I Will Cry Out to God with My Voice

[Psalm 77]

As we prepare for the new year, I have chosen the new year’s motto: “Be fully devoted to prayer!”
This motto is based directly on Acts 1:14:
“Together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers, they all joined together constantly in prayer.”
We want to gather together like the early church believers, united in heart, holding on to the promised Word and praying.

John Calvin spoke of five premises regarding prayer:
(1) God’s gentle invitation. God holds the initiative in prayer. He has given us His promised Word and commanded us to pray.
(2) Jesus, the Mediator. All prayer is possible through Christ’s work of reconciliation and intercession. Prayer that is acceptable and pleasing to God must be sanctified by Jesus, the Mediator.
(3) The indispensable Word of God. Our prayers must be based on, shaped by, and led by God’s Word. We cry out to God relying on the promised Word He has given us. “Praying without believing in the promised Word is merely pretending to pray.”
(4) The role of the Holy Spirit. Romans 8:26 explains this premise:
“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.”
(5) The importance of faith. Faith is the foundation and necessary condition for true prayer. “Faith is strengthened by prayer, and prayer is empowered by faith” (Internet).

Looking at Psalm 77:1, the psalmist says:
“I cry out to God with my voice; to God with my voice I cry out, and he gives ear to my voice.”
Today, focusing on this verse and under the title “I Will Cry Out to God with My Voice,” I want to meditate on two points regarding the psalmist’s prayer and receive the lessons it offers.

First, I meditate on when the psalmist cried out to God with his voice. I think there are two occasions.

First, the psalmist cried out to God with his voice when his soul refused to be comforted.

Look at Psalm 77:2:
“In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord; my hand was stretched out by night without wearying; my soul refused to be comforted.”

The psalmist, when the nation of Israel was experiencing a time of national trouble, was in deep anguish but did not lay down the hands of prayer and prayed until God answered. The psalmist, who prayed so earnestly, confesses that his soul refused to be comforted until God answered his prayer. In other words, the psalmist is saying that only when God answers his prayer can his soul be comforted.

What was the condition of the psalmist’s soul that refused to be comforted?

(1) The psalmist’s spirit was wounded.

Look at Psalm 77:3:
“When I remember God, I moan; when I meditate, my spirit grows faint (Selah).”

To say his spirit was wounded means that the psalmist’s soul was anxious and troubled. Why was the psalmist’s soul anxious and troubled? The reason is because he was thinking about God. In other words, the psalmist felt that God was not acting towards him as He had previously, that God seemed to have hidden His face or was angry (according to Park Yoon Sun), and so his soul was anxious, troubled, and wounded.

(2) The psalmist was in distress.

Look at Psalm 77:4:
“You have kept my eyes from closing; I am so troubled that I cannot speak.”

The psalmist was so troubled that he could not even speak. He did not understand why his suffering was not ending and was deeply distressed, meditating and unable to sleep (according to Park Yoon Sun). In the midst of unending suffering, when troubled and sleepless and unable to speak, it can be a good opportunity to hear the voice of the Lord speaking to me.

We too, like the psalmist in today’s passage, may have times when our hearts are so troubled and spirits so wounded that we refuse to be comforted. At such times, no words or actions of comfort from anyone can console us. Even the comfort of loved ones around us may be rejected by our hearts. In such times, only God can comfort us. That is why we cry out to God.

Psalm 119:50 comes to mind:
“This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life.”

Let us hold fast to this promised word of God and cry out to Him.

Secondly, the psalmist cried out to God with his own voice when he was weak.

Look at Psalm 77:10:
“And I said, This is my infirmity: but I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High.”

The psalmist’s weakness appeared in his thoughts:
“Will the Lord reject forever? And will He never show His favor again? Has His mercy ceased forever? Has His promise failed for all time? Has God forgotten to be merciful? Has He in His anger withheld His compassion?” (Selah) (verses 7–9).

The psalmist, weakened by suffering and pain, eventually had various doubts about God in his mind. These doubts were not of faith:
“Will the Lord reject forever? Will He never show His favor again? Has His mercy ceased forever?” (verses 7–8).

Could God’s mercy toward him—and toward us—really be interrupted as the psalmist thought?
Could God forget to show grace?
Could the Lord abandon us forever?

As we know, all these doubts go against God’s divine nature.
God never abandons us and cannot abandon us.
Our God can never forget to show us grace.
He is still the God who shows us grace even now.
Our God loves us so much that He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus.
His love is endless.

We are no different from the psalmist.
That is, as our suffering and pain drag on longer, we become weak both physically and spiritually and, like the psalmist, have weak thoughts:
“Will God really deliver me from this suffering and pain?
How long will He keep watching me like this?
Surely He hasn’t abandoned me… and so on.”

In such times, do you and I truly cry out to God with our own voice like the psalmist?
In my personal opinion, when we are so weak in body and spirit amidst suffering and hardship, there are times when we cannot even open our mouths to pray with our own voice to God.

At those times, a gospel song I often sang was “Someone Prays for You”:
“When you are tired and cannot pray, and tears fall like rain, the Lord knows our weakness and leads us with love.
{Chorus}
Someone prays for you, someone prays for you,
When I am alone and my heart breaks, someone prays for you.”

Another gospel song that comforted me is “I Will Only Look to the Lord”:
(Verse 1)
“Those who long for God’s love,
Those who seek God’s peace,
Our Lord who created everything,
How much He loves you.
{Chorus}
With eyes full of love,
God always watches you,
With His compassionate ear,
He always listens to you,
He shines light in the darkness,
Answers your smallest sighs,
Wherever you are, look to the Lord,
And only look to the Lord.”

Finally, what I want to meditate on is: How was the psalmist able to cry out to God with his own voice?

That is because he remembered the things God had done in the past.

Look at Psalm 77:11:
“I will remember the deeds of the LORD; yes, I will remember your wonders of old.”

The psalmist acted this way when his soul refused to be comforted and when he was weak:
“I thought about my ways, and I turned my feet to your testimonies; I remembered my songs in the night. I meditated and my spirit inquired.” (Verses 5-6)

When his soul refused to be comforted and when he was weak, he recalled the grace God had shown him in the past. Therefore, he sought to find comfort and earnestly desired to have hope for the future.

In this context, at verse 11 of the passage, the psalmist thought about the ancient deeds of God—that is, the works God had performed—praising and being satisfied with them, and he left the future in God’s hands (according to Park Yoon Sun).

By meditating on all the works of the Lord and deeply reflecting on His deeds (verse 12), he was able to cry out to God with his own voice (verses 13-20).

The God he meditated on was a holy and great God (v. 13), a God who reveals His power (v. 14), and the God who redeemed the people of Israel (v. 15).

He meditated on the miracle of God delivering Israel from Egypt and enabling them to cross the Red Sea (vv. 16-20).

Therefore, he was able to cry out to God with his own voice.

Like the psalmist, when our hearts are broken and in anguish and our souls refuse to be comforted, we must deeply meditate on the saving grace God has given us in our past lives and entrust all our worries to the Lord in prayer.

Our Lord is certainly a God who listens to our prayers (v. 1), and at His appointed time, according to His will, He will answer our prayers.

I would like to sing with you the gospel hymn “You Are My Son”:

“When you are tired, discouraged, and have fallen,
with no strength at all to get up,
He quietly comes close, takes your hand,
and speaks to you.
When you are disappointed and weak,
shedding tears in pain,
His hand, marked with nail scars, wipes your tears,
and He tells you:
You are my son; today I have begotten you.
You are my son,
my beloved son,
always unchanging, you are my son.
With the pain of my cross and the pain of childbirth, I have begotten you.”

With a thankful heart to God who “quietly comes close, takes your hand, and speaks to you,”

Shared by Pastor James Kim
(While my soul refused to be comforted until God fully fulfilled the promise He gave me)