Psalm 77 commentary

PSALM 77 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
For the director of music. For Jeduthun. Of
Asaph. A psalm.
I TRODUCTIO
SPURGEO , "TITLE. To the Chief Musician, to Jeduthun. It was meet that
another leader of the psalmody should take his turn. o harp should be silent in the
courts of the Lord's house. A Psalm of Asaph. Asaph was a man of exercised mind,
and often touched the minor key; he was thoughtful, contemplative, believing, but
withal there was a dash of sadness about him, and this imparted a tonic flavour to
his songs. To follow him with understanding, it is needful to have done business on
the great waters, and weathered many an Atlantic gale.
DIVISIO S. If we follow the poetical arrangement, and divide at the Selahs, we
shall find the troubled man of God pleading in Psalms 77:1-3, and then we shall
hear him lamenting and arguing within himself, Psalms 77:4-9. From Psalms 77:10-
15 his meditations run toward God, and in the close he seems as in a vision to behold
the wonders of the Red Sea and the wilderness. At this point, as if lost in an ecstasy,
he hurriedly closes the Psalm with an abruptness, the effect of which is quite
startling. The Spirit of God knows when to cease speaking, which is more than those
do who, for the sake of making a methodical conclusion, prolong their words even to
weariness. Perhaps this Psalm was meant to be a prelude to the next, and, if so, its
sudden close is accounted for. The hymn now before us is for experienced saints
only, but to them it will be of rare value as a transcript of their own inner conflicts.
COKE, "Title. ‫למנצח‬ ‫על‬ ‫ידותון‬ ‫ףּלאס‬ ‫מזמור‬ lamnatseach al ieduthun leasaph mizmor.]
Whoever was the author of this psalm, he was manifestly under a great dejection of
mind when he penned it. He speaks of himself as deserted of God, and given up to
be a prey to the sorrows of his own disturbed and tormented heart, see Psalms 77:2-
3. What the particular grief was which gave rise to this mournful complaint, does
not appear; but, whatever it was, the sting of it lay in this, that the Psalmist
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 cannot assist: for the soul refuses to be comforted: that the
Psalmist speaks of the sorrows of a religious well-disposed heart, is manifest from

the description that he gives of his conduct and behaviour under 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, Psalms 77:3. Whatever doubts he
entertained as to his own condition, and the favour of God towards him, yet of the
being, the power, and wisdom of God, he never doubted: 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 and the note on the last
verse.
ELLICOTT, "The affliction out of which the mournful cry of this psalm rises is
presented in such general terms that there is no single indication by which to refer it
to one period more than another. As the consolation is sought entirely in the history
of national deliverance, and not in any display of divine goodness toward the author
individually, it is safe to conclude that the troubles described are also national
rather than personal. At all events, for the time the poet’s individuality is entirely
merged in the sense of public calamity. The question whether the psalm, or
Habakkuk 3:10-15, which at its close it resembles, is the original, would, if it could
be decided, be some guide in ascertaining the date of the composition. But there
appear arguments equally strong on both sides of this question. There is a striking
change of rhythm at Psalms 77:16, otherwise the structure is regular.
1 I cried out to God for help;
I cried out to God to hear me.
BAR ES, "I cried unto God with my voice - That is, he cried or prayed audibly.
It was not mere mental prayer. See the notes at Psa_3:4.
Even unto God with my voice - The repetition here is emphatic. The idea is that it
was an earnest or fervent cry. Compare the notes at 2Co_12:8.
And he gave ear unto me - See Psa_5:1, note; Psa_17:6, note.
CLARKE, "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.
GILL, "I cried unto God with my voice,.... Which is to be understood of prayer, and

that vocal, and which is importunate and fervent, being made in distress; see Psa_3:4, or
"my voice was unto God" (h), "and I cried"; it was directed to him, and expressed in a
very loud and clamorous way:
even unto God with my voice; or "my voice was unto God"; which is repeated to
show that he prayed again and again, with great eagerness and earnestness, his case
being a very afflicted one:
and he gave ear unto me; his prayer was not without success; God is a God hearing
and answering prayer, according to his promise, Psa_50:15.
HE RY 1-2, "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 (Psa_77:1), 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_5:13), and, being in an
agony, he prayed more earnestly (Psa_77:1): 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 (Psa_77:2): 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 Psa_
143:5, Psa_143:6.
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, Pro_25:20. 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.
JAMISO , "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.
expresses the purport of the Psalm.

CALVI , "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.
SPURGEO , "Ver. 1. 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.
EXPLA ATORY OTES A D QUAI T SAYI GS
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.
Ver. 1. 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.
Ver. 1. 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.
Ver. 1. Even unto God with my voice. The repetition here is emphatic. The idea is
that it was an earnest or fervent cry. Albert Barnes.
Ver. 1. (last clause). At the second knock, the door of grace flew open: the Lord
heard me. John Collings.
BE SO , "Psalms 77:1. I cried unto God, &c. — This verse seems to contain the
sum of the whole Psalm, consisting of two parts, namely, his earnest cry to God in
his deep distress, and God’s gracious answer to his prayers, by supporting him
under his troubles, and giving him assurance of a good issue out of them; of both
which he speaks distinctly and particularly as he proceeds in the Psalm.
K&D, "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, ‫ין‬ִ‫ז‬ ֲ‫ֽא‬ ַ‫ה‬ְ‫ו‬ appears to be meant to be imperative
after the form ‫יל‬ ִ‫ט‬ ְ‫ק‬ ַ‫,ה‬ which occurs instead of ‫ל‬ ֵ‫ט‬ ְ‫ק‬ ַ‫ה‬ and ‫ה‬ ָ‫יל‬ ִ‫ת‬ ְ‫ק‬ ַ‫,ה‬ cf. Psa_94:1; Isa_43:8;
Jer_17:18, and the mode of writing ‫יל‬ ֵ‫ט‬ ְ‫ק‬ ַ‫,ה‬ 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; ‫ין‬ִ‫ז‬ ֲ‫ֽא‬ ַ‫ה‬ְ‫ו‬ has been regarded as perf. consec. in the sense of ut audiat, although this
modification of ‫ין‬ִ‫ז‬ ֱ‫ֽא‬ ֶ‫ה‬ into ‫ין‬ִ‫ז‬ ֲ‫ֽא‬ ַ‫ה‬ 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 ‫ין‬ִ‫ז‬ ֲ‫ֽא‬ ַ‫ה‬ְ‫ו‬ in respect of sound
stands for ‫ין‬ֶ‫ז‬ ֲ‫ֽא‬ַ‫י‬ְ‫.ו‬ 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 (‫ה‬ָ‫מוּנ‬ ֱ‫,א‬ 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 (‫ף‬ ֵ ַ‫ע‬ ְ‫ת‬ ִ‫ה‬ 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.
COFFMA , "Verse 1
PSALM 77
THE PROBLEM OF HA DLI G DOUBT I DIFFICULT TIMES
The big factor in this psalm is the problem of doubt. It appears to us that
Dummelow's analysis of this psalm is as good as any. And from that understanding
of it, it is not hard to figure out why the psalmist is almost overcome with doubt.
"Here we have the psalmist's experience of personal perplexity and darkness,
caused by the contemplation of Israel's national distress. It may be dated
approximately in the time of the exile: (1) Psalms 77:1-3 describe the psalmist's
trouble, in which prayer has brought no comfort. (2) Psalms 77:4-9 tell how his
remembrance of a brighter past suggests that perhaps God has now cast off his
people forever. (3) In Psalms 77:10-20, he turns for comfort to the story of God's
wondrous works of old, such as (a) the deliverance of Israel from Egypt (Psalms
77:15); (b) the marvelous miracle of the Red Sea crossing (Psalms 77:16-19); and (c)
God's guidance of Israel through the wilderness experiences (Psalms 77:20)."[1]
The terrible doubt and sorrow that depressed God's faithful remnant among the
notoriously apostate people of Israel in the period ending in their Babylonian
captivity must indeed have reached epic proportions. The reprobate nation fully
deserved to be cut off forever, and their godless kingdom cried out to heaven for its
destruction.
Of course, God did what God had to do. He liquidated the kingdom and sent the
residue of it to Babylon, where, through generations of hardship, the righteous
remnant were given the privilege of re-focusing their love, not upon an earthly state,
but upon the godly lives required in those who really desired to be a part of God's
"chosen people."
It was no slackening of God's love for his people that brought about the traumatic
experience of the exile. It was required by the gross wickedness of the vast majority
of racial Israel. It was impossible for the righteous minority to understand why
things were everywhere turning into unqualified disaster and destruction for
national Israel, hence, the terrible doubt of the psalmist expressed here.
Some scholars understand this psalm as a "national lament,"[2] and others think of
it as the lament of an individual; but the simple truth seems to be that it is indeed
the lament of an individual brought about by the terrible fate of the kingdom which
was in the process of being providentially destroyed.

Psalms 77:1-3
DESCRIPTIO OF THE PSALMIST'S CO DITIO
"I will cry unto God with my voice,
Even unto God with my voice; and he will give ear unto me.
In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord:
My hand was stretched out in the night, and slacked not;
My soul refused to be comforted.
I remember God, and am disquieted:
I complain, and my spirit is overwhelmed.
(Selah)"
One may feel nothing but sympathetic concern for all of God's children who
suffered the incredible agony of living through all of the sorrows that fell upon
national Israel during those days leading up to the captivity. It was indeed a time of
darkness and doubt for all of them.
"I sought the Lord" (Psalms 77:2) ... "My soul refused to be comforted" (Psalms
77:2) ... "I remember God ... am disquieted ... and my spirit is overwhelmed"
(Psalms 77:3). The trouble was due to the cessation of God's blessings upon national
Israel in the manner that he had once so gloriously done. The impossibility was not
with God; it was with Israel; their sins and rebellion against the Lord had finally
reached a climax beyond which God was determined to "cut them off." The
precious saints who still loved the Lord still prayed for the beloved nation; but God
could no longer answer such prayers. Given the lack of understanding on the part of
the saints, and the rapidly worsening conditions afflicting the nation, and their
doubt is easily understood.
ELLICOTT, "Verse 1
(1) I cried . . .—Better, following the Hebrew literally,
“My voice to God—and let me cry;
My voice to God—and He hears me.”
The Authorised Version has followed the LXX. and Vulg. in neglecting the striking
changes in mood running through this psalm. Soliloquy and narrative alternate as
the poet’s mood impels him—now to give vent to his feelings in sobs and cries, now

to analyse and describe them.
WHEDO , "1. I cried unto God— “My distresses were great, and I had none but
God to go to.”—Hammond.
He gave ear unto me—The rabbinical construction takes the verb as a peculiar form
of the imperative, (hear thou me,) which suits better the feelings of the psalmist as
not having yet received the answer to prayer. The complaint goes on to Psalms 77:9,
and the subsequent part of the psalm describes only the triumph of faith, not the
formal fulfilment of his request. Compare Habakkuk 3:17-19
EBC, "THE occasion of the profound sadness of the first part of this psalm may be
inferred from the thoughts which brighten it into hope in the second. These were the
memories of past national deliverance. It is natural to suppose that present national
disasters were the causes of the sorrow which enveloped the psalmist’s spirit and
suggested questions of despair, only saved from being blasphemous because they
were so wistful. But it by no means follows that the singer is simply the personified
nation. The piercing tone of individual grief is too clear, especially in the
introductory verses, to allow of that hypothesis. Rather, the psalmist has taken into
his heart the troubles of his people. Public calamity has become personal pain. What
dark epoch has left its marks in this psalm remains uncertain. If Delitzsch’s
contention that Habakkuk 3:1-19 is in part drawn from it were indubitably
established, the attribution of the psalm to the times of Josiah would be plausible;
but there is, at least, room for doubt whether there has been borrowing, and if so,
which is original and which echo. The calamities of the Exile in their severity and
duration would give reasonable ground for the psalmist’s doubts whether God had
not cast off His people forever. o brief or partial eclipse of His favour would
supply adequate occasion for these.
The psalm falls into two parts, in the former of which (Psalms 77:1-9) deepest gloom
wraps the singer’s spirit, while in the latter (Psalms 77:10-20) the clouds break.
Each of these parts fall into three strophes, usually of three verses; but in the
concluding strophe, consisting of five, Selah stands at the end of the first and third,
and is not present at the end of the second, because it is more closely connected with
the third than with the first. In like manner the first strophe of the second part
(Psalms 77:10-12) has no Selah, but the second has (Psalms 77:13-15); the closing
strophe (Psalms 77:16-20) being thus parted off.
The psalmist’s agitation colours his language, which fluctuates in the first six verses
between expressions of resolve or desire (Psalms 77:1, Psalms 77:3, Psalms 77:6) and
simple statement of fact (Psalms 77:2, Psalms 77:4, Psalms 77:5). He has prayed long
and earnestly, and nothing has been laid in answer on his outstretched palm.
Therefore his cry has died down into a sigh. He fain would lift his voice to God, but
dark thoughts make him dumb for supplication, and eloquent only in self-pitying
monologue. A man must have waded through like depths to understand this pathetic
bewilderment of spirit. They who glide smoothly over a sunlit surface of sea little
know the terrors of sinking with choked lungs, into the abyss. A little experience will

go further than much learning in penetrating the meaning of these moanings of
lamed faith. They begin with an elliptical phrase, which, in its fragmentary
character, reveals the psalmist’s discomposure. "My voice to God" evidently needs
some such completion as is supplied above; and the form of the following verb
("cry") suggests that the supplied one should express wish or effort. The repetition
of the phrase in Psalms 77:1 b strengthens the impression of agitation. The last
words of that clause may be a petition, "give ear," but are probably better taken as
above. The psalmist would fain cry to God, that he may be heard. He has cried, as
he goes on to tell in calmer mood in Psalms 77:2, and has apparently not been heard.
He describes his unintermitted supplications by a strong metaphor. The word
rendered "stretched out" is literally poured out as water, and is applied to weeping
eyes. [Lamentations 3:49] The Targum substitutes eye for hand here. but that is
commentary, not translation. The clause which we render "without ceasing" is
literally "and grew not stiff." That word, too, is used of tears, and derivatives from
it are found in the passage just referred to in Lamentations ("intermission"), and in
Lamentations 2:18 ("rest"). It carries on the metaphor of a stream, the flow of
which is unchecked. The application of this metaphor to the hand is harsh, but the
meaning is plain-that all night long the psalmist extended his hand in the attitude of
prayer, as if open to receive God’s gift. His voice "rose like a fountain night and
day"; but brought no comfort to his soul; and he bewails himself in the words which
tell of Jacob’s despair when he heard that Joseph was dead. So rooted and
inconsolable does he think his sorrows. The thought of God has changed its nature,
as if the sun were to become a source of darkness. When he looks up, he can only
sigh; when he looks within, his spirit is clothed or veiled-i.e., wrapped in
melancholy.
BI 1-20, "I cried unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice; and He gave
ear unto me.
The faculty of human thought
The whole psalm may be used to illustrate the faculty of human thought. Throughout the
whole the author speaks of “remembering, considering, musing,” making “diligent
search,” meditating, etc, etc.
I. It is a power that can inflame the soul with longings for God (Psa_77:1-2). By thought
this man brought the Eternal into his soul, even in the stillness and darkness of night. It
presented Him as an Object to whom he appealed in his distress, and from whom he
received relief.
II. It has power to fill the soul with mingled emotions.
1. Here is sadness (Psa_77:2-10). The writer says, “his soul refused to be comforted,”
“he was troubled,” “overwhelmed,” so “troubled that he could neither sleep nor
speak,” so troubled that he cries out, “Will God cast off for ever? and will He be
favourable no more?” What sinful man can think upon God without being troubled
with remorse and troubled with forebodings? Thought can lash the soul into a
tempest, can kindle it into a hell.
2. Here is joy (Psa_77:10-20). “And I said, this is my infirmity;” or rather, my hope.
(1) The joy of gratitude. “I remember the years of the right hand of the Most

High.” Thoughts upon the past mercies of God have a power to kindle the soul
into raptures of gratitude.
(2) Joy of adoration. “Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary;” or, Thy way is holy.
The holiness of God is suited to inspire us with holy rapture.
(3) Joy of trustfulness. “Thou art the God that doest wonders.” The psalmist
remembers what God had done in conducting the children of Israel through the
Red Sea into the promised land; and this inspired and exalted him with new
hope. Thus, thought can fill the soul either with sadness or with joy. It createst
the weather within—cloudy or sunny, stormy or calm; the seasons within—
spring, summer, autumn, or winter. What a wonderful faculty is this with which
Heaven has endowed us, this faculty of thought.
III. It is a power over which man has a personal control. The psalmist speaks of himself
as directing his own thoughts. “I sought, I remembered, I considered.” This power over
thought is the dignity of our nature, and is that which invests us with responsibility. Man
has no direct power over any faculty but this. He has no immediate control over his
feelings or faiths. He could no more awaken love or produce repentance by a direct
effort, than he could create a world. He can think or not think—think upon this subject
or that, in this aspect or another, consecutively or desultorily, profoundly or
superficially. This he can do; and herein is his freedom. (Homilist.)
God’s ear open to the cry of the needy
A cheque without a signature at the bottom is nothing but a worthless piece of paper.
The stroke of a pen confers on it all its value. The prayer of a poor child of Adam is a
feeble thing in itself, but once endorsed by the hand of the Lord Jesus, it availeth much.
There was an officer in the city of Rome who was appointed to have his doors always
open, in order to receive any Roman citizen who applied to him for help. Just so the ear
of the Lord Jesus is ever open to the cry of all who want mercy and grace. It is His office
to help them. (J. C. Ryle.)
2 When I was in distress, I sought the Lord;
at night I stretched out untiring hands,
and I would not be comforted.
BAR ES, "In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord - Compare the notes at

Psa_50:15. This trouble may have been either mental or bodily; that is, it may have
arisen from some form of disease, or it may have been that which sprang from
difficulties in regard to the divine character, government, and dealings. That it
“assumed” the latter form, even if it had its beginning in the former, is apparent from the
following verses. Whether it was connected with any form of bodily disease must be
determined by the proper interpretation of the next clause in this verse.
My sore ran in the night - Margin, “My hand.” It is evident that our translators
sup. posed that there was some bodily disease - some running sore - which was the cause
of his trouble. Hence, they so rendered the Hebrew word. But it is now generally agreed
that this is without authority. The Hebrew word is “hand” - ‫יד‬ yâd - a word which is
never used in the sense of sore or wound. The Septuagint renders it, “my hands are
before him.” The Vulgate renders it in the same manner. Luther, “My hand is stretched
out at night.” DeWette, “My hand is stretched out at night unwearied.” The word which
is rendered in our version “ran” - ‫נגר‬ nâgar - means to “flow;” and, in Niphil, to be
poured out, and then, “to be stretched out;” which is evidently its meaning here. The
idea is, that his hand was stretched out in earnest supplication, and that this continued
in the night when these troubles came most upon him. See Psa_77:4, Psa_77:6. In his
painful meditations in the night. watches - in thinking on God and his ways, as he lay
upon his bed, he stretched out his hand in fervent prayer to God.
And ceased not - The word used here - ‫פוג‬ pûg - means properly to be cold; then, to
be torpid, sluggish, slack. Here it means that the hand did not become weary; it did not
fall from exhaustion; or, in other words, that he did not give over praying through
weariness or exhaustion.
My soul refused to be comforted - I resisted all the suggestions that came to my
own mind, that might have comforted me. My heart was so melancholy and downcast;
my spirits were so crushed; my mind was so dark; I had become so morbid, that I loved
to cherish these thoughts. I chose to dwell on them. They had obtained possession of me,
and I could not let them go. There was nothing that my own mind could suggest, there
was nothing that occurred to me, that would relieve the difficulty or restore peace to my
soul. These sad and gloomy thoughts filled all my soul, and left no room for thoughts of
consolation and peace. A truly pious man may, therefore, get into a state of mind - a sad,
dispirited, melancholy, morbid state - in which nothing that can be said to him, nothing
that will occur to himself, will give him comfort and peace. Compare Jer_31:15.
CLARKE, "My sore ran in the night, and ceased not - This is a most
unaccountable translation; the literal meaning of ‫נגרה‬ ‫ידי‬ 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.
GILL, "In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord,.... Not the creature, for help,
and creature amusements to drive away trouble, but the Lord, in private, by prayer and
supplication; a time of trouble is a time for prayer, Jam_5:13, all men have their trouble,
but the people of God more especially; and there are some particular times in which they
have more than usual, and then it may be said to be "a day of trouble" with them; which

sometimes arises from themselves, the strength of their corruptions, the weakness of
their graces, their backwardness to duties, or poor performance of them; sometimes
from others, from the profaneness or persecutions of the men of the world, from the
heretical notions or wicked lives of professors; sometimes from the temptations of
Satan, and at other times from the Lord himself more immediately, by his withdrawing
his presence from them, or by laying his afflicting hand upon them; but, let the trouble
come from what quarter it may, it is always right to seek the Lord. Some think reference
is had to the time of trouble mentioned in Dan_12:1,
my sore ran in the night; my "stroke", or "wound" (i); so Kimchi interprets it; the
wound that was made in his soul, and the pain and anguish, grief and trouble, which
flowed from it; see Jer_6:7 though the word may be literally rendered "my hand" (k);
and the sense is, either that his hand flowed or was wet with wiping his eyes, or with the
tears that flowed from his eyes, which ran down to his fingers' ends; so the Targum,
"in the night my eye dropped with tears;''
or rather that his hand was stretched out, as waters, that are poured out and run, are
spread, that is, in prayer; the stretching out of the hand being a prayer gesture:
and ceased not; was not remiss and feeble, or was not let down, as Moses's, Exo_17:11,
it denotes the constancy of prayer, and his continuance in it; he prayed without ceasing:
my soul refused to be comforted: such was the greatness of his distress, like that of
Jacob's and Rachel's, Gen_37:35, it is right to refuse comfort and peace, which men
speak to themselves upon the false foundation of their own merit and works; or any but
what comes from the God of all comfort, and through Christ, in whom is all solid
consolation, and by his Spirit, who is the Comforter; but it is wrong to refuse any that
comes from hence, and by means of the promises, the word and ordinances and
ministries of the Gospel, or Christian friends; this shows the strength of unbelief.
JAMISO , "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” (Gen_45:26; Psa_38:8).
my soul ... comforted — (compare Gen_37:35; Jer_31:15).
CALVI , "2.I sought the Lord in the day of my trouble. In this verse he expresses
more distinctly the grievous and hard oppression to which the Church was at that
time subjected. There is, however, some ambiguity in the words. The Hebrew word
‫יד‬ , yad, which I have translated hand, is sometimes taken metaphorically for a
wound; and, therefore, many interpreters elicit this sense, My wound ran in the
night, and ceased not, (286) that is to say, My wound was not so purified from
ulcerous matter as that the running from it was made to stop. But; I rather take the
word in its ordinary signification, which is hand, because the verb ‫,נגרה‬ niggera,
which he uses, signifies not only to run as a sore does, but also to be stretched forth
or extended. (287) ow, when he affirms that he sought the Lord in the day of his
trouble, and that his hands were stretched out to him in the night season, this

denotes that prayer was his continual exercise, — that his heart was so earnestly
and unweariedly engaged in that exercise, that he could not desist from it. In the
concluding sentence of the verse the adversative particle although is to be supplied;
and thus the meaning will be, that although the prophet found no solace and no
alleviation of the bitterness of his grief, he still continued to stretch forth his hands
to God. In this manner it becomes us to wrestle against despair, in order that our
sorrow, although it may seem to be incurable, may not shut our mouths, and keep us
from pouring out our prayers before God.
SPURGEO , "Ver. 2. 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.
Whole Psalm. See Psalms on "Psalms 77:1" for further information.
Ver. 2. 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.
Ver. 2. My sore ran in the night. Hebrew: My hand was poured out; that is,
stretched out in prayer; or wet with continual weeping. on fuit remissa, nec
retracta in lectum. John Trapp.
Ver. 2. 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.
Ver. 2. 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.
Ver. 2. 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.
BE SO , "Psalms 77:2. In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord — Being
afflicted, he prayed, James 5:13, and being in an agony he prayed the more
fervently: he cried unto God. He did not apply to the diversion of business, or of any
recreation, that he might by that means shake off his trouble; but he had recourse to
God in prayer, and sought his favour and grace. In this he is an example for our

imitation. When under any trouble, and especially trouble of mind for sin, we must
apply to God and spread our case before him. We must not endeavour to get rid of
our trouble some other way, but must entreat him to remove it by lifting up the light
of his countenance upon us. This, and only this, will give us peace of mind, and put
joy and gladness into our hearts. My sore ran — Hebrew, ‫נגרה‬ ‫,ידי‬ jadi niggerah, my
hand flowed, or poured forth, that is, was spread abroad, or stretched out to God in
prayer and ceased not. — So Hammond, Patrick, Waterland, and Houbigant. In the
night — Which to others was a time of rest and refreshment, but to me of sorrow
and distress. My soul refused to be comforted — Without a gracious answer from
God, and an assurance that he had not cast me off, but was again reconciled to me,
Psalms 77:7-9 . Till I should obtain this, I rejected all those consolations which
either my friends or my own mind suggested.
ELLICOTT, "(2) My sore ran . . .—The text of this verse is evidently faulty. As it
stands it is unintelligible. My hand was poured out and grew not dull (like a corpse).
The LXX. and Vulg. have, “with my hands against Him, and I was not deceived,”
pointing to a different reading. Symmachus has, however, “my hand was stretched
out,” which may be a possible meaning of the Hebrew, though a comparison with
Lamentations 3:49 (comp. Lamentations 2:18) suggests that eye was written instead
of hand. The Authorised Version’s sore comes from the Rabbins, who thought of the
hand beating the breast, and rendered, “my blows were poured out.” Though the
probable text may be beyond recovery, the feeling of the verse is quite palpable. It
expresses the anguish of the poet’s soul—
“His vows in the night, so fierce and unavailing,
Stings of his shame and passion of his tears.”
WHEDO , "2. In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord— ot only the depth of
the psalmist’s sufferings is here indicated, such as God only could relieve, but his
true piety. His troubles brought him nearer to God. Psalms 50:15.
My sore ran in the night—Hebrew, My hand was stretched out all night; that is, in
the posture of earnest supplication. Psalms 44:20; Psalms 88:9.
Ceased not—Rested not. Compare the painfulness of the attitude with Exodus
17:11-12
3 I remembered you, God, and I groaned;
I meditated, and my spirit grew faint.[b]

BAR ES, "I remembered God - That is, I thought on God; I thought on his
character, his government, and his dealings; I thought on the mysteries - the
incomprehensible things - the apparently unequal, unjust, and partial doings - of his
administration. It is evident from the whole tenor of the psalm that these were the things
which occupied his attention. He dwelt on them until his whole soul became sad; until
his spirit became so overwhelmed that he could not find words in which to utter his
thoughts.
And was troubled - The Septuagint renders this, εᆒφράνθην euphranthēn - I was
rejoiced or delighted. So the Vulgate. Luther renders it, “When I am troubled, then I
think on God.” Our translation, however, has probably given the true idea; and in that
has expressed
(a) what often occurs in the case of even a good man - that by dwelling on the dark and
incomprehensible things of the divine administration, the soul becomes sad and
troubled to an extent bordering on murmuring, complaint, and rebellion; and may also
serve to illustrate
(b) what often happens in the mind of a sinner - that he delights to dwell on these
things in the divine administration:
(1) as most in accordance with what he desires to think about God, or with the views
which he wishes to cherish of him; and
(2) as justifying himself in his rebellion against God, and his refusal to submit to him -
for if God is unjust, partial, and severe, the sinner is right; such a Being would be
unworthy of trust and confidence; he ought to be opposed, and his claims ought to be
resisted.
I complained - Or rather, I “mused” or “meditated.” The word used here does not
necessarily mean to complain. It is sometimes used in that sense, but its proper and
common signification is to meditate. See Psa_119:15, Psa_119:23, Psa_119:27, Psa_
119:48, Psa_119:78,Psa_119:148.
And my spirit was overwhelmed - With the result of my own reflections. That is, I
was amazed or confounded by the thoughts that came in upon me.
CLARKE, "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.”
GILL, "I remembered God, and was troubled,.... Either the mercy, grace, and
goodness of God, as Jarchi; how ungrateful he had been to him, how sadly he had
requited him, how unthankful and unholy he was, notwithstanding so much kindness;

and when he called this to mind it troubled him; or when he remembered the grace and
goodness of God to him in time past, and how it was with him now, that it was not with
him as then; this gave him uneasiness, and set him a praying and crying, that it might be
with him as heretofore, Job_29:2, or rather he remembered the greatness and majesty
of God, his power and his justice, his purity and holiness, and himself as a worm, a poor
weak creature, sinful dust and ashes, not able to stand before him; he considered him
not as his father and friend, but as an angry Judge, incensed against him, and
demanding satisfaction of him:
I complained; of sin and sorrow, of affliction and distress: or "I prayed", or
"meditated" (l); he thought on his case, and prayed over it, and poured out his complaint
unto God, yet found no relief:
and my spirit was overwhelmed; covered with grief and sorrow, pressed down with
affliction, ready to sink and faint under it:
HE RY, " 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, Psa_77:3. (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
(Job_23:15); 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_32:19), 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.
JAMISO , "His sad state contrasted with former joys.
was troubled — literally, “violently agitated,” or disquieted (Psa_39:6; Psa_41:5).
my spirit was overwhelmed — or, “fainted” (Psa_107:5; Jon_2:7).
CALVI , "3.I will remember God, and will be troubled. The Psalmist here employs
a variety of expressions to set forth the vehemence of his grief, and, at the same time,
the greatness of his affliction. He complains that what constituted the only remedy
for allaying his sorrow became to him a source of disquietude. It may, indeed, seem
strange that the minds of true believers should be troubled by remembering God.
But the meaning of the inspired writer simply is, that although he thought upon God
his distress of mind was not removed. It no doubt often happens that the
remembrance of God in the time of adversity aggravates the anguish and trouble of
the godly, as, for example, when they entertain the thought that he is angry with

them. The prophet, however, does not mean that his heart was thrown into new
distress and disquietude whenever God was brought to his recollection: he only
laments that no consolation proceeded from God to afford him relief; and this is a
trial which it is very hard to bear. It is not surprising to see the wicked racked with
dreadful mental agony; for, since their great object and endeavor is to depart from
God, they must suffer the punishment which they deserve, on account of their
rebellion against him. But when the remembrance of God, from which we seek to
draw consolation for mitigating our calamities, does not afford repose or
tranquillity to our minds, we are ready to think that he is sporting with us. We are
nevertheless taught from this passage, that however much we may experience of
fretting, sorrow, and disquietude, we must persevere in calling upon God even in the
midst of all these impediments.
SPURGEO , "Ver. 3. 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.
Whole Psalm. See Psalms on "Psalms 77:1" for further information.
Ver. 3. 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.
Ver. 3. 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, Psalms 38:3-6. John
Owen.
Ver. 3. 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. Romans 8:26.
Augustus F. Tholuck.
Ver. 3. 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.
BE SO , "Psalms 77:3. I remembered God, and was troubled — Yea, the thoughts
of God, and of his infinite power, wisdom, truth, and goodness, which used to be
very sweet and consolatory to me, were now causes of terror and trouble, because
these divine attributes appeared to be all engaged against me; and God himself, my

only friend, now seemed to be very angry with me, and to have become mine enemy.
The word ‫,אהמיה‬ ehemajah, here rendered I was troubled, properly signifies, I was
in a state of perturbation, like that of the tumultuous waves of the sea in a storm. I
complained — Unto God in prayer; and my spirit was overwhelmed — So far was I
from finding relief by my complaints, that they increased my misery. Hebrew, ‫אשׁיחה‬
‫ותתעשׂ‬ Š ‫,רוחי‬ ashicha vetithgnatteph ruchi, I meditated, and my spirit covered,
overwhelmed, or obscured itself. My own reasonings, instead of affording me light
and comfort, only served to overwhelm me with greater darkness and misery. How
frequently is this the case with persons in distress of soul, through a consciousness of
their guilt, depravity, and weakness, and their desert of the wrath of God! This
verse “is a fine description,” says Dr. Horne, “of what passes in an afflicted and
dejected mind. Between the remembrance of God and his former mercies, and the
meditation on a seeming desertion, under present calamities, the affections are
variously agitated, and the prayers disturbed like the tumultuous waves of a
troubled sea; while the fair light from above is intercepted, and the face of heaven
overwhelmed with clouds and darkness."
ELLICOTT, "Verse 3
(3) I remembered.—Better,
“If I remember God I must sigh;
I meditate, and my spirit faints.”
Or,
“Let me remember God, and sigh;
I must complain, and my spirit faints.”
The word rendered overwhelmed (comp. Psalms 142:3; Psalms 143:4) means
properly covers itself up. In Psalms 107:5 it is translated fainted.
WHEDO , "3. I remembered God, and was troubled—Or, moaned. This
remembrance of God corresponds to his seeking him in the previous verse, and the
trouble, or moaning, to the stretching out of his hand, specimens of poetic
parallelism. He was “troubled” because God was now withdrawn and hidden from
him.
I complained—Hebrew, meditated, same word as is rendered “commune,” Psalms
77:6. To meditate is to hold a subject steadily before the mind, to consider it in all its
relations; more intensive than remember; thus, “I remembered God and was
troubled; I meditated and was overwhelmed."
SBC, "There are two points of view under which we wish to present this subject: the
strangeness of such an experience and some of the reasons that may account for it.
I. The strangeness of such an experience—that a man should remember God and yet be

troubled. For consider: (1) that such an experience is against all that is made known to
us of the nature of God. From the very first, revelation has had one purpose, and could
have only one: to present God in such a light that His sinful creatures should come and
find rest in Him. (2) It becomes strange when we reflect not only on the nature of God,
but on His promises. They are so universal, so free, so full, that they seem fitted to meet
every want and satisfy every yearning of the human soul. That the heart of a man who
hears these words and believes that they come from the lips of God should be troubled at
remembering Him must seem very strange. (3) It must appear strange further when we
consider that trouble at the thought of God is declared to be against the experience of all
sincere seekers. There is a history of cases reaching all through the Bible, and the burden
of them is, "This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his
troubles." The appeal of all ages has been, "O Thou that hearest prayer, unto Thee shall
all flesh come." (4) Such an experience is against all that we can reasonably believe of the
nature of the soul of man. If one theory be true about man’s soul, it is this: that out of
God no full, satisfying end can be found for it. The soul is greater than the whole world,
and the greater cannot be blessed of the less.
II. Consider some of the reasons that may be given for such an experience as this. (1) The
first reason is that many men do not make God the object of sufficient thought. (2)
Another reason why many are troubled at the thought of God is that they are seeking
Him with a wrong view of the way of access. (3) A third reason is that they are seeking
Him with some reserved thought of sin. (4) A fourth reason is that they have a mistaken
view of God’s manner of dealing with us in this world.
It is in the experience of the Divine life that doubts melt away or can be held in quiet
expectancy of a solution, and that we approach gradually to the calm of those that rest
beneath the altar. The thought of God that for a while brings trouble shall be made the
source of hope, the pledge that all with you and with His universe shall be ordered to a
happy end; and even here amid the trouble and struggle of earth, He can put into the
mouth some notes of the praise of heaven.
J. Ker, Sermons, 2nd series, p. 305.
4 You kept my eyes from closing;
I was too troubled to speak.
BAR ES, "Thou holdest mine eyes waking - literally, “Thou holdest the
watchings of my eyes.” Gesenius (Lexicon) translates the Hebrew word rendered
“waking,” “eyelids.” Probably that is the true idea. The eyelids are the watchers or
guardians of the eyes. In danger, and in sleep, they close. Here the idea is, that God held
them so that they did not close. He overcame the natural tendency of the eye to shut. In

other words, the psalmist was kept awake; he could not sleep. This he traces to God. The
idea is, that God so kept himself before his mind - that such ideas occurred to him in
regard to God - that he could not sleep.
I am so troubled - With sad and dark views of God; so troubled in endeavoring to
understand his character and doings; in explaining his acts; in painful ideas that suggest
themselves in regard to his justice, his goodness, his mercy.
That I cannot speak - I am struck dumb. I know not what to say. I cannot find
“anything” to say. He must have a heart singularly and happily free by nature from
scepticism, or must have reflected little on the divine administration, who has not had
thoughts pass through his mind like these. As the psalmist was a good man, a pious man,
it is of importance to remark, in view of his experience, that such reflections occur not
only to the minds of bad people - of the profane - of sceptics - of infidel philosophers, but
they come unbidden into the minds of good people, and often in a form which they
cannot calm down. He who has never had such thoughts, happy as he may and should
deem himself that he has not had them, has never known some of the deepest stirrings
and workings of the human soul on the subject of religion, and is little qualified to
sympathize with a spirit torn, crushed, agitated, as was that of the psalmist on these
questions, or as Augustine and thousands of others have been in after-times. But let not
a man conclude, because he has these thoughts, that therefore he cannot be a friend of
God - a converted man. The wicked man invites them, cherishes them, and rejoices that
he can find what seem to him to be reasons for indulging in such thoughts against God;
the good man is pained; struggles against them: endearours to banish them from his
soul.
CLARKE, "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.
GILL, "Thou holdest mine eyes waking,.... Or, "the watches", or rather "keepers of
the eyes" (m); the eyebrows, which protect the eyes; these were held, so that he could not
shut them, and get any sleep; so R. Moses Haccohen interprets the words, as Jarchi
observes; and so the Targum,
"thou holdest the brows of my eyes;''
a person in trouble, when he can get some sleep, it interrupts his sorrow, weakens it at
least, if it does not put a stop to it; wherefore it is a great mercy to have sleep, and that
refreshing, Psa_127:1, but to have this denied, and to have wearisome nights, and be in
continual tossing to and fro, is very distressing:
I am so troubled that I cannot speak; his spirits were so sunk with weariness, and
want of sleep in the night, that he could not speak in the morning; or his heart was so
full with sorrow, that he could not utter himself; or it was so great that he could not

express it; or his thoughts were such that he dared not declare them; or he was so
straitened and shut up in himself that he could not go on speaking unto God in prayer.
JAMISO , "holdest ... waking — or, “fast,” that I cannot sleep. Thus he is led to
express his anxious feelings in several earnest questions indicative of impatient sorrow.
CALVI , "4.Thou hast held the watches of my eyes. (288) This verse is to the same
effect with the preceding. The Psalmist affirms that he spent whole nights in
watching, because God granted him no relief. The night in ancient times was usually
divided into many watches; and, accordingly, he describes his continued grief,
which pre. vented him from sleeping, by the metaphorical term watches. When he
stated a little before that he prayed to God with a loud voice, and when he now
affirms that he will remain silent, there seems to be some appearance of
discrepancy. This difficulty has already been solved in our exposition of Psalms
32:3, where we have shown that true believers, when overwhelmed with sorrow, do
not continue in a state of unvarying uniformity, but sometimes give vent to sighs and
complaints, while, at other times, they are silent as if their mouths were stopped. It
is, therefore, not wonderful to find the prophet frankly confessing that he was so
overwhelmed, and, as it were, choked, with calamities, as to be unable to open his
mouth to utter even a single word.
SPURGEO , "Ver. 4. 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.
Stewart Perowne.
Ver. 4. 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, 'Ezra 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, "Daniel 2:1. And, for great and wise Solomon, it
would not so much as come within his view. " either day nor night seeth he sleep
with his eyes." Ecclesiastes 8:16. Surely, as there is no earthly thing more
comfortable to nature than bodily rest (Jeremiah 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, "Psalms 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, "Song of
Solomon 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."
Ver. 4. 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
iobe 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.
Ver. 4. 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, Psalms 22:1. Timothy Rogers
(1660-1729), in "A Discourse on Trouble of Mind, and the Disease of Melancholy."
Ver. 4. Troubled. Or, bruised: the Hebrew word probably signifieth an
astonishment caused by some great blow received. John Diodati.
Ver. 4. 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" (Song of Solomon 2:14). Answer. Yea,
but some other thing hath a voice beside the tongue: "The Lord has heard the voice
of my weeping" (Psalms 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.
Ver. 4. 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.
K&D 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 (‫ם‬ ַ‫ע‬ ַ ), 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 (‫ה‬ ָ‫ל‬ְ‫י‬ ַ ַ 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. ‫ס‬ ֵ‫פ‬ፎ
(only occurring as a 3. praet.) alternates with ‫ר‬ ַ‫מ‬ָ (Psa_12:2). ‫ּות‬ ַ‫ח‬ is an infinitive
construct formed after the manner of the Lamed He verbs, which, however, does also
occur as infinitive absolute (‫ּות‬ ַ‫,שׁ‬ 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 ‫ה‬ָ ַ‫,ח‬ but in the passage cited from Ezekiel (vid., Hitzig) such a
substantival plural is syntactically impossible. ‫ים‬ ִ‫מ‬ ֲ‫ֽח‬ ַ‫ר‬ ‫ץ‬ ַ‫פ‬ ָ‫ק‬ 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 (‫ּץ‬ ְ‫ק‬ִ‫)י‬ his hand (Deu_15:7; cf. supra, Psa_17:10).
BE SO , "Psalms 77:4. Thou holdest mine eyes waking — By those bitter and
continual griefs, and those perplexing and distressing thoughts and cares, which
thou excitest within me. I am so troubled that I cannot speak — The greatness of my
sorrow so stupifies and confuses my mind, that I can scarcely open my mouth to
declare my grief in proper terms; nor can any words sufficiently express the
extremity of my misery: see Job 2:13.
COFFMA ,"Verse 4
A EXPRESSIO OF THE PSALMIST'S DOUBTS
"Thou holdest mine eyes watching;
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 maketh diligent search.
Will the Lord cast off forever?
And will he be favorable no more?
Is his lovingkindness clean gone forever?
Doth his promise fail forever more?
Hath God forgotten to be gracious?
Hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies?"
"Thou holdest mine eyes watching" (Psalms 77:4). The Anchor Bible translates this:
"Mine eyes are accustomed to vigils; I pace the floor and do not recline."[3]
"I call to remembrance my song in the night" (Psalms 77:6). "Many have been the
songs that he either composed or sang; and he had once derived much spiritual
comfort from them; but they gave him no help now, and aroused no feelings of

confident faith."[4]
The six plaintive questions of Psalms 77:7-9 are eloquent expressions indeed of the
doubts and fears of the psalmist. He strongly desired to find negative answers to all
these questions, but the harsh conditions confronting the nation of Israel seemed to
demand an affirmation of his worst fears, namely, that God indeed: (1) had cast off;
(2) was no longer favorable; (3) His lovingkindness gone; (4) His promise had failed;
(5) had forgotten to be gracious; (6) and had shut up His tender mercies.
o, God had not really "forgotten" His promise, nor shut off His mercies, nor cast
off His true people, but the promises to Israel had always been conditional, that
condition being their faithfulness to God; and when Israel no longer met that
condition, God's blessings indeed ceased. That is why that such questions as these,
as regarded the vast majority of ancient Israel, were indeed required to be answered
affirmatively.
ELLICOTT, "Verse 4
(4) Thou holdest mine eyes waking.—Rather, Thou hast closed the guards of my
eyes—i.e., my eyelids. The Authorised Version mistakes the noun. guards, for a
participle, and mistranslates it by the active instead of the passive. For the verb hold
in the sense of shut, see ehemiah 7:3, and Job 26:9, where God is described as
veiling His throne in cloud, and so shutting it up, as it were, from the access of men.
I am so troubled.—The verb is used elsewhere of the awestruck state into which the
mind is thrown by a mysterious dream (Genesis 41:8; Daniel 2:1; Daniel 2:3), and
once (Judges 13:25) of inspiration, such as impelled the judges of old to become the
liberators of their country. The parallelism here shows that it is used in the first
connection. The poet has been struck dumb (the verb is rendered strike in the
Lexicons) by a mysterious dream; he is too overawed to speak.
ISBET, "THE PSALM OF THE SLEEPLESS IGHT
‘Thou holdest mine eyes waking.’
Psalms 77:4
I. The poet was in trouble, on what occasion cannot now be known, nor can we tell
who wrote the poem, or at what period it was written. There are no traces of the
authorship of David. But it is evidently very ancient. There is no allusion to the
Temple worship. The one historical reference is to the Exodus. The appellation of
the children of Israel, as sons of Jacob and Joseph, rather indicates that it was
written prior to the division into two nations. Had it been of a late period Judah
rather than Joseph would have been the term used. The word Jeduthun has no light
for us.
All this makes the psalm really more helpful. The trouble was of a personal nature,
hence the application of the poem is worldwide, suited for all in similar anxiety. It
was not a national calamity, like the Captivity. It was ‘my trouble’—the Psalmist’s
own sorrow. The help he sought was not for the nation, but for himself. The
darkness was that of a cloudy night, when no stars are seen, for, whatever the trial

was, there came with it a doubt of the Divine mercy and a questioning of the Divine
promise. Herein was the grief, for sorrow of soul is the soul of sorrow. He retired for
rest, but the darkness brought no relief; indeed, in the quiet solitude of the bed-
chamber the trouble seemed to increase. ‘Thou holdest my eyelids,’ he says to God.
Sleep came not. The poem presents a vivid delineation of the mental bewilderment
of an ancient night.
II. He thought of ‘the days of old,’ or, as in the original, of ‘the morning.’—A
Midrash note says ‘of Abraham,’ who lived in the morning of faith. He recalled
ancient times. He remembered one occasion when in the darkness he had such a
sense of the Divine favour, that he sang for joy in the night season. At length he took
the resolve to look away from self to an unchanging God. ‘This anxiety,’ said he, ‘is
my infirmity, but I will think of the power of the Most High.’ He would turn round
and no longer look at his own shadow, but at the bright sun. Soon the vision
changes. On the canvas of the night comes vividly a scene of olden days. Other
things were shut out, and this arose in his imagination.
It was the hour of Israel’s deliverance from Egypt. How far the Psalmist’s vision
was true to fact we cannot tell, he adds much to the record in Exodus. It was very
real to him, and depicts a scene more full of awe than his own then present
tribulation. Those lightning flashes were the arrows of the Almighty. He was
marching mysteriously through the sea. Then comes a sublime contrast. Right in the
centre, calm beneath the illumined cloud, went onwards the chosen people, led
safely through it all by the appointed guides, like a peaceful flock directed by its
shepherds to fresh pasture. With this grand etching the psalm closes. What more
indeed is needed? The moral is so obvious it needs no stating. That old story abides
in the Church as a picture-lesson of the mysterious but sure ways of God, and shows
a safe path through the stormy dark sea of every period of anxious sorrow.
Illustration
‘It is well to pray that we may make the most of the wakeful hours, that they may be
no more wasted ones than if we were up and dressed. They are His hours, for “the
night also is Thine.” It will cost no more mental effort (nor so much) to ask Him to
let them be holy hours, filled with His calming presence, than to let the mind run
upon the thousand “other things” which seem to find even busier entrance during
the night.
With thoughts of Christ and things Divine
Fill up this foolish heart of mine.
It is an opportunity for proving the real power of the Holy Spirit to be greater than
that of the Tempter. And He will without fail exert it, when sought for Christ’s
sake.’
EBC, "In the next strophe of three verses (Psalms 77:4-6) the psalmist plunges yet
deeper into gloom, and unfolds more clearly its occasion. Sorrow, like a beast of
prey, devours at night; and every sad heart knows how eyelids, however wearied,

refuse to close upon as wearied eyes, which gaze wide opened into the blackness and
see dreadful things there. This man felt as if God’s finger was pushing up his lids
and forcing him to stare out into the night. Buffeted, as if laid on an anvil and
battered with the shocks of doom, he cannot speak; he can only moan, as he is doing.
Prayer seems to be impossible. But to say, "I cannot pray; would that I could!" is
surely prayer, which will reach its destination, though the sender knows it not. The
psalmist had found no ease in remembering God. He finds as little in remembering a
brighter past. That he should have turned to history in seeking for consolation
implies that his affliction was national in its sweep, however intensely personal in its
pressure. This retrospective meditation on the great deeds of old is characteristic of
the Asaph psalms. It ministers in them to many moods, as memory always does. In
this psalm we have it feeding two directly opposite emotions. It may be the nurse of
bitter Despair or of bright-eyed Hope. When the thought of God occasions but sighs,
the remembrance of His acts can only make the present more doleful. The heavy
spirit finds reasons for heaviness in God’s past and in its own.
The psalmist in his sleepless vigils remembers other wakeful times, when his song
filled the night with music and "awoke the dawn." Psalms 77:6 is parallel with
Psalms 77:3. The three key words, remember, muse, spirit recur. There, musing
ended in wrapping the spirit in deeper gloom. Here, it stings that spirit to activity in
questionings, which the next strophe flings out in vehement number and startling
plainness. It is better to be pricked to even such interrogations by affliction than to
be made torpid by it. All depends on the temper in which they are asked. If that is
right, answers which will scatter gloom are not far off.
5 I thought about the former days,
the years of long ago;
BAR ES, "I have considered the days of old - Rather, “I do consider;” that is, “I
think upon.” This refers to his resolution in his perplexity and trouble; the method to
which he resorted in examining the subject, and in endeavoring to allay his troubles. He
resolved to look at the past. He asked what was the evidence which was furnished on the
subject by the former dealings of God with himself and with mankind; what could be
learned from those dealings in regard to the great and difficult questions which now so
perplexed his mind.

The years of ancient times - The records and remembrances of past ages. What is
the testimony which the history of the world bears on this subject? Does it prove that
God is worthy of confidence or not? Does it or does it not authorize and justify these
painful thoughts which pass through the mind?
CLARKE, "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.
GILL, "I have considered the days of old,.... Either the former part of his life, the
various occurrences of it, how it had been with him in time past, what experience he had
had of the divine goodness; so the Syriac version renders it, "I have considered my days
of old"; or the preceding age, and what has happened in that, which his ancestors had
acquainted him with; or rather many ages past, from the days of Adam to the then
present time; at least it may include the Israelites coming out of Egypt, their passage
through the Red sea and wilderness, the times of the judges, and what befell them in
their days, and how they were delivered out of their troubles; as appears from the latter
part of the psalm, and with which agrees the following clause:
the years of ancient times; or, "of ages" (n); of times long ago past; it is very useful to
read the history of the Bible, with respect to ancient times, and so the ecclesiastical
history of ages past, and observe the faith and dependence of the Lord's people upon
him, and their deliverance out of trouble by him; which may be a means of strengthening
faith in him, and of relief under present trials; but frequently the goodness of former
times is only observed as an aggravation of the badness of the present ones, and of
trouble in them; see Ecc_7:10, the Targum interprets the whole of happy days and times,
paraphrasing it thus,
"I have mentioned the good days which were of old, the good years which were of ages
past.''
HE RY, "His melancholy reflections (Psa_77:5, Psa_77:6): “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, Ecc_
7:10. 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, Psa_43:4. See
Job_35:10.
CALVI , "5.I have recounted the days of old. There is no doubt that he endeavored

to assuage his grief by the remembrance of his former joy; but he informs us that
relief was not so easily nor so speedily obtained. By the days of old, and the years of
ancient times, he seems not only to refer to the brief course of his own life, but to
comprehend many ages. The people of God, in their afflictions, ought, undoubtedly,
to set before their eyes, and to call to their remembrance, not only the Divine
blessings which they have individually experienced, but also all the blessings which
God in every age has bestowed upon his Church It may, however, be easily gathered
from the text, that when the prophet reckoned up in his own mind the mercies
which God had bestowed in time past, he began with his own experience.
SPURGEO , "Ver. 5. 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.
Stewart Perowne.
Ver. 5. 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.
BE SO , "Psalms 77:5-6. I have considered the days of old — The mighty works of

God, wrought for his people in former times, if by that means I could get any
comfort. I call to remembrance my song in the night — The many and great mercies
and favours of God vouchsafed to me and his people, which have obliged me to
adore him and sing his praise, not only in the day, the time appointed for that work,
but also by night, as often as they came into my mind. My spirit made diligent
search — What should be the reason of this strange and vast alteration, and how
this sore trouble could come from the hand of so gracious and merciful a God as
ours is, and what might be expected as to its continuance or removal. “A recollection
of former mercies is the proper antidote against a temptation to despair in the day
of calamity: and as in the divine dispensations, which are always uniform and like
themselves, whatever has happened may, and probably will, happen again when the
circumstances are similar; the experience of ancient times is to be called in to our
aid, and duly consulted. Upon these topics we should, in the night of affliction,
commune with our own hearts, and make diligent search, as Daniel did in Babylon,
into the cause of our troubles, with the proper methods of shortening and bringing
them to an end; by suffering them to have their intended and full effect in a sincere
repentance, and thorough reformation.” — Horne.
6 I remembered my songs in the night.
My heart meditated and my spirit asked:
BAR ES, "I call to remembrance my song in the night - Compare Job_35:10,
note; Psa_42:8, note. The word here rendered “song” - ‫נגינה‬ ne
gıynâh - means properly
the music of stringed instruments, Lam_5:14; Isa_38:20; then, a stringed instrument. It
is the word which we have so often in the titles to the psalms (Psa_4:1-8; Psa_6:1-10;
Psa_54:1-7; Ps. 55; Psa_67:1-7; Psa_76:1-12); and it is used here in the sense of song or
psalm. The idea is, that there had been times in his life when, even in darkness and
sorrow, he could sing; when he could find things for which to praise God; when he could
find something that would cheer him; when he could take some bright views of God
adapted to calm down his feelings, and to give peace to his soul. He recalls those times
and scenes to his remembrance, with a desire to have those cheerful impressions
renewed; and he asks himself what it was which then comforted and sustained him. He
endeavors to bring those things back again, for if he found comfort then, he thinks that
he might find comfort from the same considerations now.
I commune with mine own heart - I think over the matter. See the notes at Psa_
4:4.
And my spirit made diligent search - In reference

(a) to the grounds of my former support and comfort; and
(b) in reference to the whole matter as it lies before me now.
CLARKE, "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.”
GILL, "I call to remembrance my song in the night,.... What had been an
occasion of praising the Lord with a song, and which he had sung in the night seasons,
when he was at leisure, his thoughts free, and he retired from company; or it now being
night with him, he endeavoured to recollect what had been matter of praise and
thankfulness to him, and tried to sing one of those songs now, in order to remove his
melancholy thoughts and fears, but all to no purpose:
I commune with mine own heart; or "meditate" (o) with it; looked into his own
heart, put questions to it, and conversed with himself, in order to find out the reason of
the present dispensation:
and my spirit made diligent search; into the causes of his troubles, and ways and
means of deliverance out of them, and what would be the issue and consequence of
them; the result of all which was as follows.
CALVI , "6.I will call to remembrance my song in the night. By his song he denotes
the exercise of thanksgiving in which he had engaged during the time of his
prosperity. (289) There is no remedy better adapted for healing our sorrows, as I
have just now observed, than this; but Satan often craftily suggests to our thoughts
the benefits of God, that the very feeling of the want of them may inflict upon our
minds a deeper wound. It is, therefore, highly probable, that the prophet was
pierced with bitter pangs when he compared the joy experienced by him in time past

Psalm 77 commentary

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