The title of today’s study — "Moodiness: Refusing Comfort" — refers not to mood swings, or suddenly changing moods, e.g. angry to happy to sad, but to the sort of low feeling that sticks like a heavy mood. As we look to Psalm 77 for the answer, we also want to consider, what might prayer look like, if the very idea of God deepens our sadness? What sorts of questions does God invite us to ask? What sort of people are God’s people?
(A) Persistent Speech: An invitation to the troubled to speak , and to be spoken to by God (Ps 77:1-9)
The psalm paints a vivid picture in the opening verses of the psalm. He seeks God in the day of his trouble (Ps 77:2). This gives us the context for his crying out. Something is not right. What else do we know about the day of trouble? Nothing! He doesn’t write about this day. We only know the effect on the psalmist.
We read of how his hands are stretched in the night and it remains outstretched (Ps 77:2). He cries aloud to God and he continues to do so persistently, confident that God hears (Ps 77:1). He pours his hands and voice to the Lord. He is emotional and loud and this is an ongoing cry. This is a man bent towards God, searching for something.
How is his hand stretched out? It is stretched out without wearying. It seems like the psalmist is the active one and God doesn’t seem to be in the picture. God seems to be hidden. Why does the psalmist persist in this way? There is an element of faith, the God will hear him. Yet, he is not finding what he is seeking. He writes, “my soul refuses to be comforted” (Ps 77:2c). This is not because he doesn’t want it, but because he is seeking something specific. He refuses to be comforted until he gets the comfort he needs. In Psalm 77:2-3, we read even of the soul and spirit. The psalmist’s cry is not superficial and it goes deep down.
The psalmist doesn’t want cheap comfort and easy answers here. And we naturally assume that the solution he seeks is God! Yet, look at Psalm 77:3. We expect him to be better when he remembers God. Instead, the thought of God results in an outside moaning and inside fainting. The psalmist is in complete distress.
Have you experienced this? Notice the notation “Selah”. It usually marks a pause and causes the congregation to pause and not to rush. Is this an uncomfortable thought, that you can feel worse when you go to God? The psalmist will continue this thought in Psalm 77:7-9 later.
Not only that, he cannot get a break and rest and he sees how God is keeping him awake (Ps 77:4).
Are these opening verses a bit of a downer? He goes to God but it feels worse? Yet these verses also show us one reality — that it is alright to be not ok for a long time. This psalm shows us that there are Christians that struggle in this way. They do not find a resolution quickly. Believers can be in profound pain that doesn’t seem to go away. Do you know anyone like this? Are you the person that people can go to? Or perhaps this is your experience! Psalm 77 reminds us that we can be honest about our pain before God.
The psalmist seem to run out of words (Ps 77:4b) and proceeds to consider the days of old, the years long ago (Ps 77:5). How far back was he thinking to? Was it to think back to his childhood? He is casting his mind way, way back, which we will see in Psalm 77:7-9. In both Psalm 77:3 and Psalm 77:6, there is a similar mention of remembering and thinking. He listens and search when he runs out of words, and continues to remember and meditate on God’s words. Though we reach our own limit and have exhausted our own resources, it is not over. It might mean a time to listen, to listen to the God who listens to the psalmist.
From Psalm 77:7-9, we see that though his experience is real, it is too narrow and unstable to draw any conclusions about himself and about God. These verses also parallel God’s description of Himself in Exodus 34:6-7. Here, the psalmist knows his Bible and takes it back to God. He is using God’s own words to frame and articulate his feelings.
We can talk about our experience but the psalmist shows us that we can also consider and ask good questions — am I alone? are others here? What sort of God is this and what has He done? Has God changed such that He will “spurn forever”? If so, He is not God. Is He still God or can He just shrug off His nature and everything He has said? The psalmist adopts a similar approach in other psalms, where he wakes up in the middle of the night and sings songs of praise (c.f. Ps119:62, Ps 63:6). And after Psalm 77:9, he pauses, with the well-placed Selah.
What about us? Do we struggle to believe who God says He is? Or perhaps we have given up already? The psalmist stands on God’s own promises and wrestles with that! Are your prayers filled with the promises God makes? What do you stand on when you call out to God? Surely it must His words! The psalmist refuses comfort because he holds God’s promises and takes them to God! This is how he shows his faith
(B) Persistent Listening: An invitation to be folded into the story of the God who saves (Ps 77:10-20)
Psalm 77:10-11, like the preceding verses in Psalm 77:5-6, has the psalmist remembering. He is remembering the past in both cases but in Psalm 77:10-11, he is remembering “the years of the right hand of the Most High”. This right hand is a reference to when they have just left Egypt and escaped via the Red Sea (c.f. Exo 15:6). The right hand of God is therefore powerful, able and takes action. This escape is a formative point where the right hand is spoken of. It is likely that the psalmist speaks about this here, and he is also remembering the Lord’s wonders of old (Ps 77:11).
Psalm 77:11-12 marks the last time the psalmist uses the first person reference in the psalm, and he goes on to talk about God and a people. The psalmist speaks of God and his way, and his holiness (Ps 77:13). He guides His people and HIs way involves bringing His people to His holy place. This is why He is a great God — not only is He set apart, He also brings us to Himself. He works wonders and made known His might (Ps 77:14, c.f. Exo 14:4). God also redeemed His people (Ps 77:15, c.f. Exo 6:6)
Notice how the psalmist is not just being emotional, but he is remembering a specific event and history. Now, he is not bored by this story. He doesn’t just switch off but rehearses it as a part of his remembering and meditation.
Psalm 77:16-18 also describes nature responding to God. The waters, a picture of chaos and unknowable to us even today, tusn to God in fear (Ps 77:16a). The unknowable deeps trembled before God (Ps 77:16b). Through the response of the clouds, skies, thunder and the whirlwind, we also see how nature obeys God in a way that does not obey human (Ps 77-17-18). His lightnings light up the world and the earth shook with His presence (Ps 77:18). Nature is more alive to God’s power and presence. Shall we not approach God with some sort of awe?
At the end of the psalm, we see how God led his people by the hand (Ps 77:19-20). They are like sheep! Consider the sort of people God calls His own. His way is through the sea and great waters. They appeared to be walking to their death and were overwhelmed, troubled and scared. His footprints also appeared to be unseen. They had to trust that God is with them and would preserve and lead them. The path that seems to lead no where is a path to live because He entered and leads them through.
The psalmist sees himself in the exodus story, and is thinking about his own experience through his people’s history. What, then, is our founding story? As Christians today, it must be His death and resurrection and His ascension. For us, as we think about the past, we don’t just go back to the deliverance of Israel in the Exodus. We also see the powerful God in this verse, who sent His sent to die in our place with all our sins on Him. On the cross, the most God-forsakenn place — His outstretched arm became the means for our abundant gift and grace. No one could place Him there. He did it. And, He comes to us with outstretched arms, not with a power that parts the sea, but really when He stretches it on the cross.
What sort of a God and people we have? We have a mighty God who loves terribly weak people. This is not a God who is standing at the end of the Red Sea to see who makes it through. His way is through the great waters and He comes in and goes through with us. He comes to us in the day of trouble when we cannot find comfort and passes through the deep waters with us, for our sake.
What do you wrestle with today, and what do you turn to for comfort? Are there places in your life where you can be still and meditate on what God has done for you? How does the Psalm teach you to do that?