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Pentecost Season · Proper 8 · Year C

Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20

I Will Remember the Deeds of the Lord

July 2, 2028

The Ninth Wave, Ivan Aivazovsky
The Ninth Wave, Ivan Aivazovsky, 1850Russian Museum, Saint Petersburg
Sailors cling to a mast after the wreck, facing the wave that sailors' lore said was the largest of any series. Aivazovsky paints the sunrise coming up through it.They cried to the Lord in their trouble: the psalm's storm and the psalm's deliverance are in one picture, and you cannot yet tell which is winning.Ivan AivazovskyA Russian-Armenian marine painter (1817-1900) who produced around six thousand pictures of the sea, almost all of them from memory rather than from studies.Russian Museum, Saint PetersburgThe first state museum of Russian art, founded by Nicholas II in his father's memory and housed in the Mikhailovsky Palace.Russian Museum, Saint Petersburg
Revised Common Lectionary
GospelLuke 9:51-62Lk 9:51-62
EpistleGal. 5:1, 13-25Gal 5:1, 13-25
Old Testament2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-142 Kgs 2:1-2, 6-14Alt. OT1 Kings 19:15-16, 19-211 Kgs 19:15-16, 19-21
PsalterPs. 77:1-2, 11-20Ps 77:1-2, 11-20Alt. PsalmPs. 16Ps 16

Overview & Insights

“I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your wonders of old.” (Psalm 77:11)

Has God Forgotten to Be Merciful? Nothing like the silence of God in the face of distress brings the sinking feeling of despair. The Bible does not offer a prepackaged answer to this problem, but—remarkably—the divine word is a humane word, and so comes alongside to help. It offers not only God’s words to us but also words that we may bring to God—even when he does not seem to be listening. Psalm 77 gives no hint as to what may have been its immediate occasion. It simply refers to distress (v. 2). It soon becomes evident that the overriding problem is not this distress, whatever it may be, but God’s silence in the face of this distress. The immediate trouble has become simply a backdrop for a larger dilemma of faith. Psalm 77 is a peculiar composite: it consists of lament typical of the prayer psalms of the individual, and it consists of praise of God’s historic deeds typical of corporate hymns.

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Take it further: Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20

Commentary

Psalm 77 CommentaryPs 77 Commentary Enduring Word · David Guzik

Walks through the psalmist's turn from present trouble to remembered deliverance.

Psalm 77:1 CommentariesPs 77:1 Commentaries BibleHub

Aggregates classic commentators on the psalmist's sleepless cry to God.

Background & Word Study

Psalms 77Ps 77 Sefaria

The Hebrew text alongside translation.

The Church Fathers

Psalm 77 CatenaPs 77 Catena Catena

Patristic comments on the psalm's move from lament to remembrance of the exodus.

Questions preachers ask

What comforts the psalmist in Psalm 77?

In the night of trouble the psalmist turns from his own grief to remember God's mighty acts, above all the exodus, when God's way was through the sea and he led his people like a flock.

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