"Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more? Is his mercy clean gone for ever? doth his promise fail for evermore? 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. I will remember the works of the LORD: surely I will remember thy wonders of old.” [Psa 77:7-11]

Asaph, a man who wrote a few Psalms, speaks of his troubles and pains in Psalm seventy-seven. Very grievously affected, he wrote, “I the day of my trouble I sought The Lord: my sore ran in the night, and ceased not: my soul refused to be comforted.” [Psa 77:2] Very broken in spirit and heart, Asaph lamented his doleful condition, even saying, “I remembered God, and was troubled…I am so troubled that I cannot speak.” [Psa 77:3, 4] He felt as though God did not hear him nor care, and his troubled flesh and heart refused comfort. Evidently, this was not an uncommon situation for this poor saint; for he wrote in another Psalm, regarding his devotion to God in light of the wicked who prosper in this world, “verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency.” [Psa 73:13] Due to the prosperous world around him who gave no heed to God, and his present distress, though devoted to God, for a moment he thought it worthless. But as with there, so too here in the seventy-seventh Psalm: Asaph, through entering into God’s sanctuary, came to the correct conclusion and made regret of his former disposition. Of the former, He wrote,

“When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me; until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end…So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee.” [Psa 73:16-17, 22]

And presently, in our passage, coming to a godly conclusion, He writes, “and I said, this is my infirmity: but I will remember the years of the right hand of the most high.” [Psa 77:10] And also, “thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary.” [Psa 77:13]

Asaph’s struggles, though perhaps very poignant for him in the moment, have become great encouragement and admonitions for us. For we see, through his situation, where good attitudes have their root. See that Asaph’s conditions: great affliction and great lack, and to boot – in the face of prospering and unrighteous men, were first met by him with great struggles. He lamented his pursuit of God and thought truly that God had totally forgotten him: that God was ignorant of his pleas or his troubles, that God had “forgotten to be gracious” or even “in anger shut up His tender mercies.” But alas, these conclusions were based on Asaph’s infirmity, or weakness. The weakness of his flesh and heart brought him to these conclusions. But after he sought God and entered into the sanctuary, his vision was restored as it were and he was able to see clearly. Praise be to God, for as he also writes through The Spirit, “my flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.” [Psa 73:26]

Let us take example from Asaph and leave off that ugly and low road to begin with. May we not look at lack, necessity, affliction, or loss with anger, disappointment, or contention; but rather, let us remember who God is and what He has done, let us enter into His sanctuary and receive correct and good perspective regarding our situation, whatsoever it may be. Let us take heed to God’s encouragement, “Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for The LORD will do great things.” [Joel 2:21]