Psalm 77

Here's the text: Psalm 77


Psalm 77 ups the Lenten ante.

Now not only am I surrounded by enemies, but as I cry to God, God seems absent, even to have changed. I cannot find God.

I cry aloud, as if God were far away or hard of hearing. I cry day and night, searching for God in the darkness with outstretched arms. I think of God, moan for God. I can't sleep.

Then I turn inward, meditating and searching my spirit, communing with my heart in the night, the darkness. Perhaps God is hidden deep within my spirit or my heart.

Then these thoughts:

“Will the Lord spurn forever,
    and never again be favorable?
8 Has his steadfast love ceased forever?
    Are his promises at an end for all time?
9 Has God forgotten to be gracious?
    Has he in anger shut up his compassion?"
10 And I say, “I grieve
    that the right hand of the Most High has changed.”

It makes me sad, but my experience indicates that YHWH has changed. Why else would he not be found by such an earnest and righteous seeker as I? Why else would YHWH not come to me in my hour of need?

What to do? God is not within me. Searching my soul to find God is a dead end. I cannot find God by meditating on my spirit or communing with my heart. Meditation seems only to continue the "dark night of the soul."

The Psalmist offers another path: Stop looking inward and start looking outward. Return to scripture. Recall the deeds of the Lord. Remember God's wonders of old. Remember God's big story. Don't focus on your present darkness and your inability to conjure up some evidence of God's presence. Trust God's big story.

The question is not, "Where is God in my story?" The question is, "Where am I in God's story?"

And here's another tip about trying to find God: Even when God parted the sea, he left no tracks. His footprints were unseen. What was seen was Moses and Aaron leading through the sea as their enemies bore down on them, because they knew where they and the people of Israel were in God's story. They did not stop to commune with their hearts or meditate and search their spirits; they stepped into the path through the sea in faith. They stepped into God's story.