Psalm 77 – Your Footsteps Left No Trace

TEXT (Hebrew text at end)

1. For the leader: on Jeduthan.1 Of Asaph. A psalm.

2. My voice to God―I cried aloud; my voice to God―may He lend an ear to me.

3. In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord, my hand at night outstretched ceaselessly; my soul refused to be comforted.

4. I recall God and I moan; I speak2, and my spirit fails.      Selah.

5. You held my eyes open, I was overwrought; I could not talk.

6. I considered days of old, endless years past.

7. I recall my melodies by night; I speak with my heart; my spirit inquires,

8. “Will the Lord reject endlessly, never to show favor again?

9. Has His faithfulness vanished forever? Has He canceled [His] word for all time?

10. Has the Deity forgotten how to show pity? Has He in anger shut away His compassion?”     Selah.

11. I said3: 4-“It is my fault that the right hand of the Most High has changed.”-4 

12. I recall the acts of the LORD; indeed, I recall Your wonders of old;

13. I tell of all Your works; of Your acts I speak.

14. O God, Your way is in holiness; what deity is as great as God?

15. You are the Deity who does wonders; You have made Your strength known among the peoples.

16. With Your arm You redeemed Your people, the children of Jacob and Joseph.     Selah.

17. The waters saw You, O God; the waters saw You and were convulsed; truly the deep quaked.

18. Clouds poured out water; heavens gave forth voice. Your very arrows flew back and forth,

19. the voice of Your thunder in the wheelwork.5 Lightning bolts lit up the world; the earth quaked and shook.

20. Your way was through the sea and Your path through the mighty waters; but Your footsteps left no trace.6

21. You led Your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

Notes

1. Uncertain.

2. This term for “speak,” used in verses 7 and 9 as well, can also indicate mournful prayer.

3. Same root as “word” in verse 7.

4. Alternatively, either “This is my prayer: the renewal of the right hand of the Most High”; or “I am sick (recalling) the years of the right hand of the Most High”; or “This is my prayer: for the (renewal of) the years of the right hand of the Most High.”

5. Probable reference to heaven—see Ezekiel 10:2, 6.

6. Literally, “were not known,” same verb as verse15, and as Psalm 76:2.

COMMENTARY

Introduction

The courage to write Psalm 77 must have derived from the desperation of the time. Extreme circumstances gave birth to radical questioning. The poet bares a soul that is exposed and raw.

There are two sections in Psalm 77, the present and the past, and many commentators presume to add what the poem does not say, namely, that the poet discovers in the past a successful alternative to his unsuccessful attempt to find God in the present. The psalm itself, however, indicates the opposite: a chilling picture of a lost soul.

I first concentrate on the time of the psalm and the literary references employed. I then proceed to the two sections and their relationship and the radical contention of the psalm. I conclude with notes on the poetry.

A Psalm of Devastation—after the Destruction of the First Temple

For over a thousand years most commentators have understood that Psalm 77 was written in the shadow of the First Temple’s destruction. Through verse 10, the speaker reflects, on a personal level, the desolation of Israel after that tragedy of 586 BCE. With the capital ransacked, the people exiled, and God’s Temple destroyed, all seemed totally lost.

That calamity is also reflected in the five poems of Lamentations, and although the psalmist here takes a radically different approach, elements of that book echo in Psalm 77—the frequent emphasis on memory, certain terminology (e.g., compare v. 4 with Lam. 3:19), the representational role of the individual mourners in parts of Lamentations (where Chapter 3 also never mentions the destruction directly!), and the tone of the era: “Why have You forgotten us eternally, forsaken us for all time?” (Lam. 5:20). (I note that Psalm 77 has twenty-one verses, but if verses 18 and 19, each of three phrases, were originally three verses of two phrases each [an equally logical division—the current division is much later than the text], then the twenty-two verses would duplicate the model in Lamentations.)

A further literary indication of the time is the use of “Joseph and Jacob” to represent the two halves of Israel (v. 16), a usage also found in Obadiah (v. 18), a book from the same period. The second half of Psalm 77 also exhibits many parallels to Chapter 3 of Habakkuk, authored by a prophet who was evidently active right before the Temple’s destruction. (The parallels are clear enough to suggest borrowing. See Hab. 3:8, 10, 11, 15.)

Against this background, one understands the depth of the speaker’s desperation. When he says that his soul “refused to be comforted,” he utters a phrase used elsewhere only by parents mourning their absent children―Jacob and Rachel (Gen. 37:35; Jer. 31:15). Sensing the depression, Malbim says of verse 6 (“I consider days of old, endless years past”) that it is parallel to a person’s last moment on earth, when all his life passes before his eyes.

Two Other References

Psalm 77 makes extensive reference to two other biblical precedents. One is the list of God’s attributes (mercy, kindness, etc.) found in Exodus 34:6, which is an oft-cited section within the Bible (e.g., Joel 2:13; Jon. 4:2; Ps. 86:15; 103:8; 145:8). The terms involved are “faithfulness,” “pity,” and “compassion” (vv. 9, 10). There is tremendous irony here, considering what has happened and how the poet writes about God’s absence.

There are also many literary references to the Song of the Red Sea: “wonder,” “holy,” and “what deity,” verses 12, 14, 15 (see Exod. 15:11); “Your people” and “Your strength,” verse 15 (Exod. 15:13–14); and “You led Your people,” verse 21 (Exod. 15:13). There are other references to the Exodus in general: “your way,” verse 14 (Exod. 13:21); and “arm” and “redeemed,” verse 16 (Exod. 6:6), as well as the obvious “water,” “sea,” and “Moses.”

Moreover, several sections of the Bible use aggrandized storm descriptions to depict God’s appearance in history, as do verses 18 and 19 (see Ps. 18, 29, and 97:3–5).

A Search for Nonexistent Footprints

The reason for the speaker’s turn to the past in the second half of the psalm is unclear owing to the multiple meanings of verse 11 (see the translation above). However, whether it derives from guilt, hope, or desperation, a marked change does occur. (Recollection of the past had already been noted in verse 6.) After verse 14, the speaker (“I”), who dominated the first half, is not even mentioned. The present totally disappears, replaced by a tale of yesteryear. Miraculous salvation—primarily the Exodus—is described in ultimate terms.

Clearly, the relationship between its two halves is central to the psalm, which does not return to the present. (Some scholars suggest that the ending was lost!) Too many readers assume that the latter declaration of praise replaces the earlier pain of absence, even though the poem does not say so. In fact, the opposite is the case. As so often in Psalms, it is the surprise ending that ties things together.

“Your footsteps left no trace," declares verse 20. This is usually taken either as a further detail of the miracle (the waters returning after the Israelites crossed the Red Sea) or a glorious paradox of God's action which is sensed and not sensed (as in Psalm 19:2–3). I suggest that there is a third and vital level which does connect the first and second halves of the psalm. The overwhelming theophany is here summarized shockingly. The speaker confesses that all that he has written is a tradition for which he finds no proof in his own life. Not quite denying that it is true, he does deny that he has access, since the salvation was accomplished indirectly: “You led Your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.” Rather than replacing his feeling of being lost, the past, which was presented in the most grandiose terms, is dismissed as a source of certainty! Ironically, God is “known” among peoples, but leaves no discernible footsteps for His own people (vv. 15, 21).

Whoever first placed Psalms 76 and 77 next to one another in the Book of Psalms may have made an ironic comparison. The former, probably reflecting the time before the destruction, begins “Renowned [literally, known] in Judah is God.” Psalm 77 records that even His footsteps are not visible [again, literally, "known"].

For all this, Psalm 77 is less confrontational and accusing than other works. (See, e.g., Psalm 44 or the tone of much of Lamentations.) The psalmist’s questions are directed to himself, not to God. Alternatively, this may be seen as ultimately sad, if the speaker is only able to offer a non-directed call of pain because God’s perceived absence prevents even a dialogue of confrontation. Never quite denying the past guidance, he is adrift without an anchor. This is a torn soul who can tell of past salvation in the most magnificent terms, but does not find there the comfort or reassurance he seeks.

The Poetry of Psalm 77

Among the most striking characteristics of Psalm 77 is the identification of the individual with the national disaster. The reader becomes aware of this association slowly, since the first verses have little to indicate that the problem is anything but personal. The hint in verse 6 that the problem is national is reinforced only in verses 8–10, particularly with the references to God’s attributes. The second half, of course, seals the connection. As readers we are left to contemplate the solid bond of individual and nation.

There are a number of striking usages of language in Psalm 77. The first of three verses (8–10) about the eternity of God’s absence includes a wonderfully extraneous adverb: “never to show favor again,” emphasizing the desperation. The ambiguous metaphor of recalling “melodies” at night (v. 7) moves tantalizingly among three possible implications: happier songs of happier times, sarcastic songs used to taunt the speaker, and/or his ongoing obligation to sing and pray.

Some repetitions help set the tone of the poem. The “voice” of the speaker’s prayer is evidently meant to be drowned out in the “voice” of God’s thunder (vv. 2, 18, 19), a term that encloses the poem before the surprise ending. “Your way” (vv. 14, 20) encloses the survey of the past, also before the surprise ending. Four uses of “recall” (vv. 4, 7, 12) in the first half tend to reveal the speaker’s intention and psyche even before he turns to history.

Repetitions often emphasize change and contrast. Because God has canceled His “word,” the speaker offers his own (vv. 9, 11). The speaker tries to think of “generations” past, whereas God evidently has abandoned all future “generations” (vv. 6, 8). The two frustrating experiences of “speaking” to himself lead to the speaker’s attempt to “speak” about God’s acts (vv. 4, 7, 13).

There are occasional sound echoes. “Your wonders,” pilecha, echoes “Your works,” pa’alecha (vv. 12, 13). “Show pity,” chanot, is echoed in a term that has one of three meanings: “It is my fault,” “This is my prayer,” or “I am sick,” chaloti (vv. 10, 11—the ancient Hebrew “l” and “n” sounds were so close that they occasionally replaced one another in words with identical meaning). “Years” in verse 6 is either echoed or punned by a homonym in verse 11 (where that term, shnot, means either “years,” “changed,” or “renewal.”)

I have noted before that the first verse of a psalm often indicates its subject, which, in some cases, grows in import after reading the psalm. So it is with Psalm 77. The first verse, “My voice to God―I cry aloud; my voice to God―may He lend an ear to me” is not answered, and is thus reinforced, becoming in retrospect even more tragic.

The author of these essays is Rabbi Benjamin Segal, former president of the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem and author of The Song of Songs: A Woman in Love (Jerusalem: Gefen, 2009). This material is copyright by the author, and may not be reproduced. If you are interested in using the texts for study groups, please be in direct contact with the author, at psalmblog@gmail.com.

HEBREW TEXT

א) לַמְנַצֵּחַ עַל ידיתון {יְדוּתוּן} לְאָסָף מִזְמוֹר:

(ב) קוֹלִי אֶל אֱלֹהִים וְאֶצְעָקָה קוֹלִי אֶל אֱלֹהִים וְהַאֲזִין אֵלָי:

(ג) בְּיוֹם צָרָתִי אֲדֹנָי דָּרָשְׁתִּי יָדִי לַיְלָה נִגְּרָה וְלֹא תָפוּג מֵאֲנָה הִנָּחֵם נַפְשִׁי:

(ד) אֶזְכְּרָה אֱלֹהִים וְאֶהֱמָיָה אָשִׂיחָה וְתִתְעַטֵּף רוּחִי סֶלָה:

(ה) אָחַזְתָּ שְׁמֻרוֹת עֵינָי נִפְעַמְתִּי וְלֹא אֲדַבֵּר:

(ו) חִשַּׁבְתִּי יָמִים מִקֶּדֶם שְׁנוֹת עוֹלָמִים:

(ז) אֶזְכְּרָה נְגִינָתִי בַּלָּיְלָה עִם לְבָבִי אָשִׂיחָה וַיְחַפֵּשׂ רוּחִי:

(ח) הַלְעוֹלָמִים יִזְנַח אֲדֹנָי וְלֹא יֹסִיף לִרְצוֹת עוֹד:

(ט) הֶאָפֵס לָנֶצַח חַסְדּוֹ גָּמַר אֹמֶר לְדֹר וָדֹר:

(י) הֲשָׁכַח חַנּוֹת אֵל אִם קָפַץ בְּאַף רַחֲמָיו סֶלָה:

(יא) וָאֹמַר חַלּוֹתִי הִיא שְׁנוֹת יְמִין עֶלְיוֹן:

(יב) אזכיר {אֶזְכּוֹר} מַעַלְלֵי יָהּ כִּי אֶזְכְּרָה מִקֶּדֶם פִּלְאֶךָ:

(יג) וְהָגִיתִי בְכָל פָּעֳלֶךָ וּבַעֲלִילוֹתֶיךָ אָשִׂיחָה:

(יד) אֱלֹהִים בַּקֹּדֶשׁ דַּרְכֶּךָ מִי אֵל גָּדוֹל כֵּאלֹהִים:

(טו) אַתָּה הָאֵל עֹשֵׂה פֶלֶא הוֹדַעְתָּ בָעַמִּים עֻזֶּךָ:

(טז) גָּאַלְתָּ בִּזְרוֹעַ עַמֶּךָ בְּנֵי יַעֲקֹב וְיוֹסֵף סֶלָה:

(יז) רָאוּךָ מַּיִם אֶלֹהִים רָאוּךָ מַּיִם יָחִילוּ אַף יִרְגְּזוּ תְהֹמוֹת:

(יח) זֹרְמוּ מַיִם עָבוֹת קוֹל נָתְנוּ שְׁחָקִים אַף חֲצָצֶיךָ יִתְהַלָּכוּ:

(יט) קוֹל רַעַמְךָ בַּגַּלְגַּל הֵאִירוּ בְרָקִים תֵּבֵל רָגְזָה וַתִּרְעַשׁ הָאָרֶץ:

(כ) בַּיָּם דַּרְכֶּךָ ושביליך {וּשְׁבִילְךָ} בְּמַיִם רַבִּים וְעִקְּבוֹתֶיךָ לֹא נֹדָעוּ:

(כא) נָחִיתָ כַצֹּאן עַמֶּךָ בְּיַד מֹשֶׁה וְאַהֲרֹן: