That seems to be what has happened in this Psalm. Once again the psalmist is in trouble and he wonders if God will be away from him forever. But his response is an example for us to all follow when we find ourselves in the same kind of situation.
5 I have considered the days of old, The years of long ago. 6 I will remember my song in the night ; I will meditate with my heart, And my spirit ponders
When he questioned if God had changed
11 I shall remember the deeds of the LORD ; Surely I will remember Your wonders of old. 12 I will meditate on all Your work And muse on Your deeds.
I've used this example before, (have told this story for years) about when the children of Israel crossed the Jordan River. Joshua instructed them to have a really big strong guy from each tribe get a giant rock from the middle of the Jordan and for them to pile the 12 stones up on the bank of the river.
Joshua 4:6 "Let this be a sign among you, so that when your children ask later, saying, 'What do these stones mean to you?' 7 then you shall say to them, 'Because the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off.' So these stones shall become a memorial to the sons of Israel forever ."
Samuel did the same thing after a big victory. (I Samuel 7) He set up a rock and called it "Ebenezer" which means "Thus far the LORD has helped us."
We all should have stones in our lives. Not literal stones - unless they mean something - but memories, stories, events, etc. that help us remember what God has done for us so when we hit either good times or bad times and forget God, these things remind us of Him, His grace, His goodness, His power, etc. etc. etc.
Haha! I guess in a way I just told you that you should have rocks in your head!
What stones are you going to put up?
1 comment:
In my Bible, long ago, I had underlined the "I will" that comes in verses 10-12: "I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High. I will remember the works of the LORD: surely I will remember thy wonders of old. I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings." I know it's because we can get caught up in the "Where is God?" mindset. In the Message translation, some of the first verses so mirror days (and nights) in my life "I remember God-—and shake my head. I bow my head—then wring my hands. I'm awake all night—not a wink of sleep; I can't even say what's bothering me. I go over the days one by one, I ponder the years gone by. ... wondering how to get my life together."
I love your analogy of rocks. When my brother died, one morning I was taking a walk around my mom's neighborhood (where I had grown up) and went by a large pine tree of some sort. The "pine cones" (or whatever you would call them) looked like small roses. I picked up five instinctively signifying my family, forgetting for the moment that I had "lost" my brother. As I continued my walk, I thought about how God does not even need a flowering bush to make flowers. It made me think that God could make anything out of the tragedy I was experiencing. Those rose-pine cones are in a small basket in my living room. They're my rocks.
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