Psalm 77:3

I remembered God, and was troubled: I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Selah.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(3) I remembered.—Better,

“If I remember God I must sigh;

I meditate, and my spirit faints.”

Or,

“Let me remember God, and sigh;

I must complain, and my spirit faints.”

The word rendered overwhelmed (comp. Psalm 142:3; Psalm 143:4) means properly covers itself up. In Psalm 107:5 it is translated fainted.

Benson Commentary

Psalm 77:3. I remembered God, and was troubled — Yea, the thoughts of God, and of his infinite power, wisdom, truth, and goodness, which used to be very sweet and consolatory to me, were now causes of terror and trouble, because these divine attributes appeared to be all engaged against me; and God himself, my only friend, now seemed to be very angry with me, and to have become mine enemy. The word אהמיה, ehemajah, here rendered I was troubled, properly signifies, I was in a state of perturbation, like that of the tumultuous waves of the sea in a storm. I complained — Unto God in prayer; and my spirit was overwhelmed — So far was I from finding relief by my complaints, that they increased my misery. Hebrew, אשׁיחה ותתעשׂŠ רוחי, ashicha vetithgnatteph ruchi, I meditated, and my spirit covered, overwhelmed, or obscured itself. My own reasonings, instead of affording me light and comfort, only served to overwhelm me with greater darkness and misery. How frequently is this the case with persons in distress of soul, through a consciousness of their guilt, depravity, and weakness, and their desert of the wrath of God! This verse “is a fine description,” says Dr. Horne, “of what passes in an afflicted and dejected mind. Between the remembrance of God and his former mercies, and the meditation on a seeming desertion, under present calamities, the affections are variously agitated, and the prayers disturbed like the tumultuous waves of a troubled sea; while the fair light from above is intercepted, and the face of heaven overwhelmed with clouds and darkness.”

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

77:1-10 Days of trouble must be days of prayer; when God seems to have withdrawn from us, we must seek him till we find him. In the day of his trouble the psalmist did not seek for the diversion of business or amusement, but he sought God, and his favor and grace. Those that are under trouble of mind, must pray it away. He pored upon the trouble; the methods that should have relieved him did but increase his grief. When he remembered God, it was only the Divine justice and wrath. His spirit was overwhelmed, and sank under the load. But let not the remembrance of the comforts we have lost, make us unthankful for those that are left. Particularly he called to remembrance the comforts with which he supported himself in former sorrows. Here is the language of a sorrowful, deserted soul, walking in darkness; a common case even among those that fear the Lord, Isa 50:10. Nothing wounds and pierces like the thought of God's being angry. God's own people, in a cloudy and dark day, may be tempted to make wrong conclusions about their spiritual state, and that of God's kingdom in the world. But we must not give way to such fears. Let faith answer them from the Scripture. The troubled fountain will work itself clear again; and the recollection of former times of joyful experience often raises a hope, tending to relief. Doubts and fears proceed from the want and weakness of faith. Despondency and distrust under affliction, are too often the infirmities of believers, and, as such, are to be thought upon by us with sorrow and shame. When, unbelief is working in us, we must thus suppress its risings.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

I remembered God - That is, I thought on God; I thought on his character, his government, and his dealings; I thought on the mysteries - the incomprehensible things - the apparently unequal, unjust, and partial doings - of his administration. It is evident from the whole tenor of the psalm that these were the things which occupied his attention. He dwelt on them until his whole soul became sad; until his spirit became so overwhelmed that he could not find words in which to utter his thoughts.

And was troubled - The Septuagint renders this, εὐφράνθην euphranthēn - I was rejoiced or delighted. So the Vulgate. Luther renders it, "When I am troubled, then I think on God." Our translation, however, has probably given the true idea; and in that has expressed

(a) what often occurs in the case of even a good man - that by dwelling on the dark and incomprehensible things of the divine administration, the soul becomes sad and troubled to an extent bordering on murmuring, complaint, and rebellion; and may also serve to illustrate

(b) what often happens in the mind of a sinner - that he delights to dwell on these things in the divine administration:

(1) as most in accordance with what he desires to think about God, or with the views which he wishes to cherish of him; and

(2) as justifying himself in his rebellion against God, and his refusal to submit to him - for if God is unjust, partial, and severe, the sinner is right; such a Being would be unworthy of trust and confidence; he ought to be opposed, and his claims ought to be resisted.

I complained - Or rather, I "mused" or "meditated." The word used here does not necessarily mean to complain. It is sometimes used in that sense, but its proper and common signification is to meditate. See Psalm 119:15, Psalm 119:23, Psalm 119:27, Psalm 119:48, Psalm 119:78,Psalm 119:148.

And my spirit was overwhelmed - With the result of my own reflections. That is, I was amazed or confounded by the thoughts that came in upon me.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

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).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Yea, the thoughts of God, and of his infinite power, and truth, and goodness, which used to be very sweet and comfortable to me, were now matter of terror and trouble, because they were all engaged against me, and God himself, my only friend, was now very angry with me, and become mine enemy.

I complained unto God in prayer.

My spirit was overwhelmed; so far was I from finding relief by my complaints, that they increased my misery.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

I remembered God, and was troubled,.... Either the mercy, grace, and goodness of God, as Jarchi; how ungrateful he had been to him, how sadly he had requited him, how unthankful and unholy he was, notwithstanding so much kindness; and when he called this to mind it troubled him; or when he remembered the grace and goodness of God to him in time past, and how it was with him now, that it was not with him as then; this gave him uneasiness, and set him a praying and crying, that it might be with him as heretofore, Job 29:2, or rather he remembered the greatness and majesty of God, his power and his justice, his purity and holiness, and himself as a worm, a poor weak creature, sinful dust and ashes, not able to stand before him; he considered him not as his father and friend, but as an angry Judge, incensed against him, and demanding satisfaction of him:

I complained; of sin and sorrow, of affliction and distress: or "I prayed", or "meditated" (l); he thought on his case, and prayed over it, and poured out his complaint unto God, yet found no relief:

and my spirit was overwhelmed; covered with grief and sorrow, pressed down with affliction, ready to sink and faint under it:

Selah: See Gill on Psalm 3:2.

(l) "meditabor", Montanus, Junius & Tremellius, Gejerus; "meditabor", Musculus, Piscator, Cocceius.

Geneva Study Bible

I remembered God, and was {b} troubled: I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Selah.

(b) He shows that we must patiently abide though God does not deliver us from our troubles at the first cry.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

3. When I would fain remember God, I was disquieted:

When I would fain muse in prayer, my spirit fainted.

The precise force of the tenses of the original is difficult to determine. The perfects in Psalm 77:2, and again in Psalm 77:4-5, however, shew that the poet is relating a past experience. In Psalm 77:1 he quotes, as it were, the words in which, in that hour of sorrow, he resolved to betake himself to prayer, and in Psalm 77:3, in tenses which recall the emotion of the time, though their force can hardly be given in a translation, he describes his failure to find comfort.

In its rendering my sore ran, the A.V. follows Jewish authorities in taking hand in the sense of blow or wound (Job 23:2). ‘My wound was unstanched,’ is a metaphor for ‘my sorrow was unrelieved.’ But the rendering of R.V. given above is preferable. He sought God day and night, with hands unceasingly outstretched in the attitude of prayer (Psalm 28:2, note; Exodus 17:11-12). The text however is doubtful. The verb which means literally ‘was poured out,’ is not a natural one to apply to the hand; and the use of the same verb, and substantives derived from the root of the verb rendered ‘slacked,’ in Lamentations 2:18-19; Lamentations 3:49, with reference to tears, suggests that the original reading may have been, ‘Mine eye poured down in the night, and slacked not.’ So the Targ.

my soul &c.] Like Jacob, mourning for the loss of Joseph (Genesis 37:35); and Rachel, weeping for her children (Jeremiah 31:15).

3. For the word rendered ‘disquieted’ cp. Psalm 42:5; Psalm 42:11; Psalm 43:5. In Psalm 55:17 it is joined with that rendered ‘muse in prayer,’ which recurs in Psalm 77:6 b, 12 b, and denotes meditation, musing prayer, musing or plaintive speech.

my spirit &c.] Cp. Psalm 142:3; Psalm 143:4, in contexts full of parallels to this Psalm.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 3. - I remembered God, and was troubled. The tenses used are present rather than past; they mark continuance; they describe the condition in which the writer remained for days or weeks. He thought of God, but the thought troubled him. It was God who had brought the calamity, whatever it was, upon his people. Seemingly, he had "cast them off" - he had "forgotten to be gracious" (see vers. 7-9). I complained; rather, I muse or meditate (Hengstenberg, Kay, Cheyne). And my spirit was overwhelmed; or, waxeth faint, as in the Prayer book Version. Psalm 77:3

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The poet is resolved to pray without intermission, and he prays; fore his soul is comfortless and sorely tempted by the vast distance between the former days and the present times. According to the pointing, והאזין appears to be meant to be imperative after the form הקטיל, which occurs instead of הקטל and הקתילה, cf. Psalm 94:1; Isaiah 43:8; Jeremiah 17:18, and the mode of writing הקטיל, Psalm 142:5, 2 Kings 8:6, and frequently; therefore et audi equals ut audias (cf. 2 Samuel 21:3). But such an isolated form of address is not to be tolerated; והאזין has been regarded as perf. consec. in the sense of ut audiat, although this modification of האזין into האזין in connection with the appearing of the Waw consec. cannot be supported in any other instance (Ew. ֗234, e), and Kimchi on this account tries to persuade himself to that which is impossible, viz., that והאזין in respect of sound stands for ויאזין. The preterites in Psalm 77:3 express that which has commenced and which will go on. The poet labours in his present time of affliction to press forward to the Lord, who has withdrawn from him; his hand is diffused, i.e., stretched out (not: poured out, for the radical meaning of נגר, as the Syriac shows, is protrahere), in the night-time without wearying and leaving off; it is fixedly and stedfastly (אמוּנה, as it is expressed in Exodus 17:12) stretched out towards heaven. His soul is comfortless, and all comfort up to the present rebounds as it were from it (cf. Genesis 37:35; Jeremiah 31:15). If he remembers God, who was once near to him, then he is compelled to groan (cf. Psalm 55:18, Psalm 55:3; and on the cohortative form of a Lamed He verb, cf. Ges. ֗75, 6), because He has hidden Himself from him; if he muses, in order to find Him again, then his spirit veils itself, i.e., it sinks into night and feebleness (התעטּף as in Psalm 107:5; Psalm 142:4; Psalm 143:4). Each of the two members of Psalm 77:4 are protasis and apodosis; concerning this emotional kind of structure of a sentence, vid., Ewald, ֗357, b.