Psalms 77

Psalms 77:1-20

God’s way in the sea and in the sanctuary. To the chief musician “to Jeduthun” a psalm of Asaph. The last psalm of the series gives us that character of the divine government which causes it to be so fruitful of exercise to the soul of man. Even for the Christian, in this respect, clouds and darkness are about Him still the revolving wheel of the world, with all its remorselessness of change for the fleeting generations, is yet God’s chariot wheel, as indeed the Preacher sees it, only to the increase of his perplexity and the height of the wheel -so high as to be dreadful, in Ezekiel’s vision, -hides with its mystery Him who sits above it. This is what this fifth psalm here presents: God’s footsteps in the sea, and there unknown, with the difficulty for faith engendered by it; -a difficulty pressing for solution, or at least some answer and which is here answered, measurably at least. It could not yet have the settlement which Christianity has given to it, nor can there be settlement, even with this, which shall leave us with no more exercise of this kind. Faith must still reckon with the unseen, in some sense, as Asaph did; and the psalm will have its use still for every pilgrim. Comforting it is, too, to note that it is for Jeduthun, i.e. “the worshiper,” and that it is, notably also, a sanctuary-psalm. If God’s way is in the sea, His steps unknown, it is no less in the sanctuary also, in the holiness which must be His, and it is from what is known of Him -changeless as He is in nature, -that what is unknown must be determined. The psalm; as it is a fifth, so it has five parts, the first three of which are taken up with the problem and its solution, while the last two expand the general thought of it, as we have seen.

1. In the first part we have the occasion of the question, but with the preliminary assurance that the psalmist’s cry to God has been answered: “My voice is unto God, and I cry: my voice is unto God, and He hath given ear to me.” He then points out how the question which was troubling had risen for him. External difficulty it was that (as commonly) produced the inward perplexity. We are apt to take with calmness enough the difficulties of others, until these become our own: as Eliphaz said to Job, “it toucheth thee, and thou art troubled.” So here: “in the day of my strait I sought the Lord” -not Jehovah, but the Almighty Ruler of all: my hand was stretched out in the night and slacked not: my soul refused comfort." The remembrance of God also only made the distress more poignant, for here it was that doubt was assailing him: “I remembered God, and I moaned; I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed.” We have not as yet, however, the special character of this distress made known.
2. In the second section we realize more the nature of the conflict, as having to do with questions which, as Ecclesiastes has it, “God has given to the sons of men to be exercised with.” “Thou hast held mine eyelids open,” he says: “I am so agitated that I cannot speak.” He is occupied with the history of man, with “the days of old, -the years of ancient times” -God’s dealings with men are exercising him; and from these he turns to review his own experience. He remembers his “music in the night,” but he is not disposed to music now. He is busy, communing with his own heart, and his spirit making diligent search. But with all this, at present, rest is not attained.
3. The next section brings us however to the interpretation of it all. We find the riddle and its solution also. We see clearly that it is a question which. Israel is above all concerned with, and which a latter-day remnant would certainly be exercised about; while the answer concerns His people at all times, it being the assertion of the faithfulness of God to His own Name, for which He ever acts, and in which they find their resource and refuge. The question is “Will the Lord cast off forever? and will He show favor no more?” Here the “Lord” is not “Jehovah;” nor is the covenant-Name mentioned until after this question is answered. Covenant they cannot plead: the answer has to come from what God is in Himself, not from relationship, which is the very thing in question. But the “Lord” (Adonai). He in whose hand all power is, has in effect cast off when that power no more acts in their behalf. Will He cast off, then, “forever” (leolamim; “for the ages”)? “and will He show favor no more?” There was no doubt, at least, of what He had been to them. Could it be, then, that He would act in opposition to this? A temporary “forsaking” would not be opposition: for chastening means present interest and future blessing; and was this, then, chastening, or renunciation of the favor that He once had shown? In his next two questions the psalmist weighs his evidences. The divine loving-kindness, can that be at an end -exhausted? is the fountain of love dried up? This is of course an impossibility; and he is arguing that it is an impossibility. And yet in application to themselves, how many are tempted to believe it! How many admit the suggestion of some sin possibly unpardonable to him who sincerely turns to God about it, and would find his refuge in the blood of Christ! But no: there stands as the complete denial of this the unfailing word of divine inspiration: “the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth from all sin.” Here is no limit, and who shall make one? Whatever may be true as to unpardonable sin, it cannot mean that any such can be to one who has recourse to the blood of Christ; or that He will cast out, for any cause whatever, any one who in the day of present grace shall come to Him (1 John 1:7; John 6:37). But this brings us to the second question of the psalmist: “has His word failed for all generations?” Here, too, is an impossibility; but let us see what it implies. It is “His word” that is in question, not “His promise”; and this makes it much more weighty. God has been pleased to give us His word, and this indeed is “loving-kindness” to do so, and the parallelism of the verse is complete. He has written Himself out on the page of Scripture, -given us to see His heart, His mind: it may be in His dealings with this or that person, in His announcement as to this or that event. All this rests (as to its blessing to me) upon the immutability of His nature, the assurance that I shall find Him for myself the self-same God that He has been to others. Were He changeful, capricious, limited, I could argue nothing, find comfort in nothing: -for all generations His word would be practically gone.

Were His “loving-kindness” anything but the infinite fount of blessing that it is, no declarations of it for another would help me, no words of other times would avail me now. But blessed be God, this cannot be. He is Himself, always Himself, no attribute at strife with another in His changeless and perfect nature. How I can rejoice, then, that Abraham’s God is mine; and what unfailing assurance any one that will, may gather from His word! Here then is the point of the argument: it is God Himself in whom we can trust, and that, whatever the present circumstances. “Has the Mighty One (El) forgotten to be gracious? Must any circumstances whatever be allowed to argue infirmity in Him? “Has He shut up (contracted) in anger His compassions?” No, be assured. His very anger is the effect of love itself: cast yourself upon His love, this anger will not harm you; His chastening shall but purify and bless. And thus we come to a point: shall we argue infirmity in Him or in ourselves? Here there can be no question, and the trouble is ended: “And I said, This is my infirmity” -“my malady,” it might be rendered: “there are years of the right hand of the Most High;” -an inadequate statement, which is all the more effective. “God has had years of experience,” he says to himself: and that so feebly represents the truth, and yet in that enfeebled form; so forbids doubt, that immediately he is master of himself again, and can only praise Him. 4. Back he can go now at once to Scripture, to those old experiences of God, now once more so available for him. “I will make mention of the works of Jah,” he says: “for I remember Thy wonders of old; and I will meditate on all Thy work, and talk of Thy doings.” “Jah,” the contracted form of Jehovah, speaks in the most energetic, decisive way of the One who is, as if He were the only reality. And so, in a true sense, He is: for “in Him we live and move and have our being,” and He governs absolutely where most his authority seems set aside. Had we eyes purged from all films, where would we find a thing which might not be a text from which to descant upon the “works of Jehovah?” and with what blessing to our own souls, as well as to the souls of others. Even the “wonders of old” are but as it were the visible signs and tokens of a manner of work which everywhere has the stamp of the same Author. Indeed that is what gives them their main charm and interest. Oh for eyes without a film! we shall have them: but do not let us be so satisfied with that assurance as to put away from us the present opportunity of learning such glorious things. But he goes on: “Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary” -not simply, I think, “in holiness,” though that be the main thought. But the sanctuary suggests more than this, -suggests already even, what the next section more develops, the hidden character of His ways, which are yet not hidden of His will, for He is ever seeking to make them known, but of necessity, by reason of men’s estrangement from Him. The sanctuary, thank God, does not to us, as to Israel, so much speak of this: for it is what characterizes Christianity that the veil of it is rent from top to bottom; and we have “boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus” (Hebrews 10:19). Blessed it is to know this! but beyond measure blessed to draw really near because we know it! Practically still the measure of our knowledge must depend upon that purging of the eyes, of which we have been speaking. The light shines, and here is our responsibility, and here is our privilege. What we see is a question to be answered, each one for himself. But it is in holiness God’s way is, and “the knowledge of the Holy is understanding”: therefore we enter into His mind as His mind enters into us. And then indeed shall we realize: “who is the mighty one (El) so great as God?” And if He be thus necessarily hidden by. His own perfection, yet is He not outside the knowledge of men everywhere: for “Thou art the Mighty One that doeth wonders: Thou hast made known Thy strength among the peoples.” And here especially in Israel -through His relationship to these -He is made known, and in the grace which this declares: “with Thine arm hast Thou redeemed Thy people, the sons of Jacob and of Joseph.” 5. Here the fifth section opens, and we find in the way in which God manifested Himself as with His people and for their deliverance, how the powers of nature in which He so much hides Himself, are nevertheless perfectly at His disposal, and work in behalf of those with whom He is. The psalmist is drawing the picture manifestly of the deliverance at the Red Sea, although of the convulsions of nature described, the history gives no account. The moral drawn from it is of the widest application. “The waters saw Thee, O God; the waters saw Thee, they were afraid; the depths also trembled.” Nature owned His power, while men doubted the Arm upon which they leaned, or else defied it, after abundant experience. But not only did nature tremble and give place, but the elements yielded themselves to His will: “the clouds poured out water; the skies sent out a sound; Thine arrows also went abroad.” But there was that which has ever to man been more like the manifestation of God, and which Scripture recognizes in this way: “The voice of Thy thunder was in the whirlwind; the earth trembled and quaked.” And now comes the moral of God’s clothing Himself in these nature-forms “Thy way is in the sea, and Thy paths in the great waters; and Thy footsteps are not known.” True as that may be, yet this “way” is with His people and in their behalf: “Thou leddest Thy people like a flock, by the hand of Moses and Aaron.” Thus in the dark as in the light He is the same; and in the dark, we can yet trust Him.