Asaph is right in the middle of it—the day of his trouble. In fact, so troubled is Asaph that he can’t sleep or even speak:

In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord;
    in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying;
    my soul refuses to be comforted.
When I remember God, I moan;
    when I meditate, my spirit faints.    Selah
You hold my eyelids open;
    I am so troubled that I cannot speak. (Psalm 77:2–4)

I assume you’ve been there with Asaph at some point, haven’t you? Distressed, trying to figure out how God fits with all the challenges you’re going through, looking for answers? Asaph describes this quest for answers as his spirit undertaking a “diligent search” (v 6).

However, the answers aren’t hard. At least, not if you get the questions right. Asaph has five:

“Will the Lord spurn for ever,
    and never again be favourable?
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?” (Psalm 77:7–9)

Let me put his five questions into my own words:

There is clearly only one answer Asaph has in mind for each of these questions: No!

No, this trouble will not last forever. No, God has not stopped loving me. No, he will never forsake his promises. No, his memory is just perfect. And no, his compassion will continue to flow.

How is Asaph so confident of these things? Simple: God’s history.

As a way of providing himself with the reassurance he needs in his present circumstances, in the rest of the psalm Asaph remembers what God has done in the past. He looks to the way God has revealed his divine character and sovereignty in his “wonders of old”, particularly in his watery saving act in the Exodus (vv 16–20).

Next time you hit your “day of trouble”, perhaps you could ask yourself the same five questions. (Is it worth printing them out and sticking them on your fridge?)

In the meantime, keep reading your Bible to grow in your knowledge of God’s history—including the more recent history Asaph didn’t have the benefit of, when God sent Jesus to do an even more remarkable work of salvation than the Exodus. “Ponder all [his] work” and “meditate on [his] mighty deeds” (v 12). That’s how you’ll develop an Asaph-like trust so that, in the day of your trouble, your answer to all those questions is simply, “No”.