He Remembers His Covenant Forever…

He is the Lord our God; his judgments are in all the earth.  He remembers his covenant forever, the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations. (Psalm 105:7-8; ESV)

What do Memorial Day, Independence Day, Veteran’s Day and other U.S. national holidays have in common?  Yes, they are all great summer cook-out days, but that’s not what I had in mind.  They are all days set aside to call to our memories the good things that have occurred in the past.  Memorial Day is a day in which we remember all of the men and women who have died in military service to our country; we remember their faithful service and their efforts to protect and defend our country.  Independence Day is the day that commemorates the birth of our country as it was the day our founding fathers declared their independence from Great Britain.  Veteran’s Day is a day set aside to honor all of our military veterans for their service.  We can do the same for our other national holidays.  The point being we’ve worked into our national identity a way of observing what has gone before us and to recall all of the good that has been accomplished.

Another way to recall the past is through books or songs, and I’m sure we can all recall songs that bring to mind the history of our country.  It shouldn’t come to a surprise that the ancient Israelites had a very strong national identity too.  They were God’s chosen people who were brought up out of Egypt and conquered the Promised Land.  Israelite culture was filled with rituals and events that recalled their past.  Every religious feast in the Jewish calendar was instituted as a remembrance of their history.  Their songs were also vehicles by which they recalled their history, and the psalms are loaded with memorial songs.  The psalm we’re looking today is one such psalm.  Psalm 105 is a hymn that celebrates God’s faithful dealings with his people.  In particular this psalm recalls events from the Pentateuch and God’s faithfulness to the covenant he made with Abraham.

The passage under consideration today describes God as a covenant keeping and covenant remembering God.  In other words, God is faithful — when he makes a promise, he never fails to keep it.  Psalm 105 begins with a general call to God’s goodness.  It then begins to chronicle the history of the Israelite people from the calling of Abraham and the giving of the covenant all the way to the conquest of the Promised Land.  This is a story of promise given and fulfilled.

Now the question that immediately comes to my mind is why the song of remembrance?  The obvious answer is so they wouldn’t forget God’s goodness; and that is true!  More importantly is the fact that when God makes a promise and seemingly tarries in fulfilling it, we tend to think that he has forgotten us.  Can anyone think of a time when God made a promise and human beings got anxious and jumped the gun?  Hmmm, let’s see…how about the promise to Abraham and Sarah that they would have a child?  Abraham and Sarah jumped the gun and the result was Ishmael — whose descendents have been eternal enemies of God’s people ever since.  If we’re not continually reminded of God’s goodness and faithfulness, we are not only liable to forget his faithfulness, but also to think that his faithfulness is a thing of the past; it’s what God used to do, but he isn’t like that anymore.

I’d like to say that Christian are better at remembering God’s faithfulness, but that would be a lie.  We see the OT stories and think that was then, but this is now.  We, in a sense, adopt a ‘what have you done for me lately’ attitude with God.  While the backdrop of Psalm 105 is God’s faithfulness to Israel in delivering them from slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land, his faithfulness doesn’t stop there.  God has continued to remember his covenant with his people. Jesus Christ not only marks the fulfillment of all the OT promises God made to Israel (Matthew 5:17; 2 Corinthians 1:20), he also inaugurates the New Covenant.  What this means is that Gentiles are now incorporated with the Jews as the new people of God — the Church — and God, through Christ, has made more promises to us; the big one being that Christ will return again to bring to fruition what was started at his first advent.  As a way of remembering that promise, Christ instituted the Lord’s Supper, which not only points us back to what Christ did on our behalf, but also looks forward to his return.

Bottom Line:  Most churches I’ve attended celebrate the Lord’s Supper sporadically — once a month, once every six weeks, etc.  It’s as if the Lord’s Supper takes a back seat to more ‘weighty’ issues like practical theology or authentic Christian community.  And even when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, it takes on a whole new meaning.  It becomes a time of self-reflection and making sure we don’t partake of communion in an ‘unworthy’ manner.  The Lord’s Supper is a remembrance; it is an opportunity to call to mind again the wonderful bounties of God’s grace and receive his forgiveness and renewal.  It is also a time to look forward to the time of Christ’s ultimate return when we will be able to enjoy this meal with him personally.  

I believe the Lord’s Supper should take a more prominent role in evangelical worship services.  Our Lord didn’t institute many rituals and ceremonies to follow; only two — Baptism (in which we recognize new members into the covenant community of the Church) and Communion (in which we remember the covenant our Lord established with us).  If history has anything to teach us it is this:  We’re forgetful.  Many of us, myself included, don’t live in continual expectation of his return.  We need to be constantly reminded of the covenant promises God made to us through Christ, and to remember that God is a covenant keeping God!