Psalm chapter 77. I want to read through this chapter. There's 20 verses. We'll read
through it and then we'll try to look at it. It says in verse
1, I cry to God with my voice. All right, so this is someone
who's actually praying, isn't it? Obviously someone who looks
in hope, looks in trust, he looks to God for all of his help. He has trouble and he says, I
cried to God with my voice, even to God with my voice, and he
gave ear to me, he listened to me, he heard me. Now that's a
statement of something in the past, but he's going to apply
it as if it's present, and he's going to even look forward in
expectation to the future. So even though this psalm sounds
at times as being in the past, he's also talking in the present,
and he's talking in the future. But you can see that this is
a man of God. This is inspired by the Spirit of God. And he
speaks personally. He speaks personally. But he's
speaking of things that are common to all of God's people. So we
need to realize that this is an instruction to us from God's
own spirit. This man cried. He cried even
to God with his voice. He cried aloud. It was not something
he just kept in his heart. He cried aloud and God heard
him. What a stoop, what condescension.
Verse two says, in the day of my trouble, I sought the Lord.
My sore ran in the night and ceased not, my soul refused to
be comforted." Now he's talking about this day of trouble, and
it's a bad trouble. It's a trouble that moved him
to seek the Lord, and it was a trouble at night as well as
the day, and his soul he was prevented from receiving comfort
in his soul. So his soul is in unrest and
his soul won't receive comfort. That's a terrible situation,
isn't it? That's a situation of great grief, great trouble,
great grief, crying to God and seeking the Lord in this trouble
and yet, and even though God hears him, he doesn't have comfort. Okay, but notice he's still crying. Verse three, I remembered God
and was troubled. That seems like a contradiction,
doesn't it? Remembering God and being troubled.
But he goes on, I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed,
Selah. So this is completely overwhelming
trouble and grief. Verse four, thou holdest my eyes
waking, I am so troubled that I cannot speak. At one point he's crying, at
another point he doesn't know what to say. He's completely
without words because he's just so grieved by this trouble. And God is keeping him awake.
He can't sleep. You know what that's like. Verse
5. I have considered the days of
old, the years of ancient times. So now he's thinking back. He's
trying to draw comfort from the past. I call to remembrance my
song in the night. Something he remembers about
how he was singing. I commune with mine own spirit,
mine own heart. So now he's talking to himself.
He's trying to comfort himself. He's trying to bring comfort
to his soul. And my spirit made diligent search, so he wasn't
lazy. He was pulling from past experience
and past grace from God, from his time of joy, and he's trying
to bring comfort to himself, but he can't do it. He can't
make it happen. In verse seven, he asks a bunch
of questions, from here to verse nine. He says, will the Lord
cast off forever? And will he be favorable no more?
Is his mercy clean gone forever? Doth his promise fail forevermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious?
Hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies, Selah? So now
his trouble has gotten to the point where he's asking very
difficult questions. Verse 10, and I said, this is
my infirmity. So the things he was asking and
all of this grief, he says, it's my fault. But I will remember
the years of the right hand of the Most High. This is an ancient
time. The years of the right hand of
the Most High. Verse 13, I'm sorry, verse 11.
I will remember the works of the Lord. Surely I will remember
thy wonders of old. So now you see, you can hear
the turning point in this Psalm. He's remembering the works, he's
remembering God's wonders of old. The long time ago, the right
hand of the Most High. Verse 12, I will meditate also
of all thy work and talk of thy doings. So now he's going to
think about all of what God has done and he's going to tell,
he's going to talk about it. Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary. Who is so great a God as our
God? So now you see him, and he sounds
like he was in the slough of despond. Now he's beginning,
at least, to acknowledge God is great. There's none great
like him. There's none great like him.
Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary. Who is so great a God as our
God? So you can see here, he's not
talking, he's talking about his own trouble and grief, but he's
also including everyone who is the Lord's people, because he
includes them with that word, our God. Verse 14, thou art the
God that doest wonders. Thou has declared thy strength
among the people. So now he's instructing the church
now, isn't he? He's going to declare God's strength
among the people. Thou hast with thine arm redeemed
thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph, Selah. So here we're
getting to redemption. So now we're seeing him, the
works he's considering are God's work of redemption. Verse 16,
the waters saw thee, O God. The waters saw thee, they were
afraid. The depths also were troubled.
The clouds poured out water. The skies sent out a sound. Thine
arrows also went abroad. He's talking about these natural
things, the sea, the clouds, the waters, and how they were
moved by what God was doing, this redemption. The voice of
thy thunder was in the heaven. The lightnings lightened the
world. The earth trembled and shook.
So he was talking about God sending out his arrows and now he talks
about his lightning and thunder. Thy way is in the sea and thy
path is in the great waters and thy footsteps are not known.
Thou leadest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses
and Aaron. Okay, so you can tell in this
psalm that he's referring to things in the past He's referring
to things in the past that God has done for his people to deliver
them and to redeem them. And he's talking about his own
case. And he's using what God has done in the past to draw
comfort and strength for his own trouble and his own grief
of soul. And yet he's saying here in the
beginning that he couldn't find relief for all that. All right,
so let's consider this. Now, we've read it. Let's consider
this. This psalm is a godly man crying to God out of bitter grief
of soul, his soul's trouble. This is trouble on the inside. And to hear him crying like this
really surprises us. and yet it comforts us to hear
that a man, a godly man, who experiences this grief in his
soul and is unable to apply comfort to his own case, that's surprising.
A godly man who is unable to comfort himself, considering
the fact that he's praying, he's pouring out his soul, and he's
remembering God's works and God's greatness, and yet it didn't
bring him comfort. So in this, you can't help but
notice this man's humility and his honesty. His humility is
the humility of a man under the affliction of God. And we see
in this that God's people suffer. God's people suffer. And you've
probably seen those kinds of books, you know, why does God
Why do people suffer? Why do good people suffer? Or
something like that. But this is true in this psalm. God's
people suffer. And we see that their suffering
is real, that it's deep and personal, and it's on the inside. Because
his soul couldn't find comfort. In this psalm, we're given not
only God's account of the trouble and the grief of his people and
their soul sufferings, but we are given the nature of God,
the word of God, and the works and his provision for them. So he talks about this in a minute,
we'll get to that. And so therefore, this is a very
much needed portion of scripture, isn't it? Because it deals with
real problems that we all experience. If the Lord didn't tell us what
his favored people experience and how he deals with them in
their lives, we would despair in our own trouble, wouldn't
we? We would think, well, whatever I'm experiencing is not consistent
with the Lord's people. But here, obviously, this man
is crying to the Lord, and yet he's not comforted, and he's
complaining, and his spirit is overwhelmed, and he still experiences
all these things. So we would despair if we didn't
have things like this from scripture to teach us the way God deals
with his people and their experiences. And so what this psalm is, is
a great mercy of instruction to us, isn't it? It deals with
us on a level where we take great comfort We learn here that true
believers are honest with God about their troubling thoughts.
Even though their faith is unable to bring God's comfort to them,
they're honest with Him about that. They tell Him, they tell
Him, I can't make myself receive your comfort. They reach out
to Him for what's beyond them, beyond their ability. They can't
apply what's true to their own case. And it's clear that they're
dependent on God to apply it, to bring that comfort to themselves.
And so we learn to go to our great God and our Savior and
go to Him continuously, because this man did. Even though he
wasn't comforted, he didn't have anywhere else to go, so he went
to the Lord. We go to God, the Lord's people
go to Him continuously. They take every matter to Him,
even their own and especially their own spiritual weakness
and their soul's distress. And this is going to happen.
You can expect it. Trouble is going to come. Man
was born to trouble, Job says. And we're taught here in this
psalm that God hears, even though we may know His word and believe
Him and not feel any better, still the Lord hears us. And
that's comforting to know that, isn't it? Even though it's like
a child. You know, I have, let's see,
I've got four young grandchildren under the age of three. Well, I have, I can't count them
right now in my head. I think I have three that are
under the age of one. Is that right? Anyway, it doesn't matter.
The point is, when I watch them, their moms and dads trying to
figure out, what do I do? Do I pick them up? Do I let them
cry? All those things. That kids cry, and sometimes
it seems best to mom and dad to let them cry a little while,
or maybe a long time, because they understand that trouble
is part of living, and little children need to learn that life
isn't just going to go smooth and rosy all the time. How much
more, then, is God like that towards His children? He does
what's right, and we know He does what's right, and we cry
to Him, and yet sometimes He doesn't respond at all in the
way that we want him to. He doesn't take away the grief
and remove the trouble. So this man's words in this psalm
are very vulnerable in that sense, aren't they? He isn't a hypocrite. He calls on God and he calls
continually. Job asked that question, will
the hypocrite always call on God? But this man does not pretend
that everything is all right when it's not all right. Because
this is not all right. He tells his thoughts. He tells
us his thoughts so we can enter into that private nighttime place
where he is expressing these thoughts to God in prayer. His
soul, his trouble is in his soul. It's on the inside. It's one
thing to have trouble on the outside, you know. Look at these
sores on my body. It's another thing to have that
on the inside. It's worse, isn't it? Though he cries to God, and
even though the Lord hears him, he can't make God's comfort bring
comfort to himself. He is utterly dependent on God
to apply his own truth and comfort, and so he waits in this psalm. He waits on the Lord. He tells
us his thoughts. He lets us hear what he's thinking,
his reasoning. He lets us in on his most private
meditations and conversations with God. And he tells us his
thoughts in prayer, which he had in the quiet of the night,
when he should have been receiving rest, when the stresses of life
should have been lessened through the nighttime of sleep. But he
couldn't sleep because he was in distress, and God kept him
awake through these troubles. So he talks about that. He's
so troubled, he can't talk, he can't speak. And he can't make
God's word or his memory of God's works bring relief to himself,
and so he cries on. Now I want to look at a scripture
in the New Testament, a couple of scriptures, about this way
of coming to God so that we come continuously and almost to the
point where we would think we would annoy God, but he's not
annoyed. In fact, he instructs us to do
that. Look at Luke chapter 18. Luke chapter 18, Jesus gave this
parable, and you can see that this applies to all of God's
people. In Luke 18, verse 1, it says,
Jesus spake a parable to them to this end that men ought always
to pray and not to faint. In other words, don't faint in
prayer because you don't receive what you're asking for, which
in this case, in Psalm 77, is relief from soul trouble. He
says in Luke 18, verse 2, There was in a city a judge which feared
not God, neither regarded man. Had no fear of God and didn't
respect men. There was a widow in that city
and she came to this judge and said this, avenge me of my adversary. He would not for a while. But
afterward, he said within himself, hmm, though I fear not God, nor
regard man, yet because this widow troubleth me, annoys me,
I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. And the Lord said, Jesus, the
Lord said, hear what the unjust judge saith. how he was going
to help this woman, and she was troubling him, and he would be
wearied by that. He said, okay, I'm going to fix
this problem for myself. I'm going to address her needs.
And here's the lesson. Shall not God avenge his own
elect, which cry day and night to him, though he bear long with
them? though he bared long with them.
In other words, they come to him, they come to him, they come
to him, they come to him, they come to him. And so this was
spoken as a parable, and it says at the beginning here that men
ought always to pray and not to faint. That's called importunity. It means continuance to the point
of annoyance. because you have a need and only
God is going to help and can help you. And then there's another
example in Matthew chapter 15. I want to look at that with you
too. Just read through that. Matthew
chapter 15. This is a woman on earth who
came to the Lord Jesus because her daughter was grievously troubled
by a devil. It says in Matthew 15 verse 21,
then Jesus went thence and departed to the coast of Tyre and Sidon.
This is a notoriously Gentile and idolatrous place. And behold
a woman of Canaan, not a Jew, a Gentile. In fact, of Canaan,
which you know was populated with people who were the enemies
of Israel. So this woman of Canaan came out of the same coast and
cried to Jesus saying, have mercy on me, oh Lord, thou son of David. My daughter is grievously vexed
with the devil. So she calls him Lord, she calls
him Christ through this name, son of David. And she has a problem
that he alone is able to address, the problem of a devil in her
daughter. but he answered her not a word." Okay, so that's
the appearance that he's not answering. He didn't say anything. She doesn't know what he's thinking.
But notice the second part in verse 23, he answered her not
a word, and his disciples came and besought him, begged Jesus
saying, send her away for she crieth after us. But Jesus answered
and said, I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of
Israel. So the disciples said, Lord, get rid of her. She's bothering
us. So she must have been crying
for a while. And they didn't like her for some reason. They
had no regard for her, just like the judge, no regard for man,
no fear of God. So he said, I'm not sent. I'm
only sent to God's people, the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Of course, in that hearing at
that time, people mostly understood that to mean the people who were
born to Abraham physically. But that wasn't what he was talking
about. So let's go on, verse 25. Then came she and worshiped
him, saying, Lord, help me. So this is an opportunity, isn't
it? And her need made her submissive because only he could help her.
She knew that. This was a problem only God could
address. Only God in Christ. Only he could
take care of the devil in her daughter. And that's true of
us, that's true of our children too. That's why this passage
is so dear to us, isn't it? And so when she came and worshipped
him and said, Lord, help me, in verse 26, he answered and
said, it's not meat, it's not right to take the children's
bread and cast it to dogs. First he said, I'm only sent
to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, so they must be the
children, right? And it's not right to take their
bread and give it to dogs, meaning you, people like you, Okay, so that's very troubling,
isn't it? First, he didn't answer her.
Second, his disciples interceded against her to the Lord. Third,
he said, I'm only sent to the elect. And then fourth here,
after she worshiped him and asked him to help her, he said, it's
not right for me to give you bread. You're a dog and the bread
is meant for children. And she said, truth, truth, Lord. Yet the dogs eat of the crumbs
which fall from their master's table." So she owned that she
was a dog, and yet she said, there's a way, even yet, for
me to find mercy with you. It's because even little dogs
get crumbs under their master's table. And I'll just take a crumb,
a crumb of your mercy. And Jesus answered and said to
her, oh woman, Great is thy faith, be it unto thee even as thou
wilt. And her daughter was made whole
from that very hour." Do you see this? Jesus understands these
deep needs, doesn't he? And he doesn't always answer
right away. In fact, sometimes, like in the case of this woman,
he puts up what seemed to be impenetrable roadblocks and barriers,
but there's a purpose in that. It's that His grace in us would
cause us to continue to plead to Him, because it is His will
to save His elect, and like He said in Luke 18, shall not God
avenge His elect which call to Him night and day? And then he
said, though he bear long with them, I tell you that he will
avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of
Man comes, shall he find faith on the earth? So there's a connection
between faith and this continuance, this persistence in pleading
with God for what only Christ can give to us. And God's will
is to give it to us, but it is also God's will, and He works
in His way, often to leave us with a sense of despair, and
we cannot get comfort. And that's called several things. It's called depression and other
things. Now look at another text of Scripture in 2 Corinthians.
In 2nd Corinthians chapter 4, I want to also read this one
in this context. There's of course a lot of scripture
we can look at, but just look at this one here in 2nd Corinthians
chapter 4. In verse 7, the apostle Paul,
after telling us that God commanded the light through the gospel
to shine in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Christ. In verse 7 he says,
But we have this treasure, which is the gospel, this knowledge
of the glory of God in us. We have this treasure in earthen
vessels, that's our bodies. In this life, we live in an earthen
vessel, and there's a treasure in these vessels. It's the revelation
of Christ given to us in our heart by the gospel. He says,
we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of
the power may be of God and not of us." You see how God designs,
this is his way to show that the power is not of us, but it's
of God. The excellency of the power may
be of God, not of us. He says, we're troubled on every
side, yet not distressed. We're not at the end of our rope.
We're perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, not forsaken, cast
down, yet not destroyed, always bearing about in the body the
dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might
be made manifest in our body. For we which live are always
delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus
might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death works
in us, but life in you." So believers are put under trouble, and it's
personal, and it's internal, and it doesn't seem to be any
relief, even though they pray, even though they're able to know,
at least intellectually, the truth of Scripture, and call
to their memory God's works of old, and yet they can't make
that comfort apply to them until the Lord, in His grace, gives
it to them. And the apostle says that this working of God in the
lives of his people is so that they are in their lives, in this trouble,
Christ is made known in their mortal bodies. The dying of Jesus,
that the life of Christ might be made known in our mortal bodies.
That's what we experience. And this is for the Lord's Church.
That's what Paul said, it's for you. And then in chapter 1 of
2 Corinthians chapter 1, 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 2, I want to
read this to you. It says, grace be to you and
peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. So
here he establishes this, that grace comes from God our Father
and from the Lord Jesus Christ. That's where grace comes. Notice
in verse 3 of 2 Corinthians chapter 1, He says, blessed be God, even
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies
and the God of all comfort. God the Father is the God of
all comfort. Then he says in verse four, who
comforts us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort
them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves
are comforted of God. For as the sufferings of Christ
abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. Okay, you can go on reading about
that. So, you can see the way that the Lord works. Not only
as we read this Psalm, that this man was left in trouble of soul
and couldn't be comforted, even though he sought relief from
God in prayer and continuing in prayer. and calling to mind
what God's works were and God's greatness, and yet he was dependent
on God taking action. He continued, didn't he? And
that's the will of God that we continue in this way. So it's
personal, it's private, it's trouble, it's grief of soul,
it's honesty, he's confessing, And all of his fears and all
of his complaints here are poured out to God. And so we have this
liberty, don't we? We have this liberty, even by
God's example here. These sufferings are common amongst
the Lord's people. And in fact, he says in Hebrews
chapter 4 and verse 14, let me read that to you, Hebrews chapter
4 and verse 14, he says this. Seeing then that we have a great
high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of
God, let us hold fast our profession, for we have not a high priest
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted, like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. So the Lord is compassionate
because he knows trouble like no one ever knew trouble. And
in the next chapter of Hebrews 5, he says, for every high priest
taken from among men, Christ was, is ordained for men, this
is why God made him a high priest for us, in things pertaining
to God. He's our mediator, that he may
offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. That's comforting,
isn't it? Who can have compassion on the
ignorant, that's me, and on them that are out of the way, that's
me too, for that he himself also is compass, surrounded with infirmity. You see how the Lord is able
to comfort his people? Who but Christ experienced, who
like Christ experienced this soul trouble in the garden of
Gethsemane? He was a constant reproach in
his life of God hating scribes and Pharisees, self-righteous
men who hated God, who were the servants of Satan. And yet he
allowed himself to go through all that because it was obedience
to God in submission in order that by his sufferings we might
be delivered from those very things which he suffered. And
no one knew these sufferings like him. It says in Lamentations
chapter one and verse 12, has anyone ever seen affliction like
me? I'm gonna read that to you as
well. In Lamentations, in verse one, on chapter one rather, and
I'll begin reading at verse 12. He says this, I'll read through
verse 14. Is it nothing to you, all you
that pass by? Behold, and see if there be any
sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done to me wherewith the Lord
has afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. Now this is
truth, this is scripture, this is what he's saying. From above
hath he sent fire into my bones and it prevailed against them.
My bones, God's fire prevails, overcomes my bones. He has spread
a net for my feet. He has turned me back. He has
made me desolate and faint all the day. The yoke of my transgressions
is bound by his hand. They are wreathed and come up
upon my neck. He has made my strength to fall.
The Lord has delivered me into their hands from whom I am not
able to rise up. So that was spoken as the Lord
in prophecy of suffering more than any man. And in Isaiah 53,
it talks about him. His form was more marred than
any man. because of his sufferings. And
so the Lord is able to have compassion on them that are ignorant and
out of the way because he himself was compassed with these infirmities,
not the infirmity of committing sin or thinking sin or saying
something wrong, but the infirmity of bearing our infirmities in
his own body on the cross. The reason he was able to heal
people According to Matthew 8, verse 17, is that He Himself
took our infirmities, our plagues, and He bore them as His own.
He substituted Himself. He stooped under and bore our
burden of sin and the burden of all that sin brings from God's
justice in order to remove it from us that we might be comforted
and receive this comfort of His grace. If you're comforted, God
did that. If you're comforted in faith,
if you're comforted in your prayers to God, crying from these things,
the Lord did that. And if you're not, don't despair
because Jesus himself told us through example of this woman
in Matthew 15 and through the parable in Luke 18 and other
places, don't despair. God will avenge his elect. He will speedily Take care of
them. All right. Back to Psalm 77. So I want you to see in this
then that Christ is really all in the sufferings that this man
is describing here. Throughout this chapter of great
sufferings and supplications of importunate prayer, weakness
that's confessed and help that's needed and asked for, holding
God's nature and word as his only support without relief,
we can certainly see here that this applies to the Lord Jesus
Christ, suffering for our sins. Because He couldn't bear our
sufferings if He didn't bear the sufferings that we have.
And yet ours are so infinitely small compared to what He suffered
in order to remove our sufferings from us by removing our sin. So there's five sections that
I see in this psalm, and I want to give those to you. In verses
one through four, where it says, I cried to God with my voice,
even to God with my voice, and he gave ear to me. In the day
of my trouble, I sought the Lord. My soul ran in the night and
ceased not. My soul refused to be comforted.
I remembered God and was troubled. I complained. My spirit was overwhelmed. Thou holdest my eyes waking.
I am so troubled I cannot speak. Those four verses there, I see
that as trouble with no relief. a man of God troubled and having
no relief. So remember that. He cries to
God. He cries not once, but once and
again. God hears him. He seeks the Lord
in his trouble. Yet in his trouble, his trouble
is unabated. His trouble is unceasing. He
can't get comfort to his soul. His soul refuses comfort. He
remembers God. And though he remembers God,
he's troubled still. He complains. His spirit is overwhelmed. Sleep. Escapes him, the night
that normally would remove this stress and trouble, at least
lessen it, now enhances his grief because he can't sleep in his
trouble. God keeps his eyes open. God keeps him from sleeping.
He knows that his trouble is God sent because he says, thou
holdest my eyes waking. And his distress and his repeated
cries, his unceasing trouble, his inability to comfort his
soul, his trouble, though he remembers God in a sleepless
night, all of these add up to a climax, and he's so troubled
that he cannot speak. That's what these first four
verses are saying. And then the second section here,
it begins at verse five, and it includes those next two verses.
Here we're taught that believers call to mind God's works for
their comfort in trouble. He says in verse 5, I have considered
the days of old, the years of ancient times. I call to remembrance
my song in the night, and I commune with my own heart, and my spirit
made diligent search. So he's looking for relief, isn't
he? And so what does he do? He considers
things of old. I considered the days of old,
the years of ancient time, how God dealt with his people then,
how he dealt with me personally. I had a song. There was a time
where I was thankful, praising God. And I talk about what led
to that and what gave me that comfort and that ability to praise
and thank him. And I made a diligent search
You see, this is where he's calling to mind God's works and his ways
with his people. And then the third section, as
I see it at least, begins at verse seven and goes through
verse nine. Now this is a funny, I say funny, a strange section
of scripture here. It's a bunch of questions. And
these questions are really doubts expressed to God in prayer. But
it's very interesting here that the questions and the doubts
actually affirm, they actually confirm here the very thing the
question raises because they're impossible. And so they contradict
the question that's asked and so affirm the truth that he is
wanting. I want you to see this here.
Notice in verse seven, will the Lord cast off forever What's
the answer to that? Well, it's not answered here.
But the answer that scripture gives is no, no. No, in fact,
he says in Romans chapter 11, has God cast away his people? No, Paul says. He has not cast
away his people whom he has foreknown. He didn't cast away his people
which he foreknew. And then the next question in
verse seven, and will he be favorable no more? God has a favored people. It didn't seem like he was being
favorable to this man. So he asked the question, will
he be favorable no more? What's the answer? No. I mean,
yes, he will be favorable. So he's really asking it as if
he won't be, but the answer is yes, he will. Is His mercy clean
gone forever? No, no. Psalm 136 says, His mercy
endureth forever in every verse. Does His promise fail forevermore? None of God's promises fail.
You see what doubts do? You see what trouble does in
the soul? It causes us to doubt the very foundations, doesn't
it? Has God forgotten to be gracious? How could He? That's His nature.
Has he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah, think about these
things. Pause and consider. So what I
see here is that in these questions, this section, God's nature is
actually reaffirmed by impossible contradictions. It's impossible
that God would do the things suggested by these questions,
isn't it? Because it's contrary to his own nature. In fact, it's
God's glory that He does these things for sinners. He doesn't
cast them off, and He is favorable to them. His promises, none of
them fail. He's gracious to them, and He
has taken away His own anger and wrath, and He's always full
of tender mercies. It's His loving kindness towards
us that has saved us. So by expressing these questions
of doubt in impossible contradictions, it serves to establish the truth
of who God is. And then that brings assurance
because God acts in these ways favorably, gracious, and merciful
to his people because that's his nature. And therefore, our
salvation is grounded, it's based on, it's rooted, it's staked
to God himself. All right, so that's the third
section. And then the fourth section, I think, begins in verse
10, where he says, and I said, this is my infirmity. So he's
acknowledging here that the reason he's asking these questions is
because of his own weakness under trouble. His soul is so grieved
that he asked these questions. This is my infirmity. So in this
section, which runs to verse 15, what I see here is he admits
his weakness, And he admits that his own weakness is preventing
this comfort from entering into his soul and quieting him. And
so he returns. to considering God's wonders
for his people and the revelation of himself in the sanctuary and
his redemption. Let's read it, verse 10. I said,
this is my infirmity, but I will remember the years of the right
hand of the Most High. I will remember the works of
the Lord. Surely I will remember thy wonders of old. God did wonders
for his people to save them. I will meditate also of thy work.
I will talk and talk of thy doings. Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary.
That's where we learn, where God dwells. He dwells in heaven. He dwells in Christ. He dwells
in his people. And that's where we learn. We
learn by Christ in us. And who is so great a God as
our God? Verse 14. Thou art the God that
does doest wonders. Thou hast declared thy strength
among the people. He declared himself to be almighty.
Thou hast with thine own arm, thine arm, redeemed thy people,
the sons of Jacob and Joseph. So here, in all that he's calling
to mind now, after asking these questions, that indirectly, by
asking the negative, they affirm the positive. Because the negative
is impossible, therefore it has to be true. And here in these
verses, what he's doing is he admits his own weakness, and
yet he calls to mind God's wonders where he saved his people and
the revelation of himself in the sanctuary in his redemption
of them from their sins and their enemies. Then the next section
begins in verse 16 where he says, the water saw thee. So in this
section, it seems like he's drawing from the things that God did
through delivering Israel through the Red Sea, from the Jordan
River, and against their enemies, the Egyptians in the case of
the Red Sea. Let's read those. Verse 16, The waters saw thee,
O God, the waters saw thee. Now, the waters don't have eyes,
do they? But everything in creation is
submissive to God, isn't it? And there's one property of water
that's just It's against the nature of water to open up the
sea to divide itself. It can't do that, can it? Yet
by God's command, that's exactly what happened. What didn't seem
possible, what was contrary to the normal use by creation of
that thing, was turned by God's grace and power to serve his
purpose, to deliver his people. And so that's what all these
things are telling us. And think of the Red Sea and the Jordan
River divided by God. The waters saw thee, O God, the
waters saw thee. They were afraid. The depths
also were troubled. Not just the surface, but clear
to the depths. Because Christ is God and Lord
of all things. Even things that are in all deep
places, it says in Philippians 2 verse 10 and other places.
The clouds poured out water. The skies sent out a sound. Thine
arrows also went abroad. God's arrows are represented
by lightning, which is very swift, very powerful, visible, and undeniable. It's evident. The voice of thy
thunder was in the heaven. Lightning's lighted the world.
The earth trembled and shook. When God saved his people, the
earth shook because God made known the power of his salvation. Think of Egypt again, how God
brought Israel out of Egypt by the blood of the Lamb through
the Red Sea and so on. He says in verse 19, thy way
is in the sea, thy path is in the great waters, thy footsteps
are not known. Have you ever gone to the sea? Have you seen all those footprints
in the sea? No. How about the paths where the
ships go? No. Don't see that either. Why? Because
it doesn't leave evidence of something having been there before.
So God's way is in the sea. We can't know by observation
what God is going to do. But He does. He acts according
to His nature and His ways towards His people. Finally, verse 20,
"...they'll let us thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses
and Aaron." So here we see in these two men, Moses and Aaron,
a picture of Christ as our great shepherd and God leading his
people even though they were in such trouble and grief of
soul. So that's an overview of the
psalm and maybe next time I'll be able to give you some more
detail as we go through it verse by verse. Okay, let's pray. Father,
thank you for giving us this comfort, whether we're in trouble
now or in advance of trouble that we shall experience. In
any trouble, we know that you are the God of all comfort and
that you give us this comfort through our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whose redeeming blood we were delivered from all of our enemies.
We know that he has obtained for us eternal salvation. And
yet we know that the redemption that he obtained by his precious
blood must be applied to us. And this occurs when it seems
good to you. Until that time, we're no different
than others. We're evidently, in our experience,
slaves to our sin and to the enemies that our sins bring.
And yet, in your mercy, you deliver your people in your own time
by sending your spirit into their hearts so that they see your
redemption by Christ Jesus, our Lord. And cause us then, Lord,
by this, to know your comfort and to give you praise and thanks.
Give us this song in the night of our sorrows and help us to
know that you bend creation in order to deliver your people.
You don't let fire or water or any other enemy of their souls
harm them, but you bring them even out of death itself. In
Jesus' name we pray, amen. you