A manual of the book of Psalms · Martin Luther
PSALM LXXVII.
_The psalmist sheweth what fierce combat he had with diffidence.—The victory which he had by consideration of God’s great and gracious works._ To the chief Musician to Jeduthun. A Psalm of Asaph. I cried unto God with my voice, _even_ unto God with my voice; and he gave ear unto me. 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. I remembered God, and was troubled: I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Selah. Thou holdest mine eyes waking: I am so troubled that I cannot speak. I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times. I call to remembrance my song in the night: I commune with mine own heart: and my spirit made diligent search. Will the LORD cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more? Is his mercy clean gone for ever? doth _his_ promise fail for evermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah. And I said, This _is_ my infirmity: _but I will remember_ the years of the right hand of the Most High. I will remember the works of the LORD: surely I will remember thy wonders of old. I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings.
Thy way, O God, _is_ in the sanctuary: who _is so_ great a God as _our_ God! Thou _art_ the God that doest wonders: thou hast declared thy strength among the people. Thou hast with _thine_ arm redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah. The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee: they were afraid: the depths also were troubled. The clouds poured out water: the skies sent out a sound: thine arrows also went abroad. The voice of thy thunder _was_ in the heaven: the lightnings lightened the world: the earth trembled and shook. Thy way _is_ in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known. Thou leddest thy people like a flock, by the hand of Moses and Aaron. This Psalm contains a blessed doctrine: the Psalmist puts forth himself as an example: and the whole is for the consolation of the godly: for the Psalmist describes the unspeakable anguish and sorrow of a heart alarmed at the wrath of God and sin: and he says, verse 4, that he was so overwhelmed with these terrors and sorrows, that he could neither sleep nor speak. And in verses 7–10, he, as it were, repeats all these his feelings of sorrow and dread, saying, “Will God forget to be merciful? Doth his promise fail for evermore”?
But here, as the Psalm saith, lies the greatest and best of all consolations,—you will at once find comfort and deliverance if, casting away from your mind (if you can by any means do it,) all these apprehensions of evils and sorrows, (by which indeed you are distressed in vain,) you turn to the word and works of God, and to the histories of God’s doings and dealings from the beginning of the world: for you will there find that the works and doings of God from the beginning have been these,—to be merciful to and to save and help the sorrowful, the distressed, the destitute, and the afflicted; and to visit, in vengeance, the secure, the proud, the despisers, and the wicked, in the same way as he delivered the Israelites, and destroyed the Egyptians. Hence it is that David says, “Thy way, O God, is in the deep,” and “in the sea:” for God saves in the midst of death and of destruction, when despair is on every side. Learn this, my Christian brother! This Psalm thus sets forth to us God and the ways of God: that is, how he works, and what he does, in his church and in the saints: and all this is thus written, that we should not despair in perils and afflictions, when we are beyond the reach of all human help: but that rather, casting away all our own apprehensions and distressing thoughts, we should, at, and from that time, begin to trust in God, and to trust in him more and more, waiting for his help.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.