It is time for us to remember.
We must remember that the penultimate chapter of Book III (Psalm 88) ends with these dark words, “You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me; my companions have become darkness.” Then we must remember that the final chapter of Book III (Psalm 89) concludes with the question of “How long, O Lord? Will you hide yourself forever? How long will your wrath burn like fire?” We must also remember a people who had sinned so heinously that God had given them over to their enemies. But, we must remember more.
We must remember how the enemies of Israel were in the land of Canaan, the son of Ham. We must remember that these enemies were the ones who Noah had said would be the servant of Shem and Japheth. We must remember that Canaan, in the land of Ham, was where Abram was sent when he was living in Ur, the land of Shem. We must remember that it was in Egypt, the land of another of Ham’s sons, that the Israelites spent 400 years as God prepared them to inherit their land of promise, the land of Canaan. But, we must remember more.
We must remember that God judged the sinfulness of man on earth with a flood. We must remember how Noah and his family, (Ham, Shem, Japheth, and their wives) were saved from God’s judgment by living in the ark of God’s salvation for over a year. We must also remember that this water, the water of God’s judgment, flowed over the earth afterward providing life and renewal to a cursed land filled with death. But still, we must remember more.
We must remember how the eternal God, full of love and mercy, formed this world from nothing so he could populate it with creations of his: man made in his own image. We must remember that God sustains, heals, and renews his creation, not as a reaction to a world gone bad, but as a premeditated act flowing from his eternally good and loving nature. Yes, we must remember all of this.
But you might ask why we must remember these things. That’s a good question.
Do you remember how Book IV of the Psalms begins? Psalm 90, in the wake of Book III’s chronicling the sinfulness of Israel, tells us of God’s eternally good nature. It reminds us that while we might be like the dew on the morning grass, God lives forever.
And do you remember the focus of chapters 91 to 100? They describe many aspects of God’s nature for which we should be thankful: reminders which are not always easy, as they bring us face-to-face with our sinfulness, but good reminders nonetheless.
And then do you remember Psalm 101? It is a transition psalm in Book IV, calling us to live blameless lives of righteousness before we come to the final five psalms of Book IV, psalms which when read together can be called nothing less than a masterpiece.
Psalm 102 reminds us once again of God’s eternality and how we are dust.
Psalm 103 reminds us of God’s righteous nature and then tells us we must remember to follow his commandments.
Psalm 104 reminds us of the flood waters of judgment and how God changed them into living water giving life to all of creation.
Psalm 105 reminds us of how God was true to his covenant when he brought Israel out of Egypt and when he took them to the promised land of Canaan.
Stop for a moment and think about that. Think about how God’s plan to bring Israel to the promised land played out. (Read Genesis 12-15 if you have a short memory.) Abram was taken to the land of Canaan, shown its beauty, and then told it would be the fourth generation before his people would take possession of it. Do you think Abram had any clue about the path his people would have to take before that promise was fulfilled? I, for one, don’t think he did. Remember that Abram was not asked to see the future, he was only asked to trust God, keep his commandments, and follow his lead. That is all. And yet, that is not very easy to do, is it?
But God was faithful, wasn’t he? Even though their path led through hundreds of years of slavery in Egypt, God was faithful. And even though God led his people through the wilderness for forty years before arriving at the very borders of Canaan, the promised land, God was faithful. But don’t miss the crazy irony here. It was one of the sons of Ham (Egypt) who served the descendants of Noah’s other two sons by providing them shelter for hundreds of years as Israel grew into a great nation. And it was another son of Ham (Canaan) serving the descendants of Shem and Japheth by keeping the land of promise and turning it into a fertile paradise.
Odd isn’t it? God’s ways, as Isaiah says, are not our ways. We must not forget that.
I think we are told to remember these things, (especially at this point in the Psalter) because we have a short memory. We forget that God is always working for our good, even though the path may run through valleys we would have never anticipated. We must remember this, for when we choose to forget, (and we do choose it, it doesn’t just happen), God’s hand of providence becomes his hand of judgment, just as the waters of judgment became the waters of life.
But we must remember more. In Psalm 106 we are told to remember…well, I get ahead of myself…we will get to that next week…
