In the day of my troubles I sought the Lord... I remembered God, and was troubled... Psalm 77:3
This
is an irony, for how can one remember God and be troubled? It would be
expected that the person in trouble, when he remembers God, should be
comforted. But here, we read that he was troubled upon remembering God.
How can we make sense of this?
Let's remember
that this man knows God and follows Him, but the things he is
experiencing makes it seem as if God was not with him. What was his
trouble upon remembering God? First it may be the thought of whether he
had believed in vain; it may also be the fact that what he was
experiencing negated everything he had been told about God and those who
believe in Him. And because his experience did not match with his dogma
of God, he was naturally troubled, and in his troubled state, he
complained and his spirit was overwhelmed.
:10 - And I said, this is my infirmity.
One
thing that came clear to him is that the problem was not with God, but
with him. Having taken responsibility for how things were, he was set to
address the situation by remembering the years of the right hand of
God. He recalled God's ancient deliverances, and so reestablished his
faith. Remembering God's mercies of yester years has the power to
sustain us in a time of severe trouble. David did this when he came
against the threat of Goliath.
The next
significant thing the psalmist did in his travail was to quit meditating
on the situation and turned his meditation on the greatness of God. But
in addition to meditating on the greatness of God, he turned from
talking about his sorrows, to talking about the greatness of God and His
works. From this time going forward, his words were filled with the
testimonies of the ancient antecedents of God. If God could bring Israel
out from Egypt, sustained them through their journey in the wilderness,
gave their fathers the land occupied by stronger nations than them,
then, if he was correctly evaluating his present situation, he must
conclude that God will also see him through in his present trouble if He
was trusted.
For you and me, our surest
testimony of the greatness of God is the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead. Nothing in the natural can be as dead as death, when it
happens, yet, God, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead has
shown us that He can be relied upon to turn things around no matter how
dead our circumstances may seem to be.
Toni
