Psalm 77:10 And I said, This is my infirmity: but I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High. That the right hand of the Highest hath changed. It is as if the psalmist were saying, "All this that I have been asking myself, and saddening myself with asking, seems impossible, and yet it is this very possibility of change in God toward me which so sorely perplexes and distresses me." "This is my sorrow, the changing of the right hand of the Most High." Do we not all feel that, if God be changed, then indeed the "whole foundation rocks"? We build our hopes on this - "He abideth the same, and his years are throughout all generations." As the psalmist gradually comes to a better mind, he feels that his sorrow was really his infirmity, and in some sense his shame. No man can expect to be free from experience of mental distress; the question is - Shall we give way to it, or shall we resist it? Here, in this psalm, we may find two things. I. A MAN - A GOOD MAN - DISPOSED TO TAKE DESPONDENT VIEWS. And there is always a self-strand in the spirit of the despondent. They keep too much in the self-sphere, looking within rather than "off unto Jesus." This man took despondent views: 1. Of life generally. We call those who put this tone on their reading of life pessimists - men who can always see the "dark sides," and make "dark sides" when there are none to see. It is partly a nervous, anxious disposition, and may often be wisely dealt with as disease, whose cure may be found in abundance of God's sweet sunshine, and the good cheer of pleasant human friendship. 2. Of their present circumstances. Some people always wear "smoked spectacles," and so nothing is bright to their view. 3. Of God's dealings with them. They think so much more of the things, than of the love and wisdom that devise, arrange, and adapt them. Things are always variable; the love and the wisdom are always the same. The sea down below is always heaving and tossing; the heavens up above are always steadfast. There is variety in God's working, but no variety in him. II. A MAN - A GOOD MAN - WHO SETS HIMSELF TO FIND A REMEDY FOR HIS DESPONDENCY. He resists the disposition to doubt, and will not let it get the mastery over him. He sets himself upon thinking well over two things. 1. His own frailty. He suspects that what he seems to see may be in himself. It may be like the tiny insect in the astronomer's telescope, that seemed to show a huge creature eating up the moon. It is well always to suspect imperfection in our vision when doubts distress. 2. God's power and purpose. If he cannot see these in his own small sphere, he can see them in the large spheres of the history of God's Church. This is absolutely certain - God works for ends of blessing, and God is able to accomplish that which he purposes. - R.T. Parallel Verses KJV: And I said, This is my infirmity: but I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High.WEB: Then I thought, "I will appeal to this: the years of the right hand of the Most High." |
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