Psalms 77

4th Season. After desertion: desertion is a poisoned arrow shot to the heart (Job 6:4). God is called a fire and a light, the deserted soul feels the fire, but does not see the light; it cries out as Asaph (Psalm 77:8), Is his mercy clean gone? Now when the soul is in this case,…

What madness is it to meddle again with that sin, which will breed the worm of conscience! Secondly, Make up your spiritual accounts daily: See how matters stand between God and your souls (Psalm 77:6). I commune with my own heart: Often reckonings keep God and conscience friend…

Sickness is God's lance to let out the imposthume of sin (Isaiah 27:9). 3. In case of God's providences to his church: we wonder what God is doing with us, and are ready to kill ourselves with care; rest in God's wisdom, he knows best what he has to do (Psalm 77:19). His footste…

It is a dialogue with one's self. Psalm 77:7. I commune with my own heart. David called himself to account, and put interrogatories to his own heart.

Through the black spectacles of melancholy, God's dealings look sad and ghastly. Satan tempts the godly to have strange thoughts of God; to think he has cast off all pity, and has forgotten to be gracious (Psalm 77), and to make sad conclusions (Isaiah 38:13). I reckoned that as…

And thus the soul of one that fears God may be filled with doubts whether God will ever be merciful to him yes or no, and not know what God means to do with him, whether he shall go to heaven or hell. Psalm 77:7-9: 'Will the Lord be merciful?' — which speeches are spoken doubtin…

Thus that depth of sorrow with which that humbled Corinthian was well-nigh swallowed up (2 Corinthians 2:7) is ascribed to Satan when verse 11 it is made and termed one of his devices, which word does in part refer to the Corinthian's sorrow. Thus David also imputes that his que…

Let an inquisition be set up in your heart. So in Psalm 77:6 David in case of desertion is said to do: 'I communed with my own heart and made diligent search.' Now in this search, make inquiry into two things.

And thus, through much brooding upon and considering only what might make against them, they have had the bolts of their hearts so far shot into despair and fixed in desperate sorrow, and the true workings of sound evidences so far wrenched and twisted by false keys, that when t…

The remembrance of former things often upholds when present sense fails. This David practiced in the like case in Psalm 77:5-6. When his soul had refused comfort (as I told you in verse 2), yet in the end he began not only to be willing to listen to what might make for him, but…

And if prayer will do no good, I am undone.' And if through all these discouragements your condition proves worse and worse, so that you cannot pray but are struck dumb when you come into his presence (as David in Psalm 77:4: 'I am so troubled I cannot speak') — then fall to mak…

Remember the text says one who fears God may walk in darkness — not a step or two, but many wearisome turns in it. Heman was afflicted from his youth; David so long that in Psalm 77 he thought God had forgotten him. 'Does his promise fail forever?'

Now for the time of this eclipse of the favor of God, he not only darkens his love, but makes them feel also such a measure of his wrath, as that they will often think themselves castaways from the favor of God. David and Job were often exercised with this temptation, as appears…

Even so, when our case falls out to be this; that either by reason of sin, and of the temptation of Satan: or else by reason of some outward calamities and troubles, we feel our soul (as it were) overwhelmed with sorrow, and even entering into destruction, and can neither see (a…

This brings to his memory the wonderful goodness and mercy of God, by which he is comforted. When David was in a most desperate case, so as he cried out by reason of affliction and temptation, Will the Lord absent himself for ever, and will he show no more favor? Is his mercy cl…

The Heathen could say, the soul is made wise by sitting still in quietness. Though bankrupts care not to look into their books of account, yet upright hearts will know whether they go backward or forward (Psalm 77:6): 'I commune with my own heart.' The heart can never be kept un…

Let proper seasonable advice or comfort be tendered they refuse it, your counsel is good, but they have no heart to it now. Thus (Psalm 77:2), My soul, says he, refused to be comforted. To want comfort in time of affliction, is an aggravation of our affliction; but to refuse it,…

He gently leads those that are with young, and will not suffer them to miscarry, in the bringing forth; He will not put new wine into old bottles, he will not cause to travel, and not make to bring forth; The Lord has given believers such a Servant as they stood in need of, even…

Secondly, some have pardon, but not peace; as David (Psalm 38:3), who had broken bones; and complains (verse 8), I am feeble and sore broken, I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart. And the troubled Church (Psalm 77:1-4). Some have both peace and pardon; as some…

Why does David complain that he was as a bottle in the smoke, and pray so often that God would quicken him, if under a dead disposition we were not to pray? 4. If often the saints beginning to pray do speak words of unbelief and from a principle of nature, and if words flowing f…

4. Case. Suppose I have prayed and prayed, and find not my heart affected; it is dead, dull, distracted, I do no good; get no good in duty, I fear I offend God — what shall I do? Such a case is sad; yet consider, first, it may be the case of gracious hearts — David was so depres…

Is this the first plunge that ever befell me? Let me consider the days of old, the years of acient times, as Asaph did, Psalm 77:5 (3.) Lastly, Beware of slighting former straits and dngers in comparison with present nes.

But all this is easily put by and avoided, by onsulting our experiences in former cases. This is not the first time I have been in these straits, or the first time I have had the same doubts and despondencies; and yet, God has carried me hrough all, Psalm 77. 7, 8, 9, &c. This i…

Search backward into all the performances of Providence throughout your lives. So did Asaph in Psalm 77. 11, 12. I will remember the works of the Lord: surely I will remember your wonders of old: I will meditate of all your works, and talk of your doings.

After this, after there was some allay, some ebb and fall of his overflowing sorrows, then he breaks forth in these words. Sorrow does sometimes not only oppress the spirit, but stop the mouth, I am so troubled that I cannot speak, says David (Psalm 77:4). That he could not spea…

The first part (that is) the spirit, is the most excellent, the deepest and the most noble part of man, with which he is apt to understand incomprehensible, invisible and eternal things: and to be short, it is the house where faith and the word of God are contained, of which Dav…

Those fools know not, that even when they rise and prosper, they are forsaken of God, and that God's arm is not with them. Therefore does their endeavor last an appointed season, and after that does it [reconstructed: fade] and vanish, like a bubble, and becomes as though it nev…

3. Christ's purpose cannot fail, neither can his design be altered, the contrivance thereof is so wise, and the execution so powerful, he cannot but attain his point. 4. However men may quarrel with Christ's way, and say it's not equal, as (Ezekiel 18:25), and although his way m…

Now this jealousy is said to be cruel, or hard: it is called, (Proverbs 6) the rage of a man; and this was the jealousy, or zeal that ate up David (Psalm 69), and so it is compared to the grave, which (Proverbs 30) is the first of these four things that are never satisfied, but…

I shall labor to stop the mouths of such, who are ready to open them against the King of Heaven, by proposing to consideration these following particulars. 1. That God's way is sometimes in the sea, and his paths in the great waters; and his footsteps are not known (Psalm 77:19)…

When God had punished Jerusalem with dreadful judgments, in the lamentation of which, the Prophet Jeremiah does spend a book, see what use and improvement he calls upon the people to make hereof (Lamentations 3:40): Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord. Thi…

How seasonable was Augustine's "take up and read," putting into his hands a fitting and pertinent Scripture, and effecting his ends thereby? Do you awaken your own spirits, call to remembrance your experiences and comforts at a dead lift, as David did in a like case (Psalm 77),…

5. The fifth duty wherein we are to offer violence to ourselves is self-examination; a duty of great importance. It is a parleying with one's own heart (Psalm 77:7). "I commune with my own heart."

Some Providences, like Hebrew Letters, must be read backward, Psalm 92:7. Some Providences pose Men of the greatest parts and graces. His way is in the Sea, his paths in the great Vvaters, and his foot-steps are not known, Psalm 77:19. Who can trace Foot-steps in the bottom of t…

For a man to gather up his experiences of God, to call them to mind, to collect them, consider, try, improve them, is an excellent thing; a duty practiced by all the saints; commended in the Old Testament and the New. This was David's work, when he communed with his own heart, a…

Thus the fear of God makes us wisely ballance our accounts, and see how matters stand between God and our Souls. Psalm 77:6. I commune with my own heart, and my spirit made diligent search.

He shoots beyond the Promise, never short of it. 2. Think of the Works of God, Psalm 77:12. I will meditate of all your Works.

But that they should pass through the deep ought to have stricken them with horror and trembling, when before their eyes God's goodness and power were made all the more conspicuous. The prophet beautifully expresses this same thing in Psalm 77, when he says that God led His peop…

You see, and hear, and do not remember. David was under great discomfort, till he remembered the years of the right hand of the Most High (Psalm 77:10). Lamentations 3:21. This I recall to mind, therefore I have hope.

It was in soul, and it was in his soul by reason of the wrath of God, and that in such a degree of vehemency, that in his own judgment, and the judgment of others, he could not expect to be long a man of this world, little differing from the dead, indeed the damned. So David, Ps…

We must therefore keep our hearts with all diligence (Proverbs 4:23). 3. There needs in many cases a serious search: for instance, in deep desertion, when God withdraws the light of his countenance, and men have not those accustomed influences of grace, those glimpses of favor,…

By pleasures, and by the cares of the world, your hearts are straitened toward God, they are overcharged (Luke 21:34). 3. Sorrow and uncomfortable dejection of spirit, through the fears of God's wrath, or by reason of desertion, when we have a sense of his wrath, and when we can…

I remembered your Judgments of old, and have comforted myself. So elsewhere, this was his practice, (Psalm 77:5) I considered the days of old, the years of ancient times: again in verses 11 and 12, I will remember the works of the Lord; surely I will remember your works of old:…

So (Psalm 42:6): Oh my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember you. By this way the saints recover themselves (Psalm 77:10): And I said, This is my infirmity: but I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High. So also (Matthew 16:9): Do you…

The children of God that have suspected, or displeased him, have always found themselves in an error (Isaiah 49:14, 15). His promise is the light side, his providence is the dark side of the cloud (Psalm 77:19): Your way is in the sea, and your path in the deep waters, and your…

There is a desertion as to comfort, and a desertion as to grace. The children of God may sometimes lose the feelings of God's love (Psalm 77:1-3): My soul refused to be comforted, I remembered God, and was troubled; My spirit was overwhelmed. O what a word was that! — rememberin…

Here David yielded a little to foolish haste, and lost the steadiness of his faith. So (Psalm 77:7-8): Will the Lord cast off forever? will he be favorable no more? Is his mercy clean gone forever? does his promise fail forevermore? Questions to appearance full of despair and de…

So Job complained (Job 13:26), You make me to possess the sins of my youth. So David (Psalm 77:4), You keep my eyes waking. Wherein this true sight, and apprehension of sin properly discovers itself.

Now in a fit they refuse comfort, and like a froward child, push away the breast. Psalm 77:2: My soul refused to be comforted. Indeed a disquieted spirit is no more fit for comfort than a distracted man is fit for counsel.

2. It is a more Gospel way to bear in the threat of everlasting wrath than of temporal rods. 3. Desertions and trials under the Law were more legal and sharp and sad upon David, Hezekiah, Job, Jeremiah, Heman (Psalm 6; Psalm 38; Psalm 77; Psalm 102; Psalm 88; Isaiah 38; Jeremiah…