Forget Me Not

Psa. 106:1 Praise the LORD!
Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever!
2 Who can utter the mighty deeds of the LORD,
or declare all his praise?
Psalm 106:21 They forgot God, their Savior,
who had done great things in Egypt,

10 years ago on the 7th of November, 2003, one of my roommates was shot down whilst piloting his Blackhawk Helicopter in Tikrit, Iraq.

Remembrance Day just flew by. It is a day in which we remember soldiers who made the supreme sacrifice so that we could enjoy the current liberties we so easily take for granted.

This whole psalm is one of thanksgiving. It remembers God’s special care and ransom. But it also painfully recounts the community’s forgetfulness. We often forget unimportant things – and it is not a big deal. When we forget the important things of life we engage in a very subtle form of ungratefulness.

At the military academy my roomates and I chose inscriptions on our class rings that read, “Greater love has no man than this that he lay down his life for his friends.”(John 15:13). Though heartwarming it is nothing compared to the One who truly uttered those words.

This Psalm is a hymn of praise to a God of redeeming, sacrificial love. In spite of all the ungratefulness, God pursues, God redeems, God forgives. “Nevertheless, he looked upon their distress, when he heard their cry. For their sake he remembered his covenant,”(v44-45).

For all its exposure of man’s ingratitude, this is a psalm of praise, for it is God’s extraordinary longsuffering that emerges as the real theme.

It is in this Psalm we see the Captain of our Salvation (Heb 2:10), the one who will spare no expense and regardless of the remembrance or thankfulness of those rescued. He punches a whole through death and accomplishes His great rescue. Let us pause and remember the Great Captain of our Salvation.