SERMON
REMEMBERING GOD’S BLESSING
“I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High” (Psalm 77:10).
SCRIPTURE
They cried out to the Lord in their troubles; He saved them out of their distresses. Let them give thanks to the Lord for His loving kindness, and for His wonders to the sons of men!
Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine—where are they?
--Forget none of His benefits. –God, who answered me in the day of my distress.
I sought the Lord; He answered me, and delivered me from all my fears. — I love the Lord, because He hears my voice and my supplications. Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore I shall call upon Him as long as I live. –My heart trusts in Him, and I am helped; therefore, my heart exults, and with my song, I shall thank Him.
Call upon me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me. He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors Me.
Always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Psa 107:19, 21; Luke 17:17. –Psa 103:2.—Gen 35:3. Psa 34:4.—Psa 116: 1, 2.—Psa 28:7. Psa 50: 15, 23. Eph 5:20.
INTRODUCTION: Memory is the treasure chamber of the soul. In it are stored the joys and sorrows, the pains and pleasures of experience in rich profusion. There, mellowed by the kindly hand of time, our time, our sorrows soften into the building blocks of our growth in Christ’s likeness. And eventually they become reasons for our profound joy.
There are some things that we never forget; they remain bright and shining lights in the memory, undimmed by all the years. Their presence gives a golden splendor unto life and they form some of our most precious possessions. That man is never lonely who has gathered such rich spoils of the past to help him in the struggles of the present. The writer of this Psalm was such a man; he made the glory of the vanished years pay tribute to the present. Into the “winter of discontent” he brought the sweet and fragrant blessings of the summertime. “This is my infirmity; but I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High. I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago. I will meditate on all your works and consider all your mighty deeds.”
When our memories are jogged by a sight, a sound like music, or a smell or the touch, suddenly incidents of the past leap to the foreground of our minds and our emotions, which have been dormant for a long time, are stirred. Psychologists tell us that every impression received by the brain is retained; that nothing is really forgotten, but by the very touch of some association, the incident will live again in the memory. As you think over the landscape of your own mind you will find confirmation of this theory. How often has something come to the surface of your memory that you thought had been erased forever, but the fact is that it was just waiting for the right thing to trigger its recollection.
When occasion requires that we remember something that has “slipped our memory”, we attempt to reconstruct the original conditions of the fact or event, and as we painfully recall piece by piece of the forgotten incident, suddenly it flashes into the mind, complete in all its particulars. Present circumstances sometimes remind us of past events with a vividness that is nothing short of astounding.
The Psalmist in his infirmity has turned to the storehouse of memory for relief and comfort. His present experiences are dreary and desolate; he can find very little hope anywhere and his heart is torn with the fear that God has forgotten. But the recollection of those years in which the
I. MEMORY IS THE MIRROR OF THE SOUL
Rich beyond worldly computation is the man who can bring up from the treasure house of his memory such divine wealth as this Psalm. It is worth more than diamonds which are mined out of the earth with much toil. Depending on the content of what has been stored in our memories; they can bring forth blessings and joy or heartache and incriminations. Often psychologists and counselors find that unhappy memories of a child growing up with a dysfunctional parent are often glossed and dad or mom becomes their hero. Some of us make memory a scapegoat by saying “I don’t remember.” Some people actually hate the memory of some thing or some one so much that the really cannot recall without hypnosis. On the other hand, sometimes we remember the things we want to forget and forget the things we want to remember. I am sure that you have had the experience in school of knowing something and not being able to remember it for an exam.
To have a hammer in the house is a simple matter; to remember where it is when you need to use it is often a problem. This is especially true when you have a teen-age son in the house. By what method, therefore, can we retain those things which we really want to remember? The writer of the Psalm pinned his faith to the Lord’s intervention in the history of
We remember best those things which most strongly appeal to us. The interests in which we are most deeply concerned are those which remain longest in the mind. It is seldom that we forget the outstanding events of life; but incidents to which we are indifferent, and for which we have only transient interest soon disappear from our consciousness.
It is very important that we strive to be earnestly interested in the vital matters of life. When we forget the services of the Church and remember the date of a dance, it is a clear indication where our heart is.
Our memory betrays us.
II. WHAT CONSTITUTES A PRECIOUS MEMORY?
If we wish to recollect the experiences which will bring us most joy in the future, then we must give them the chief place in our thoughts. Open your Bibles to Philippians 4:8 and underline this verse. The Bible says in Phil. 4:8
“Whatever is true,
whatever is noble,
whatever is right,
whatever is pure,
whatever is lovely,
whatever is admirable—
if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—
think about such things”(Philippians 4:8).
Make your memory a repository of the deep things of God, and you will never be left desolate.
As it is highly significant that we store up the best of life’s experiences for the future, so it is of not less consequence that forget much that has come within the range of our intelligence. There are books and stories which we have unfortunately read, incidents of life which should be deliberately dropped into the abyss of forgetfulness. We should with infinite jealousy guard our minds from the intrusion of the unholy and course things of the world.
In some of our homes chaos and disorder reigns supreme you will find every space filled with odds and ends that are worse than useless. And so it is with some of our minds, they gather all the trivial and worthless things of experiences with the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life and store them up. The apostle Paul had this in mind when he said, “let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author, and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:1, 2). Memory must be protected against such an invasion of garbage. In some ways our minds are like computers, “Garbage in—garbage out.” That means that if we put trash into our minds—trash will come out in our conversation and be reflected in our actions, reactions, and in our attitudes.
A cultivated memory into which there has poured the holiest and best, becomes one of the richest treasures of the soul. For our memory is our self; in it lies our personality, and it is eternal.
There are certain persons who enjoy a miserable existence in relating all life’s misfortunes. They have a distressing faculty for remembering only the dark episodes. They seem to take a melancholy delight in dwelling in the valley of tribulation. They can tell you of the severest winter in twenty years, but forget the years when the winters were kind. They remember the summers when everything was dried up, but forget the seasons when the fields were lush with grain and the apple trees yielded an abundance of beautiful healthy fruit.
A person with such a memory degenerates into a pessimist, and habitually closes his or her eyes to the continual stream of God’s blessings. The mind of such a person becomes a museum for the abnormal and fragmentary incidents of life.
David, in the twenty-third Psalm, indicates the path of the years he has trodden. The Good Shepherd has led him beside the still waters, and made him to lie down in green pastures. Now he is passing through the Valley of the Shadow and he comforts himself with recounting the blessings of the days that are his memories. He is now twice blessed; he lives over again the scenes of a happier day. David the brave singer of “songs in the night” refreshes his soul with the memories of the triumphs of
“The waters saw thee, O God;
The waters saw thee, they were afraid!
The depths also trembled.”
It is not the devastating drought and burning thirst of the desert upon which he dwells but “The clouds poured out water.”
IV. THE PERSON OF FAITH REMEMBERS GOD’S FAITHFULNESS.
Isn’t this Way the most beautiful testimony of faith? To make our tragedies bear testimony to the Love of God, we will not lose our faith over what we have suffered but remember that He said, “My grace is sufficient for thee.” We will forget the disappointment and endeavor to cherish the discipline. In this way we shall beautify the walls of our memory with the precious trophies of our fiercest struggles.
During the twentieth century and into the twenty-first century humanity has suffered through several wars and natural and economic calamities. They were and are terrible experiences full of personal tragedy. The present events will be researched by historians, debated by military strategists and economists will count the cost and politicians will blame each other, but the man of faith will remember the years of “the right hand of the Most High.” Through these years of conflict and personal loss historians will be able to trace the guiding hand of God. Like Samuel, who raised his memorial upon a battlefield, we will say,
“Thus far the Lord has helped us.”
V. GOD
We in this country have great cause for thankfulness. As a nation we have been favored during these worldwide upheavals. Nations have been dissolved, peoples have been scattered, cities and towns have been reduced to heaps of ruin. As Psalm 91 says, “destruction has wasted at noonday, but it has not come nigh us. While it is true that the shadow of the loss of loved ones has fallen on many homes, we have practically remained unharmed through it all, but to the majority of us, our part of the world’s heavy burden has rested lightly on our shoulders. Therefore we remember the gracious dealings of God to us as a people and we give Him thanks. We should not forget that we have been and still continue to be the rich recipients of Divine favor. It will be a sad day for us if in our prosperity we forget the Giver of every good and perfect gift and say to ourselves, “Our own hand has saved us.” The spirit of praise should invest our souls as a garment as we acknowledge the kind Heart of our Eternal God in the marching events of time.
VI. MEMORY IS AGAIN POINTING US TO THE FATHER’S LOVE.
The Scriptures very clearly teach the kindness and love of God’s Memory. “For the Lord is mindful his own; He remembers his Children.” While we often forget him, he does not forget us. Before the foundation of the world he had us in remembrance. In the story of the Prodigal Son, the Father at home never forgets his wayward boy; and it was when the son remembered his Father that he turned his weary steps homeward. It may be that memory is again pointing one of you to the Father’s love, which you have so long forgotten.
Let there be reciprocal relations between God and ourselves. As he has never forgotten us, let us remember him and seek to be intensely interested in those things which belong to our peace. Then we will say with the Psalmist:
“I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High,
I will remember your miracles of long ago,
I will meditate upon all your works,
And consider all your mighty deeds.”
