to add or augment (often adverbial · verb, hiphil imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
favourable
לִרְצ֣וֹתlir.Tzot
H7521
to be pleased with · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Psalms 85:1 LORD, thou hast been favourable unto thy land: thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob.
Psalms 89:46 How long, LORD? wilt thou hide thyself for ever? shall thy wrath burn like fire?
Romans 11:1-2 I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
Psalms 85:5 Wilt thou be angry with us for ever? wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations?
Psalms 13:1-2 How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?
Psalms 37:24 Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the LORD upholdeth him with his hand.
Psalms 89:38 But thou hast cast off and abhorred, thou hast been wroth with thine anointed.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 77:1-10
We have here the lively portraiture of a good man under prevailing melancholy, fallen into and sinking in that horrible pit and that miry clay, but struggling to get out. Drooping saints, that are of a sorrowful spirit, may here as in a glass see their own faces. The conflict which the psalmist had with his griefs and fears seems to have been over when he penned this record of it; for he says (Psa 77:1), I cried unto God, and he gave ear unto me, which, while the struggle lasted, he had not the comfortable sense of, as he had afterwards; but he inserts it in the beginning of his narrative as an intimation that his trouble did not end in despair; for God heard him, and, at length, he knew tha…
Will the Lord cast off for ever?.... The Syriac version of this, and the two following verses, is not by way of interrogation, but affirmation: "the Lord hath forgotten me for ever, nor will he", &c. and so expresses the language of unbelief; but the Arabic version, in connection with the last words, with which it begins this verse, is, "and I weighed in my spirit whether the Lord", &c. and so makes it a subject of inquiry, and at most of questioning or doubting. The Targum, different from either, begins this and each of the verses thus, "is it possible that the Lord", &c. suggesting that it was not possible that he should do this and the other, and so speaks the language of faith. Unbelief…
Psalm 77:7-10
7. Will the Lord cast off [292] for ever? and will he be favorable no more? 8. Is his mercy quite gone for ever? Doth his oracle fail from generation to generation? 9. Hath God forgotten, to be merciful? Hath he shut up his compassions in anger? Selah. 10. And said, My death, [293] the years [294] of the right hand of the Most High.
7. and 8. Will the Lord cast off for ever? The statements here made undoubtedly form a part of the searchings which engaged the Psalmist's mind. He intimates that he was almost overwhelmed by a long succession of calamities; for he did not break forth into this language until he had endured affliction for so long a period as hardly to venture to e…
The Church Fathers
Will God cast off for ever? This was my whole thought. God made man from the earth, and promised him eternal life: how then was he cast out of paradise, out of the kingdom of God? And will he no more be pleased to show him favor? Or will he cut off his mercy for ever, from generation and generation? That is, will he cast off both generations, both of the former people and of the later? Suppose he had cast off the people of the Jews: will he cast off the people of the Gentiles too? Or will he in his anger hold back his mercies? He could not have said it more beautifully. However long he restrains himself so as not to have mercy, yet his mercy conquers him.
And you have found what? "God will not repel for everlasting" [Psalm 77:7]. Weariness he had found in this life; in no place a trustworthy, in no place a fearless comfort. Unto whatsoever men he betook himself, in them he found scandal, or feared it. In no place therefore was he free from care. An evil thing it was for him to hold his peace, lest perchance he should keep silence from good words; to speak and babble without was painful to him, lest all his enemies, anticipating watches, should seek slanders in his words. Being exceedingly straitened in this life, he thought much of another life, where there is not this trial. And when is he to arrive there? For it cannot but be evident that our suffering here is the anger of God. This thing is spoken of in Isaiah, "I will not be an avenger unto you for everlasting, nor will I be angry with you at all times." [Isaiah 57:16] ...Will this anger of God always abide? This man has not found this in silence. For he says what? "God will not repel for everlasting, and He will not add any more that it should be well-pleasing to Him still." That is, that it should be well-pleasing to Him still to repel, and He will not add the repelling for everlasting. He must needs recall to Himself His servants, He must needs receive fugitives returning to the Lord, He must needs hearken to the voice of them that are in fetters. "Or unto the end will He cut off mercy from generation to generation?" [Psalm 77:8].
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Despondency · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Doubting · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Favour Of God, The · Saints: Sometimes tempted to doubt — Saints: Sometimes tempted to doubt
Seekers · 5:8;8:5,6; — 5:8;8:5,6;
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
He calls his eyelids the "guards of my eyes." He who holds these so that they remain open when they want to shut together for sleep, is God; for his looking up to Him keeps the poet awake in spite of all overstraining of his powers. Hupfeld and others render thus: "Thou hast held, i.e., caused to last, the night-watches of mine eyes," - which is affected in thought and expression. The preterites state what has been hitherto and has not yet come to a close. He still endures, as formerly, such thumps and blows within him, as though he lay upon an anvil (פּעם), and his voice fails him. Then silent soliloquy takes the place of audible prayer; he throws himself back in thought to the days of old…
The psalmist questions his status before God.
77:7 Feeling rejected (see 43:2), the psalmist asks if the situation is permanent.
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 77:7
Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more?
Wilt the Lord cast off forever? This was one of the matters he enquired into. He painfully knew that the Lord might leave his people for a season, but his fear was that the time might be prolonged and have no close; eagerly, therefore, he asked, will the Lord utterly and finally reject those who are his own, and suffer them to be the objects of his contemptuous reprobation, his everlasting cast offs? This he was persuaded could not be. No instance in the years of ancient times led him to fear that such could be the case. And will he be favourable no more? Favourable he had been; would that goodwill never again show itself?…
