, hence, the terrible doubt of the psalmist expressed here.

Some scholars understand this psalm as a "national lament,"[2] and others think of it as the lament of an individual; but the simple truth seems to be that it is indeed the lament of an individual brought about by the terrible fate of the kingdom which was in the process of being providentially destroyed.

Psalms 77:1-3

DESCRIPTION OF THE PSALMIST'S CONDITION

"I will cry unto God with my voice,

Even unto God with my voice; and he will give ear unto me.

In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord:

My hand was stretched out in the night, and slacked not;

My soul refused to be comforted.

I remember God, and am disquieted:

I complain, and my spirit is overwhelmed.

(Selah)"

One may feel nothing but sympathetic concern for all of God's children who suffered the incredible agony of living through all of the sorrows that fell upon national Israel during those days leading up to the captivity. It was indeed a time of darkness and doubt for all of them.

"I sought the Lord" (Psalms 77:2) ... "My soul refused to be comforted" (Psalms 77:2) ... "I remember God ... am disquieted ... and my spirit is overwhelmed" (Psalms 77:3). The trouble was due to the cessation of God's blessings upon national Israel in the manner that he had once so gloriously done. The impossibility was not with God; it was with Israel; their sins and rebellion against the Lord had finally reached a climax beyond which God was determined to "cut them off." The precious saints who still loved the Lord still prayed for the beloved nation; but God could no longer answer such prayers. Given the lack of understanding on the part of the saints, and the rapidly worsening conditions afflicting the nation, and their doubt is easily understood.