Fathers

Psalms 77

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I cried unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice; and he gave ear unto me. In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord: my sore ran in the night, and ceased not: my soul refused to be comforted. I remembered God, and was troubled: I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Selah. Thou holdest mine eyes waking: I am so troubled that I cannot speak. I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times. I call to remembrance my song in the night: I commune with mine own heart: and my spirit made diligent search. Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more? Is his mercy clean gone for ever? doth his promise fail for evermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah. And I said, This is my infirmity: but I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High. I will remember the works of the LORD: surely I will remember thy wonders of old. I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings. Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary: who is so great a God as our God? Thou art the God that doest wonders: thou hast declared thy strength among the people. Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah. The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they were afraid: the depths also were troubled. The clouds poured out water: the skies sent out a sound: thine arrows also went abroad. The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven: the lightnings lightened the world: the earth trembled and shook. Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known. Thou leddest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

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What the Fathers say

Psalms 77:2

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

"In the day of tribulation I have sought out God" (ver. 2). Who art thou that doest this thing? In the day of thy tribulation take heed what thou seekest out. If a jail be the cause of tribulation, thou seekest to get forth from jail: if fever be the cause of tribulation, thou seekest health: if hunger be the cause of tribulation, thou seekest fulness: if losses be the cause of tribulation, thou seekest gain: if expatriation be the cause of tribulation, thou seekest the home of thy flesh. …

Exposition on Psalm 77 ↗

Jerome

With my hands by night before him: and I was not deceived. In the Hebrew it reads otherwise: "My hand is stretched out by night, and does not rest." With my hands by night before him. Understand: I cried out. See, then, that our very works cry out to the Lord while we ourselves are silent. Therefore it is said: "The word of the Lord came in the hand of the prophet Aggeus." It does not come to him in his mouth, that is, in speech, but in his hand, that is, in work. …

Homily 10, on Psalm 76 ↗

Bonaventure

In the second place, a saint's life must be pure, that is, everything must be done out of love for God, and not out of love for something else, since all love is suspect if it is not addressed to God. That is why Augustine — and also Bernard in a letter to a certain monk — write that the apostles' love for the bodily Christ prevented the coming of the Spirit. What of other forms of love addressed to creatures? "My soul refuses comfort."

Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 19 ↗