Remember The Good

“Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah. And I said, This is my infirmity: but I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High.” (Ps 77:9-10 AV)

Psalm seventy-seven must be the psalm of the habitual pessimist.  Prior to verse ten, the writer gives many reasons why he feels God has abandoned him.  He feels the LORD is not working in his life, not the life of Israel as He once did.  He feels there is no good news.  He questions God's love for His people.  He begins to wonder if the grace of God has run out.  The writer is distraught over what he sees.  Then he states an interesting observation.  He writes that the way he views life is his infirmity.  An infirmity is more than a one-time transgression.  In fact, an infirmity may not be a fault at all.  An infirmity is any condition short of perfect health.  This could be spiritual, physical, or emotional health.  An infirmity is usually an ongoing condition.  By using that word, the writer is admitting he struggles with pessimism.  He admits that when it comes to his mind, he tends to think of the negative rather than the positive.  He is the negative Ned who always sees the coming storm rather than the cool summer breeze blowing in his face.  He sees the empty shelves rather than the full pantry.  The pessimist is a killer of the zeal of others.  He cannot be optimistic.  What makes the above observation even worse is our writer projects his pessimism on God.  It would be one thing to see only the worst in God’s creation.  Sinful mankind has destroyed all that God made good.  But to project pessimism on the LORD takes negativity to a whole new and dangerous level.  What our writer does do is he will not allow his infirmity to dictate his life.  Rather than dwell on the negative and make it personal towards God, he changes his thinking.

A story is told of a small group of teenage campers who were lost in the vast wilderness of a national park.  They had gone on a camping trip with a couple of adult leaders.  These leaders took these boys off the beaten path into parts of the wilderness never touched by man.  Their trip was to last two weeks.  They had enough food to last about a third of that time and their plan was to catch and harvest their needs on their own.  They trapped and fished to meet their needs.  Their leaders taught them what was edible and what was poisonous.  Then tragedy struck.  While on a hike to a new site, the lead adult was bitten several times by a poison snake.  The other adult, coming to his rescue didn’t realize the severity of the situation and was bitten as well.  Within hours, both adult leaders were gone.  The boys knew they were in a pickle.  They had no idea where they were.  They never learned how to read a topo map.  In a panic, they began to hike in the direction from which they thought they had come.  What should have taken just a few days began to take a week.  When they were no closer to rescue and more time in the woods than they should have been, the reality of their situation began to sink in.  Along the way, they met with much adversity.  Not making a priority of water over shelter, they went two days before they found a source.  Having descended into a gorge, they quickly realized there was no quick way out.  They had to follow that gorge for over a day before they could get out.  Along the way, they had food shortages, water shortages, sprained muscles, cuts, bruises, and countless arguments.  But they made it through.  It took two months to finally figure out how to get back to civilization.  When asked how they managed to keep up good spirits and continue through the adversity, the eldest said that each night, regardless of what had happened that day, each boy would share something that happened that day to their advantage.  By dwelling on the good rather than the bad, they were able to stay united and with hope in their hearts.

Pessimism is a dangerous disease of the heart.  It is like a cancer that eats away at the soul.  It saps life.  It robs joy.  It darkens hope.  It strangles faith.  Pessimism is the seed of murmuring and complaining.  Pessimism is what lazy people do with their brains.  Pessimism relies solely on what is easily discerned.  It sees what is and what may be.  What pessimism cannot do is dwell on what cannot be seen.  Pessimism has a very short memory.  It forgets the great things of the past because the present seems dark.  It has a way of erasing all that is good because it refuses to see a balanced view of life.  Our writer is quick to share with us the cure for pessimism.  When he begins to feel things are bad and that God does not care, he recollects all that God did in the past.  He remembers as dark as today might be, there were times in the past when it was just as dark.  Yet God was faithful and got him through it.  The pessimist writer, rather than doubt God’s grace, rehearse it.  He remembers that one time in the life of his nation, they were in bondage and despitefully used.  He remembers they were on the brink of extinction several times, yet God met them and delivered them.  There were times of hopelessness, yet God was there.  His cure for pessimism was a good memory; remembering that no matter how he feels or what he thinks he is seeing, God has not changed and will come again.