It Only Makes it Worse

“I remembered God, and was troubled: I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Selah.” (Ps 77:3 AV)

At first glance, this verse doesn’t make sense.  How could we remember God and be troubled?  Especially if we are going through tough times.  Which is exactly what Asaph was referring to.  What would cause us to be troubled when we meditate on the person of God?  The second half of the verse tells us.  Again, when the reader sees a colon, bear in mind the writer is expounding on what he meant by what he just said.  In other words, what follows a colon is the immediate context of the statement which preceded it.  So, we can glean from the second half of the verse the writer remembers God in the form of complaints.  Or, he is troubled and by insinuating God is somehow the cause of his problems, or at the very least, unwilling to end to problems, he is troubled.

We can do this subtly.  For instance, we would never blame God for the consequences of our own choices.  But, we can wish we would never have been born.  Every now and again, I think over my life and all the mistakes that I have made.  I wish I could turn the clock back and never make the choice or choices which I think led to a particular reality.  The problem is, I can never go back far enough.  I undo one decision and remember an earlier one.  Like Job, I conclude that to make all things perfect, I should even have existed.  But that is impossible.  So, in a melancholy state, the mind begins to muse and complain.  Again, the insinuation, like Moses after he was called of God, our judgment might have been better than God’s if we didn’t exist at all.  The writer is complaining about problems.  He realizes the more he complains, the more he can find to complain about.  The more he complains, he realized the more he is leveling a subtle accusation against the judgment of God.  This is why he is getting overwhelmed.  His complaints fester on themselves and created more complaints.  Before he knows it, he is having a ‘woe is me’ moment.  It is a pit of despair from which it is difficult to escape.

On a personal note, I had a wonderful season of prayer last night.  I coveted with my God that I would spend time in one season of prayer per day in nothing but thanking Him and praising Him for everything and anything the Spirit would bring to mind.  There were other times of day when I can pour out my complaint.  But I have found the more I pour out my complaint the more overwhelmed with life I become.  This is not to say we cannot bring our concerns and desires to the LORD.  But if that is all we do, then we miss how the LORD has blessed us.  We become chicken little seeing a falling sky in everything that happens.  The answer to this dilemma is found a bit later in the psalm.  Asaph decides that when he doubts God’s favor in the present; or better yet, cannot see it; then he will remember God’s faithfulness in the past.  He will rehearse all the great things God has done for him.  The implication being God is doing so in the present even if he cannot see it.  So, let us remember that habitual complaining does nothing productive for the soul.  All it does is make things worse.  The more we complain, the more we become overwhelmed by more things we see wrong.  Remembering God for His faithfulness is the answer.