Jeduthun's Song of Sorrow - Ps. 77

Introduction:

Sometimes, we have all the right tools to fight our depression. We pray, and that is an essential tool in the fight. We work, and we are definitely supposed to work our salvation out with fear and trembling. We are in community, and again, that is an essential part. We have God’s Word, which is completely sufficient to give us all things pertaining to life and godliness. So, we do these things, and we try with all our might, and we still feel stuck. What do we do then? When we love people who wrestle through depression, we can often come with all the right tools - good words, good solutions, we offer them the promises of God, and yet, nothing seems to change. We can feel almost like we are standing there in front of a starving man, offering him a steak, and yet he stubbornly refuses to eat and then complains about being hungry.

That feeling, of both desiring comfort and yet feeling unable to be comforted, of trying and working and laboring to do all the things people tell you to do, only to find yourself still in the pit of despair, is exactly what our friend Jeduthun was experiencing when he wrote Ps. 77. Psalm 77 is a window into the inward spiritual battle of a saint who was chosen by God to write His Word. Through the writing of Jeduthun, we get to see the inner thoughts of a man who wrestled with deep sorrow, and who can help us as we wrestle with deep sorrow ourselves.

As we examine Jeduthun’s fight against darkness, we can remember a children’s bible song, to help us in our fight for joy: When we are weak, He is strong. And that will be the outline for us today: coming to God in our own weaknesses, and then trusting God for His strength. The fight for joy in the life and heart of a depressed person is primarily a fight for joy. In the first half of this Psalm, it looks like sorrow will win out, but then Jeduthun does something powerful: he remembers.

I am weak

Nothing exposes our weakness quite so efficiently as trying over and over to do the same things, and being totally unable to change anything. In plumbing, it was pretty common to come across a rusty bolt with a nut that was fused onto it by the rust of time. It was always frustrating to try your best to turn that bolt and it just never break loose. you have the right tools. You aren’t a weak person. You are just trying, over and over again, to turn the nut, and the harder you turn, the more frustrated you get. In some cases, those difficult and rusty thread are attached to softer metal behind it, so if you keep turning and turning you won’t break the rust loose, you will break the pipe behind it and break more than you fix!

That is what stubborn depression feels like. The problem is almost alway lack of knowledge, or lack of access to tools. People problems as a whole are almost never these things. The challenge comes in knowing all these things, and yet still not hearing God’s voice. It comes in doing all the right things over and over, and yet not being able to hear anything from God. That’s when we feel most weak. And that is by design. Jeduthun is having to come to grips with his own weakness as the first step in his spiritual battle. In spite of his best efforts, he just can’t shake it. Let’s look at the first 10 verses together. Ps 77:1-10

Psalm 77:1–10 ESV

I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, and he will hear me. In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord; in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying; my soul refuses to be comforted. When I remember God, I moan; when I meditate, my spirit faints. Selah You hold my eyelids open; I am so troubled that I cannot speak. I consider the days of old, the years long ago. I said, “Let me remember my song in the night; let me meditate in my heart.” Then my spirit made a diligent search: “Will the Lord spurn forever, and never again be favorable? Has his steadfast love forever ceased? Are his promises at an end for all time? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his compassion?” Selah Then I said, “I will appeal to this, to the years of the right hand of the Most High.”

The Psalmist expresses a soul full of troubles:

v. 1 - 2 - we immediately see Jeduthun’s desperation, as he expresses that he cries aloud to God, reminding himself of a truth: when I cry aloud to God, He will hear me. He reminds himself of this, we will see, because he in the midst of a great spiritual struggle, and he doesn’t feel the effects of God hearing him. So, he must start with reminding himself of truth. repetitive and desperate. He cries out to God, cries out to God and He will hear Him.

Nothing makes you feel weaker than spiritual desperation. It is an incredibly difficult and painful thing for any of us to speak honestly about where we are spiritually, because we fear the responses from other people. But this Psalmist is willing, by God’s grace and under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to express his desperation so that we can see how he manages this.

v. 2 - then he gets even more open about his own weaknesses. He says his soul refuses to be comforted. Have you ever experienced this with yourself or someone else? No matter how hard I try, I just can’t get it together. I’m doing everything you are telling me to do, and I can’t get it straight. Or, you are applying all the points from this sermon series, or you are working on doing all the right things in a person’s life, and there just doesn’t seem like there is any change?

When we do this, when we try over and over to do the right things in our own lives, only to no avail, then we play the comparison game. I mean, look at that person! They did these things and it worked. Why won’t it work for me? Or, why isn’t it working for the person I love? I’m trying hard here, and it seems like their soul just refuses to be comforted.

This is the point when it is important to remember that there is a world of difference between people and math problems. With a math problem, you plug in the right formula, the right way, and you get the right result. But people are not math problems. Sometimes, you do all the right things, and a person still experiences what our friend Jeduthun experiences here: their soul still refuses to be comforted.

I can resonate with this feeling. When Jeduthun says His soul refuses to be comforted, it’s not usually a conscious, stubborn refusal to “just feel better.” Depression is more like that rusty steel piece we were talking about. You can have all the right tools, and that piece is still not budging.

Now, Jeduthun goes even deeper still for us, giving us some insight into a soul that refuses to be comforted. What does it feel like to put the wrench of God’s Word to our souls, and still not have it budge?

v. 3 - Even deeper: just the work of thinking about God makes Jeduthun’s soul feel faint. Boy, that doesn’t sound very spiritual at all, does it? There’s a verse you’ll never see on a coffee cup or a calendar: “when I remember God, I moan; when I meditate, my spirit faints.” That’s the opposite of what we should feel, right? I mean, I’m supposed to get excited about talking about God, and I’m supposed to run and not grow weary, and walk and not be faint! But here, that’s not what Jeduthun is experiencing. Instead, you can hear it. Almost any person who has navigated depression can relate to this. You hear about God, or hear the name of God, or hear a bible verse that is supposed to be life giving, and all you can do is groan. And then, you know that you should meditate on God’s Word, to deeply consider what it says, to quieten your own soul and submit your heart to His Word, but when you try to do so, you just find your spirit feeling more faint, not more energized!

Listen, it is God’s grace to us that God did not write His word the way we manage our social media pages, isn’t it? I mean, can you just imagine what would happen if in the blank on Facebook that says “what’s on your mind?” you wrote “when I remember God, I moan?” Man, you would be called unspiritual, ungodly, and unchristian! And yet, this is exactly what Jeduthun has written here. The Bible never hides from the experiences and emotions that we label “unchristian.” God’s Word is sufficient for all areas of life, which means that it must deal with all areas of life, including what to do when you thinking of God makes you groan in pain, and praying and reading God’s Word feels like it is doing the opposite thing it should.

Now, I am aware that, with at least some of our backgrounds, there may be a few folks here who are currently terrified that they may be smitten with some horrible disease, or perhaps struck by lightning. Again, consider Psalm 77 - the Psalmist will not stay here, he will continue to fight, but in order for us to appropriately fight a war against depression and sorrow, we need to be able to adequately put words to the experience. To be afraid of expressing to God what is actually going on in our minds is to forget some very important aspects of God’s character, including His omniscience - I mean, He already knows your heart, and your thoughts. That’s not the question. The real question is if I know my heart and my thoughts. And I cannot, until I wrestle with them. And my wrestling with these things is done like the rest of my life - exposed, before the face of God. Throughout this whole series, we have to keep in mind that God is a good Father, who desires to give good gifts to His children, and those gifts are not conditioned on you having the perfect put together little Christian life. We must do what the Psalmist does here: run to God, now away, with where you are at.

Jeduthun doesn’t even feel like he can talk to God. This is pretty common for anyone who wrestles with depression. I have been here, and that is a tough place to be in, because my primary responsibilities as a pastor are prayer and ministry of the Word. How do you even do that when you moan when you remember God, and your spirit faints when you meditate? But this is precisely where Jeduthun, man of God was, as he wrote this Psalm. And then he goes even deeper, and we are almost to the bottom of the Psalmist’s soul.

V. 4 - deeper: I am so troubled that I cannot speak. These are the words of a spirit that is laboring to just breathe. But though he is so troubled that he cannot speak, we are only at verse 4. The Psalm is 20 verses long! He felt so troubled that he couldn’t speak, but by God’s grace he kept speaking. Sometimes, the people we are trying to care for don’t talk because they simply know you will do the talking for them. This is why being willing to just sit, in comfortable silence, with a friend or family member who is fighting this battle is so helpful. You don’t have to say anything! But what you do need to do is give them time, and space to do two things - first, to say they just can’t speak, and then to just be with them, to be available for when they finally do. And as Jeduthun keeps going, we get even deeper.

v. 5 - He remembers how it used to be - this is closely related to Psalm 42, when the Psalmist recounts the days when he used to march with the procession, in joy singing the songs of God. It hasn’t actually always been this way? What has changed?

v. 6 - He commits to a diligent search - even though his spirit faints when he meditates, here, he commits to doing the hard work of looking inward. Even though all he can see is grief and sorrow in this moment, he strives to remember the song in the night. And it’s like a moment of clarity for old Jeduthun, because he can finally get his head around the struggle, and he summarizes it into three questions that he asks God:

The questions Jeduthun wants answers for:

Will I always feel lost? v. 7 - “will the Lord spurn forever, and never again be favorable?” Is this how it’s always going to be? I thought the Christian life was supposed to be joy-filled? I thought I wasn’t ever supposed to feel lost again? Is this how it’s going to be? Will I only ever see His frowning providence?

Will I ever experience joy again? v. 8 “Has His steadfast love forever ceased? Are His promises at an end for all time?” Has the God who has covenanted Himself to His people forgotten the terms of the covenant? Has the love of God ended for me? Is the goodness and mercy that He has promised me over with?

Will I never feel God’s presence again? v. 9 “Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has He in anger shut up his compassion?” Will I spend the rest of my life feeling like when I pray my prayers hit the ceiling? Will I never experience God’s compassion ever again?

and with these three questions that Jeduthun finally gets to the bottom of things. v. 10 is a tricky passage to translate. Several translations handle this in different ways. I think the LSB handles it best: “it is my grief, that the right hand of the Most High has changed.” This is my anguish: there was a time when He felt like He was right next to God, at His right hand. There was a time when he felt God’s hand right on His shoulder, as though he were just right there. But now? “When I remember God, I moan.” No matter how hard he tries, he can’t feel joy or hope. No matter how hard he strives after God, it feels like he is striving after the wind. Over and over and over and over, and nothing. Even though you can remember what it felt like to have rapturous worship, it is like an echo of a memory from another life compared to what you are experiencing now, and no matter how hard you try to turn the wrench, the rust just will not break.

The action he must take - v. 6 - “my spirit made a diligent search.” We must be ready to make a diligent search of our spirits, to do exactly what Jeduthun did here - AA calls this a “fearless moral inventory.” Be honest about how you are, and how you are feeling, and then commit to taking that honesty and running towards truth, over and over and over again. This is what the Psalmist does here - he takes his groanings, and his questions, and he runs to what he knows about God. When we do this, we are aware of our weaknesses, and we declare these weaknesses, but then, when we do this, we are ready to do the one thing we must do: rely on God’s strength.

He is strong

God delights in using the weak things of the world to shame strong things. God uses those who have confessed their own weaknesses to display His strength in our lives, and in the nations. Verse 11 shows for us a transition point in the thinking and life of Jeduthun, as he starts meditating on the goodness of God. And that is exactly how we go to war against the darkness of our own souls. We remember.

He performs strong works (11). It may not feel like God is doing anything, so we must go back to see what He has done. It may feel like God has abandoned us, so we must remember all the times He has sustained His people.

What we believe about the Bible - all these things truly happened! That’s where we have to start, with the truth of Scripture! The things that we read about in this book? they really did happen! So, we can, as verse 11 says remember His wonders of old, because those wonders of old really did happen! Every single one is true. And every one is to bring glory to God’s name, and comfort to Christ’s church!

What we believe about the Gospel - Jesus truly accomplished salvation! Because we believe the Bible as totally true, we believe the Gospel as totally true. This means that, though I may ask, just like Jeduthun did in verse 7 “will the Lord spurn forever?” I can, and I must preach the Gospel to myself and remind myself that the objective truth of salvation is not based on subjective feelings, but on the finished work of Christ, whose resurrection promises me that not only will I, His child not be spurned forever, but that I am not, and I never will be spurned. When my feelings contradict with the Gospel, or the Bible’s facts, then we must rely on the truth of God’s Word, even when we can’t feel it, and even when we must remind ourselves of it every single day.

What we believe about our life - God has done great work in our life, so we “ponder all Your work, and meditate on Your mighty deeds.” We may remember with bitterness and sorrow the time when we felt like we were right next to God, but the reality is that even when His providence seems to be frowning upon us, His hand has not left us. We must stop and remind ourselves of this, over and over again!

Going from remember, to rely - If this is true, if God has done these great deeds for His saints throughout history, if God has saved me through the power of the Gospel and raised me from death to life, if God has even done great works in my life personally and in the lives of others, then I can rely on His strength to do a great work in my life! I can trust Him, even when I can’t feel Him. I can trust that He is working, even when I can’t see Him working. And this is what the Psalmist is doing. He is saying to Himself, it may feel like God isn’t working, but He has always been working, throughout history. Therefore, He must be working in my waiting. Even though I cannot feel His hand, His hand is not absent.

His strength displays His holiness (13-15)

Next, the Psalmist remembers that the God who is always working is also always holy. This is a good time to consider the definition of that word, holy. To be holy means to be other, or different, or set apart. For sure, the Psalmist is saying that God is totally good, and so all His ways are totally good. But there is something else to that word, holy - God’s ways are other, they are set apart. I would not pick depression as a means of sanctification in my own life. I wouldn’t choose walking through abject sorrow and wrestling with irrational emotions as the way that I grow in Christ. But God is holy; He is different. That little phrase “your way is holy” isn’t just a statement about the perfection of God; it is a statement of submission: God’s ways are not like our ways. If it were my way, I would take one clever Facebook meme and one Bible verse and poof! I’d be “healed.” But God’s ways require repetition; they require labor. Hard work, and particularly the hard work of applying the same truths over and over again to my own soul, is the only way to truly grow in Christ.

We may often fall prey to the snobbery of novelty; we are looking for the next new thing, the next little snippet or the newest fads. But we are called to not only seek to learn new things about God, but to apply the old ones. And this one, remembering the holiness of God, is essential to fighting well. His way is holy!

what God is great like our God? Jeduthun reminds himself not only of the holiness of God, but also the greatness of God. If we cannot trust God to work wonders in our life, then what can we trust? We are prone to give our immediate trust in any number of things that simply cannot, and will not satisfy us nor solve our problems. Think about the gods we are prone to worship. is that God great like our God? This is the heart of the question: what is your hope? In what are you placing your hope? If that answer is anything but God Himself, you will find yourself disappointed.

God makes His might known among the peoples. How? Through His strength being made perfect in our weakness (1 Cor. 1). Back to Ps. 88 - as long as you are determined for others to see how strong you are, they will not see how strong God is. But when we admit our own weakness to our Father, then we find that, somehow, He makes His might known among the peoples. Sufferer, listen to the words here of Jeduthun: when we fight, day after day wrestling to truly find our hope in joy in Christ, God is at work making His might known among the peoples. He makes His might known among the peoples by displaying His strength through our weakness.

The Holy God redeemed a sinful people! In His strength, He rescued and resurrected dead sinners to new life. Even when we don’t feel it, our salvation, and our hope, is not based primarily in feelings. Even when we labor to obey Christ, and to love Him and to follow Him, He has saved us. These are the things we remember!

Moving from remember to rely - so, if God’s ways are different than my ways, my objective isn’t to always understand what He is doing, it is to trust that He has prescribed what I am to do: work to love Christ, even if I groan at the thought. To meditate on His Word, even if doing so makes my Spirit faint. Hope in God, for I will again praise Him!

This is why the song “Christ the Sure and Steady Anchor” is one of my absolute favorite songs. “When the winds of doubt blow through me, and my sails have all been torn. Deeper still then goes the anchor, though I justly stand accused. I will hold fast to the anchor, it shall never be removed” are all words that don’t require me to “feel” the right hand of God. They are words of confession, that even when I cannot feel the right hand of God, he upholds me, and anchors me. That is what it means to rely on the holiness of God! I remember the holiness of God, then I bring my feelings to bear by reminding them of facts.

3. His strength reminds us of His holiness (16-20) Everything is his.

- Heidelberg, question 1 - what is our only hope in life and death? That I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—

to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.

He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood,

and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil.

He also watches over me in such a way

that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven;

in fact, all things must work together for my salvation.

Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life

and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.

All creation testifies to Him. We talked about this last week, but carefully taking the time to consider God, and His small providences is so key.

His way was through the sea, yet his footprints were unseen. He took Israel through a hard path, a difficult path, and was with them the whole time, even though he left no “footprints.”

In other words, just because you can’t see Him doing something, that doesn’t mean He is doing nothing. We have to look at the whole panorama of grace, the entire testimony of His faithfulness to all of us, in order to properly judge whether or not this is “working.”

God leads his people like a flock - He shepherds us, cares for us, feeds us. Makes us lie down in green pastures. He is with us in the valley of the shadow of death. He restores our soul. But knowing these things in our souls requires us to continuously and patiently apply the right tools at the right times.

Moving from remember to rely: And so, we look to see how He is working through our waiting. The question is never “is God working in His creation;” it’s “how is God working in His creation?” And then, we get to work in creation, and so imitate and image God. God’s Word has promised that if we draw near to Him, He will draw near to us. That doesn’t always mean we will feel His nearness. It may mean that we don’t feel His nearness at all. The Psalm doesn’t end with Jeduthun just saying “OK, I’m good! I’m back at God’s right hand.” It ends with Jeduthun declaring what is true, so that we all may also declare what is true and learn to trust Him, even when we can’t immediately feel any difference. That is faith. Our Lord says those who believe without seeing are blessed indeed. If you are like me, and wrestling through the fog of sorrow and despair, your faith is not in vain. Keep drawing near, and trust that even if you can’t see His hand, His hand has not failed you. He still holds the wriggling, doubting child. (If time, Bentley illustration - the more upset he got, the more tightly I held him. And eventually, he felt that embrace. But it took time. Friend, it takes time).

Action plan: So, what is our action plan for today? What do we do in response to Jeduthun’s song of sorrow?

For the sufferer: two steps today -

Be willing to write down and think out what you are truly feeling. Don’t sugar coat it, don’t soften it - just write it out. Really evaluate what you are feeling and experiencing, and then speak with your Lord about these things. Take them to truth, compare what you feel with what God says is true. And then choose this day whom you will serve.

Create! The last parts of this Psalm lean in to God’s power over creation. For many of us, there can be great relief found in not only thinking about God in creation, but in also doing something creative to image a creative God.

Doesn’t have to be artsy. Catch a fish, and so exercise dominion over creation. Plant a garden, write in a journal, draw a picture, play a song, go to the shooting range - each of us has something in us that is driven to create and/or exercise dominion over creation. Do this and live! These things can be as helpful as the other disciplines we put into our lives.

For the one who loves a sufferer: Be personal

Sometimes people need to be able to say what is going on in their head without having to worry about someone gasping. Be quick to listen, slow to correct. Do not be surprised when the person wrestling with depression says things that are sinful, misguided, near-sighted and just downright wrong sometimes. Maturity teaches us that there is a time and place for correction, and sometimes we apply the Word, and do just like my supervisor does - let the remedy work in its own time.

Gospel call - I can’t imagine wrestling with these feelings and not knowing Christ. It is excruciating when you know Christ. Christ is hope. That doesn’t mean you all of a sudden feel 100 percent better and all your problems are now totally gone. But it does mean we have an anchor for our souls. We can say, just like the song we are getting ready to sing “when all I possess is grief, God be then my treasure.” I can almost guarantee you a time when you feel like all you possess is grief. Christ is to be our treasure, especially then. But to truly know Christ, we must repent and believe.

Benediction: James 5:7-8