Lessons From the Psalms - Psalm 77

[00:00:07] Welcome to Lessons From the Psalms. This is Bill Kelley and I'll be your host. On this podcast we will be going over the book of Psalms.

[00:00:21] Let's open in prayer. Father God, I thank you for anyone listening to this psalm today. Lord, I pray that you would reveal to everyone listening how much you truly love each and every one of them. I ask this in Jesus name. Amen.

[00:00:37] This is Psalm 77 beginning in verse 1.

[00:01:07] My spirit was overwhelmed. Say Law.

[00:01:10] You hold my eyelids open. 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.

[00:01:25] I meditate within my heart and my spirit makes diligent search. Will the Lord cast off forever? And will he be favorable no more? Has his mercy ceased forever? Has his promise failed forevermore? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Say Law.

[00:01:53] And I said, This is my anguish.

[00:01:57] But I will remember the years of the years of the right hand of the Most High. I will remember the works of the Lord. Surely I will remember your wonders of old. I will also meditate on all your work and talk of your deeds.

[00:02:15] Your way, O God, is in the sanctuary.

[00:02:19] Who is so great a God as our God? You are the God who does wonders. You have declared your strength among the peoples. You have with your arm redeemed your people.

[00:02:35] The sons of Jacob and Joseph.

[00:02:38] The waters saw you, O God. The waters saw you. They were afraid.

[00:02:44] The depths also trembled. The clouds poured out water. The skies sent out a sound. Your arrows also flashed about.

[00:02:56] The voice of your thunder was in the whirlwind. The lightnings lit up the world. The earth trembled and shook.

[00:03:05] Your way was in the sea. Your path in the great waters. And your footsteps were not known.

[00:03:15] You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

[00:03:21] Now, friends, this is your host, Bill Kelly. And Psalm 77 is a psalm that is attributed to Asaph, who was a praise and worship leader assigned by King David of the country of Israel.

[00:03:38] And he's literally writing this to a man named Jeduthun.

[00:03:43] And I talked about him earlier when I was doing an earlier psalm.

[00:03:49] And we found out that he also was a praise and worship leader.

[00:03:53] And this song or psalm was literally written to the chief musician.

[00:04:00] And, friends, what I often like to do in this entire study of the psalms and lessons that we can learn from the psalms today,

[00:04:12] I asked myself this.

[00:04:14] This is a very troubling psalm.

[00:04:18] The author, obviously, is having a bit of a stretch where he seems to be pretty depressed.

[00:04:25] This doesn't sound like he's full of joy.

[00:04:29] But there is hope if you look at this psalm.

[00:04:34] And what I'd like to do is, what can we learn from this psalm even today?

[00:04:41] Now, this psalm was probably written close to 3,000 years ago.

[00:04:46] And a lot of times people think, well, oh my gosh, the Bible's just so old.

[00:04:51] It doesn't relate to us today.

[00:04:53] But I think if you take a closer look at this psalm, you'll find out there's a number of things that we can learn.

[00:05:00] Let's break this psalm down, beginning in verse 1.

[00:05:13] Friends, what this is telling us is if we have a need, we simply should go to God in prayer.

[00:05:23] And this verse tells us that if we pray to God, he will hear us.

[00:05:39] Friends, Asaph is hurting here.

[00:05:43] He's stretching out his hands to God, and he wants answers.

[00:05:49] And he doesn't know if he's going to get them.

[00:05:54] Listen to verse 3.

[00:05:55] I remembered God and was troubled.

[00:05:59] I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed.

[00:06:03] Say law.

[00:06:04] Say law says think about what you just heard.

[00:06:09] I remembered God, but I was troubled.

[00:06:13] Now, friends, many times in our life today, we are troubled.

[00:06:17] Everything doesn't seem to be going our way.

[00:06:21] And we're confused at times and say, why doesn't, why doesn't, why don't things work out for me?

[00:06:28] Why is there always trouble?

[00:06:31] And friends, that is the way life is.

[00:06:35] There are some things in life and some circumstances that sometimes come up that we're not prepared for.

[00:06:42] And how we handle those situations will depend on whether we lead a successful life or not.

[00:06:51] Let's go to verse 4.

[00:06:52] You hold my eyelids open.

[00:06:55] I am so troubled that I cannot speak.

[00:06:59] And friends, we've all been there.

[00:07:00] We have days when we feel like we're all alone.

[00:07:04] We reach out to God and sometimes it's like he's not there.

[00:07:08] It's like we can't feel his presence.

[00:07:11] We can't sense his presence.

[00:07:13] And we don't even know if he hears us.

[00:07:17] Five.

[00:07:17] I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times.

[00:07:21] I call to remembrance my song in the night.

[00:07:25] I meditate within my heart and my spirit makes diligent search.

[00:07:30] Will the Lord cast off forever?

[00:07:34] And will he be favorable no more?

[00:07:36] Has his mercy ceased forever?

[00:07:40] Has his promise failed forevermore?

[00:07:43] Has God forgotten to be gracious?

[00:07:46] Has he in anger shut up his tender mercies?

[00:07:51] Say law.

[00:07:52] Now friends, this is a man who's hurting.

[00:07:56] He's reaching out to God, but he doesn't hear God answering him.

[00:08:03] I want you to think about that.

[00:08:05] We may be in situations like that from time to time.

[00:08:09] How are you going to handle it?

[00:08:13] Let's go on to verse 10.

[00:08:14] And I said,

[00:08:16] This is my anguish.

[00:08:18] But I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High.

[00:08:23] I will remember the works of the Lord.

[00:08:26] Surely I will remember your wonders of old.

[00:08:30] I will also meditate on all your work and talk of your deeds.

[00:08:34] In other words, Asaph is remembering what God has done for him in the past.

[00:08:44] And he's going to talk about it.

[00:08:46] The Bible tells us that we are to share our testimony.

[00:08:51] Think about the goodness of God.

[00:08:53] Think of what he's done for you before.

[00:08:57] Your way, O God, is in the sanctuary.

[00:09:00] Who is so great a God as our God?

[00:09:05] You are the God who does wonders.

[00:09:08] You have declared your strength among the peoples.

[00:09:11] You have with your arm redeemed your people.

[00:09:16] The sons of Jacob and Joseph.

[00:09:20] Say law.

[00:09:21] Asaph is telling us,

[00:09:22] God, you are my salvation.

[00:09:27] You've done it for me in the past.

[00:09:29] And I'm believing you'll do it for me again.

[00:09:34] Let's go to verse 16.

[00:09:36] The waters saw you, O God.

[00:09:38] The waters saw you.

[00:09:40] They were afraid.

[00:09:41] The depths also trembled.

[00:09:43] The skies poured out water.

[00:09:45] In other words, there is a storm going on.

[00:09:49] Friends, sometimes in our life,

[00:09:52] it feels like we're in the middle of a storm.

[00:09:55] The skies set out a sound.

[00:09:58] Your arrows also flashed about.

[00:10:01] Well, that sound is the sound of thunder.

[00:10:04] And the arrows are lightning bolts.

[00:10:08] Friends, sometimes things in our life

[00:10:10] just seem to be headed in the wrong direction.

[00:10:14] The voice of your thunder was in the whirlwind.

[00:10:18] The lightnings lit up the world.

[00:10:21] The earth trembled and shook.

[00:10:24] Your way was the sea.

[00:10:27] Your path in the great waters

[00:10:29] and your footsteps were not known.

[00:10:33] And friends, what he's simply saying here

[00:10:35] is that God is in charge of all the elements.

[00:10:39] He's in charge of the storm.

[00:10:41] He's in charge of the sea.

[00:10:43] And he knows everything that is going on in your life.

[00:10:47] Let's close with verse 20.

[00:10:50] You led your people like a flock

[00:10:54] by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

[00:10:57] And friends, here we are reminded

[00:11:01] that Aaron and Moses led the people

[00:11:07] out of the country of Egypt.

[00:11:10] God delivered the Israelites then

[00:11:13] and he will deliver you

[00:11:16] out of your situation even today.

[00:11:20] Friends, please join me again soon

[00:11:23] as we take a closer look at Psalm 78.

[00:11:27] God bless you man.

[00:11:27] We will hear it across the earth.

[00:11:27] Ye will hear you come here from возможно