Psalms 77 commentary

Days of trouble must be days of prayer; when God seems to have withdrawn from us, we must seek him till we find him. In the day of his trouble the psalmist did not seek for the diversion of business or amusement, but he sought God, and his favor and grace. Those that are under trouble of mind, must pray it away. He pored upon the trouble; the methods that should have relieved him did but increase his grief. When he remembered God, it was only the Divine justice and wrath. His spirit was overwhelmed, and sank under the load. But let not the remembrance of the comforts we have lost, make us unthankful for those that are left. Particularly he called to remembrance the comforts with which he supported himself in former sorrows. Here is the language of a sorrowful, deserted soul, walking in darkness; a common case even among those that fear the Lord, Isa 50:10. Nothing wounds and pierces like the thought of God's being angry. God's own people, in a cloudy and dark day, may be tempted to make wrong conclusions about their spiritual state, and that of God's kingdom in the world. But we must not give way to such fears. Let faith answer them from the Scripture. The troubled fountain will work itself clear again; and the recollection of former times of joyful experience often raises a hope, tending to relief. Doubts and fears proceed from the want and weakness of faith. Despondency and distrust under affliction, are too often the infirmities of believers, and, as such, are to be thought upon by us with sorrow and shame. When, unbelief is working in us, we must thus suppress its risings.

The remembrance of the works of God, will be a powerful remedy against distrust of his promise and goodness; for he is God, and changes not. God's way is in the sanctuary. We are sure that God is holy in all his works. God's ways are like the deep waters, which cannot be fathomed; like the way of a ship, which cannot be tracked. God brought Israel out of Egypt. This was typical of the great redemption to be wrought out in the fulness of time, both by price and power. If we have harboured doubtful thoughts, we should, without delay, turn our minds to meditate on that God, who spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, that with him, he might freely give us all things.

PSALM 77

Whoever was the penman of this psalm, the Holy Spirit seems, by his mouth, to have dictated a common form of prayer for the Church in her afflictions, that even under the most cruel persecutions the faithful might not fail to address their prayers to heaven. It is not the private grief of some particular individual which is here expressed, but the lamentations and groanings of the chosen people. The faithful celebrate the deliverance which had been once wrought for them, and which was a testimony of God’s everlasting grace, to animate and strengthen themselves to engage in the exercise of prayer with the greater earnestness.

To the chief musician upon Jeduthun. A Psalm of Asaph.

Psalm 77:1-6

1. My voice came to God, and I cried: my voice came to God, and he heard me. 2. I sought the: Lord in the day of my trouble: my hand was stretched out in the night, and remitted not my soul refused to be comforted. 3. I will remember God, and will be troubled: I will meditate, and my spirit will be oppressed [or overwhelmed] with sorrow. Selah. 4. Thou hast held the watches of my eyes: I am troubled, and will not speak. 5. I have recounted the days of old, the years of ancient times. 6. I will call to remembrance my song in the night: I will commune with my heart, and my spirit will search diligently.

1. My voice came to God, and I cried. This is not a mere complaint, as some interpreters explain it, denoting the surprise which the people of God felt in finding that he who hitherto had been accustomed to grant their requests shut his ears to them, and was called upon in vain. It appears more probable that the prophet either speaks of the present feeling of his mind, or else calls to remembrance how he had experienced that God was inclined and ready to hear his prayers. There can be no doubt that he describes the greatness of the sorrow with which he was afflicted; and, in nay opinion, he denotes a continued act both by the past and the future tenses of the verbs. In the first place, he declares that he did not foolishly rend the air with his cries, like many who pour forth bitter cries without measure and at random under their sorrows; but that he addressed his speech to God when necessity constrained him to cry. The copula and, which is joined to the verb cried, should be resolved into the adverb of time when, in this way, When I cried my voice came to God At the same time, he also shows, that although he had been constrained often to reiterate his cries, he had not given over persevering in prayer. What is added immediately after is intended for the confirmation of his faith: And he heard me. The copula and, as in many other places, is here put instead of the causal adverb for. The meaning is, that he encouraged himself to cry to God, from the consideration that it was God’s usual manner to show his favor and mercy towards him.

PSALM 77

Psa 77:1-20. To Jeduthun--(See on Psa 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 Psa 44:20).

ceased not--literally, "grew not numb," or, "feeble" (Ge 45:26; Psa 38:8).

my soul ... comforted--(compare Ge 37:35; Jr 31:15).

3-9. His sad state contrasted with former joys.

was troubled--literally, "violently agitated," or disquieted (Psa 39:6; 41:5).

my spirit was overwhelmed--or, "fainted" (Psa 107:5; Jon 2:7).

10. Omitting the supplied words, we may read, "This is my affliction--the years of," &c., "years" being taken as parallel to affliction (compare Psa 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 (Psa 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 (Psa 22:11-14; Ha 3:14) which may have attended those miraculous events (Ex 14:24).

I cried unto God - The repetition here marks the earnestness of the psalmist's soul; and the word voice shows that the Psalm was not the issue of private meditation, but of deep mental trouble, which forced him to speak his griefs aloud.

My sore ran in the night, and ceased not - This is a most unaccountable translation; the literal meaning of ידי נגרה yadi niggerah, which we translate my sore ran, is, my hand was stretched out, i.e., in prayer. He continued during the whole night with his voice and hands lifted up to God, and ceased not, even in the midst of great discouragements.

My spirit was overwhelmed - As the verb is in the hithpaeI conjugation, the word must mean my spirit was overpowered in itself. It purposed to involve itself in this calamity. I felt exquisitely for my poor suffering countrymen. "The generous mind is not confined at home;

It spreads itself abroad through all the public,

And feels for every member of the land."

Thou holdest mine eyes waking - Literally, thou keepest the watches of mine eyes - my grief is so great that I cannot sleep.

I am so troubled that I cannot speak - This shows an increase of sorrow and anguish. At first he felt his misery, and called aloud. He receives more light, sees and feels his deep wretchedness, and then his words are swallowed by excessive distress. His woes are too big for utterance. "Small troubles are loquacious; the great are dumb." Curae leves loquuntur; ingentes stupent.

I have considered the days of old - חשבתי chishshabti, I have counted up; I have reckoned up the various dispensations of thy mercy in behalf of the distressed, marked down in the history of our fathers.

I call to remembrance my song in the night - I do not think that נגינתי neginathi means my song. We know that נגינת neginath signifies some stringed musical instrument that was struck with a plectrum, but here it possibly might be applied to the Psalm that was played on it. But it appears to me rather that the psalmist here speaks of the circumstances of composing the short ode contained in the seventh, eighth, and ninth verses; which it is probable he sung to his harp as a kind of dirge, if indeed he had a harp in that distressful captivity.

My spirit made diligent search - The verb חפש chaphas signifies such an investigation as a man makes who is obliged to strip himself in order to do it; or, to lift up coverings, to search fold by fold, or in our phrase, to leave no stone unturned. The Vulgate translates: "Et scopebam spiritum meum." As scopebam is no pure Latin word, it may probably be taken from the Greek σκοπεω scopeo, "to look about, to consider attentively." It is however used by no author but St. Jerome; and by him only here and in Isa 14:23 : And I will sweep it with the besom of destruction; scopabo eam in scopa terens. Hence we see that he has formed a verb from a noun scope, a sweeping brush or besom; and this sense my old Psalter follows in this place, translating the passage thus: And I sweped my gast: which is thus paraphrased: "And swa I sweped my gaste, (I swept my soul), that is, I purged it of all fylth."

Will the Lord cast off for ever? - Will there be no end to this captivity? Has he not said, "Turn, ye backsliders; for I am married unto you: I will heal your backsliding, and love you freely." Will he then be favorable no more? Thus the psalmist pleads and reasons with his Maker.

For evermore? - לדר ודר ledor vador, "to generation and generation." From race to race. Shall no mercy be shown even to the remotest generation of the children of the offenders?

Hath God - in anger shut up his tender mercies? - The tender mercies of God are the source whence all his kindness to the children of men flows. The metaphor here is taken from a spring, the mouth of which is closed, so that its waters can no longer run in the same channel; but, being confined, break out, and take some other course. Wilt thou take thy mercy from the Israelites, and give it to some other people? This he most certainly did. He took it from the Jews, and gave it to the Gentiles.

And I said, This is my infirmity - The Hebrew is very obscure, and has been differently translated: ואמר חלותי היא שנות ימימן עליון vaomar challothi hi shenoth yemin elyon; "And I said, Is this my weakness? Years the right hand of the Most High." If חלותי challothi comes from חלה chalah, and signifies to pray, as De Dieu has thought, then his translation may be proper: Precari hoc meum est; mutare dextram Altissimi. "To pray, this my business; to change the right hand of the Most High." I can do nothing else than pray; God is the Ruler of events. Mr. N. M. Berlin translates, "Dolere meum hoc est; mutare est dextra Altissimi." To grieve is my portion; to change (my condition) belongs to the right hand of the Most High. Here שנות shenoth, which we translate years, is derived from שנה shanah, to change. This latter appears to me the better translation; the sum of the meaning is, "I am in deep distress; the Most High alone can change my condition." The old Psalter, following the Vulgate, - Et dixi, Nunc coepi: haec mutatio dexterae Excelsi, - translates: And I said, Now I began this chaunchyng of ryght hand of hihegh (highest) Alswa say, God sal noght kast al man kynde fra his sigt with outen ende: for nowe I began to understand the syker; (the truth); that man sal be brogt to endles; and thar fore, now I said, that this chaunchyng fra wreth to mercy, is thrugh Ihu Criste that chaunges me fra ill to gude, fra noy to gladnes.

Once more, Coverdale, who is followed by Matthews and Becke, takes the passage by storm: "At last I came to this poynte, that I thought; O why art thou so foolish? The right hande of the Most Hyest can chaunge all."

I will remember the works of the Lord - I endeavor to recollect what thou hast done in behalf of our fathers in past times; in no case hast thou cast them off, when, with humbled hearts, they sought thy mercy.

Thy way - is in the sanctuary - See Psa 73:17. I must go to the sanctuary now to get comfort, as I went before to get instruction. What a mercy to have the privilege of drawing near to God in his ordinances! How many doubts have been solved, fears dissipated, hearts comforted, darknesses dispelled, and snares broken, while waiting on God in the means of grace!

Some understand the words, Thy way is in holiness - all thy dispensations, words, and works are holy, just and true. And as is thy majesty, so is thy mercy! O, who is so great a God as our God?

Thou - doest wonders - Every act of God, whether in nature or grace, in creation or providence, is wondrous; surpasses all power but his own; and can be comprehended only by his own wisdom. To the general observer, his strength is most apparent; to the investigator of nature, his wisdom; and to the genuine Christian, his mercy and love.

The son. of Jacob and Joseph - "The sons which Jacob begat and Joseph nourished." says the Chaldee. The Israelites are properly called the sons of Joseph as well as of Jacob, seeing Ephraim and Manasseh, his sons, were taken into the number of the tribes. All the latter part of this Psalm refers to the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt; and the psalmist uses this as an argument to excite the expectation of the captives. As God delivered our fathers from Egypt, so we may expect him to deliver us from Chaldea. It required his arm to do the former, and that arm is not shortened that it cannot save.

The waters saw thee - What a fine image! He represents God approaching the Red Sea; and the waters, seeing him, took fright, and ran off before him, dividing to the right and left to let him pass. I have not found any thing more majestic than this.

The depths also were troubled - Every thing appears here to have life and perception. The waters see the Almighty, do not wait his coming, but in terror flee away! The deeps, uncovered, are astonished at the circumstance; and as they cannot fly, they are filled with trouble and dismay. Under the hand of such a poet, inanimate nature springs into life; all thinks, speaks, acts; all is in motion, and the dismay is general.

The clouds poured out water - It appears from this that there was a violent tempest at the time of the passage of the Red Sea. There was a violent storm of thunder, lightning, and rain. These three things are distinctly marked here.

1. "The skies sent out a sound:" the Thunder.

2. "Thine arrows went abroad:" the Lightning.

3. "The clouds poured out water:" the Rain. In the next verse we have,

4. An Earthquake: "The earth trembled and shook," Psa 77:18.

Thy way is in the sea - Thou didst walk through the sea, thy path was through a multitude of waters.

Thy footsteps are not known - It was evident from the effects that God was there: but his track could not be discovered; still he is the Infinite Spirit, without parts, limits, or passions. No object of sense.

Thou leddest thy people like a flock - This may refer to the pillar of cloud and fire. It went before them, and they followed it. So, in the eastern countries, the shepherd does not drape, but leads, his flock. He goes before them to find them pasture, and they regularly follow him.

By the hand of Moses and Aaron - They were God's agents; and acted, in civil and sacred things, just as directed by the Most High.

Night - Which to others was a time of rest and quietness.

Troubled - Yea, the thoughts of God were now a matter of trouble, because he was angry with me. Overwhelmed - So far was I from finding relief.

Waking - By continual grief.

The days - The mighty works of God in former times.

My song - The mercies of God vouchsafed to me, and to his people, which have obliged me to sing his praises, not only in the day, but also by night.

Cut off - His peculiar people.

I said - These suspicions of God's faithfulness proceed from the weakness of my faith. The years - The years wherein God hath done great and glorious works, which are often ascribed to God's right - hand.

In holiness - God is holy and just, and true in all his works.

Afraid - And stood still, as men astonished, do.

Poured - When the Israelites passed over the sea. Arrows - Hail - stones or lightnings.

Not known - Because the water returned and covered them.

Leddest - First through the sea, and afterwards through the wilderness, with singular care and tenderness, as a shepherd doth his sheep.

1 I Cried unto God with my voyce: even unto God with my voyce, and he gave ear unto me .

This Verse seems to contain the sum of the whole Psalm, consisting of two parts, to wit, his earnest Cry to God in his deep distress; and God's gracious return to his Prayers, by supporting him under them, and giving him assurance of a good issue out of them: of both which he speaks more distinctly and particularly, of the first, from v. 2. to v. 10. of the latter thence to the end.

2 In the day of my trouble I sought the LORD; my fore ran in the night , and ceased not: my soul refused to be comforted .

The hand in the Hebrew Tongue, and Scripture use, is oft pu[illegible: 1+ letters] for a blow or stroke given by the hand. Heb. My hand or hands (the singular number being frequently put for the plural) flowed or poured forth, (i. e.) Spread abroad to God in Prayer. This Phrase he useth rather, than were stretched out, which is frequent in like Cases, to imply that his Case was low and almost desperate, his Spirits and strength quite gone, so that he was not able to stretch them out, as he had done.

Which to others was a time of rest and quietness, but to me of Torment.

I rejected all those Consolations, which either my Friends, or my own Mind suggested to me.

Marginal references: Heb. my hand.

3 I remembred God, and was troubled . I complained , and my spirit was overwhelmed , Selah.

Yea the thoughts of God, and of his infinite Power and Truth, and Goodness, which used to be very sweet and Comfortable to me, were now matter of Terror and Trouble, because they were all ingaged against me, and God himself my onely Friend, was now very Angry with me, and become mine Enemy.

Unto God in Prayer.

So far was I from finding relief by my Complaints, that they increased my Misery.

4 Thou holdest mine eyes waking h: I am so troubled that I cannot speak .

By those sharp and continual Griefs, and those perplexing and tormenting Thoughts and Cares, which from time to time thou stirrest up in me.

The greatness of my sorrows stupefie my Mind, and make me both Lifeless and unable to speak; nor can any Words sufficiently express the Extremity of my Misery.

5 I have considered the days of old , the years of ancient times.

If by that means I could get any Comfort.

(i. e.) The mighty works of God done for his People in former times. Days are put for Events done in them, as Psal. 37. 13. [illegible: 1 word] 137. 7. Obad. v. 12. Mich. 7. 4.

Marginal references: Psal. 143. 5.; Heb. the [illegible: 1 word] of Ages. Gr. eternal years.

6 I call to remembrance my song in the night : I commune with mine own heart, and my spirit made diligent scarch .

The many and great Mercies and Favours of God vouchsafed by him to me, and to his People, which have obliged me to adore him, and sing his Praises not onely in the day, the time appointed for that work, but also by night, as oft as they come into my Mind.

What should be the cause of this strange and vast Alteration, and how these [illegible: 1+ letters]ore Calamities could come from the hand of so gracious ▪ and merciful a God, as ours is, and what might be expected as to their continuance or removal.

7 Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more?

His peculiar and chosen People? This doth not seem to agree; Either, with God's Nature, or with that everlasting Covenant which he hath made with them.

8 Is his mercy clean gone for ever ? doth his promise fail for evermore ?

Are all the stores of his Mercy quire spent? Doth he now cease to be, what he hath styled himself, the Lord gracious and merciful, Long-suffering, and abundant in Goodness?

Will he never more make good those gracious Promises, upon which he hath commanded us to hope?

Marginal references: Heb▪ to Ge [illegible: 1+ letters]tion and Generation.

9 Hath God forgotten to be gracious ! hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies ? Selah.

Because he hath so long disused it.

So as they can never flow forth, no not to his own People.

10 And I said , This is my infirmity : but I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High .

I thus answered these Objections:

These suspicions of God's Faithfulness and Goodness, proceed from the weakness of my Faith, and from the mistake of a diseased Mind.

Which words may be understood out of the following Verse, as other words frequently are in like Cases.

The years wherein God hath done great and glorious Works, which are oft asscribed to God's right hand, as Psal. 17. 7. and 20. 6. and 45. 4. and 118. 15. But the Word rendred years, doth also signifie changing, and accordingly this Verse is by other learned Interpreters, and may well be rendred otherwise without any such Supplement as is in our Translation, thus, And I said; This is my Affliction or Grievanc[illegible: 1+ letters], (The sum of all, and the chief cause of my Trouble and Anxiety is this) the Change of the right hand of the most High, that, that right hand which formerly hath done such great and wonderful things for his People, is at this time not onely hid in God's Bosom and not drawn forth for their defence, but is also stretched forth against them, and is the principal Cause of all our present Miseries. I could bear the malice and rage of our Enemies, from whom we could not expect better things, but that our gracious and Covenanted God should forsake and persecute his own People, this is that which makes it intolerable.

Marginal references: Psal. 102. 24. 25.

11 I will remember the works of the LORD surely I will remember thy wonders of old .

And yet upon second and serious Thoughts, of what God had formerly done for his People, many times far above their Expectations, I will take Comfort in Remembrance of them, because God is still the same that he was, in Power and Goodness, and Love to his People, and therefore will pity and help us in this present Calamity, as he hath oft done in others of the same Nature.

13 Thy way , O God, is in the sanctuary : who is so great a God as our God ?

(i. e.) Thy doings, or the Course of thy Providence, which is oft called God's way, the various Methods and Causes of thy dealings with thy People.

Is there contained and declared. As the Prosperity of wicked men, so also the grievous Calamities of God's People, are great Riddles and slumbling Blocks to the ignorant, and ungodly World, but a full and satisfactory Resolution of them, may be had from God's Sanctuary, as is observed in the former Case, by this same Asaph, Psal. 73. 16, 17. and here in the latter. Or, is in Holiness. So the Sence is, God is holy and just, and true in all his Works; yea, even in his Judgments upon his own People, as will Evidently appear from the issue of them.

And although our God at present suspends his Power, and doth not put it forth to deliver his People, out of the hands of their Idolatrous Enemies, who thence take occasion to Blaspheme his Name, and to exalt their Idol-God's above him, yet he is still infinitely Superior in Power, both to them and to their Gods, and can, and will in his due time, rescue his People from them.

Marginal references: Psal. 68. 24. &c.

14 Thou art the God that doest wonders, thou hast declared thy strength among the people .

By the mighty Effects of it here following.

15 Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people , the sons of Jacob and Joseph , Selah.

To wit, out of Egypt after a long and hard Bondage. Which he here mentions to strengthen his Faith in their present Captivity.

Whom he mentions; Partly, as a most Eminent Portion of the sons of Iacob, branched forth into two numerous Tribes: Partly, because the sons of Ioseph were born in Egypt, which Iacob's other Sons were not: and Partly, because he laid the Foundation of that Redemption, by bringing them into Egypt, and preserving and nourishing Iacob and his Sons there, as a little Child is nourished, as it is expressed in the Hebrew Text, Gen. 47. 12. In which respect he was a second Father to them, and they might well be called his Sons; without whose Care (to speak humanely) there had been no such Redemption, nor People to be redeemed.

Marginal references: Exod. 6. 6.

16 The waters saw thee , O God, the waters saw thee: they were afraid ; the depths also were troubled.

They felt the visible Effects of thy powerful Presence.

And stood still as Men, or Beasts astonished commonly do.

Marginal references: Exod. 14. 21. Psal▪ 114. 3. [illegible: 1 word] ▪ 3. 8. &c.

11 The clouds poured out water , the skies sent out a [illegible: 1+ letters]ound: thine arrows also went abroad l.

When the Israelites passed over the Sea: In respect whereof the Israelites are said to have been baptized in the Cloud (i. e. Sprinkled with water, poured forth from the Clouds) and in the Sea, 1 Cor. 10. 2.

Either Hall-stones, or rather, Lightnings or Thunder-bolts, which are called God's Arrows, Psal. 18. 14. & 144. 6.

Marginal references: Heb. The [illegible: 1 word] were [illegible: 1 word] forth [illegible: 1 word] waters.

18 The voyce of thy thunder was in the heaven, the lightnings lightned the world, the earth trembled and shook .

This Tempest is not particularly recorded in its Proper place, yet it may well be gathered from what is said, Exod. 14. 24, 25. and is in Effect acknowledged by Iosephus in his History. And this is no new thing in Scripture, for some Circumstances of History, omitted in the first and properest places, to be supplied in following Passages; whereof instances have been already given.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1+ letters]eb▪ In the [illegible: 1 word] So Gr.; [illegible: 1 word]. 97. 4.

19 Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known .

Or rather; Was at that time: Thou didst walk and lead thy People in untrodden Paths.

Because the waters suddenly returned and covered them.

20 Thou leddest thy people like a flock , by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

First through the Sea, and afterwards through the vast howling Wilderness to Canaan.

With singular Care and Tenderness, as a Shepherd doth his sheep. And therefore I hope thou wilst take Care of thy poor dispersed and distressed flock, and bring them once again into their own Land.

Marginal references: Exod. 14. 19. [illegible: 1 word] ▪ [illegible: 1+ letters]8. 52. [illegible: 1 word] ▪ 12. 13.

Comfort Derived from the History of the Past during Years of Affliction

“The earth feared and became still,” says Psa 76:9; the earth trembled and shook, says Psa 77:19 : this common thought is the string on which these two Psalms are strung. In a general way it may be said of Psalms 77, that the poet flees from the sorrowful present away into the memory of the years of olden times, and consoles himself more especially with the deliverance out of Egypt, so rich in wonders. As to the rest, however, it remains obscure what kind of national affliction it is which drives him to find his refuge from the God who is now hidden in the God who was formerly manifest. At any rate it is not a purely personal affliction, but, as is shown by the consolation sought in the earlier revelations of power and mercy in connection with the national history, an affliction shared in company with the whole of his people. In the midst of this hymnic retrospect the Psalm suddenly breaks off, so that Olshausen is of opinion that it is mutilated, and Tholuck that the author never completed it. But as Psalms 77 and Ps 81 show, it is the Asaphic manner thus to close with an historical picture without the line of thought recurring to its commencement. Where our Psalm leaves off, Hab. 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 expression and figures which are borrowed from our Psalm, he then beholds a fresh deed of redemption by which that of old is eclipsed. Thus much, at least, is therefore very clear, that Psalms 77 is older than Habakkuk. Hitzig certainly calls the psalmist the reader and imitator of Hab. 3; ; and Philippson considers even the mutual relationship to be accidental and confined to a general similarity of certain expressions. We, however, believe that we have proved in our Commentary on Habakkuk (1843), S. 118-125, that the mutual relationship is one that is deeply grounded in the prophetic type of Habakkuk, and that the Psalm is heard to re-echo in Habakkuk, not Habakkuk in the language of the psalmist; just as in general the Asaphic Psalms are full of boldly sketched outlines to be filled in by later prophetic writers.  We also now further put this question: how was it possible for the gloomy complaint of Psalms 77, which is turned back to the history of the past, to mould itself after Hab. 3, that joyous looking forward into a bright and blessed future? Is not the prospect in Hab. 3 rather the result of that retrospect in Psalms 77, the confidence in being heard which is kindled by this Psalm, the realizing as present, in the certainty of being heard, of a new deed of God in which the deliverances in the days of Moses are antitypically revived?

More than this, viz., that the Psalm is older than Habakkuk, who entered upon public life in the reign of Josiah, or even as early as in the reign of Manasseh, cannot be maintained. For it cannot be inferred from Psa 77:16 and Psa 77:3, compared with Gen 37:35, that one chief matter of pain to the psalmist was the fall of the kingdom of the ten tribes which took place in his time. Nothing more, perhaps, than the division of the kingdom which had already taken place seems to be indicated in these passages. The bringing of the tribes of Joseph prominently forward is, however, peculiar to the Asaphic circle of songs.

The task of the precentor is assigned by the inscription to Jeduthun (Chethîb: Jeduthun), for ל (Psa 39:1) alternates with על (Psa 62:1); and the idea that ידותון denotes the whole of the Jeduthunites (“overseer over...”) might be possible, but is without example.

The strophe schema of the Psalm is 7. 12. 12. 12. 2. The first three strophes or groups of stichs close with Sela.

Psa 77:1-3

The poet is resolved to pray without intermission, and he prays; fore his soul is comfortless and sorely tempted by the vast distance between the former days and the present times. According to the pointing, והאזין appears to be meant to be imperative after the form הקטיל, which occurs instead of הקטל and הקתילה, cf. Psa 94:1; Isa 43:8; Jer 17:18, and the mode of writing הקטיל, Psa 142:5, 2Ki 8:6, and frequently; therefore et audi = ut audias (cf. 2Sa 21:3). But such an isolated form of address is not to be tolerated; והאזין has been regarded as perf. consec. in the sense of ut audiat, although this modification of האזין into האזין in connection with the appearing of the Waw consec. cannot be supported in any other instance (Ew. §234, e), and Kimchi on this account tries to persuade himself to that which is impossible, viz., that והאזין in respect of sound stands for ויאזין. The preterites in Psa 77:3 express that which has commenced and which will go on. The poet labours in his present time of affliction to press forward to the Lord, who has withdrawn from him; his hand is diffused, i.e., stretched out (not: poured out, for the radical meaning of נגר, as the Syriac shows, is protrahere), in the night-time without wearying and leaving off; it is fixedly and stedfastly (אמוּנה, as it is expressed in Exo 17:12) stretched out towards heaven. His soul is comfortless, and all comfort up to the present rebounds as it were from it (cf. Gen 37:35; Jer 31:15). If he remembers God, who was once near to him, then he is compelled to groan (cf. Psa 55:18, Psa 55:3; and on the cohortative form of a Lamed He verb, cf. Ges. §75, 6), because He has hidden Himself from him; if he muses, in order to find Him again, then his spirit veils itself, i.e., it sinks into night and feebleness (התעטּף as in Psa 107:5; Psa 142:4; Psa 143:4). Each of the two members of Psa 77:4 are protasis and apodosis; concerning this emotional kind of structure of a sentence, vid., Ewald, §357, b.

Psa 77:4-9

He calls his eyelids the “guards of my eyes.” He who holds these so that they remain open when they want to shut together for sleep, is God; for his looking up to Him keeps the poet awake in spite of all overstraining of his powers. Hupfeld and others render thus: “Thou hast held, i.e., caused to last, the night-watches of mine eyes,” - which is affected in thought and expression. The preterites state what has been hitherto and has not yet come to a close. He still endures, as formerly, such thumps and blows within him, as though he lay upon an anvil (פּעם), and his voice fails him. Then silent soliloquy takes the place of audible prayer; he throws himself back in thought to the days of old (Psa 143:5), the years of past periods (Isa 51:9), which were so rich in the proofs of the power and loving-kindness of the God who was then manifest, but is now hidden. He remembers the happier past of his people and his own, inasmuch as he now in the night purposely calls back to himself in his mind the time when joyful thankfulness impelled him to the song of praise accompanied by the music of the harp (בּלּילה belongs according to the accents to the verb, not to נגינתי, although that construction certainly is strongly commended by parallel passages like Psa 16:7; Psa 42:9; Psa 92:3, cf. Job 35:10), in place of which, crying and sighing and gloomy silence have now entered. He gives himself up to musing “with his heart,” i.e., in the retirement of his inmost nature, inasmuch as he allows his thoughts incessantly to hover to and fro between the present and the former days, and in consequence of this (fut. consec. as in Psa 42:6) his spirit betakes itself to scrupulizing (what the lxx reproduces with σκάλλειν, Aquila with σκαλεύειν) - his conflict of temptation grows fiercer. Now follow the two doubting questions of the tempted one: he asks in different applications, Psa 77:8-10 (cf. Psa 85:6), 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 (Mal 3:6) and the inviolability of His covenant. אפס (only occurring as a 3. praet.) alternates with גּמר (Psa 12:2). חנּות is an infinitive construct formed after the manner of the Lamed He verbs, which, however, does also occur as infinitive absolute (שׁמּות, Eze 36:3, cf. on Psa 17:3); Gesenius and Olshausen (who doubts this infinitive form, §245, f) explain it, as do Aben-Ezra and Kimchi, as the plural of a substantive חנּה, but in the passage cited from Ezekiel (vid., Hitzig) such a substantival plural is syntactically impossible. קפץ רחמים is to draw together or contract and draw back one’s compassion, so that it does not manifest itself outwardly, just as he who will not give shuts (יקפּץ) his hand (Deu 15:7; cf. supra, Psa 17:10).

Psa 77:10-15

With ואמר the poet introduces the self-encouragement with which he has hitherto calmed himself when such questions of temptation were wont to intrude themselves upon him, and with which he still soothes himself. In the rendering of הלּותי (with the tone regularly drawn back before the following monosyllable) even the Targum wavers between מרעוּתי (my affliction) and בּעוּתי (my supplication); and just in the same way, in the rendering of Psa 77:11, between אשׁתּניו (have changed) and שׁנין (years). שׁנות cannot possibly signify “change” in an active sense, as Luther renders: “The right hand of the Most High can change everything,” but only a having become different (lxx and the Quinta ἀλλοίωσις, Symmachus ἐπιδευτέρωσις), after which Maurer, Hupfeld, and Hitzig render thus: my affliction is this, that the right hand of the Most High has changed. But after we have read שׁנות in Psa 77:6 as a poetical plural of שׁנה, a year, we have first of all to see whether it may not have the same signification here. And many possible interpretations present themselves. It can be interpreted: “my supplication is this: years of the right hand of the Most High” (viz., that years like to the former ones may be renewed); but this thought is not suited to the introduction with ואמר. We must either interpret it: my sickness, viz., from the side of God, i.e., the temptation which befalls me from Him, the affliction ordained by Him for me (Aquila ἀῤῥωστία μου), is this (cf. Jer 10:19); or, since in this case the unambiguous חלותי would have been used instead of the Piel: my being pierced, my wounding, my sorrow is this (Symmachus τρῶσίς μου, inf. Kal from חלל, Psa 109:22, after the form חנּות from חנן) - they are years of the right hand of the Most High, i.e., those which God’s mighty hand, under which I have to humble myself (1Pe 5:6), has formed and measured out to me. In connection with this way of taking Psa 77:11, Psa 77:12 is now suitably and easily attached to what has gone before. The poet says to himself that the affliction allotted to him has its time, and will not last for ever. Therein lies a hope which makes the retrospective glance into the happier past a source of consolation to him. In Psa 77:12 the Chethîb אזכיר is to be retained, for the כי in Psa 77:12 is thus best explained: “I bring to remembrance, i.e., make known with praise or celebrate (Isa 63:7), the deeds of Jāh, for I will remember Thy wondrous doing from days of old.” His sorrow over the distance between the present and the past is now mitigated by the hope that God’s right hand, which now casts down, will also again in His own time raise up. Therefore he will now, as the advance from the indicative to the cohortative (cf. Psa 17:15) imports, thoroughly console and refresh himself with God’s work of salvation in all its miraculous manifestations from the earliest times. יהּ is the most concise and comprehensive appellation for the God of the history of redemption, who, as Habakkuk prays, will revive His work of redemption in the midst of the years to come, and bring it to a glorious issue. To Him who then was and who will yet come the poet now brings praise and celebration. The way of God is His historical rule, and more especially, as in Hab 3:6, הליכות, His redemptive rule. The primary passage Exo 15:11 (cf. Psa 68:25) shows that בּקּדשׁ is not to be rendered “in the sanctuary” (lxx ἐν τῷ ἁγίῳ), but “in holiness” (Symmachus ἐν ἁγιασμῷ). Holy and glorious in love and in anger. God goes through history, and shows Himself there as the incomparable One, with whose greatness no being, and least of all any one of the beingless gods, can be measured. He is האל, the God, God absolutely and exclusively, a miracle-working (עשׂה פלא, not עשׂה פלא cf. Gen 1:11)The joining of the second word, accented on the first syllable and closely allied in sense, on to the first, which is accented on the ultima (the tone of which, under certain circumstances, retreats to the penult., נסוג אחור) or monosyllabic, by means of the hardening Dagesh (the so-called דחיק), only takes place when that first word ends in  ה- or  ה-, not when it ends in  ה-.)

God, and a God who by these very means reveals Himself as the living and supra-mundane God. He has made His omnipotence known among the peoples, viz., as Exo 15:16 says, by the redemption of His people, the tribes of Jacob and the double tribe of Joseph, out of Egypt, - a deed of His arm, i.e., the work of His own might, by which He has proved Himself to all peoples and to the whole earth to be the Lord of the world and the God of salvation (Exo 9:16; Exo 15:14). בּזרוע, brachio scil. extenso (Exo 6:6; Deu 4:34, and frequently), just as in Psa 75:6, בּצוּאר, collo scil. erecto. The music here strikes in; the whole strophe is an overture to the following hymn in celebration of God, the Redeemer out of Egypt.

Psa 77:16-19

When He directed His lance towards the Red Sea, which stood in the way of His redeemed, the waters immediately fell as it were into pangs of travail (יחילוּ, as in Hab 3:10, not ויּחילו), also the billows of the deep trembled; for before the omnipotence of God the Redeemer, which creates a new thing in the midst of the old creation, the rules of the ordinary course of nature become unhinged. There now follow in Psa 77:18, Psa 77:19 lines taken from the picture of a thunder-storm. The poet wishes to describe how all the powers of nature became the servants of the majestic revelation of Jahve, when He executed judgment on Egypt and delivered Israel. זרם, Poel of זרם (cognate זרב, זרף, Aethiopic זנם, to rain), signifies intensively: to stream forth in full torrents. Instead of this line, Habakkuk, with a change of the letters of the primary passage, which is usual in Jeremiah more especially, has זרם מים עבר. The rumbling which the שׁחקיםWe have indicated on Psa 18:12; Psa 36:6, that the שׁהקים are so called from their thinness, but passages like Psa 18:12 and the one before us do not favour this idea. One would think that we have more likely to go back to Arab. sḥq, to be distant (whence suḥḳ, distance; saḥı̂ḳ, distant), and that שׁהקים signifies the distances, like שׁמים, the heights, from שׁחק = suḥḳ, in distinction from שׁחק, an atom (Wetzstein). But the Hebrew affords no trace of this verbal stem, whereas שׁחק, Arab. sḥq , contundere , comminuere (Neshwân: to pound to dust, used e.g., of the apothecary’s drugs), is just as much Hebrew as Arabic. And the word is actually associated with this verb by the Arabic mind, inasmuch as Arab. saḥâbun saḥqun ( nubes tenues , nubila tenuia ) is explained by Arab. sḥâb rqı̂q. Accordingly שׁהקים, according to its primary notion, signifies that which spreads itself out thin and fine over a wide surface, and according to the usage of the language, in contrast with the thick and heavy פני הארץ, the uppermost stratum of the atmosphere, and then the clouds, as also Arab. a‛nân, and the collective ‛anan and ‛anân (vid., Isaiah, at Isa 4:5, note), is not first of all the clouds, but the surface of the sky that is turned to us (Fleischer). cause to sound forth (נתנוּ, cf. Psa 68:34) is the thunder. The arrows of God (חצציך, in Habakkuk חצּיך) are the lightnings. The Hithpa. (instead of which Habakkuk has יחלּכוּ) depicts their busy darting hither and thither in the service of the omnipotence that sends them forth. It is open to question whether גּלגּל denotes the roll of the thunder (Aben-Ezra, Maurer, Böttcher): the sound of Thy thunder went rolling forth (cf. Psa 29:4), - or the whirlwind accompanying the thunder-storm (Hitzig); the usage of the language (Psa 83:14, also Eze 10:13, Syriac golgolo) is in favour of the latter. On Psa 77:19 cf. the echo in Psa 97:4. Amidst such commotions in nature above and below Jahve strode along through the sea, and made a passage for His redeemed. His person and His working were invisible, but the result which attested His active presence was visible. He took His way through the sea, and cut His path (Chethîb plural, שׁביליך, as in Jer 18:15) through great waters (or, according to Habakkuk, caused His horses to go through), without the footprints (עקּבות with Dag. dirimens) of Him who passes and passed through being left behind to show it.

Psa 77:20

If we have divided the strophes correctly, then this is the refrain-like close. Like a flock God led His people by Moses and Aaron (Num 33:1) to the promised goal. At this favourite figure, which is as it were the monogram of the Psalms of Asaph and of his school, the poet stops, losing himself in the old history of redemption, which affords him comfort in abundance, and is to him a prophecy of the future lying behind the afflictive years of the present.

Prevailing Melancholy; Mournful Supplications.

1 I cried unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice; and he gave ear unto me. 2 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. 3 I remembered God, and was troubled: I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Selah. 4 Thou holdest mine eyes waking: I am so troubled that I cannot speak. 5 I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times. 6 I call to remembrance my song in the night: I commune with mine own heart: and my spirit made diligent search. 7 Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more? 8 Is his mercy clean gone for ever? doth his promise fail for evermore? 9 Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah. 10 And I said, This is my infirmity: but I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High.

We have here the lively portraiture of a good man under prevailing melancholy, fallen into and sinking in that horrible pit and that miry clay, but struggling to get out. Drooping saints, that are of a sorrowful spirit, may here as in a glass see their own faces. The conflict which the psalmist had with his griefs and fears seems to have been over when he penned this record of it; for he says (v. 1), I cried unto God, and he gave ear unto me, which, while the struggle lasted, he had not the comfortable sense of, as he had afterwards; but he inserts it in the beginning of his narrative as an intimation that his trouble did not end in despair; for God heard him, and, at length, he knew that he heard him. Observe,

I. His melancholy prayers. Being afflicted, he prayed (Jam. v. 13), and, being in an agony, he prayed more earnestly (v. 1): My voice was unto God, and I cried, even with my voice unto God. He was full of complaints, loud complaints, but he directed them to God, and turned them all into prayers, vocal prayers, very earnest and importunate. Thus he gave vent to his grief and gained some ease; and thus he took the right way in order to relief (v. 2): In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord. Note, Days of trouble must be days of prayer, days of inward trouble especially, when God seems to have withdrawn from us; we must seek him and seek till we find him. In the day of his trouble he did not seek for the diversion of business or recreation, to shake off his trouble that way, but he sought God, and his favour and grace. Those that are under trouble of mind must not think to drink it away, or laugh it away, but must pray it away. My hand was stretched out in the night and ceased not; so Dr. Hammond reads the following words, as speaking the incessant importunity of his prayers. Compare Ps. cxliii. 5, 6.

II. His melancholy grief. Grief may then be called melancholy indeed, 1. When it admits of no intermission; such was his: My sore, or wound, ran in the night, and bled inwardly, and it ceased not, no, not in the time appointed for rest and sleep. 2. When it admits of no consolation; and that also as his case: My soul refused to be comforted; he had no mind to hearken to those that would be his comforters. As vinegar upon nitre, so is he that sings songs to a heavy heart, Prov. xxv. 20. Nor had he any mind to think of those things that would be his comforts; he put them far from him, as one that indulged himself in sorrow. Those that are in sorrow, upon any account, do not only prejudice themselves, but affront God, if they refuse to be comforted.

III. His melancholy musings. He pored so much upon the trouble, whatever it was, personal or public, that, 1. The methods that should have relieved him did but increase his grief, v. 3. (1.) One would have thought that the remembrance of God would comfort him, but it did not: I remembered God and was troubled, as poor Job (ch. xxiii. 15); I am troubled at his presence; when I consider I am afraid of him. When he remembered God his thoughts fastened only upon his justice, and wrath, and dreadful majesty, and thus God himself became a terror to him. (2.) One would have thought that pouring out his soul before God would give him ease, but it did not; he complained, and yet his spirit was overwhelmed, and sank under the load. 2. The means of his present relief were denied him, v. 4. He could not enjoy sleep, which, if it be quiet and refreshing, is a parenthesis to our griefs and cares: "Thou holdest my eyes waking with thy terrors, which make me full of tossings to and fro until the dawning of the day." He could not speak, by reason of the disorder of his thoughts, the tumult of his spirits, and the confusion his mind was in: He kept silence even from good while his heart was hot within him; he was ready to burst like a new bottle (Job xxxii. 19), and yet so troubled that he could not speak and refresh himself. Grief never preys so much upon the spirits as when it is thus smothered and pent up.

IV. His melancholy reflections (v. 5, 6): "I have considered the days of old, and compared them with the present days; and our former prosperity does but aggravate our present calamities: for we see not the wonders that our fathers told us off." Melancholy people are apt to pore altogether upon the days of old and the years of ancient times, and to magnify them, for the justifying of their own uneasiness and discontent at the present posture of affairs. But say not thou that the former days were better than these, because it is more than thou knowest whether they were or no, Eccl. vii. 10. Neither let the remembrance of the comforts we have lost make us unthankful for those that are left, or impatient under our crosses. Particularly, he called to remembrance his song in the night, the comforts with which he had supported himself in his former sorrows and entertained himself in his former solitude. These songs he remembered, and tried if he could not sing them over again; but he was out of tune for them, and the remembrance of them did but pour out his soul in him, Ps. xliii. 4. See Job xxxv. 10.

V. His melancholy fears and apprehensions: "I communed with my own heart, v. 6. Come, my soul, what will be the issue of these things? What can I think of them and what can I expect they will come to at last? I made diligent search into the causes of my trouble, enquiring wherefore God contended with me and what would be the consequences of it. And thus I began to reason, Will the Lord cast off for ever, as he does for the present? He is not now favourable; and will he be favourable no more? His mercy is now gone; and is it clean gone for ever? His promise now fails; and does it fail for evermore? God is not now gracious; but has he forgotten to be gracious? His tender mercies have been withheld, perhaps in wisdom; but are they shut up, shut up in anger?" v. 7-9. This is the language of a disconsolate deserted soul, walking in darkness and having no light, a case not uncommon even with those that fear the Lord and obey the voice of his servant, Isa. l. 10. He may here be looked upon, 1. As groaning under a sore trouble. God hid his face from him, and withdrew the usual tokens of his favour. Note, Spiritual trouble is of all trouble most grievous to a gracious soul; nothing wounds and pierces it like the apprehensions of God's being angry, the suspending of his favour and the superseding of his promise; this wounds the spirit; and who can bear that? 2. As grappling with a strong temptation. Note, God's own people, in a cloudy and dark day, may be tempted to make desperate conclusions about their own spiritual state and the condition of God's church and kingdom in the world, and, as to both, to give up all for gone. We may be tempted to think that God has abandoned us and cast us off, that the covenant of grace fails us, and that the tender mercy of our God shall be for ever withheld from us. But we must not give way to such suggestions as these. If fear and melancholy ask such peevish questions, let faith answer them from the Scripture: Will the Lord cast off for ever? God forbid, Rom. xi. 1. No; the Lord will not cast off his people, Ps. xciv. 14. Will he be favourable no more? Yes, he will; for, though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion, Lam. iii. 32. Is his mercy clean gone for ever? No; his mercy endures for ever; as it is from everlasting, it is to everlasting, Ps. ciii. 17. Doth his promise fail for evermore? No; it is impossible for God to lie, Heb. vi. 18. Hath God forgotten to be gracious? No; he cannot deny himself, and his own name which he hath proclaimed gracious and merciful, Exod. xxxiv. 6. Has he in anger shut up his tender mercies? No; they are new every morning (Lam. iii. 23); and therefore, How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? Hos. xi. 8, 9. Thus was he going on with his dark and dismal apprehensions when, on a sudden, he first checked himself with that word, Selah, "Stop there; go no further; let us hear no more of these unbelieving surmises;" and he then chid himself (v. 10): I said, This is my infirmity. He is soon aware that it is not well said, and therefore, "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? I said, This is my affliction" (so some understand it); "This is the calamity that falls to my lot and I must make the best of it; every one has his affliction, his trouble in the flesh; and this is mine, the cross I must take up." Or, rather, "This is my sin; it is my iniquity, the plague of my own heart." These doubts and fears proceed from the want and weakness of faith and the corruption of a distempered mind. note, (1.) We all know that concerning ourselves of which we must say, "This is our infirmity, a sin that most easily besets us." (2.) Despondency of spirit, and distrust of God, under affliction, are too often the infirmities of good people, and, as such, are to be reflected upon by us with sorrow and shame, as by the psalmist here: This is my infirmity. When at any time it is working in us we must thus suppress the rising of it, and not suffer the evil spirit to speak. We must argue down the insurrections of unbelief, as the psalmist here: But I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High. He had been considering the years of ancient times (v. 5), the blessings formerly enjoyed, the remembrance of which did only add to his grief; but now he considered them as the years of the right hand of the Most High, that those blessings of ancient times came from the Ancient of days, from the power and sovereign disposal of his right hand who is over all, God, blessed for ever, and this satisfied him; for may not the Most High with his right hand make what changes he pleases?

Acknowledgments of the Divine Majesty, of God's Wonders Wrought for Israel.

11 I will remember the works of the Lord : surely I will remember thy wonders of old. 12 I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings. 13 Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary: who is so great a God as our God? 14 Thou art the God that doest wonders: thou hast declared thy strength among the people. 15 Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah. 16 The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they were afraid: the depths also were troubled. 17 The clouds poured out water: the skies sent out a sound: thine arrows also went abroad. 18 The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven: the lightnings lightened the world: the earth trembled and shook. 19 Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known. 20 Thou leddest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

The psalmist here recovers himself out of the great distress and plague he was in, and silences his own fears of God's casting off his people by the remembrance of the great things he had done for them formerly, which though he had in vain tried to quiet himself with (v. 5, 6) yet he tried again, and, upon this second trial, found it not in vain. It is good to persevere in the proper means for the strengthening of faith, though they do not prove effectual at first: "I will remember, surely I will, what God has done for his people of old, till I can thence infer a happy issue of the present dark dispensation," v. 11, 12. Note, 1. The works of the Lord, for his people, have been wondrous works. 2. They are recorded for us, that they may be remembered by us. 3. That we may have benefit by the remembrance of them we must meditate upon them, and dwell upon them in our thoughts, and must talk of them, that we may inform ourselves and others further concerning them. 4. The due remembrance of the works of God will be a powerful antidote against distrust of his promise and goodness; for he is God and changes not. If he begin, he will finish his work and bring forth the top-stone.

Two things, in general, satisfied him very much:

I. That God's way is in the sanctuary, v. 13. It is in holiness, so some. When we cannot solve the particular difficulties that may arise in our constructions of the divine providence, this we are sure of, in general, that God is holy in all his works, that they are all worthy of himself and consonant to the eternal purity and rectitude of his nature. He has holy ends in all he does, and will be sanctified in every dispensation of his providence. His way is according to his promise, which he has spoken in his holiness and made known in the sanctuary. What he has done is according to what he has said and may be interpreted by it; and from what he has said we may easily gather that he will not cast off his people for ever. God's way is for the sanctuary, and for the benefit of it. All he does is intended for the good of his church.

II. That God's way is in the sea. Though God is holy, just, and good, in all he does, yet we cannot give an account of the reasons of his proceedings, nor make any certain judgment of his designs: His path is in the great waters and his footsteps are not known, v. 19. God's ways are like the deep waters which cannot be fathomed (Ps. xxxvi. 6), like the way of a ship in the sea, which cannot be tracked, Prov. xxx. 18, 19. God's proceedings are always to be acquiesced in, but cannot always be accounted for. He specifies some particulars, for which he goes as far back as the infancy of the Jewish church, and from which he gathers, 1. That there is no God to be compared with the God of Israel (v. 13): Who is so great a God as our God? Let us first give to God the glory of the great things he has done for his people, and acknowledge him, therein, great above all comparison; and then we may take to ourselves the comfort of what he has done and encourage ourselves with it. 2. That he is a God of almighty power (v. 14): "Thou art the God that alone doest wonders, above the power of any creature; thou hast visibly, and beyond any contradiction, declared thy strength among the people." What God has done for his church has been a standing declaration of his almighty power, for therein he has made bare his everlasting arm. (1.) God brought Israel out of Egypt, v. 15. This was the beginning of mercy to them, and was yearly to be commemorated among them in the passover: "Thou hast with thy arm, stretched out in so many miracles, redeemed thy people out of the hand of the Egyptians." Though they were delivered by power, yet they are said to be redeemed, as if it had been done by price, because it was typical of the great redemption, which was to be wrought out, in the fulness of time, both by price and power. Those that were redeemed are here called not only the sons of Jacob, to whom the promise was made, but of Joseph also, who had a most firm and lively belief of the performance of it; for, when he was dying, he made mention of the departing of the children of Israel out of Egypt, and gave commandment concerning his bones. (2.) He divided the Red Sea before them (v. 16): The waters gave way, and a lane was made through that crowd instantly, as if they had seen God himself at the head of the armies of Israel, and had retired for fear of him. Not only the surface of the waters, but the depths, were troubled, and opened to the right and to the left, in obedience to his word of command. (3.) He destroyed the Egyptians (v. 17): The clouds poured out water upon them, while the pillar of fire, like an umbrella over the camp of Israel, sheltered it from the shower, in which, as in the deluge, the waters that were above the firmament concurred with those that were beneath the firmament to destroy the rebels. Then the skies sent out a sound; thy arrows also went abroad, which is explained (v. 18): The voice of thy thunder was heard in the heaven (that was the sound which the skies sent forth); the lightnings lightened the world—those were the arrows which went abroad, by which the host of the Egyptians was discomfited, with so much terror that the earth of the adjacent coast trembled and shook. Thus God's way was in the sea, for the destruction of his enemies, as well as for the salvation of his people; and yet when the waters returned to their place his footsteps were not known (v. 19); there was no mark set upon the place, as there was, afterwards, in Jordan, Josh. iv. 9. We do not read in the story of Israel's passing through the Red Sea that there were thunders and lightning, and an earthquake; yet there might be, and Josephus says there were, such displays of the divine terror upon that occasion. But it may refer to the thunders, lightnings, and earth quakes, that were at Mount Sinai when the law was given. (4.) He took his people Israel under his own guidance and protection (v. 20): Thou leddest thy people like a flock. They being weak and helpless, and apt to wander like a flock of sheep, and lying exposed to the beasts of prey, God went before them with all the care and tenderness of a shepherd, that they might not fail. The pillar of cloud and fire led them; yet that is not here taken notice of, but the agency of Moses and Aaron, by whose hand God led them; they could not do it without God, but God did it with and by them. Moses was their governor, Aaron their high priest; they were guides, overseers, and rulers to Israel, and by them God led them. The right and happy administration of the two great ordinances of magistracy and ministry is, though not so great a miracle, yet as great a mercy to any people as the pillar of cloud and fire was to Israel in the wilderness.

The psalm concludes abruptly, and does not apply those ancient instances of God's power to the present distresses of the church, as one might have expected. But as soon as the good man began to meditate on these things he found he had gained his point; his very entrance upon this matter gave him light and joy (Ps. cxix. 130); his fears suddenly and strangely vanished, so that he needed to go no further; he went his way, and did eat, and his countenance was no more sad, like Hannah, 1 Sam. i. 18.

PSAL. LXXVII.

To the Master of the Musicke, to Ieduthun, a Psalme of Asaph.

MY voice was to God, and I cried out: my voice was to God, and he gave eare unto mee. In day of my distresse I sought the Lord, my hand by night reached out and ceased not, my soule refused to be comforted. I remembred God, and made a troubled noise; I meditated, and my spirit was overwhelmed Selah. Thou heldest the watches of mine eies, I was stricken amazed and could not speake. I recounted the daies of antiquity, the yeeres of ancient times. I remembred my melody in the night; with my heart I meditated, and my spirit searched diligently. Will the Lord cast off to eternities, and not adde favourably to accept any more? Is his mercy ceased to perpetuity; is his word ended to generation and generation? Hath God forgotten to be gracious; hath he shut up in anger his tender mercy Selah? And I said, doth this make me sicke, the change of the right hand of the most high?

I will record the actions of Iah; surely, I will remember thy miracle from antiquity. And I will meditate of all thy worke, and will discourse of thy practises. O God, thy way is in the sanctuary; who is so great a God as God? Thou art the God that doest a marvellous worke, thou hast made knowen thy strength among the peoples. Thou hast redeemed thy people with arme, the sonnes of Iakob, and of Ioseph Selah. The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee, they trembled, also the deeps were stirred. The clouds streamed downe waters, the skies gave out a voice, also thine arrowes walked about. The voice of thy thunder was in the round aire; lightnings illuminated the world, the earth was stirred, and quaked. Thy way was in the sea, and thy pathes in the many waters, & thy footsteps were not knowen. Thou didst leade thy people like a flocke, by the hand of Moses and Aharon.

Annotations. TO Ieduthun] or, for him: see Psal. 39. 1. and 62. 1. Vers. 2. he gave eare] so the Greeke explaineth the Hebrew phrase to give eare: see the like Psal. 65. 11. Vers. 3. sought the Lord] in Chaldee, sought instruction from before the Lord, and the spirit of prophesie rested upon me. retched out] or, flowed, was powred out, that is, was stretched out in prayer: (a vehement figurative speech, like that of powring out the heart, Psal. 62. 9.) or, was wet with continuall wiping of mine eies: or by hand may be meant plague or sore (as in Iob 23. 2.) which continually ran. The Chaldee expoundeth it, by night mine eie dropped teares, and ceased not. Vers. 4. meditated] or praied. See Psal. 55. 3, 18. overwhelmed] or covered it selfe, that is, swowned or fainted with sorrow. So Psal. 142. 4. and 143. 4. and 107. 5. Lam. 2. 12. Vers. 5. the watches] or the wards, custodies, (that is, as the Chaldee explaineth it, the lids) of mine eies, so that I cannot sleepe. stricken amazed] beaten with terrour, as with a hammer; or, as the Greeke saith, troubled. So Dan: 2. 1, 3. Gen. 41. 8. could not speake] so the Hebrew phrase spake not, is sometime to be interepreted: as, who shall judge, 2 Chron. 1. 10. for which in 1 King. 3. 9. is written, who can (or, is able to) judge. So Psalme 78. 20. Vers. 6. of ancient times] or, of eternities, that is, of ages past. This hee did according to the commandement, Deut. 32. 7. for former histories are written for our learning, Rom. 15. 4. 1 Cor. 10. 11. Vers. 7. my melody] or musicall play, to wit, how I had before time played, and sung songs of praise for thy benefits; (see Psal. 33. 2, 3.) or, I remembred my musicke, and tooke my instrument, and thus I sung. spirit searched] in Chaldee, the knowledge of my spirit searched marvellous things. Vers. 11. doth this make me sicke] doth it grieve and weaken me, that the right hand (the administration) of God is changed, and hee keepeth not one constant course in his workes? The Prophet seemeth to checke himselfe for his infirmity. Or, (taking it not for a question) it maketh me sicke; or, this is my infirmitie. the change] or, that changed is; for so the Hebrew phrase, to change, may be resolved. Vers. 12. will record] will remember for my selfe, and mention to others: The Hebrew implieth both these, by a double reading. miracle] that is, miracles or wondrous works (as the Greeke explaineth it) all and every of them, done of old. So after in vers. 15. Vers. 13. discourse] or meditate, intreat of, both in minde and talke. Vers. 14. in the Sanctuary] or in sanctitie, in the holy place, as the Greeke turneth it: meaning, it is most holy, and secret, hidden from the eyes of the world, as holy things were hidden in the Sanctuarie, especially the Ark and Cherubims where God sate. So as it was not lawfull for people or Priests to see them, Num. 4. 6, 7, 15, 20. Levit. 16. 2. Compare also herewith, Psal. 73. 16, 17. The Chaldee translateth, O God how holy are thy wayes. a God] or a mightie one, a Potentate: Hebr. Ael. So in the next verse. as God] in Greeke, as our God: in Chaldee, as the God of Israel. Vers. 15. Marvellous work] that is, works, wonders. This is taken from Exod. 15. 11. Vers. 16. with arme] that is, with power: an arme stretched out, as Exod. 6 6. in Greeke, with thine arme. of Iaakob] that is, the tribes of Israel, borne of him. of Joseph] this may be meant (as the Chaldee Paraphrast taketh it) of all the Israelites whom Ioseph nourished, Gen. 45. 10. 11. and 50. 21. called therefore his sonnes; or in speciall of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasses, the sonnes of Ioseph, noted from the rest, for more honour. Compare also herewith Psal. 80. 2, 3. Vers. 17. The waters] of the red sea, Exod. 14. 21. Psal. 114. 3. The Chaldee paraphraseth, They saw thy divine Majestie from the midst of the sea, O God. trembled] or were pained, as a woman in travell. So Psal. 29. 8. and 97. 4. Vers. 18. streamed] or gushed with a tempest. These things were when the Lord looked unto the host of the Aegyptians out of the fiery and cloudy pillar, and so feared and hindred them with stormy tempests, that their chariot wheeles fell off, &c. Exod. 14. 24. 25. And thus Israel was baptised in the cloud and in the sea, 1 Cor. 10. 1. 2. thine arrowes] or stones (as this word also signifieth, Lam. 3. 16.) meaning haile-stones. See Psalm. 18. 15. Ios. 10 11. Vers. 19. in the round aire] in the sphere or globe. The aire is so called of the round forme, which it (with all the heavens) hath. Of the thunder in the aire, see Iob 37. 2,—5. Psal. 29. Vers. 20. Thy way] wherein thou wentest, and leddest thy people; confounding thy foes, Exod. 14. 19, 20, 22. Nehem. 9. 11. So elsewhere, his way is in the whilewind, Nahum 1. 3. were not knowne] to wit, before that time; nor after, for the waters returned to their force, and drowned the Aegyptians: Exod. 14. 27. So his other wayes are past finding out, Rom. 11. 33. that men must walke by faith, not by sight, 2 Cor. 5. 7. Vers. 21. lead thy people] thorow the sea, and after thorow the wildernesse towards Canaan; Moses being their King, and Aaron their Priest. The Memory of which mercy is often celebrated, Deut. 8. 2,—5. 15. and 32. 10. Ier. 2. 2, 6. Amos 2. 10. Mic. 6. 4. Psal. 136. 16. Act. 7. 35. 36.

PSAL. LXXVII.

A Pſalm of Aſaph] Or, for Aſaph, Davids melancholy Pſalm ſome call it, made by him when he was in grievous affliction and deſertion. Out of which he ſeeketh to wind by earneſt Prayer, by deep Meditation upon Gods former favours, and unchangeable nature; and laſtly, by calling to minde Gods wondrous works of old, both in proving, and in preferving his Church and choſen.

Verſ. 1. I cried unto God with my voyce, &c.] I prayed inſtantly and conſtantly, and ſped accordingly. No faithful prayer is ineffectual.

Verſ. 2. In the day of my trouble] The time of affliction is the time of ſupplication, Pſal. 50.15.

My fore [illegible: 1 word] in the night] Heb. My hand was poured out; that is, ſtretched out in prayer; or wet with continual weeping. Non fuit remiſſe, nec [illegible: 1 word] in lectum.

And ceaſed not] Or, was not tired; in alluſion, belike to Moſes his hands held up againſt A[illegible: 2 letters]leck; though

My ſoul refuſed to be comforted] I prayed on, though I had little heart to do it, (as Daniel afterwards did the Kings work, though he were ſick) or though with much infirmity, whilſt I rather wrangled with God, by cavelling objections, than wraſt[illegible: 1 letter]ed with him, as I ought to have done, by important prayer.

Verſ. 3. I remembred God, and [illegible: 1 span] troubled] [illegible: 1 span]; for God ſeemed to be angry, and to caſt out my prayers; this made mee mourn, and little leſs than [illegible: 1 word].

My [illegible: 1 span] ] With ſenſe of Sin, and ſeat of Wrath. This was a very grievous and dangerous temptation, ſuch as we muſt pray not to be [illegible: 2 letters]d into, or at leaſt [illegible: 1 word] to be left under, [illegible: 1 span].

Verſ. 4. [illegible: 1 span].

That I cannot ſpeak] Cura l[illegible: 2 letters]es loguuntur, ing[illegible: 1 letter]ntes ſtupent.

Verſ. 5. I have conſidered the days of old] What thou diddeſt for Adam, Abraham, Iſrael, in Aegypt, &c. all which was written purpoſely, that we through patience, and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope. See Deut. 32.7.

Verſ. 6. I call to remembrance my Song in the night] i. e. My former feelings and experiments, being glad in this ſcarcity of comfort, to live upon the old ſtore, as Bees do in winter.

I commune with mine own heart] Pſal. 4.4. ſee there.

And my ſpirit made diligent ſearch] For the cauſe, and cure of my preſent diſtempers.

Verſ. 7. Will the Lord cast off for ever?] No, not at all, though the extremity and length of the Pſalmiſts grief put him upon theſe ſad Interrogatories, with ſome diffidence, touching the Nature, and Promiſe of God.

Will he be favourable no more?] So the Devil, and carnal reaſon would have perſwaded him; and did haply for a time. But this very queſtioning the matter ſheweth, he yet lay languiſhing at Hopes Hoſpital, waiting for comfort. The Soul may ſucceſſively doubt, and yet beleeve.

Verſ. 8. Is his mercy clean gone for over?] They that go down into the pit (of Deſpair) cannot hope for Gods truth, Iſa. 38.18. but ſo doth not any Saint in his deepeſt deſertions.

Doth his promiſe fail for evermore?] Hath he retracted his Promiſes, recalled his Oracles confirmed with Oath, Seal? No, he will not ſuffer his faithfulneſs to fail, nor alter the thing that is gone out of his mouth, Pſal. 89.33.

Verſ. 9. Hath God forgotten to be gracious?] So it ſeemeth ſometimes to thoſe that are long afflicted, and ſhort-ſpirited; But what ſaith the Prophet? Can a Woman forget her ſucking childe, that ſhe ſhould not have compaſſion on the Son of her womb?H[illegible: 1 letter]yt. Geor. yea they may forget (they may prove unnatural, and grow out of kind, as Medea, and thoſe Suevian women, who threw their young Children at the Romanes (under the conduct of Druſus, Son in Law to Auguſtus) inſtead of Darts) yet God will not forget his people, Iſa. 49.15. Indeed he can as ſoon forget himſelf, and change his nature.

Hath he in anger ſhut up his tender mercies?] Theſe things the Pſalmiſt ſpeaketh not as utterly deſpairing, but as one couragiouſly wraſtling againſt an old Manſlayer, and a miſgiving heart of his own. Homines vero ſecuri, & voluptatibus ebrii, nihil horum intelligunt. This is little underſtood by profane Senſualiſts, who therefore reap no great benefit by the reading of theſe Pſalms.

Verſ. 10. And I ſaid, this is my infirmity] My frailty, and folly. Here he begins to recollect, and recall himſelf, as every good ſoul will, after its extravagancies and out-burſts. Vatablus rendreth it, Mors mea eſt, This is my death; Beza, Caedeo mea haec, This is my Deaths-wound, ſc. whereof I ſhould ſurely dye, were it not for the change of Gods hand upon me.

But I will remember, &c.] This is ſupplied out of the following verſe. Some make no ſuch ſupply, but render the text thus, The right hand of the moſt High can change theſe things. Others, This is the change of the right hand of the moſt High, and is therefore to be taken patiently; Shall we receive good at Gods hands, and not evil, Job 2.10? I am not utterly deſerted, but only the caſe is a little altered, the right hand of the moſt High alternated.

Verſ. 11. I will remember the works, &c.] Remember, and, commemorate, as the Hebrew (by a double reading) importeth.

I will remember thy Wonders] God is wonderful in counſel, and excellent in working, Iſa. 28. ult. and as we behold the Sun in the waters, ſo God in his works, Saculum speculum, the World is a glaſs or theater, but eſpecially the Church, wherein God ſetteth forth his wonders to the view of all.

Verſ. 12. I will mediate alſo of all thy works, and [illegible: 1 letter]alk, &c.] See the Note on Pſal. 45.[illegible: 1 letter].

Verſ. 13. Thy way O God is in the Sanctuary] There it is only that I can get ſatisfaction about, thy proceedings, Pſal. 73.17. There I am [illegible: 2 letters]ught, that thou [illegible: 1 span] and holy in all thy works, [illegible: 1 span] this text, Thy way O God is [illegible: 1 span] q. d. Thy way is in Heaven, farre above mans reach.

Who is ſo great a God us our God?] And therefore no wonder his wayes are ſo incomprehenſible.

Verſ. 14 Thou art the God that doeſt wonders] In the daily defence and government of thy Church. Thou art the great Thaumaturgus, or wonder-worker.

Thou haſt declared thy ſtrength among the peoples] As among the Egyptians, Canaanites, Phil[illegible: 1 letter]ſtines &c. Vere [illegible: 1 word] eſt Deus Chiſtianorum, ſaid one Calocerius, an Heathen.

Verſ. 15. Thou haſt with thine arm redeemed thy people] viz. Out of the bondage of Egypt, that memorable mercy; but nothing to that of ours and theirs from ſins thraldome.

The ſons of Jacob, and Joſeph] Joſeph is inſtanced, quia nobilis inter fratres, vel in malis quae pendit, vel in bon[illegible: 1 letter] quae rependit, as Auſtin hath it.De Doct. Chriſt. l. 4. c. [illegible: 1 letter]

Verſ. 16. The waters ſaw thee, O God — they were afraid] This is check to ſuch as will not ſee to fear ſo mighty a God. Lord, ſaith the Prophet, when thy hand is lifted up they will not ſee; but they ſhal[illegible: 1 letter] ſee and be aſhamed for their envy at the people; yea the fire of thine enemies ſhall devour them, Iſa. 26.11.

Verſ. 17. The clouds poured out water, the skies, &c.] Calvin taketh this to be a deſcription of that hideous tempeſt, Exod. 9. the ſeventh Plague of Egypt. But others with more probability hold, that the Prophet here hath reſpect to that very time mentioned in the former verſe, when the Lord looked unto the hoaſt of the Egyptians out of the fiery and cloudy pillar, and ſo troubled and turmoiled them with ſtormy tempeſts, that their Charret wheels fell off, and themſelves ſank as lead in the mighty waters, Exod. 14.24, 25. & 15.10. Of theſe terrible tempeſts mention is made alſo by Juſtin.

Verſ. 18. The voice of thy thunder was in the Heaven] Heb. In the Sphere or round-orb of the air. Of the thunder in the air, ſee Job 37.2-5. Pſal. 29. This made the Egyptians ſay, Let us fly, for God fighteth for Iſrael againſt us.

The lightenings lightened the World] Such flakes of fire there were with flaſhes of lightening, as darkened the Sun, and made the whole Heavens ſeem to be on a light fire.

Verſ. 19. Thy way is in the Sea, &c.] A way of thine own miraculous making. God uſually goeth a way by himſelf.

And thy footſteps are not known] Not ſo much as is the way of an Eagle in the air, the way of a Serpent upon a rock, or the way of a ſhip in the midſt of the Sea, Prov. 30.19. Let God alone with his own work, commit we our ſelves to him in wel-doing, and it ſhall go well with us, no queſtion of it. Pii viam deſperatae ſalutis, impi[illegible: 1 letter] foveam insperatae mortis intrant. Oroſ.

Verſ. 20. Thou leddeſt thy people like a flock] And ſo he ſtill leadeth his Church with much love and care, by good Magiſtrates and Miniſters, who are as his under-ſhepheards.

I cried unto God with my voice. This Psalm has much sadness in it, but we may be sure it will end well, for it begins with prayer, and prayer never has an ill issue. Asaph did not run to man but to the Lord, and to him he went, not with studied, stately, stilted words, but with a cry, the natural, unaffected, unfeigned expression of pain. He used his voice also, for though vocal utterance is not necessary to the life of prayer, it often seems forced upon us by the energy of our desires. Sometimes the soul feels compelled to use the voice, for thus it finds a freer vent for its agony. It is a comfort to hear the alarm bell ringing when the house is invaded by thieves. Even unto God with my voice. He returned to his pleading. If once sufficed not, he cried again. He needed an answer, he expected one, he was eager to have it soon, therefore he cried again and again, and with his voice too, for the sound helped his earnestness. And he gave ear unto me. Importunity prevailed. The gate opened to the steady knock. It shall be so with us in our hour of trial, the God of grace will hear us in due season.

In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord. All day long his distress drove him to his God, so that when night came he continued still in the same search. God had hidden his face from his servant, therefore the first care of the troubled saint was to seek his Lord again. This was going to the root of the matter and removing the main impediment first. Diseases and tribulations are easily enough endured when God is found of us, but without him they crush us to the earth. My sore ran in the night, and ceased not. As by day so by night his trouble was on him and his prayer continued. Some of us know what it is, both physically and spiritually, to be compelled to use these words: no respite has been afforded us by the silence of the night, our bed has been a rack to us, our body has been in torment, and our spirit in anguish. It appears that this sentence is wrongly translated, and should be, "my hand was stretched out all night, "this shows that his prayer ceased not, but with uplifted hand he continued to seek succour of his God. My soul refused to be comforted. He refused some comforts as too weak for his case, others as untrue, others as unhallowed; but chiefly because of distraction, he declined even those grounds of consolation which ought to have been effectual with him. As a sick man turns away even from the most nourishing food, so did he. It is impossible to comfort those who refuse to be comforted. You may bring them to the waters of the promise, but who shall make them drink if they will not do so? Many a daughter of despondency has pushed aside the cup of gladness, and many a son of sorrow has hugged his chains. There are times when we are suspicious of good news, and are not to be persuaded into peace, though the happy truth should be as plain before us as the King's highway.

I remembered God, and was troubled. He who is the wellspring of delight to faith becomes an object of dread to the psalmist's distracted heart. The justice, holiness, power, and truth of God have all a dark side, and indeed all the attributed may be made to look black upon us if our eye be evil; even the brightness of divine love blinds us, and fills us with a horrible suspicion that we have neither part nor lot in it. He is wretched indeed whose memories of the Ever Blessed prove distressing to him; yet the best of men know the depth of this abyss. I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. He mused and mused but only sank the deeper. His inward disquietudes did not fall asleep as soon as they were expressed, but rather they returned upon him, and leaped over him like raging billows of an angry sea. It was not his body alone which smarted, but his noblest nature writhed in pain, his life itself seemed crushed into the earth. It is in such a case that death is coveted as a relief, for life becomes an intolerable burden. With no spirit left in us to sustain our infirmity, our case becomes forlorn; like man in a tangle of briars who is stripped of his clothes, every hook of the thorns becomes a lancet, and we bleed with ten thousand wounds. Alas, my God, the writer of this exposition well knows what thy servant Asaph meant, for his soul is familiar with the way of grief. Deep glens and lonely caves of soul depressions, my spirit knows full well your awful glooms! Selah. Let the song go softly; this is no merry dance for the swift feet of the daughters of music, pause ye awhile, and let sorrow take breath between her sighs.

Thou holdest mine eyes waking. The fears which thy strokes excite in me forbid my eyelids to fall, my eyes continue to watch as sentinels forbidden to rest. Sleep is a great comforter, but it forsakes the sorrowful, and then their sorrow deepens and eats into the soul. If God holds the eyes waking, what anodyne shall give us rest? How much we owe to him who giveth his beloved sleep! I am so troubled that I cannot speak. Great griefs are dumb. Deep streams brawl not among the pebbles like the shallow brooklets which live on passing showers. Words fail the man whose heart fails him. He had cried to God but he could not speak to man, what a mercy it is that if we can do the first, we need not despair though the second should be quite out of our power. Sleepless and speechless Asaph was reduced to great extremities, and yet he rallied, and even so shall we.

I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times. If no good was in the present, memory ransacked the past to find consolation. She fain would borrow a light from the altars of yesterday to light the gloom of today. It is our duty to search for comfort, and not in sullen indolence yield to despair; in quiet contemplation topics may occur to us which will prove the means of raising our spirits, and there is scarcely any theme more likely to prove consolatory than that which deals with the days of yore, the years of the olden time, when the Lord's faithfulness was tried and proven by hosts of his people. Yet it seems that even this consideration created depression rather than delight in the good man's soul, for he contrasted his own mournful condition with all that was bright in the venerable experiences of ancient saints, and so complained the more. Ah, sad calamity of a jaundiced mind, to see nothing as it should be seen, but everything as through a veil of mist.

I call to remembrance my song in the night. At other times his spirit had a song for the darkest hour, but now he could only recall the strain as a departed memory. Where is the harp which once thrilled sympathetically to the touch of those joyful fingers? My tongue, hast thou forgotten to praise? Hast thou no skill except in mournful ditties? Ah me, how sadly fallen am I! How lamentable that I, who like the nightingale could charm the night, am now fit comrade for the hooting owl. I commune with mine own heart. He did not cease from introspection, for he was resolved to find the bottom of his sorrow, and trace it to its fountain head. He made sure work of it by talking not with his mind only, but with his inmost heart; it was heart work with him. He was no idler, no melancholy trifler; he was up and at it, resolutely resolved that he would not tamely die of despair, but would fight for his hope to the last moment of life. And my spirit made diligent search. He ransacked his experience, his memory, his intellect, his whole nature, his entire self, either to find comfort or to discover the reason why it was denied him. That man will not die by the hand of the enemy who has enough force of soul remaining to struggle in this fashion.

Wilt the Lord cast off forever? This was one of the matters he enquired into. He painfully knew that the Lord might leave his people for a season, but his fear was that the time might be prolonged and have no close; eagerly, therefore, he asked, will the Lord utterly and finally reject those who are his own, and suffer them to be the objects of his contemptuous reprobation, his everlasting cast offs? This he was persuaded could not be. No instance in the years of ancient times led him to fear that such could be the case. And will he be favourable no more? Favourable he had been; would that goodwill never again show itself? Was the sun set never to rise again? Would spring never follow the long and dreary winter? The questions are suggested by fear, but they are also the cure for fear. It is a blessed thing to have grace enough to look such questions in the face, for their answer is self evident and eminently fitted to cheer the heart.

Is his mercy clean gone for ever? If he has no love for his elect, has he not still his mercy left? Has that dried up? Has he no pity for the sorrowful? Doth his promise fail for evermore? His word is pledged to those who plead with him; is that become of none effect? Shall it be said that from one generation to another the Lord's word has fallen to the ground; whereas aforetime he kept his covenant to all generations of them that fear him? It is a wise thing thus to put unbelief through the catechism. Each one of the questions is a dart aimed at the very heart of despair. Thus have we also in our days of darkness done battle for life itself.

Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Has El, the Mighty One, become great in everything but grace? Does he know how to afflict, but not how to uphold? Can he forget anything? Above all, can he forget to exercise that attribute which lies nearest to his essence, for he is love? Hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Are the pipes of goodness choked up so that love can no more flow through them? Do the bowels of Jehovah no longer yearn towards his own beloved children? Thus with cord after cord unbelief is smitten and driven out of the soul; it raises questions and we will meet it with questions: it makes us think and act ridiculously, and we will heap scorn upon it. The argument of this passage assumes very much the form of a reductio ad absurdam. Strip it naked, and mistrust is a monstrous piece of folly. Selah. Here rest awhile, for the battle of questions needs a lull.

And I said, This is my infirmity. He has won the day, he talks reasonably now, and surveys the field with a cooler mind. He confesses that unbelief is an infirmity, a weakness, a folly, a sin. He may also be understood to mean, "this is my appointed sorrow, "I will bear it without complaint. When we perceive that our affliction is meted out by the Lord, and is the ordained portion of our cup, we become reconciled to it, and no longer rebel against the inevitable. Why should we not be content if it be the Lord's will? What he arranges it is not for us to cavil at. But I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High. Here a good deal is supplied by our translators, and they make the sense to be that the psalmist would console himself by remembering the goodness of God to himself and others of his people in times gone by: but the original seems to consist only of the words, "the years of the right hand of the most High, "and to express the idea that his long continued affliction, reaching through several years, was allotted to him by the Sovereign Lord of all. It is well when a consideration of the divine goodness and greatness silences all complaining, and creates a childlike acquiescence.

I will remember the works of the Lord. Fly back my soul, away from present turmoil, to the grandeurs of history, the sublime deeds of Jehovah, the Lord of Hosts; for he is the same and is ready even now to defend his servants as in days of yore. Surely I will remember thy wonders of old. Whatever else may glide into oblivion, the marvellous works of the Lord in the ancient days must not be suffered to be forgotten. Memory is a fit handmaid for faith. When faith has its seven years of famine, memory like Joseph in Egypt opens her granaries.

I will meditate also of all thy work. Sweet work to enter into Jehovah's work of grace, and there to lie down and ruminate, every thought being absorbed in the one precious subject. And talk of thy doings. It is well that the overflow of the mouth should indicate the good matter which fills the heart. Meditation makes rich talking; it is to be lamented that so much of the conversation of professors is utterly barren, because they take no time for contemplation. A meditative man should be a talker, otherwise he is a mental miser, a mill which grinds corn only for the miller. The subject of our meditation should be choice, and then our task will be edifying; if we meditate on folly and affect to speak wisdom, our double mindedness will soon be known unto all men. Holy talk following upon meditation has a consoling power in it for ourselves as well as for those who listen, hence its value in the connection in which we find it in this passage.

Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary, or in holiness. In the holy place we understand our God, and rest assured that all his ways are just and right. When we cannot trace his way, because it is "in the sea, "it is a rich consolation that we can trust it, for it is in holiness. We must have fellowship with holiness if we would understand "the ways of God to man." He who would be wise must worship. The pure in heart shall see God, and pure worship is the way to the philosophy of providence. Who is so great a God as our God? In him the good and the great are blended. He surpasses in both. None can for a moment be compared with the mighty One of Israel.

Thou art the God that doest wonders. Thou alone art Almighty. The false gods are surrounded with the pretence of wonders, but you really work them. It is thy peculiar prerogative to work marvels; it is no new or strange thing with thee, it is according to thy wont and use. Herein is renewed reason for holy confidence. It would be a great wonder if we did not trust the wonder working God. Thou hast declared thy strength among the people. Not only Israel, but Egypt, Bashan, Edom, Philistia, and all the nations have seen Jehovah's power. It was no secret in the olden time and to this day it is published abroad. God's providence and grace are both full of displays of his power; he is in the latter peculiarly conspicuous as "mighty to save." Who will not be strong in faith when there is so strong an arm to lean upon? Shall our trust be doubtful when his power is beyond all question? My soul see to it that these considerations banish thy mistrusts.

Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. All Israel, the two tribes of Joseph as well as those which sprang from the other sons of Jacob, were brought out of Egypt by a display of divine power, which is here ascribed not to the hand but to the arm of the Lord, because it was the fulness of his might. Ancient believers were in the constant habit of referring to the wonders of the Red Sea, and we also can unite with them, taking care to add the song of the Lamb to that of Moses, the servant of God. The comfort derivable from such a meditation is obvious and abundant, for he who brought up his people from the house of bondage will continue to redeem and deliver till we come into the promised rest. Selah. Here we have another pause preparatory to a final burst of song.

The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they were afraid. As if conscious of its Maker's presence, the sea was ready to flee from before his face. The conception is highly poetical, the psalmist has the scene before his mind's eye, and describes it gloriously. The water saw its God, but man refuses to discern him; it was afraid, but proud sinners are rebellious and fear not the Lord. The depths also were troubled. To their heart the floods were made afraid. Quiet caves of the sea, far down in the abyss, were moved with fear; and the lowest channels were left bare, as the water rushed away from its place, in terror of the God of Israel.

The clouds poured out water. Obedient to the Lord, the lower region of the atmosphere yielded its aid to overthrow the Egyptian host. The cloudy chariots of heaven hurried forward to discharge their floods. The skies sent out a sound. From the loftier aerial regions thundered the dread artillery of the Lord of Hosts. Peal on peal the skies sounded over the heads of the routed enemies, confusing their minds and adding to their horror. Thine arrows also went abroad. Lightnings flew like bolts from the bow of God. Swiftly, hither and thither, went the red tongues of flame, on helm and shield they gleamed; anon with blue bale fires revealing the innermost caverns of the hungry sea which waited to swallow up the pride of Mizraim. Behold, how all the creatures wait upon their God, and show themselves strong to overthrow his enemies.

The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven, or in the whirlwind. Rushing on with terrific swiftness and bearing all before it, the storm was as a chariot driven furiously, and a voice was heard (even thy voice, O Lord!) out of the fiery car, even as when a mighty man in battle urges forward his charger, and shouts to it aloud. All heaven resounded with the voice of the Lord. The lightnings lightened the world. The entire globe shone in the blaze of Jehovah's lightnings. No need for other light amid the battle of that terrible night, every wave gleamed in the fire flashes, and the shore was lit up with the blaze. How pale were men's faces in that hour, when all around the fire leaped from sea to shore, from crag to hill, from mountain to star, till the whole universe was illuminated in honour of Jehovah's triumph. The earth trembled and shook. It quaked and quaked again. Sympathetic with the sea, the solid shore forgot its quiescence and heaved in dread. How dreadful art thou, O God, when thou comest forth in thy majesty to humble thine arrogant adversaries.

Thy way is in the sea. Far down in secret channels of the deep is thy roadway; when thou wilt thou canst make a sea a highway for thy glorious march. And thy path in the great waters. There, where the billows surge and swell, thou still dost walk; Lord of each crested wave. And thy footsteps are not known. None can follow thy tracks by foot or eye. Thou art alone in thy glory, and thy ways are hidden from mortal ken. Thy purposes thou wilt accomplish, but the means are often concealed, yea, they need no concealing, they are in themselves too vast and mysterious for human understanding. Glory be to thee, O Jehovah.

Thou leddest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron. What a transition from tempest to peace, from wrath to love. Quietly as a flock Israel was guided on, by human agency which veiled the excessive glory of the divine presence. The smiter of Egypt was the shepherd of Israel. He drove his foes before him, but went before his people. Heaven and earth fought on his side against the sons of Ham, but they were equally subservient to the interests of the sons of Jacob. Therefore, with devout joy and full of consolation, we close this Psalm; the song of one who forgot how to speak and yet learned to sing far more sweetly than his fellows.

Whole Psalm. Whenever, and by whomsoever, the Psalm may have been written, it clearly is individual, not national. It utterly destroys all the beauty, all the tenderness and depth of feeling in the opening portion, if we suppose that the people are introduced speaking in the first person. The allusions to the national history may indeed show that the season was a season of national distress, and that the sweet singer was himself bowed down by the burden of the time, and oppressed by woes which he had no power to alleviate; but it is his own sorrow, not the sorrow of others under which he sighs, and of which he has left the pathetic record. J. J. Stewart Perowne.

In the beginning of the Psalm, before speaking of his sorrows, he hastens to show the necessary and most efficacious remedy for allaying sorrow. He says that he did not, as many do, out of their impatience of grief or murmuring, either accuse God of cruelty or tyranny, or utter blasphemous words by which dishonour might fall upon God, or by indulging in sorrow and distrust hasten his own destruction, or fill the air with vain complaining, but fled straight to God and to him unburdened his sorrow, and sought that he would not shut him out from that grace which he bountifully offers to all. This is the only and sure sovereign remedy which most effectually heals his griefs. Mollerus.

I cried. To the Orientals the word qeu presented the idea of a crash, as of the heavens sending out thunders and lightnings. Whence beyond other things he metaphorically says, he cried for sorrow; ...shaken with a tempest of thoughts he burst out into an open and loud sounding complaint. Hermann Venema.

Even unto God with my voice. The repetition here is emphatic. The idea is that it was an earnest or fervent cry. Albert Barnes.

(last clause). At the second knock, the door of grace flew open: the Lord heard me. John Collings.

Whole Psalm. See Psalms on "Ps 77:1" for further information.

In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord. Days of trouble must be days of prayer; in days of inward trouble, especially when God seems to have withdrawn from us, we must seek him, and seek till we find him. In the day of his trouble he did not seek for the diversions of business or recreation, to shake off his trouble that way, but he sought God, and his favour and grace. Those that are under trouble of mind, must not think to drink it away, or laugh it away, but pray it away. Matthew Henry.

My sore ran in the night. Hebrew: My hand was poured out; that is, stretched out in prayer; or wet with continual weeping. Non fuit remissa, nec retracta in lectum. John Trapp.

My sore ran in the night, and ceased not, etc. There is no healing of this wound, no easing of this sore, no cleansing of the conscience, no quieting of a man's spirit: till God whom the soul seeketh show himself as the Physician, the evil continueth still and groweth. David Dickson.

My soul refused to be comforted. God has provided suitable and sufficient comfort for his people. He sends them comforters just as their circumstances require. But they at times refuse to hear the voice of the charmer. The Lord has perhaps taken away an idol —or he withholds his sensible presence, that they may learn to live by faith —or he has blighted their worldly prospects —or he has written vanity and emptiness upon all their gourds, cisterns, and delights. They give way to passion, as did Jonah —or they sink into sullen gloom —or allow unhumbled pride to rule the spirit —or yield to extreme sorrow, as Rachel did —or fall under the power of temptation —or imbibe the notion that they have no right to comfort. This is wrong, all wrong, decidedly wrong. Look at what is left you, at what the gospel presents to you, at what heaven will be to you. But the psalmist was recovered from this state. He was convinced that it was wrong. He was sorry for his sin. He was reformed in his spirit and conduct. He wrote this Psalm to instruct, caution, and warn us. Observe, they who are entitled to all comfort, often through their own folly, enjoy the least. The Lord's people are often their own tormentors, they put away the cup of comfort from them, and say they are unworthy of it

O Thou source of every blessing,

Chase my sorrows, cheer my heart,

Till in heaven, thy smiles possessing,

Life, and joy, and peace impart. James Smith.

My soul refused to be comforted. Poor I, that am but of yesterday, have known some that have been so deeply plunged in the gulf of despair, that they would throw all the spiritual cordials that have been tendered to them against the walls. They were strong in reasoning against their own souls, and resolved against everything that might be a comfort and support unto them. They have been much set against all ordinances and religious services; they have cast off holy duties themselves, and peremptorily refused to join with others in them; yea, they have, out of a sense of sin and wrath, which hath laid hard upon them, refused the necessary comforts of this life, even to the overthrow of natural life, and yet out of this horrible pit, this hell upon earth, hath God delivered their souls, and given them such manifestations of his grace and favour, that they would not exchange them for a thousand worlds. O despairing souls, you see that others, whose conditions have been as bad if not worse than yours, have obtained mercy. God hath turned their hell into a heaven; he hath remembered them in their low estate; he hath pacified their raging consciences, and quieted their distracted souls; he hath wiped all tears from their eyes; and he hath been a well spring of life unto their hearts. Therefore be not discouraged, O despairing souls, but look up to the mercyseat. Thomas Brooks.

I remembered God, and was troubled. If our hearts or consciences condemn us, it is impossible to remember him without being troubled. It will then be painful to remember that he is our Creator and Redeemer, for the remembrance will be attended with a consciousness of base ingratitude. It will be painful to think of him as Lawgiver; for such thoughts will remind us that we have broken his law. It will be painful to think of his holiness; for if he is holy, he must hate our sins, and be angry with us as sinners: —of his justice and truth, for these perfections make it necessary that he should fulfil his threatenings and punish us for our sins. It will be painful to think of his omniscience —for this perfection makes him acquainted with our most secret offences, and renders it impossible for conceal them from his view; of his omnipresence —for the constant presence of an invisible witness must be disagreeable to those who wish to indulge their sinful propensities. It will be painful to think of his power —for it enables him to restrain or destroy, as he pleases: of his sovereignty, for sinners always hate to see themselves in the hands of a sovereign God: of his eternity and immutability —for from his possessing these perfections it follows that he will never alter the threatening which he has denounced against sinners, and that he will always live to execute them. It will be painful to think of him as judge; for we shall feel, that as sinners, we have no reason to expect a favourable sentence from his lips. It will even be painful to think of the perfect goodness and excellence of his character; for his goodness leaves us without excuse in rebelling against him, and makes our sins appear exceedingly sinful. Edward Payson.

I remembered God, and was troubled. All had not been well between God and him; and whereas formerly, in his remembrance of God, his thoughts were chiefly exercised about his love and kindness, now they were wholly possessed with his own sin and unkindness. This causeth his trouble. Herein lies a share of the entanglements occasioned by sin. Saith such a soul in itself, "Foolish creature, hast thou thus requited the Lord?" Is this the return that thou hast made unto him for all his love, his kindness, his consolations, mercies? Is this thy kindness for him, thy love to him? Is this thy kindness to thy friend? Is this thy boasting of him, that thou hadst found so much goodness and excellence in him and his love, that though all men should forsake him, thou never would do so? Are all thy promises all thy engagements which thou madest unto God, in times of distress upon prevailing obligations, and mighty impressions of his good Spirit upon thy soul, now come to this, that thou shouldest so foolishly forget, neglect, despise, cast him off? Well! now he is gone; he is withdrawn from thee; and what wilt thou do? Art thou not even ashamed to desire him to return? They were thoughts of this nature that cut Peter to the heart upon his fall. The soul finds them cruel as death, and strong as the grave. It is bound in the chains of them, and cannot be comforted, Ps 38:3-6. John Owen.

There are moments in the life of all believers when God and his ways become unintelligible to them. They get lost in profound meditation, and nothing is left them but a desponding sigh. But we know from Paul the apostle that the Holy Spirit intercedes for believers with God, when they cannot utter their sighs. Ro 8:26. Augustus F. Tholuck.

Selah. In the end of this verse is put the word Selah. And it doth note unto the reader or hearer what a miserable and comfortless thing man is in trouble, if God be not present with him to help him. It is also put as a spur and prick for every Christian man and woman to remember and call upon God in the days of their troubles. For as the Jews say, wheresoever this word Selah is, it doth admonish and stir up the reader or hearer to mark what was said before it; for it is a word always put after very notable sentences. John Hooper.

Thou holdest mine eyes waking. Thou art afflicted with want of sleep: —A complaint incident to distempered bodies and thoughtful minds. Oh, how wearisome a thing it is to spend the long night in tossing up and down in a restless bed, in the chase of sleep; which the more eagerly it is followed, flies so much the farther from us! Couldest thou obtain of thyself to forbear the desire of it, perhaps it would come alone: now that thou suest for it, like to some froward piece, it is coy and overly, and punishes thee with thy longing. Lo, he that could command a hundred and seven and twenty provinces, yet could not command rest. `On that night his sleep departed from him, 'Es 6:1, neither could be forced or entreated to his bed. And the great Babylonian monarch, though he had laid some hand on sleep, yet he could not hold it; for "his sleep brake from him, "Da 2:1. And, for great and wise Solomon, it would not so much as come within his view. "Neither day nor night seeth he sleep with his eyes." Ec 8:16. Surely, as there is no earthly thing more comfortable to nature than bodily rest (Jer 31:26); so, there is nothing more grievous and disheartening... Instead of closing thy lids to wait for sleep, lift up thy stiff eyes to him that "giveth his beloved rest, "Ps 127:2. Whatever be the means, he it is that holdeth mine eyes waking. He that made thine eyes, keeps off sleep from thy body, for the good of thy soul: let not thine eyes wake, without thy heart. The spouse of Christ can say, "I sleep, but my heart waketh, "So 5:2. How much more should she say, "Mine eyes wake, and my heart waketh also!" When thou canst not sleep with thine eyes, labour to see him that is invisible: one glimpse of that sight is more worth than all the sleep that thine eyes can be capable of. Give thyself up into his hands, to be disposed of at his will. What is this sweet acquiescence but the rest of the soul? which if thou canst find in thyself, thou shalt quietly digest the want of thy bodily sleep. Joseph Hall, in his "Balm of Gilead."

I am so troubled that I cannot speak. He adds that he was so cut down and lifeless that he could not speak. Little griefs, as it is often said, are uttered, great ones strike us dumb. In great troubles and fears the spirit fails the exterior members, and flows back to its fountain; the limbs stand motionless, the whole body trembles, the eyes remain fixed, and the tongue forgets its office. Hence it is that Niobe was represented by the poets as turned into a stone. The history of Psammentius also, in Herodotus, is well known, how over the misfortunes of his children he sat silent and overwhelmed, but when he saw his friend's calamities he bewailed them with bitter tears. Mollerus.

I am so troubled that I cannot speak. Sometimes our grief is so violent that it finds no vent, it strangles us, and we are overcome. It is with us in our desertions as with a man that gets a slight hurt; at first he walks up and down, but not looking betimes to prevent a growing mischief, the neglected wound begins to fester, or to gangrene, and brings him to greater pain and loss. So it is with us many times in our spiritual sadness; when we are first troubled, we pray and pour out our souls before the Lord; but afterwards the waters of our grief drown our cries and we are so overwhelmed, that if we might have all the world we cannot pray, or at least we can find no enlargement, no life, no pleasure in our prayers; and God himself seems to take no delight in them, and that makes us more sad, Ps 22:1. Timothy Rogers (1660-1729), in "A Discourse on Trouble of Mind, and the Disease of Melancholy."

Troubled. Or, bruised: the Hebrew word probably signifieth an astonishment caused by some great blow received. John Diodati.

I cannot speak. Words are but the body, the garment, the outside of prayer; sighs are nearer the heart work. A dumb beggar getteth an alms at Christ's gates, even by making signs, when his tongue cannot plead for him; and the rather, because he is dumb. Objection. I have not so much as a voice to utter to God; and Christ saith, "Cause me to hear thy voice" (Canticles 2:14). Answer. Yea, but some other thing hath a voice beside the tongue: "The Lord has heard the voice of my weeping" (Ps 6:8). Tears have a tongue, and grammar, and language, that our Father knoweth. Babes have no prayer for the breast, but weeping: the mother can read hunger in weeping. Samuel Rutherford.

If through all thy discouragements thy condition prove worse and worse, so that thou canst not pray, but are struck dumb when thou comest into his presence, as David, then fall making signs when thou canst not speak; groan, sigh, sob, "chatter, "as Hezekiah did; bemoan thyself for thine unworthiness, and desire Christ to speak thy requests for thee, and God to hear him for thee. Thomas Goodwin.

The days of old. Doubtless to our first parents the darkness of the first night was somewhat strange; persons who had never seen anything but the light of the day, when the shadows of the night first did encompass them, could not be without some apprehension: yet when at the back of a number of nights they had seen the day spring of the morning lights constantly to arise; the darkness of the blackest nights was passed over without fear, and in as great security, as the light of the fairest days. To men who have always lived upon land, when first they set to sea, the winds, waves, and storms are exceeding terrible; but when they are a little beaten with the experience of tempests, their fears do change into resolution and courage. It is of no small use to remember that those things which vex most our spirit, are not new, but have already been in times before our days. Robert Baylie's Sermon before the House of Commons. 1643.

I call to remembrance my song in the night. Either (1) "I will now, in the present night of affliction, remember my former songs." "Though this is a time of distress, and my present circumstances are gloomy, yet I have known brighter days. He that lifted me up, has cast me down, and he can raise me up again." Sometimes this reflection, indeed, adds a poignancy to our distress, as it did to David's trouble, Ps 42:4. Yet it will bear a better improvement, which he seems to make of it; Ps 77:11, and so Job, (Job 2:10.) "Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?" And his case shows that after the most sweeping calamities the Lord can again give things a turn in favour of them that hope in him. Therefore, present troubles should not make us forget former comforts, especially as the former so much exceeded our deserts, and the present afflictions fall so short of our demerits. Or (2) the text may mean, "I will remember how I have been enabled to sing in the former nights of affliction." And surely it is especially seasonable to remember supports and consolations granted under preceding distresses. Elihu complained (Job 35:10), "There is none that saith, Where is God my maker, who giveth songs on the night." David comforted himself with the thought, "Though deep calleth unto deep, yet the Lord will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me." Ps 42:8. And the Lord promised by Isaiah (Isa 30:29), "Ye shall have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept." No doubt Paul and Silas remembered their song in the night, when imprisoned at Philippi; and it afforded them encouragement under subsequent trials. And cannot many of you, my brethren, in like manner, remember the supports and consolations you have enjoyed in former difficulties, and how the Lord turned the shadow of death into morning? And ought you not to trust to him that hath delivered, that he will yet deliver? He that hath delivered in six troubles, will not forsake you in seven. The "clouds may return after the rain, "but not a drop can fail without the leave of him, who rides on the heavens for your help, and in his excellency on the sky. Did you not forbode at first a very different termination of the former troubles? and did the Lord disappoint your fears, and put a new song into your mouth; and will you not now begin to trust him, and triumph in him? Surely you have found that the Lord can clear the darkest skies. "Light is sown for the righteous, "and ere long you shall see an eternal day. If such songs are given to the pilgrims of the night, how shall they sing in that world where the sun shall set no more! There will be no night there. John Ryland. 1753-1825.

I call to remembrance: being glad in this scarcity of comfort, to live upon the old store, as bees do in winter. John Trapp.

My song in the night. The "songs of the night" is as favourite a word of the Old Testament as "glory in tribulation" is of the New, and it is one of those which prove that both Testaments have the self same root and spirit. John Kerr.

My spirit made diligent search. He falls upon self examination, and searcheth his spirit, to consider why the hand of God was so against him, and why the face of God was so hid from him. Some read it, "I digged into my spirit; "as Ezekiel digged into the wall, to search for and find out the abomination, that made the Lord thus leave him in the dark, and hide his face from him. He searcheth the wound of his spirit; that was another way to cure it. It is a notable way to cure the wounds of the soul, for the soul to search them. John Collings.

My spirit made diligent search. The verb vbx, chaphas, signifies such an investigation as a man makes who is obliged to strip himself in order to do it; or to lift up coverings, to search fold by fold, or in our own phrase, to leave no stone unturned. Adam Clarke.

My spirit made diligent search. As Ahasuerus, when he could not sleep, called for the records and chronicles of his kingdom, so the doubting soul betakes himself to the records of heaven, the word of God in the Scriptures, and one while he is reading there, another while looking into his heart, if he can find there anything that answers the characters of Scripture faith, as the face in the glass doth the face of man. David, when he was at a loss what to think of himself, and many doubts did clog his faith, insomuch that the thinking of God increased his trouble, he did not sit down and let the ship drive, as we say, not regarding whether God loved him or no, but communes with his own heart, and his spirit makes diligent search. Thus it is with every sincere soul under doubting: he dares no more sit down contented in that unresolved condition, than one who thinks he smells fire in his house dares settle himself to sleep till he hath looked in every room and corner, and satisfied himself that all is safe, lest he should be waked with the fire about his ears in the night: and the poor doubting soul is much more afraid, lest it should wake with hell fire about it: whereas a soul in a state and under the power of unbelief is secure and careless. William Gurnall.

Diligent search. Thus duty requires diligence. External acts of religion are facile; to lift up the eye to heaven, to bow the knee, to read a prayer, this requires no more labour than for a papist to tell over his beads; but to examine a man's self, to take the heart all in pieces as a watch, and see what is defective, this is not easy. Reflective acts are hardest. The eye can see everything but itself. It is easy to spy the faults of others, but hard to find out our own. Thomas Watson.

Doth his promise fail for evermore? Let no appearing impossibilities make you question God's accomplishment of any of his gracious words. Though you cannot see how the thing can be done, it is enough, if God has said that he will do it. There can be no obstructions to promised salvation, which we need to fear. He who is the God of this salvation, and the Author of the promise, will prepare his own way for the doing of his own work, so that "every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill brought low." Lu 3:5. Though the valleys be so deep that we cannot see the bottom, and the mountains so high that we cannot see the tops of them, yet God knows how to raise the one and level the other; Isa 53:1: "I that speak in righteousness (or faithfulness) am mighty to save." If anything would keep back the kingdom of Christ, it would be our infidelity; but he will come, though he should find no faith on the earth. See Ro 3:3. Cast not away your confidence because God defers his performances. Though providence run cross, though they move backwards and forwards, you have a sure and faithful word to rely upon. Promises, though they be for a time seemingly delayed, cannot be finally frustrated. Dare not to harbour such a thought within yourselves. The being of God may as well fail as the promise of God. That which does not come in your time, will be hastened in his time, which is always the more convenient season. Timothy Cruso.

Hath God forgotten to be gracious? In what pangs couldest thou be, O Asaph, that so woeful a word should fall from thee: Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Surely, the temptation went so high, that the next step had been blasphemy. Had not that good God, whom thy bold weakness questions for forgetfulness, in great mercies remembered thee, and brought thee speedily to remember thyself and him; that, which you confess to have been infirmity, had proved a sinful despair. I dare say for thee, that word washed thy cheeks with many a tear, and was worthy of more; for, O God, what can be so dear to thee, as the glory of thy mercy? There is none of thy blessed attributes, which thou desirest to set forth so much unto the sons of men, and so much abhorrest to be disparaged by our detraction, as thy mercy. Thou canst, O Lord, forget thy displeasure against thy people; thou canst forget our iniquities, and cast our sins out of thy remembrance, Mic 7:18-19; but thou canst no more forget to be gracious, than thou canst cease to be thyself. O my God, I sin against thy justice hourly, and thy mercy interposes for my remission: but, oh, keep me from sinning against thy mercy. What plea can I hope for, when I have made my advocate my enemy? Joseph Hall.

Hath God forgotten to be gracious? The poor child crieth after the mother. What shall I do for my mother! Oh, my mother, my mother, what shall I do for my mother! And it may be the mother stands behind the back of the child, only she hides herself, to try the affection of the child: so the poor soul cries after God, and complains, Oh my Father! my Father! Where is my heavenly Father? Hath he forgotten to be gracious? Hath he shut up his lovingkindness in displeasure? when, (all the while), God is nearer than they think for, shining upon them in "a spirit of grace and supplications, "with sighs and "groans that cannot be uttered." Thus the gracious woman, weeps: My dear Saviour, my dear Lord and Master, he is "taken out of the sepulchre, and I know not where they have laid him!" Thus she complains to the disciples, and thus she complains to the angels, when Christ stood at her very back and overheard all: nay, when she turned her about and saw him, yet at first she did not know him; nay, when he spoke to her and she to him, yet she knew him not, but thought he had been the gardener, Joh 20:15. Thus it is with many a gracious soul; though God speaks home to their hearts in his Word, and they speak to him by prayer, and they cannot say but the Spirit "helps their infirmities; "yet they complain for want of his presence, as if there were nothing of God in them. Matthew Lawrence.

Hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? The metaphor here is taken from a spring, the mouth of which is closed, so that its waters can no longer run in the same channel; but, being confined, break out and take some other course. Wilt thou take thy mercy from the Israelites and give it to some other people? Adam Clarke.

Selah. Thus was he going on with his dark and dismal apprehensions, when on a sudden he first checked himself with that word, Selah; stop there; go no further; let us hear no more of these unbelieving surmises; and then he chid himself, Ps 77:10: This is mine infirmity. Matthew Henry.

This is my infirmity. Literally, this is my disease, —which appears to mean, This is my lot and I must bear it; lo! it is a partial evil, for which the equity of God's government should not be questioned. The authorised version, This is my infirmity, suggests, perhaps advisedly, another signification, viz., These thoughts are but hallucinations of my agony, —but to this gloss I should scruple to commit myself. C. B. Cayley.

It is the infirmity of a believer to be thinking of himself, and drawing false inferences (for all such inferences are necessarily erroneous), from what he sees or feels, as to the light in which he is beheld and estimated on the part of God. It is his strength, on the other hand, to remember the right hand of the Most High —to meditate upon the changeless truth and mercy of that God who has committed himself in holiness to the believing sinner's sure salvation, by causing the Son of his love to suffer in our stead the dread reality of penal death. Arthur Pridham.

Infirmity. An infirmity is this, —some sickness or indisposition of the soul, that arises from the weakness of grace. Or an infirmity is this, —when the purpose and inclination of the heart is upright, but a man wants strength to perform that purpose; when "the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Mt 26:41); when a man can say with the apostle, "To will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not, "Ro 7:18. When the bent and inclination of the soul is right, but either through some violence of corruption or strength of temptation, a man is diverted and turned out of the way. As the needle in the seaman's compass, you know if it be right it will stand always northwards, the bent of it will be toward the North Pole, but being jogged and troubled, it may sometimes be put out of frame and order, yet the bent and inclination of it is still northward; this is an infirmity. James Nalton. 1664.

It is unnecessary to state all the renderings which the learned have given of this verse. It is unquestionably ambiguous, as the word ytwlh may be derived from different roots, which have different significations. I derive it from lwx or llx which signifies to be in pain as a woman in labour, and as it is in the infinitive, I render it, "the time of my sorrow or pain." The next term, twgv, I derive from hgv to change, as the Chaldee does, Ainsworth, Hammond, and others; and I render it potentially. I consider the whole as a beautiful metaphor. The author considers himself as in distress, like a woman in travail; and like her, hopes soon to have his sorrow turned to joy. He confides in God's power to effect such a change; and hence naturally recollects the past instances of God's favour to his people. Benjamin Boothroyd.

I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High. Not the moments, nor the hours, nor days of a few short afflictions, that his left hand hath dealt to me: but the years of his right hand; those long, large, and boundless mercies wherewith he hath comforted me. Thomas Adams.

I will remember the years, etc. The words in the Hebrew text are shenoth jemin gneljon, which I find to be variously rendered and translated by interpreters. I shall not trouble you with them all at this present time, but only take notice of two of them, which I conceive are the principal and most comprehensive; the one is our oldest English translation, and the other of our last and newest; the former reads the words thus: The right hand of the Most High can change all this. The latter reads the words thus, as we have it now before us, I will remember the years, etc. The main ground of this variation is the different exposition of the Hebrew word shenoth, which may be translated either to change, from the verb in the infinitive mood, or else may be translated years, from the noun in the plural number. This hath given the occasion to this difference and variety of translation, but the sense is very good and agreeable which way soever we take it —First, take it according to the former translation, as it does exhibit to us the power of God. The right hand of the Lord can change all this. This was that whereby David did support himself in his present affliction; that the Lord was able to change and alter this his condition to him, and that for the better... For the second sense here before us, that's this: I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High; where the word remember is borrowed from the next following verse, to supply the sense of this, as otherwise being not in the text. Now here the prophet David fetches a ground of comfort from God's practice, as before he did from his power; there, from what God could do; here, from what he has done already in former time, and ages, and generations. Thomas Horton.

I will remember, etc. Remember and commemorate, as the Hebrew (by a double reading) imports. John Trapp.

I will remember. Faith is a considering grace: he that believes will not make haste; no, not to think or speak of God. Faith hath a good memory, and can tell the Christian many stories of ancient mercies; and when his present meal falls short, it can entertain the soul with a cold dish, and not complain that God keeps a bad house. Thus David recovered himself, when he was even tumbling down the hill of temptation: This is my infirmity; but I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High. I will remember thy wonders of old. Therefore, Christian, when thou art in the depths of affliction, and Satan tempts thee to asperse God, as if he were forgetful of thee, stop his mouth with this: No, Satan, God hath not forgot to do for me, but I have forgot what he hath done for me, or else I could not question his fatherly care at present over me. Go, Christian, play over thy own lessons, praise God for past mercies, and it will not be long before thou hast a new song put into thy mouth for a present mercy. . . .

Sometimes a little writing is found in a man's study that helps to save his estate, for want of which he had gone to prison; and some one experience remembered keeps the soul from despair, a prison which the devil longs to have the Christian in. "This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope, "La 3:21. David was famous for his hope, and not less eminent for his care to observe and preserve the experiences he had of God's goodness. He was able to recount the dealings of God with him; they were so often the subject of his meditation and matter of his discourse, that he had made them familiar to him. When his hope is at a loss, he doth but exercise his memory a little, and he recovers himself presently, and chides himself for his weakness. I said, this is my infirmity: but I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High. The hound, when he hath lost his scent, hunts backwards and so recovers it, and pursues his game with louder cry than ever. Thus, Christian, when thy hope is at a loss, and you question your salvation in another world, then look backward and see what God hath already done for thee. Some promises have their day of payment here, and others we must stay to receive in heaven. Now the payment which God makes of some promises here, is an earnest given to our faith that the others also shall be faithfully discharged when their date expires; as every judgment inflicted here on the wicked is sent as a pledge of that wrath the full sum whereof God will make up in hell. William Gurnall.

The works of the Lord... Thy wonders. The psalmist does not mean to draw a distinction between the works and the wonders of God; but, rather, to state that all God's works are wonders... All, whether in providence or grace —all God's works are wonderful. If we take the individual experience of the Christian, of what is that experience made up? Of wonders. The work of his conversion, wonderful! —arrested in a course of thoughtlessness and impiety; graciously sought and gently compelled to be at peace with God, whose wrath he had provoked. The communication of knowledge, wonderful! —Deity and eternity gradually piled up; the Bible taken page by page, and each page made a volume which no searching can exhaust. The assistance in warfare, wonderful! —himself a child of corruption, yet enabled to grapple with the world, the flesh, and the devil, and often to trample them under foot. The solaces in affliction, wonderful! —sorrow sanctified so as to minister to joy, and a harvest of gladness reaped from a field which has been watered with tears. The foretastes of heaven, wonderful! —angels bringing down the clusters of the land, and the spirit walking with lightsome tread the crystal river and the streets of gold. All wonderful! Wonderful that the Spirit should strive with man; wonderful that God should bear with his backslidings; wonderful that God should love him notwithstanding his pollution; wonderful that God should persist in saving him, in spite, as it were, of himself. Oh! those amongst you who know anything, experimentally, of salvation through Christ, well know that the work is wonderful in its commencement, wonderful in its continuance, and they will need no argument to vindicate the transition from works to wonders. It will be the transition of your own thoughts and your own feelings, and you will never give in the record of God's dealings with yourselves without passing, as the psalmist passed, from mentioning to ascription. Ye may set yourselves to commemorate God's works, ye will find yourselves extolling God's wonders. Ye may begin with saying, I will remember the works of the Lord; but ye will conclude by exclaiming, Surely I will remember thy wonders of old. Henry Melvill.

Thy wonders. The word is in the singular here, and also in Ps 77:14. So also in the next verse, Thy work, because the one great wonder, the one great work in which all others were included, is before his thoughts. J. J. Stewart Perowne.

Thy wonders. He had before spoken to others, but here he turns to God. It is good for a soul in a hard exercise, to raise itself from thinking of God and of his works, unto speaking unto God directly: no ease or relief will be found till address be made unto himself, till we turn our face toward him and direct our speech unto him, as here the psalmist doth, from the midst of the eleventh verse to the end of the psalm. David Dickson.

Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary. The word sanctuary is to be taken either for heaven or for the temple. I am rather inclined to refer it to heaven, conceiving the meaning to be, that the ways of God rise high above the world, so that if we are truly desirous to know them, we must ascend above all heavens. Although the works of God are in part manifest to us, yet all our knowledge of them comes far short of their immeasurable height. Besides, it is to be observed, that none enjoy the least taste of his works but those who by faith rise up to heaven. And yet, the utmost point to which we can ever attain is, to contemplate with admiration and reverence the hidden wisdom and power of God, which, while they shine forth in his works, yet far surpass the limited powers of our understanding. John Calvin.

Thy way is in the sanctuary. That is, every one of the elect may and ought to learn in thy church the conduct and proceedings of thy providence towards those that were thine. John Diodati.

Verse 13, 19. In the sanctuary and In the sea. His way is in the sanctuary, and His wayis in the sea. Now there is a great difference between these two things. First of all, God's way is in the sanctuary, where all is light, all is clear. There is no mistake there. There is nothing, in the least degree, that is a harass to the spirit. On the contrary, it is when the poor, troubled one enters into the sanctuary, and views things there in the light of God, that he sees the end of all else —everything that is entangled, the end of which he cannot find on the earth. But not only is God's way in the sanctuary (and when we are there, all is bright and happy); but God's way is in the "sea." He walks where we cannot always trace his footsteps. God moves mysteriously by times, as we all know. There are ways of God which are purposely to try us. I need not say that it is not at all as if God had pleasure in our perplexities. Nor is it as if we had no sanctuary to draw near to, where we can rise above it. But, still, there is a great deal in the ways of God that must be left entirely in his own hands. The way of God is thus not only in the sanctuary, but also in the sea. And yet, what we find even in connection with his footsteps being in the sea is, "Thou leddest thy people like a flock, by the hand of Moses and Aaron." That was through the sea; afterwards, it was through the wilderness. But it had been through the sea. The beginnings of the ways of God with his people were there; because, from first to last, God must be the confidence of the saint. It may be an early lesson of his soul, but it never ceases to be the thing to learn. How happy to know that, while the sanctuary is open to us, yet God himself is nearer still —and to him we are brought now. As it is said (1 Peter 3), "Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God." This is a most precious thing; because there we are in the sanctuary at once, and brought to God himself. And I am bold to say, that heaven itself would be but a small matter if it were not to God that we are brought. It is better than any freedom from trial —better than any blessing, to be in the presence of the One we belong to; who is himself the source of all blessing and joy. That we are brought to him now is infinitely precious. There we are in the sanctuary brought to God. But, still, there are other ways of God outside the sanctuary —In the sea. And there we often find ourselves at a loss. If we are occupied with the sea itself, and with trying to scan God's footsteps there, then they are not known. But confidence in God himself is always the strength of faith. May the Lord grant us increasing simplicity and quietness in the midst of all that we pass through, for his name's sake. From "Things New and Old." 1865.

The God that doest wonders. If he said, Thou art the God that hast done wonders, it would be plain that he spake only of those ancient miracles which were wrought in former days: but now that he saith, Thou art the God that doest wonders, he evidently refers to those wonderful works, which he is doing now, and shall not cease to do even to the end of the world. Gerhohus.

The sons of Jacob and Joseph. The distinction between the sons of Jacob and Joseph is not meaningless. For by the sons of Jacob or Israel the believing Jews are properly intended, those that trace their descent to him not only according to the flesh but according to faith. Of whom although Joseph was one, yet since he was sold by his brethren and after many sufferings among foreign tribes raised to high rank, it is highly congruous to distinguish him from the sons of Jacob, and he is fitly regarded as a prince of the Gentiles apart from Jacob's sons, who sold him. Gerhohus.

The sons of Jacob and Joseph. Was it Joseph or was it Jacob that begat the children of Israel? Certainly Jacob begat, but as Joseph nourished them, they are called by his name also. Talmud.

The waters saw thee, O God, etc. "The waters of the Red Sea, "says Bishop Horne, "are here beautifully represented as endued with sensibility; as seeing, feeling, and being confounded, even to the lowest depths, at the presence and power of their great Creator, when he commanded them to open a way, and to form a wall on each side of it, until his people were passed over." This in fact is true poetry; and in this attributing of life, spirit, feeling, action, and suffering to inanimate objects, there are no poets who can vie with those of the Hebrew nation. Richard Mant.

The depths also were troubled. The depths are mentioned in addition to the waters, to show that the dominion and power of God reach not only to the surface of the waters, but penetrate to the most profound abysses, and agitate and restrain the waters from their lowest bottom. Mollerus.

Verses 16-18. The waters saw thee, but men do not see thee. The depths were troubled, but men say in their heart, There is no God. The clouds poured out water, but men pour not out cries and tears unto God. The skies send out a sound, but men say not, Where is God my Maker? Thine arrows also went abroad, but no arrows of contrition and supplication are sent back by men in return. The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven, but men hear not the louder thunders of the law. The lightnings lightened the world, but the light of truth shines in darkness and the darkness comprehends it not. The earth trembled and shook, but human hearts remain unmoved.

"My heart it shakes not at the wrath

And terrors of a God." George Rogers.

Verse 16-19. As soon as ever the whole Egyptian army was within it, the sea flowed to its own place, and came down with a torrent raised by storms of wind, and encompassed the Egyptians. Showers of rain also came down from the sky, and dreadful thunders and lightning, with flashes of fire. Thunderbolts also were darted upon them; nor was there anything which used to be sent by God upon men, as indications of his wrath, which did not happen at this time; for a dark and dismal might oppressed them. And thus did all these men perish, so that there was not one man left to be a messenger of this calamity to the rest of the Egyptians. Josephus.

Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, etc. Until lately, not much was known of oceanic currents, nor of their influences on the condition of particular localities and the intercourse of man with man. They are now seen to be the way or path of the Creator in the great waters. Numerous agencies tend to the production of these currents. Amongst them we may reckon the propagation of the tide wave in its progress over the globe, the duration and strength of certain winds, the variations in density which seawater undergoes in different latitudes, and at different depths, by change of temperature, and the quantity of salt it contains, and by the hourly alterations of atmospheric pressure which take place within the tropics. The oceanic currents are nearly constant in breadth, crossing the sea in many directions. Long bands of seaweed carried by the currents shew at once their velocity, and the line of demarcation between the waters at rest and the waters in motion. Between the tropics there is a general movement of the sea from east to west, called the equatorial current, supposed to be due to the trade winds, and the progress of the tide wave. There are narrower currents carrying warm water to higher and cold water to lower latitudes. Edwin Sidney, in "Conversations on the Bible and Science." 1860.

Thy way is in the sea, where no man can wade, except God be before him, but where any man may walk if God take him by the hand and lead him through. David Dickson.

Thy footsteps are not known. He often goeth so much out of our sight, that we are unable to give an account of what he doeth, or what he is about to do. Frequently the pillar of divine providence is dark throughout, to Israelites as well as Egyptians; so that his own people understand not the riddles, till he is pleased to be his own interpreter, and to lead them into his secrets. Samuel Slater(-1704), in "The Morning Exercises."

Thy footsteps are not known. That is, they are not always known; or, they are not known in all things; yea, they are not altogether known in anything. Joseph Caryl.

Thy footsteps are not known. Upon some affair of great consequence which had occurred in some providential dispensation, Luther was very importunate at the throne of grace to know the mind of God in it; and it seemed to him as if he heard God speak to his heart thus: "I am not to be traced." Referring to this incident, one adds, "If he is not to be traced, he may be trusted; "and that religion is of little value which will not enable a man to trust God where he can neither trace nor see him. But there is a time for everything beneath the sun, and the Almighty has his `times and seasons.' It has been frequently with my hopes and desires, in regard to providence, as with my watch and the sun, which has often been ahead of true time; I have gone faster than providence, and have been forced to stand still and wait, or I have been set back painfully. That was a fine sentiment of Flavel, "Some providence, like Hebrew letters, must be read backwards." Quoted in "Christian Treasury, "1849. Author not mentioned.

Thou leddest thy people like a flock, etc. From this verse the afflicted may learn many consolations. First, that the best people that be are no better able to resist temptation, than the simple sheep is able to withstand the brier that catcheth him. The next, that man is of no more ability to beware of temptations, than the poor sheep is to avoid the brier, being preserved only by the diligence of the shepherd. The third, that as the shepherd is careful of his entangled and briard sheep, so is God of his afflicted faithful. And the fourth is, that the people of Israel could take no harm of the water, because they entered the sea at God's commandment. Whereof we learn, that no danger can hurt when God doth command us to enter into it; and all dangers overcome us if we choose them ourselves, besides God's commandment; as Peter, when he went at God's commandment upon the water, took no hurt; but when he entered into the bishop's house upon his own presumption, was overcome and denied Christ. The Israelites, when they fought at God's commandment, the peril was nothing; but when they would do it of their own heads, they perished: so that we are bound to attend upon God's commandment, and then no danger shall destroy us, though it pain us. The other doctrine is in this, that God used the ministry of Moses and Aaron in the deliverance of his people, who did command them to do nothing but that the Lord did first bid. Whereof we learn that such as be ministers appointed of God, and do nothing but as God commandeth, are to be followed; as Paul saith, "Follow me, as I follow Christ." John Hooper.

Thou leddest thy people like a flock. Observe, the good shepherd leads his followers like sheep: First, with great solicitude and care, to protect them from wolves. Secondly, with consideration and kindness, for the sheep is a harmless animal. Thirdly, with a wise strictness, for sheep easily wander, and they are of all animals the most stupid. Thomas Le Blanc.

Leddest thy people. Our guiding must be mild and gentle, else it is not duxisti, but traxisti; drawing and driving, and no leading. Leni spiritu non dure manu, rather by an inward sweet influence to be led, than by an outward extreme violence to be forced forward. So did God lead his people here. Not the greatest pace, I wist, for they were a year marching that they might have posted in eleven days, as Moses saith. (De 1:2.) No nor yet the nearest way neither, as Moses telleth us. (Ex 8:18.) For he fetched a compass divers times, as all wise governors by his example must do, that desire rather safely to lead, than hastily to drive forward. "The Spirit of God leadeth this people, "saith Isaiah (Isa 63:14) "as an horse is ridden down the hill into a valley; " which must not be at a gallop, lest horse and ruler both come down one over another; but warily and easily. Lancelot Andrewes.

By the hand of Moses and Aaron. He says not, Moses and Aaron led the people of Israel; but, Thou leddest the people, and that thy people, by the hand of Moses and Aaron. Great was the power of these two men; nevertheless neither of them was the shepherd of the sheep, but each was a servant to the one and only true shepherd, to whom the sheep exclusively belonged. Nor yet was either the leader of the sheep, but the shepherd himself was present and led his own flock, to whom these two acted as servants. There are therefore three things to be learned from this passage. First, the sheep do not belong to the servants, but to the true shepherd. Secondly, the true shepherd is the leader of his own sheep. Thirdly, the offices of Moses and Aaron was to attend to this duty, that the Lord's sheep should be properly led and pastured. So Christ himself leads the sheep, his own sheep, and for this work he employs the ministry of his servants. Musculus.

The psalmist has reached the climax of his strain, he has found relief from his sorrow by forcing his thoughts into another channel, by dwelling on all God's mightiest wonders of old; but there he must end: in his present intensity of passion he cannot trust himself to draw forth in detail any mere lessons of comfort. There are seasons when even the holiest faith cannot bear to listen to words of reasoning; though it can still find a support whereon to rest, in the simple contemplation, in all their native grandeur, of the deeds that God hath wrought. Joseph Francis Thrupp.

The benefit of using the voice in private prayer.

Verses 1, 3, 5, 10. Note the wise man's progress out of his soul trouble.

1. I cried.

2. I remembered.

3. I considered.

4. I said.

See "Spurgeon's Sermons, "No. 853. "A Sermon for the Most Miserable of Men."

1. Special prayer: In the days, etc.

2. Persevering prayer: hands lifted up to God by night as well as by day.

3. Agonizing prayer: my soul refused to be comforted, until the answer came. "Being in an agony, he prayed, "etc.

(last clause). When this is wise, and when it is censurable.

1. A good man cannot rest on his bed until his soul rests on God.

2. He cannot speak freely to others until God speaks peace to his soul. G. R.

Occupation for the sleepless, and consolation for the speechless.

Verses 5-6. There are four rules for obtaining comfort in affliction.

1. The consideration of God's goodness to his people of old.

2. Remembrance of our own past experience.

3. Self examination.

4. The diligent study of the word. G. R.

Remembrance. A good memory is very helpful and useful.

1. It is a great means of knowledge: for what signifies your reading or hearing, if you remember nothing?

2. It is a means of faith: 1Co 15:2.

3. It is a means of comfort. If a poor Christian in distress could remember God's promises they would inspire him with new life; but when they are forgotten, his spirits sink.

4. It is a means of thankfulness.

5. It is a means of hope; for "experience worketh hope" (Ro 5:4), and the memory is the storehouse of experience.

6. It is a means of repentance; for, how can we repent or mourn for that which we have forgotten?

7. It is a means of usefulness. When one spark of grace is truly kindled in the heart, it will quickly endeavour to heat others also. R. Steele.

(first clause). To place the question in a strong light, let us consider,

1. Of whom is the question raised? the Lord.

2. What course of action is in question? cast off for ever.

3. Towards whom would the action be performed?

These questions,

1. Suppose a change in the immutable Jehovah in two glorious attributes.

2. Are contrary to all past evidence.

3. Can only arise from the flesh and Satan; and, therefore,

4. Are to be met in the power of the Spirit, with strong faith in the Eternal God.

A confession applicable to many other matters. Such as, fear of death, fear of desertion, dread of public service, sensitiveness of neglect, etc.

My infirmity. Different meanings of this word. These would furnish a good subject. Some infirmities are to be patiently endured, others gloried in, others taken in prayer to God for his Spirit's help, and others lamented and repented of.

Verses 10-12. Remember, meditate, talk.

Verses 11-12.

1. Consolation derived from the remembrance of the past.

2. Consolation increased by meditation.

3. Consolation strengthened by communication: "and talk," etc. G. R.

Verses 11-12.

1. Consolation derived from the remembrance of the past.

2. Consolation increased by meditation.

3. Consolation strengthened by communication: "and talk," etc. G. R.

Themes for thought and topics for conversation. Creation, Providence, Redemption, etc.

In the sea, in the sanctuary. God's way incomprehensible, though undoubtedly right: in his holiness lies the answer to its enigmas.

In the sea, in the sanctuary. God's way incomprehensible, though undoubtedly right: in his holiness lies the answer to its enigmas.

Thaumaturgeis, or the Great Wonder worker.

And Joseph. The honour of nourishing those who have been begotten of God by other men's labours.

Redemption thy power, the consequence, evidence, and necessary attendant of redemption by price.

1. The redeemed: thy people; the sons of, etc.

(a) In captivity though they are his people.

(b) His people though they are in captivity.

2. The redemption: from Egyptian bondage.

3. The Redeemer: Thou, with thine arm, etc. God by Christ, his arm: Mine own arm brought, etc. To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? G. R.

Verses 16-18.

1. The homage of nature to the God of grace.

2. Its subserviency to his designs. G. R.

1. The ways of God to men are peculiar: In the sea: thy path, etc.

2. They are uniform, they lie in regular footsteps.

3. They are inscrutable: like the path of the ship upon the waters, not of the ploughshare on the land.

God's way is in the sea. In things changeable, ungovernable, vast, unfathomable, terrible, overwhelming, the Lord has the ruling power.

1. The subjects of divine guidance: thy people.

2. The manner of their guidance: like a flock —separated, united, dependent.

3. The agents employed: by the hand; the Great Shepherd leads by the hand of under shepherds. "May every under shepherd keep his eye intent on Thee."

Church history.

1. The church a flock.

2. God seen as leading it on.

3. Instrumentality always used.

WORK UPON THE SEVENTY-SEVENTH PSALM

"An Exposition upon the Seventy-seventh Psalm, made by the constant Martyr of Christ, Master John Hooper, Bishop of Gloucester and Worcester." In the "Later Writings of Bishop Hooper." (In Parker Society's Publications, and also in the "British Reformer's" series of the Religious Tract Society.)