One Pilgrim’s Lack Of Progress

Psalm 77:1-12

For Jeduthun, the choir director: A psalm of Asaph.

1I cry out to God without holding back.

Oh, that God would listen to me!

2When I was in deep trouble,

I searched for the Lord.

All night long I pray, with hands lifted toward heaven, pleading.

There can be no joy for me until he acts.

3I think of God, and I moan,

overwhelmed with longing for his help.

Interlude

4You don’t let me sleep.

I am too distressed even to pray!

5I think of the good old days, long since ended,

6when my nights were filled with joyful songs.

I search my soul and think about the difference now.

7Has the Lord rejected me forever?

Will he never again show me favor?

8Is his unfailing love gone forever?

Have his promises permanently failed?

9Has God forgotten to be kind?

Has he slammed the door on his compassion?

Interlude

10And I said, “This is my fate,

that the blessings of the Most High have changed to hatred.”

11I recall all you have done, O LORD;

I remember your wonderful deeds of long ago.

12They are constantly in my thoughts.

I cannot stop thinking about them.

Often when believers fall into doubt, it is not really God they are doubting but themselves. They know that God reigns in heaven, but they also know how weak and worldly they are. So they begin to doubt that they are still in God’s favor. Perhaps you know the feeling.

John Bunyan, the seventeenth-century preacher who wrote The Pilgrim’s Progress, was not immune to such doubts. In fact, he detailed them in his autobiography. He went through a period of more than two years when he felt very far from God. He was acutely aware of his own sin and discouraged by his inability to lead a righteous life. The words of Psalm 77 kept invading his mind: “Has the Lord rejected me forever? Will he never again show me favor?”

But then one day, walking through a field and worrying as always, Bunyan suddenly had a new thought: “Your righteousness is in heaven.” He realized that God didn’t require any more righteousness from him, because Jesus was his righteousness. Bunyan walked home rejoicing and living “at peace with God through Christ.”

Yes, Psalm 77 puts into words the thoughts of many worried believers (Bunyan called it one of the “dreadful Scriptures”). But don’t get stuck at the “Interlude” after verse 9. Go on to review the great acts of God in history and in your life. He isn’t finished with you yet.

He who ‘mid the raging billows walked upon the sea

Still can hush our wildest tempest, as on Galilee;

He who wept and prayed in anguish in Gethsemane,

Drinks with us each cup of trembling, in our agony.

Yesterday, today, forever, Jesus is the same.

A. B. SIMPSON

Notable Quotable

“Melancholy and depression are apt at putting questions but faith has an answer ready.”

F. B. MEYER