3 I will keep God in memory, with sounds of grief; my thoughts are troubled, and my spirit is overcome. (Selah.)
From the end of the earth will I send up my cry to you, when my heart is overcome: take me to the rock which is over-high for me.
For the arrows of the Ruler of all are present with me, and their poison goes deep into my spirit: his army of fears is put in order against me.
For this cause I am in fear before him, my thoughts of him overcome me. For God has made my heart feeble, and my mind is troubled before the Ruler of all.
For the fear of God kept me back, and because of his power I might not do such things.
Why are you crushed down, O my soul? and why are you troubled in me? put your hope in God; for I will again give him praise who is my help and my God.
Why are you crushed down, O my soul? and why are you troubled in me? put your hope in God, for I will again give him praise who is my help and my God.
For my soul is full of evils, and my life has come near to the underworld. I am numbered among those who go down into the earth; I have become like a man for whom there is no help: My soul is among the dead, like those in the underworld, to whom you give no more thought; for they are cut off from your care. You have put me in the lowest deep, even in dark places. The weight of your wrath is crushing me, all your waves have overcome me. (Selah.) You have sent my friends far away from me; you have made me a disgusting thing in their eyes: I am shut up, and not able to come out. My eyes are wasting away because of my trouble: Lord, my cry has gone up to you every day, my hands are stretched out to you. Will you do works of wonder for the dead? will the shades come back to give you praise? (Selah.) Will the story of your mercy be given in the house of the dead? will news of your faith come to the place of destruction? May there be knowledge of your wonders in the dark? or of your righteousness where memory is dead? But to you did I send up my cry, O Lord; in the morning my prayer came before you. Lord, why have you sent away my soul? why is your face covered from me? I have been troubled and in fear of death from the time when I was young; your wrath is hard on me, and I have no strength. The heat of your wrath has gone over me; I am broken by your cruel punishments. They are round me all the day like water; they have made a circle about me. You have sent my friends and lovers far from me; I am gone from the memory of those who are dear to me.
My days are wasted like smoke, and my bones are burned up as in a fire. My heart is broken; it has become dry and dead like grass, so that I give no thought to food. Because of the voice of my sorrow, my flesh is wasted to the bone. I am like a bird living by itself in the waste places; like the night-bird in a waste of sand. I keep watch like a bird by itself on the house-top. My haters say evil of me all day; those who are violent against me make use of my name as a curse. I have had dust for bread and my drink has been mixed with weeping: Because of your passion and your wrath, for I have been lifted up and then made low by you. My days are like a shade which is stretched out; I am dry like the grass. But you, O Lord, are eternal; and your name will never come to an end. You will again get up and have mercy on Zion: for the time has come for her to be comforted. For your servants take pleasure in her stones, looking with love on her dust. So the nations will give honour to the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth will be in fear of his glory: When the Lord has put up the walls of Zion, and has been been in his glory; When he has given ear to the prayer of the poor, and has not put his request on one side. This will be put in writing for the coming generation, and the people of the future will give praise to the Lord. For from his holy place the Lord has seen, looking down on the earth from heaven; Hearing the cry of the prisoner, making free those for whom death is ordered; So that they may give out the name of the Lord in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem; When the peoples are come together, and the kingdoms, to give worship to the Lord. He has taken my strength from me in the way; he has made short my days. I will say, O my God, take me not away before my time; your years go on through all generations: In the past you put the earth on its base, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will come to an end, but you will still go on; they all will become old like a coat, and like a robe they will be changed: But you are the unchanging One, and your years will have no end. The children of your servants will have a safe resting-place, and their seed will be ever before you.
Because of this my spirit is overcome; and my heart is full of fear. I keep in mind the early days of the past, giving thought to all your acts, even to the work of your hands.
Be not a cause of fear to me: you are my safe place in the day of evil.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Psalms 77
Commentary on Psalms 77 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
PSALM 77
Ps 77:1-20. To Jeduthun—(See on Ps 39:1, title). In a time of great affliction, when ready to despair, the Psalmist derives relief from calling to mind God's former and wonderful works of delivering power and grace.
1. expresses the purport of the Psalm.
2. his importunacy.
my sore ran … night—literally, "my hand was spread," or, "stretched out" (compare Ps 44:20).
ceased not—literally, "grew not numb," or, "feeble" (Ge 45:26; Ps 38:8).
my soul … comforted—(compare Ge 37:35; Jer 31:15).
3-9. His sad state contrasted with former joys.
was troubled—literally, "violently agitated," or disquieted (Ps 39:6; 41:5).
my spirit was overwhelmed—or, "fainted" (Ps 107:5; Jon 2:7).
4. holdest … waking—or, "fast," that I cannot sleep. Thus he is led to express his anxious feelings in several earnest questions indicative of impatient sorrow.
10. Omitting the supplied words, we may read, "This is my affliction—the years of," &c., "years" being taken as parallel to affliction (compare Ps 90:15), as of God's ordering.
11, 12. He finds relief in contrasting God's former deliverances. Shall we receive good at His hands, and not evil? Both are orderings of unerring mercy and unfailing love.
13. Thy way … in the sanctuary—God's ways of grace and providence (Ps 22:3; 67:2), ordered on holy principles, as developed in His worship; or implied in His perfections, if "holiness" be used for "sanctuary," as some prefer translating (compare Ex 15:11).
14-20. Illustrations of God's power in His special interventions for His people (Ex 14:1-31), and, in the more common, but sublime, control of nature (Ps 22:11-14; Hab 3:14) which may have attended those miraculous events (Ex 14:24).
15. Jacob and Joseph—representing all.
19. waters … , footsteps—may refer to His actual leading the people through the sea, though also expressing the mysteries of providence.