Learning to Pray:
Psalm 77 is a powerful lesson in prayer.
Though the Psalm refers to the struggles of the nation of Israel as a whole, many of us identify with it because we do not understand the reason behind our trials and we are tempted to believe that God has irrevocably turned His back on us.
The Psalmist chooses to pray not based on the sadness of the immediate situation but to take hope in the known reality of God’s choice to free Israel from bondage, give Israel His Word, and promise them good if whenever they repent and pray.
The decisive act of grace to which the Psalmist looks is Israel’s liberation from Egypt and the crossing of the Red Sea. There, many future Rabbi’s (including the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:1-13) see the adoption and baptism of Israel as God’s own child and heir. (It should go without saying that the promises given to the Israelites then have been confirmed to us by none other than Jesus Christ Himself as Paul states in 2 Corinthians 1:20).
This Psalmist teaches us to pray based on what we do know of God – the merciful promises He has revealed to us, not to pray based on things that cannot be known. Deuteronomy 29:29 tells us as much…
“The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.”
In our struggles, we like the Psalmist should pray based not on what we CANNOT KNOW WITHOUT DIVINE REVELATION (i.e. what is the ultimate reason behind this turn of events in our lives) but based on what we CAN KNOW BY DIVINE REVELATION!
We pray based on God’s Promises to those who trust Him! We pray based on His Mercy revealed not only through the Red Sea (as the Psalmist did) but on the grounds of a New Exodus, a New Beginning, accomplished in Jesus Christ through His death and resurrection
