mh_parser/vol_split/19 - Psalms/Chapter 77.xml

<div2 id="Ps.lxxviii" n="lxxviii" next="Ps.lxxix" prev="Ps.lxxvii" progress="48.22%" title="Chapter LXXVII">
<h2 id="Ps.lxxviii-p0.1">P S A L M S</h2>
<h3 id="Ps.lxxviii-p0.2">PSALM LXXVII.</h3>
<p class="intro" id="Ps.lxxviii-p1">This psalm, according to the method of many other
psalms, begins with sorrowful complaints but ends with comfortable
encouragements. The complaints seem to be of personal grievances,
but the encouragements relate to the public concerns of the church,
so that it is not certain whether it was penned upon a personal or
a public account. If they were private troubles that he was
groaning under, it teaches us that what God has wrought for his
church in general may be improved for the comfort of particular
believers; if it was some public calamity that he is here
lamenting, his speaking of it so feelingly, as if it had been some
particular trouble of his own, shows how much we should lay to
heart the interests of the church of God and make them ours. One of
the rabbin says, This psalm is spoken in the dialect of the
captives; and therefore some think it was penned in the captivity
in Babylon. I. The psalmist complains here of the deep impressions
which his troubles made upon his spirits, and the temptation he was
in to despair of relief, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxviii-p1.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.77.1-Ps.77.10" parsed="|Ps|77|1|77|10" passage="Ps 77:1-10">ver.
1-10</scripRef>. II. He encourages himself to hope that it would be
well at last, by the remembrance of God's former appearances for
the help of his people, of which he gives several instances,
<scripRef id="Ps.lxxviii-p1.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.77.11-Ps.77.20" parsed="|Ps|77|11|77|20" passage="Ps 77:11-20">ver. 11-20</scripRef>. In singing
this psalm we must take shame to ourselves for all our sinful
distrusts of God, and of his providence and promise, and give to
him the glory of his power and goodness by a thankful commemoration
of what he has done for us formerly and a cheerful dependence on
him for the future.</p>
<scripCom id="Ps.lxxviii-p1.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.77" parsed="|Ps|77|0|0|0" passage="Ps 77" type="Commentary"/>
<scripCom id="Ps.lxxviii-p1.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.77.1-Ps.77.10" parsed="|Ps|77|1|77|10" passage="Ps 77:1-10" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Ps.77.1-Ps.77.10">
<h4 id="Ps.lxxviii-p1.5">Prevailing Melancholy; Mournful
Supplications.</h4>
<div class="Center" id="Ps.lxxviii-p1.6">
<p id="Ps.lxxviii-p2">To the chief musician, to Jeduthun. A psalm of Asaph.</p>
</div>
<p class="passage" id="Ps.lxxviii-p3">1 I cried unto God with my voice, <i>even</i>
unto God with my voice; and he gave ear unto me.   2 In the
day of my trouble I sought the Lord: my sore ran in the night, and
ceased not: my soul refused to be comforted.   3 I remembered
God, and was troubled: I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed.
Selah.   4 Thou holdest mine eyes waking: I am so troubled
that I cannot speak.   5 I have considered the days of old,
the years of ancient times.   6 I call to remembrance my song
in the night: I commune with mine own heart: and my spirit made
diligent search.   7 Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will
he be favourable no more?   8 Is his mercy clean gone for
ever? doth <i>his</i> promise fail for evermore?   9 Hath God
forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his tender
mercies? Selah.   10 And I said, This <i>is</i> my infirmity:
<i>but I will remember</i> the years of the right hand of the most
High.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxviii-p4">We have here the lively portraiture of a
good man under prevailing melancholy, fallen into and sinking in
that horrible pit and that miry clay, but struggling to get out.
Drooping saints, that are of a sorrowful spirit, may here as in a
glass see their own faces. The conflict which the psalmist had with
his griefs and fears seems to have been over when he penned this
record of it; for he says (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxviii-p4.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.77.1" parsed="|Ps|77|1|0|0" passage="Ps 77:1"><i>v.</i>
1</scripRef>), <i>I cried unto God, and he gave ear unto me,</i>
which, while the struggle lasted, he had not the comfortable sense
of, as he had afterwards; but he inserts it in the beginning of his
narrative as an intimation that his trouble did not end in despair;
for God heard him, and, at length, he knew that he heard him.
Observe,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxviii-p5">I. His melancholy prayers. Being afflicted,
he prayed (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxviii-p5.1" osisRef="Bible:Jas.5.13" parsed="|Jas|5|13|0|0" passage="Jam 5:13">Jam. v. 13</scripRef>),
and, being in an agony, he prayed more earnestly (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxviii-p5.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.77.1" parsed="|Ps|77|1|0|0" passage="Ps 77:1"><i>v.</i> 1</scripRef>): <i>My voice was unto
God, and I cried, even with my voice unto God.</i> He was full of
complaints, loud complaints, but he directed them to God, and
turned them all into prayers, vocal prayers, very earnest and
importunate. Thus he gave vent to his grief and gained some ease;
and thus he took the right way in order to relief (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxviii-p5.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.77.2" parsed="|Ps|77|2|0|0" passage="Ps 77:2"><i>v.</i> 2</scripRef>): <i>In the day of my
trouble I sought the Lord.</i> Note, Days of trouble must be days
of prayer, days of inward trouble especially, when God seems to
have withdrawn from us; we must seek him and seek till we find him.
In the day of his trouble he did not seek for the diversion of
business or recreation, to shake off his trouble that way, but he
sought God, and his favour and grace. Those that are under trouble
of mind must not think to drink it away, or laugh it away, but must
pray it away. <i>My hand was stretched out in the night and ceased
not;</i> so Dr. Hammond reads the following words, as speaking the
incessant importunity of his prayers. Compare <scripRef id="Ps.lxxviii-p5.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.143.5-Ps.143.6" parsed="|Ps|143|5|143|6" passage="Ps 143:5,6">Ps. cxliii. 5, 6</scripRef>.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxviii-p6">II. His melancholy grief. Grief may then be
called melancholy indeed, 1. When it admits of no intermission;
such was his: <i>My sore,</i> or wound, <i>ran in the night,</i>
and bled inwardly, and it ceased not, no, not in the time appointed
for rest and sleep. 2. When it admits of no consolation; and that
also as his case: <i>My soul refused to be comforted;</i> he had no
mind to hearken to those that would be his comforters. <i>As
vinegar upon nitre, so is he that sings songs to a heavy heart,</i>
<scripRef id="Ps.lxxviii-p6.1" osisRef="Bible:Prov.25.20" parsed="|Prov|25|20|0|0" passage="Pr 25:20">Prov. xxv. 20</scripRef>. Nor had he
any mind to think of those things that would be his comforts; he
put them far from him, as one that indulged himself in sorrow.
Those that are in sorrow, upon any account, do not only prejudice
themselves, but affront God, if they refuse to be comforted.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxviii-p7">III. His melancholy musings. He pored so
much upon the trouble, whatever it was, personal or public, that,
1. The methods that should have relieved him did but increase his
grief, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxviii-p7.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.77.3" parsed="|Ps|77|3|0|0" passage="Ps 77:3"><i>v.</i> 3</scripRef>. (1.) One
would have thought that the remembrance of God would comfort him,
but it did not: <i>I remembered God and was troubled,</i> as poor
Job (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxviii-p7.2" osisRef="Bible:Job.23.15" parsed="|Job|23|15|0|0" passage="Job 23:15"><i>ch.</i> xxiii.
15</scripRef>); <i>I am troubled at his presence; when I consider I
am afraid of him.</i> When he remembered God his thoughts fastened
only upon his justice, and wrath, and dreadful majesty, and thus
God himself became a terror to him. (2.) One would have thought
that pouring out his soul before God would give him ease, but it
did not; he <i>complained, and</i> yet his <i>spirit was
overwhelmed,</i> and sank under the load. 2. The means of his
present relief were denied him, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxviii-p7.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.77.4" parsed="|Ps|77|4|0|0" passage="Ps 77:4"><i>v.</i> 4</scripRef>. He could not enjoy sleep, which,
if it be quiet and refreshing, is a parenthesis to our griefs and
cares: "<i>Thou holdest my eyes waking</i> with thy terrors, which
make me full of <i>tossings to and fro until the dawning of the
day.</i>" He could not speak, by reason of the disorder of his
thoughts, the tumult of his spirits, and the confusion his mind was
in: He <i>kept silence even from good</i> while <i>his heart was
hot within him;</i> he was <i>ready to burst like a new bottle</i>
(<scripRef id="Ps.lxxviii-p7.4" osisRef="Bible:Job.32.19" parsed="|Job|32|19|0|0" passage="Job 32:19">Job xxxii. 19</scripRef>), and yet
so troubled that he could not speak and refresh himself. Grief
never preys so much upon the spirits as when it is thus smothered
and pent up.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxviii-p8">IV. His melancholy reflections (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxviii-p8.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.77.5-Ps.77.6" parsed="|Ps|77|5|77|6" passage="Ps 77:5,6"><i>v.</i> 5, 6</scripRef>): "<i>I have
considered the days of old,</i> and compared them with the present
days; and our former prosperity does but aggravate our present
calamities: for we see not the wonders that our fathers told us
off." Melancholy people are apt to pore altogether upon the days of
old and the years of ancient times, and to magnify them, for the
justifying of their own uneasiness and discontent at the present
posture of affairs. But <i>say not thou</i> that <i>the former days
were better than these,</i> because it is more than thou knowest
whether they were or no, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxviii-p8.2" osisRef="Bible:Eccl.7.10" parsed="|Eccl|7|10|0|0" passage="Ec 7:10">Eccl. vii.
10</scripRef>. Neither let the remembrance of the comforts we have
lost make us unthankful for those that are left, or impatient under
our crosses. Particularly, he <i>called to remembrance his song in
the night,</i> the comforts with which he had supported himself in
his former sorrows and entertained himself in his former solitude.
These songs he remembered, and tried if he could not sing them over
again; but he was out of tune for them, and the remembrance of them
did but <i>pour out his soul in him,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.lxxviii-p8.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.43.4" parsed="|Ps|43|4|0|0" passage="Ps 43:4">Ps. xliii. 4</scripRef>. See <scripRef id="Ps.lxxviii-p8.4" osisRef="Bible:Job.35.10" parsed="|Job|35|10|0|0" passage="Job 35:10">Job xxxv. 10</scripRef>.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxviii-p9">V. His melancholy fears and apprehensions:
"<i>I communed with my own heart,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.lxxviii-p9.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.77.6" parsed="|Ps|77|6|0|0" passage="Ps 77:6"><i>v.</i> 6</scripRef>. Come, my soul, what will be the
issue of these things? What can I think of them and what can I
expect they will come to at last? I <i>made diligent search</i>
into the causes of my trouble, enquiring wherefore God contended
with me and what would be the consequences of it. And thus I began
to reason, <i>Will the Lord cast off for ever,</i> as he does for
the present? He is not now favourable; and <i>will he be favourable
no more? His mercy</i> is now gone; <i>and is it clean gone for
ever? His promise</i> now fails; and <i>does it fail for
evermore?</i> God is not now gracious; but <i>has he forgotten to
be gracious?</i> His <i>tender mercies</i> have been withheld,
perhaps in wisdom; but <i>are they shut up,</i> shut up <i>in
anger?</i>" <scripRef id="Ps.lxxviii-p9.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.77.7-Ps.77.9" parsed="|Ps|77|7|77|9" passage="Ps 77:7-9"><i>v.</i> 7-9</scripRef>.
This is the language of a disconsolate deserted soul, walking in
darkness and having no light, a case not uncommon even with those
that <i>fear the Lord and obey the voice of his servant,</i>
<scripRef id="Ps.lxxviii-p9.3" osisRef="Bible:Isa.50.10" parsed="|Isa|50|10|0|0" passage="Isa 50:10">Isa. l. 10</scripRef>. He may here be
looked upon, 1. As groaning under a sore trouble. God hid his face
from him, and withdrew the usual tokens of his favour. Note,
Spiritual trouble is of all trouble most grievous to a gracious
soul; nothing wounds and pierces it like the apprehensions of God's
being angry, the suspending of his favour and the superseding of
his promise; this wounds the spirit; and who can bear that? 2. As
grappling with a strong temptation. Note, God's own people, in a
cloudy and dark day, may be tempted to make desperate conclusions
about their own spiritual state and the condition of God's church
and kingdom in the world, and, as to both, to give up all for gone.
We may be tempted to think that God has abandoned us and cast us
off, that the covenant of grace fails us, and that the tender mercy
of our God shall be for ever withheld from us. But we must not give
way to such suggestions as these. If fear and melancholy ask such
peevish questions, let faith answer them from the Scripture:
<i>Will the Lord cast off for ever?</i> God forbid, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxviii-p9.4" osisRef="Bible:Rom.11.1" parsed="|Rom|11|1|0|0" passage="Ro 11:1">Rom. xi. 1</scripRef>. No; <i>the Lord will not
cast off his people,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.lxxviii-p9.5" osisRef="Bible:Ps.94.14" parsed="|Ps|94|14|0|0" passage="Ps 94:14">Ps. xciv.
14</scripRef>. <i>Will he be favourable no more?</i> Yes, he will;
<i>for, though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion,</i>
<scripRef id="Ps.lxxviii-p9.6" osisRef="Bible:Lam.3.32" parsed="|Lam|3|32|0|0" passage="La 3:32">Lam. iii. 32</scripRef>. <i>Is his
mercy clean gone for ever?</i> No; his <i>mercy endures for
ever;</i> as it is <i>from everlasting,</i> it is <i>to
everlasting,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.lxxviii-p9.7" osisRef="Bible:Ps.103.17" parsed="|Ps|103|17|0|0" passage="Ps 103:17">Ps. ciii.
17</scripRef>. <i>Doth his promise fail for evermore?</i> No; <i>it
is impossible for God to lie,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.lxxviii-p9.8" osisRef="Bible:Heb.6.18" parsed="|Heb|6|18|0|0" passage="Heb 6:18">Heb.
vi. 18</scripRef>. <i>Hath God forgotten to be gracious?</i> No;
<i>he cannot deny himself,</i> and his own name which he hath
proclaimed <i>gracious and merciful,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.lxxviii-p9.9" osisRef="Bible:Exod.34.6" parsed="|Exod|34|6|0|0" passage="Ex 34:6">Exod. xxxiv. 6</scripRef>. <i>Has he in anger shut up his
tender mercies?</i> No; they are <i>new every morning</i>
(<scripRef id="Ps.lxxviii-p9.10" osisRef="Bible:Lam.3.23" parsed="|Lam|3|23|0|0" passage="La 3:23">Lam. iii. 23</scripRef>); and
therefore, <i>How shall I give thee up, Ephraim?</i> <scripRef id="Ps.lxxviii-p9.11" osisRef="Bible:Hos.11.8-Hos.11.9" parsed="|Hos|11|8|11|9" passage="Ho 11:8,9">Hos. xi. 8, 9</scripRef>. Thus was he going on
with his dark and dismal apprehensions when, on a sudden, he first
checked himself with that word, <i>Selah,</i> "Stop there; go no
further; let us hear no more of these unbelieving surmises;" and he
then chid himself (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxviii-p9.12" osisRef="Bible:Ps.77.10" parsed="|Ps|77|10|0|0" passage="Ps 77:10"><i>v.</i>
10</scripRef>): <i>I said, This is my infirmity.</i> He is soon
aware that it is not well said, and therefore, "<i>Why art thou
cast down, O my soul? I said, This is my affliction</i>" (so some
understand it); "This is the calamity that falls to my lot and I
must make the best of it; every one has his affliction, his trouble
in the flesh; and this is mine, the cross I must take up." Or,
rather, "This is my sin; it is my iniquity, the plague of my own
heart." These doubts and fears proceed from the want and weakness
of faith and the corruption of a distempered mind. note, (1.) We
all know that concerning ourselves of which we must say, "<i>This
is our infirmity,</i> a sin that most easily besets us." (2.)
Despondency of spirit, and distrust of God, under affliction, are
too often the infirmities of good people, and, as such, are to be
reflected upon by us with sorrow and shame, as by the psalmist
here: <i>This is my infirmity.</i> When at any time it is working
in us we must thus suppress the rising of it, and not suffer the
evil spirit to speak. We must argue down the insurrections of
unbelief, as the psalmist here: <i>But I will remember the years of
the right hand of the Most High.</i> He had been considering the
<i>years of ancient times</i> (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxviii-p9.13" osisRef="Bible:Ps.77.5" parsed="|Ps|77|5|0|0" passage="Ps 77:5"><i>v.</i> 5</scripRef>), the blessings formerly enjoyed,
the remembrance of which did only add to his grief; but now he
considered them as <i>the years of the right hand of the Most
High,</i> that those blessings of ancient times came from the
Ancient of days, from the power and sovereign disposal of his right
hand who is <i>over all, God, blessed for ever,</i> and this
satisfied him; for may not the Most High with his right hand make
what changes he pleases?</p>
</div><scripCom id="Ps.lxxviii-p9.14" osisRef="Bible:Ps.77.11-Ps.77.20" parsed="|Ps|77|11|77|20" passage="Ps 77:11-20" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Ps.77.11-Ps.77.20">
<h4 id="Ps.lxxviii-p9.15">Acknowledgments of the Divine Majesty, of
God's Wonders Wrought for Israel.</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Ps.lxxviii-p10">11 I will remember the works of the <span class="smallcaps" id="Ps.lxxviii-p10.1">Lord</span>: surely I will remember thy wonders of old.
  12 I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy
doings.   13 Thy way, O God, <i>is</i> in the sanctuary: who
<i>is so</i> great a God as <i>our</i> God?   14 Thou
<i>art</i> the God that doest wonders: thou hast declared thy
strength among the people.   15 Thou hast with <i>thine</i>
arm redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah.
  16 The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they
were afraid: the depths also were troubled.   17 The clouds
poured out water: the skies sent out a sound: thine arrows also
went abroad.   18 The voice of thy thunder <i>was</i> in the
heaven: the lightnings lightened the world: the earth trembled and
shook.   19 Thy way <i>is</i> in the sea, and thy path in the
great waters, and thy footsteps are not known.   20 Thou
leddest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxviii-p11">The psalmist here recovers himself out of
the great distress and plague he was in, and silences his own fears
of God's casting off his people by the remembrance of the great
things he had done for them formerly, which though he had in vain
tried to quiet himself with (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxviii-p11.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.77.5-Ps.77.6" parsed="|Ps|77|5|77|6" passage="Ps 77:5,6"><i>v.</i> 5, 6</scripRef>) yet he tried again, and,
upon this second trial, found it not in vain. It is good to
persevere in the proper means for the strengthening of faith,
though they do not prove effectual at first: "<i>I will remember,
surely I will,</i> what God has done for his people of old, till I
can thence infer a happy issue of the present dark dispensation,"
<scripRef id="Ps.lxxviii-p11.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.77.11-Ps.77.12" parsed="|Ps|77|11|77|12" passage="Ps 77:11,12"><i>v.</i> 11, 12</scripRef>. Note,
1. The works of the Lord, for his people, have been wondrous works.
2. They are recorded for us, that they may be remembered by us. 3.
That we may have benefit by the remembrance of them we must
meditate upon them, and dwell upon them in our thoughts, and must
talk of them, that we may inform ourselves and others further
concerning them. 4. The due remembrance of the works of God will be
a powerful antidote against distrust of his promise and goodness;
for he is God and changes not. If he begin, he will finish his work
and bring forth the top-stone.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxviii-p12">Two things, in general, satisfied him very
much:</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxviii-p13">I. That <i>God's way is in the
sanctuary,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.lxxviii-p13.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.77.13" parsed="|Ps|77|13|0|0" passage="Ps 77:13"><i>v.</i>
13</scripRef>. It is <i>in holiness,</i> so some. When we cannot
solve the particular difficulties that may arise in our
constructions of the divine providence, this we are sure of, in
general, that God is holy in all his works, that they are all
worthy of himself and consonant to the eternal purity and rectitude
of his nature. He has holy ends in all he does, and will be
sanctified in every dispensation of his providence. His way is
according to his promise, which he has spoken in his holiness and
made known in the sanctuary. What he has done is according to what
he has said and may be interpreted by it; and from what he has said
we may easily gather that he will not cast off his people for ever.
God's way is for the sanctuary, and for the benefit of it. All he
does is intended for the good of his church.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxviii-p14">II. That God's <i>way is in the sea.</i>
Though God is holy, just, and good, in all he does, yet we cannot
give an account of the reasons of his proceedings, nor make any
certain judgment of his designs: <i>His path is in the great waters
and his footsteps are not known,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.lxxviii-p14.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.77.19" parsed="|Ps|77|19|0|0" passage="Ps 77:19"><i>v.</i> 19</scripRef>. God's ways are like the deep
waters which cannot be fathomed (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxviii-p14.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.36.6" parsed="|Ps|36|6|0|0" passage="Ps 36:6">Ps.
xxxvi. 6</scripRef>), like the way of a ship in the sea, which
cannot be tracked, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxviii-p14.3" osisRef="Bible:Prov.30.18-Prov.30.19" parsed="|Prov|30|18|30|19" passage="Pr 30:18,19">Prov. xxx. 18,
19</scripRef>. God's proceedings are always to be acquiesced in,
but cannot always be accounted for. He specifies some particulars,
for which he goes as far back as the infancy of the Jewish church,
and from which he gathers, 1. That there is no God to be compared
with the God of Israel (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxviii-p14.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.77.13" parsed="|Ps|77|13|0|0" passage="Ps 77:13"><i>v.</i>
13</scripRef>): <i>Who is so great a God as our God?</i> Let us
first give to God the glory of the great things he has done for his
people, and acknowledge him, therein, great above all comparison;
and then we may take to ourselves the comfort of what he has done
and encourage ourselves with it. 2. That he is a God of almighty
power (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxviii-p14.5" osisRef="Bible:Ps.77.14" parsed="|Ps|77|14|0|0" passage="Ps 77:14"><i>v.</i> 14</scripRef>):
"<i>Thou art the God that</i> alone <i>doest wonders,</i> above the
power of any creature; <i>thou hast</i> visibly, and beyond any
contradiction, <i>declared thy strength among the people.</i>" What
God has done for his church has been a standing declaration of his
almighty power, for therein he has made bare his everlasting arm.
(1.) God brought Israel out of Egypt, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxviii-p14.6" osisRef="Bible:Ps.77.15" parsed="|Ps|77|15|0|0" passage="Ps 77:15"><i>v.</i> 15</scripRef>. This was the beginning of mercy
to them, and was yearly to be commemorated among them in the
passover: <i>"Thou hast with thy arm,</i> stretched out in so many
miracles, <i>redeemed thy people</i> out of the hand of the
Egyptians." Though they were delivered by power, yet they are said
to be redeemed, as if it had been done by price, because it was
typical of the great redemption, which was to be wrought out, in
the fulness of time, both by price and power. Those that were
redeemed are here called not only <i>the sons of Jacob,</i> to whom
the promise was made, but <i>of Joseph</i> also, who had a most
firm and lively belief of the performance of it; for, when he was
dying, he made mention of the departing of the children of Israel
out of Egypt, and gave commandment concerning his bones. (2.) He
divided the Red Sea before them (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxviii-p14.7" osisRef="Bible:Ps.77.16" parsed="|Ps|77|16|0|0" passage="Ps 77:16"><i>v.</i> 16</scripRef>): <i>The waters</i> gave way,
and a lane was made through that crowd instantly, as if they had
seen God himself at the head of the armies of Israel, and had
retired for fear of him. Not only the surface of the waters, but
<i>the depths, were troubled,</i> and opened to the right and to
the left, in obedience to his word of command. (3.) He destroyed
the Egyptians (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxviii-p14.8" osisRef="Bible:Ps.77.17" parsed="|Ps|77|17|0|0" passage="Ps 77:17"><i>v.</i>
17</scripRef>): <i>The clouds poured out water</i> upon them, while
the pillar of fire, like an umbrella over the camp of Israel,
sheltered it from the shower, in which, as in the deluge, the
waters that were above the firmament concurred with those that were
beneath the firmament to destroy the rebels. Then <i>the skies sent
out a sound; thy arrows also went abroad,</i> which is explained
(<scripRef id="Ps.lxxviii-p14.9" osisRef="Bible:Ps.77.18" parsed="|Ps|77|18|0|0" passage="Ps 77:18"><i>v.</i> 18</scripRef>): <i>The
voice of thy thunder was heard in the heaven</i> (that was the
sound which the skies sent forth); <i>the lightnings lightened the
world</i>—those were the arrows which went abroad, by which the
host of the Egyptians was discomfited, with so much terror that
<i>the earth</i> of the adjacent coast <i>trembled and shook.</i>
Thus God's way was in the sea, for the destruction of his enemies,
as well as for the salvation of his people; and yet when the waters
returned to their place <i>his footsteps were not known</i>
(<scripRef id="Ps.lxxviii-p14.10" osisRef="Bible:Ps.77.19" parsed="|Ps|77|19|0|0" passage="Ps 77:19"><i>v.</i> 19</scripRef>); there was
no mark set upon the place, as there was, afterwards, in Jordan,
<scripRef id="Ps.lxxviii-p14.11" osisRef="Bible:Josh.4.9" parsed="|Josh|4|9|0|0" passage="Jos 4:9">Josh. iv. 9</scripRef>. We do not read
in the story of Israel's passing through the Red Sea that there
were thunders and lightning, and an earthquake; yet there might be,
and Josephus says there were, such displays of the divine terror
upon that occasion. But it may refer to the thunders, lightnings,
and earth quakes, that were at Mount Sinai when the law was given.
(4.) He took his people Israel under his own guidance and
protection (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxviii-p14.12" osisRef="Bible:Ps.77.20" parsed="|Ps|77|20|0|0" passage="Ps 77:20"><i>v.</i> 20</scripRef>):
<i>Thou leddest thy people like a flock.</i> They being weak and
helpless, and apt to wander like a flock of sheep, and lying
exposed to the beasts of prey, God went before them with all the
care and tenderness of a shepherd, that they might not fail. The
pillar of cloud and fire led them; yet that is not here taken
notice of, but the agency of Moses and Aaron, by whose hand God led
them; they could not do it without God, but God did it with and by
them. Moses was their governor, Aaron their high priest; they were
guides, overseers, and rulers to Israel, and by them God led them.
The right and happy administration of the two great ordinances of
magistracy and ministry is, though not so great a miracle, yet as
great a mercy to any people as the pillar of cloud and fire was to
Israel in the wilderness.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxviii-p15">The psalm concludes abruptly, and does not
apply those ancient instances of God's power to the present
distresses of the church, as one might have expected. But as soon
as the good man began to meditate on these things he found he had
gained his point; his very entrance upon this matter <i>gave him
light</i> and joy (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxviii-p15.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.119.130" parsed="|Ps|119|130|0|0" passage="Ps 119:130">Ps. cxix.
130</scripRef>); his fears suddenly and strangely vanished, so that
he needed to go no further; he <i>went his way, and did eat,</i>
and <i>his countenance was no more sad,</i> like Hannah, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxviii-p15.2" osisRef="Bible:1Sam.1.18" parsed="|1Sam|1|18|0|0" passage="1Sa 1:18">1 Sam. i. 18</scripRef>.</p>
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