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Good morning Southside. It’s Wednesday and you’re about to be halfway through this week. We have been looking at questions asked in the Bible. Today we come to a series of questions found in the Psalms 77:7-9, “Has the Lord rejected me forever? Will He never again be kind to me? (8) Is His unfailing love gone forever? Have His promises permanently failed? (9) Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has He slammed the door on His compassion?”ESV). Each of these questions reflect the same feeling and attitude of the psalmist — abandonment by God. There are times we all feel this way, especially when bad news comes in the form of medical tests, death of a loved one, loss of a job or marriage and relational problems.

 The psalmist writes through most of the psalm about his feeling of abandonment. This psalm is what we call a “lament” psalm. As the psalmist cries out about his great need turn to focusing on how God had helped him in the past. This reflection gives the answer to his question: “Is God faithful?” And he concludes God is. As you read through this psalm you see that the psalmist’s problem is not solved, but rather dissolves.

 As we read through this psalm, and I would encourage you to do so, you will see that the psalmist will not accept pat answers because he knows they will not comfort him nor solve his problems. His pain intensifies in this psalm because he feels God is part of the problem. As he reflects back on the past and sees what God did to save and rescue His people from an Egyptian army by parting the Red Sea, he expresses that the God he knows today seems different from the God of the past. 

 His remembrance of God only intensifies his pain, because what God has done in the past does not seem to match the psalmist’s present experience. This disjunction causes the psalmist to groan. Why?

 “The present distress seems contradictory to the history of God’s involvement and love for his people. The more he muses on the divine perfection, the louder he speaks, and the more his spirit ‘grows faint’ within him. His active remembrance of God does not give comfort but has the opposite effect: groaning and spiritual exhaustion” (Source: W. VanGemeren, Psalms, Vol. 5, p. 500).

 And according to verse 5, the psalmist blames God for his insomnia, which stole the energy he feels he needs to get through this dilemma. The Hebrew verb that is translated as “troubled” or “distressed” in verse 4 is [פָּעַם, nizamti” denotes recurrent blows that persist in beating him down. We all can feel his pain because we all have felt his pain. We are not told why the psalmist was in this situation. We do not know if he is paying the consequences for his sin, or some personal failures or mistakes. 

 In Psalm 77:16 he writes this, “When the Red Sea saw you, O God, its waters looked and trembled! The sea quaked to its very depths” (NLT). To the psalmist as well as to the majority of Jews, “the Exodus was the definitive act of salvation for Israel. It marked the commencement of nationhood under God’s lordship and it set the pattern for God’s future relationship with his people” (Source: A Harman, “The Exodus and the Sinai Covenant in the Book of Psalms.” RTR 73, pp. 3–27).

 The psalm has a lot to teach us about asking hard and tough questions during periods of intense pain and isolation. The irony is this. The psalm reports that remembering the Lord’s works in the past aided in the struggle of trying to understand God’s apparent lack of action in the present. Christian Old Testament scholar, A. Ross writes this:

“The life of faith will include times of God’s apparent absence as well as his presence—both are true. And there is nothing wrong with pouring out lamentations and complaints to God in such times, even if they include expressions of doubts and fears. If the frustrations are presented to God, even if they seem bold and confrontational, they remain in the realm of faith. Thus, meditating on the Lord and His deeds moves the psalmist out of his fear and into renewed faith in the Lord. As the holy God, the Lord is incomparably wise, so His people need not doubt; He is incomparably strong, so His people need not give up; and He is incomparably good, so His people need not worry” (Source. A. Ross, Ross, A. A Commentary on the Psalms, Volume 2 (pp. 42–89).

 The good news is God desires that we be honest before Him. He already knows what is in our heart and thoughts. We cannot hide these feelings and thoughts from Him. What the Exodus is in the Old Testament, the Resurrection is in the New Testament. In Psalm 77:10, the psalmist seems to suggest that his present troubles are due to his own decisions. He is having to live with the consequences of his own sin. This psalm reminds us that “God will not be mocked; whatever we sow, we will reap” (Gal. 6:7). 

Questions To Consider

  1. What consequences have you had to live with due to either sin, or failure or mistakes by your own hand? How did you cope and deal with it?
  2. Like the psalmist, what action or inaction caused insomnia in you? What was it and how did you cope with it?
  3. There are times we wonder if God is faithful like the psalmist. How the psalmist coped with the consequences of his own sin, or failures, or mistakes was to focus on what God had done in the past. This approach did not solve his problems, but it did disable them. How is this helpful?

Scripture To Meditate On: Psalm 55:16-17, “But I will call on God, and the Lord will rescue me. (17) Morning, noon, and night I cry out in my distress, and the Lord hears my voice” (NLT).

 Prayer To Pray: “Dear Jesus, I know that even when I sin, You are still with me. You have promised to be with me always, even until the end of the age. You have promised me that nothing can separate me from Your love. When my sin brings consequences into my life, help me not to blame You or lose faith and trust in You. I believe You are good all the time, even when I sin. When I am going to the “valley of the shadow of death,” help me to focus on what You have done for me in the past. I love You Jesus. In Jesus’ name, Amen!

 I love you Southside!—Pastor Kelly

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