Psalms 77 - Introduction

A.M. 2989. B.C. 1015.

Whoever was the author of this Psalm, he was manifestly in great trouble when he composed it. What the trouble was does not appear; but whatever it was, the sting of it lay in this, that he apprehended himself to be forsaken of God: and, without doubt, this is, of all afflictions, the most insupportable; a grief which no medicine can reach, which all the powers of reason can hardly assist. For the soul refuses to be comforted. That he speaks of the sorrows of a heart under the influence of true piety, is manifest from the description he gives of his behaviour in his distress. He was sorely troubled, but in the day of his trouble he sought the Lord. He was afflicted, but in his affliction he remembered God. Whatever doubts he entertained, as to his own condition, and the favour of God toward him, yet of the being, the power, and wisdom of God he did not doubt. This faith, which, in his utmost extremity, he held fast, proved to be his sheet-anchor, and saved him from the shipwreck which the storms and tempests raised in his own breast seemed to threaten. (See Bishop Sherlock's Discourses, vol. 2. p. 229.) The psalmist complains of deep distress and temptations to despair, Psalms 77:1. He encourages himself to hope, by the remembrance of what God had done formerly, Psalms 77:11.