John Calvin Commentary Psalms 77

My voice came to God, and I cried. This is not a mere complaint, as some interpreters explain it. They suggest it denotes the surprise God's people felt when they found that He, who until now had been accustomed to grant their requests, shut His ears to them and was called upon in vain.

It appears more probable that the prophet is either speaking of the present feeling of his mind or else recalling how he had experienced God's inclination and readiness to hear his prayers. There can be no doubt that he describes the greatness of the sorrow with which he was afflicted. And, in my opinion, he indicates a continuous action through both the past and future tenses of the verbs.

In the first place, he declares that he did not foolishly rend the air with his cries, like many who pour forth bitter cries without measure and at random in their sorrows; rather, he addressed his speech to God when necessity compelled him to cry. The conjunction and, which is joined to the verb cried, should be understood as the adverb of time when, in this way: When I cried, my voice came to God. At the same time, he also shows that although he had often been compelled to repeat his cries, he had not stopped persevering in prayer.

What is added immediately after is intended for the confirmation of his faith: And he heard me. The conjunction and, as in many other places, is here used instead of the causal conjunction for. The meaning is that he encouraged himself to cry to God, based on the understanding that it was God’s usual way to show His favor and mercy towards him.

I sought the Lord in the day of my trouble. In this verse he expresses more distinctly the grievous and hard oppression to which the Church was at that time subjected. There is, however, some ambiguity in the words. The Hebrew word יד, yad, which I have translated hand, is sometimes taken metaphorically for a wound; and, therefore, many interpreters derive this meaning: My wound ran in the night, and ceased not; that is to say, my wound was not so purified from ulcerous matter that its discharge was made to stop.

But I prefer to take the word in its ordinary meaning, which is hand, because the verb נגרה, niggera, which he uses, signifies not only to run, as a sore does, but also to be stretched out or extended. Now, when he affirms that he sought the Lord in the day of his trouble, and that his hands were stretched out to Him in the night, this denotes that prayer was his continual practice—that his heart was so earnestly and unweariedly engaged in that practice that he could not cease from it.

In the concluding sentence of the verse, the contrasting word although is to be supplied; and thus the meaning will be that, although the prophet found no solace and no relief from the bitterness of his grief, he still continued to stretch out his hands to God. In this way, it is fitting for us to wrestle against despair, so that our sorrow, although it may seem incurable, may not shut our mouths and keep us from pouring out our prayers before God.

I will remember God, and will be troubled. The Psalmist here employs a variety of expressions to express the intensity of his grief and, at the same time, the greatness of his affliction. He complains that what constituted the only remedy for alleviating his sorrow became a source of unease for him.

It may, indeed, seem strange that the minds of true believers should be troubled by remembering God. But the meaning of the inspired writer is simply that even though he thought about God, his distress of mind was not removed. It undoubtedly often happens that the remembrance of God in times of adversity aggravates the anguish and trouble of the godly, for example, when they entertain the thought that he is angry with them.

The prophet, however, does not mean that his heart was thrown into new distress and unease whenever God came to his mind: he only laments that no consolation came from God to provide him relief; and this is a trial that is very hard to bear. It is not surprising to see the wicked tormented with dreadful mental agony; for, since their primary goal and effort is to depart from God, they must suffer the punishment they deserve because of their rebellion against him.

But when the remembrance of God, from which we seek to draw consolation for lessening our calamities, does not provide rest or peace to our minds, we are ready to think that he is toying with us. Nevertheless, we are taught from this passage that however much we may experience worry, sorrow, and unease, we must persevere in calling upon God even in the midst of all these hindrances.

Thou hast held the watches of my eyes. This verse is to the same effect as the preceding. The Psalmist affirms that he spent whole nights in watching, because God granted him no relief. The night in ancient times was usually divided into many watches; and, accordingly, he describes his continued grief, which prevented him from sleeping, by the metaphorical term watches.

When he stated a little before that he prayed to God with a loud voice, and when he now affirms that he will remain silent, there seems to be some appearance of discrepancy. This difficulty has already been solved in our exposition of Psalm 32:3, where we have shown that true believers, when overwhelmed with sorrow, do not continue in a state of unvarying uniformity, but sometimes give vent to sighs and complaints, while at other times, they are silent as if their mouths were stopped. It is, therefore, not surprising to find the prophet frankly confessing that he was so overwhelmed, and, as it were, choked with calamities, as to be unable to open his mouth to utter even a single word.

I have recounted the days of old. There is no doubt that he sought to lessen his grief by the remembrance of his former joy, but he informs us that relief was not so easily or so quickly obtained.

By the days of old, and the years of ancient times, he seems not only to refer to the brief course of his own life but also to include many ages.

The people of God, in their afflictions, ought undoubtedly to set before their eyes and recall not only the divine blessings they have individually experienced but also all the blessings God in every age has bestowed upon his Church. It may, however, be easily gathered from the text that when the prophet considered in his own mind the mercies God had bestowed in the past, he began with his own experience.