We are focusing on Psalm 77 for a few weeks on the podcast. It's a discouraged psalm written by a discouraged psalmist who writes, for example, in verse 4, speaking to God, "You hold my eyelids open. I am so troubled that I cannot speak." Painful. He seems to be enduring a season of discouragement, and as we begin this new year, maybe you are carrying a discouragement in your own life.

If so, it's normal. It's normal. Discouragements like this are, Pastor John will say, typical Christian life. They're common, even at the start of a new year. And in those discouragements, we need our Bibles even more. Psalm 77 reminds us why daily Bible reading needs to remain our priority in the dark seasons.

Pastor John will remind us that our daily Bible reading is about habit, head, heart happening. Four things. The conviction to do it, number one. The discipline of getting truth into our heads, number two. The work of getting that truth from our head into our heart, number three. And then finally, number four, sticking to realistic practices that will make daily Bible reading possible.

Today we look at point number two. Getting truth into our heads, even when life hurts. Here's Pastor John to explain in his New Year's Sermon in 2000 on Psalm 77. Here he is. I think of my preaching that way, even though I'm talking to you. My whole concept of preaching is this is done before God.

Just like Paul says in 2 Corinthians, this is done toward God. This is worship of God, what I'm doing right now. And if you understood that better, you'd respond a lot more than you do, verbally. I'll work on that this year. We'll try to teach a little about meaning "Amen, yes." Why don't you try to say it, "Amen." Say it.

Amen. See, that's not so hard. I don't want any artificiality or things outside your real self, but there are times in praying when a little "mm-hmm" wouldn't hurt. That's not in the manuscript here. Let's see. So this is a prayer, and all of our Bible reading should be prayer-filled and prayer-saturated.

And that's what we have in this Psalm. Now, let's look at it. This psalmist, his name is Asaph. He's a musician, poet, saint. And he was really discouraged. He was really down. Let's read it in verses 7 to 10. "Will the Lord reject forever? Will he never be favorable again?

Has his loving kindness ceased forever? Has his promise come to an end forever? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger withdrawn his compassion?" Then I said, "It is my grief that the right hand of the Most High has changed." Now, I believe that's typical Christian life.

I don't expect 2000 to be anything other than struggling with that. I know that over time some people hear me preach, and they get the impression somehow, and I just ponder, "How?" That my sense is that the reason the Psalms were given is with the expectation and the demand that Christians will live at a consistently triumphant level.

That's crazy. Nobody lives at a consistently triumphant level. Nobody. Period. And the Psalms are written because nobody lives that way. And they are written by people who didn't live that way, for people who can't live that way, because we're so frail, so fragile, so sinful, and full of so many struggles, and battered by so many hard circumstances.

That's reality. It's right here in verses 7 to 10. So my question is, when I think about the Christian life, I don't think a lot about how to get Christians to live consistently triumphant lives. I don't think anybody does. I don't know if some of you believe that. I am an absolute pessimist with regard to human nature.

And I don't believe that Christ has entered into this world to sanctify us instantaneously, overnight, but only over time, so that when we die, then in the twinkling of an eye, or at the last trumpet, we are changed. And when we see Him, we become like Him. And before that time, we're stumbling all the way to glory.

And therefore, the Bible is so blatantly realistic about those kinds of things, that it gives us great help, if we will hear it, for what it says. In verses 7 to 10, it's pretty clear that this Asaph fellow is in the pit, doubting God's compassion, wondering about God's reliability, thinking God's loving kindness has ceased, wondering whether He's favorable at all, saying He's changed and has become fickle, quite against Malachi 3, "I, the Lord, do not change, and therefore you are not consumed." And he says, "It is my grief that the Lord has changed." This man's in trouble, where we are a lot of the time.

So, what's the point, then, of the way this man lives? And I want you to see his strategy for Christian living. I know he's not after Christ, before Christ, but the strategy is the same, I'm arguing. The strategy to live the Christian life, a life lived on the Word of God, is the same strategy, then, as now.

Now, the strategy is in verses 11 and 12. I'm going to skip it and come back to it, because I want you to see the fruit and effect of the strategy first. So, you've got a discouraged, low, dismal situation in a man's heart in verses 7 to 10. Now, I want you to read the same man with me, starting in verse 13.

"Your way, O God, is holy, but God is great, like our God. You are the God who works wonders. You have made known your strength among the peoples. You have, by your power, redeemed your people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph, the waters you saw, O God." He's thinking about the Red Sea and the Exodus.

"The waters saw you, they were in anguish, the deeps also trembled, the clouds poured out water, the skies gave forth sound, your arrows flashed here and there, the sound of your thunder was in the whirlwind, the lightnings lit up the world, the earth trembled and shook. Your way was in the sea, in your paths, in the mighty waters.

Your footprints may not be known, you led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron." Same man, same man. So what happened between verse 10 and verse 13? Many of you this morning are in verse 10, and I hope you want to be in verse 13.

So, all year long, we must learn how to do this. We go in and out, up and down. I grasp the Christian life like this. I think it does go up, for following after God you get above some things as you go along, but it's not without its deep dips.

All right, let's read the strategy. Verses 11 and 12. "I shall remember the deeds of the Lord. Surely I will remember your wonders of old. I will meditate on all your work and muse on your deeds." That's the way to live the Christian life. The strategy is a life lived on the Word of God, which alone mediates the deeds and triumphs and wonders of God.

Three words stand out, don't they? Remembering, meditating, and musing upon the deeds and wonders of God in history. That's what I want for 2000. That's what I want. I want a church filled with people who remember, who meditate, who muse on the mighty deeds of God. Day in and day out.

Remember, meditate, muse. The central biblical strategy for living the Christian life, to come out of darkness, out of discouragement, out of doubt, is a conscious effort of the mind. The central biblical strategy. Bold claim. A bold claim made in his January 2nd, 2000 sermon on Psalm 77. It's titled, "I will meditate on all your work and muse on your deeds." The full sermon is in the sermon archive at desiringgod.org.

Fitting words as we enter our own new year. New year, new diets, new focus on health. Friday we look at intermittent fasting. Fasting is the practice of intermittent fasting, a prostitution of a spiritual discipline. Pastor John will say, "No, not necessarily." But it carries some spiritual dangers to be aware of.

I'm your host Tony Rehnke. That's next time. We'll see you then on Friday. Thanks for listening.