Psalm 77:4-6 - August 3, 2009

Ps 77:4-6 “You kept my eyes from closing; I was too troubled to speak. 5 I thought about the former days, the years of long ago; 6 I remembered my songs in the night. My heart mused and my spirit inquired. " NIV

GOD IN THE NIGHT SEASONS! There is a consistent pattern throughout the scriptures of the Lord ministering to His people in the night hours. From Samuel hearing the voice of the Lord call him for the first time in I Sa. 3:4: to Abraham having a visitation in the night in Ge. 15:17, to Jacob dreaming of angels ascending and descending a ladder into heaven in Ge. 28:12 and on and on throughout the rest of the Word, God loves the night hours and has chosen them as a time when the heart of man is freed from the business of the day and is more readily responsive to the work of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes the Lord comes in a dream, other times an angel may come calling, still other times a voice speaking in the night or the hand of the Lord imparting a heavy burden upon the soul or stirring up thoughts that leave a lasting imprint upon the heart. Psalm 77:4-6 is a reflection that ponders just such a night season.
“You kept my eyes from closing…” In this passage the psalmist is remembering a night when the Lord would give Him no sleep. His heart is troubled to the point that he cannot express his feelings with words and yet he understands this pressure on his heart as something that has come from the Lord. He is not relating it to stress, anxiety or even too much caffeine; the psalmist sees the hand of God at work. How many times have we failed to recognize that it was not our problems keeping us awake, but rather the Holy Spirit seeking to awaken prayer within us? The Holy Spirit knows that the answers we crave are only released through pursuing God in prayer and yet too often when He is trying to awaken us and compel us into the presence of God to bring our burdens and needs before him we turn instead to the television set or to a sleeping aid of some kind to dull our senses. What could have been a breakthrough encounter with God is turned into just another restless night.
In Psalm 77:4-6 the psalmist’s heart is aching, remembering the former times when his experience with God was rich and fresh. In the Lord there are times and seasons. To walk with Him is not a stagnant ritual but a living relationship and the psalmist is remembering a season in his life that was rich with experience of God. The Father will at times touch us in deep and lasting ways that penetrate to the very center of our being and once you have tasted such an encounter it becomes the benchmark by which you tend to measure your current experiences. Once you have tasted of a deeper walk with the Lord, anything less just makes you long for more. This is the psalmist’s plight. He has had those opportunities to drink deeply of the presence of God. His heart has been moved by the song of the Lord breaking forth from the core of his being and now nothing else can truly satisfy in the same way. He has a heavenly addiction!
The psalmist’s response to this longing is a reflection of the very intention of the Lord. As he lies on his bed troubled by the great gap between his past experience in God and his present season of life it is stirring him to consider his ways, to ponder and question, seeking for the path back to a deeper life in God. The good news is the Holy Spirit is waiting. Even in our weakness we are always welcome with God. Even in our uncertainty the Father’s pleasure is to give us Himself. He stirs our hearts with longings for something more and then uses those stirrings to birth the very prayers that draw us back to God in truth. The questions that we ask in the night season expose to us the things that we have allowed to creep in and clutter our lives. This revelation begins the process of discovering that the Holy Spirit is still right here with us, waiting, whispering, calling us gently back to our first love. Come away with God today and be refreshed in your pursuit of Him. Let his whispers draw you home!