John Calvin Commentary Psalms 77:2

"In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord: My hand was stretched out in the night, and slacked not; My soul refused to be comforted." — Psalms 77:2 (ASV)

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.