“I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, and He will hear me. In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord; in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying; my soul refuses to be comforted. When I remember God, I moan; when I meditate, my spirit faints. Selah
You hold my eyelids open; I am so troubled that I cannot speak. I consider the days of old, the years long ago. I said, ‘Let me remember my song in the night; let me meditate in my heart.’ Then my spirit made a diligent search: ‘Will the Lord spurn forever, and never again be favorable? Has His steadfast love forever ceased? Are His promises at an end for all time? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has He in anger shut up His compassion?’ Selah” – Psalm 77:1-9
How many of us through the years have read these words and said, “That’s me! That’s where I am right now! How did He know that I am feeling like this?” Or maybe you are reading them for the first time and find yourself amazed at how similar these words are to the words you have said to God in the midst of life’s desperate moments that all too often stretch on too long from our perspective.
How loud have you gotten before God in the past…maybe yesterday? How loud…thinking… that only by getting loud will He hear you? How long have you prayed in the night…because the nights are the worst…to God to change your circumstance and nothing lets you sleep nothing gives you rest because, interestingly enough…we refuse to be comforted…just like the Psalmist. Or perhaps, is the psalmist saying that God refuses to comfort his soul at that moment, because it is in his distress that God can work most effectively? You remember, when weakest then we can be the strongest in the Lord!
If it is the first, then what he says next makes sense. He says the words that many of us know too well, “When I remember God, I moan; when I meditate, my spirit faints. Selah” He remembers God and he moans… “Where is He?” When he tries to mediate his spirit faints unable to even consider God’s word. So He pauses, he sighs, like he is trying to get his breath (Selah).
But if it is the latter, we see that God won’t let him alone… “You hold my eyelids open; I am so troubled that I cannot speak. I consider the days of old, the years long ago.” God won’t give him rest so that he can look back to the foundation of his faith within the darkness of the moment. God wants him to be honest with himself and… with God…to clear the air, if you will. “Let me remember my song in the night; let me meditate in my heart.’ Then my spirit made a diligent search: ‘Will the Lord spurn forever, and never again be favorable? Has His steadfast love forever ceased? Are His promises at an end for all time? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has He in anger shut up His compassion?’ Selah” By making him verbalize… (remember he is probably still loudly speaking to God)…he hears himself and the Spirit working with his spirit enables him to see the truth. Just because things aren’t happening on our time table…God is working and He never stops.
“Then I said, ‘I will appeal to this, to the years of the right hand of the Most High. I will remember the deeds of the LORD; yes, I will remember your wonders of old. I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your mighty deeds.
Your way, O God, is holy. What god is great like our God? You are the God who works wonders; you have made known your might among the peoples. You with your arm redeemed your people, the children of Jacob and Joseph.’ Selah”
What happened? Are all things “good” again? Not really. Verse 10 is not necessarily complete even in the ESV. The beginning is a bit complicated in the Hebrew. The Hebrew could read something like this. “Then I said, while still in my grief, the Most High’s right hand has changed me (read strengthened me) or has changed my plea to an appeal.”
What is his changed appeal? “I will remember the deeds of the LORD; yes, I will remember your wonders of old. I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your mighty deeds.” Because the Spirit is working with his spirit the strength he needs is there so he can change direction. Even in his grief, his faith moves him to cry out to God with clarity. “Your way, O God, is holy. What god is great like our God? You are the God who works wonders; you have made known your might among the peoples. You with your arm redeemed your people, the children of Jacob and Joseph.’ Selah” And he pauses again to get a breath because all of this has been and is hard especially when he just wants it all to go away…or go back to the way it was.
What’s the lesson here? We all too often fight the grief…wanting relief. And things are NOT meant to be the same! The Psalmist…or rather God through the Psalmist…tells us that God has brought this grief into our lives in the same way that He has made the waters, the clouds, the lightning, the thunder, and the earthquake…all the things that distress the world and interestingly enough, change the world the way He wishes, at the same time. (Vs. 16-18) So rather than fighting the grief with our own strength He gets us to give into God’s work in the grief…for God is the one who brought the grief so that He can ultimately lead us effectively in this life. “Your way was through the sea, your path through the great waters; yet your footprints were unseen. You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.” (vs. 19-20)
So while you are in your grief…remember…God is with you just as He promised. He is even making the grief harder for us so that we will give in to Him because our path is through that tumultuous sea…it is in the midst of the scary storm…it is hanging on for dear life through the earthquake…but through it all He is still leading us forward changing us from glory into glory!
God bless y’all today.
In His Grip,
Pastor Mike
