"I remember the days of old." Psalm 143:5
David was given to much meditation and reminiscing. Again and again we hear him saying, "I remember" (Psalm 42:4; 63:6; 77:10; 137:6). Memory may be either a great comfort or a great torture. The memory of our sins can haunt us to distraction. The memory of God's faithfulness is a source of infinite strength. Memory can take away fear or it can lead to despair. When David says, "I remember the days of old," he must have been thinking of his childhood days when he was just an obscure shepherd lad. Now he was a great king, and prone to become proud and haughty. Remembering how God in grace had called him, he bows humbly before Him and says, "Who remembered us in our low estate: for his mercy endureth for ever" (Psalm 136:23).
Paul says, "Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles....without Christ....aliens....having no hope, and without God in the world (Ephesians 2:11, 12).
There is a story of a Persian King who was elevated from a poverty-stricken home to the glory of a royal throne. When he became king he sent his servants to the old shack where he was reared, with orders to gather every relic of those days. They brought fragments of his home; many broken toys, his patched pantaloons, an old torn and tattered shirt, a crude wooden bowl, from which he ate, and numerous worthless mementos of his childhood. All these he arranged in a special room of his palace, and each day he spend one whole hour sitting among the memories of his humble past. On the wall hung a prayer: "Lest I forget." Let us keep such a chamber of memory, and daily praise Him who brought us up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set our feet upon a rock. Lord make me humble! Remember!
"Bread For Each Day"
No comments:
Post a Comment