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Expositor's Bible Commentary Psalm 77:1 To the chief Musician, to Jeduthun, A Psalm of Asaph. I cried unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice; and he gave ear unto me. Psalm 77:1-20 THE occasion of the profound sadness of the first part of this psalm may be inferred from the thoughts which brighten it into hope in the second. These were the memories of past national deliverance. It is natural to suppose that present national disasters were the causes of the sorrow which enveloped the psalmist’s spirit and suggested questions of despair, only saved from being blasphemous because they were so wistful. But it by no means follows that the singer is simply the personified nation. The piercing tone of individual grief is too clear, especially in the introductory verses, to allow of that hypothesis. Rather, the psalmist has taken into his heart the troubles of his people. Public calamity has become personal pain. What dark epoch has left its marks in this psalm remains uncertain. If Delitzsch’s contention that Habakkuk 3:1-19 is in part drawn from it were indubitably established, the attribution of the psalm to the times of Josiah would be plausible; but there is, at least, room for doubt whether there has been borrowing, and if so, which is original and which echo. The calamities of the Exile in their severity and duration would give reasonable ground for the psalmist’s doubts whether God had not cast off His people forever. No brief or partial eclipse of His favour would supply adequate occasion for these. The psalm falls into two parts, in the former of which ( Psalm 77:1-9 ) deepest gloom wraps the singer’s spirit, while in the latter ( Psalm 77:10-20 ) the clouds break. Each of these parts fall into three strophes, usually of three verses; but in the concluding strophe, consisting of five, Selah stands at the end of the first and third, and is not present at the end of the second, because it is more closely connected with the third than with the first. In like manner the first strophe of the second part ( Psalm 77:10-12 ) has no Selah, but the second has ( Psalm 77:13-15 ); the closing strophe ( Psalm 77:16-20 ) being thus parted off. The psalmist’s agitation colours his language, which fluctuates in the first six verses between expressions of resolve or desire ( Psalm 77:1 , Psalm 77:3 , Psalm 77:6 ) and simple statement of fact ( Psalm 77:2 , Psalm 77:4 , Psalm 77:5 ). He has prayed long and earnestly, and nothing has been laid in answer on his outstretched palm. Therefore his cry has died down into a sigh. He fain would lift his voice to God, but dark thoughts make him dumb for supplication, and eloquent only in self-pitying monologue. A man must have waded through like depths to understand this pathetic bewilderment of spirit. They who glide smoothly over a sunlit surface of sea little know the terrors of sinking with choked lungs, into the abyss. A little experience will go further than much learning in penetrating the meaning of these moanings of lamed faith. They begin with an elliptical phrase, which, in its fragmentary character, reveals the psalmist’s discomposure. "My voice to God" evidently needs some such completion as is supplied above; and the form of the following verb ("cry") suggests that the supplied one should express wish or effort. The repetition of the phrase in Psalm 77:1 b strengthens the impression of agitation. The last words of that clause may be a petition, "give ear," but are probably better taken as above. The psalmist would fain cry to God, that he may be heard. He has cried, as he goes on to tell in calmer mood in Psalm 77:2 , and has apparently not been heard. He describes his unintermitted supplications by a strong metaphor. The word rendered "stretched out" is literally poured out as water, and is applied to weeping eyes. { Lamentations 3:49 } The Targum substitutes eye for hand here. but that is commentary, not translation. The clause which we render "without ceasing" is literally "and grew not stiff." That word, too, is used of tears, and derivatives from it are found in the passage just referred to in Lamentations ("intermission"), and in Lamentations 2:18 ("rest"). It carries on the metaphor of a stream, the flow of which is unchecked. The application of this metaphor to the hand is harsh, but the meaning is plain-that all night long the psalmist extended his hand in the attitude of prayer, as if open to receive God’s gift. His voice "rose like a fountain night and day"; but brought no comfort to his soul; and he bewails himself in the words which tell of Jacob’s despair when he heard that Joseph was dead. So rooted and inconsolable does he think his sorrows. The thought of God has changed its nature, as if the sun were to become a source of darkness. When he looks up, he can only sigh; when he looks within, his spirit is clothed or veiled- i.e ., wrapped in melancholy. In the next strophe of three verses ( Psalm 77:4-6 ) the psalmist plunges yet deeper into gloom, and unfolds more clearly its occasion. Sorrow, like a beast of prey, devours at night; and every sad heart knows how eyelids, however wearied, refuse to close upon as wearied eyes, which gaze wide opened into the blackness and see dreadful things there. This man felt as if God’s finger was pushing up his lids and forcing him to stare out into the night. Buffeted, as if laid on an anvil and battered with the shocks of doom, he cannot speak; he can only moan, as he is doing. Prayer seems to be impossible. But to say, "I cannot pray; would that I could!" is surely prayer, which will reach its destination, though the sender knows it not. The psalmist had found no ease in remembering God. He finds as little in remembering a brighter past. That he should have turned to history in seeking for consolation implies that his affliction was national in its sweep, however intensely personal in its pressure. This retrospective meditation on the great deeds of old is characteristic of the Asaph psalms. It ministers in them to many moods, as memory always does. In this psalm we have it feeding two directly opposite emotions. It may be the nurse of bitter Despair or of bright-eyed Hope. When the thought of God occasions but sighs, the remembrance of His acts can only make the present more doleful. The heavy spirit finds reasons for heaviness in God’s past and in its own. The psalmist in his sleepless vigils remembers other wakeful times, when his song filled the night with music and "awoke the dawn." Psalm 77:6 is parallel with Psalm 77:3 . The three key words, remember, muse, spirit recur. There, musing ended in wrapping the spirit in deeper gloom. Here, it stings that spirit to activity in questionings, which the next strophe flings out in vehement number and startling plainness. It is better to be pricked to even such interrogations by affliction than to be made torpid by it. All depends on the temper in which they are asked. If that is right, answers which will scatter gloom are not far off. The comparison of present national evils with former happiness naturally suggests such questions. Obviously, the casting off spoken of in Psalm 77:7 is that of the nation, and hence its mention confirms the view that the psalmist is suffering under public calamities. All the questions mean substantially one thing-has God changed? They are not, as some questions are, the strongest mode of asserting their negative; nor are they, like others, a more than half assertion of their affirmative; but they are what they purport to be - the anxious interrogations of an afflicted man, who would fain be sure that God is the same as ever, but is staggered by the dismal contrast of Now and Then. He faces with trembling the terrible possibilities, and, however his language may seem to regard failure of resources or fickleness of purpose or limitations in long suffering as conceivable in God, his doubts are better put into plain speech than lying diffused and darkening, like poisonous mists, in his heart. A thought, be it good or bad, can be dealt with when it is made articulate. Formulating vague conceptions is like cutting a channel in a bog for the water to run. One gets it together in manageable shape, and the soil is drained. So the end of the despondent half of the psalm is marked by the bringing to distinct speech of the suspicions which floated in the singer’s mind and made him miserable. The Selah bids us dwell on the questions, so as to realise their gravity and prepare ourselves for their answer. The second part begins in Psalm 77:10 with an obscure and much-commented on verse, of which two explanations are possible, depending mainly on the meanings of the two words "sickness" and "years." The former word may mean "my wounding" or "my sickness." The latter is by many commentators taken to be an infinitive verb, with the signification to be changed, and, by others to be a plural noun meaning "years, " as in Psalm 77:6 . Neglecting some minor differences, we may say that those who understand the word to mean being changed explain the whole thus: "This is my wound (misery, sorrow), that the right hand of the Most High has changed." So the old versions, and Hupfeld, Perowne, and Baethgen. But the use of the word in Psalm 77:6 for "years creates a strong presumption that its sense is the same here. As to the other word, its force is best seen by reference to a closely parallel passage in Jeremiah 10:19 -"I said, Truly this is my grief (margin, sickness), and I must bear it"; where the word for grief, though not the same as in the psalm, is cognate. The most probable meaning, then, for the expression here is, "This my affliction is sent from God, and I must bear it with resignation." Then follows an elevating thought expressed in its simplest form like an exclamation, "the years, " etc., - i.e. , "I will remember (comp. Psalm 77:6 ) the time when the right hand of Jehovah had the preeminence" (Cheyne, in loc. ). Delitzsch leaves the ellipsis unfilled, and takes the whole to mean that the psalmist says to himself that the affliction allotted will only last for the time which the mighty hand of God has determined. The rendering adopted above avoids the awkwardness of using the same word in two different senses in the same context, yields an appropriate meaning, especially in view of the continual references to remembering, and begins the new strophe with a new note of hopefulness, whereas the other renderings prolong the minor key of the first part into the second. It is therefore to be preferred. The revolution in feeling is abrupt. All is sunny and bright in the last half. What makes the change? The recognition of two great truths: first, that the calamity is laid on Israel, and on the psalmist as a member of the nation, by God, and has not come because of that impossible change in Him which the bitter questions had suggested; and, second, the unchangeable eternity of God’s delivering power. That second truth comes to him as with a flash, and the broken words of Psalm 77:10 b hail the sudden rising of the new star. The remainder of the psalm holds fast by that thought of the great deeds of God in the past. It is a signal example of how the same facts remembered may depress or gladden, according to the point of view from which they are regarded. We can elect whether memory shall nourish despondency or gladness. Yet the alternative is not altogether a matter of choice; for the only people to whom "remembering happier things" need not be "a sorrow’s crown of sorrow" are those who see God in the past, and so are sure that every joy that was and is not shall yet again be, in more thrilling and lasting form. If He shines out on us from the east that we have left behind, His brightness will paint the western sky towards which we travel. Beneath confidence in the perpetuity of past blessings lies confidence in the eternity of God. The "years of the right hand of the Most High" answer all questions as to His change of purpose or of disposition, and supply the only firm foundation for calm assurance of the future. Memory supplies the colours with which Hope paints her truest pictures. That which hath been is that which shall be may be the utterance of the blase man of the world, or of the devout man who trusts in the living God, and therefore knows that "There shall never be one lost good! What was shall live as before." The strophe in Psalm 77:13-15 fixes on the one great redeeming act of the Exodus as the pledge of future deeds of a like kind, as need requires. The language is deeply tinged with reminiscences of Exodus 15:1-27 . "In holiness" (not "in the sanctuary"), the question "Who is so great a God?" the epithet "Who doest wonders," all come from Exodus 15:11 . "[Thine] arm" in the psalm recalls "By the greatness of Thine arm" in Exodus ( Psalm 77:16 ), and the psalmist’s "redeemed Thy people" reproduces "the people which Thou hast redeemed". { Exodus 15:13 } The separate mention of "sons of Joseph" can scarcely be accounted for if the psalm is prior to the division of the kingdoms. But the purpose of the designation is doubtful. It may express the psalmist’s protest against the division as a breach of ancient national unity or his longings for reunion. The final strophe differs from the others in structure. It contains five verses instead of three, and the verses are (with the exception of the last) composed of three clauses each instead of two. Some commentators have supposed that Psalm 77:16-19 are an addition to the original psalm, and think that they do not cohere well with the preceding. This view denies that there is any allusion in the closing verses to the passage of the Red Sea, and takes the whole as simply a description of a theophany, like that in Psalm 18:1-50 . But surely the writhing of the waters as if in pangs at the sight of Gods such an allusion. Psalm 77:19 , too, is best understood as referring to the path through the sea, whose waters returned and covered God’s footprints from human eyes. Unless there is such a reference in Psalm 77:16-19 , the connection with the preceding and with Psalm 77:20 is no doubt loose. But that is not so much a reason for denying the right of these verses to a place in the psalm as for recognising the reference. Why should a mere description of a theophany, which had nothing to do with the psalmist’s theme, have been tacked on to it? No doubt, the thunders, lightnings, and storm so grandly described here are unmentioned in Exodus; and, quite possibly, may be simply poetic heightening of the scene, intended to suggest how majestic was the intervention which freed Israel. Some commentators, indeed, have claimed the picture as giving additional facts concerning the passage of the Red Sea. Dean Stanley, for example, has worked these points into his vivid description; but that carries literalism too far. The picture in the psalm is most striking. The continuous short clauses crash and flash like the thunders and lightnings. That energetic metaphor of the waters writhing as if panic struck is more violent than Western taste approves, but its emotional vigour as a rendering of the fact is unmistakable. "Thine arrows went to and fro" is a very imperfect transcript of the Hebrew, which suggests the swift zigzag of the fierce flashes. In Psalm 77:18 the last word offers some difficulty. It literally means a wheel, and is apparently best rendered as above, the thunder being poetically conceived of as the sound of the rolling wheels of God’s chariot. There are several coincidences between Psalm 77:16-19 of the psalm and Habakkuk 3:10-15 : namely, the expression "writhed in pain," applied in Habakkuk to the mountains; the word rendered "overflowing" (A.V.) or "tempest" (R.V.) in Habakkuk 3:10 , cognate with the verb in Psalm 77:17 of the psalm, and there rendered "poured out"; the designation of lightnings as God’s arrows. Delitzsch strongly maintains the priority of the psalm; Hupfeld as strongly that of the prophet. The last verse returns to the two-claused structure of the earlier part. It comes in lovely contrast with the majestic and terrible picture preceding, like the wonderful setting forth of the purpose of the other theophany in Psalm 18:1-50 , which was for no higher end than to draw one poor man from the mighty waters. All this pomp of Divine appearance, with lightnings, thunders, a heaving earth, a shrinking sea, had for its end the leading the people of God to their land, as a shepherd does his flock. The image is again an echo of Exodus 15:13 . The thing intended is not merely the passage of the Red Sea but the whole process of guidance begun there amid the darkness. Such a close is too abrupt to please some commentators. But what more was needful or possible to be said, in a retrospect of God’s past acts, for the solace of a dark present? It was more than enough to scatter fears and flash radiance into the gloom which had wrapped the psalmist. He need search no further. He has found what he sought; and so he hushes his song and gazes in silence on the all-sufficient answer which memory has brought to all his questions and doubts. Nothing could more completely express the living, ever-present worth of the ancient deeds of God than the "abruptness" with which this psalm ceases rather than ends. 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I cried unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice; and He gave ear unto me. Psalm 77 The faculty of human thought Homilist. The whole psalm may be used to illustrate the faculty of human thought. Throughout the whole the author speaks of "remembering, considering, musing," making "diligent search," meditating, etc, etc. I. IT IS A POWER THAT CAN INFLAME THE SOUL WITH LONGINGS FOR GOD (vers. 1, 2). By thought this man brought the Eternal into his soul, even in the stillness and darkness of night. It presented Him as an Object to whom he appealed in his distress, and from whom he received relief. II. IT HAS POWER TO FILL THE SOUL WITH MINGLED EMOTIONS. 1. Here is sadness (vers. 2-10). The writer says, "his soul refused to be comforted," "he was troubled," "overwhelmed," so "troubled that he could neither sleep nor speak," so troubled that he cries out, "Will God cast off for ever? and will He be favourable no more?" What sinful man can think upon God without being troubled with remorse and troubled with forebodings? Thought can lash the soul into a tempest, can kindle it into a hell. 2. Here is joy (vers. 10-20). "And I said, this is my infirmity;" or rather, my hope.(1) The joy of gratitude. "I remember the years of the right hand of the Most High." Thoughts upon the past mercies of God have a power to kindle the soul into raptures of gratitude.(2) Joy of adoration. "Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary;" or, Thy way is holy. The holiness of God is suited to inspire us with holy rapture.(3) Joy of trustfulness. "Thou art the God that doest wonders." The psalmist remembers what God had done in conducting the children of Israel through the Red Sea into the promised land; and this inspired and exalted him with new hope. Thus, thought can fill the soul either with sadness or with joy. It createst the weather within — cloudy or sunny, stormy or calm; the seasons within — spring, summer, autumn, or winter. What a wonderful faculty is this with which Heaven has endowed us, this faculty of thought. III. IT IS A POWER OVER WHICH MAN HAS A PERSONAL CONTROL. The psalmist speaks of himself as directing his own thoughts. "I sought, I remembered, I considered." This power over thought is the dignity of our nature, and is that which invests us with responsibility. Man has no direct power over any faculty but this. He has no immediate control over his feelings or faiths. He could no more awaken love or produce repentance by a direct effort, than he could create a world. He can think or not think — think upon this subject or that, in this aspect or another, consecutively or desultorily, profoundly or superficially. This he can do; and herein is his freedom. ( Homilist. ) God's ear open to the cry of the needy J. C. Ryle. A cheque without a signature at the bottom is nothing but a worthless piece of paper. The stroke of a pen confers on it all its value. The prayer of a poor child of Adam is a feeble thing in itself, but once endorsed by the hand of the Lord Jesus, it availeth much. There was an officer in the city of Rome who was appointed to have his doors always open, in order to receive any Roman citizen who applied to him for help. Just so the ear of the Lord Jesus is ever open to the cry of all who want mercy and grace. It is His office to help them. ( J. C. Ryle. ) My soul refused to be comforted. Psalm 77:2 Refusing to be comforted I. When a man's soul refuses to be comforted, POSSIBLY HE MAY BE RIGHT. He may have a great spiritual sorrow, and some one, who does not at all understand his grief, may proffer to him a consolation which is far too slight. Not knowing how deep the wound is, this foolish physician may think that it can be healed with any common ointments. So, too, it is equally right to refuse to be comforted, when the comfort is untrue. When a man is under a sense of sin, I have known his friends say to him, "You should not fret; you have not been so very bad. You have been, indeed, a very good sort of fellow. You have not committed any very terrible sin; God help the world if you are a great sinner! I do not know what will become of the rest Of us." Another says, "You have only to pray, and go to a place of worship; perhaps be a little more regular in your attention to religion, and it will all come right again; you are not so bad as you think you are." Such talk as that is a lie, and the man whom God has really awakened to feel his state by nature will refuse to be comforted by such falsehoods as those. We have known others who have tried to comfort poor, mourning, repentant sinners in an unhallowed way. They have said, "You want to raise your spirits, I can recommend you some fine old wine; it will do you a world of good." Another will say, "You should really mix a little more in society, and shake yourself up; you should get with some gay, lively people, they would soon take this melancholy out of you." I am sure that a person who is really troubled in spirit will increase his sorrow if he attempts to cure it in that way. It is only putting more fuel on the flame. "In danger every moment of death, and certain that, if death came, I should be lost, can I enjoy mirth? It cannot be!" Refuse every comfort short of being born again, and made a new creature in Jesus. II. But now, I want to show WHEN THIS REFUSAL IS WRONG. PROBABLY HE IS WRONG who says, "My soul refused to be comforted." It is quite wrong if it be a temporal matter that causes your sorrow. Refuse not to be comforted, I pray you; you are only driving the dagger deeper into your wounds. Instead of doing that, think of the mercies that you still have, think of how God can bless your troubles. But now I will suppose that yours is a spiritual trouble. Do not refuse to be comforted, for if you do, you will be spiritually a suicide. The man who will not eat, and so dies of starvation, is as much a suicide as he that puts the pistol to his head, and blows out his brains. III. But now, HAPLY YOU WILL HAVE TO REPENT OF REFUSING TO BE COMFORTED. Possibly you will have to repent it in a very terrible way. Suppose, now, that you should refuse to be comforted, and so should wilfully go into a yet darker and deeper dungeon of despair. Suppose that your Christian friends should grow weary of you. Where would you be then? And suppose that, because you shut your eyes to the light, God should take it away? I do hope that many here present, who have refused to be comforted, will yet regret it when they shall be enjoying the fulness of comfort. "What a fool am I, thus to lie in a stinking dungeon, when I may as well walk at liberty I I have a key in my bosom, called Promise, that will, I am persuaded, open any lock in Doubting Castle." So he pulled it out of his bosom, put it in the lock, opened the door of the dungeon, and they soon passed out. Now, finally, when you and I get to heaven, we shall regret that we ever refused to be comforted. ( C. H. Spurgeon . ) A sermon for the most miserable of men My main bent, this morning, is to deal with mourners who are seeking Christ, but up till now have sought Him in vain. I. Concerning so deplorable a state of heart, alas I still so common, we will remark in the first place that IT IS VERY WONDERFUL. It is a most surprising thing that there should be in this world persons who have the richest consolation near to hand, and persistently refuse to partake of it. Doth the ox refuse its fodder? Will the lion turn from his meat? Or the eagle loathe its nest? The refusal of consolation is the more singular because the most admirable comfort is within reach. Sin can be forgiven; sin has been forgiven; Christ has made an atonement for it. It is said that some years ago, a vessel sailing on the northern coast of the South American continent, was observed to make signals of distress. When hailed by another vessel, they reported themselves as "Dying for water!" "Dip it up, then," was the response, "you are in the mouth of the Amazon river." There was fresh water all around them, they had nothing to do but to dip it up, and yet they were dying of thirst, because they thought themselves to be surrounded by the salt sea. How often are men ignorant of their mercies! How sad that they should perish for lack of knowledge! But suppose after the sailors had received the joyful information, they had still refused to draw up the water which was in boundless plenty all around them, would it not have been a marvel? II. Secondly, this wonderful madness has a method in it, and MAY BE VARIOUSLY ACCOUNTED FOR. In many, their refusal to be comforted arises from bodily and mental disease. It is in vain to ply with scriptural arguments those who are in more urgent need of healing medicine, or generous diet, or a change of air. In some the monstrous refusal is suggested by a proud dislike to the plan of salvation. They would be comforted, aye, that they would, but may they not do something to earn eternal life? May they not at least contribute a feeling or emotion? May they not prepare themselves for Christ? In others it is not pride, but an unholy resolve to retain some favourite sin. In some cases we have found out that the sorrowing person indulged still in a secret vice, or kept the society of the ungodly. I fear, in a great many, there is another reason for this refusing to be comforted, namely, a dishonouring unbelief in the love, and goodness, and truthfulness of God. They do not believe God to be gracious; they think Him so stern that a sinner had need plead full many a day before the stern heart of God will be touched. Oh, but you do not know my God! What is He? He is love. Some, however, have refused comfort so long, that they have grown into the habit of despair. Beware of nursing despondency. Does it creep upon you to-day through unbelief? Oh, shake it off if possible! III. This remarkable piece of folly ASSUMES DIVERS FORMS. One is a persistent misrepresentation of the Gospel, as though it claimed some hard thing of us. Another shape of this malady is this: many continually and persistently underestimate the power of the precious blood of Jesus. There are some who will then say, "But I have sinned such and such a sin." What, and cannot the blood of Jesus wash that away? "All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men." IV. This refusal to be comforted INVOLVES MUCH OF WRONG. When you hear the Gospel and refuse to be comforted by it, there is a wrong done to the minister of God. He sympathizes with you, he desires to comfort you, and it troubles him when he puts before you the cup of salvation, and you refuse to take it. But worse than that, you wrong God's Gospel. You put it away as though it were a thing of nought. You wrong this precious Bible. It is full of consoling promises, and you read it, and you seem to say, "It is all chaff." Oh, but the Bible does not deserve to have such a slur cast upon it. You do wrong to the dear friends who try to comfort you. Above all, you do wrong to your God, to Jesus, and to His Holy Spirit. The crucifixion of Christ is repeated by your rejection of Christ. V. SUCH A REFUSAL SHOULD NOT BE PERSISTED IN. ( C. H. Spurgeon . ) I remembered God, and was troubled. Psalm 77:3 Remembering God Homilist. This was a very sad condition. Asaph must have felt that it was unnatural to entertain such gloomy thoughts of God. I. A TEST OF OUR CONDITION. Do we remember Him and become troubled? Then our state is wrong. If troubled now at the remembrance of His holiness, how much greater will the trouble be when we meet Him face to face in all His terrible glory. But if we remember Him with joy, happy indeed is our condition. II. AN INTIMATION OF DUTY — "I remembered God." Alas, how few do remember God I And yet this is the first of all duties. We get a glimpse of Asaph's character. He was not a bad man. But he felt that it was better to probe the wound and open the sore, rather than that it should fester to the death. He would remember God; he would take his sin to God, so as to have it mortified, and then forgiven. ( Homilist. ) The memory of God a trouble Homilist. I. AN IMPORTANT MENTAL EXERCISE. "I remembered God." II. A SAD SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE. "I remembered God, and was troubled." What a deplorable fact is this: a soul "troubled" at the memory of God. 1. This is unnatural. It can never be that the great Father of our spirits formed us to think on Him in order to be miserable. 2. It is unnecessary. The memory of God with some is blessedness; it is so with the hosts of heaven, it is so with the saints on earth, it might be so with all. Thank God there is no need to be troubled at the idea of Him. 3. It is ungodly. It argues a morally corrupt state of soul. It is a sense of guilt that makes the idea of God so troubling. The idea of God to a depraved soul is hell. Here —(1) Appears the necessity for regeneration.(2) Appears the value of the Gospel. Its grand work is to cleanse the soul from all evil, to redeem it from all iniquity, and to fill it with the love and life of God. ( Homilist. ) Troubled thoughts of God and the remedy for them Homiletic Monthly. To the unconverted, thoughts of God come laden with trouble. I. BECAUSE COUPLED WITH THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF GUILT. Adam: "I heard Thy voice... and was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself." II. COUPLED WITH THOUGHTS OF GOD'S PRESENCE. "I AM." "Thou, God, seest me." Your own personality face to face with God's personality! III. COUPLED WITH THOUGHTS OF GOD'S EMOTIONAL NATURE. God loves good, hates evil, with all His infinite nature. Sinner must forsake sin or go down, along with it, under His wrath. IV. COUPLED WITH THOUGHTS OF HIS ATTRIBUTES. Holiness brings out the awful bleakness of sin. Justice and Truth — "I will by no means clear the guilty." Omniscience ( Psalm 89:2-6, 11, 12 ). Omnipresence ( Psalm 139:7-10 ). Omnipotence ( Daniel 4:35 ; Luke 12:5 ). Immutability — He will never alter His decrees against sin. Eternity — He will always live to execute them. Goodness and Love — leave the sinner without excuse. V. COUPLED WITH THOUGHTS OF THE JUDGMENT. "For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing" ( Revelation 20:11-15 ). VI. THE REMEDY. "Being justified by faith we have peace with God," etc. ( Homiletic Monthly. ) Recollections of God painful to the wicked E. Payson, D. D. I. WHAT WE MEAN BY REMEMBERING GOD. I mean, as the psalmist undoubtedly meant, recollecting those ideas which the term God is used by the inspired writers to signify. When they use the word, they use it to denote an eternal, self-existent, infinitely wise, just, and good Being, who is the Creator and Upholder of all things, who is our Sovereign Lawgiver, and who worketh all things according to the counsel of His own will; who is always present with us, who searches our hearts, who approves or disapproves our conduct, who loves holiness. II. WHY THE RECOLLECTION OF SUCH A BEING SHOULD EVER BE PAINFUL. If our hearts condemn us not, says the apostle, then have we confidence towards God; and the man who has confidence towards God, cannot be troubled at the remembrance of Him. But on the other hand, if our hearts or consciences condemn us, it is impossible to remember Him without being troubled. It will then be painful to remember that He is our Creator and Benefactor; for the remembrance will be attended with a consciousness of base ingratitude. It will be painful to think of Him as Lawgiver; for such thoughts will remind us that we have broken the law. It will be painful to think of His holiness; for if He is holy, He must hate our sins. It will be painful to think of Him as Judge; for we shall feel, that as sinners, we have no reason to expect a favourable sentence from His lips. III. APPLICATION. 1. This subject affords a rule, by which we may try ourselves, and which will assist us much in discovering our real characters; for the moral character of every intelligent creature, corresponds with his habitual views and feelings respecting God. 2. From this subject we may learn how wretched is the situation of impenitent sinners; of those who cannot remember God without being troubled. 3. How great are our obligations to God for the Gospel of Christ, the Gospel of reconciliation! Were it not for this, the remembrance, and still more, the presence of God, would have occasioned nothing but pure unmingled wretchedness to any human being. 4. Is sin alone the cause which renders the remembrance of God painful? Then let all who have embraced the terms of reconciliation offered by the Gospel, all who desire to remember God without being troubled, beware, above all things, beware of sin. ( E. Payson, D. D. ) Trouble at the thought of God John Ker, D. D. I. THE STRANGENESS OF SUCH AN EXPERIENCE — that a man should remember God and yet be troubled. 1. Such an experience is against all that is made known to us of the nature of God. Many think the Bible hard because it speaks so of sin and the sinner's doom. But let it be borne in mind that the Gospel finds the disease in our world; it does not make it. "I am come not to destroy men's lives, but to save them." Is it not, then, strange that there should be men who, with this Word before them, can remember God and be troubled? 2. It becomes strange when we reflect on His promises. They are so universal, so free, so full, that they seem fitted to meet every want and satisfy every yearning of the human soul. 3. Trouble at the thought of God is declared to be against the experience of all sincere seekers. God's own declaration is, "I never said to any of the seed of Jacob" — to any of those who wrestled as he did ill the dark with God — "Seek ye My face in vain." 4. Such an experience is against all that we can reasonably believe of the nature of the soul of man. Out of God no full satisfying end can be found for it. II. SOME OF THE REASONS THAT MAY BE GIVEN FOR SUCH AN EXPERIENCE. 1. Many men do not make God the object of sufficient thought, and so they hang in wretched suspense, remembering God only to be troubled. 2. Another reason why many are troubled at the thought of God is that they are seeking Him with a wrong view of the way of access. The most frequent mistake of all is that men think they cannot look God in the face without trouble, unless they have some good works or good thoughts, some outward reformation or inward repentance. They do not perceive, or at least they do not feel, the all-sufficiency of Christ as a Saviour. 3. A third reason why some are troubled at the thought of God is, that they are seeking Him with some reserved thought of sin. 4. Some have a mistaken view of God's manner of dealing with us in this world. There are so many things in the world most dark which He permits — so much of difficulty in the Bible which they feel He could have made more clear — such troubles in our life, in what we may call our true life, our spiritual life, which we long to have ended, and which still go on. These questions of God's ways are still for our study, for nothing that belongs to Him can be indifferent to us, and earnest souls will thirst for light on all that concerns Him. But we shall not wait for the answer before we embrace Him; we embrace Him first that we may find rest, and from that centre pursue our search, or calmly wait till God disclose it. ( John Ker, D. D. ) The remembrance of God W. D. Horwood. I. THE REMEMBRANCE OF GOD. — 1. There is a necessity for constantly urging this duty, inasmuch as the cares and occupations and temptations of this present life are constantly more or less shutting out from our memory the truths of the Divine existence and presence. 2. Apart from all judgments as to the consequence of forgetfulness of God, consider the naturalness of the duty. He should be remembered as our Father, as the best and the most faithful of friends, as the Redeemer of our souls by the blood of His Son, and as the everlasting portion of all His believing and enduring people. 3. Consider, too, that the duty of remembering God is imperative. It is a law which is enforced by the most positive commands and illustrated by examples of the most illustrious character. 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. II. THE EFFECTS WHICH THE REMEMBRANCE OF GOD PRODUCES. 1. The effects are various, and depend in a great measure upon the character of the individual, and the particular circumstances and seasons in which the memory of God operates. Their memory is uninfluential, cold, inactive for good, and dead as regards any practical and lasting result, except when some sudden calamity visits them, or when some visitation of disease sweeps their immediate neighbourhood, or when death itself knocks at the door of their own hearts. In such seasons the memory of God wakes up from its long slumber, and the image of wrath breaks upon it with an untold terror. But again, there are persons to whose hearts the Almighty is no stranger, and consequently when any trouble overtakes them and they are brought low like Jonah, they can say with him — "When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord." To such persons, in the darkest hour of their trials, the memory of God is attended with much comfort. 2. Another result of this remembrance may be traced in its expediency. It becomes the means of leading us to the consummation of our highest purposes and ends: Perhaps there is no stronger faculty than that of memory, nothing more adapted to call into exercise the affections, and to wind its way into our deepest sympathies. How wonderfully it acts in the hour of danger, in the time of estrangement, from home and kindred, and in the closing scene of all. Thus as a means to an end, what better calculated to bring back the wanderer, to overthrow the intrigues of an enemy, and to restore the soul to its proper place in its relations to the Father of all our mercies! It is the memory of God in His relations to our past days of childhood, and to the-years through which we have passed, which induces a feeling of gratitude, and which supplies a motive-power for the future obedience and dedication of our lives. 3. The remembrance of God disturbs the rest of a false security. It produces the effect of breaking up the illusion of a peace founded upon a mistaken notion of the Divine character. In other words, it leads the mind of a thoughtful and honest professor of religion to the conclusion that it is impossible to serve God and mammon, to make a compromise with principle and inclination, and to unite the Church with the world. 4. To the humble and penitent; to the man who honestly rejects all false subterfuges, and with a trustful heart seeks for mercy through the sacrifice and intercession of Christ, there is much comfort in the remembrance of God. ( W. D. Horwood. ) On the advantages of affliction J. Seed, M. A. (P.B.V.: "When I am in heaviness, I will think upon God"): — I. THE HAPPINESS AND REASONABLENESS OF TURNING OUR THOUGHTS TO GOD IN GENERAL. II. ADVERSITY HAS ITS PECULIAR ADVANTAGES, TO BRING US TO A JUST SENSE OF GOD, AND OUR DUTY TO HIM. 1. Adversity will make us, however unwilling, reflect and descend into ourselves. 2. Adversity puts our virtue to the test, and proves the sincerity of it. 3. Adversity is of service to disengage our minds from earthly pursuits, and to fix our thoughts where true joys are to be found. Convinced by melancholy proof of the insufficiency of worldly things, we take sanctuary in the fulness of the Divine sufficiency. ( J. Seed, M. A. ) The thought of God, the stay of the soul C. E. Kennaway, M. A. (P.B.V.): — I. THE THOUGHT OF GOD AS THE REMEDY AGAINST DESPONDENCY. "When I am in heaviness;" whenever that may be, or whatever may be the character of my woe, I have one and only one method of meeting it, and that is, by the thought of God. II. Consider, then, HOW THIS THOUGHT WILL ACT. When we first look at it, we deem it almost impossible that it should be the remedy which it is here declared to be. For what is the thought of God naturally? lt is the thought of One infinitely above us, transcendently great and good, fearful, indeed, from His very holiness, as well as from His power. Yet the very greatness of God in the majesty of His outward creation is a comfort to a thoughtful soul. True, I am insignificant, and as a shadow before Him; but I feel that He is the author and the fountain of my being. If I die, therefore, must I not be before Him, just as I am now? Wide, therefore, and great, and awful, as the universe may seem, there is no terrible void in it, for He who made it fills it; and everything that it contains, the smallest particle of dust, yea, even such a worm as I am, is ever under His immediate eye, and must be the object of His special protection. III. REVELATION CONFIRMS THIS THOUGHT. From first to last, God manifests Himself as our Father, yea, and our Friend. Friends may be false, and earthly streams grow dry; but the Lord God is my sun and my shield: I cannot be sad while He Smiles on me; I will dread no danger while He defends. Only remember this. While He is ever ready to help even those who have marred their own happiness; yet it is they who walk with Him, to whom He is a special source of peace. An allowed sin will drive Him away. He cannot dwell in the same heart with a cherished lust. ( C. E. Kennaway, M. A. ) I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times. Psalm 77:5 Lessons drawn from Scripture history W. Dickson. From the history of the Bible we may learn much concerning — I. THE CHARACTER OF GOD. 1. His wisdom. 2. His power. 3. His holiness and justice. 4. His goodness. 5. His faithfulness to His promises. 6. His unchangeableness. II. THE VALUE OF THE BLESSINGS OF REDEMPTION. 1. The greatness of the preparations made to obtain it. 2. The greatness of the sacrifice made to purchase it. 3. The greatness of the means used to proclaim it. III. THE CONDITION, CHARACTER, AND FATE OF MAN. 1. In his natural state. 2. As redeemed. (1) The way of salvation. (2) The failings of the people of God. (3) The sorrows and fears of the godly. (4) The Christian's reward. ( W. Dickson. ) I call to remembrance my song in the night. Psalm 77:6 The song in the night C. S. Horne, M. A. Among all those pains and pleasures which make up so large a part of every human lot, none are more real and more vivid than the pains and the pleasures of memory. Much that is sad, and tragic, and lamentable in the past would die but that it is kept alive in the memory, and much that is joyful and inspiring would perish out of life altogether but that it has become a property of the memory. There is not a little courage implied in this testimony of the psalmist: "I call to remembrance my song in the night" — for you cannot recall the song without recalling the night. And the song seems so slight a thing — some poor, thin, quavering notes that perhaps aimed to be melody and were not. But the night — that was vast and awful. Its gloom was absolute; its darkness a darkness that could be felt. It wrapped the spirit round until heaven and earth alike were lost, beauty a dream, and light a legend. That was the night upon which that trembling song broke; and into the depths of which it wandered. And to recall the song is to remember the night. It needs some courage deliberately to do that. There is something in this well worthy of our thought. There should be nothing in life we are afraid to recall. Even our sins should be so associated with memories of penitence and God's pardoning mercy that there is room for the note of praise even out of so desolate a night as that. We are not really "more than conquerors" until we can dare to look steadily at the darkest dispensations of earth. The suggestion with some people is that they can only continue to believe by hiding some of their trials out of sight, and resolutely refusing to think of them. If this be so, the victory is surely against, them. Will you now take yet another point in our meditation? It was the night that made the song. Not entirely, of course, for have we not already seen that the song had been impossible but for a communication of the reality of the Divine love. But the fact remains that but for the night the song had not been what it was. He whose love-song is the eternal inspiration and solace of our race was the Man of Sorrows, and His life was a song in the night. ( C. S. Horne, M. A. ) The song remembered in the night G. Dawson, M. A. He looked out of the bars of his window of darkness, and thought of the old light of bygone times. For there are times when the soul cannot sing, the heart cannot be glad. Yet even then the old days may be thought of. A man may get lap out of the darkness unto the light of another man's window, and take comfort from that. So this is what this wise soul did. He goes to the window, he knows where it is, and looking out through the great darkness, he says — "I call to remembrance the days of old, the years of ancient times." For, thank God, to-day's darkness blots not out yesterday's light, and in the depth of winter it is oftentimes pleasant to remember the summer glory: so the uses of darkness are sometimes to make men value the light. Now, this is the remedy. He called to mind olden days, and so by degrees the light came. He speaks most pathetic words. It is so dark, I cannot sing, I have nothing to say to Thee, O God, but I will call to remembrance the song I did sing once. And so the memory does what the heart could not do at the time; and even from this little beginning victory commences: " I call to remembrance my song in the night." And the tongue, toe dumb to sing, still perhaps whispers to itself the old song; and there mark amongst many other things the uses of learning, and singing when you are glad, teaching songs; they get into the memory, and lie there till they are wanted. Now, in calling to remembrance the old song, he called to mind that he had once sung it. What had been may be; yesterday is as to-morrow; old summers foretell future summers; and therefore he says, "No light now; but there was light once, I will call that to remembrance." But some of you may say that the very fact that you have known better days and know them not now, is a source of deeper trouble. Not at all. A thing that hath been may be. It is the very fact of the fickleness of the weather that gives us hope. It is now night, I call to remembrance the song I have sung in summer days I have seen sweet times of peace; they are gone now, they will come again. Ask me about next year's swallows, I call to remembrance the swallows of the past. They have been, they are not now, but they will come again. Their being gone is the, warrant of their coming again. A man sometimes is disappointed, disheartened; somebody who has been a friend has deceived him, and he says, "There is no such thing as honesty," and the man turns cynical, scornful, and denounces his fellows as being false. Think of the utter gloom that comes when a man has been thoroughly deceived. How hard it is to believe in the eleven, when the twelfth is a rogue. That is a terrible night for a man. But call to remembrance the song of the souls we have known that have loved us truly, purely, honestly, even to the end. Open the great book as the king did who could not sleep. Read of those who were true, think of all those you have known (now gone to rest), who were staunch, honest, and faithful; and though there is no song possible just now, yet "I call to remembrance my song in the night," and the men that were a comfort are amongst the men that are. So, far away from the!and of his birth, a man, perhaps in exile, sits down in a foreign land, it may be Babylon, but he cannot sing there, his heart is sad, and his harp hangs on the willows; though it is all night, he can call to remembrance the song he used to sing at home. Though unable to sing (for it needs a glad heart to make a very merry tongue), he can do as those Jews did, who opened their windows and looked towards Jerusalem, that even if they could not see the wreath of the smoking sacrifice ascending upward, they could remember the time that had been, and so take comfort from that. It is good to sing, but the next best thing is to think of the time when you have sung; for through the words which the heart utters it will become quiet and calm. ( G. Dawson, M. A. ) I Man, "know thyself John Pulsford, D. D. Communion with ourselves! that is surely something very wonderful; and evidence enough of a sublime nature. "I commune with my own heart: and my spirit dil

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. In the day of his trouble the psalmist did not seek for the diversion of business or amusement, but he sought God, and his favor and grace. Those that are under trouble of mind, must pray it away. He pored upon the trouble; the methods that should have relieved him did but increase his grief. When he remembered God, it was only the Divine justice and wrath. His spirit was overwhelmed, and sank under the load. But let not the remembrance of the comforts we have lost, make us unthankful for those that are left. Particularly he called to remembrance the comforts with which he supported himself in former sorrows. Here is the language of a sorrowful, deserted soul, walking in darkness; a common case even among those that fear the Lord, Isa 50:10. Nothing wounds and pierces like the thought of God's being angry. God's own people, in a cloudy and dark day, may be tempted to make wrong conclusions about their spiritual state, and that of God's kingdom in the world. But we must not give way to such fears. Let faith answer them from the Scripture. The troubled fountain will work itself clear again; and the recollection of former times of joyful experience often raises a hope, tending to relief. Doubts and fears proceed from the want and weakness of faith. Despondency and distrust under affliction, are too often the infirmities of believers, and, as such, are to be thought upon by us with sorrow and shame. When, unbelief is working in us, we must thus suppress its risings. 77:11-20 The remembrance of the works of God, will be a powerful remedy against distrust of his promise and goodness; for he is God, and changes not. God's way is in the sanctuary. We are sure that God is holy in all his works. God's ways are like the deep waters, which cannot be fathomed; like the way of a ship, which cannot be tracked. God brought Israel out of Egypt. This was typical of the great redemption to be wrought out in the fulness of time, both by price and power. If we have harboured doubtful thoughts, we should, without delay, turn our minds to meditate on that God, who spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, that with him, he might freely give us all things.