John Calvin Commentary Psalms 77:4

"Thou holdest mine eyes watching: I am so troubled that I cannot speak." — Psalms 77:4 (ASV)

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.