“To the Choirmaster: According to Jeduthun. A Psalm of Asaph.
[77:1] My voice rises to God, and I will cry aloud;
My voice rises to God, and He will hear me.
[77:3]. When I remember God I moan; When I meditate, my spirit faints.
[Romans 8:23] “We ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”
There is a darkness that can come to men and women of God that has nothing to do with sin, that has nothing to do with lack of wisdom, and has nothing whatsoever to do with the devil. And the tragedy is, when this darkness comes upon certain people of God, they don’t understand what it is and it nearly wipes them out. Everyone who has set his heart on serving God will have this darkness come at some point.
Winkie Pratney
YOU WILL GO THROUGH TIMES OF TROUBLE WHEN YOU WILL WONDER IF GOD IS THERE.
“I am the subject of depression so fearful that I hope none of you ever get to such extremes of wretchedness as I go to.”
Charles Spurgeon
“My spiritual conflicts today were unspeakably dreadful, heavier than the mountains and overflowing floods. I seemed enclosed, as it were, in Hell itself; I was deprived of all sense of God, even of the being of a God; and that was my misery.”
david Brainerd
“We look for some light. We look for some help . . . We strain our ears for some word from the Mount of God. A whisper will do . . . But [we get] only dead silence. Blank. Nothing . . . Please let us have some recognizable attestation to what you have said in your Book.”
Elizabeth Elliot
[77:4] You hold my eyelids open.
I am so troubled that I cannot speak.
[77:5] The days of old…the years long ago
[77:7-9]
“Will the Lord spurn forever,
and never again be favorable?
Has his steadfast love forever ceased?
Are his promises at an end for all time?
Has God forgotten to be gracious?
Has he in anger shut up his compassion?”
Is God Good?
YOU WILL GO THROUGH TIMES WHEN YOU WILL WONDER IF GOD IS GOOD.
[77:10—my translation] “Then I said, ‘This is my affliction, the years of the right hand of the Most High.”
[Exodus 15:11-12]
“Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods?
Who is like you, majestic in holiness,
awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?
You stretched out your right hand;
the earth swallowed them.
YOU WILL HAVE TIMES WHEN WHAT YOU KNOW ABOUT GOD WILL HAVE TO BE MORE POWERFUL THAN HAT YOU FEEL ABOUT GOD. WHAT YOU FEEL ABOUT GOD IS BASED ON EXPERIENCE; WHAT YOU KNOW ABOUT GOD IS BASED ON HIS REVELATION.
”I will remember the deeds of the Lord.”
“I will remember your wonders of old.”
“God (Elohim), your way is in the sanctuary. What god (el) is great like God (Elohim).”
[Exodus 15:11]
“Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods?
Who is like you, majestic in holiness,
awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?
[77:15] “with your arm you—‘REDEEMED’—your people.”
The act of that most beautifully manifests God’s glory, displaying his great power as well as his great love in perfect balance, is His work of redemption.
To contemplate God and his work of redemption will lead us to worship.
To contemplate God and his work of redemption will lead us to rest.
[77:20]. You led your people like a flock.
“I am the subject of depression so fearful that I hope none of you ever get to such extremes of wretchedness as I go to. But I always get back again by this— I know that I trust Christ. I have no reliance but in Him, and if He falls, I shall fall with Him. But if He does not, I shall not. Because He lives, I shall live also, and I spring to my legs again and fight with my depressions of spirit and get the victory through it. And so may you do, and so you must, for there is no other way of escaping from it.”
C.H. Spurgeon