Fighting Despair and Disillusionment
Psalms 77
July 5, 2020
You are all likely familiar with Paul’s famous analogy
We call “The Armor of God”.
• While Paul was likely chained to a Roman Centurion in prison,
• He likely drew inspiration from his attire
• And used it as a metaphor for the armor a Christian should wear in a spiritual battle.
You are familiar with:
• The Belt of Truth – and who we tie up all those loose ends and move freely.
• The Breastplate of Righteousness – and who holiness protects us from destruction.
• The Shoes of the Gospel of Peace – and our confidence on which we stand that we are at peace with God
• The Shield of Faith – and how by faith we overcome the devil’s lies and temptations.
• The Sword of the Spirit – which is God’s word by which the Spirit attacks deception.
But tonight, as we study Psalms 77 I want to zero in
On one particular piece of the armor and that is the helmet.
Ephesians 6:17 “And take THE HELMET OF SALVATION, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”
When we talk about the helmet of salvation
We are referring obviously to that which protects the mind.
We find in the inner man there are two great battlefields.
• One is the heart or the gut – the seat of emotions.
• The other is the head / mind – which refers to knowledge or discernment.
Commonly they both work together.
What the mind believes will inevitably affect how the gut feels,
And sometimes visa versa.
And this is why protecting our mind is so important.
When our mind loses the battle our courage and commitment often falter too. When truth is lost often times our hope is lost with it.
Paul said:
2 Corinthians 10:5 “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,”
• We pass all thoughts through the filter of God’s word.
• We pass all thoughts through the filter of truth.
Instead of just believing everything we hear or see or read
We protect our minds.
Paul called it “the helmet of salvation”
Specifically we protect our minds with the hope of salvation.
• When the battle rages…
• When trials come…
• When hardship is unexplainable…
• When we are tempted to grow disillusioned…
• When despair starts to set in…
• When doubt creeps along…
It is then that we must certainly cling to the hope of salvation.
Passages like:
Romans 8:28 “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”
Romans 8:38-39 “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 “Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
We commonly hear those passages quoted when people are in despair,
And rightly so, because those are passages that remind us
To look beyond the pain to the hope of salvation.
When we can’t understand today, we look to the hope of tomorrow.
We protect our mind from disillusionment.
It is an important piece of the Christian armor.
It is an important function of the Christian life.
And I bring that specific reality to your mind because tonight,
Once again in that brutal and raw honesty of Asaph,
We see a man fighting his own personal disillusionment.
And Asaph will fight off his despair with the hope of salvation.
I think Psalms 77 is about as good a picture of what it would mean
To put on the helmet of salvation as you will find anywhere in Scripture.
• We see a man at his wits end and he doesn’t know where to go.
• But he puts on his helmet of salvation
• And the hope that comes as a result will change his perspective and carry him
through his struggle.
So let’s work our way through it together.
4 points tonight (we’ll split them at the SELAH)
#1 HIS CRY
Psalms 77:1-3
The thing we most need to see in these 3 verses is
The clear degree of pain and desperation that Asaph is under.
He is facing a daunting and unrelenting struggle
From which he can get no rest or escape.
It is a deep pit he is falling into.
(1) “My voice rises to God, and I will cry aloud; My voice rises to God, and He will hear me.”
• Mostly we recognize that he has moved beyond a silent prayer.
• He is moved beyond silent tears.
• His desperation has moved past what seems civil or acceptable.
• He no longer cares what sort of scene he makes.
• He no longer cares who hears.
• Getting through to God has become more important than what anyone around him thinks.
He “will cry aloud” to God in order that God might “hear” him.
And we find out that HE WILL CRY out CONTINUALLY.
(2) “In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord; In the night my hand was stretched out without weariness; My soul refused to be comforted.”
It is important here that the reader know that
Prayerlessness or “lack of faith” was not the problem.
This man prayed all day and all night.
He would not quit.
He was consumed with gaining an audience with God no matter how long it took.
• It reminds of that persistent widow…
• It reminds of blind Bartemaus who would not be passed by…
• It reminds of the Syrophoenician woman who yelled until Jesus healed her daughter…
There is desperation here and there is commitment.
• Asaph has come to God and God alone.
• And Asaph will not leave and go to another for it is clear that God alone has what he needs.
I just want you to understand that while many times IN OUR DAY
When people find no relief
It is most easy to question their faith or their commitment.
“Have you prayed?”
“Have you trusted God?”
“Have you endured?”
Well, Asaph could tick all those boxes.
But still there was a problem.
“My soul refused to be comforted.”
So take that reality in for a moment.
Here we have a person in desperate and faithful prayer to God because of his affliction and by his own testimony, he has FOUND NO COMFORT.
In fact:
(3) “When I remember God, then I am disturbed; When I sigh, then my spirit grows faint. Selah.”
He is already letting you in to some of the disillusionment of his soul.
“When I remember God” – that is, when I see God as my only help “then I am disturbed”
• It is the absence of peace.
• It is the absence of contentment.
• It is a word used to speak of a disturbance on the sea and all the crashing
waves.
• Asaph says when I think about God, I don’t have peace, my soul is disturbed.
“When I sigh” – that is, when I meditate on my problem, “then my spirit grows faint.”
So follow now Asaph’s plight.
• He is in some sort of trial.
• He has cried out to God faithfully.
• But by his own estimation, it hasn’t helped.
And now he is at the point where
The thought of more prayer only disturbs him
And the reality of his trial brings him great despair.
Perhaps you can identify with Asaph here.
• Perhaps you can think of a time when you’d say, “I know exactly what you’re
talking about.”
• Prayer didn’t really help.
• The more I told God about my problems the worse it got.
• Complaining to God hasn’t helped, it only made things worse.
Maybe you can identify with him there.
Let’s move on
His Cry
#2 HIS CONFUSION
Psalms 77:4-9
We noticed that verse 3 ended with “Selah”
Which can be a pause or a crescendo.
I think it is clearly a pause for the way that Asaph approaches verse 4.
“You have held my eyelids open;”
It would appear that after verse 3
Asaph decided maybe to give up on the prayer and just go to bed
In order that he might find some relief.
But he had a problem.
“You have held my eyelids open;”
God wouldn’t let him sleep.
He went to bed and all he could do
Was think about his plight and his trials.
It reminds a little of Job
Job 7:11-21 “Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. “Am I the sea, or the sea monster, That You set a guard over me? “If I say, ‘My bed will comfort me, My couch will ease my complaint,’ Then You frighten me with dreams And terrify me by visions; So that my soul would choose suffocation, Death rather than my pains. “I waste away; I will not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath. “What is man that You magnify him, And that You are concerned about him, That You examine him every morning And try him every moment? “Will You never turn Your gaze away from me, Nor let me alone until I swallow my spittle? “Have I sinned? What have I done to You, O watcher of men? Why have You set me as Your target, So that I am a burden to myself? “Why then do You not pardon my transgression And take away my iniquity? For now I will lie down in the dust; And You will seek me, but I will not be.”
There was no relief in trying to sleep through his troubles.
And at this point his despair reaches A NEW HEIGHT.
“I am so troubled that I cannot speak.”
“troubled” is PA’AM
It means “to thrust, impel, push, beat persistently”
It is always used of an inner beating, NOT an outward one.
• Often times it is used of a response to a terrifying prophetic dream that one did not understand.
• Like when Pharaoh had the dream of the sick cows eating the fat ones.
• Or when Nebuchadnezzar had the dream of the great statue that he didn’t understand.
That is the type of trouble Asaph has.
HE IS EMOTIONALLY SPENT.
• He can’t sleep, he can’t speak.
• He is just wracked with anxiety and despair and is overcome with dread and fear.
I hope you see the depths of the pit he is in.
And having now decided
That prayer and complaining to God no longer helps,
Asaph turns to a different solution.
(5-6a) “I have considered the days of old, The years of long ago. I will remember my song in the night; I will meditate with my heart,”
• He turns his attention back to the “good ole days”.
• He starts reminiscing about how great life used to be before all of this
occurred.
• He remembers how the night used to be filled with singing and not despair.
• And he begins to “meditate with my heart” in search of a possible way to
bring it all back.
But anyone who has ever tried such a tactic
Knows that there is no relief there either.
Thinking about how good things used to be
Only manages to intensify the sting of the way things are now.
Asaph found no relief in reminiscing.
And this failure turned him to one last meditation.
(6b-9) “And my spirit ponders: Will the Lord reject forever? And will He never be favorable again? Has His lovingkindness ceased forever? Has His promise come to an end forever? Has God forgotten to be gracious, Or has He in anger withdrawn His compassion? Selah.”
God has clearly allowed circumstances that Asaph thought were not right.
• Then God failed to answer as he expected.
• Then God allowed no relief in the midst of his pain.
• Then God embittered his heart as he realized the lost joy of yesterday.
And it all led him to the bottom of his pit
That perhaps God is no longer who He used to be.
“Will the Lord reject forever?”
• Am I just now on God’s bad side and will He continue to reject my calls?
• Is God done with me permanently?
• Am I just consigned to this miserable state for the rest of my life?
“And will He never be favorable again?”
• Have I used up all my favor from God?
• Is God done being good to me?
“Has His lovingkindness ceased forever?”
• You know this as His CHECED (loyal love)
• Has God broken His loyalty to me?
• Has God kicked me out forever?
“Has His promise come to an end forever?”
• That is the surety of God’s word.
• Is God no longer reliable in what He says?
• Have God’s promises expired?
• Can I no longer rely on His word?
“Has God forgotten to be gracious or has He in anger withdrawn His compassion?”
• Has God just decided that He is finished with grace and compassion?
• Does God no longer care about the plight of the unfortunate?
• Is God retiring from His ministry of care to the downtrodden?
And there we get another “Selah”
Which is a pause.
These questions are where Asaph determines to leave it.
Now we see that Asaph is not just disillusioned in life,
He is disillusioned with God.
Notice in all of those questions Asaph asks
• There is nothing regarding his own behavior or life.
• Everything Asaph asks is regarding the perceived failure or changes in God.
• And it is also clear that Asaph is drastic in his judgments since he likes to use the word “forever” or “never…again”
Asaph is at the point of questioning everything he believes about God
Because he cannot climb out of this pit of despair.
AND I FOR ONE AM THANKFUL FOR HIS HONESTY.
Many times in talking with people we hear that famous verse misapplied.
• People are in a trial and they say, “But we know that God won’t give us
more than we can handle.”
Which is of course not at all what Paul said.
1 Corinthians 10:13 “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.”
That verse doesn’t speak about the severity of your trials.
That verse speaks about the severity of your temptation.
God won’t let you be tempted to sin beyond what you are able.
If you expect bad things not to happen you’re liable to get disillusioned too.
Rest assured the evidence is clear
That many a man has been pushed beyond himself in the midst of trials.
Asaph here is moved to the point of wondering
If God is even the same God He used to be.
AND ASAPH IS NOT ALONE.
Remember Elijah?
• He just knew revival was coming to Israel, instead he received a death threat.
• He ran from the northern tip of Israel to the southern tip of Judah and then ran out into the wilderness.
• And there he asked to die.
• Finally he approached Mt. Sinai where he basically asked God, “What are You thinking!”
• God’s response didn’t match Elijah’s expectation.
1 Kings 19:14 “Then he said, “I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”
Or how about Moses.
Numbers 11:10-15 “Now Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, each man at the doorway of his tent; and the anger of the LORD was kindled greatly, and Moses was displeased. So Moses said to the LORD, “Why have You been so hard on Your servant? And why have I not found favor in Your sight, that You have laid the burden of all this people on me? “Was it I who conceived all this people? Was it I who brought them forth, that You should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom as a nurse carries a nursing infant, to the land which You swore to their fathers’? “Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they weep before me, saying, ‘Give us meat that we may eat!’ “I alone am not able to carry all this people, because it is too burdensome for me. “So if You are going to deal thus with me, please kill me at once, if I have found favor in Your sight, and do not let me see my wretchedness.”
God, this wasn’t what I signed up for!
You’re not doing what I expected You to do.
Or how about Jonah.
Jonah 4:3-8 “Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life.” The LORD said, “Do you have good reason to be angry?” Then Jonah went out from the city and sat east of it. There he made a shelter for himself and sat under it in the shade until he could see what would happen in the city. So the LORD God appointed a plant and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his discomfort. And Jonah was extremely happy about the plant. But God appointed a worm when dawn came the next day and it attacked the plant and it withered. When the sun came up God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he became faint and begged with all his soul to die, saying, “Death is better to me than life.”
There was a prophet of God who was not happy
About the way God was treating his enemies.
Or how about Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 15:18 “Why has my pain been perpetual And my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Will You indeed be to me like a deceptive stream With water that is unreliable?”
Jeremiah there actually accused God of lying to him about the ministry.
Jeremiah 20:14-18 “Cursed be the day when I was born; Let the day not be blessed when my mother bore me! Cursed be the man who brought the news To my father, saying, “A baby boy has been born to you!” And made him very happy. But let that man be like the cities Which the LORD overthrew without relenting, And let him hear an outcry in the morning And a shout of alarm at noon; Because he did not kill me before birth, So that my mother would have been my grave, And her womb ever pregnant. Why did I ever come forth from the womb To look on trouble and sorrow, So that my days have been spent in shame?”
That’s despair isn’t it?
I should have never been born.
And of course we’d get lost in the despair of Job
If we sought to read all his statements.
But even consider the apostle Paul.
2 Corinthians 1:8-9 “For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life; indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead;”
Do you see that even the greatest men of faith in Scripture
At times reached points of extreme despair because they could not figure out what God was doing?
He just didn’t respond as they expected.
• At the moment He felt to be absent.
• At the moment He felt to have changed.
• At the moment it felt as though He didn’t care or that He was no longer merciful.
• It felt as though His promises couldn’t be trusted.
• It felt as though He had forgotten to be gracious.
This is the depth of Asaph’s despair and disillusionment.
And I hope you see it.
Perhaps you can identify with it.
I remind people of this many times in their grief.
• It is encouraging to know that just because you can’t see what God is doing doesn’t mean He isn’t at work.
• He doesn’t always explain Himself; even to the most faithful.
But I simply want you to understand the depth we are talking about here.
This is serious despair.
This is serious disillusionment.
This is serious depression.
And Asaph simply says “Selah”
And IT WOULD APPEAR he is going to walk away in that despair.
BUT when he returns to the pen and paper in verse 10,
Asaph has A WHOLE NEW OUTLOOK.
His Cry, His Confusion
#3 HIS CONVICTION
Psalms 77:10-15
Now we have to do a little work here
Because verse 10 is a notoriously HARD VERSE TO TRANSLATE.
And various translations have rendered it various ways.
Literally it says:
“And I said, ‘It is my own infirmity the renewal of the right hand of the Most High.”
And translators have sort of played with it and taken liberties
To try to figure out what Asaph meant.
My translation says:
“Then I said, “It is my grief, that the right hand of the Most High has changed.”
And to some it sounds like Asaph is saying, “It’s my bad luck that God is no longer who He used to be.”
BUT THAT IS NOT WHAT ASAPH IS SAYING.
The word for “grief” actually means “disease or infirmity”
And what Asaph is saying is that
This “grief” is what God has changed by His mighty right hand.
God didn’t change. God changed Asaph’s “grief”.
• God changed Asaph’s “disease”
• God changed Asaph’s “infirmity”
It is important to grasp that
So that you will see that Asaph now recounts that HIS ATTITUDE and demeanor back in the first 9 verses WAS ACTUALLY A DISEASE.
He was blaming everything on God’s lack of faithfulness,
But now Asaph can see that he was the one with the problem, not God.
We might ask what this disease or infirmity was?
• The propensity to look only at his problems,
• To look only at his lack of goodness (not like things used to be)
• And to look only at God’s failure to fix it.
That was Asaph’s disease.
He had a vision problem.
He had a perspective disease.
In his struggle all that he would look at was his struggle,
That things weren’t as good as they used to be,
And that God wasn’t fixing it.
That is a formula for despair, disillusionment, & depression right there.
I don’t care how much you pray.
I don’t care how devout you are in seeking God.
If your only focus is on your trials, your lack of good,
And God’s failure to fix it
Then you are destined for despair.
You will also be confused and disheartened with God.
You also will lose hope and have the sentence of death within yourself.
Asaph sees that now.
And here he says that God changed that grief.
God healed that disease.
God didn’t take away the trial, but God did fix Asaph’s perspective.
HOW?
By a revelation of Himself.
When Asaph starts speaking again in verse 11
It is no longer about how big his problems are,
Or how deep his despair is, or how unhelpful God has been.
When Asaph speaks in verse 11
It is all about the glory of who God is and what He does.
(11-15) “I shall remember the deeds of the LORD; Surely I will remember Your wonders of old. I will meditate on all Your work And muse on Your deeds. Your way, O God, is holy; What god is great like our God? You are the God who works wonders; You have made known Your strength among the peoples. You have by Your power redeemed Your people, The sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah.”
There is a definite contrast presented here by Asaph.
• In verse 5 Asaph considered the days of old; those being his good old days.
• In verse 11 He is focusing on God’s days of old and His good days.
• In verse 6 he was meditating on what he might do to fix his problem.
• In verse 12 he is meditating on what God has done
• In verses 7-9 he was lamenting how God must have changed.
• In verses 13-15 he is proclaiming who God has always been.
HE HAS CHANGED HIS FOCUS
Philippians 4:6-9 “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”
Paul actually gives a command not to be anxious.
• That seems strange; most of us would agree that anxiety is not a choice.
• It’s not like God says, “Thou shalt not have anxiety” and we said, “Well I want
to!”
• Anxiety is more of a consequence than a choice, so how can God tell us not to
have it?
Because anxiety is preventable
If we do what God has commanded us to do.
And it is this: “in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”
“Prayer” – “Supplication” – “Thanksgiving” – “Requests”
And the result is that “the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
And then “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”
Change your focus.
• Stop looking at your problem.
• Stop looking at the good ole days you are mourning.
• Stop focusing on what God isn’t doing.
• Start focusing on who God is.
And the result is that “the God of peace will be with you.”
That is what Asaph is doing.
He has found the cure for his grief.
It is focusing on the greatness of who God is and what He has done.
“I will meditate on all Your work and muse on Your deeds.”
I just start thinking about all the good things You have done.
And what did Asaph learn from those meditations?
• “Your way, O God, is holy;” – You always do what is right.
• “What god is great like our God?” – There is none like You.
• “You are the God who works wonders;” – Your power is limitless
• “You have made known Your strength among the peoples;” – You reveal Yourself
• “You have by Your power redeemed Your people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph” – You are a Savior.
Do you know what we call what Asaph just did?
We call that putting on the helmet of the hope of salvation.
• He guarded his mind from all of his doubts and despair by choosing what to focus on.
• He took his thoughts captive in obedience to Christ.
• He put away anxiety and focused on what was lovely.
And now he’s a different guy.
• It’s not that his despair wasn’t real; we saw that it was.
• It’s that he has now put on the helmet of hope in who God is and what God has done.
That is when we quote verses like:
Romans 8:28 “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”
I don’t know what is going on,
But I know who God is and what God does.
And with that hope we guard our minds
From anxiety and despair and disillusionment.
And Asaph even gives us the specific story
That seemed to pull him out of the pit and cure his grief.
#4 HIS CONSIDERATION
Psalms 77:16-20
Do you recognize that story?
It is the parting of the Red Sea.
Asaph was blown away by the majestic power God demonstrated there..
What other god has ever done such a thing?
What other god has such power?
TURN TO: EXODUS 14
Did you catch the despair of the children of Israel?
• They were looking at their problem.
• They were remembering the good ole days.
• But Moses was focused on the power of God.
This story delivered Asaph.
If God could part the waters then certainly God could fix his problem.
But there is more that Asaph noticed, and it’s so good!
(19-20) “Your way was in the sea and Your paths in the mighty waters, and Your footprints may not be known. You led Your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.”
We saw the story of the Red Sea.
• The children of Israel walked right into a trap and it looked like certain disaster.
• So, was it a navigational mistake by Moses that landed them there?
• Was it a detour that caused them to be stuck in such a predicament?
NO – God led them there.
“Your way was in the sea”
It was God’s sovereign prerogative to lead Israel right into that dilemma that He might demonstrate His great power.
The next time you find yourself in a dilemma or in despair
And it feels like God is not the same God He used to be,
Then go do what Asaph did and read Exodus 14.
Start focusing on the great power of God and His sovereign hand and remember that “all things work together for good for them that love God”.
• Asaph read that story and it was hope for him.
• Asaph read that story and he put on his helmet of salvation.
• Asaph protected his thought life and his perspective and his meditation and
what a wonder it worked on him.
THIS IS WHAT WE MUST DO.
It is imperative that you guard your mind with the hope of salvation.
• Do not let anxiety and despair and disillusionment creep in.
• Focus on what is good and lovely.
• Stay in the word and be amazed with the power and salvation of God.
• It will change your outlook in your trials as well.
• It will allow you to go forward in battle, even against overwhelming odds, armed with the hope of salvation.
