psalm 77

so my pastor's sermon today was on psalm 77. we're going through a series on suffering. i'm going to type out most of this psalm...
"my voice rises to God, and i will cry aloud; my voice rises to God, and He will hear me. in the day of my trouble i sought the Lord; in the night my hand was stretched out with weariness; my soul refused to be comforted. when i remember God, then i am disturbed; when i sigh, then my spirit grows faint. you have held my eyelids open; i am so troubled that i cannot speak. i have considered the days of old, the years of long ago. i will remember my song in the night; i will meditate with my heart and my spirit ponders:
will the Lord reject forever? and will He enverr be favorable again? has His promise come to an end forever? has God forgotten to be gracious, or has He in anger withdrawn His compassion? then i said, "it is my grief, that the right hand fo the Most High has changed". i shall remember the deeds of the Lord; surely i will remember your wonders of old. i will meditate on all your works and muse on your deeds. your way o God is holy, what god is great like our God? the waters saw you o God; the waters saw you, they were in anguish; the deeps also trembled...your way was THROUGH the sea and your paths in the mighty waters, and your footprints may not be known...you led our people like a flock. "
our pastor this morning talked about suffering and how the parting of the red sea parallels with this psalmist's words. asaph, the psalmist, talks about the path of God being holy...and that it was THROUGH the sea that God took His people when He parted it. i liked how our pastor talked about how God takes us through suffering not AROUND it, and going through the suffering reshapes us like an "extrusion"---the process by which metal is reshaped by going through a certain dye, that reshapes it and makes it better i think...or more valuable? but God didn't necessarily take His people AROUND the red sea, He led them through it after parting them and on the other side of the red sea, their faith grew and their trust was stronger in the Lord than it had been before. and the whole time God never left their side. He had gone before them and with them. how comforting! in this world of darkness and loneliness and struggles, we can trust that God's path, even when it is THROUGH the suffering, is PERFECT. and we may not know his "footprints", but we can rest in His hands and not our own. the process of extrusion and shaping us into His likeness and holiness starts with going through suffering and pain. and although asaph went through the darkest depths and cried out to the Lord many times and even questioned (in faith) God....the middle of the psalms declares his trust and remembering the faithfulness of the Lord and that there is hope in knowing God's way and that He leads His people even when the way may be dark. i just love this!