The Psalms have been a source of comfort and help in recent months. I find the raw transparency of the Psalmists an encouragement for my own prayers. I find their continual return to the character and faithfulness of God a pillar for my faith.
In Psalm 77, Asaph begins with a confident statement of God’s help. “I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, and he will hear me” (Psalm 77:1). Then he laments that God has seemingly forgotten him (Psalm 77:2-9). I find this back and forth so encouraging. The Psalmists truly were men with emotions. Asaph knows the truth that God hears the cries of his people, but what he feels does not match what he knows. What he sees is not matching what he knows. His current experience is contradictory to his past experience. He is in a crisis, and he is losing sleep over it (v. 4).
Just as suddenly as he turned to lament the Psalmist comes to himself and turns to remembrance. His appeal is stated in verse 10: “Then I said, ‘I will appeal to this, to the years of the right hand of the Most High.’” The Psalmist turns from doubt and despair to confidence in a God who has acted on behalf of his people with his right hand. The Lord has used his almighty strength to act on behalf of his people in the past.
Asaph spends the rest of the Psalm meditating on the ways that God has worked on behalf of his people, especially his redemption of Israel from Egypt (vv. 11-20). With captivating language Asaph draws us in to behold God’s mighty act of redemption. Implied in this is the confidence that the same God who redeemed his people from Egypt will hear the prayers of his people now.
This reminds me of an even greater redemption that the Exodus calls us to consider. Just as the Passover lamb was slain in the place of the firstborn sons of Israel, Christ our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed in our place for our sins (1 Corinthians 5:7). Christ loved me and gave himself for me (Galatians 2:20). “…Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her…” (Ephesians 5:25). The Father has loved us. He “did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all…” (Romans 8:32).
Isaiah tells us that this work of God was a revealing of the Lord’s arm (Isaiah 53:1). If the Lord delivered Israel from Egypt with his mighty hand and outstretched arm, how much more did he save us by his mighty arm when both of his Son’s hands were nailed to a cross? Since God has so acted for us in the past, he will certainly hear our prayers now. The death of Christ has granted us access to the Father (Ephesians 2:18).
In all circumstances, because of God’s work on our behalf in Christ, we may join Asaph and say, “I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, and he will hear me” (Psalm 77:1).
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