Psalms 77:5

Psa 77:5 I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times.

Ver. 5. I have considered the days of old] What thou didst for Adam, Abraham, Israel, in Egypt, &c., all which was written purposely, that we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope. See Deu 32:7.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Psa_77:5

I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times.

Lessons drawn from Scripture history

From the history of the Bible we may learn much concerning--

I. The character of God.

1. His wisdom.

2. His power.

3. His holiness and justice.

4. His goodness.

5. His faithfulness to His promises.

6. His unchangeableness.

II. The value of the blessings of redemption.

1. The greatness of the preparations made to obtain it.

2. The greatness of the sacrifice made to purchase it.

3. The greatness of the means used to proclaim it.

III. The condition, character, and fate of man.

1. In his natural state.

2. As redeemed.

(1) The way of salvation.

(2) The failings of the people of God.

(3) The sorrows and fears of the godly.

(4) The Christians reward. (W. Dickson.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Psa 77:5-6. I have considered the days of old — The mighty works of God, wrought for his people in former times, if by that means I could get any comfort. I call to remembrance my song in the night — The many and great mercies and favours of God vouchsafed to me and his people, which have obliged me to adore him and sing his praise, not only in the day, the time appointed for that work, but also by night, as often as they came into my mind. My spirit made diligent search — What should be the reason of this strange and vast alteration, and how this sore trouble could come from the hand of so gracious and merciful a God as ours is, and what might be expected as to its continuance or removal. “A recollection of former mercies is the proper antidote against a temptation to despair in the day of calamity: and as in the divine dispensations, which are always uniform and like themselves, whatever has happened may, and probably will, happen again when the circumstances are similar; the experience of ancient times is to be called in to our aid, and duly consulted. Upon these topics we should, in the night of affliction, commune with our own hearts, and make diligent search, as Daniel did in Babylon, into the cause of our troubles, with the proper methods of shortening and bringing them to an end; by suffering them to have their intended and full effect in a sincere repentance, and thorough reformation.” — Horne.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

6. (Psa 77:5). I thought on days of old, years of antiquities (or perpetuities.) The contrast of the present with the past is again urged as an aggravating circumstance in his condition.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Psalms Translated and Explained (1850) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Verse 5. I have considered the days of old] חשבתי chishshabti, I have counted up; I have reckoned up the various dispensations of thy mercy in behalf of the distressed, marked down in the history of our fathers.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

5. I have recounted the days of old. There is no doubt that he endeavored to assuage his grief by the remembrance of his former joy; but he informs us that relief was not so easily nor so speedily obtained. By the days of old, and the years of ancient times, he seems not only to refer to the brief course of his own life, but to comprehend many ages. The people of God, in their afflictions, ought, undoubtedly, to set before their eyes, and to call to their remembrance, not only the Divine blessings which they have individually experienced, but also all the blessings which God in every age has bestowed upon his Church It may, however, be easily gathered from the text, that when the prophet reckoned up in his own mind the mercies which God had bestowed in time past, he began with his own experience.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

5. I considered the days of old,

The years of ages past, (saying),

5. “Not pathetic only but profound also and of the most solid substance was that reply made by an old Carthusian monk to the trifler who asked him how he had managed to get through his life:—Cogitavi dies antiquos, et annos aeternos in mente habui.”

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I have considered the days of old,.... Either the former part of his life, the various occurrences of it, how it had been with him in time past, what experience he had had of the divine goodness; so the Syriac version renders it, "I have considered my days of old"; or the preceding age, and what has happened in that, which his ancestors had acquainted him with; or rather many ages past, from the days of Adam to the then present time; at least it may include the Israelites coming out of Egypt, their passage through the Red sea and wilderness, the times of the judges, and what befell them in their days, and how they were delivered out of their troubles; as appears from the latter part of the psalm, and with which agrees the following clause:

the years of ancient times; or, "of ages" (n); of times long ago past; it is very useful to read the history of the Bible, with respect to ancient times, and so the ecclesiastical history of ages past, and observe the faith and dependence of the Lord's people upon him, and their deliverance out of trouble by him; which may be a means of strengthening faith in him, and of relief under present trials; but frequently the goodness of former times is only observed as an aggravation of the badness of the present ones, and of trouble in them; see Ecc 7:10, the Targum interprets the whole of happy days and times, paraphrasing it thus,

"I have mentioned the good days which were of old, the good years which were of ages past.''

(n) "annos seculorum", Pagninus, Montanus, Musculus, Piscator, Cocceius, Gejerus.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

I have considered the days of old - Rather, “I do consider;” that is, “I think upon.” This refers to his resolution in his perplexity and trouble; the method to which he resorted in examining the subject, and in endeavoring to allay his troubles. He resolved to look at the past. He asked what was the evidence which was furnished on the subject by the former dealings of God with himself and with mankind; what could be learned from those dealings in regard to the great and difficult questions which now so perplexed his mind.

The years of ancient times - The records and remembrances of past ages. What is the testimony which the history of the world bears on this subject? Does it prove that God is worthy of confidence or not? Does it or does it not authorize and justify these painful thoughts which pass through the mind?

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

I have considered, if by that means I could get any comfort, the days of old, i.e. the mighty works of God done for his people in former times.

Days are put for events done in them, as Psa 37:13; 137:7; Oba 1:12; Mic 7:4.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ver. 5. I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times. If no good was in the present, memory ransacked the past to find consolation. She fain would borrow a light from the altars of yesterday to light the gloom of today. It is our duty to search for comfort, and not in sullen indolence yield to despair; in quiet contemplation topics may occur to us which will prove the means of raising our spirits, and there is scarcely any theme more likely to prove consolatory than that which deals with the days of yore, the years of the olden time, when the Lord's faithfulness was tried and proven by hosts of his people. Yet it seems that even this consideration created depression rather than delight in the good man's soul, for he contrasted his own mournful condition with all that was bright in the venerable experiences of ancient saints, and so complained the more. Ah, sad calamity of a jaundiced mind, to see nothing as it should be seen, but everything as through a veil of mist.

Whole Psalm. Whenever, and by whomsoever, the Psalm may have been written, it clearly is individual, not national. It utterly destroys all the beauty, all the tenderness and depth of feeling in the opening portion, if we suppose that the people are introduced speaking in the first person. The allusions to the national history may indeed show that the season was a season of national distress, and that the sweet singer was himself bowed down by the burden of the time, and oppressed by woes which he had no power to alleviate; but it is his own sorrow, not the sorrow of others under which he sighs, and of which he has left the pathetic record. J. J. Stewart Perowne.

Ver. 5. The days of old. Doubtless to our first parents the darkness of the first night was somewhat strange; persons who had never seen anything but the light of the day, when the shadows of the night first did encompass them, could not be without some apprehension: yet when at the back of a number of nights they had seen the day spring of the morning lights constantly to arise; the darkness of the blackest nights was passed over without fear, and in as great security, as the light of the fairest days. To men who have always lived upon land, when first they set to sea, the winds, waves, and storms are exceeding terrible; but when they are a little beaten with the experience of tempests, their fears do change into resolution and courage. It is of no small use to remember that those things which vex most our spirit, are not new, but have already been in times before our days. Robert Baylie's Sermon before the House of Commons. 1643.

Ver. 5-6. There are four rules for obtaining comfort in affliction.

I. The consideration of God's goodness to his people of

old.

II. Remembrance of our own past experience.

III. Self examination.

IV. The diligent study of the word. G. R.

Psalms 77:6*

Ver. 5-6. There are four rules for obtaining comfort in affliction.

I. The consideration of God's goodness to his people of

old.

II. Remembrance of our own past experience.

III. Self examination.

IV. The diligent study of the word. G. R.

Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

5. I have considered the days of old—I recount the providence of God toward the nation in ancient times, and contrast with that its present forsaken condition.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I have considered; rather, I considered. In my perplexity, when I could no longer speak, I betook myself to meditation. I considered the days of old, the years of ancient times. He called to mind, i.e., God"s doings in the past (comp. vers. 14-19).

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The days - The mighty works of God in former times.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

You held fast the awakenings of my eyes Heb. שמרות, an expression of the watch (אשמרת) of the night, for [when] a person awakens from his sleep his mind is settled and his heart returns to him, but I am not like that. In this night of exile, my eyes are always stuck together, like a man sleeping from a clogged heart, and in the troubles that I see, my spirit throbs and I have no speech within me.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.