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…
Read the whole note in the consoleJohn Gill on Psalms 77:8
Is his mercy clean gone for ever?.... Or "his grace" (q); and mercy is no other than grace to objects in misery; Unbelief says it is gone, that no more will be shown, and that the treasures of it are exhausted; but Faith says it is not gone, and observes that God is the God of all grace, is rich in mercy, and abundant in goodness; that his Son is full of grace and truth, and so is the covenant; and that though there is an abundance of it given in conversion, and there are continual supplies of it afterwards; yet this grace is still sufficient, and this mercy abundant; salvation is by it, as for millions past, so for millions present and to come; the mercy of God is new every morning, it endu…
Read the whole note in the consoleJohn Calvin on Psalms 77:7-10
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…