PSALM 103:1-2 – Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits . . .
THEME OF THE DAY. FORGETTING GOD: A PSALM OF WARNING. We forget things. It might be small or big things. And forgetfulness is part of the fall in the Garden of Eden. When sin entered the world so did death spiritually and physically. This means our bodies and minds decay. They don’t renew. They regress. In our growing older, forgetfulness becomes more of a common occurrence. It is natural but forgetfulness may also be dangerous. In today’s nugget, we want to look at the most dangerous form of forgetfulness – forgetting God. But before we do, this isn’t a forgetfulness we have no control over like diseases of the mind. I am referring to the type of forgetfulness we allow to happen because other things occupy our thinking that draw us to forget the Lord.
In today’s scripture, we may label it “Forgetting God: A Psalm of Warning.” Spend time reading over the Psalm and see the repetition of God’s people forgetting Him. As we do, notice also the consequences when God’s people forget Him. They are severe. They are real. They will happen to us as well if we allow the forgetting of God to happen in our lives. Let’s identify the three consequences resulting of a heart, mind, and life forgetting the Lord. We will do so by referring to the specific text this occurs and then lay out the consequence. As we do, stop and ponder it for personal examination and application.
Psalm 106:7 – Our fathers, when they were in Egypt, did not consider your wondrous works; they did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love, but rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea.
When we forget God’s glorious works in our lives and His overflowing steadfast love to us, we may find ourselves committing the sin of rebellion. In this case of God’s people of old, it was the specific sin of complaining. Forget God’s works of grace and displays of His love to us, and we will complain about tough situations and circumstances; places He does His greatest works of grace and shows us the depths of His steadfast love to us. All because we forgot Him.
Psalm 106:13-15 – But they soon forgot his works; they did not wait for his counsel. But they had a wanton craving in the wilderness, and put God to the test in the desert; he gave them what they asked, but sent a wasting disease among them.
The second consequence of forgetting God is the development of an impatient heart. We grow weary of waiting on God to act resulting in the sin of impatience. When this sin gets entrenched in a life, unkind and impulsive speech comes forth hurting people, even those we love. Also frustration and irritation with people sprouts forth, damaging our testimony for the Lord Jesus. And all these “spiritual uglies” in our hearts and lives started with forgetting God.
Psalm 106:19-22 – They made a calf in Horeb and worshiped a metal image. They exchanged the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass. They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt, wondrous works in the land of Ham, and awesome deeds by the Red Sea.
We reach the third consequence of a believer forgetting God and oh, it is so serious. We become idolaters. Do we think God’s people just woke up one day and said, “Let’s make a golden calf and worship it.” Not at all. Let the mind drift into forgetfulness of God and we will make idols. Remember, we are created to be worshippers. And if we don’t worship the one true God, we will worship someone or something else – families, jobs, hobbies, money . . . the list is endless. All idolatry begins with a forgetfulness of the Lord. So spend time in this Psalm of warning. It will arm us to not commit the sin of forgetting our God and the severe consequences of doing so!
PRAYER: “Father, forgive me when I allow the life You gave me lead me to forgetting the One, You, who gave it to me.”
QUOTE: “Christian, daily think on the Lord by spending time in His Word. To forget Him, opens us up to serious sins.”