Preachers are supposed to practice what they preach, preferably before they preach it. Well, I have a confession this morning. I'm about to speak on something that part of which I've never experienced. Now before you jump to conclusions, let me explain. I'm not talking about something that I knew I should do and didn't or didn't do something I knew I should. Now, it has to do with the fact the way I've taught the scripture. I've taken books of the Bible and methodically gone through them, and that has forced me to sometimes speak on subjects that, well, I hadn't experienced yet. Like when I come to a passage about having a baby. I just never have experienced that. Well, I'm going to speak on a passage today that's like that. The psalmist that I'm going to talk about had an experience, and frankly, I never had the experience. But whether you've had it or not, and many of you probably haven't as well, there's some things we can learn from him about how he handled it. What I'm talking about is this. There is a passage of Scripture where a psalmist was having so much problems, so many problems, so much difficulty, that it affected his sleep. He couldn't sleep because of it. Now that problem, I've never had. I go to sleep without any problems. I do not recall ever having not been able to go to sleep because I was worried about some kind of a problem. My wife has accused me of being able to go to sleep in Grand Central Station. So I must confess I haven't had this problem, but I want us to look in detail at his experience with this, because I think the way he handled that can teach us all something about how to handle problems. So we'll turn with me to Psalm 77. Psalm 77. Now, The passage is divided into two parts. In the first part, there's simply a cry for help. In the second part, he then starts responding, and it's that responding that I think can benefit all of us. So look with me, beginning at verse one. I cried out to the Lord with my voice, to God with my voice, and he gave ear to me." Now, in this opening verse, he's simply saying that he prayed. But notice what he says. He prayed with my voice. And he emphasizes that by stating it twice, with my voice, with my voice. In other words, he prayed out loud. Now, again, I must confess that's something I've not done, at least very often, except for public prayer. When I pray, I usually pray silently, just in my heart to the Lord. But there have been times when I prayed out loud. Did you ever pray out loud? Where do you pray out loud? In the shower? In the car? When I do it, I make sure I'm all alone. Nobody can hear me. And then I have on occasions just said, Lord, we need to have this conversation. And I just out loud tell him what I have in mind. Well, that's what the psalmist does. Only it becomes apparent as we get deeper into the passage that he's doing this in the middle of the night. So he's talking to the Lord out loud in the middle of the night. And he says, the Lord heard me. Now he's confident the Lord's listening. And he says, the Lord heard me. The next verse gives us the problem. He says, in the day of my trouble, I sought the Lord. My hands were stretched out in the night without ceasing my soul. My hands were stretched out without ceasing. My soul refused to be comforted." Now notice carefully, his day of trouble was in the middle of the night. He says, in the day of my trouble, I sought the Lord in the night. So whatever was bothering him, and he never tells us what that is, but whatever was bothering him, whatever trouble he was having, it kept him awake at night to the point that he's crying out to the Lord out loud. Notice the way he explains this in verse two. He says, I sought the Lord. I stretched out my hands. I didn't cease to do that. I just constantly did that. So apparently he's awake in the middle of the night and this didn't just last for a few minutes. This is going on for some time. And it didn't work. Look at verse two. He says, my soul refused to be comforted. So from this verse, we clearly see Trouble, mentioned in the first part of the verse, and no comfort, that's at the end of the verse. Did you ever have a problem and you prayed and you didn't get an answer? I suspect if I asked you to raise your hand, everybody would raise their hand. And then if it was a real serious problem, you prayed multiple times, you prayed earnestly, you sought the Lord. You raised, you lifted up your hands, Lord, I need your help. And it didn't come. You felt forsaken. You ever felt that way? Maybe the Lord is on vacation and he forgot me. Did you ever feel that way? Well, that's the way the psalmist felt because the Lord wasn't answering him immediately. He felt forgotten. Abandoned. deserted and there was no comfort. Notice he's praying and there's no comfort. Isn't that interesting? Now, the rest of this passage just amplifies his agony of soul. He says in verse 3, I remembered God and was troubled. I complained And my spirit was overwhelmed, Selah. Huh. He remembered God, but that didn't help. And this is what I'm talking about. He, his problem is keeping him awake at night. And in verse two, he says, I wasn't comforted. In verse three, he says, I'm overwhelmed. Have you ever felt overwhelmed with a problem? Who hasn't? That's just part of life, isn't it? There come those times when you just feel overwhelmed. What I do find interesting at this point is though he has no comfort, though he feels overwhelmed, though he remembered the Lord, though he prayed and none of that helped, he's still talking to the Lord. Interesting insight. He's doing it even though it isn't working. Now, we still don't know what his problem is, but what we do know is that it's causing insomnia. It's keeping him awake at night and there is no relief. On top of that, apparently He didn't find any comfort even in prayer and remembering God. One author summed up what's happened so far like this. The psalmist pours out his tale of woe to the Lord. Some unnamed problem has come to camp at his doorstep. In his misery, he can think of no one or nothing but himself. In spite of unceasing prayer, he complains that comfort eludes him. He finds himself in the situation where he thought of God and he thought God caused him to mourn instead of giving him joy. The more he meditated, the more melancholy he became. It was that last line that struck my attention. The more he meditated, the more melancholy he became. Why? Why is that the case? And it clearly is. I think the key word here is complain. He's constantly complaining. There is no joy at this part of the prayer. There's just complaining. Maybe that's why there's no comfort in his heart. Look at verse four. You hold my eyes open. I am so troubled I cannot speak. Oh, now wait a minute. He starts out the prayer saying, I'm praying out loud. Now all of a sudden he says, matter of fact, he says, Lord, you're the one keeping my eyes open. Oh, wow. Seems now he's like blaming the Lord for all of this, or at least for not answering him. And he says, I can't even speak. I've told you everything I know. I'm done speaking. So he's gone from talking out loud to saying nothing. Then he says this, look at verse five. I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times. All right, now get the picture. He's lying in bed. He's overwhelmed with some kind of a problem. He's poured his heart out to the Lord. None of that did any good. So now what do you do? He still can't go to sleep. So now what do you do? He said, well, an interesting little thing. He said, I started thinking about the past. Did you ever do that? Did you ever just lay in bed and think about the past? Who hasn't done that? But notice, it's not just his past. He's thinking about the past of ancient times. So perhaps he's not talking about God's dealing with him as much as he's talking about the way God dealt with his people in the past. interesting exercise. Now he's totally frustrated, finds no comfort even in prayer, even in remembering the Lord, but he decides that what he's going to do is think about the way God has dealt with people in ancient times. Look at verse 6. I call to remembrance my song in the night. I meditated within my heart. My spirit makes diligent search." Oh, wait a minute. Verse 5 seems to think, days of old, ancient times, the way God dealt with other people, but he brings it right back to himself. And he thinks about how in the past he remembers, you know, I sang in the night." Notice prior to this, he has trouble in the night, but he says, you know, I remember the time that I woke up and I sang in the middle of the night. I had a song in my heart. Notice he says in verse six, I meditated within my heart. My spirit makes diligent search. So when he thought about the past, he remembered his own meditation. in his own song. So ah, this is a saint who's had better times. Now I find that very interesting, that saints who once meditated and sang can actually then encounter a problem that overwhelms them. By the way, mark that and mark it well. That's clearly what's going on in this passage. There was a time When he meditated and he sang, he was on the top of the mountain. But in this song, he's in the valley. Just know that just because you're on the top of the mountain, doesn't mean that you're going to stay there. There are valleys after mountains. And by the way, there are mountains after valleys. Matter of fact, I've often said, God is never going to let you get to the place where you can do without him. Just when you think you've got everything under control, he'll bring something into your life that reminds you that you need him. So here's the case of a saint who remembered the Lord in times past with joy, but all of a sudden he's overwhelmed. One author says, On other similar occasions, the psalmist says he received peace by meditating on God. However, in this one, that activity brought him no rest or joy. God was keeping him awake, but he found no satisfaction in praising God. I thought that last line was fascinating. He points out that the psalmist didn't find any satisfaction in praising God. Or another author said he was counting the days of the past instead of sheep. To go to sleep, he wasn't counting sheep. He was counting days of the past when things were better. But what I want you to note is this. In verse 3, he's complaining. In verse 6, he remembers a song. Could it be that his constant complaining silenced the song in his heart? Or as one has observed, like all men, believers too are exposed to physical difficulties, bodily pain, wasting disease, He may suffer from the losses in business, social trials, the inconsistencies of those he once regarded as true. If those days he turns to complaining and self-pity, faith and hope weep together while the song of the Lord hushes in silence. So well said. That's the situation. Now, remember verse four, you are keeping my eyes open. Is it that in this case of insomnia, he's all alone and he's blaming God for all of this? One said he failed him to express the anguish of his spirit. He seeks comfort in remembering the good old days when things went smoothly with him. But the more he occupied himself and looks for victory within, the more he begins to doubt the kindness of the Lord. He's assailed by doubt, and then he starts asking questions. Now that introduces us to the fact that in the next couple of verses, he just asked questions. But now before we look at him, I want you to get the picture. He's overwhelmed. He can't sleep in the middle of the night. And yet he decides to think about what God has done in the past. And none of that helped. So he starts asking questions. He asked five questions. Look at verse seven. Will the Lord cast off forever? Will he be favorable no more? So he wants to know, in essence, if the Lord has forgotten him. This is a clear example of a case of expressing his doubts to the Lord. So he readily says, have you forgotten me? And by the way, if you ever feel that way, tell the Lord that. and don't feel guilty about doing it. The psalmist did it. Next question is in verse 8. Has his mercy ceased forever? Has his promise failed forevermore? He's perplexed because he seems to be abandoned by the Lord. He wonders if the Lord has cast him off. I'm not getting an answer. I'm not even getting any comfort, and I'm certainly not getting any joy. What's going on? You must have forgotten me. So he's simply asking, has your mercy ceased? And have your promises failed? This is heavy stuff. More questions in verse nine. Has God forgotten to be gracious? In his anger, has he shut up his tender mercies? So interesting. He says in verse 7, cast off. He's not favorable any longer. But he talks about, well, at least you could be merciful and gracious, right? I mean, you're a God of grace and mercy. And so these questions, look at verse 8. Has his mercy ceased? Look at verse 9. Has he forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Lord, where is your grace? I can't even depend on that. Where is it? You're normally gracious. So he wonders if God has abandoned him and he questions God with all of these questions. The first question raises the frightening suggesting that perhaps the Lord is finished with him for good. The second ask if God had ceased to love. Next, he wonders if the Lord had scrapped his promises again. The thought crosses his mind that perhaps God had forgotten to be gracious. And finally, he asks if God is in his anger, cast him off. He answers himself that this is not the case. The right hand of the Most High has not changed. All of his grief can be traced to a change in God's attitude toward him. So he's really questioning the Lord. He feels overwhelmed with trouble and on top of all of that, abandoned by God. God does not answer his prayer. He sought the Lord, stretched out his hand. In the middle of the night, he's cried to the Lord and nothing, no comfort, no joy. No answer. Now, let me ask you a question. Have you ever felt that way? I see a lot of heads nodding. Then my question is, did you tell somebody? Probably not. Now, I want to make an observation here. Did he tell somebody? He wrote it and published it, which says, yeah, he wanted everybody to know. I want to make an observation. I think that a lot of us would feel this way and hesitate to talk about it. We would be embarrassed because you might think we're not spiritual. And I think that's tragic. I think the one place you ought to be able to go and talk about what's bothering you is church. Is that not right? Could a saint feel overwhelmed and that God has abandoned them? It's not just this psalm. There are other psalms that say the same thing. The first one that ever struck me with this subject was Psalm 13. Where the psalmist just flat out says, have you forgotten me? Have you forsaken me? Is it forever? So when you feel that way, talk to the Lord. And maybe you should journal. That's what he did. And maybe you should talk to somebody else. And you might discover they've had the same problem. Now, being all that, as it may, What did he do? Well, I said this passage is divided into two parts. In the first part, he just cries to the Lord. But here's what I want to know. How did he handle this? What did he do? And this is the part that I think is so valuable for all of us. No matter what you are going through, Even if it hasn't gotten to the place of causing you insomnia and you being overwhelmed, these things you need to know. Notice carefully what he did. It begins in verse 10. And I said, this is my anguish, but I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High. All right. Here's what you do. Number one, you remember. Now, he said that before, but what he remembered didn't give him any comfort. Remember? Now, he's saying, I remember, and this time I am in my anguish, I remember the years of the right hand of the Most High. I will remember the works of the Lord. Surely I will remember your wonders of old. Now this is slightly different. I'm now gonna think about other things concerning the Lord, regardless of how I feel at the moment. I'm gonna remember, this is important, I'm gonna remember, that's the first thing you need to do. Remember what? Well, He remembered God at the right hand of the throne. He remembered his works. He remembered his wonders. Oh, this is interesting. God had not answered his prayer, but in the past, God worked wonders. God did things that were amazing. It was awesome. He was awestruck at the things God did in the past. Notice, I remember the works of the Lord and I will remember your wonders. I'm going to remember the works that were wow. I'll write that down. Remember that. That no matter how deep the depression, maybe the first thing you need to do is just remember Call to mind, there's a God who has power. That's all. Step two, look at verse 12. I will also meditate on all your works and talk of your deeds. All right. He has now made deliberate decision. Now he said I remembered a while ago but this is different. I'm going to remember and I've decided I'm going to sit and meditate on the Lord and his wonderful works. This is important because prior to this he remembered the Lord and he was complaining. So he's decided to not think about his complaints, but to meditate on the Lord and his wonderful works. Furthermore, there's a third step in a sense. Look at verse 12. I will also meditate on all your works and I'm going to talk about them. Oh, that's interesting. Remember a minute ago I said you should talk about your problems? Well, how about talking about the good things of the Lord as well? Now again, I think this is deeply significant and very important. One of the verses that's always struck me in this regard is Joshua 1.8, this book of the law, you shall meditate in day and night and shall not depart from your, well, if you're going to meditate, it's not going to depart out of your, what I'd expect him to say is your mind, right? I'm going to meditate on the law of the Lord and meditate on it so it's not going to depart out of my mind. That isn't what Joshua 1.8 says. I'm going to meditate on the law of the Lord and it's not going to depart out of my mouth. You need to talk about the Lord. You need to talk about the Lord's wonderful works. And then when he answers prayer, you need to talk about that. When the Lord has done something in your life, you need to talk about that. You need to tell others about that. That's part of the solution to this problem. He remembered. That's verse 10. He meditated. That's verse 12. And he talked. Put those three things down. Those are the kinds of things you need to do. Now, he decided to do this in the middle of the night. But keep reading. He gets more specific. Look at verse 13. Your ways, O God, is in the sanctuary. Who is so great a God as our God? All right. Now, so far he's been general. I'm going to remember God's works. Now, all of a sudden, he's gonna be a little more specific. I mean by that, I'm gonna remember how great God is. God is so great, there's no one greater, and he compares him to other gods. Now, that doesn't mean that other gods exist. It just means that he's the greatest. He doesn't imply that those gods exist, he exceeds what others think those other gods can do. So after this introspection that plunged him into the depths of despondency, he turns his eyes heavenward and determines to reflect on God's past interventions for people when they were in tight spots. This leads him to acknowledge God is holy, he's in his sanctuary, that he is perfect, that he's righteous, that he's powerful. He's now thinking about the Lord and what the Lord is like, instead of just thinking about his problems. Look at verse 14. You are the God who does wonders. He's mentioned this before. You have declared your strength among the people. As a matter of fact, the peoples, notice it's plural. He no doubt is talking about his God's people, that God has done great things. And again, he makes the point that they're wondrous. They cause wonder. They cause awe. He stood in amazement as to what God did in the past, implying what God was capable to do in the present. But he even gets more specific. Look at verse 15. You have with your arms redeemed your people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph Silah. Now, earlier in the Psalm, he mentioned ancient times. That's back in verse five. At this point, he speaks about what God did in the Exodus. He redeemed Israel. The greatest example of God's power in ancient Israel was the Exodus. So that he used his power to redeem his people. Now he's going to get specific to describe that, but he's thinking about God's power. By the way, notice how As we've moved through this passage, the personal pronouns have disappeared. And now, instead of being self-centered, he's more God-centered in his thinking. And the first part of this passage is all about me. Woe is me. I'm complaining. I'm overwhelmed. Now, all of a sudden, it's all about the Lord. Very important observation. So he decides to remember to meditate and to talk about what God has done. And he says, you know, when I do that, God is incomparable. He performs wonders, mighty deeds. When you think about what God has done in the past, you can't help but think about God's power. Now he gets even more specific and he gets poetic. Look at verse 16. The waters saw you, O God. The waters saw you, and they were afraid. The depths also trembled. What an interesting expression. The waters saw. Obviously, waters don't see, right? This is a figure of speech. It's personification. We're going to attribute to some inanimate object abilities that people have. It's just a vivid way of saying, let me tell you, God's power was so great. He parted the Red Sea. He just talked about redemption. That's the Exodus. And now he's getting even more specific. And what he did is he parted the Red Sea. And when he did, the waters, the water saw God was powerful and they feared him. They respected what he could do. Then he says in verse 17, the clouds poured out water and the skies sent out a sound. Your arrows also flashed about. Now, the clouds poured out water. What's that? Rain. We don't see a lot of that during the year, but we do see it once in a while. California, that's rain. How about sending out a sound? What's that? Your air is also flashed. That's clearly a reference to lightning. So during the exodus, the clouds poured out wonder, thunder was heard, and lightning was seen. All nature exploded in a violent storm, torrents of rain poured down, clashes of thunder burst overhead, lightning zigzagged across the sky, lightning lit up the landscape. So he thinks about all of that as an illustration of God's power. He says, The voice of your thunder was in the whirlwind. The lightning lit up the world. The earth trembled and shook. As a result of the lightning and the thunder, the earth trembled and shook. And again, he's emphasizing the power of God as illustrated in the Exodus and what he did to get the people out of Egypt. He says in verse 19, Your way was in the sea, your path in the great waters, and your footsteps were not known." Now, some of these references are vague, but if you put it all together, he starts talking about the redemption of his people, and then he describes the Exodus, and he's clearly, though it sometimes seems vague, talking about the parting of the Red Sea. But when he gets to verse 19, he says as much, your ways was in the sea, your path in great in the waters, and your footsteps were not seen. Nobody saw God's footsteps, but it was God working to get the Israelites across the Red Sea. He made a path. and the people walked across, as you will recall, dry shod. One more verse. He says in verse 20, you led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron. They were the leaders, Moses and his brother Aaron. They led his people miraculously out of the danger of the Red Sea as if they were a flock of sheep. Notice he says in verse 20, like a flock, they took by the hand and led the people out of Egypt. That's interesting to me. That's the end of the Psalm. Based on all the other Psalms I've studied, and I've studied them all, I'm surprised that that's the way he ends. He ends by simply saying, In essence, I'm in bed in the middle of the night, and I'm overwhelmed. And then I made a decision. I decided to quit complaining. I decided to quit thinking about myself. I decided to remember the Lord, and specifically how great He is. I mean, great in power. And I decided not only to remember it, but to meditate on it. Instead of thinking about me and my problem, I'm going to think about the Lord and His power. So even though he felt depressed, he found comfort and encouragement during his sleepless night by remembering God's powerful redemption of his people. This remembrance doubtless gave him hope for the future, If God could redeem his people like that, maybe God has enough power to get me out of the mess I was in. I know that's not correct grammar, but it's good theology. Amen? So I want you to know, that's the way it ends, thinking about God's power. Doesn't say God solved his problem, except for the fact that he wasn't complaining anymore. the psalmist closes on a peaceful note. At the onset, he needed a psychiatric clinic, one said, but at the end, he's calm and he's at peace. One author observed, and so the psalm is an illustration of the well-known saying, occupation with self brings distress. Occupation with others brings discouragement. Occupation with Christ brings delight. Did you catch that? Never heard it put so succinctly. Here are your options. You can think about yourself, you can think about others, or you can think about the Lord. Right? Any other options? That's it. Well, this is the way this author has cleverly stated it. If you think about yourself, he said, occupation with self brings distress. All right. So if you think about others, what happens? Well, this author said occupation with others brings discouragement. So what if you think about the Lord? Ah. There is delight. So here are your options. You can think about yourself. You can think about others. You can think about the Lord. And you can, if you think about yourself, you can have distress, discouragement, or delight, joy, joy in the Lord. So which is it? Well, that's up to you. And the first part of this passage, all he did was think about himself. The last part of the passage, He meditated on the Lord. So, here's the song. Here's the bottom line. When your problems keep you awake at night, what do you do? I gave you three things. Do you remember them? We're gonna lock the doors. The only way you can get out is to give me the three. Now you know I'm kidding, right? But I'm not. You need to remember these three things. What are they? I'm going to remember, I'm going to meditate, and I'm going to talk. That's what he did when his problems were so overwhelming, they kept him awake at night. And to be more specific, he meditated on the Lord, his person, and more specifically, his power. His power. One commentator summed this up so well, I thought I'd just share it with you. He says that this is so well done. In the first 10 verses, the psalmist had a king-size case of introspection. The personal pronoun I, me, and my are found 20 times, while the name of God, the names of God are only found seven. The pronouns referring to God are seven, but there is a distinct change beginning in verse 10. In the last 10 verses, the personal pronouns are found only three times, whereas the nouns and pronouns referring to God are used over 20. It didn't occur to me to count the pronouns, but what an interesting observation that really puts this in focus. This author goes on to say, the ministry of Christ through the Holy Spirit does away with I, me, and my. Someone has described the flow of thought here in four words, sighing one to six, sinking seven to 10, singing 11 to 15, soaring 16 to 20. They're your options. You can sigh and sink or you can sing and soar. You can think about you, you can complain, you can gripe, even to the Lord. And where's that gonna get you? Nothing. distress, discouragement, depression. Or you can think, you know, the Lord is powerful. And there are all kinds of other things I could suggest. But in this psalm, it's just remembering that he's powerful. He might just be able to get you out of this. So remember and meditate and talk. One said he describes himself as tossing and turning in his bed, unable to sleep, He found meditating on God's deliverance of his people in the Exodus brought him comfort. This led him to ask God to manifest his power to people again. Now before I close, I want to make an observation. It's not enough to just remember or even just to meditate It's critical that you talk. Now, I think when you get depressed, you think, I mean, the thought enters your mind, you remember. And that's when you need to make a conscious, deliberate decision. No, I'm not going to just think I'm going to meditate. That means over a period of time. And then you need to talk about it. You need to talk about it. So if you look at this passage carefully, he looked at God's power and he looked at the Exodus and he thought about thunder, lightning. Remember he said the earthquake? Remember that? So he thought about those, the power in nature as if the Lord were doing that. Huh? He parted the Red Sea. But he goes beyond that. The waters saw it, were afraid. There was lightning and thunder and earthquakes. He so thought about God's power. He brought it down to all those details. Now if God's got that kind of power, maybe I shouldn't be so depressed. Amen? So you have to make a choice. You're going to think about you? Or are you going to think about the Lord? Well, I'm thinking about all the problems. I mean, have you felt any earthquakes lately, by the way? How many of you have felt an earthquake lately? Yeah, we've had a few. We have them all the time. We usually don't feel them. I mean, this is serious stuff. There's an earthquake, right? One fellow wrote, During an earthquake, the inhabitants of a small village were very much alarmed. They were therefore greatly surprised at the calmness of an elderly woman throughout the entire ordeal. When things were settled down, one of the villagers asked her, weren't you afraid during the earthquake? Weren't you afraid when that problem overwhelmed you? Like the power of an earthquake, weren't you afraid? No, she replied, I wasn't. You see, I just rejoice to know that I have a God who's powerful enough to shake the world. That says it all. I have a God powerful enough to shake the world. So in the midst of a sleepless night, When problems are keeping you awake, meditate and realize that God is powerful. He parted the Red Sea and he shook the world. Let's pray. Father, thank you. We confess that too often we get into difficulty and focus on ourself and not you. Lord, forgive us. Forgive us for being so self-absorbed and self-centered. Lord, direct our attention to you so that we can be more Christ-centered in our thinking, in our attitude, in our talk, and in our walk. In Jesus' name, amen.