John Calvin Commentary Psalms 77:11

"I will make mention of the deeds of Jehovah; For I will remember thy wonders of old." — Psalms 77:11 (ASV)

I will remember the works of God. The prophet now, inspired with new courage, vigorously resists the temptations, which had so far prevailed against him as nearly to overwhelm his faith. This remembering of the works of God differs from the remembering of which he had previously spoken.

Then he contemplated from a distance the divine benefits, and he found the contemplation of them inadequate to lessen or mitigate his grief. Here he takes hold of them, so to speak, as assured testimonies of God’s everlasting grace. To express the greater earnestness, he repeats the same sentence, interjecting an affirmation; for the word כי, ki, is here used simply to confirm or enhance the statement.

Having then, as it were, obtained the victory, he triumphs in the remembrance of the works of God, being fully persuaded that God would continue the same as he had shown himself to be from the beginning. In the second clause, he highly extols the power which God had displayed in preserving his servants: I will remember thy wonderful works from the beginning. He employs the singular number, thy secret, or thy wonderful work; but I have not hesitated to correct the obscurity by changing the number.

We will find him soon after employing the singular number to denote many miracles. What he means, in short, is that the wonderful power of God, which he has always exercised for the preservation and salvation of his servants, provided we properly reflect upon it, is sufficient to enable us to overcome all sorrows.

Let us learn from this that, although sometimes the remembrance of the works of God may bring us less comfort than we would desire and our circumstances would require, we must nevertheless strive so that the weariness produced by grief may not break our courage. This is deserving of our most careful attention.

In the time of sorrow, we are always eager to find some remedy to lessen its bitterness; but the only way by which this can be done is to cast our cares upon God. It often happens, however, that the nearer he approaches us, the more, to outward appearance, he aggravates our sorrows.

Many, therefore, when they gain no benefit from this course, imagine that they cannot do better than forget him. Thus they loathe his word, by hearing which their sorrow is embittered rather than lessened; and what is worse, they desire that God, who thus aggravates and inflames their grief, would withdraw to a distance.

Others, to bury the remembrance of him, devote themselves entirely to worldly business. It was far otherwise with the prophet. Although he did not immediately experience the benefit which he could have desired, yet he still continued to keep God before his view, wisely supporting his faith by the reflection that, as God changes neither his love nor his nature, he must eventually show himself merciful to his servants.

Let us also learn to open our eyes to behold the works of God; the excellence of which we do not fully appreciate because of the dimness of our eyes and our inadequate perception of them, but which, if examined attentively, will fill us with admiration. The Psalmist repeats in Psalm 77:12 that he will meditate continually upon these works until, in due time, he receives the full advantage which this meditation is intended to provide.

The reason why so many examples of the grace of God do not benefit us and fail to build up our faith is that as soon as we have begun to make them the subjects of our reflection, our inconstancy draws us away to something else, and thus, at the very beginning, our minds soon lose sight of them.