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Psalm 77:9

Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he, in anger, withheld his compassion?” Selah.

7“Will the Lord reject us forever? Will he be favorable no more?
8Has his loving kindness vanished forever? Does his promise fail for generations?
9Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he, in anger, withheld his compassion?” Selah.
10Then I thought, “I will appeal to this: the years of the right hand of the Most High.”
11I will remember the LORD’s deeds; for I will remember your wonders of old.
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Notice

The questions about forgotten grace and withheld compassion reach into the fear that God's silence might mean anger, without declaring that fear to be true.

Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.

What, if anything, makes you wonder whether God has withheld his compassion?

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What would you want to say to God after the question about forgotten grace?

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Connect

Where else Scripture says this

10 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.

This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Isaiah 49:14–15Both voice the fear of being forgotten by God, with Zion stating what the psalm frames as a question.
Psalm 51:1For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David, when Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy on me, God, according to your …Both turn toward God's mercy: one questions whether compassion has been withheld, while the other asks for mercy and forgiveness.
Psalm 40:11Don’t withhold your tender mercies from me, LORD. Let your loving kindness and your truth continually preserve me.Psalm 77 asks whether God has withheld compassion; Psalm 40 pleads with him not to withhold his tender mercies.
Psalm 10:12Arise, LORD! God, lift up your hand! Don’t forget the helpless.The question about God forgetting grace shares a concern with the plea that God not forget the helpless.
Psalm 42:9I will ask God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”Both ask whether God has forgotten, with Psalm 42 naming mourning under an enemy's oppression as the setting.
Luke 13:25–28When once the master of the house has risen up and has shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to …The link is limited: the psalm fears withheld compassion, while Jesus describes people shut outside and refused entry.
Isaiah 40:27Why do you say, Jacob, and speak, Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD, and the justice due me is disregarded by my God”?The psalm asks about withheld compassion; Isaiah records Israel's complaint that God disregards the justice due them.
Isaiah 63:15Look down from heaven, and see from the habitation of your holiness and of your glory. Where are your zeal and your mighty acts? The yearning of your heart and …Both speak of God's compassion as withheld or restrained, voicing distress over its apparent absence.
Romans 11:32For God has bound all to disobedience, that he might have mercy on all.Mercy is their shared concern: the psalm questions whether God has withheld it, while Paul speaks of God's purpose to show it.
1 John 3:17But whoever has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, then closes his heart of compassion against him, how does God’s love remain in him?Both speak of compassion being withheld, though the psalm questions God and John challenges someone who refuses a brother in need.
Where this verse fits

Feeling distant from God. doubt. waiting.

What the Bible says about doubt →What the Bible says about doubt →What the Bible says about patience →
One step

Something small to carry out of this verse

Read Psalm 77:9 aloud as a prayer

prayeroncelight
Encouragement

You do not have to settle these questions before bringing them to God. The psalm records the fear of withheld compassion without declaring that God has forgotten grace.

Now put it in your words.

Start an entry on Psalm 77:9. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.

Keep goingPsalm 77 · the whole chapter with its connection mapPsalms · every chapterBuild a reading plan through Psalms

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).