START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Psalm 77:1-2,11-20
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OBSERVE:
This is a Psalm of lamentation attributed to Asaph. The Asaphites were the temple singers.
The Psalmist mourns in the night:
my soul refuses to be comforted.
Verses 7-9 (omitted from today’s lectionary passage) list questions that are the source of the Psalmist’s misery:
“Will the Lord spurn forever,
and never again be favorable?
Has his steadfast love ceased forever?
Are his promises at an end for all time?
Has God forgotten to be gracious?
Has he in anger shut up his compassion?” (Psalm 77:7-9).
Where will the Psalmist find answers and comfort? He turns to memory, and particularly to the history of God’s mighty acts. Memory and meditation on the past serve as reminders of the greatness of God.
I will call to mind the deeds of the Lord;
I will remember your wonders of old.
I will meditate on all your work,
and muse on your mighty deeds.
Then the Psalmist recites the specific persons and events through whom God worked wonders in the past. He alludes to the deliverance of Jacob and his son Joseph — Jacob redeemed from the threats of Esau and the cheating of Laban; Joseph who rose from slavery to the right hand of Pharaoh and saved his family and Egypt from famine.
He alludes to the deep that trembled, and the path that was cut through the mighty waters for the Israelites under the leadership of Moses and Aaron. The imagery that he uses suggests that the Lord is at war against Egypt by means of rain, thunder and lightning:
the skies thundered;
your arrows flashed on every side.
In contrast, Moses and Aaron are the shepherds of their people, who lead them like a flock.
Memory of God’s triumphs in the past is a source of comfort and strength in the present.
APPLY:
There is a therapeutic benefit that comes from remembering what God has done in the past.
When we have one of those sleepless nights of worry and discouragement, people of faith have a source of strength — memory. What God has done in the past for his people is a reminder to us that he will be faithful in the future.
RESPOND:
I have arrived at the point in my life that recollecting the past isn’t such a great idea, generally. While there are many things for which I’m grateful, there are others that I’d rather not think about — disappointments, miscalculations, etc.
And yet, the Scriptures tell us to remember what God has done in the past:
I will call to mind the deeds of the Lord;
I will remember your wonders of old.
I will meditate on all your work,
and muse on your mighty deeds.
The subject of our memory changes everything. Remembering my own pale successes and embarrassing failures is not edifying. However, remembering what God has done — in Biblical history as well as in my own life — is enormously fulfilling.
What God has done is also a reminder of what God will do, in history as well as in my own life.
Dag Hammerskjold, the deeply spiritual Secretary General of the United Nations in the 1960s, once wrote in his diary:
For what has been, thanks. For what will be, yes.
Lord, thank you for your great triumphs in the past. And especially I thank you that what you have done in the past you can also do today and in the future. For what will be — yes. Amen.
PHOTOS:
“Psalm 77:19” by Sapphire Dream Photography is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.
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