Bible Commentaries
Psalms 77

Introduction

To the chief Musician, to Jeduthun, A Psalm of Asaph.

There are no historic allusions in this psalm by which to identify it with its proper occasion, but its internal marks are strongly drawn. It is not of himself that the author speaks, only as he shares the common calamity, but of the people, and from the depth of the national heart. It is as if the nation spoke out its griefs through him. As to the subject of the psalm, it consists of two divisions. The first (Psalms 77:1-9) details the sorrows of the nation and their dispirited state; the second (Psalms 77:10-20) is an attempt to rally faith and re-assure hope by a retrospect of God’s early mercies and wonders to his people. Psalms 77:10 is the transition point of the psalm. But this trouble of the nation, which is the burden of half the song, was deep and overwhelming, (Psalms 77:2-3,) and had been of long continuance so long that hope had nearly died out. (Psalms 77:7-9.) The language employed to give utterance to discouraged faith, on account of the delays of avenging providence, fits only the period of the captivity. Besides other strong forms of expression, the words עולם and נצח , eternity, for ever, and in an accommodated sense, indefinite time, ages, are here applied to the continuance of the national affliction. They are used freely in the psalms of the captivity; as Psalms 13:1; Psalm 14:23; Psalms 74:1; Psalms 74:3; Psalms 74:10; Psalms 74:19; Psalms 75:5; Psalms 89:46; all of which date from that gloomy period. Once only does David use the former word in his darkest hour, (Psalms 143:3,) and once the latter occurs in the time of Hezekiah, when the ten tribes had already gone into exile. Psalms 44:23. It would be the petulance of unbelief to employ such terms on occasion of a recent or a transient affliction. They denote long-standing calamities; or such, at least, as seem without remedy, and which stand in apparent painful contradiction of the divine covenant. In the present psalm, language exhausts itself in setting forth the greatness and the continuance of the trial, the severest point of which is, that God does not seem to notice it, does not interpose, though it stands directly against his covenant and name. We must refer it to the time of Belshazzar, when the Jews were in reproach, and even Daniel was forgotten at court. Hammond quotes Rabbi Kimchi: “This psalm is spoken in the dialect of the captives.”

TITLE:

To the chief Musician This might have been prefixed to the psalm by the author, or by Ezra, after the return of the exiles, when the regular temple service was reorganized; or we may suppose some provision for music might have been made in connexion with the synagogue service which originated during the exile, in which the sons of Jeduthun had their place. The people certainly had their sacred music and musical instruments in Babylon, (Psalms 137:0;) and Jeduthun, to whom the musical performance of this psalm is assigned, who was probably the son of Merari, belonged to the third division of David’s choir, (1 Chronicles 23:5-6,) whose sons performed on the harp. 1Ch 25:1 ; 1 Chronicles 25:3. His descendants were among the captives, and returned and resumed their place in the sacred choir in Nehemiah’s time. Nehemiah 11:17. But as the Hebrew title reads, not ( ל ) to or of Jeduthun, but ( על ) upon Jeduthun, the designation here may be to some instrument or musical key or mode, or the particles may be considered interchangeable. See on title of Psalms 39, 62

Verse 1

1. I cried unto God “My distresses were great, and I had none but God to go to.” Hammond.

He gave ear unto me The rabbinical construction takes the verb as a peculiar form of the imperative, ( hear thou me,) which suits better the feelings of the psalmist as not having yet received the answer to prayer. The complaint goes on to Psalms 77:9, and the subsequent part of the psalm describes only the triumph of faith, not the formal fulfilment of his request. Compare Habakkuk 3:17-19

Verse 2

2. In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord Not only the depth of the psalmist’s sufferings is here indicated, such as God only could relieve, but his true piety. His troubles brought him nearer to God. Psalms 50:15.

My sore ran in the night Hebrew, My hand was stretched out all night; that is, in the posture of earnest supplication. Psalms 44:20; Psalms 88:9.

Ceased not Rested not. Compare the painfulness of the attitude with Exodus 17:11-12

Verse 3

3. I remembered God, and was troubled Or, moaned. This remembrance of God corresponds to his seeking him in the previous verse, and the trouble, or moaning, to the stretching out of his hand, specimens of poetic parallelism. He was “troubled” because God was now withdrawn and hidden from him.

I complained Hebrew, meditated, same word as is rendered “commune,” Psalms 77:6. To meditate is to hold a subject steadily before the mind, to consider it in all its relations; more intensive than remember; thus, “I remembered God and was troubled; I meditated and was overwhelmed.”

Verse 4

4. Thou holdest mine eyes waking Thou holdest the watches, or guards, of my eyes; that is, my eyelids. Sleep is God’s merciful gift, (Psalms 127:2,) and wakefulness is here confessed as a judgment.

I cannot speak But he could moan, as in Psalms 77:3. The extremes of loud moaning and speechless silence indicate the paroxysm and excess of his sorrow.

Verse 5

5. I have considered the days of old I recount the providence of God toward the nation in ancient times, and contrast with that its present forsaken condition.

Verse 6

6. My song in the night In my happier days my nights were often spent in praise and thanksgiving, now in mourning or silent grief. This applied to the nation in comparing their earlier history with their present state. These meditations lead the psalmist to the earnest inquiries of Psalms 77:7-9, to ascertain if the known ways of God with his people offer any hope in the present distress.

Verse 7

7. Will the Lord cast off for ever Hebrew, to eternity. The word is one of the strongest to denote endless duration.

Will he be favourable no more A strong negative, agreeing with the former member in intensity.

Verse 8

8. Is his mercy… gone for ever “For ever,” here, is another of the class of strongest Hebrew words to denote eternal duration, and never occurs but once (Psalms 44:23) in such connexion, except in the psalms of the captivity. In Psalms 74:0 it occurs four times, (Psalms 77:1; Psalms 77:3; Psalms 77:10; Psalms 77:19,) also in Psalms 79:5; Psalms 89:46.

For evermore Hebrew, to generation and generation.

Verse 9

9. Forgotten to be gracious… shut up his tender mercies “He asks whether it is, then, all at an end with God’s loving-kindness and promise, at the same time saying to himself that this, nevertheless, is at variance with the unchangeableness of his nature and the inviolability of his covenant.” Delitzsch. Here end the dark questionings of his agitated mind.

Verse 10

10. The tone of the psalm abruptly changes. The remaining portion describes the grounds of his faith and hope.

This is my infirmity Literally, This is my disease; that is, my complaint and despondency are the natural outworkings of my excessive sufferings.

Years of the right hand of the Most High The transition is abrupt, like Habakkuk 3:0. The ellipsis is supplied, in our English version, by the words, “But I will remember,” which is in analogy with Psalms 77:11. The idea is, that he would rally and sustain his faith and hope by recalling the great works of God toward his people of old, and his original purpose concerning them. This was a common antidote to unbelief and despair during the captivity, as the psalms of that period show. הלותי , ( hallothee,) translated infirmity, in Piel takes the sense of entreaty, supplication, and many read it, “This is my entreaty the years of the right hand,” etc. But the sense already given seems most natural and most in accordance with the connexion. By changing the Hebrew accents Dr. Conant reads the verse:

“And I said, This is my infirmity!

Verse 11

11. The works of the Lord Hebrew, The doings of Jah. A poetic abbreviation of Jehovah, which appears in the earlier Hebrew poetry.

Exodus 15:2; Exodus 17:16, and often in the psalms.

Verse 13

13. Thy way The way of God is his historical path, or mode of dispensation, especially in redemption.

In the sanctuary The word is rarely used in the abstract for holiness, but almost always in the concrete for holy name, person, or place. So here it is to be understood of the holy place, or sanctuary. God’s way is in his sanctuary, where is the oracle, the living word. See Psalms 73:17

Verse 15

15. Sons of Jacob and Joseph “Joseph,” here, represents the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, (Genesis 48:0,) and these, in later times, the kingdom of Israel. Psalms 80:2; Isaiah 11:13. “Jacob and Joseph” stand for the total Hebrew family. See introductory note, Psalms 81:0. The thought of the psalmist is on the redemption of his race.

Verse 16

16. The waters saw thee A bold figure. The waters saw God fighting for his people, and were afraid, or seized with pain, as the word denotes.

Troubled Agitated. The word indicates an irregular motion, like an army which trembles, wavers, and staggers when stricken with fear. The allusion is to the Red Sea passage. Compare Psalms 104:7-9

Verse 17

17. The clouds poured out water The rain refers to the desert life of the people, not to the passage of the Red Sea, which was not in a thunderstorm. Psalms 68:7-9, where see note.

A sound Thunder.

Arrows Lightnings. A beautiful poetic conception. Psalms 77:18; Habakkuk 3:11; Psalms 18:14

Verse 18

18. Earth trembled and shook A description of an earthquake, which associates literally with Sinai, not the Red Sea. See Exodus 19:18; Exodus 20:18; Hebrews 12:18-19

Verse 19

19. Thy way is in the sea So wonderful and unsearchable are the ways of God! Pharaoh essayed to follow the divine footsteps, and perished. The true explanation of this sentence is in the last clause of the verse: “Thy footsteps are not known.” God had walked through the sea, and it had closed and left no track. So his invisible footsteps in providence and redemption may not be discovered or followed by curious and presumptuous inquiry. This is the admonition of Ecclesiastes 7:14

Verse 20

20. Thou leddest thy people like a flock A beautiful Asaphic figure, (Psalms 80:1,) and a resting of faith at last in the great Shepherd of Israel. Here the psalm abruptly closes, as if the author had left it unfinished. But “where our psalm leaves off, Habakkuk, chap. 3, goes on, taking it up from that point like a continuation. For the prophet begins with the prayer to revive that deed of redemption of the Mosaic days of old, and in the midst of wrath to remember mercy; and, in expressions and figures which are borrowed from our psalm, he then beholds a fresh deed of redemption, by which that of old is eclipsed.” Delitzsch.