Journal for Christ: Does God have to remember things?

May 15, 2016

Worship: Tell Your Heart to Beat Again by Danny Gokey

You're shattered
Like you've never been before
The life you knew
In a thousand pieces on the floor
And words fall short in times like these
When this world drives you to your knees
You think you're never gonna get back
To the you that used to be

Tell your heart to beat again
Close your eyes and breathe it in Let the shadows fall away
Step into the light of grace
Yesterday's a closing door
You don't live there anymore
Say goodbye to where you've been
And tell your heart to beat again

Beginning
Just let that word wash over you
It's alright now
Love's healing hands have pulled you through
So get back up, take step one
Leave the darkness, feel the sun
Cause your story's far from over
And your journey's just begun

Tell your heart to beat again
Close your eyes and breathe it in
Let the shadows fall away
Step into the light of grace
Yesterday's a closing door
You don't live there anymore
Say goodbye to where you've been
And tell your heart to beat again

Let every heartbreak
And every scar
Be a picture that reminds you
Who has carried you this far
'Cause love sees farther than you ever could
In this moment heaven's working
Everything for your good

Tell your heart to beat again
Close your eyes and breathe it in
Let the shadows fall away
Step into the light of grace
Yesterday's a closing door
You don't live there anymore
Say goodbye to where you've been
And tell your heart to beat again
Your heart to beat again
Beat again

Oh, so tell your heart to beat again

A-Z Lyrics - DANNY GOKEY Lyrics

Video: https://youtu.be/F77v41jbOYs?list=RDF77v41jbOYs

Witness:

Well, another week has come and gone. My last entry stopped at this point because I ran out of time. I use to rejoice in the time I had to spend journaling. When I stayed with my mom for 4 months trying to recover from my wife leaving me, I spent several hours every night in worship and the Word. Then I moved back home at the suggestion of my counselor. I needed to be able to stand strong again and move on in my life in spite of being alone and to be able to live alone (though I am never really alone because the Lord is always with me). That’s when my steady, daily, deep time of journaling, reflecting, worshiping, testifying, and studying God’s Word began to slip as the unexpected but inevitable interruptions began. At first, I might miss a day or two. However, with the added activities I have taken on - The men’s group I co-lead on Saturday and having to watch the grandkids more – my quiet time has regressed to once or twice a week. I can feel the effect it has on my spirit. I am slowly regressing back into the sadness and anger that I had been successfully moving away from. Even now my eyes are heavy from lack of sleep because the grandkids interrupted my sleep. I can’t blame them because they are just kids, however, that doesn’t keep me from snapping at them.

As I write this I was wondering where I was going with all I have said. Then the words of a song broke through my thoughts. It said, “we all need a little honesty”. That is what I was writing about – a little honesty about my life. The words to the song really ministered to me as the song I worshiped with did too. Yes, I realize it is not really a worship song. The song is actually written as a word of encouragement or exhortation, but as the words wash over me my heart rises to worship the one who it points to.

Here are the words to the song I referred to above.

We hide pain in the weirdest places
Broken souls with smiling faces
Fighting for surrender
For now and the after
Just look around and you'll see that people
Are scared to say how they really feel, oh
We all need a little honesty

You are loved
If your heart's in a thousand pieces
If you're lost and you're far from reason
Just look up, know you are loved
Just look up, and know you are loved
When it feels like somethings missing
If it hurts but you can't find healing
Just look up, know you are loved
Just look up, know you are loved. ooh

We're not made to be superheroes
Photo-shopped, all size zeroes
We're a light not expected
But not quite perfected yet
Look up see the sun is shining
There's hope on a new horizon
Calling you, calling...

You don't have to prove yourself
Don't try to be someone else

A-Z Lyrics - STARS GO DIM Lyrics

Video: https://youtu.be/Z4cMeuJeHWs

WORD:

Ps 25:6-7

6 Remember, O Lord, your great mercy and love,

for they are from of old.

7 Remember not the sins of my youth

and my rebellious ways;

according to your love remember me,

for you are good, O Lord.

NIV

Ps 25:6-7

6 Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy lovingkindnesses; for they have been ever of old.

7 Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness' sake, O Lord.

KJV

Ps 25:6-7

6 Remember, O Lord, your compassion and unfailing love,

which you have shown from long ages past.

7 Do not remember the rebellious sins of my youth.

Remember me in the light of your unfailing love,

for you are merciful, O Lord.

Ps 25:6-7

6 Remember your mercy, O Lord, and your steadfast love,

for they have been from of old.

7 Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions;

according to your steadfast love remember me,

for the sake of your goodness, O Lord!

ESV

I. Remember Who You Are (v. 6)

II. Don’t Remember Who I Was or Am (v. 7a)

III. Remember Me in light of Who You Are (v. 7b)

Now that I have settled on this outline let us unpack these verse a little. One of the questions we need to ask is what does David mean by the word “remember” in these verses? Does David use this word in two different ways in this passage?

First, we must remember that God is omniscient and one aspect of this attribute is that He can never forget because all knowledge of the past, present, and future are ever in His mind. Secondly, we must realize that people often speak anthropomorphically of God in order to describe an action of God and not an actual imperfection or finite aspect found in Him.

So, if God is not being asked to remember something He’s forgotten – and certainly, that would make no sense in verse 7 where he is asked not to remember David’s sins – what is David praying God to do? I believe in verse 6 David is asking God to act as He has always acted (i.e. “for they are from of old”). That is, with “great mercy and love”.

The TWOT says this about the word used here:

When God is challenged to "remember" the meaning is better taken as "pay attention to" since nothing ever escapes God's omniscience (Ps 89:48 )

Yet, I feel there is also a deeper and more personal reason for David’s use of the word “remember” here. When we are in deep distress and feel like the world is coming down on us, it is easy for us to feel like even God has abandoned us. Consider what Calvin says about this:

Psalms 25:6

From this, it appears in the first place, that David was grievously afflicted and tried, so much so that he had lost all sense of God's mercy: for he calls upon God to remember for him his favor, in such a manner as if he had altogether forgotten it. This, therefore, is the complaint of a man suffering extreme anguish, and overwhelmed with grief. We may learn from this, that although God, for a time, may withdraw from us every token of his goodness, and, apparently regardless of the miseries which afflict us, should, as if we were strangers to him, and not his own people, forsake us, we must fight courageously, until, set free from this temptation, we cordially present the prayer which is here recorded, beseeching God, that, returning to his former manner of dealing, he would again begin to manifest his goodness towards us, and to deal with us in a more gracious manner. This form of prayer cannot be used with propriety, unless when God is hiding his face from us, and seems to take no interest at all in us. Moreover, David, by having recourse to the mercy or compassion and goodness of God, testifies that he trusts not to his own merit as any ground of hope. He who derives everything from the fountain of divine mercy alone, finds nothing in himself entitled to recompense in the sight of God. But as the intermission which David had experienced was an obstacle which prevented his free access to God, he rises above it, by the very best remedy — the consideration, that although God, who from his very nature is merciful, may withdraw himself, and cease for a time to manifest his power, yet he cannot deny himself; that is to say, he cannot divest himself of the feeling of mercy which is natural to him, and which can no more cease than his eternal existence. But we must firmly maintain this doctrine, that God has been merciful even from the beginning, so that if at any time, he seem to act with severity towards us, and to reject our prayers, we must not imagine that he acts contrary to his real character, or that he has changed his purpose. Hence, we learn for what end it is that the Scriptures everywhere inform us, that in all ages God has regarded his servants with a benignant* eye, and exercised his mercy towards them. This, at least, we ought to regard as a fixed and settled point, that although the goodness of God may sometimes be hidden, and as it were buried out of sight, it can never be extinguished.

*be·nig·nant

bəˈniɡnənt/

adjective

1. kindly and benevolent.

"an old man, with a face noble and benignant"

And also Spurgeon:

Psalms 25:6

We are usually tempted in seasons of affliction to fear that our God has forgotten us, or forgotten his usual kindness towards us; hence the soul doth as it were put the Lord in remembrance, and beseech him to recollect those deeds of love which once he wrought towards it. There is a holy boldness which ventures thus to deal with the Most High, let us cultivate it; but there is also an unholy unbelief which suggests our fears, let us strive against it with all our might. What gems are those two expressions, "tender mercies and lovingkindnesses!" They are the virgin honey of language; for sweetness no words can excel them; but as for the gracious favours which are intended by them, language fails to describe them.

"When all thy mercies, O my God,

My rising soul surveys,

Transported with the view, I am lost

In wonder, love, and praise."

If the Lord will only do unto us in the future as in the past, we shall be well content. We seek no change in the divine action, we only crave that the river of grace may never cease to flow.

With these rather long quotes, I will close. My eyes are closing and I believe these thoughts are sufficient fodder to meditate on for now.

Journal for Christ

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Does God have to remember things?

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