Remember that time that everything completely fell apart?

And you felt utterly heartbroken, alone, and lost?

And you went to church and heard the sermon and it didn’t help?
Psalm 77 says…

“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 wearying;
My soul refuses to be comforted.
When I remember God I moan;
when I meditate, my spirit faints.
You hold my eyelids open;
I am so troubled that I cannot speak.

Sometimes, you can believe or you can hear the right things, but it doesn’t help.

You still feel…

Empty
Alone
Forsaken

Because whatever God is up to today doesn’t make any kind of sense.

When that happens in your life, pray the 77th Psalm.

The whole thing.
All 20 verses.
Amen.

And as it goes through, notice the psalmist meditates not just upon what’s wrong and upon all the reasons they cannot sleep at night…

…but upon the things that God has done before this.

The reasons that even though nothing helps today, God is still a trustworthy God.

Psalm 77 ends….

Your way was through the sea,
your path through great waters;
yet your footprints were unseen.
You led your people like a flock,
by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

It says, I cannot for the life of me find where you are in this, God, but I know that in the waters you save me.

And how do we know?

Because we can meditate backwards upon the things that God has already done.

He has already died on the cross for you.
He has already conquered death.
He has joined you to the victory through the waters of your baptism.

And if He has conquered death, He has conquered whatever’s wrong today.

Through the baptism that has already now sealed you to life, you can say…

“ I have no idea what God is up to today, but I know that I can trust my baptism. Because in my baptism, you have united me to your death, and you have united me to your resurrection.”

Contributor Rev. Harrison Goodman is the Higher Things Content Executive.

#higherthings #lutheran #lcms #pain #psalm77

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