THE MEDITATING HEART (3)

“I call to remembrance my song in the night; I MEDITATE within my HEART, and my spirit makes diligent search” – Psalm 77:6

God transforms the Troubled Heart into the MEDITATING HEART: “I call to remembrance my song in the night; I MEDITATE within my HEART, and my spirit makes diligent search” (Psa.77:6). Psalm 77 was Asaph’s song in a time of despair; transparent expressions of a soul that was well versed in the school of trials, emotional anguish, silence of the nights, and lonely caves of depression, doubt, and distress. His despondency was apparent in his crying out to God in prayer, reminding us of the futility of trying to hide our emotions from our omnipresent, omniscient God. We’re permitted to lay bare our souls before our loving heavenly Father: “I cried out to God with my voice – to God with my voice; and He gave ear to me.  In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord; my hand was stretched out in the night without ceasing; my soul refused to be comforted” (vv.1-2).

These verses portray the anguished soul of a worship leader who wrestled day and night, his outstretched hand figuratively grabbing hold of the garment of Christ with an unrelenting tenacity; his plea being spurred on by the reality of agony and pain. He found no immediate relief in the memory of God’s faithfulness, no comfort in his previous confidence in the Sovereign God (vv.3-5). This weary saint was consumed with self-absorption to the point of total despair. Exhausted and dumbfounded he desperately surveyed the past for some glimmer of hope. Songless and mute in his present situation, he remembered the sweet “song in the night” of former suffering, and as he meditated within his heart, his spirit threw up rhetorical questions of faith as prelude to peace and rest!

Rewarding meditation often takes the form of reflective questioning. The questions as listed in verses 7-8 were:

“Will the Lord cast off forever? and will He be favorable no more?

Has His mercy ceased forever? Has His promise failed forevermore?

Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has He in anger shut up His tender mercies?”

Though these questions sound negative, it is better to ask them than not to, because asking them sharpens the issue and pushes towards positive responses. Rather than lock dark doubts and fears in the heart, anxious thoughts are better handled when they are made articulate in plain speech or clear questions. In meditating and asking the questions of his heart, the Psalmist’s faith was strengthened as he silently responded to them with, “No, no, no, no…of course not! It cannot be so!”

As he pressed on meditating, he remembered God’s past works and wonders: “I WILL 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. I will also MEDITATE on all Your work, and talk of Your deeds” (vv.10b-12). The eternal God has defined Himself in His actions through the ages! When trials are tough, the suffering too long, the silence too deafening, and the weight too heavy, God has promised that the escape will come: “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it” (1Cor.10:13b).

As the Psalmist meditated and the fog began to lift for him to see clearly, he ran to God. As if to counter the five earlier questions, he remembered five vital attributes of God that brought a glimmer of hope: His holiness, uniqueness, sovereignty, power, and love (vv.13-14). All of these attributes manifested for the purpose of the redemption of His people: “You have with Your arm redeemed Your people…” (v.15a). He clung to what God had done in the past in hope of future joy and rest. If we’ll likewise trust Him, God turns anxious, overwhelmed hearts into MEDITATING, overcoming HEARTS that remember His redemptive works and wonders!