If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this, and the introduction to the Psalms for this book of the Bible in particular.
10 July. Psalms 74-77
These psalms are part of the block from 73-83 attributed to Asaph (which may have meant the worship leader, or the choral singers). The first three (74-76) are communal songs, whereas the last (77) is a personal one.
But 74 and 76 share a common structure. At first the singer(s) is/are in despair at their situation: in one, the Temple has been severely damaged by an enemy raid, the round of Temple worship has had to cease and nor is there anyone who can prophecy; in the other, the individual is experiencing what has been called “the dark night of the soul” when all attempts at prayer seem only to find a darkness, an absence of God.
But in both cases, the remedy is to remember what God has done in the past. In the first, God is remembered by the community for his work of creation: defeating chaos, making the sun and stars, the earth and its animals. In the last, the individual recalls the Exodus, that defining moment when God achieved the impossible and saved the descendants of Jacob by leading them out of Egypt through the waters.
It is all too easy, when depression sets in because of external pressure or internal turmoil, to feel there is no way out. But for those who trust in God, remembering what he has done in the past either in our own lives or in the lives of other people, now or in the past, can be the beginning of a turning back to the light.