So have open in front of you if you have a bible Psalm 77 as we work our way through this psalm. Where do you turn in trouble? What's your first response when trouble comes? Do you turn to self-help manuals? Do you turn to gurus? Do you turn to drink? Do you turn to food? Do you turn to drugs? Do you turn to the social media to see if your 1001 friends can help you? Do you put a post on Facebook? Do you start blogging? Do you tweet? These things are so therapeutic following the world's mantra that a trouble shared is a trouble halved. which underpins so much of today's counselling, getting people to talk about and share their problems. So perhaps you go straight to a professional counsellor, or you go to long-term friends or family for this therapy. Or in trouble, perhaps you just turn in on yourself. Or perhaps you just despair and don't know where to turn. Well this psalm, Psalm 77, this psalm of Asaf, tells us where we must turn. The exact context and history for this psalm isn't known, it's not given us. It is Asaf then who is crying aloud to God. That's how the psalm begins. I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, and He will hear me. In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord. In the night my hand is stretched out without wearing. My soul refuses to be comforted. When I remember God, I moan. When I meditate, my spirit faints. Here is a man in trouble. and he cries aloud to God. Who was this man? Who was Asaph? Asaph was involved in coordinating the worship of God in the tabernacle and then the temple. He was chief of the Levites. He was appointed by David. The account is given in 1 Chronicles 16. and Asaf's sons after him followed him in this line. In other words he was a significant figure in the public worship of God. Well what does that tell us? So what? Well it tells us that no one is exempt from trouble. Do you think that something strange is happening to you? When as a Christian you're facing trouble? Do you think that you should be exempt from trouble? Do you think that if you were doing a bit better in the Christian life you would be trouble free? Do you think perhaps that the elders, the pastors in the church are exempt from trouble? That we've somehow got it all sussed and sorted? Haven't you read then of the troubles faced by the Apostle Paul in the New Testament? He lists in 2 Corinthians 10 that list of awful events, beatings, imprisonments, shipwrecks, being stoned, left for dead. Asaf was a leader of worship in the tabernacle, a prominent individual in Israel in the worship of the living God. And he's in trouble. David also, Israel's king, faced trouble of various kinds. So many of the psalms are penned by David crying out to God in his time of distress. the Lord's anointed. Well, David, Asaph, Paul, how much more you and me facing trouble. And of course, consider the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Don't be surprised, beloved, Peter says, at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you. Rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings that you will also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. It's not something strange to suffer trouble, trial, tribulation, distress. Job says man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward. Why? Why? We live in a fallen world. That's the simple answer. We live in a fallen world which is cursed because of the sin of Adam and Eve. Romans 8 tells us that as a result of that fall, as a result of sin, the creation is groaning under this curse. Trouble in a fallen world is inevitable. In fact, it is the norm, we could say. And so the root cause of the problem, the root cause of trouble that we face, is sin. It's your sin and it's my sin and it's the sin of the world in which we live. Now don't hear me say that the trouble that you're facing is because you have sinned. I'm not saying that. I'm saying that the trouble that we face is a result of sin, generically, in the world. Some of it may be self-inflicted. But other trouble and distress that we face has got nothing to do with what we may or may not have done. It's simply because we live in a fallen world and people will malign us for following Christ. People will seek to destroy us for following Christ. And it's not because of our sin, but rather because of our faithfulness to the Lord Jesus that we face these troubles. So the root cause of trouble is sin in the world. And that was the cause of the trouble that Jesus faced. It wasn't his own sin. It was the sin of those around him. And indeed the sin of those for whom he would die on the cross. View him in Gethsemane. Mark 14, 32-36 gives the account. He said to his disciples, sit here while I pray. And he took with him Peter and James and John and began to be greatly distressed and troubled. And he said to them, My soul is very sorrowful even to death. Remain here and watch. And going a little farther, he fell on the ground and prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me, yet not what I will, but what you will. We see the suffering and the trouble that the Lord Jesus faced, the prospect of bearing all of the sin of all of his people at Calvary. It's a given then that you will face trouble. You will face trouble. You're not exempt from trouble. So what do you do? Where do you turn? This psalm, Psalm 77, tells us two things. It first of all tells us to turn to God, and secondly it tells us to appeal to God. So first of all, turn to God. The first nine verses. We've read the first three, let's read from verse four through to nine. You hold my eyelids open. I am so troubled that I cannot speak. I consider the days of old, the years long ago. I said, let me remember my song in the night. Let me meditate. Then my spirit made a diligent search. Will the Lord spurn forever and never again be favourable? Has his steadfast love forever ceased? Are his promises at an end for all time? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his compassion? Asaph cried aloud to God in this context, confident that God would hear him. In the day of trouble he's seeking the Lord. In the night his hand is stretched out without weary. He's remembering God. He's turning to God. It's in the day of trouble. It's not Asaph waiting for a day or two or a week or see if things get better. And he's not going to the equivalent of social media, had there been any. He's not seeking counsel. He's not coming up. He's not indulging himself. He's not holding a pity party. Here is an immediacy in his cry, seeking the Lord in the day of his trouble. And in the nights, his hand is stretched out without wearing. He's in constant prayer before the Lord. He is turning to God. This must be your first response in trouble. Cry to God. Pray to God. Because He will hear you. There is no comfort aside from the comfort that is brought by God alone. Asaf's soul actually refuses then to be comforted. He won't be comforted by the world. He won't be comforted by his own conscience. Cry to God for that comfort and help and accept nothing other than God's comfort. The extent of the trouble that Asaf was in was in verses 3 and 4. When he remembers, he's moaning, he's meditating, his spirit is fainting, his eyelids are held open, he's so troubled that he cannot speak. Here is a godly man, remember this is the leader of worship in the tabernacle, the temple in Jerusalem, who is going through unspeakable grief and pain. Literally unspeakable. He cannot speak. He is so troubled. We don't know the specifics of this. of the troubles that he faced. And so we can insert our own experience here. We can't say, oh, well, that was Asaf and that was specific to his context. We don't know. But we do know that here is a believer who is so troubled that he cannot speak. He is going through such grief and pain. Well, you can insert your experience here. Whatever your trouble is, this psalm applies to you. It is relevant for you. And it is sufficient to know that here is a believer, fainting, moaning, lost for words. Such is his anguish. This is the genuine experience of a genuine Christian, Bible-believing man. And the extent to which Asaf is overwhelmed is in some ways analogous to the scene that we read in Gethsemane. Luke records that his sweat was mingled with blood. But unlike Asaph, Jesus wasn't moaning, his spirit wasn't fainting, he wasn't unable to speak. With loud cries he offered up prayers to God. And here is the difference between the perfect man and fallen man. But the response is the same. In the midst of that trouble, both are crying to God. The perfect man shows us that it is the right response for fallen man to take, to cry to God. If Jesus cried out to God, how much more should we cry out to God? But Asaph doesn't stay here moaning and fainting, rehearsing his complaints. He moves on. And so must you move on. Because Asaf goes on to meditate on the days of old, the years long ago, verse 5. And he remembers then his song in the night, meditating in his heart. And it leads him to question whether God's love has ceased and whether he's forgotten to be gracious. Why? Why? Well, he's remembered God's love. He's remembered God's grace. He's remembered God's favour. But all this appears to have come to an end. And that's a common theme in times of trouble, isn't it? You meditate on the goodness of God to you in the past and the blessings that you've known on those good times. And now you're in so much trouble that it appears as though God has withdrawn all of this and in his anger has shut up his compassion, which is what Asaf says in verse 9. The problem is that Asaf's focus, and indeed our focus at times, is on the temporary things in our life, the things that are passing. We look back with fondness at days when we have known God's favour, when his love and compassion and grace have been tangible to us. But when trouble comes, it's as though those experiences were all temporary. So much is dependent on our circumstance, isn't it? So much is dependent upon how we feel. You know the richness of the Christian life and communion with God, which is so vital and so real. And then along comes trouble and the storms of life, whatever they may be in our circumstance. And it appears as though God has forgotten to be gracious. Because now life has suddenly got hard, it's a struggle, and one thing after another, wave after wave comes upon us and discourages us and disappoints us. And we go from feeling up to feeling down. We have good days, we have bad days. We have good seasons, we have bad seasons. And if we are focused on the temporary, the here and the now, if we are focused on our experiences, It will appear as though we have been spurned by God. That He is no longer favourable to us. That His love has ceased. That His promise has ended. That He's forgotten to be gracious and compassionate. Because now look at the trouble I'm in. And down we go into the depths. And we're tossed to and fro on the storms of life. But you know more than that, this focus on the temporary is essentially a focus on ourself. Asaf is feeling sorry for himself. God has somehow now been hard on him and not as close as he once was. He's looking at himself. the first response of crying to God in your trouble must get beyond the temporary and it must move to that which is more substantial and eternal. In other words, move from a focus on yourself, move from a focus on your own experience. You're crying aloud to God and you've recounted then the good days, the good times. Now you're in trouble, so you need to move on. Don't stay there, don't stay there in the depths. You need to move on. Move from a focus on yourself to focus and appeal to God, which is the second part of where to turn in trouble. So the first part, we cry to God. We cry aloud to God that he would hear us. Secondly, we must appeal to God. We must move from that cry to appeal. So don't sit in your trouble longing for better days. Those days that you once knew and that appear to be over. But go with Asaf. to appeal to God. Stop looking at yourself and look to God. Verse 10. You see the change that takes place in this psalm. Then I said. So verse 9, has God forgotten? Has He in anger shut up His compassion? Then I said, I will appeal to this, to the years of the right hand of the Most High. I will remember the deeds of the Lord. Do what Asaf does. Remember the deeds of the Lord. Look beyond your trouble, whatever it is. What matters is your focus is shifted from that trouble, from the temporary, from yourself, to the substantial, to the eternal, to the ultimate reality, to God. and recall then in particular the deeds of the Lord. That's the first thing that Asaf remembers in his appeal. He appeals to the years of the right hand of the Most High, which is another way of saying the power and the eternality of God. The years of the right hand of the Most High. The right hand, the position of power and authority and dominion and rule. And the years. God is eternal. He cannot be contracted and confined into a span of time. He is eternal and beyond time. How infinite then are his years. The power and eternality of God is where Asaph turns and he appeals to. And so should we. Remember, believer, that our God is a God who is eternal. A God who is omnipotent. A God who is almighty. Recall then his deeds. His mighty deeds. Not just a superficial recall, but a deeper pondering. Verse 11, I will remember the deeds of the Lord. Yes, I will remember your wonders of old. I will ponder all your work. I will meditate on your mighty deeds. This isn't a superficial It's a deep pondering, a deep meditation upon the works of God. In other words, dwell on what God has done. Don't dwell on the temporary things in your little life, but dwell upon the works of God from of old. Asaf goes on then to meditate upon these works. He goes on to meditate upon the Exodus from Egypt that we read of in Exodus 14. A great and mighty and wondrous work of God that he has done. Meditate on the great events recorded in scripture. All your work. I will ponder all your work and meditate on your mighty deeds. exodus is surely one of those mighty deeds, but before that meditate upon and ponder the creation, the flood, truly global cosmic works of God, how wondrous are these. We see the goodness, we see the mercy, we see the compassion, the grace of our God in these works. Why ponder these things and meditate upon them when you're in trouble? Why appeal to God then in this way? Because they remind you of who God is. They remind you of His greatness, of His power. They remind you of His promises, that they are not at an end, as they may seem. They remind you that God has not forgotten to be gracious, that He has not forgotten to be loving or favourable, no matter what your trouble may be. He made the earth and he sustains it. He gives every living creature breath. He sustains the sparrow. He closed the lilies of the field. In the flood, he obliterated all life with breath in it outside the ark. And yet in the ark, he saved a remnant of humanity and each pair of every earth-dwelling, air-breathing creature. And he saved them by his grace. And he saved them by his steadfast love. And he promised never again to destroy the earth with a flood. And in God's works then we see his love, we see his promises, we see his grace, we see his compassion. We see God is sovereign, ruling all things. He is our creator, he is our saviour, our sustainer. We need to look beyond our circumstances to see this and to put your hope and trust in this God. And verse 13 goes on to say, Your way, O God, is holy. What God is great, like our God. Recall the holiness and the greatness of our God. You've recalled His works, His power. Now recall His holiness, His greatness. There's no comparison with the living God. That's the gist of verse 13. Nothing can frustrate His purpose. He is able to do all His holy will. This is declared without ceasing by the angels around the throne in heaven that Isaiah glimpsed, recorded for us in Isaiah 6. And because he is holy, all his ways are holy, and he calls his people to be holy. The holiness of God means he is not fickle, he is not capricious. It means he can be trusted. What he says, he will do. He hasn't forgotten to be gracious. He hasn't ended his promises. His steadfast love hasn't ceased. God is not a God who needs to be placated, who in spite and fickleness afflicts his followers. That was the nature of the idols in the nations around Israel, wasn't it? The practices that, regrettably, Israel even adopted. Baal worship involved gross immorality in efforts to secure a fertile and productive harvest. The worship of Molech involved child sacrifice to placate an angry deity. Offerings were poured out to the Queen of Heaven in efforts to secure reigns. You see deities in the imaginations of men all need man to do something to secure favour. Look at today's religions. Muslims secure the blessing of Allah by going on pilgrimage. Hindus offer food to their idols. Money and devotion is offered to ancestors in Far Eastern worship to secure their favour. But Christian, Christian, your God is holy. None is great like him. There is no shadow of turning in him. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. You cannot do anything to secure his blessing because he blesses out of his grace, out of his mercy, out of his steadfast love that he gives and he gives and he gives and he gives. He calls you to be holy because He is holy. No pilgrimage, no work can secure His blessing. He calls you to holiness. You live your life as a living sacrifice for Him, but not to secure favour, not to placate an angry deity, but out of deep gratitude for the favour that He has already bestowed upon you in His Son, Jesus Christ. because we have life in Christ alone, by grace alone, through faith alone, as revealed in scripture alone, to the glory of God alone. You see, our lives, our thinking, must all be Godward. When in trouble then, recall this. Recall the holiness and the ways of God, who is unchanging, who is ever gracious, who is ever compassionate, who is ever loving, because he has saved you in his Son, Jesus Christ. There is the display of holiness. You cannot save or help yourself. So He sent His own Son that whoever believes on Him shall not perish but have eternal life. He, in His holiness, dealt with your ultimate problem and your trouble, your sin. He dealt with it in the death of His Son to secure eternal life for you, Christian. And this leads on then We go on to, as if this weren't enough, Asaf goes on to recall the might and the power and the redemption of God in verses 14 and 15. You are the God who works wonders. You have made known your might among the peoples. You, with your arm, redeemed your people, the children of Jacob and Joseph. God does not work in secret. He's recalled the might and the power that he's made known. among the peoples in saving Israel out of Egypt. God made known his might to Pharaoh and all in that nation, as well as the nations in the promised land who were to be displaced. God's power was clear to them. Why did he save Israel? Because he cared for them, because he had compassion on them. He's worked wonders in delivering and saving his people down through the ages. And ultimately, that salvation comes in Christ. he displays his loving care for his people. Because his deeds are made known among the nations he will not and does not and cannot forget to be gracious to those whom he has saved. His love and grace and mercy is continuously poured out on his people and he does so in full view of the nations around them. And because his deeds are made known. We should live as those who have been redeemed and saved. We are demonstrating the work of God in us to those around us. We are called to live as those salt and light, the salt and light of the world. That is our calling. The nations are looking upon us. There's people whom God has saved. Is God real? See the evidence of the work of grace among sinners such as us. In Israel's day, the result of these deeds being and the power of God being made known among the peoples was a great fear coming among the people, among the likes of Jericho. They trembled at the prospect of Israel coming in then to the promised land. In our day then God's great and wonderful work of salvation is testified by the witness of his people among the nations. And the nations and the world ought to marvel at the way believers respond to difficulty, trouble, trial, persecution, hardship, as well as times of blessing. because the focus of our lives is on God. And so because the focus of our lives is on God, we give God the glory. We give God the glory in times of blessing and we display and demonstrate our trust in him in times of trial. We testify to the power of the cross. We testify to the means by which God has reconciled a hostile world to himself, to his own glory. We give a reason for the hope that is in us. In the midst of awful persecution, the hope that we have is Christ. The reason for the hope that is in us is Christ. We testify again that his mercies are new every morning. Great is his faithfulness. His promises are yea and amen. His love is without limit. His grace is without measure. His power has no boundary known unto men. So we recall the God who works wonders. We recall his redemption. Recall the redemption of God. Asaph recalls the exodus and the crossing of the Red Sea as the psalm closes in verses 16 to 20. by the hand of Moses and Aaron. This event above all displays the power, the holiness, the might, the love, the compassion, the promises of God to his people. He promised deliverance from Egypt which he effected in such an awesome and powerful display of his might, power and grace as he preserved Israel in the plagues and brought them out of Egypt through the Red Sea. going before them in a pillar of cloud by day and smoke and fire by night. He protected their rear so that none of them were lost. Not one of them was lost. All of them were saved. As Asaph remembered, as he pondered, as he meditated upon such works of God in his appeal in the time of his trouble, this would have brought comfort to his soul. And so it will bring comfort to you. in your time of trouble. If God delivered his people then in such a powerful way, he is able to deliver you now. He is able to keep you in and through your trouble. But you see, we don't just look back at the exodus as a display of God's mighty act of redemption. We look back at what that pointed forward to. So we recall the redemption of God which was effected by the Lord Jesus Christ at Calvary. And so our ultimate appeal to God in our time of trouble is ultimately the Lord Jesus Christ. This above all else His work on the cross at Calvary, above all else, tells you of God's favour to sinners. It tells you of a love that cannot be fathomed in terms of its height and breadth and depth and length. It tells you of a love that endures for eternity. Jesus said, never will I leave you nor forsake you. And his promise endures forever. His grace is the basis for our salvation and all his dealings with us. God cannot forget to be gracious to those for whom Christ has died. We are saved by grace through faith, which is a gift of God. God doesn't take that gift back. He's given it freely. His people will persevere to the end. None can snatch us from his hand. That's what Jesus promised. Has God forgotten to be gracious? Not at all. Christian, Calvary shows you daily the compassion of God in saving a sinner like you. In whatever trouble you find yourself to be in, cry to God. And when you're tempted to doubt His love and grace and compassion, appeal to God. Go again to Calvary. Don't go to the Red Sea. Don't go to Egypt. Go to Calvary. Go to the cross of Christ outside the city gates in Jerusalem. Go to Golgotha and see the finished work of His Son in your place, making an end of your sin. bearing the eternal wrath you deserve as your substitute to save you from that wrath to come and to give you eternal life. Well, if you're not a believer, don't think that becoming a Christian is the solution to all your troubles. It isn't. You will face many difficulties in this life, many troubles. But if you remain outside of Christ, You will face these troubles on your own. You will face them, or perhaps with your counsel, or perhaps with your friends, who cannot offer lasting counsel. Consider Job's friends and the counsel they offered. But rather, put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't indulge yourself. Don't put your trust in those who will tell you to pull yourself up by your bootstraps or look for some mystical inner strength. Or just simply say drown your sorrows or just keep smiling. Don't think either that death is your solution. Because ultimately your troubles, if you're outside of Christ, if you're not a believer in the Lord Jesus, your troubles will continue beyond the grave and you will find your troubles in eternity under the wrath of God in hell because you refused the offer of life in Christ which is held out to you today. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ then and be saved. Be saved from an eternity of wrath. Be saved from an eternity of trouble. And in this life You will know the comfort of God in every trial. You will know the comfort of God in every trouble. You will know that promise that Romans 8.28 tells us. For those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to His purpose. That is the assurance that we have as Christians. You see, becoming a Christian, putting your trust and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, It's not an antidote to trouble. It doesn't mean to say we're going to be absolved from trials in this life, not at all. But it does mean that we will be delivered from the ultimate trial of death. We will be delivered from it an eternity of trial and trouble in hell. And we know in this life that in our troubles, in our distresses, God is working his purposes out. He has not forgotten us. because he has saved us, because he has redeemed us, because he will bring us safely home through many trials, yes, but home, he will bring us home through perhaps a few decades, a few years of difficulty, yes, but into an eternity of bliss. It is God who personally leads his people. just as he led them like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron. Now he leads us, he upholds us in his powerful right hand. We are sought, we are cared for, we are led by the Lord Jesus Christ himself. We are his flock. We were all once wandering sheep, but by his grace, by his mercy, by his love, by his compassion, by his very great promises, he will lead us safely home. to the praise of his glorious grace. So where to turn in trouble? Cry to God. Appeal to God. Turn to the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Oh Lord our God, we thank you for this psalm and all that it teaches us. How to respond to trouble. We thank you that it points us away from ourselves It points us away from that inner reflection. And it points us to the Lord Jesus Christ. It points us to the God who has sent his son to deal with our sin and save us. Save us from sin and death and hell. Save us to inherit an eternity of bliss. An eternity with you in which you will wipe away every tear from our eyes. how we thank you, Father God. We thank you for this assurance that we have as your children. Oh, deal with us, we pray, those in this room who know and love Jesus Christ as our own Lord and Savior. Deal with us, oh God, we pray. Help us to keep looking to you in every trial and tribulation. those who are yet outside your kingdom. Oh God, trouble them in their sin, don't give them rest until they have found rest in Jesus Christ. Have mercy upon each one we pray for your own glory. Amen.