Psalm 77
Psalm 77 traces the spiritual journey from grief to praise, through awe at the power of God’s creation. At the beginning, we wail together, we refuse to be comforted. Unconsoled, we turn to prayer. The NRSV tells us “I commune with my heart in the night.” (v. 6) Who has not tossed and turned in the middle of the night, praying (or wrestling, or raging) with just the depths of our own hearts for company? It is often in these dark nights that we kill the God that does not serve us, the God who does not accompany us into freedom.
From this sacred listening, the Psalmist turns us to the long arc of history, tracing God’s faithfulness in accompanying our spiritual ancestors. God’s creation aligns itself with the work of liberation: “The clouds poured out water; the skies thundered… Your way was through the sea, your path, through the mighty waters; yet your footprints were unseen. You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.” (v. 17-20)
The Psalmist’s journey from personal grief to collective liberation reads like a CliffNotes version of Job. Gustavo Gutierrez describes the Book of Job as a “circling movement into deeper insight” on the presence of God amidst the suffering of the innocent (On Job, 93). He traces Job’s journey from private grief to public proclamation, as Job connects his own suffering and grief to that of others who have experienced immense injustice.
Gutierrez closes his book with this encouragement to other religious leaders: “Only if we know how to be silent and involve ourselves in the suffering of the poor will we be able to speak out of their hope.” (102) This journey is a necessary one even if it is not easy. We would all like to grow in wisdom and in freedom without communing with our grief at night. But the Psalmist encourages us: Through this doorway is suffering, yes, but also great joy and liberation.
Rev. Jay Bergen is a pastor at Germantown Mennonite Church in Philadelphia, and a volunteer organizer with the Coalition to Abolish Death By Incarceration (CADBI), a campaign fighting to end life sentences and heal communities across Pennsylvania.