I WILL REMEMBER THE YEARS

 
I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High.
Psalm 77:10
 
THE Psalmist had read God’s word,
  he had stored his memory with an
  account of God’s wonderful works.
 
He had these things at hand in trouble, and
  he proposes to cause them to pass in review
  before his mind for his comfort and profit.
 
The years when God’s hand was stretched out,
  made bare, or remarkably displayed for Israel,
  to crush their foes;
  to control the elements;
  to deliver them from imminent danger; and
    raise them to peculiar honour.
 
What he had wrought in his church,
  for his church, by his church.
 
Let us remember what God has done for others
  and for ourselves in times past.
 
Let us do so to check our fears,
  to silence our unbelief,
  to strengthen our faith,
  to excite to prayer,
  to prevent murmuring,
  to produce hope,
  to increase patience, and
    to comfort us in sorrow.
 
Let us take up the purpose of the psalmist and say,
  I will pour out my misery;
  I will not envy my foes;
  I will not mistake the design of my trials;
  I will remember that God's hand is the same,
  whatever changes I may experience; and
    he who wrote for me before, will do so again.
 
Now I’ll oppose each gloomy thought,
Each dark despairing frame,
Remembering what thy hand hath wrought;
Thy hand is still the same.
 
James Smith 1849