Passtor Fredo Ramos: Psalm one zero six. Praise the Lord. He begins. Give thanks to the Lord for he is good. His faithful love endures forever.
Who can list the glorious miracles of the Lord? Who can ever praise him enough? There is joy for those who deal justly with others and always do what is right. Remember me, Lord, when you show favor to your people. Come near and rescue me.
Let me share in the prosperity of your chosen one of your chosen ones. Let me rejoice in the joy of your people. Let me praise you with those who are your heritage. 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. Even so, he saved them to defend the honor of his name and to demonstrate his mighty power.
He commanded the Red Sea to dry up. He led Israel across the sea. Then the waters returned and covered their enemies and not one of them survived. Then his people believed his promises, then they sang his praise. Yet how quickly they forgot what he had done.
That now becomes the theme for the rest of this Psalm. If you look down at verse 20, they traded their glorious God for a statue of a grass eating bull. Verse 23, so he declared he would destroy them. But Moses has chosen one step between the Lord and his people. Verse 24, the people refused to enter the pleasant land.
Instead, they grumbled in their tents and he solemnly swore that he would kill them in the wilderness and he he would scatter their descendants. Then our ancestors joined in the worship of Baal at Peor. They even ate sacrifices offered to the dead. They angered the Lord with all these things. Verse 34, Israel failed to destroy the nations in the land as the Lord had commanded them.
Instead, they mingled among the pagans and adopted their evil customs. Down in verse 40, that is why the Lord's anger burned against his people and he abhorred his own special possession and he handed them over to pagan nations. Verse 43, again and again he rescued them but they chose rebel against him and they were finally destroyed by their sin. Even so he pitied them in their distress and listened to their cries. He remembered his covenant with them and relented because of his unfailing love.
He even caused their captors to treat them with kindness. Save us, oh lord, our god. Gather us among the nations so we can thank your holy name. Verse 48. Praise the lord, the god of Israel who lives from everlasting to everlasting.
Let all the people say amen. Praise the Lord. This particular prayer is a call to worship. And it's a call to worship that's rooted in the love of God, but told historically through the story of Israel. Where we're reminded that despite how faithful God was to his people time and time again, even in the face of God delivering them, they would forget him quickly.
And so this Psalm is a way to kind of press into our own souls to show us a mirror of ourselves and to reveal all the ways that you and I regularly on a daily basis can forget the saving acts of God and lead us to a place of, ingratitude. Maybe even lead us to a place of bitterness. And yet I'm encouraged though to find there in verse 44, even so he pitied them in their distress and he listened to their cries and he remembered his covenant. You see the good news for us today as you begin your day, as you face yourself, as you face your circumstances and your responsibilities, that there could be a tendency to experience forgetfulness. Maybe there even is a sense of ingratitude in your life right now.
Even as you stand in the blessings of God and the ways that he has delivered you. And so the invitation through this Psalm, by way of reflection and God inviting us through Jesus is to remember him. As you go about your day, remember him and remember his faithful love to you. Because the only thing that I think can kind of penetrate through a hardened heart, a heart that is prone to forgetfulness is God's faithful love. That's the only thing that can penetrate through.
And so Jesus, we hear you now inviting us to respond in prayer. So we ask that through your Holy Spirit, you would search our hearts so that we might honestly see how Israel's story of forgetfulness really is our story of forgetfulness every day. But would your faithful love wake us up so that our eyes would be open to see all of the ways that you have saved us in the past and the ways that you continue to save us even today. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.