Psalms 77:1-2 NIVUK
[1] I cried out to God for help; I cried out to God to hear me. [2] When I was in distress, I sought the Lord; at night I stretched out untiring hands, and I would not be comforted. https://bible.com/bible/113/psa.77.1-2.NIVUK
Questions.
Historically the church has not handled well those who dare to ask them about their beliefs.
But the French philosopher Rene Decartes, the father of modern philosophy and a Catholic, set out his thinking by radically questioning every single thing he believed in until he convinced himself it was true. Given his influence on charts and maps, it could be said that he plotted his way through his own questioning.
However, I don’t know if you have ever spent time with a very young child who asks questions of their parents to learn about the world. Let me tell you, it makes any journey longer, and at times frustrating, as all you hear every few seconds is, ‘But why? But why? But why?’
Questioning is important. It’s how we learn and find out what things can be trusted and what things cannot. It is by asking and receiving answers that we investigate and grow.
This Psalm – written by David’s praise leader Asaph (1 Chronicles 15:19, 16:5), for another worship leader Jeduthun (1 Chronicles 16:41-42), was to be sent to the director of worship – possibly before Asaph became praise leader for the Temple – and has a characteristic that is often not present in modern praise worship:
Deep honesty and integrity.
Which express themselves through questions.
Here is a man in charge, or at least on the rise to be in charge, of worship in the most important religious building in the country, or even the world. Three times a year, it would be packed to overflowing with pilgrims. It was his responsibility to lead them all in communal worship. And yet Asaph is not interested in some ‘happy-clappy’ pretence that everything is fine. This Psalm is raw. It is elemental.
Asaph is bring absolutely brutally honest about his troubles, how he is feeling about them and what he is doing about that.
I want you to be honest at this point. If someone from your church said they had written a nice song for communal worship and came out with lyrics this raw, how would you feel about that?
Yet actually, there is something about this that is quite beautiful. Even healing. The sheer rawness of these words, and the tough questioning within them, help those going through the same troubled dark night of the soul realise that they are not alone.
Asaph is standing right with them.
We will walk through this Psalm and learn how too can travel from the darkest of nights of the soul to security in God.
The first thing we will look at in this Psalm is The Respondent: that is, who it is that Asaph goes to in order to get answers to his questions.
A number of years ago, we were having real difficulties with one of our suppliers. Their call centre analysts were just not very good at resolving the issue. We were passed around from pillar to post, until I got sick of them messing us around and wrote an angry email to one of their senior executives. Lo and behold, he had a team to deal with serious escalated complaints. One of them called me, set the issue straight and said that if I had any issues, I should call him and not the call centre.
Who we talk to about our problems really matters.
Our generation has, unfortunately, been the embodiment of these verses:
2 Timothy 4:3-4 NIVUK
[3] For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather round them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. [4] They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
Our leaders have placed an unreasonable weight on political dogma and doctrine. When reality has conflicted with their unwavering belief, they have rejected the words of experts and turned aside to do their own thing.
That is why we are in the mess we are in.
Asaph is plainly in a very distressing situation. He needs help both to cope with it and get out of it.
So where will he turn?
Psalms 77:1-2 NIVUK
[1] I cried out to God for help; I cried out to God to hear me. [2] When I was in distress, I sought the Lord; at night I stretched out untiring hands, and I would not be comforted. https://bible.com/bible/113/psa.77.1-2.NIVUK
He went to God.
Now, undoubtedly there are experts in their field who can explain what is happening to us and, to a degree, why, such as doctors, dieticians, psychologists and counsellors. Of course we should consult them. It goes without saying.
But the ultimate authority on everything that happens in our lives, no matter how insignificant, is God.
His sovereignty is a golden thread woven throughout the Psalms. There is no doubt at all that He is in control, regardless of the situation. It’s therefore entirely proper and fitting that we should go to Him with our questions.
Who else should we seek?
After all, if we had terrible headaches and dizziness and suspected we might have a tumour, would we turn to a street-cleaner for advice? Or a shop owner? Or a food delivery driver?
No, to do such a thing is nonsense!
In God we have the ultimate expert in everything, who loves us and will answer our cries:
James 1:5 NIVUK
[5] If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.
But we should be careful in case we don’t like the answer we receive.
So we have seen that the respondent is God. We now look at The Reason for these questions;
Psalms 77:3-5 NIVUK
[3] I remembered you, God, and I groaned; I meditated, and my spirit grew faint. [4] You kept my eyes from closing; I was too troubled to speak. [5] I thought about the former days, the years of long ago
Asaph was remembering how things used to be. He was locked into nostalgia, remembering the days when Israel was great and winning awesome victories.
But nostalgia is a fool’s game. When life is difficult, remembering days that seem to have been better will not help us one bit. In fact, it will severely hinders us?
Why?
Because it will convince us that our best days are behind us and that we have nothing left to look forward to.
And that, for every Christian, is categorically wrong. In fact, I would go as far as to say that it is a demonic lie.
That is why King Solomon was quite strong on this:
Ecclesiastes 7:10 NIVUK
[10] Do not say, ‘Why were the old days better than these?’ For it is not wise to ask such questions.
Why is it not wise?
Because, whether good or bad, our past has gone and nothing we can do will ever bring it back. Not only that, but when we are in hard times and facing a dark night of the soul, our perception of the past is often distorted. Sure, we might not have had the problems we are facing now, but we were facing other, different problems.
So when we are facing hard times, simply taking comfort in the past and using it as our refuge does not help, even if it is true that our situation now is worse than it was then.
So we have seen the respondent – God, and the reason – an unfavourable comparison between past and present.
Now Asaph moves on to The Questioning.
And Asaph absolutely does not hold back:
Psalms 77:6-9 NIVUK
[6] I remembered my songs in the night. My heart meditated and my spirit asked: [7] ‘Will the Lord reject for ever? Will he never show his favour again? [8] Has his unfailing love vanished for ever? Has his promise failed for all time? [9] Has God forgotten to be merciful? Has he in anger withheld his compassion?’
Here he highlights a number of areas where he believes God has failed:
· His favour – instead, Asaph believes quite the opposite, that God has rejected him.
· His love – This is quite startling. By believing that God has rejected him, the next logical conclusion is that God no longer loves him because God is not showing him favour. Thousands of years earlier, Job suffered way more, but accepted it as coming from the hand of God (Job 2:10). He believed that both blessing and trouble came from the same God. Paul went even further – he saw both favour and trouble as ultimately working for our good (Romans 8:28). But Asaph – this great praise leader in the Temple – sees things very differently: when God is no longer showing His favour, then according to Asaph he is no longer showing His love. And that is quite incorrect.
· His promise. This is also quite a painful admission. Here he believes that if God is not showing favour now, if He is not blessing now, then all of His promises have failed – as if God has written a cheque He cannot pay. And that, again is an awful conclusion to reach.
· His mercy. By wondering if God has forgotten to be merciful, Asaph is admitting that he doesn’t deserve to be rescued by God, and since it hasn’t happened yet, is asking if God has forgotten how to do it.
· His compassion. Of course, there are times – whether our weak, wishy-washy modern generation likes it or not - when anger is both necessary and a positive force. Think about it: it was our parents’ anger and frustration at our wrongdoing that led us to understand what it took to please them, and therefore what it would take to live life properly. Asaph is asking if God has gone beyond the necessary anger and has drifted into heartless, compassionless fury, where the purpose is not to discipline him but to break him.
At the heart of all these questions is a plea to how God declared Himself to Moses:
Exodus 34:6-7 NIVUK
[6] And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, ‘The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, [7] maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.’
In other words, Asaph’s questions can be summed up in a single, heart-rending query:
‘Is God no longer God?’
Many of us would find this a very hard question to read.
Not that we don’t have an answer for it. I’m sure many of us do.
It’s just that we don’t like the fact that the question is being asked.
I would counter that by saying that yes, there are aspects of these questions that are theologically wrong. However, those who have a hard time with thembeing asked have likely never passed through a dark night of the soul.
The reality is that Asaph is asking these questions because that is where the evidence appears to lead. His life is hard. He believes that blessing from God should make it easy. So when the blessing is not there, he assumes that God is not there also.
Those questions do not come from philosophical pondering in an ivory tower, but from the deep sadness of suffering. Job sometimes pondered similar things:
Job 23:3-4, 8-10 NIVUK
[3] If only I knew where to find him; if only I could go to his dwelling! [4] I would state my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments.
[8] ‘But if I go to the east, he is not there; if I go to the west, I do not find him. [9] When he is at work in the north, I do not see him; when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him. [10] But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I shall come forth as gold. https://bible.com/bible/113/job.23.3-10.NIVUK
Many of us struggle in times of difficulty because we wonder, like Asaph and Job, if God is really there or if somehow His fundamental nature has changed. However, to quote a book title by the late Christian philosopher Francis Schaeffer, He is there and He us not silent.
What Asaph has to do, and what we have to do too, is to seek Him out and listen for Him.
But having found himself burdened with comparisons to his own nation’s past, Asaph perhaps finds succour in a quite unusual place.
Because now we move on from the respondent, the reasoning and the questioning to The Answer:
Psalms 77:10-20 NIVUK
[10] Then I thought, ‘To this I will appeal: the years when the Most High stretched out his right hand. [11] I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago. [12] I will consider all your works and meditate on all your mighty deeds.’ [13] Your ways, God, are holy. What god is as great as our God? [14] You are the God who performs miracles; you display your power among the peoples. [15] With your mighty arm you redeemed your people, the descendants of Jacob and Joseph. [16] The waters saw you, God, the waters saw you and writhed; the very depths were convulsed. [17] The clouds poured down water, the heavens resounded with thunder; your arrows flashed back and forth. [18] Your thunder was heard in the whirlwind, your lightning lit up the world; the earth trembled and quaked. [19] Your path led through the sea, your way through the mighty waters, though your footprints were not seen. [20] You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
Asaph’s thoughts go back to his nation’s past. However, they go back to one event in particular – an event from which I also often grow strength.
The Israelites had been freed from slavery. However, the euphoria of that freedom was dampened pretty quickly. Wandering through the desert, seemingly lost, they had reached the banks of the Red Sea - a natural barrier they could not cross. Behind them were the pounding hooves and thundering chariots of the Egyptian army. To their left and right was the hostile desert. It seemed like there was no way forward.
But God provided a way. Miraculously. When, humanly-speaking, all hope was completely gone.
And while the Israelites were panicking and complaining and talking about giving up on the whole Promised Land dream, Moses said spoke some decisive words:
Exodus 14:13-14 NIVUK
[13] Moses answered the people, ‘Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. [14] The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.’ https://bible.com/bible/113/exo.14.13-14.NIVUK
In other words, the answer to the questions the Israelites had was not something intellectual (like some detailed exposition of why they were in the mess they were in) or emotional (like a kindly, understanding arm on the shoulder or a warm hug) but deeply, deeply practical: God intervened and resolved the problem. He split the Red Sea. He dried the sea bed. He confused and confounded the Egyptians. He led the Israelites to the other side. He drowned the Egyptians.
It was God.
All God.
This was no golden age of Jewish greatness. Anything but. This was a time when God rescued them, not just from the pursuing Egyptians or the desert, but also from themselves.
What Asaph is doing here is not clinging on to past glories or indulging in nostalgia. That would be foolishness. It has only caused him harm (see verses 3-6).
What he is actually doing is remembering how God resolved an utterly impossible situation with a seemingly implausible solution and how He led his people through an utterly impossible situation with an utterly implausible leader. He is recalling that God can use anyone at any time and any place in any situation to do His Sovereign Will. He is strengthening his faith muscles by remembering what God is capable of, and that recall fires his hope that God can, and will rescue him from his situation.
That is what Psalm 77 is all about. Asaph is in a truly difficult situation – even if he is a well-renowned praise leader for the people of Israel, he is not immune from suffering
and pain. Perhaps it is because of this, or perhaps it is because of his own personal faith, but Asaph knows better than either to wallow in his pain or to take it anywhere but to God.
But we must pay special attention to the reason. Remembering God’s past blessings is useful only if they fire our faith and imagination to remember that God is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8), and that if He came through for us in the past, then He will come through for us again. We cannot take refuge in our past and stay there.
Our past is designed to be a temporary camp, not a subdivision or a nice neighbourhood. We dwell it for a while and then we move on. We do not take up permanent residence.
We may have questions as to why God is not doing now the same things He did back in the past. But God’s blessings are not always the same. They are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23). We should not expect God to keep doing the same thing again and again.
But we can use our experiences of Him to remind us of who He is and what He is capable of.
That will fire our faith and make us strong.
As I write these words, we are on the road as a family, travelling through Canada and the US. By the time we head home, we will have stayed in five different hotel/cruise ship rooms and eaten in I don’t know how many restaurants.
I want you to imagine that you are in a hotel and you come down for breakfast, but you quickly realise that everything they have provided you with is unchanged since the previous day: the bread has been left out and gone stale, the bagels have dried up and are rock hard, the bacon is brittle, the eggs are like rubber, the milk has turned and the juice smells bad.
Would you eat it?
I doubt it!
Look at these words from Exodus:
Exodus 16:19-20 NIVUK
[19] Then Moses said to them, ‘No-one is to keep any of it until morning.’ [20] However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell. So Moses was angry with them. https://bible.com/bible/113/exo.16.19-20.NIVUK
Each day has its own blessings and trials. That could be why Jesus said these words to His disciples:
Matthew 6:34 NIVUK
[34] Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
And yes, when trouble comes, we may well have questions – a lot of them. But the way we find answers is by letting God work in His own mysterious ways, and depending not on the blessings He gave in the past, but on the Person who gave those blessings.
If we do that, then our trouble will be just temporary and we will absolutely make it to the other side, and be stronger for it.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, I thank You for the honesty of this Psalm. Help me to learn from it that You are big enough for my questions, but You are also the answer for them all. Amen.
Questions
1. Who was Asaph? What important aspect does this teach us about trouble and suffering?
2. Is it wrong to have questions? Whom should we seek for the answers?
3. Asaph used Israel’s past in a wrong way and a right way. What were these? What can we learn from this?
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