Asaph has really been “down.”

Much like Jonah was, and Elijah and even Jeremiah, during their days of discouragement. Maybe even John the Baptist as well!

Read three verses from Psalm 77. “Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more? Is his mercy clean gone for ever? doth his promise fail for evermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah.” Verses 7-9, practically a stanza!

Today, in our clause by clause journey through the Poem, we stop to observe that last series of questions. “Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies?” Remember, this is verse 9.

“To forget” implies (in Hebrew “shakach”) “ignoring” something or someone! “Ceasing to care,” says one lexicon. And the adjective “gracious” (spelled “chanan” in its root) means “to pity,” but especially in the sense of answered prayer. In one of its two Bible uses, “intreated” is the translation, King James Version.

Has God lost interest in answering prayer? So reasons, so wonders Asaph!

Is God angry, mad?

Here “aph” in Hebrew means “anger,” their word literally for the human “nose, nostril!” Almost as if God is so upset He is snorting, breathing very hard, noticeably so!

“Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies?”

To “shut up” means “to draw together,” like tying the strings on a garbage bag or lacing one’s shoes. Has God ceased opening the windows of Heaven? Is He pouring forth no more blessings?

And His “tender mercies” are His “racham” (just pluralized) once again, the normal noun for “intestines or womb or insides!” His “most intimate” Feelings!

No doubt our little psalmist is under “pressure.”

Going through “hard times.”

BUT PLEASE NOTICE … HE IS STILL TALKING ABOUT HIS GOD AND (MOST IMPORTANTLY) TO HIS GOD!

This is the same man who later will, later in this same Psalm, utter: “Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary: who is so great a God as our God?”

Wow!

Many afflictions … but apparently, great deliverance!

Psalm 34:19 is always true, one way or another. “Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all.”

Amen.

Take courage, dear friend today.

Through Christ, victory is in your future!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

Just a short verse today, two simple questions, both so typical for Asaph.

“Is his mercy clean gone for ever? Doth his promise fail for evermore?” The Lord’s Mercy, His Promise too, Psalm 77:8.

Let’s notice the grammar first, the vocabulary.

The noun “mercy” used here is the Hebrew staple “hesed.” It is translated “mercy” 149 times in the Old Testament, but is also rendered as “kindness” or “lovingkindness” another 70 times!

And the verb “gone” is “aphes,” only found 5 times in the Bible, total! It means “to fail!” Or “to come to an end!” Or “to be brought to naught!”

And “for ever” (spelled “netzsach”) means “perpetually, always, constantly!”

Pretty strong language!

And I suspect all God’s prophecies here are summed up into a single head, as His “promise.” And “omer” literally means (derived from “amar”) “to speak, utter, answer.” GOD AS SILENT!

“Fail” means “to cease,” another rare word (5 times only), simply spelled “gamar.”

In the second clause “for evermore” is “dor,” for “generations.” Sort of like, “all  my life,” then some!

“Is his mercy clean gone for ever? Doth his promise fail for evermore?”

Every true Believer in God knows that Asaph here must be very discouraged!

God’s is merciful!

God is faithful, true to His Word!

And soon Asaph will be praising God once again!

But he is having doubts.

Doubts he will resolve … in communion with his Lord!

I read this quote years ago, from the lips of a noted British Preacher named Joseph Parker. “NO MAN IS REALLY AS GOOD AS THE BEST DAY HE EVER LIVED. AND NO MAN IS AS BAD AS THE WORST DAY HE EVER LIVED!”

That thought has helped me many a time.

It might help someone else today!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

A God Who “tolerates” questions!

Maybe even invites “questions!”

As in Isaiah 1:18 … “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD.”

Is this the God of the Bible?

He allowed His Own Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to ask, from the Cross: “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Matthew 27:46

And even our Psalmist today, Asaph, in Psalm 77:7 asks: “Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more?” In fact, he is still asking such questions in the next two verses, as well.

Of course, I might mention that Asaph is suffering as he vents here.

And Job, the archetypal sufferer of the Old Testament, certainly asked such questions. Lots of them!

But back to Asaph.

“Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more?”

The verb “cast off” is “zanach,” and it is powerful! It means “to reject, to spurn!” Once in the King James Version, “to remove far off.” Implying that the psalmist believes he must “stink” in the Nostrils of God!

“For ever” means “out of sight,” perpetually. No end is in view!

Then “to be favourable” translates “ratzsah,” meaning “to take delight in” a person or thing. “To accept and to enjoy” him or her.

“No more” utilizes an adverb, “id,” meaning “a going round and round.” Continually!

Yes, this little writer is that low!

He believes God may be “through” with him!

BUT NOTICE THIS … SOON, BEFORE THE END OF PSALM 77 … ASAPH HAS “REASONED” HIS WAY BACK TO GOD! IN FACT, HE NEVER FORSOOK HIS GOD!

Here’s a “clip,” a “quote” from him … in just a few verses: “Who is so great a God as our God?”

Wow!

Are you discouraged today?

Is your hope wavering?

Faith weakening?

Hold on!

Endure!

Keep looking Heavenward!

Do not forsake the God of your life!

YOU WILL AGAIN ENTER INTO JOY!

Jesus never fails.

I’ve used this verse before, but it’s a paradigm of the Christian life. “His (the Lord’s) anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” Psalm 30:5

Amen!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

Listen to Asaph, the writer of Psalm 77. In a moment of “introspection!” He shares: “I call to remembrance my song in the night: I commune with mine own heart: and my spirit made diligent search.” Psalm 77:6

What’s his purpose?

In such musings?

Maybe the next verse will help reveal the context. “Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more?”

Three verbs appear above, in today’s verse. “I CALL TO REMEMBRANCE my song in the night: I COMMUNE with mine own heart: and my spirit MADE DILIGENT SEARCH.”

I have capitalized them. Remember they are Hebrew verbs, not strictly English.

We are here being taught how to self-inspect, spiritually.

One, he thought upon past blessings. “I call to remembrance my song in the night.” The “good” times of his life.” Job uses this expression too. “Where is God my maker, who giveth songs in the night.? Job 35:10, “songs” again suggesting periods of joy.

This reminds me of the hymn, “Count your Blessings, name them one by one! Count your many blessings … see what God has done!”

Two, he “communes” with himself, Asaph does. Wondering “why” God has seemed to “forsake” him. “Why” so many problems have beset him. “I commune with mine own heart.”

The verb used here for “commune” is “siyach,” meaning “to meditate.” But in this sense, “to talk, speak, muse, declare,” here to oneself. He’s asking, “What might have I done WRONG? Have I sinned? Or is God perhaps “testing” me? To make me stronger? To “prove” my faith?

Paul, in like manner, wrote the Corinthians. “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” Found in 2nd Corinthians 13:5, a pretty strong verse!

Third, get your “spirit” involved! That part of you that has been born-again! That part of creation placed deep inside you that has God-consciousness. “My spirit made diligent search.”

This verb, “chaphas,” is relatively rare, used only 23 times in Scripture. “To find something hidden!” To “disguise” oneself and investigate a matter! And here in verse 7 the verb is a “Piel” stem construction, intensively searching! Vigorously! Looking for anything that might displease Almighty God!

This is parallel to the last paragraph of Psalm 139. “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalm 139:23-24

Wow!

Paul once wrote … “If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.” Not be judged by the Lord! 1st Corinthians 11:31

Sounds like the Psalmist, Asaph, agrees!

We should too.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

Today’s verse is “quaint,” yet fundamental in teaching us how to better live the Christian life. Psalm 77:5 is short, too, but echoes a great Old Testament Truth.

“I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times.”

That’s all!

Yet … why such intense, deliberate reflection?

The Psalmist is suffering. Physically perhaps, but certainly emotionally.

Racked with “troubles,” running “sores” and overall “restlessness!” Add “insomnia” to the list as well. Things to him seem “out of control,” his word … “overwhelmed.”

But what’s the cause of such turmoil?

He is searching for the answer.

Talking to His God (praying) all the way through the trial!

So, Asaph pledges himself to REMEMBER!

To look to the past.

Again, our Text for today, Psalm 77:5 … “I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times.”

“Remember,” one of the key words of the Christian life.

I just counted “remember” 14 different times in the Book of Deuteronomy alone! God does not want us to “forget!”

For example, Deuteronomy 5:15. “REMEMBER that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm.” Yes, consider the days of old, the years of ancient time … and see God’s Amazing Grace in your lives!

Then Deuteronomy 7:18-19. “Thou shalt well REMEMBER what the LORD thy God did unto Pharaoh, and unto all Egypt; the great temptations which thine eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the stretched out arm, whereby the LORD thy God brought thee out.” Recall God’s Might Acts on your behalf!

Deuteronomy 8:2 as well. “And thou shalt REMEMBER all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.” Do not forget how God has trained, disciplined, prepared you to better obey His Word!

Consider the days of old, the years of ancient time … also remembering you past mistakes, sins! “REMEMBER, and FORGET NOT, how thou provokedst the LORD thy God to wrath in the wilderness: from the day that thou didst depart out of the land of Egypt, until ye came unto this place, ye have been rebellious against the LORD.” Deuteronomy 9:7

Such Psalm 77:5 remembering (“I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times.”) is apparently a proper way to live the life of faith!

Again and again, remember!

That’s one reason God gave the Israelites Holy Days such a Passover! “That thou mayest REMEMBER the day when thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt ALL THE DAYS OF THY LIFE.” Deuteronomy 16:3

Wow!

Maybe we too, should do more REMEMBERING, in this godly fashion.

Thank you, Asaph, for another valuable lesson.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell