Psalm 77:10–12
I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High.
I will remember the works of the Lord: surely I will remember thy wonders of old.
I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings.
When difficult times come and continue with us for a while, it can begin to feel that life has always been difficult, that we have never been happy, that we can’t remember ever being blessed. But that is grossly unfair to ourselves and to God. Of course we have been happy. Of course we have been blessed. Times are not always difficult, and when trials come we can get past them more quickly if we remember happiness in the past as readily as we count on the promise of happiness ahead.
Everything about the gospel of Jesus Christ is ultimately directed toward the joy for which we came to this earth149 and the “perfect brightness of hope”150 we are to have as we pursue future glory in eternity. Ours is ultimately a “plan of happiness,”151 even though not every moment in it is necessarily a happy one. But there is regular happiness in it, and certainly there is happiness at the end of the journey. So, it is not only good advice, it is a moral obligation to “remember the years of the right hand of the most High.” We owe it to God and to ourselves to “remember the works of the Lord . . . [with their] wonders of old.” It is not surprising that a favorite Christian hymn gives that same counsel:
When upon life’s billows you are tempest tossed,
When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings; name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.152
But notice that the psalm counsels us to do something more than passively remember or mindlessly enumerate. It counsels us to “meditate [upon] all [God’s] work, and talk of [all His] doings.” Both of these activities—meditating upon and talking about the goodness of God—are among the greatest of self-help steps we can take to heal a troubled heart. Thinking about God—about His nature, His love, His compassion, His blessings to us—is in and of itself a spiritual experience. These are powerful thoughts, and they drive out negative feelings and sad memories. Talking about these blessings—in effect, “bearing our testimony” about them even if only to ourselves or to those close to us—fixes those spiritual feelings in our hearts and gives them an objective existence of their own. To verbalize something is to give it life,153 so when we speak of our blessings aloud, the reality of them becomes more obvious, more powerful, more permanent.
When troubles come, remember the right hand of the most High. Remember the wonders of old. Meditate upon your blessings—talk of them—“one by one.” And remember Amulek’s counsel: “Live in thanksgiving daily, for the many mercies and blessings which [God] doth bestow upon you.”154
Notes
^152. “Count Your Blessings,” Hymns, no. 241.
^153. This is why it is so important not to verbalize negative feelings and fears habitually. To give them undue expression is to give them a life they do not deserve.