Year 2, Day 236: Psalm 105

Psalm 105

Psalm 105 is about a single word: remember.  This is a really neat word in most ancient languages – and it is really a neat word in English if we don’t neuter its meaning as we so often do.  So often when we say “remember” what we are really saying is simply to bring to mind.  So often the words “remember” and “recall” are used as synonyms.  While that’s not really wrong, it is a serious neutering of the word.

The word “remember” in most ancient languages {and English, too} actually takes on a connotation of “bring to mind vividly enough to participate in the event once again.”  {That’s my definition; you won’t find that in Webster’s dictionary.}  Think about it.  What do I really mean when I say to a loved one, “Remember when we did this?”  Am I simply asking the loved one to recall the event?  Or am I really trying to get the loved one to mentally revisit the event and the emotion that goes with the event?  Here we see the difference between recall and remember.*

 What is it the psalmist wants us to remember?  We are to remember the covenant that God made with the patriarchs.  We are not simply to recall them, but we are to live those promises.  We are to know that as God made those promises to the patriarchs He also makes the same covenant to us.

We are to remember how the people of the covenant had a slow beginning.  Abraham and Sarah only had one child (and a few faithful servants).  Isaac had two children.  Jacob had twelve.  They were a tiny nation, but God was with them and He prospered them.  We are to live knowing that God prospers us in a similar way.  The faithful might be small in this world, but God is still with us.  He can do mighty things with few in number.

We are to remember how God saved His people through Joseph.  God sent Joseph into Egypt to prepare a way for His people to survive the famine.  We are to remember that Joseph went into Egypt as a slave and in bondage.  We are to live and know that sometimes following God’s ways implies that we will be in bondage.  We will make hard decisions and be faced with hard consequences.  But as God was with Joseph, God will be with us.

We are to remember how God used the plagues to bring out His people in Egypt.  We are not simply to recall the story, but to join the story and know that God can do the same for us.  If we are in bondage and cry out to God, He will hear us.  We are to live as the Hebrew people lived while watching God deliver them from their oppression.  We are to be a people who are amazed at God’s ability to do the unthinkable through means that are equally unthinkable.

We are to remember how He brought the people out of Egypt.  God adorned His people with wealth they did not deserve.  He allowed them to possess a land to which they had no claim.  He fed them with food for which they did not toil.  He gave them a Law that they did not deserve.  We are to live knowing that God can do the same for us as well.  He is with us and He blesses us.  He gives us a life that we do not deserve filled with things for which we do not work.

What is the point of all of this remembrance?  We sing for joy to the Lord.  When we recall what God has done in history, we are glad.  But when we remember – when we realize that those stories are lived out in each of us in all of our lives – we have reason to glorify God and give praise to Him!  When we live out our true remembrance of all that God has done, we genuinely desire to be obedient to God’s ways.  When we genuinely remember God and not simply recall His actions, we become truly repentant and our lives are changed irrevocably.

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*For the record, this understanding of the word “remember” really affects our understanding of the celebration of Holy Communion.  When Jesus says, “Do this in remembrance of me,” Jesus is telling us more than simply to “recall” the event.  Jesus is telling us to remember it vividly so as to relive it with Him.  Jesus is telling us that the event of taking communion should be done as if we were joining Him at the original celebration before His trial and crucifixion.  Communion is so much more than simply “recalling” the death of Jesus on the cross.  Communion is about joining Him as He prepares to die for our sake and realizing that this death of His will bring us the forgiveness of sins.