9 Hath ùGod forgotten to be gracious? or hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah.
But Zion said, Jehovah hath forsaken me, and the Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Even these forget, but I will not forget thee.
Remember, Jehovah, thy tender mercies and thy loving-kindnesses; for they are from everlasting.
{To the chief Musician. A Psalm of David; when Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bath-sheba.} Be gracious unto me, O God, according to thy loving-kindness; according to the abundance of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.
Why sayest thou, Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from Jehovah, and my right is passed away from my God?
From the time that the master of the house shall have risen up and shall have shut the door, and ye shall begin to stand without and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, open to us; and he answering shall say to you, I know you not whence ye are: then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten in thy presence and drunk, and thou hast taught in our streets; and he shall say, I tell you, I do not know you whence ye are; depart from me, all [ye] workers of iniquity. There shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but yourselves cast out.
For God hath shut up together all in unbelief, in order that he might shew mercy to all.
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Commentary on Psalms 77 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
PSALM 77
Ps 77:1-20. To Jeduthun—(See on Ps 39:1, title). In a time of great affliction, when ready to despair, the Psalmist derives relief from calling to mind God's former and wonderful works of delivering power and grace.
1. expresses the purport of the Psalm.
2. his importunacy.
my sore ran … night—literally, "my hand was spread," or, "stretched out" (compare Ps 44:20).
ceased not—literally, "grew not numb," or, "feeble" (Ge 45:26; Ps 38:8).
my soul … comforted—(compare Ge 37:35; Jer 31:15).
3-9. His sad state contrasted with former joys.
was troubled—literally, "violently agitated," or disquieted (Ps 39:6; 41:5).
my spirit was overwhelmed—or, "fainted" (Ps 107:5; Jon 2:7).
4. holdest … waking—or, "fast," that I cannot sleep. Thus he is led to express his anxious feelings in several earnest questions indicative of impatient sorrow.
10. Omitting the supplied words, we may read, "This is my affliction—the years of," &c., "years" being taken as parallel to affliction (compare Ps 90:15), as of God's ordering.
11, 12. He finds relief in contrasting God's former deliverances. Shall we receive good at His hands, and not evil? Both are orderings of unerring mercy and unfailing love.
13. Thy way … in the sanctuary—God's ways of grace and providence (Ps 22:3; 67:2), ordered on holy principles, as developed in His worship; or implied in His perfections, if "holiness" be used for "sanctuary," as some prefer translating (compare Ex 15:11).
14-20. Illustrations of God's power in His special interventions for His people (Ex 14:1-31), and, in the more common, but sublime, control of nature (Ps 22:11-14; Hab 3:14) which may have attended those miraculous events (Ex 14:24).
15. Jacob and Joseph—representing all.
19. waters … , footsteps—may refer to His actual leading the people through the sea, though also expressing the mysteries of providence.