Psalms 77

This Psalm breathes the spirit of Habakkuk, and uses language closely resembling that of his ‘Prayer.’ As Habakkuk watched the advance of the Chaldeans, and foresaw that they were to be the executioners of God’s judgement upon Judah, his faith was tried to the uttermost. Could such an apparent triumph of pride and violence be consistent with the Divine government of the world? His questionings were answered with the assurance that pride and injustice must inevitably come to ruin, while righteousness endures; but the assurance was coupled with the warning that its realisation might be long delayed. And when the prophet prayed that God would hasten His work lest the delay should prove too great a strain for the faith of His waiting people, in place of a direct answer there rose before his mind the vision of God’s Advent to judge His enemies and redeem His people. That Advent he describes in language borrowed from the great deliverances and visitations of the past, conveying the same fundamental idea as that of this Psalm, that Israel’s past is the pledge for Israel’s future[41]. [41] For fuller explanation of Habakkuk’s magnificent ode I may refer to my Doctrine of the Prophets, pp. 281 ff.When the Psalmist wrote, the blow had fallen. Israel was in exile. It is clearly no merely private and personal sorrow which overwhelms his spirit, but the apparent rejection of Israel by God. But in the light of Israel’s past history he is taught to believe that this rejection cannot be permanent. In the recollection of that marvellous past he finds the ground of hope for the future. The God who led His people out of the bondage of Egypt can bring them back from their Exile in Babylon. The structure of the Psalm is regular. There are two main divisions, in each of which there are two stanzas, marked off by Selah. The second and third stanzas fall into equal subdivisions of three verses. In the fourth stanza the rhythm changes; instead of six distichs we have four tristichs; but the number of lines is the same. The last verse stands by itself as the conclusion. i. The problem.

1. Introduction. The Psalmist relates how in the day of distress he strove, but in vain, to find comfort in prayer (Psalms 77:1-3).
2. In the watches of the night he pondered on the past history of Israel (Psalms 77:4-6), and asked himself whether God could have irrevocably rejected His people (Psalms 77:7-9).
3. The answer to such questionings must, he feels, be looked for in God’s revelation of Himself in history (Psalms 77:10-12), especially in His redemption of Israel out of Egypt (Psalms 77:13-15).
4. On the grandeur of that manifestation he dwells at length (Psalms 77:16-19). In conclusion he points to God’s guidance of His people through the wilderness (Psalms 77:20). Some commentators regard Psalms 77:16-19 as a fragment of another Psalm, mainly on the ground of the change of rhythm, and a supposed want of connexion with what precedes and follows. But though the rhythm changes, tristichs taking the place of distichs, the length of the stanza is the same—twelve lines—as that of the two preceding ones. The first stanza contains a tristich (Psalms 77:2), and it should be noted that Psalms 77:1; Psalms 77:16 are both marked by the figure of ‘epanaphora’ or rhetorical repetition. Attention has also been called to the abruptness of the close of the Psalm, and it has been suggested that it is either incomplete or mutilated. But this abruptness is a mark of the poet’s skill. He ends with the thought which he would leave impressed on the reader’s mind for his consolation—God’s providential guidance of His people. Any addition would weaken the effect. The reader is left to draw the inference that God’s guidance will continue, and that, as He redeemed Israel from the bondage of Egypt, He can redeem them from exile in Babylon. The parallel between the Exodus from Babylon and the Exodus from Egypt is constantly present to the minds of the prophets. The resemblance of the Psalm to the Prayer of Habakkuk has already been referred to. It has been much disputed whether the Psalmist is imitating the Prophet, or the Prophet the Psalm. On literary grounds alone it would be difficult to decide, though the presumption is perhaps in favour of the originality of Habakkuk. But if (as I believe) the Prayer of Habakkuk is an integral part of his book, not a later addition, and if the Psalm belongs to the time of the Exile, the Psalmist must be the borrower. Compare, besides Habakkuk 3, Exodus 15; and Psalms 142:1-3; Psalms 143:4-6. On the title, For the chief Musician; after the manner of Jeduthun (R.V.), see Introd. to Psalms 62.

Psalms 77:1-3

1–3. The Psalmist relates how, under the pressure of calamity, he could find no consolation even in prayer.

Psalms 77:2

2. (Thus) in the day of my distress I sought the Lord: My hand was stretched out in the night, and slacked not; My soul refused to be comforted.

Psalms 77:3

3. For the word rendered ‘disquieted’ cp. Psalms 42:5; Psalms 42:11; Psalms 43:5. In Psalms 55:17 it is joined with that rendered ‘muse in prayer,’ which recurs in Psalms 77:6 b, 12 b, and denotes meditation, musing prayer, musing or plaintive speech. my spirit &c.] Cp. Psalms 142:3; Psalms 143:4, in contexts full of parallels to this Psalm.

Psalms 77:4-9

4–9. In the vigils of the night he pondered on the history of the past, and asked himself with earnest questionings whether it were possible that God could have utterly cast off His people, and changed His character as a gracious and merciful God.

Psalms 77:5

5. “Not pathetic only but profound also and of the most solid substance was that reply made by an old Carthusian monk to the trifler who asked him how he had managed to get through his life:—Cogitavi dies antiquos, et annos aeternos in mente habui.”

Psalms 77:6

6. In the first two lines he tells us how he bade himself recall the songs of thanksgiving which he had once been able to sing in the night, the quiet time of meditation and thanksgiving (Psalms 42:8; Psalms 92:2; Job 35:10), in contrast to his present cries of anguish or silence of despair. Song means literally ‘song to the accompaniment of stringed instruments.’ P.B.V. ‘and search out my spirits,’ follows the reading of the LXX and some other Ancient Versions.

Psalms 77:7

7. The emphasis is on for ever; lit. for ages to come, which are compared with the ages past (Psalms 77:5); a different word from that in Psalms 77:8, and Psalms 74:1. Cp. Psalms 85:5. For ‘shew favour,’ cp. Psalms 44:3; Psalms 18; Psalms 85:1; Psalms 106:4.

Psalms 77:8

8. Is his lovingkindness at an end for ever? Hath his promise failed for all generations? Cp. Psalms 85:5; Psalms 105:8.

Psalms 77:9

9. Has He forgotten or deliberately abandoned those attributes which He once proclaimed as the essence of His Nature (Exodus 34:6)? Cp. Habakkuk 3:2, “In wrath wilt thou remember mercy.”

Psalms 77:10-20

10–20. The history of the past is the most convincing answer to these questions, the best cordial for his fainting spirits. Cp. Isaiah 63:7 ff.

Psalms 77:11

11. I will make mention of the deeds of Jah; Yea, I will remember thy wonders of old. The A.V. remember follows the Qrç; the R.V. make mention is the reading of the Kthîbh. Cp. Isaiah 63:7. The name Jah recalls the deliverance from Egypt (Exodus 15:2; cp. Psalms 68:4), the greatest of all God’s wonderful works.

Psalms 77:12

12. I will meditate also upon all thy work, And muse on thy doings. (R.V.) For work cp. Habakkuk 3:2.

Psalms 77:13

13. in the sanctuary] Better, in holiness. Cp. Exodus 15:11. All the plan and method of God’s dealings in the world moves in the sphere of holiness, separate from all sin and imperfection, in accord with the perfection of His Nature. Cp. Habakkuk’s appeal to God’s holiness (Habakkuk 1:12.) who &c.] Who is a great god (El) like God (Elohim)? For Elohim no doubt originally stood Jehovah as in the passage of Moses’ song, which the Psalmist has in mind (Exodus 15:11).

Psalms 77:14

14. Thou art the God &c.] The true El, the living, Almighty God (Psalms 5:4; Psalms 42:2). The epithet that doest wonders is borrowed from Exodus 15:11. Cp. Isaiah 25:1. thou hast declared &c.] Render, Thou didst make known thy strength among the peoples. Cp. Exodus 15:13-14; Exodus 9:16.

Psalms 77:15

15. Thou hast &c.] With a (strong) arm didst thou redeem thy people. Cp. Exodus 15:13; Exodus 15:16; Exodus 6:6; Psalms 74:2. the sons of Jacob and Joseph] According to the Targum, Joseph is named because, by preserving the lives of his brethren in Egypt, lie became as it were a second father of the nation. But more probably Joseph is named as the father of Ephraim and Manasseh, the ancestors of the most powerful tribes of the Northern Kingdom. Cp. Psalms 78:67; Psalms 80:1; Psalms 81:5. In Amos (Amos 5:6; Amos 5:15; Amos 6:6) Joseph denotes the Northern Kingdom. In Obadiah 1:18, the house of Jacob and the house of Joseph stands for the whole nation. Cp. Zechariah 10:6; Ezekiel 37:16; Ezekiel 37:19; Ezekiel 47:13; Ezekiel 48:32.

Psalms 77:16-19

16–19. The manifestation of God’s sovereignty over nature in that supreme act of redemption.

Psalms 77:17

17. God came in storm and earthquake. So the poet develops the thought of Exo 14:24-25. Cp. Psalms 18:7 ff; Psalms 97:3 ff.; and the parallel passage in Habakkuk 3:10-11, where tempest (R.V.) is the cognate substantive to the verb rendered poured out here. sent out a sound] Better (cp. Hab.), uttered a voice, i.e. thundered. God’s arrows are the flashes of lightning.

Psalms 77:18

18. in the heaven] The word galgal, derived from a root meaning to roll, was understood by the Jewish commentators to mean the vault or circuit of the heaven. More probably it should be rendered in the whirlwind (R.V.), or, with rumbling, the rolling of the thunder being conceived of as the rolling of God’s chariot-wheels. Cp. Habakkuk 3:8.

Psalms 77:19

19. Thy way was in the sea, And thy paths in the great waters, And thy footsteps were not known. (R.V.) Cp. Habakkuk 3:15. The A.V. path follows the Qrî; R.V. paths the Kthîbh and the Ancient Versions. The sea flowed back where Israel passed, and no visible trace of God’s victorious march was left:—a parable of His method of working. Cp. Job 23:8 ff.

Psalms 77:20

20. Conclusion. The convulsions of nature were the heralds of deliverance (Luke 21:28), and the Shepherd of Israel led forth His flock under the guidance of His chosen servants. Cp. Exodus 15:13; Psalms 78:52 ff; Psalms 74:1, note. The words of the last line come from Numbers 33:1; cp. Micah 6:4; Isaiah 63:11 ff.