Notes on the Book of Psalms, Psalm 77
The lxxvii. PSALM.
The Psalmist in grievous affliction and desertion labours to comfort himself with the success of former prayers in former distresses, and by parallel difficulty in prevailing then, so now; but is overpowered with the extremity and prolixity of his present grief, and the ineffectualness of his endeavours to minister comfort to himself, which puts him upon an expostulatory interrogating himself, with some diffidence touching the nature and promise of God, for which he chides himself at last, takes up another resolution, and falls to work in a quite other way, incouraging himself by the faith of those very things, and experiences▪ God to his Church in their distress, which before he perverted and made use of to the encrease of diffidence.
Psalm lxxvii. To the chief musi…ian, to Jeduthun, A Psalm of Asaph.To Jeduthun one of the prime musicians, and the principall of all his lineage, do I Asaph that made this Psalm recommend it for the care and ordering of it to be sung.
1 O Lord,1I cried unto God with my voice: even unto God with my voice, and he gave car unto me. how oft have I upon occasion put up my prayers unto thee, even continually in my distresses of what sort soever, I made thee still my sanctuary, fled to thee by faithfull and fervent prayer, and I do not know the time that ever I went without mine errant, but was always heard and had my suite granted though long first and hardly gained.
2 I will remember what a troublous fit I had under a painfull disease,2In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord; my sore ran in the night, and ceased not: my soul refused to be comforted. in what extremity I lay for a long time, both in pain of body and anguish of mind, finding neither remedy for the one, nor comfort for the other, though I sought to God earnestly and importunately in that my sad condition, yet I could have no ease, my pain was the same, and my soul, that nothing else could comfort, could obtain no glimpse of Gods favour towards it, to quiet and refresh it withall, for a long season.
3 Insomuch that I was even tired out with fruitless solicitations,3I remembred God and was troubled, I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed. Selah. I was in such misery, and found so little remedy though I prayed hard for it, as that at last, prayer it self became painfull to me. I could not think of going to God (having gone so oft and sped so ill) but it troubled me, when as all my complaints in so sad a condition moved nothing, it even killed my very heart. This case was I in, and to this extremity was I brought.
4 And as it was then,4Thou holdest mine eyes waking; I am so troubled that I cannot speak. so is it now, thou hast cast me into such extream affliction and misery, that it doth not onelyonly take up whole dayes, the pain of it, but whole nights too without any intermission, so that I can take no rest all the night long, and so from night to night, and I have praied so long and sped so ill, that the trouble of my mind hath even stopped my mouth. I can speak no more.
5I have considered the days of old, the years of auncient times.5 I have cast about every way, and considered every thing that might make for my comfort, I have called to mind thy former gracious dispensations to thy people, and servants of old in their distresses, recorded purposely for thy Churches benefit in succeeding times.
6I call to remembrance my song in the night; I commune with my own heart, and my spirit made diligent sear…h.6 As also mine own former experiments, and happy changes which thou hast made of sorrow into joy and praise. I consider how many times thou hast ravished my heart with the sense of thy loving kindness, and made me lie awake in the night season, to bless and praise thee with a ravished heart, not to weep and lament as now I do, I think with my self what may comfort me, and call to mind all things of that nature, as also what should be the cause that no comfort can fasten, but that there is so great and so long an estrangement, and that I and comfort are so far asunder.
7Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more?7 Insomuch as then I think with my self, surely I have seen all the comfort that ever I must have in this life; and yet I cannot conclude it neither, but the length and extremity of my grief makes me in some fear, and doubtfulness interrogate with my self, whether or no it will ever be other, whether God is purposed thus to afflict me, and withdraw the signs and sense of his favour from me always?
8Is his mercy clean gone for ever? doth his promise fail for evermore?8 Shall I never tast of mercy any more, but must I wear away under trouble and sorrow thus? shall his promise of pity and compassion whereupon I so much relie, be for ever ineffectuall to me?
9 Hath God quite forgotten me? can he so contrary to his nature let me thus pine away,9Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah. without any dispensation of his grace and compassion, hath he conceived such displeasure against me, as forever to shut the doore of mercy upon me? yea, shall he who is a God of bowels, and those bowels full of earnings towards his people in distress, shall he suffer himself to be inexorably transported with anger against me? Surely it cannot be, I thought so with my self.
10 And replied to all these my expostulatory interrogations,10And I said, this is my infirmity, but I will remember the years of the right hand of the most high. that it was my frailty and folly thus to question the nature and faithfulness of God, and to live by sense more than by faith, and suffer my self to be transported by affliction into doubts and discomforts; and thereupon set my self to work in another way, resolved to take out a new lesson, and not onelyonly by contemplation, but by faith and application to recall to mind for the chearing of my heart, and the stirring up my hope, what powerfull grace and great deliverances (the pledges of his future favours in like sort) God hath heretofore wrought and exhibited in his peoples behalf, when they were in extremity, not suffering them to sink under them.
11 I will effectually recollect and consider what God hath done of that kind heretofore,11I will remember the works of the Lord: surely I will remember thy wonders of old. yea, how his peoples extremities were still his opportunities to give them wonderfull deliverance, and gain himself glory and honour, and so it shall be with me I doubt not.
12 I will more advisedly than ever I have done consider of thine infinite power,12I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings. and support my self by it, not onelyonly as it appears in acts of providence of auncient and later dispensations which is admirable, but in the creation also which thou deducedst out of nothing, and so thou canst any, raise me up though I were lower than I am; I will no more uncomfortably muse of thee and thy doings, and make a wrong use of them, that because heretofore thou hast done thus and thus, and dost not so now, and therefore thou never wilt, but that I shall surely sink and die in this distress; no, but I will both meditate and speak of them with chearfull apprehensions, and comfortable conclusions to my self, that because thus and thus it hath been with thy people, and so and so thou hast done for them, that these are pledges and assurances of thine unchangeable goodness and patterns of thy power, and that therefore so it shall be, and so thou wilt do for me also in like manner.
13Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary: who is so great a God as our God?13 O Lord, much debate I have had and reasonings about thee and thy proceedings, but thy ways and the reasons of them I find are too profound for me, I confess my self too shallow to fathom thy dimensions, it is not reason but prayer, nor my wisdom but thine, that must quiet my mind, and inform me aright, for how can I that am an earthworm here below, comprehend thy counsels and judgements that are transacted above in the heavens (inaccessible, as was thy sanctuary, or holy of holies) by thee who art an incomparable God, indeed the onelyonly God that doest whatsoever thou wilt both in heaven and earth, and who hast in nothing manifested thy greatness more than in thy goodness to, and powerfull preservation and deliverance of us thy people.
14 For whom thou doest not exercise common and ordinary providences,14Thou art the God that doest wonders; thou hast declared thy strength among the people. but doest wonders, and workest miracles; thy power hath gloriously appeared more than once, by remarkable and astonishing atchivements in thy peoples behalf upon their enemies, witness those mighty signs and wonders wherewith thou plaguest the Gentiles for their sakes sundry ways, and at sundry times.
15 With what power didst thou specially bring Israel out of Egypt?15Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah. thou sentest Jacob and his sons thither in time of famin, to be preserved by Joseph whom thou there advancedst; but when Joseph was forgotten, his and his father Jacobs posterity, ill intreated by cruell taskmasters there, how with the lives of the Egyptians, and the destruction of Egypt, didst thou redeem and deliver thy people thence? A mercy for ever to be recorded in the hearts of thy servants.
16 When as the waters of the red sea were so sensible of thy divine presence and power,16The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee: they were afraid, t…e dept…s also were troubled. O God, that as if they had been afraid of thee, and of harming thy people whom thou then conductedst, they ran away and divided themselves hither and thither, as it were to stand still, and with admiration to look on that marvellous passage of thy people through them, yea, not onelyonly the superficies of the water was thus moved, but from the top to the very bottom was that great Abbiss removed at thy presence, and made way for the seed of Jacob and Joseph to pass on dry land.
17 What an amazement didst thou then put the Egyptians into on a sudden?17The clouds poured out water, the skies sent out a sound: thine arrows also went abroad. when as in the morning-watch, thou lookedst into the host, through the pillar of fire and cloud, and didst arm the whole host of heaven against them tempestuously pouring forth rain, and emptying the clouds upon them, thundering also over their heads, and flashing forth streams of lightning in their faces, as if it had been a shour of darts or arrows sent from heaven to destroy them.
18The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven: the lightnings lightned the world, the earth trembled and shook.18 It is not to be expressed the terrour and trouble of that day, which made them say, Let us flie, for God fights for Israel against the Egyptians. What fearfull thunder-claps were in the skies, and flakes of fire with flashes of lightning that darkned the sun, and made the whole heavens seem to be of a light fire? the earth by its trembling and quaking, seemed to think the day of judgement was at hand, and that it was then to be consumed, and return to its nonensity. Every way, and by every thing, didst thou declare thy power to preserve thy people, & to deliver them with the destruction of their enemies the Egyptians, whom thou troubledst thus from above, and from beneath retarding their flight, till the sea overwhelmed them.
19Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, & thy foot-steps are not known.19 A memorable deliverance forever to be had in remembrance of thy people Israel, whether in letter or in spirit, the presence and power that there was manifested in their behalfs, conducting them safe through a way of thine own miraculous making, that never was gone before; through the sea it self, and after through Jordan, in like sort when it quite overflowed his banks. Submission, and not disputation best becomes us mortalls in all conditions, that know not the ways of Gods providence, nor the reasons of them now, no more than the Israelites knew then, why he led them to the sea side to bring them into Canaan, nor do we know how thou wilt bring us out of our distresses which thou bringest us into, no more than they knew how thou wouldst deliver them in that their danger, when unknown to them thou openedst the sea for their passage.
20 And ledst them through it,20Thou ledest thy people like a flock, by the hand of Moses & Aaron. by the conduct of Moses and Aaron, whom thou settest over them, and appointedst to be unto them as shepherds to a flock, with care and tenderness to lead them, provide for them, and transact betwixt thee and them throughout their travel in the wilderness, as Christ is to his Church and people all along their life.