I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, and he will hear me.
Psalm 77 begins with a man in trouble who does not keep it inside — he lifts his voice to God, and God listens. The verses that follow go back over the darkness he passed through. So the opening line is the point he reached, not the mood he started in.
The singer and the setting
The heading names both the writer and the musician the psalm was handed to.
Morrish Bible DictionarySon of Berechiah, a Levite, and one of David's chief musicians; he is also called the king's seer. Psalms 39, 62 and 77 are inscribed to him.
A cry is not a wish
The verse does not describe a quiet wish. Crying out loud to God says something about the state of the one who cries.
J. N. DarbyHe cried with his voice to God, and God gave ear to him. To cry with the voice is more than to have a wish. A cry expresses weakness and dependence. It is the soul turning to God and referring itself to God. It even expresses an upright heart. In the day of trouble, it was not just complaint, irritation and anger; it was "I sought the Lord."
Crying out, or talking to yourself
The psalm sets two things side by side: crying out to God, and talking things over with your own heart. Only one of them helps.
J. N. DarbyNotice the difference between "crying with the voice" and "communing with one's own heart." Crying with the voice is the point of this Psalm. It brings in God instead of the workings of anxiety... When we bring in God by this cry, we find that we were judging from our own heart and not from God. That is a foolish mistake, and one that must come from unbelief. So we see the importance of a real, actual cry to God, in faith.
The assurance comes first in the telling
Verse 1 states the answer before the reader has been told the problem. Writers treat this as deliberate: the psalm opens with its conclusion, then works backwards.
Numerical Bible NotesIn the first part we have the occasion of the question. But the assurance comes first: the psalmist's cry to God has been answered. He then points out how the question that was troubling him had arisen. As usual, it was an outward difficulty that produced the inward perplexity. We take other people's difficulties calmly enough, until they become our own.
Some writers quote this line in the past tense — "He heard me." The ESV points forward: "he will hear me."
Another writer explains why the psalm runs backwards like this.
J. N. DarbyHis first thought was whether the Lord would cast off for ever. Here he is going through the process which led to the statements of the first verses.
What the crying man was actually like
The verses right after this one are crowded with the word "my," and one writer draws a sober conclusion about who tends to end up in this state.
F. B. HoleHow many of us have had an experience like Asaph? The easy-going, the worldly-minded among believers are not troubled in this way. They are not keen enough to be well pleasing to the Lord, and not earnest enough to face things. These distresses fall on the careful and conscientious believer. They are the ones who look inside their own hearts, and they grieve at what they find.
No cry goes unheard
Whatever the psalmist felt afterwards, the hearing stands.
F. B. HoleIn Psalm 77 Asaph opens up to us the mental and spiritual difficulties he went through. It was a very depressing and trying time, and he goes back over it for us from the beginning. "I cried to God, with my voice, and He heard me." A saint never does cry to God without being heard.
Where the cry leads
The psalm does not stop with the answer. It takes the troubled man out of his own head and into God's presence, where he learns.
Hamilton SmithIn Psalm 77 the godly soul sees the failure of Israel. Yet God delivers him from the terrible thought that He has cast off the nation for ever, and that His promises and grace have failed. He learns in the sanctuary that, despite the failure of Israel, God has a "way" by which He secures His own glory and the blessing of His people.
Summary
- Cry — the verse is not a wish or a complaint but a cry: weakness owned, dependence expressed, the soul referred to God.
- Voice — crying out loud to God stands against talking things over with your own heart. One brings God in. The other leaves you judging Him by your own feelings.
- Heard — the psalm gives the answer before it describes the trouble, because God always hears a saint who cries to Him.
- Who — this distress falls on the earnest and conscientious believer, not the easy-going one. Grief at what you find inside is no sign that God has left.
- Where — the cry ends in the sanctuary. There the fear of being cast off dies, and the believer learns God's own way of blessing.