Psalm 77 I Will Remember

Scripture: Psalm 77
To the leader: according to Jeduthun. Of Asaph. A Psalm.
I cry aloud to God,
aloud to God, that he may hear me.
In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord;
in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying;
my soul refuses to be comforted.
I think of God, and I moan;
I meditate, and my spirit faints.
Selah

You keep my eyelids from closing;
I am so troubled that I cannot speak.
I consider the days of old,
and remember the years of long ago.
I commune with my heart in the night;
I meditate and search my spirit:
‘Will the Lord spurn for ever,
and never again be favourable?
Has his steadfast love ceased for ever?
Are his promises at an end for all time?
Has God forgotten to be gracious?
Has he in anger shut up his compassion?’
Selah
And I say, ‘It is my grief
that the right hand of the Most High has changed.’

I will call to mind the deeds of the Lord;
I will remember your wonders of old.
I will meditate on all your work,
and muse on your mighty deeds.
Your way, O God, is holy.
What god is so great as our God?
You are the God who works wonders;
you have displayed your might among the peoples.
With your strong arm you redeemed your people,
the descendants of Jacob and Joseph.
Selah

When the waters saw you, O God,
when the waters saw you, they were afraid;
the very deep trembled.
The clouds poured out water;
the skies thundered;
your arrows flashed on every side.
The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind;
your lightnings lit up the world;
the earth trembled and shook.
Your way was through the sea,
your path, through the mighty waters;
yet your footprints were unseen.
You led your people like a flock
by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

Observation: The psalmist is suffering from a problem I know all too well...insomnia. She/he is sitting up, reflecting on worries and concerns, and wondering if God has just forgotten to be gracious and compassionate. The only antidote the psalmist can think of is to reflect on God's mighty acts in days past.

Application: I too have been known to stay up with my worries. For some reason, the way it works for me is I will get to sleep okay, but then it's as if my worries wake me up. When I remember to do it, this can be a time of prayer.

Like the psalmist, I also believe that stories can heal. This is a common belief in many faith traditions. Knowing God has been faithful in the past can allow us to let go of that which we can't control, and trust that God will be faithful again.

The whole reason people of faith gather and tell stories to one another is because they heal. They strengthen. They give courage to the faint-hearted, and hope to the despairing. They can remind us that others have faced similar situations, or worse, and God has gotten them through it.

Something Neil Gaiman said about fairy tales is also true of faith stories.

"Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten."


I don't believe the stories of our faith are "fairy tales" in the sense that they're made up and have no referent in history. But I do believe they share this same quality: they are true not just because they happened, but because they continue to happen. It is of very little relevance to my life, if I really think about it, that a certain tomb in Palestine is empty. But the truth that the former occupant of that tomb leads us through little deaths and resurrections every single day, is nothing less than the words of eternal life.

Prayer: Jesus, help me remember when sleep is not my friend, that it's a good time to talk. Amen.