Remembrance in the Days of Sorrow, Confusion, and Hope

Order of Service

• Scripture Reading — Psalm 77
• Sermon
• Prayer

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Sermon Title: Remembrance in the Days of Sorrow, Confusion, and Hope

Scripture: Psalm 77

I. A Personal Remembrance in the Days of Sorrow

A. Asaf is in a dark night of the soul, feeling the Lord is distant from him

1. He remembers former days of sweet fellowship with God, but rather than lifting his spirits, the memory deepens his sorrow — like a parent who has lost a child
2. His soul refuses to be comforted (Psalm 77:2)

B. Asaf's depression is a godly depression — the sorrow of one who has tasted God's goodness and now mourns its apparent absence

1. Contrast with the wicked, whose eyes are so accustomed to darkness they do not know what they are missing
2. Martin Lloyd-Jones called this spiritual depression — not the depression of one without God, but of one who knows God's goodness acutely

C. Alexander McLaren: Doubts are better put into plain speech than lying diffused and darkening like poisonous mists in the heart. A thought, be it good or bad, can be dealt with when it is made articulate

1. Our prayers in dark times are often filled with Christian clichés that do not suit the dark night of the soul
2. Asaf gives us language to utter in such dark days — Psalm 77 is canonized for us to recite in seasons of felt distance from God

D. The psalm does not end in despair, and neither should our prayers

1. A justified Christian should never leave the prayer room feeling condemned — Christ has said "It is finished"
2. We leave our knees with assurance of forgiveness and righteousness reckoned to us in Christ

II. A Reasonable Remembrance in the Days of Confusion

A. Asaf asks five rhetorical questions in Psalm 77:7–9, each implying a resounding no

1. Will the Lord spurn forever? Has his steadfast love ceased? Are his promises at an end? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he shut up his compassion?
2. Compare Paul's "By no means!" in Romans 6 — God's gracious promises are not nullified by our present circumstances

B. Before the questions, Psalm 77:6: My spirit made a diligent search

1. Depression causes intellectual laziness — the mind becomes passive, unable to think clearly
2. Asaf disciplines himself to make a diligent search into the character of God

C. The tender characteristics of God that Asaf recalls: favor, steadfast love, promises, grace, and compassion

1. Psalm 103:13–14 — as a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him, for he knows our frame
2. It is in our weakest moments that the heart of God is drawn out toward his people — Christ came not for the righteous but for sinners, the sick who know their need of a physician
3. The Puritan principle: if one is dealing with the guilt of sin, give them grace; if dealing with presumption of grace, bring the law — Asaf needs the tenderness of God's steadfast love, not Sinai's thunder

D. God's challenge to Job in Job 38–41 — Consider — an intellectual word engaging the mind

1. God says: make a diligent search of my character and you will find no charge against me that will stick
2. The attributes of God are the anchor of our souls amid our own fickle and shifting states — his character is immutable and unshakable

III. A Historical Remembrance in the Days of Hope

A. Psalm 77:10: I will appeal to the years of the right hand of the Most High

1. Asaf moves from his personal condition and God's past dealings with him individually to God's mighty acts in redemptive history
2. He moves from a "what have you done for me lately?" disposition to a consideration of what God has done for all his people throughout all time

B. The Exodus is the seminal event Asaf focuses on, as throughout the Psalter

1. God redeemed Israel from bondage to Pharaoh and Egypt, led them through the Red Sea on dry ground, and established his covenant at Mount Sinai
2. Psalm 77:13: Your way, O God, is holy. What god is great like our God? — God is transcendent, set apart from all other gods, and displays his holiness through great and awesome deeds

C. Psalm 77:19: Your way was through the sea, your path through the great waters, yet your footprints were unseen

1. Historical and literal reference: God led Israel not through the waters but through dry ground
2. Poetical and metaphorical reference: the sea for ancient peoples symbolized chaos and evil — Asaf is himself in the sea, in the great waters of tumult
3. The Lord's way is through the sea, not around it — he does not remove Asaf from the chaos but leads him through it

D. The unseen God leads his people through the sea by the seen staff of Moses and Aaron (Psalm 77:20)

1. Compare Psalm 23:4 — Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me
2. Peter is rebuked for denying Christ the cross (Matthew 16) — the path of God is through the sea, through the valley
3. Our mediator goes through the sea and the valley as he goes to the cross — the path through darkness leads to glory at the right hand of God
4. The dark days of our lives are not random occurrences outside God's redemptive plan — they are the path he has set, leading through the cross-bearing incarnate mediator into the light of God's countenance forever