“Remember this, O Lord”
[Psalms 74]
Eran Katz from Jerusalem, who holds the world Guinness Record (1998) in memory by listening to and remembering the 500-digit number once, is an expert in developing brain skills and the world-renowned by conducting nearly 1000 workshops in Motorola, IBM, Microsoft, Coca-Cola, and other famous multinational corporations and institutions. In his book “Jerome Becomes a Genius”, Katz talks about two major characteristic of the Jewish brain development method as he has studied the brain development method that has been passed down to the Jews. It is called ‘imagination' and 'inconvenient'. Here, imagination makes sense. It makes sense in common sense that when we keep on imagining it keeps the brain from rusting and can prevent memory decline and can have good memory. However, I don't understand ‘inconvenient’ that Katz is talking about. His argument is that when we study or work, we can do better if we put ourselves in an uncomfortable position. Rather, it is said that when we get used to a comfortable state, we don't use our brains. In his words, one of the techniques Jews enjoy is to study while they stand up or moving the body back and forth. ‘When we shake our body, oxygen is supplied to our brain, and movements stimulate the brain, like a better idea comes up while we are walking.’ There is a saying in the Talmud: ‘If you can't stand the pain of learning, you will suffer the pain of ignorance.' Eventually, as Katz said, people contend that Jews are smart, but it wasn't because of heredity or pedigree, but because the Jews had their own brain-developing techniques to survive the sad history of the Holocaust. Then we can say that discomfort or pain is helpful for our memory (Internet).
In Psalms 74, the psalmist and the Israelites were suffering because of their enemies and the Lord’s enemies. The psalmist and the Israelites became poor and needy because they were oppressed (v. 21). In the midst of that, we see him groaning to God, “O God, why have You rejected us forever?” (v. 1) while crying out to Him, ‘Remember O Lord’ (vv. 2, 18, 20). I would like to meditate on three prayer topics that the psalmist asked God under the heading "Remember this, O Lord." In the midst of that, I pray that God's memory will become our memory in pain.
The first prayer topic was “Remember Your congregation”.
Look at Psalms 74:2 – “Remember Your congregation, which You have purchased of old, Which You have redeemed to be the tribe of Your inheritance; And this Mount Zion, where You have dwelt.” The psalmist cried out to the Lord, the Shepherd, “O God, why have You rejected us forever? Why does Your anger smoke against the sheep of Your pasture?” because there was no work of God’s salvation for the Israelties, His sheep, who were suffering for a long time (v. 1). In the midst of that, he cried out to God to remember the suffering Israelites, the Lord's congregation (v. 2). Was God forgetting his people, the Israelites? So, did He simply leave them unattended despite their long suffering? Look at Isaiah 49:15 – “Can a woman forget her nursing child And have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you.” God never forgot the Israelites. We know this because our God promised, "I will not forget you," like the words spoken through the prophet Isaiah (v. 15). Then why does God remember His people, not forgetting them? In Psalms 74:1-2, two reasons are given:
(1) The first reason is because God is our shepherd and we are his sheep.
Look at Psalms 74:1 – “O God, why have You rejected us forever? Why does Your anger smoke against the sheep of Your pasture?” The shepherd cannot forget the sheep. Our Lord, the Shepherd, remembers us forever. Look at John 10:27 – “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.”
(2) The second reason is because God redeemed us and made us His own.
Look at Psalms 74:2 – “Remember Your congregation, which You have purchased of old, Which You have redeemed to be the tribe of Your inheritance; And this Mount Zion, where You have dwelt.” How can God, who redeemed us with the blood of Jesus Christ, and made us children of God, forget us? The Lord remembers us. Even though we may question whether the Lord forgot us because His salvation is slow in the midst of prolonged suffering and adversity, but our God remembers us forever. Look at Psalms 139:17-18: “How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand When I awake, I am still with You.” How can God, who loves us and always thinks of us countless times, can forget us?
The second prayer topic was ‘Remember Your enemy’.
Look at Psalms 74:18 – “Remember this, O LORD, that the enemy has reviled, And a foolish people has spurned Your name.” Not only did the psalmist ask God to remember His people, the Israelites, but he also pleaded with Him to remember His enemy who persecuted the Israelites and slandered His name (vv. 18, 22). In other words, the psalmist prayed for the Lord to remember the enemy of the Israelites and the Lord's enemy and to judge them. This is a pattern we see mainly as we meditate on the words of the psalms: The psalmist prayed for God's love and mercy to save the Israelites and to judge their enemy with God's holiness and justice. The enemy of the Israelites and the enemy of the Lord “has damaged everything within the sanctuary” (v. 3). The enemy of the Lord, those who oppose the Lord, had roared in the midst of the Lord's meeting place (v. 4, Park) and damaged the temple (v. 3). Furthermore, the enemy of the Lord brutally destroyed God's temple as if they were smashing the forest with an ax (vv. 5-6, Park). They even burned God's sanctuary and defiled the Lord's temple (v. 7). Look at verse 8: “They said in their heart, "Let us completely subdue them." They have burned all the meeting places of God in the land.” The enemy of the Lord wanted to annihilate God's people. So they burned all places of worship in the land where the Israelites lived. How cruel is our enemies and the Lord's enemies? They are against the Lord and against the Lord's people, the Israelites, and against us. What should we do at this time?
(1) Just as the apostle Paul was angry at seeing many idols in the city of Athens, we need to be angry as we look at our churches now.
How defiled is God's temple? How sinful is there? Do you see that God's holy temple is being devastated? Holy anger must rise up in us like a fire.
(2) We must have the heart of crying man (Park).
We must cry as we look at the church now. We must shed tears of repentance as we see little bit with God's holy eyes as the temple of God's holy Spirit is being defiled and desolate.
(3) We need to know how to feel spiritual solitude in the face of the desolation of the church (Park).
The psalmist saw the ruins of Jerusalem and of the temple, and felt solitude as if God had gone far away (v. 3, Park). Therefore, he prayed earnestly to God: “We do not see our signs; There is no longer any prophet, Nor is there any among us who knows how long. How long, O God, 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!” In this age of spiritual darkness without signs or prophets, along with the desolation of God's sanctuary due to the enemy of the Lord, who insulted the name of the Lord and destroyed the temple of the Lord, the psalmist prayed earnestly for God's judgment because he knew that the Lord was looking at what the enemy was doing and was wondering when He would judge them with the Lord's right hand. He also prayed to God like this: “Do not forget the voice of Your adversaries, The uproar of those who rise against You which ascends continually” (v. 23). We must not forget. Our holy and just God is the God who clearly judges our enemies, the enemies of the Lord. He is a holy and just God who will surely judge our enemies and the Lord’s enemies in His time, even though His judgment may seem slow to us now. Look at Isaiah 13:11 – “Thus I will punish the world for its evil And the wicked for their iniquity; I will also put an end to the arrogance of the proud And abase the haughtiness of the ruthless.”
The third prayer topic was ‘Remember Your covenant’.
Look at Psalms 74:20 – “Consider the covenant; For the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence.” If we look at verses 12-17, the psalmist remembers God's grace given to the Israelites in the past, and we can see the psalmist praying for His faithfulness. In other words, the psalmist prayed for God's salvation and helped while remembering the faithful grace of God in the past amidst the suffering and darkness of the present. What he held on was the covenant God made with the Israelites. Just as the faithful God didn’t forget the covenant He made with them when the Israelites lived in the days of darkness, and faithfully gave them the grace of salvation, the psalmist remembered His covenant even in the present darkness and asked for the salvation of the Israelites whom God loved and chose. Therefore, he asked God for the afflicted and needy Israelites to praise the name of the Lord (v. 21).
Our God is a faithful God who keeps the covenant that He made with us. Look at Psalms 89:28 – “My lovingkindness I will keep for him forever, And My covenant shall be confirmed to him.” God loves us, and He is a God who faithfully keeps the covenant made with us with His unchanging love. No matter what sufferings and unexpected adversities in our lives make us feel in darkness, we must hold onto God's faithful word of promise. No matter how hopeless we may appear and the future may not be visible, we must remember God's covenant. I personally hold onto Numbers 23:19. And because of that word, I am strengthened and have hope: “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?” I also hold onto Isaiah 55:11 – “So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.”
God never forgets us whom He loved, chose, and made His possessions. Also, He remembers our enemies without forgetting them. Therefore, He is the God who judges them in His time. And our God is the God who remembers the covenant made with us. We must remember this God. And we must not forget the covenant He made with us in Jesus Christ. We must hold on to the word of promise that God has given us and ask God with faith. Therefore, because the Lord judges the wicked, we must enjoy the grace of salvation that delivers us.
Remembering God who promised, ‘I will not forget you’,
James Kim
(Wishing God’s memory to become my memory in pains)