From The Message version of the Bible we read Psalm 77: 1 I yell out to my God, I yell with all my might, I yell at the top of my lungs. He listens. 2 I found myself in trouble and went looking for my Lord; my life was an open wound that wouldn't heal. When friends said, "Everything will turn out all right," I didn't believe a word they said. 11 Once again I'll go over what God has done, lay out on the table the ancient wonders; 12 I'll ponder all the things you've accomplished, and give a long, loving look at your acts. 13 O God! Your way is holy! No god is great like God! 14 You're the God who makes things happen; you showed everyone what you can do - 15 You pulled your people out of the worst kind of trouble, rescued the children of Jacob and Joseph. 16 Ocean saw you in action, God, saw you and trembled with fear; Deep Ocean was scared to death. 17 Clouds belched buckets of rain, Sky exploded with thunder, your arrows flashing this way and that. 18 From Whirlwind came your thundering voice, Lightning exposed the world, Earth reeled and rocked. 19 You strode right through Ocean, walked straight through roaring Ocean, but nobody saw you come or go. 20Hidden in the hands of Moses and Aaron, You led your people like a flock of sheep.
I remember vividly the song from my Sunday school days in my little church of Kingsville, Texas, where we sang, "If you're saved and you know it clap your hands...If you're saved and you know it then your heart will surely show it; if you're saved and you know it clap your hands." I also remember very well when my daughters came home singing the version they learned, "If you're happy and you know it...etc." I wondered when did we change it? If they learned it at public school then I can understand someone liking the melody and message of being happy and of course, they're not allowed to sing about salvation. Yet, I heard the song in church the same way. I stomped my feet, shook instead of nodded my head, and didn't clap my hands.
The psalmist was anything but happy in the words penned in this psalm 77. He was miserable and troubled. This version more honestly puts it that he yelled out in pain and frustration because of his situation whatever that might have been. It was a needed release. It is a release some of us have tried from time to time depending on what we faced. As the psalmist has found himself in trouble, so have we, and we have had God to Whom we could yell. He knew God listened but the state of mind this challenge brought to his life kept him from believing it. To have a problem that one compares to ones life being "an open wound that wouldn't heal," it is a serious thing indeed. Even the comforting counsel and presence of friends sometimes doesn't seem like enough.
He did what we should do. He laid out in his mind all that God had done in his life up to that point. The commentary in the Wesley Study Bible calls this a remembrance of salvation. He remembered when he did not know God and how his life was at that time. But when he entered into a relationship with God his life changed for the better. No "ancient wonder," no "ponder(ing) on the things accomplished" by God compares to the joy found in knowing God's grace and love. To know, trust, love, and walk with God is salvation. It is a way of living spiritually and positively. It is a way of true happiness. I love the phrase, "You're the God who makes things happen." (v. 14). And the psalmist knows that in the way God rescued those whom we have read about in ancient days, God will again rescue him and us when we remind ourselves and pray to God for God's power and peace in our lives.
Say to yourself, There is nothing so great facing me that with God's power and peace I cannot face and defeat. I will take the hand of God, listen for God's voice, and walk out of trouble and into peace.
PRAYER: Loving God, speak to my heart and those who are reading this, that we may receive the power and peace You offer to us. And if anyone reading this does not yet know You, may today be the day of new birth, of entering into a real and lasting relationship with You. May we turn over our sinful ways to You and let You be the one to guide and lead. Help those facing trouble to take your hand and walk right out of it into peace. This we pray in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!
Eradio Valverde
