Did you ever lie in bed at night, unable to sleep filled with worries and anxiety? As the darkness of the night closed in upon you did a more intense blackness fill your heart and mind? Instead of quiet slumber was the air punctuated with your sobs and was pillow wet with your tears?

This was the experience of Asaph. This Psalm is the record of a spiritual crisis in his life where his faith was tested almost to breaking point.

Asaph was an honest man. There was a transparency in his character. In his deep and troubled reflections he was honest before God. He was also completely truthful in his relating of the details of this crisis. In the word of James Montgomery Boice in his his exposition – “He tells it is”.

This is helpful. As Christians we are not immune from dark thoughts, dangerous questions, emotional and psychological turbulence and failing faith. We too, like Asaph, can experience tears in the night.

These tears may arise as a result of our own sinfulness and failure. The years that the locusts have eaten consume and ravage the soul like a plague.

We may also weep because of betrayal at the hands of a trusted friend; one who like David’s friend had words smoother than butter yet the sword was drawn.

Our distress may be compounded by false accusations which threaten our character; the false witnesses that breathe out cruelty.

As serious illness and life begins to ebb out into the ocean of eternity forebodings settle upon the mind.

There is the inevitable pain of bereavement and loss; the ever present chair that is constantly empty.

As the crisis descends and deepens the words of Asaph ring true in our experience.

My sore ran in the night, and ceased not…(v2)

Thou holdest mine eyes waking: I am so troubled that I cannot (v4).

I call to remembrance my song in the night (v6)

In understanding this Psalm we will follow the plain route that others have taken. There are four natural sections which are identified by the “Selah”, which represents a pause.

THE INTENSITY OF HIS ANGUISH (v1-3)

my spirit was overwhelmed (v3)

The word “cry” (v1), according to Hebrew scholars carries the concept of a crash. Like a peal of thunder Asaph sobbed aloud with deep anguish. As the waves sweep in from the ocean on a stormy day spewing up the foam and breaking against the rocks, Asaph’s spirit was completely overwhelmed.

CH Spurgeon, the famous Victorian Baptist preacher whose sermons have been a blessing across the world, suffered from depressions of the mind and extreme debilitating pain in his body. His comments upon this third verse are not only poignant but personal:

He mused and mused but only sank the deeper. His inward disquietudes did not fall asleep as soon as they were expressed, but rather they returned upon him, and leaped over him like raging billows of an angry sea. It was not his body alone which smarted, but his noblest nature writhed in pain, his life itself seemed crushed into the earth. It is in such a case that death is coveted as a relief, for life becomes an intolerable burden. With no spirit left in us to sustain our infirmity, our case becomes forlorn; like a man in a tangle of briars who is stripped of his clothes, every hook of the thorns becomes a lancet, and we bleed with ten thousand wounds. Alas, my God, the writer of this exposition well knows what thy servant Asaph meant, for his soul is familiar with the way of grief. Deep glens and lonely caves of soul depressions, my spirit knows full well your awful glooms! “Selah.” Let the song go softly; this is no merry dance for the swift feet of the daughters of music, pause ye awhile, and let sorrow take breath between her sighs.

Despite the enormity of the crisis, however, Asaph did not forget the Lord. He cried to the Lord, he sought the Lord and he remembered the Lord. The deep sorrow and pain which he experienced, suffering that challenged his faith, instead of driving him to God, directed him to only One on whom he could rest.

In the midst of tears and sorrow, when our feelings are all at sea, we know that God will always give us His ear. Even when our faith has almost gone, we cling to Him broken and shaken, but He never will push us away.

THE QUESTIONS OF HIS SOUL (v4-9)

Will the Lord cast off forever?

Will he be favourable no more?

Is his mercy clean gone forever?

Doth his promise fail for evermore?

Hath God forgotten to be gracious?

Hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies?

(V7-9)

There are six questions in this segment of the Psalm. These questions posed by a man of God reveal the depth of this spiritual crisis. To Asaph, it felt as if God had turned his back in him. Grace and mercy, it seemed, had ebbed away as the child of God was shut up into the fearful anger of the holy one.

Such earnest and honest questions have been typical of God’s faithful people in every age. David in the Psalm 22, felt prophetically what Christ Himself would experienced as the darkness of our guilt settled upon His soul:

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent. (Psalm 22:1-2).

Mary and Martha, the devoted sisters, were plagued by such doubts as their laid Lazarus to rest in his cold tomb:

Lord, if thou hadst been here my brother had not died (John 10:32)

In a moment she is a suppliant at His feet. Doubt and faith and prayer mingle in the exclamation, “Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died!” [12] That she had faith and assured confidence in the love and tenderness of Jesus we cannot question. But a momentary feeling of unbelief (shall we say, of reproach and upbraiding?) mingled with better emotions. “Why, Lord,” seemed to be the expression of her inner thoughts, “wert Thou absent? It was unlike Thy kind heart. Thou hast often gladdened our home in our season of joy—why this forgetfulness in the night of our bitter agony? Death has torn from us a loved brother—the blow would have been spared—these hearts would have been unbroken—these burning tears unshed, if Thou hadst been here!” (JR McDuff)

In the case of Asaph, however, as with Mary and Martha the questions were part of the healing. They arose out of love and faith. God turning His back and neglecting His mercy appears so out of character. What is the reason? How can this be? Therefore Asaph considers God’s works in the past, the many examples of His faithfulness and He makes a diligent search. The questions are painful but they must be answered if He is to enjoy peace. And so unable to speak he comes to God with the silent questions of a broken soul

THE CONCLUSION OF HIS HEART (v10-15)

Thou art the God that doest wonders: thou hast declared thy strength among the people. (V14)

Suddenly light begins to shine – “ this is my infirmity”. The struggles of faith have been born in a heart that is weak and fragile. This revelation brings Asaph out of his introspection. Escaping from the bondage of self He looks up and sees the face of God “I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High”.

Suddenly Asaph sees everything in a new light because he has ceased fighting with self and he has begun to trust. He says “I will remember”, “I will meditate” and “I will talk”. God becomes the renewed focus of his life.

He learns that God has not forgotten His mercies nor will He be neglectful of His promises:

Thou canst forget our iniquities…but thou canst no more forget to be gracious, than thou canst cease to be thyself (Joseph Hall).

As Asaph meditates upon God he sees His way in the sanctuary. He is directed to the altar and the place of sacrifice, where atonement is made. As Asaph saw understood the Lord through worship He cried out “who is so great a God as our God”.

The change in spirit is seismic. Where once Asaph was questioning everything in the depth and darkness of total despair he was now acknowledging God is His God. His heart was settled.

Only a vision of Christ on the cross bearing our sins will give us peace and rest in the midst of life’s pains. Christ our Saviour calms every troubled heart. Burdens are lifted at Calvary.

Worship directs us to Christ, and Christ is the rest for our souls.

THE FAITHFULNESS OF HIS GOD (v16-20)

Thou leddest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron (v20)

Asaph learns in conclusion that God is in the rumbling thunder and the flashing lightening. He makes a path through the sea leading His people like a flock.

The very things that he feared and which troubled Him were clouds packed full of blessing. So it is with us. This is a lesson which must be remembered. God is present in the darkest of circumstances.

It is indeed a comforting assurance in all trials, that God has some holy and wise end to subserve. He never stirs a ripple on the waters, but for His own glory, or the good of others. (JR McDuff)

Sometimes the Lord’s sheep are lost and they stray. On other occasions they are under attack from fierce predators. But they remain the Lord’s sheep. The Shepherd never fails.