Psalm 77:2

In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord: my sore ran in the night, and ceased not: my soul refused to be comforted.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(2) My sore ran . . .—The text of this verse is evidently faulty. As it stands it is unintelligible. My hand was poured out and grew not dull (like a corpse).

The LXX. and Vulg. have, “with my hands against Him, and I was not deceived,” pointing to a different reading. Symmachus has, however, “my hand was stretched out,” which may be a possible meaning of the Hebrew, though a comparison with Lamentations 3:49 (comp. Lamentations 2:18) suggests that eye was written instead of hand. The Authorised Version’s sore comes from the Rabbins, who thought of the hand beating the breast, and rendered, “my blows were poured out.” Though the probable text may be beyond recovery, the feeling of the verse is quite palpable. It expresses the anguish of the poet’s soul—

“His vows in the night, so fierce and unavailing,

Stings of his shame and passion of his tears.”

Benson Commentary

Psalm 77:2. In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord — Being afflicted, he prayed, James 5:13, and being in an agony he prayed the more fervently: he cried unto God. He did not apply to the diversion of business, or of any recreation, that he might by that means shake off his trouble; but he had recourse to God in prayer, and sought his favour and grace. In this he is an example for our imitation. When under any trouble, and especially trouble of mind for sin, we must apply to God and spread our case before him. We must not endeavour to get rid of our trouble some other way, but must entreat him to remove it by lifting up the light of his countenance upon us. This, and only this, will give us peace of mind, and put joy and gladness into our hearts. My sore ran — Hebrew, ידי נגרה, jadi ah, my hand flowed, or poured forth, that is, was spread abroad, or stretched out to God in prayer and ceased not. — So Hammond, Patrick, Waterland, and Houbigant. In the night — Which to others was a time of rest and refreshment, but to me of sorrow and distress. My soul refused to be comforted — Without a gracious answer from God, and an assurance that he had not cast me off, but was again reconciled to me, Psalm 77:7-9. Till I should obtain this, I rejected all those consolations which either my friends or my own mind suggested.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

77:1-10 Days of trouble must be days of prayer; when God seems to have withdrawn from us, we must seek him till we find him. In the day of his trouble the psalmist did not seek for the diversion of business or amusement, but he sought God, and his favor and grace. Those that are under trouble of mind, must pray it away. He pored upon the trouble; the methods that should have relieved him did but increase his grief. When he remembered God, it was only the Divine justice and wrath. His spirit was overwhelmed, and sank under the load. But let not the remembrance of the comforts we have lost, make us unthankful for those that are left. Particularly he called to remembrance the comforts with which he supported himself in former sorrows. Here is the language of a sorrowful, deserted soul, walking in darkness; a common case even among those that fear the Lord, Isa 50:10. Nothing wounds and pierces like the thought of God's being angry. God's own people, in a cloudy and dark day, may be tempted to make wrong conclusions about their spiritual state, and that of God's kingdom in the world. But we must not give way to such fears. Let faith answer them from the Scripture. The troubled fountain will work itself clear again; and the recollection of former times of joyful experience often raises a hope, tending to relief. Doubts and fears proceed from the want and weakness of faith. Despondency and distrust under affliction, are too often the infirmities of believers, and, as such, are to be thought upon by us with sorrow and shame. When, unbelief is working in us, we must thus suppress its risings.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord - Compare the notes at Psalm 50:15. This trouble may have been either mental or bodily; that is, it may have arisen from some form of disease, or it may have been that which sprang from difficulties in regard to the divine character, government, and dealings. That it "assumed" the latter form, even if it had its beginning in the former, is apparent from the following verses. Whether it was connected with any form of bodily disease must be determined by the proper interpretation of the next clause in this verse.

My sore ran in the night - Margin, "My hand." It is evident that our translators sup. posed that there was some bodily disease - some running sore - which was the cause of his trouble. Hence, they so rendered the Hebrew word. But it is now generally agreed that this is without authority. The Hebrew word is "hand" - יד yâd - a word which is never used in the sense of sore or wound. The Septuagint renders it, "my hands are before him." The Vulgate renders it in the same manner. Luther, "My hand is stretched out at night." DeWette, "My hand is stretched out at night unwearied." The word which is rendered in our version "ran" - נגר nâgar - means to "flow;" and, in Niphil, to be poured out, and then, "to be stretched out;" which is evidently its meaning here. The idea is, that his hand was stretched out in earnest supplication, and that this continued in the night when these troubles came most upon him. See Psalm 77:4, Psalm 77:6. In his painful meditations in the night. watches - in thinking on God and his ways, as he lay upon his bed, he stretched out his hand in fervent prayer to God.

And ceased not - The word used here - פוג pûg - means properly to be cold; then, to be torpid, sluggish, slack. Here it means that the hand did not become weary; it did not fall from exhaustion; or, in other words, that he did not give over praying through weariness or exhaustion.

My soul refused to be comforted - I resisted all the suggestions that came to my own mind, that might have comforted me. My heart was so melancholy and downcast; my spirits were so crushed; my mind was so dark; I had become so morbid, that I loved to cherish these thoughts. I chose to dwell on them. They had obtained possession of me, and I could not let them go. There was nothing that my own mind could suggest, there was nothing that occurred to me, that would relieve the difficulty or restore peace to my soul. These sad and gloomy thoughts filled all my soul, and left no room for thoughts of consolation and peace. A truly pious man may, therefore, get into a state of mind - a sad, dispirited, melancholy, morbid state - in which nothing that can be said to him, nothing that will occur to himself, will give him comfort and peace. Compare Jeremiah 31:15.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

2. his importunacy.

my sore ran … night—literally, "my hand was spread," or, "stretched out" (compare Ps 44:20).

ceased not—literally, "grew not numb," or, "feeble" (Ge 45:26; Ps 38:8).

my soul … comforted—(compare Ge 37:35; Jer 31:15).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

My sore ran: the hand in the Hebrew tongue, and Scripture use, is oft put for a blow or stroke given by the hand. Heb. My hand, or hands, (the singular number being frequently put for the plural,)

flowed or poured forth, i.e. spread abroad to God in prayer. This phrase he useth rather than were stretched out, which is frequent in like cases, to imply that his case was low and almost desperate, his spirits and strength quite gone, so that he was not able to stretch them out, as he had done.

In the night; which to others was a time of rest and quietness, but to me of torment.

My soul refused to be comforted; I rejected all those consolations which either my friends or my own mind suggested to me.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord,.... Not the creature, for help, and creature amusements to drive away trouble, but the Lord, in private, by prayer and supplication; a time of trouble is a time for prayer, James 5:13, all men have their trouble, but the people of God more especially; and there are some particular times in which they have more than usual, and then it may be said to be "a day of trouble" with them; which sometimes arises from themselves, the strength of their corruptions, the weakness of their graces, their backwardness to duties, or poor performance of them; sometimes from others, from the profaneness or persecutions of the men of the world, from the heretical notions or wicked lives of professors; sometimes from the temptations of Satan, and at other times from the Lord himself more immediately, by his withdrawing his presence from them, or by laying his afflicting hand upon them; but, let the trouble come from what quarter it may, it is always right to seek the Lord. Some think reference is had to the time of trouble mentioned in Daniel 12:1,

my sore ran in the night; my "stroke", or "wound" (i); so Kimchi interprets it; the wound that was made in his soul, and the pain and anguish, grief and trouble, which flowed from it; see Jeremiah 6:7 though the word may be literally rendered "my hand" (k); and the sense is, either that his hand flowed or was wet with wiping his eyes, or with the tears that flowed from his eyes, which ran down to his fingers' ends; so the Targum,

"in the night my eye dropped with tears;''

or rather that his hand was stretched out, as waters, that are poured out and run, are spread, that is, in prayer; the stretching out of the hand being a prayer gesture:

and ceased not; was not remiss and feeble, or was not let down, as Moses's, Exodus 17:11, it denotes the constancy of prayer, and his continuance in it; he prayed without ceasing:

my soul refused to be comforted: such was the greatness of his distress, like that of Jacob's and Rachel's, Genesis 37:35, it is right to refuse comfort and peace, which men speak to themselves upon the false foundation of their own merit and works; or any but what comes from the God of all comfort, and through Christ, in whom is all solid consolation, and by his Spirit, who is the Comforter; but it is wrong to refuse any that comes from hence, and by means of the promises, the word and ordinances and ministries of the Gospel, or Christian friends; this shows the strength of unbelief.

(i) "plaga mea", Pagninus, Muis. (k) "Manus mea", Montanus, Piscator, Gejerus, &c.

Geneva Study Bible

In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord: my sore ran in the night, and ceased not: my soul refused to be comforted.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

2. (Thus) in the day of my distress I sought the Lord:

My hand was stretched out in the night, and slacked not;

My soul refused to be comforted.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 2. - In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord (comp. Genesis 35:3; Habakkuk 3:16). My sore ran in the night; rather, my band was stretched out in the night (Cook, Cheyne, Revised Version); comp. Psalm 28:2. And ceased not. He continued in prayer all through the night. My soul refused to be comforted (comp. Genesis 37:35; Jeremiah 31:15). He was like Jacob when he lost Joseph, or like Rachel weeping for her children. Psalm 77:2

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The poet is resolved to pray without intermission, and he prays; fore his soul is comfortless and sorely tempted by the vast distance between the former days and the present times. According to the pointing, והאזין appears to be meant to be imperative after the form הקטיל, which occurs instead of הקטל and הקתילה, cf. Psalm 94:1; Isaiah 43:8; Jeremiah 17:18, and the mode of writing הקטיל, Psalm 142:5, 2 Kings 8:6, and frequently; therefore et audi equals ut audias (cf. 2 Samuel 21:3). But such an isolated form of address is not to be tolerated; והאזין has been regarded as perf. consec. in the sense of ut audiat, although this modification of האזין into האזין in connection with the appearing of the Waw consec. cannot be supported in any other instance (Ew. ֗234, e), and Kimchi on this account tries to persuade himself to that which is impossible, viz., that והאזין in respect of sound stands for ויאזין. The preterites in Psalm 77:3 express that which has commenced and which will go on. The poet labours in his present time of affliction to press forward to the Lord, who has withdrawn from him; his hand is diffused, i.e., stretched out (not: poured out, for the radical meaning of נגר, as the Syriac shows, is protrahere), in the night-time without wearying and leaving off; it is fixedly and stedfastly (אמוּנה, as it is expressed in Exodus 17:12) stretched out towards heaven. His soul is comfortless, and all comfort up to the present rebounds as it were from it (cf. Genesis 37:35; Jeremiah 31:15). If he remembers God, who was once near to him, then he is compelled to groan (cf. Psalm 55:18, Psalm 55:3; and on the cohortative form of a Lamed He verb, cf. Ges. ֗75, 6), because He has hidden Himself from him; if he muses, in order to find Him again, then his spirit veils itself, i.e., it sinks into night and feebleness (התעטּף as in Psalm 107:5; Psalm 142:4; Psalm 143:4). Each of the two members of Psalm 77:4 are protasis and apodosis; concerning this emotional kind of structure of a sentence, vid., Ewald, ֗357, b.