Hebrew Word Study – Emotional Trouble –  Tsarar – Sade Resh Resh

Psalms 77:2: “In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord; my sore ran in the night, and ceased not: my soul refused to be comforted.”

The title of this Psalm attributes it to Asaph.  Little is known about Asaph.  The traditional view is that he the chief musician.  However, I always had problems with that because a chief musician would have lived a sheltered life and this old boy seems to have gone through some real trials.  But, he’s an artist and an artist suffers.  Still it is a little odd that someone who wrote 12 Psalms (50, 73-83) would not have had more biographical information given about him.

I tend to lean more towards my liberal brethren’s viewpoint which is that Asaph was an office and not one person.  Although, there were individuals named Asaph, when applied to the Psalms it was really not a person but religious sect, musical sect.  More than that it was a group of prophets who prophesied through music.  Ok, am I getting some of you to warm up to my foray into liberalism? Actually, when you look at these twelve Psalms through textual criticism,  which incorporates the style and various Hebrew dialects, of these twelve Psalms you find it is impossible to believe it could have been written by the same person.  It would have had to encompass people from various points of geographical origin.  These musically gifted people formed a little club (let’s call it that) and call themselves “Asaphites.”  Like I said the Asaphites were a prophetic group.  Even my liberal friends own up to that.  I often wonder if in these last days we will see a new Asaphite movement where musically gifted prophets will arise and minister to the saints who are going through deep trials. I think about this young musician and worship leader who conducted worship services in public parks during the pandemic and continues to travel around the nation holding worship services in public places. To me this is truly a last days ministry and three thousand years ago could have been an Asaphite.

Look at Psalms 77, particularly at verse 2,  can you relate?  I believe more and more in these troubled times will believers begin to relate to the Psalms of the Asaphites and a new generation of Asaphites will arise and speak to the masses. 

They will say things like: “In the day of trouble.”  I’ve talked about this word trouble or tsarar quite a bit in my studies. It means a distress, a distress so great that you can’t think, you can’t enjoy anything, you can’t sleep, all you do is think about your trouble.  Christians seem to live in mortal fear of the rise of socialism and persecution against Christians. That is tsarar. We all go through it.  So you seek the Lord, but nothing seems to happen. Your “sore runs into the night.”   The word sore is yad which means hand or could also mean human strength. This runs into the night and does not cease. The word runs is nagar which has the idea of being poured out. The word cease is pug which is used in an imperfect tense. Pug has the idea of being chilled or frozen.  Water runs until it is frozen and then it stops. Thus his strength is being poured out into the night then freezes.  Night is the worst.  During the day you have many distractions but at night there are no distractions and your tsarar really takes hold of you at that point and chills you to the bone.  Your soul at that point refuses to be comforted. 

Ever feel that way?  If you do this Psalm is for you.  Check out the prophetic word that is given in this song  found in verse 6: “I call to remembrance my song in the night.”   The word song here is negan.  The root word is “nun, gimel, nun”  This is a song that keeps repeating itself.  Ever have one of those tunes in your head and you can’t get it out.  That’s a negan. Only this tune that keeps repeating itself is one of faith and lovingkindness.  

I could picture the Asaphites singing this song or Psalm. It would start off slow and melancholy then as you approach verse 6 it picks up to a catchy tune with hand clapping and before long that tune gets stuck in your head and you keep singing it over and over and over and can’t get it out of your head.  But that is good, because it is a tune of the Spirit of God that delivers you from your tsarar.   

So next time you go through a tsarar and you can’t sleep or you can’t enjoy anything, ask the Spirit of God to give you a negan.

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