Psalm 77
Today's Passage: Psalm 77
For the past several weeks, I have been reading a devotional through the Psalms written by Dane Ortlund. It has been rejuvenating to get a deeper perspective of this book, and I highly recommend this devotional! Enjoy this chapter from “In the Lord I Take Refuge.”
The rhythm of this psalm is the troubles of the present considered in light of the deliverances of the past. The first half of the psalm expresses Asaph’s troubles (vv.1-9); the second half remembers God’s past salvations (vv. 10-20).
This is one vital strategy when you find yourself immersed in difficulty. An estranged relationship. A habitual sin. A public embarrassment. Sustained depression. A physical malady. A tormented conscience. When these are present realities, consider your past. Have you not seen God help you? Have you not felt his comforting and strengthening presence through the Holy Spirit? Have you not experienced times of sweetness in Scripture?
And above all, have you not seen his supreme deliverance of you through the gospel of Jesus Christ, in which God sent his Son to suffer and die in your place? Note what Asaph writes toward the end of this psalm: “Your way was through the sea” (v.19). How implausible that would have seemed to Israel as they stood with their backs to the sea and the Egyptians pursuing them. Yet God’s ways run counter to our intuitions. He works in defiance of what our puny minds can predict. The cross is the supreme instance of this. In the Old Testament, his way was through the sea. In the New Testament, his was is through the cross. The gracious provision of God confounds us even as it delivers us.
Written By: Joe Weaver
For the past several weeks, I have been reading a devotional through the Psalms written by Dane Ortlund. It has been rejuvenating to get a deeper perspective of this book, and I highly recommend this devotional! Enjoy this chapter from “In the Lord I Take Refuge.”
The rhythm of this psalm is the troubles of the present considered in light of the deliverances of the past. The first half of the psalm expresses Asaph’s troubles (vv.1-9); the second half remembers God’s past salvations (vv. 10-20).
This is one vital strategy when you find yourself immersed in difficulty. An estranged relationship. A habitual sin. A public embarrassment. Sustained depression. A physical malady. A tormented conscience. When these are present realities, consider your past. Have you not seen God help you? Have you not felt his comforting and strengthening presence through the Holy Spirit? Have you not experienced times of sweetness in Scripture?
And above all, have you not seen his supreme deliverance of you through the gospel of Jesus Christ, in which God sent his Son to suffer and die in your place? Note what Asaph writes toward the end of this psalm: “Your way was through the sea” (v.19). How implausible that would have seemed to Israel as they stood with their backs to the sea and the Egyptians pursuing them. Yet God’s ways run counter to our intuitions. He works in defiance of what our puny minds can predict. The cross is the supreme instance of this. In the Old Testament, his way was through the sea. In the New Testament, his was is through the cross. The gracious provision of God confounds us even as it delivers us.
Written By: Joe Weaver
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