It’s common to read the Bible and feel frustrated or disappointed that the world you see in the pages of Scripture doesn’t seem to be the same world you live in. God seems so active in the Bible, but so absent in our experience.

In Psalm 77, Asaph is aware of the feeling, and what’s noteworthy here is the way he works through it. There’s one particular word in verse 5 (ESV verse 4) I want to draw attention to נִפְעַמְתִּי (ESV: “I am troubled”). This verb (פעם) occurs five times in the Hebrew Bible, and in every occurrence the context has to do with the LORD “stirring” or “troubling” a person, often at night, as preparation for the supernatural. When people experience פעם, God is about to do something supernatural in the their experience.

Trouble before the Supernatural

In Genesis 41:8, Pharaoh’s spirit is troubled (פעם) in the night because of his dream. This dream and “troubling” leads to Joseph’s supernatural interpretation and exaltation. In Judges 13:8, the Spirit of the LORD began to trouble (פעם) Samson just before the Spirit’s supernatural manifestation in Samson’s life. In Daniel 2:1 and 2:3, Nebuchadnezzar’s spirit is troubled (פעם), leading to Daniel’s Joseph-like, supernatural interpretation and exaltation. When people experience פעם, God is about to do something supernatural in and through them.

Asaph’s Trouble

This brings us to Psalm 77:4/5. Asaph is upset. He seeks the LORD and reaches out to him in the night, but there seems to be no response. He won’t turn to other sources of comfort (“my soul refused to be comforted,” verse 3/2) because he seems to know that the LORD is the one who “holds open his eyelids” (Ps 4:4/5). God is up to something in the night, and this is where we encounter פעם.

Asaph is “troubled” and refuses to speak (נִפעַמְתִּי וְלֹא אֲדַבֵּר). Like the instances of פעם above, supernatural help is coming, but what’s especially noteworthy here is the way supernatural revelation and help comes to Asaph. He resolves to consider “the days of old” (Ps 4:6/5).

Supernatural Help via Words

Initially, his situation doesn’t change. Just like Asaph was uncomfortable and desperate in verses 1–3 so also in verses 4–9. Nevertheless, he continues to reflect on the deeds of the LORD, his work in the distant past.

I will mumble over your work and whisper your mighty deeds. (Psalm 77:13/12).

He voiced his grief to the LORD, he was troubled (פעם), and this leads to supernatural help in the form of meditating on God’s work and rehearsing his supernatural work. In the rest of Psalm 77 and the next few psalms, Asaph talks to himself about God’s grace, from creation, to the Exodus, to God’s promises to David.

Asaph’s “trouble” (פעם) in Psalm 77:5/4, led to supernatural help even as his situation seems unchanged externally. There’s plenty of lament and cries for help in the psalms that follow Psalm 77, but by the time we reach Psalm 78:1–2, Asaph is explicitly talking like a prophet. The Spirit of God is working in him and flowing through him:

Give ear, my people, to my Torah! Stretch out your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth with proverbs. I will pour forth hidden things from of old. (Psalm 78:1–2)

As you keep reading, you see that his prophetic speech continues to be focused on God’s work from the distant past to the time of David (78:70–72).

Our Unprecedented Access

In Psalm 77, Asaph shows us that God can and does provide supernatural help — he acts supernaturally — as we meditate on his works of old. If this was possible for Asaph and ancient Israel, if they could receive God’s supernatural help in this way, how much greater access do we have to God’s supernatural help today. We have Bibles literally falling off our shelves — Smyth sewn, bound codices full, from cover to cover, with written accounts of the mighty deeds of Yahweh. Psalm 77 says his presence hovers over the words and concepts on these pages.

On this side of Christ’s advent, death, resurrection, ascension, and the gift of the Spirit, we have unprecedented access to the supernatural presence and power of God. If only he would help us believe this, put away other sources of comfort (like Asaph), and linger over the pages of Scripture, where we can follow the psalmists’ lead.

Blessed is the man … whose delight is in the Torah of Yahweh and about his Torah he mumbles day and night. (Psalm 1:1–2).