Psalm 106:6-7

Like our ancestors, we have sinned. We have done wrong! We have acted wickedly! Our ancestors in Egypt were not impressed by the LORD’s miraculous deeds. They soon forgot his many acts of kindness to them. Instead, they rebelled against him at the Red Sea.

I strongly recommend that you read through this psalm and the previous one because they are twins. In Psalm 105, we hear about all the amazing things that God did to guide and strengthen His people from the earliest days until their entry into the Promised Land. Now in Psalm 106, the psalmist takes another tour through the history of God’s people and concludes that, humanly speaking, it was a complete disaster. Just as God was consistently faithful and loving, His people were repeatedly faithless and disobedient. But the psalmist didn’t simply point the finger at people in the past. He recognised that his own generation was also guilty of disobeying God and forgetting to walk in His ways.

As we look back through human history, there is much that we can learn. Every page of history contains accounts of bad decisions and stupid failures and, if we are honest, we aren’t so very different. Our lives fall well short of perfection and we need to own up and find out how we can live them in a richer, fuller and more obedient way. The point of looking back is that we can learn. We don’t have to repeat the past. Instead, we can set off on a new journey inspired by its lessons.

The most consistent fault of God’s people in this psalm was the sin of forgetting. I’m sure that we will all own up to the sin of forgetting. A lot of the time, it doesn’t matter that much. We may forget someone’s name or whether they take milk in their tea. Such things are minor. Forgetting God is another matter. Time and again, we read that the people of Israel forgot how God had blessed them. They carried on with their lives as if God didn’t exist. We need to do everything we can to remember who God is and what He has done. We need to ensure that we maintain a rhythm of worship and prayer so that we can’t possibly forget our great God.

Question

What do you do to ensure that you don’t forget what God has done in your life?

Prayer

Loving God, thank You that You never forget me. Help me to make sure that I never forget You. Amen