Sep 29, 2022
Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced, you his servants, the descendants of Abraham, his chosen ones, the children of Jacob. He is the Lord our God; his judgments are in all the earth. He remembers his covenant forever… For he remembered his holy promise given to his servant Abraham. He brought out his people with rejoicing, his chosen ones with shouts of joy; he gave them the lands of the nations, and they fell heir to what others had toiled for—that they might keep his precepts and observe his laws. (Psalm 105:5-7a, 42-45)
This is a psalm of praise. It is also one of the few historical psalms that recounts the story of Israel. What is unique about this psalm though, is that it doesn’t share anything about Israel’s own part in that story. Nothing is said of Israel’s failures or faithlessness. The psalm focuses squarely on God.
But it is addressed to Israel. This account of what God has done is given to inspire their praise, focus their eyes, sharpen their memories and their obedience.
It was God who gave the promise; God who brought them to Egypt; God who raised up Moses; God who brought the plagues; God who brought them out; God who protected and shepherded them through the wilderness; God who brought them safely to a new land. All of this was God’s work and not their own. It was not Moses’ doing, it was not Abraham’s doing, it was the accomplishment of no one but God.
Most significantly, the psalm is bracketed by the God’s own “remembering.” God remembers his covenant forever the psalm says at the beginning. Then it launches into the story of Israel to prove again exactly how God showed his remembering of that covenant. At the end, the psalm circles back around to the point, declaring: “he remembered his holy promise given to his servant Abraham.” In other words: God was faithful. God did what he said he would do, even though it was some 400 years later. God remembers his covenant forever.
The question left open in this psalm is how will Israel respond? The very last line of the psalm declares that God not only kept his promise, but that he did it with a purpose: so that Israel “might keep his precepts and observe his laws.” God meant for Israel not only to be the people who belonged to him, but also to be the people who embodied his words and ways to the nations around them. God’s desire was that Israel might be “the word of God made flesh” among the nations.
And so: faced with the purposes and promises of God that God remembers and brings to fulfillment in them and in the nations—how will Israel respond? Will they remember God as God has remembered them? Will they faithfully embody the word of God that God has spoken into them?
The same question comes to the church. Will you hear, see, remember and believe that your God has remembered you: chosen you, loved you, forgiven you, and adopted you as his very own in Jesus? Will you embody this word made flesh in Jesus in your own flesh as you die to yourself and live and speak and act each moment of this day in the ways that Jesus himself lived and spoke and acted?