Lord, Remember Us!

[Psalm 74]

Eran Katz, from Jerusalem, who holds the Guinness World Record (1998) for memory by hearing and recalling a sequence of 500 digits once, is an expert in brain development. He has conducted nearly 1,000 workshops for well-known multinational companies and organizations such as Motorola, IBM, Microsoft, and Coca-Cola, gaining worldwide recognition. He published a book called Jerome, the Genius (Golden Branch), in which, while studying traditional Jewish brain development methods passed down through generations, he identifies two major characteristics: imagination and discomfort.
The concept of imagination is somewhat understandable — when we keep imagining, we prevent our brains from rusting, thus helping to prevent memory decline and improve recall, which makes sense. However, Katz’s idea of “discomfort” is harder to grasp. He claims that studying or working in an uncomfortable posture might actually improve performance. On the contrary, when we become too accustomed to comfort, we stop fully exercising our brains. According to him, one technique enjoyed by Jewish people is to study while standing or moving their bodies back and forth. “When you move your body, oxygen is supplied to the brain, and the body’s movement stimulates the brain — like how better ideas come to us while walking.”
There is a saying in the Talmud: “If you cannot endure the pain of learning, you will suffer the pain of ignorance.”
Ultimately, Katz suggests that people commonly say Jews are smart not because of genetics or bloodline, but because they developed brain training methods on their own to survive tragic histories such as the Holocaust. This leads to the thought that discomfort or suffering can actually help our memory (source: Internet).

Today, when we read Psalm 74, we see that the psalmist and the people of Israel were suffering because of their enemies, the Lord’s adversaries. The psalmist and the Israelites were oppressed, becoming poor and destitute (verse 21). In the midst of this, the psalmist prays a lament to God, saying, “Why, O God, have You rejected us forever?” (verse 1), and we see him crying out repeatedly, “Lord, remember us!” (verses 2, 18, 20).
Focusing on this passage today, I want to meditate on and summarize three main prayer requests the psalmist makes to God under the title, “Lord, remember us!”
In this, I pray that God’s memory becomes our memory in the midst of suffering.

First, the psalmist’s prayer request was: “Remember Your congregation, O Lord!”

Look at Psalm 74:2:
"Remember the people You purchased of old, the tribe of Your inheritance, whom You redeemed—Mount Zion, where You dwelt."
The psalmist cries out to the Lord, the Shepherd, lamenting that although the people of Israel—His sheep—have suffered for a long time, there has been no visible act of salvation from God. He pleads, “O God, why have You rejected us forever? Why does Your anger smolder against the sheep of Your pasture?” (v.1).
In this state of distress, he earnestly asks God to remember His congregation—His suffering people, Israel (v.2).

But had God truly forgotten His people, Israel? Is that why they had suffered for so long without intervention—because God had simply left them?
Let’s look at Isaiah 49:15:
"Can a woman forget her nursing child, and have no compassion on the son of her womb? Though she may forget, I will not forget you."
God had never forgotten His people. How do we know? Because, as spoken through the prophet Isaiah, our God has made this promise: “I will not forget you.” (v.15).

So why is it that God does not forget His people, but always remembers them? Psalm 74:1–2 gives us two reasons:

(1) Because God is our Shepherd, and we are His sheep.
See verse 1: “… against the sheep of Your pasture …”
A shepherd does not forget his sheep. Our Lord, the Good Shepherd, remembers us eternally.
Look at John 10:27:
"My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me."

(2) Because God has redeemed us and made us His own possession.
Look again at Psalm 74:2:
"Remember the people You purchased of old, the tribe of Your inheritance, whom You redeemed …"
How could the God who redeemed us with the precious blood of Jesus Christ and made us His children ever forget us?
The Lord remembers you and me. Even though, in the midst of prolonged suffering, trials, and adversity, we may wonder whether His salvation is delayed, or even question if He has forgotten us, our God remembers us forever.
Look at Psalm 139:17–18:
"How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with You."
How could the God who loves us so deeply and thinks of us constantly—countless times—ever forget or cease to remember us?

Secondly, the psalmist’s prayer was, “Lord, remember Your enemies!”

Look at Psalm 74:18:
“Remember this, O Lord, that the enemy has reviled You, and a foolish people has spurned Your name.”
The psalmist not only pleaded with God to remember His people, the Israelites, but he also asked God to remember their enemies—those who persecuted Israel and blasphemed the Lord (verses 18, 22).
In other words, he pleaded with God not to forget the enemies of Israel—who are also the enemies of the Lord—and to judge them.

This reflects a pattern often seen throughout the Psalms:
The psalmist cries out for God’s love and mercy to save Israel and for His holiness and justice to judge Israel’s enemies.

In today’s passage, the enemies of Israel—who are also the Lord’s enemies—are described in Scripture as those who “committed all kinds of evil in the sanctuary” (v. 3).
These enemies of the Lord, those who oppose Him, acted disgracefully in His sanctuary (v. 4, according to Park Yun-sun), and they destroyed His temple (v. 3).
Furthermore, the Lord’s enemies brutally shattered the temple of God as if hacking down a forest with axes (vv. 5–6, Park Yun-sun).
They even set fire to the sanctuary of God and defiled the Lord’s temple (v. 7).
Look at verse 8:
“They said in their hearts, ‘Let us completely subdue them.’ They have burned all the meeting places of God in the land.”
The Lord’s enemies wanted to annihilate the people of God, and so they burned down all places of worship in the land where the Israelites lived.
How cruel and heartless these enemies of ours—these enemies of the Lord—truly are!
They oppose the Lord and also oppose His people, the Israelites—and us as well.

So then, what should we do in times like these?

(1) Like the Apostle Paul, who was provoked when he saw the idols in the city of Athens, we too must feel righteous anger as we look upon our churches today.
How defiled has the temple of God become?
How rampant is sin within it?
Do you see the holy temple of God falling into ruin?
We must be filled with a fire of holy indignation.

(2) We must have the heart of one who weeps (Park Yun-sun).
We must weep when we look at the Church today.
As we observe the holy temple of the Spirit being defiled and laid to waste, we must weep tears of repentance—seeing it, even just a little, with the holy eyes of God.

(3) We must be able to feel spiritual loneliness as the Church lies in desolation (Park Yun-sun).
In today’s passage, the psalmist sees the ruins of Jerusalem and the temple and feels a deep loneliness, as if God has departed far away (v. 3, Park Yun-sun).
That is why he urgently prays to God, saying:
“We do not see our signs; there is no longer any prophet, nor is there any among us who knows how long. O God, how long will the adversary revile, and the enemy spurn Your name forever? Why do You withdraw Your hand, even Your right hand? From within Your bosom, destroy them!” (vv. 9–11).

The psalmist, grieved that the enemies of the Lord have devastated God’s sanctuary, dishonored His name, and that there are no signs or prophets—no guidance in a time of spiritual darkness—pleads with God to rise in judgment.
He continues to cry out to God in verse 23:
“Do not forget the voice of Your adversaries, the uproar of those who rise against You, which ascends continually.”

We must not forget this:
Our holy and just God is the One who surely judges our enemies and the enemies of the Lord.
Even if, to our eyes, His judgment appears to be delayed, the Lord will, in His time, bring justice upon our enemies and upon His adversaries.

Look at Isaiah 13:11:
“I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the arrogance of the proud, and abase the haughtiness of the ruthless.”

Third and finally, the psalmist’s prayer request was: “Lord, remember Your covenant!”

Look at Psalm 74:20:
“Have regard for the covenant, for the dark places of the land are full of the haunts of violence.”
In verses 12–17 of today’s passage, we see the psalmist praying by relying on God’s faithfulness while remembering the grace He had shown to the people of Israel in the past.
In other words, in the midst of present suffering and darkness, the psalmist remembered God’s faithful grace in the past and pleaded for His salvation and help.
What he held onto was the covenant God had made with the people of Israel.
Just as the faithful God had not forgotten His covenant and had shown saving grace to the Israelites even when they lived through a time of darkness in the past, the psalmist now prays that God would remember His covenant in this present darkness and save His beloved and chosen people.
Therefore, he also prayed that the poor and needy of Israel would be able to praise the name of the Lord (v. 21).

Our God is a faithful God who firmly keeps the covenant He made with us.
Look at Psalm 89:28:
“I will maintain my love to him forever, and my covenant with him will never fail.”
God loves us with unchanging love and faithfully keeps the covenant He has made with us.
Even when we feel like we’re in the midst of darkness due to hardships or unexpected adversity in life, we must cling to God’s faithful promises.
No matter how hopeless things may seem or how uncertain the future may appear, we must remember God’s covenant.

Personally, I hold on to Numbers 23:19, and through it, I gain strength and hope:
“God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?”
I also cling to Isaiah 55:11:
“So is my word that goes out from my mouth: it will not return to me empty but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

God will never forget us, those whom He loves, has chosen, and made His own.
He also does not forget our enemies—He remembers them.
Therefore, He will certainly judge them in His time.
And our God remembers the covenant He made with us.
This is the God we must remember.
And we must never forget the covenant He has made with us in Jesus Christ.
We must hold on to the promises God has given us and pray to Him in faith.
Thus, we are to experience the grace of salvation, as the Lord judges the wicked and delivers us.

Remembering the God who promised, “I will not forget you,”

A sharing from Pastor James Kim
(Hoping that God’s remembrance becomes my remembrance in the midst of suffering)