Bible Discussion Thread

Psalm 77.

This Psalm seems to indicate illness of Asaph much like in David's Psalms (particularly in verses 9 through 10); but also discusses the works of old when Moses led his people by God's help from verse 11 through the end of the Psalm. Certainly; we could see some themes intersecting both his personal situation and the national one which reflects writings such as Lamentations which describes the horrors of God's judgment during the Babylonian invasion and subsequent captivity with the starvation of the people in particular.

The "days of old" in verse 5 also could be used in a broader sense to future time periods such as the intertestamental period. There was also the time of the Judges when generally there wasn't much organized worship and or righteous kings. Whether past reflections or future prophecy it is clear that there have been repeated patterns of deliverance and temporary obedience followed by long periods of decline and then another brief burst of repentance among the people. We could certainly find some similarity in the dispensation of the church age when things started off with a "bang"; then there were long periods of time in the Middle Ages and of course in recent years when there was great decay overall in the Body of Christ.

We can look to "righteous Lot" ( 2 Peter 2:7) as an example of a sort of half hearted righteous man who sort of was saved through the fire in a literal and figurative sense.

The fact that God uses all things for our good including the terrible judgments of the end times certainly doesn't diminsh from the suffering of God's people which is particularly intense when foreknowledge of such events makes keeping silent being like fire in his bones ( Jeremiah 20:9). God Himself is also pained as the book of Hosea states in judgment of Ephriam in chapter 11 verses 8-11. The prophets would feel this pain as the Spirit moved them. Again this shows Asaph was prophetic even though he is only found in Psalms.