REMEMBERING THE PAST

“I consider the days of old, the years of bygone times [of prosperity].    I call to remembrance my song in the night; with my heart I meditate and my spirit searches diligently: Will the Lord cast off forever? And will He be favourable no more? Have His mercy and loving-kindness ceased forever? Have His promises ended for all time?  Has God [deliberately] abandoned or forgotten His graciousness? Has He in anger shut up His compassion? Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!   And I say, this [apparent desertion of Israel by God] is my appointed lot and trial, but I will recall the years of the right hand of the Most High [in loving-kindness extended toward us], for this is my grief, that the right hand of the Most High changes.   I will [earnestly] recall the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will [earnestly] remember the wonders [You performed for our fathers] of old.  I will meditate also upon all Your works and consider all Your [mighty] deeds…Psalm 77:5-12.”

To me the Psalms are an endless source of comfort. They describe every emotion known to man and in this psalm Asaph, the writer, is going through a whole stream of emotions and most of them not good. Do you ever feel like the psalmist did in the above verses?

Sometimes we wonder what has happened –  this terrible thing has happened to us and we wonder where God is in all this. The answer to this is pretty simple: We are to remember what God did in the past, how did God act in the past, how did He lead you in the past. Did he bless you in the past?

The psalmist meditates and earnestly remembers what God did for him, and in generations past. God doesn’t change. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. Next time you get in the mood of the above verses, and we all do at times, remember the past and how God is faithful and how He has blessed you. Remembering the past sometimes is not a bad thing, especially when it focuses on how faithful and good God has been to you.

God bless!

  Keith