For my family, related or not, near or far / five minutes!

Rick McNally / Friday, July 18, 2025

Psalm 77:7–9 (ESV) / Negative Spiritual Self Talk

• “Will the Lord spurn forever, and never again be favorable? 
• Has his steadfast love forever ceased? Are his promises at an end for all time? 
• Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his compassion?” Selah

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“Will the Lord spurn forever, and never again be favorable? 

The short answer — No.

This is a feeling that we get sometimes.  Maybe God will “spurn” or discard forever.  The Psalmist’s heart is broken, it is in need of the peace of God — and it doesn’t seem to be forthcoming.  Recovery to normal sometimes takes a great deal of time.

Does God reject us forever?  Is he playing games?  Consider the passage below; 

Lamentations 3:31-33 / For the Lord will not cast off forever, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men.

A few things can be learned from this passage, which speaks of the lament of men.

• Sometimes God does cause grief (worry, anxiety) 
• He will have compassion (a deep down emotion of the gut) / it has purpose and care
• According to the abundance of his steadfast love / his love is not lacking, but abundant
• For he does not afflict from his heart / his actions or sovereign allowances are not from his heart
• Or grieve the children of men / it’s not to sadden us, but for some other purpose.

Has his steadfast love forever ceased?

No — the phrase “steadfast love” is mentioned 194 times in 191 verses, it is a common phrase.  The phrase usage spikes in the Psalms and does become more frequent as the Old Testament story progresses into the troubles of Israel and Judah in the pages of the prophets.  The chart below shows the usages of the phrase in comparative terms of frequency per 1,000 words in each book.

God is primarily a God of love  

Are his promises at an end for all time?

Feels like it.  But it is not true.  To the children of Israel, when they saw the failures of David and Solomon and their progeny, they wondered if the faithfulness of God was over.  Didn’t God say he would work through David and bring about the Messiah?  What if the line was broken?  The entire psalter is a story of the faithfulness of God and God’s ability to be faithful even if the children of men were not.

We have failures right and left.  And instead of admitting our frailties and mistakes, we hide them and make things worse.  We are broken.  We feel as if God’s promises are nothing.  This is a lie from Satan.  It is not true. The “steadfast love” is talked about throughout the book of Psalms.

God’s promises are eternal.  God cannot lie.  God will keep his promises; in fact, he’s the only one who ever will perfectly do so.

Has God forgotten to be gracious?

God’s memory is not in question except in his ability to forget the sins of man (Jeremiah 31:34).  This idea is common in the OT.  We are encouraged in Joel to “…return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster (Joel 2:13).

God will be gracious to you and me; we will see it over time.

Has he in anger shut up his compassion?

Both of these attributes of God are impossibly strong.  The question is asked, therefore, since God is angry with us (and he has to be, just look at what we do sometimes), will that anger “shut up” his compassion?  Has anger tightened the purse strings of God such that the compassion cannot escape?

• The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases / Lamentations 3:22-23
• But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us / Romans 5:8
• God is love / 1 John 4:8 
• But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ / Ephesians 2:4-5
• For I am sure… [nothing] will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. /   Romans 8:38-39 
• The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. / 2 Peter 3:9
• For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ / 1 Thessalonians 5:9

We could go on and on.  While the wrath and anger of God are profound and formidable, we can find grace and mercy and peace through Jesus.  Jesus’ actions of love and compassion toward the people who walked the dirty streets and countrysides of the Holy Land, culminating in his giving his life and taking that wrath himself, leave us no doubt that the compassion of God trumps his wrath.

For he is a shelter for those who trust him.

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Application — when we are struggling in life, or down, we hear all the questions come creeping into our minds.  We start to doubt the things we know.  We start to doubt our own ability to navigate the trouble we are drowning in.  Take each of these phrases and put them through the lens of truth — and call them what they are.

Lies.

For God is faithful.