Let us turn again to God's Word
in the last of those Psalms that we read, Psalm 77. And I read
verses 3 and 6 and 10 and 11. Psalm 77, verse 3, I remembered
God and was troubled. I complained and my spirit was
overwhelmed. Selah 6 I call to remembrance
my song in the night I commune with my known heart and my spirit
my diligent search and verses 10 and 11 and I said this is
my infirmity but I will remember the years of the right hand of
the Most High I will remember the works of the Lord surely
I will remember thy wonders of old. Quite remarkable how frequently
in this psalm and in the psalms in general much is made of remembrance. Those other two psalms that we
read, Psalm 38 and Psalm 70, both bear that title. that there
are psalms to bring to remembrance. And I want this morning to consider
with you the subject of remembering God and its consequences. If we remember God right, what
will be the results of such a remembrance? And in particular, centering
your attention on the words that we have here in verse 11, Psalm
77 and verse 11, I will remember the works of the Lord, surely
I will remember thy wonders of all. First of all then we see
that as the Psalmist is thus determined to remember God and
to remember the works of God it brings much trouble even confusion
into his mind. In verse 3 he says, I remembered
God and was troubled. If we have a right recollection
of God and what God has revealed to us concerning himself here
on the page of Holy Scripture, Is it not at times troublesome
to us? Because God, of course, is very
much revealed in Scripture to be the Holy One of Israel. He is a just God when He declares
His name. And in the declaration of His
name, of course, we really do have that revelation of God when
He declares Himself then to Moses there in Exodus chapter 34 they
are fearful words gracious words yes but also fearful words in
Exodus 34 and verse 6 the Lord passed by before him that is
before Moses and proclaims he proclaims his name the Lord that
is Jehovah the God of the Covenant the Lord God, merciful and gracious,
long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy
for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and
that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity
of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's children,
unto the third and to the fourth generation. Or that we might
be those who, as we remember God, have those right views of
God. Yes, He is a gracious and a merciful
God, but He is also that One who is holy and just and righteous,
who cannot wink at sin, who can by no means clear the guilty. And in that 38th Psalm, that
Psalm of David to bring to remembrance, there we see that David is so
very conscious of himself, so very conscious of his sinnership. There is no soundness in my flesh,
he says, because of thine anger, neither is there any rest in
my bones because of my sin. for mine iniquities are gone
over mine head as a heavy burden they are too heavy for me my
wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness I am
troubled he cries out but then we see how he will acknowledge
his sins in verse 18 I will declare mine iniquity I will be sorry
for my sin if we remember God then it will at times cause us
to be troubled, even to be somewhat confused. And this certainly
seems to be the case with Asach as we read through this 77th
Psalm. Look at what he says at verse
7. Will the Lord cast off forever? Will he be favourable no more?
Is his mercy clean? Gone forever? Doth his promise
fail forevermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious?
Hath he in anger shut up his tender mercy's sealer? Oh, he is confused. He cannot
understand the ways of God. He's anxious. His sin is such
a troublesome thing to him. And there in verse 10, he has
to cry out, this is my infirmity, but I will remember the years
of the right hand of the Most High. It's interesting what we
have here in this particular verse, this 10th verse. The word for years is really
derived from the Hebrew word for a change and you can see
how from that word we have the word of years because the passing
of the years does of course mark the changing of time But if we
were to use the literal word change there, and if we were
to omit the italics, because it is clearly a verse, this tenth
verse, in which the translators have recognized the necessity
of introducing additional English words, to bring out the sense,
but if we omit those words that have been added, which are not
a rendering, of course, of any word that's there in the original
Hebrew, we could read the word something like this, I said,
this is my infirmity, the right hand of the Most High has changed. This is my infirmity, the right
hand of the Most High has changed. This is what might be said to
be so troubling to Asaph. thought that God was changing. Will the Lord cast off forever? Does His promise fail forevermore? We know that there were times
when Jeremiah, in his day, did feel this very much to be the
case. He lived, of course, in those
terrible days of the exile. He witnessed the overthrow of
Jerusalem and the people being removed into captivity, into
Babylon. and he cries out there in Jeremiah
chapter 14 and verse 21 do not abhor us for thy name's sake
do not disgrace the throne of thy glory he says do not disgrace
the throne he's God changing he's God's throne in some way
or other unstable and changing he was really saying something
that could in no sense at all be true. God does not change. It is impossible for God to change
and he was brought to realize that. because again on another
occasion later in Jeremiah 17 12 he says a glorious high throne
from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary or the throne
of God the absolute sovereignty of God the unchanging purposes
of God this was his comfort God would in no sense at all disgrace
the throne of his glory but when he saw the circumstances that
surrounded him in that dreadful period of history amongst God's
ancient covenant people. How he was troubled, just as
Asaph is here troubled. Now look at the words that we
have for example, here in verses 9 and 10, and you will see that
there is a definite break between these two verses, which is indicated,
of course, by the introduction of the Selah at the end of verse
9. As gods, forgotten to be gracious,
hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah. Having asked these questions,
And after this pause, Esau says, I said this is my infirmity. It's not God. It's himself. That's what he is saying. He's
misunderstanding God. He's confused by God's ways and
God's dealings with him. This is the thing that is so
troublesome to him. And so he is cast out. And aren't
these things, friends, all written for our learning? That we, through
patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope. There are times
when we are confused. When our remembrance of God only
brings trouble into our minds. But the fault is not with God
so often. We have to recognize where the
fault lies, and it lies even with ourselves. We see it in
others of the Psalms. Look at the language of David
there in Psalms 43 and 44. Psalm 43 and verse 2, he cries
out, Why dost thou cast me off? He asks God that question. Why
dost thou cast me off? In Psalm 44 and verse 9 he says
something more, Thou hast cast off and put us to shame. These
are the sort of statements that we find there in those earlier
Psalms and we see something very similar here of course with Asaph. He asks a question in verse 7,
Will the Lord cast off forever? Will he be favourable no more? These are the troubles that come
into the minds of God's people when God is dealing with them
in contrary ways, in strange ways, when they cry to Him and
their prayer doesn't seem to enter and there appears to be
no answer to their cry. We have to remember, of course,
the words of another psalm that assures us. Psalm 94 and verse
14, it says, the Lord will not cast off His people. Neither
will he forsake his inheritance." That is the truth. But there
are those times when it is our infirmity. We misunderstand God. We misinterpret God. If we were
to read over into Psalm 78, we find comforting words. Here in Psalm 78, verse 38, He,
being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed
them not. Yea, many a time turned he his
anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath, for he remembered
that they were but flesh, the wind that passeth away, and cometh
not again. Oh, we remember God, and we might
be troubled, but God remembers us. He knoweth our frame. He
remembereth that we are dust. And this is our comforting. And
we should seek, therefore, to have those right views of God. But if we're going to have right
views of God, we must also look to ourselves. We must have a
right understanding of ourselves. As Calvin says in the opening
sentence of his great work on the institutions, the religious
institutions, You know that great systematic theology, true knowledge
involves two parts, the knowledge of ourselves as well as the knowledge
of our God. And here we see how Asaph will
indeed look to himself. and will examine himself. In
verse 6, I call to remembrance, he says, my song in the night. I commune with mine own heart
and my spirit made diligent search. Here he is addressing himself,
as it were. He's communing with himself. It's a sort of soliloquy, is
it not? We have it in those Psalms that
we've already referred to in Psalm 42. And in Psalm 43, we
have a certain repetition where we find the Psalmist asking the
same question over and over. Psalm 42 at verse 5, he says,
Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted
in me? Hope thou in God, for I shall
yet praise Him for the help of His countenance. But then he
repeats it in verse 11, Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Why
art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God, for I shall
yet praise Him who is the house of my countenance and my God.
And yet again, in the very next Psalm, Psalm 43, in verse 5,
Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted
within me, hoping God? For I shall yet praise Him, who
is the house of my countenance and my God. And there's profit
in meditating upon those three verses and to observe something
of the subtle differences that we see. They're not perfect repetitions,
there are some slight differences. And I say again, it's profitable
to look into those verses and to meditate upon them. It is
good, is it not, to enter into dialogue with ourselves. We remember God. He says here
that He called to remembrance. He sung in the night, He would
commune with His own heart, He would make a diligent search
with regards to the state of His soul. and again we have that
hymn, it's in the book, it's not a hymn that we would sing
in public worship but 780 is a dialogue between a believer
and his soul and I would commend to you the
careful reading and prayerful meditation on the content of
that particular him 780 come my soul and let us try for a
little season every burden too late by come and let us reason
if we have the proper remembrance of God the right remembering
of God we will look to ourselves we will examine ourselves this
is one of the consequences if we are those who are mindful
of the Lord God himself We'll also examine ourselves. We have that exhortation, do
we not, in 2 Corinthians 13, the importance of self-examination. Examine yourselves, whether you
be in the faith. Says Paul, prove your own selves.
Know you're not your own selves. Know that Jesus Christ is in
you, except ye be reprobate. Well, we need to look into ourselves.
and to examine ourselves we should do it regularly, of course, as
we come to celebrate that Holy Supper of the Lord. We are told
quite explicitly, are we not, in the 11th chapter of 1st Corinthians,
let a man examine himself and so let him eat of that bread
and drink of that cup. To examine ourselves we should
be those who would desire that the Lord would examine us as
we come under the sound of his words. We see, do we not, again in the
language of the Psalmist, the way in which David addresses
God there at the end of the 139th Psalm, that Psalm that speaks
so clearly of God as the omniscient one, the all-knowing one. Search
me, O God, he says, and know my heart. Try me and know my
thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me. And lead
me in the way everlasting. Are we those who are moved into
this exercise, this self-examination as we remember God? We see it so clearly, I say,
time and again, in the experiences of the godliest, I speak here
in this book of Psalms. I call to remembrance my song
in the night. I commune with mine own heart
my spirit-made diligent search. And if we do look to ourselves,
we will then be moved rightly to look away from ourselves and
to look to God. Yes, there is that subjective
aspect, that self-examination, but we're to recognize the necessity,
the importance of the objective, to look away from ourselves.
One look itself says that McShane, ten, a hundred, a thousand looks
to the Lord Jesus Christ. But all if we do but look rightly
to ourselves, how we will need and want to be looking to Christ.
Pour not on thyself too long, rest it simply lower, look to
Jesus kind and strong, mercy joined to power. What do we see
then here? In the experience of Asaph, he
remembers God, and he's troubled. He's troubled because he is conscious,
like David, of his own sinnership. And he is oftentimes confused.
He misunderstands God and the dealings of God. But then he
is moved to this exercise of self-examination. But more than
that, he is moved to meditation. he's moved to meditation and
that's what we see here in verses 11 and 12 I will remember the
works of the Lord surely I will remember thy wonders of old I
will meditate also of all thy work he says if he remembers
God he will seek to dwell upon God to remember God to remember
the works of God and the ways of God. And what is this meditation? It is that music. Again, it's similar, is it not,
to that soliloquy, that talking to self, in a sense. It's considering
God and setting one's mind and one's affections upon God. seeking
to be raised above the things of time and of sense, and to
set the affections on those things that are above, where Christ
is at God's right hand. We have a certain repetition
in the language that is being used here in verses 10 and 11
we have this repeated use of the word remember I said this
is my infirmity but I will remember the years of the right hand of
the Most High I will remember the works of the Lord surely
I will remember thy wonders of all all there is at places they're
not for repetition and it is certainly part and parcel of
that meditation that we should seek to give ourselves to. We're
told in the 28th chapter of Isaiah that it must be precept upon
precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line,
here a little, there a little. This is the way there's that
gradual dealing, is there not? as we think upon God, as we meditate
upon God, as we consider God and His dealings with us. I like
the observation of the old Scots commentator David Dixon. He says
we must be content to come creeping out of trouble little by little. Little by little. That's what
will come, you see, as we're rightly meditating upon God,
we'll be troubled. that the remembrance of him as
we see was the case here with the Siamese and yet there is
that deliverance that coming out of our troubles but it's
little by little. How does this man meditate upon
God? How does he consider God? Well
he speaks here not meditating upon God in some abstract sense
God, of course, when we think of the being of God, is altogether
above and beyond our understanding. We have those words, those questions
in the 11th chapter of Job. Canst thou by searching find
out the Almighty? Canst thou find out the Almighty
unto perfection? It is high as heaven. What can
thou know deeper than hell? What can thou do? The measure
thereof is longer than the earth and broader than the sea. We
cannot begin to fathom God who is the Infinite One, the Eternal
One. We cannot really comprehend those
attributes that belong to God. He is everywhere. He is omnipresent. He is all-knowing. He is omniscient. and He's all-powerful, He's the
Omnipotent One. How can we really begin to explain
these things, or rightly to contemplate these things? And when we think,
of course, of that great mystery of the doctrine of God, the doctrine
of the Trinity, that God is One, and yet God subsists in three
Persons. But not three Gods, three Persons
in one undivided Godhead. As the psalmist is meditating
here, it's not so much considering God in some abstract fashion,
but he speaks of God's acts. He meditates upon God in his
works, and God in his ways. In verse 12 he says, I will meditate
also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings. Again, if we go back to verse
5, he says, I have considered the
days of old, the years of ancient times. I call to remembrance
my song in the night. Well, this is what he would do,
you see. He would be considering those things that God had done,
those great historic happenings. And that's very much the note
on which the psalm concludes. In verse 16, the water saw thee,
O God, the water saw thee. They were afraid. The depths
also were troubled. the clouds poured out water,
the skies sent out a sound, thine arrows also went abroad, the
voice of thy thunder was in the heaven, the lightnings lightened
the world, the earth trembled and shook, thy ways in the sea,
and thy path in the great waters, and my footsteps are not known.
Thou leadest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses
and Aaron. Is he not here meditating upon
God's sovereignty in the course of history? And those great things
that God did for his ancient people when he brought them out
of the bondage of Egypt and made a way for them through the Red
Sea. Isn't that what he is meditating
upon? Thy work, thy doings, those things
recorded in the Scriptures, wherein God displayed himself to be a
great God and the one who is able to deliver his people. He was familiar, of course, with
that history that's recorded back in Exodus chapter 14, the
way in which God made that way for them through the Red Sea
when they were still being pursued by the Egyptians. Verse 21, there
Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. And the LORD caused
the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and
made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the
children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the
dry ground, and the waters were a wall unto them on their right
hand and on their left." But previous to that, what does
God say to them? Speaking to his servant Moses,
he tells Moses how he must command them. Fear you not, stand still
and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show to you
today, for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you shall
see them again no more forever. they were to stand still, they
were to see God's work. These are the things that the
psalmist is seeking to meditate on. And when he comes, of course,
to the observance of that holy supper of the Lord, is it not
a feast of remembrance? Christ says, both concerning
the bread, the broken bread, and concerning the cup, he says,
this do in remembrance of me. or were to remember that great
work, the greatest of all the works of God, that that was accomplished
when Christ made that one sacrifice for sin, the great doctrine of
substitution and atonement. These are the things we are to
remember. If we remember God we should be moved to consider
these things, to meditate upon these things. Again, in that
next Psalm in verse 35 of Psalm 78 they remember that God was
their Rock and the High God their Redeemer. All we are to remember
God. If we remember God of light we'll
seek to contemplate God as He has revealed Himself in His words. And His words of course speak
to us of His ways. So much of scripture as we know
is historical. It's an account of God's dealings
with men here upon the earth in time. The right remembrance
of God then. It will move us. It will move
us to look to ourselves, to examine ourselves. It will move us to
meditate upon Him and to contemplate the way in which He has worked,
the way in which He has revealed Himself by His gracious dealings.
and then furthermore this remembrance will move us to a confession
of God, an acknowledgement of God and so we have it here at
the end of the twelfth verse he speaks of talking of God's
doings surely I will remember thy wonders of old I will meditate
also of all thy work and talk of thy doings all God's works
are to be spoken of we are to acknowledge them we are to confess
the great works of God Psalm 111 He hath made His wonderful
works to be remembered the Lord is gracious and full of compassion
can we not speak then of the works of God can we not speak
of God's dealings even with us personally do we desire to acknowledge
to confess these things remember the language of the psalmist
in the 66th psalm come and hear all ye that fear God and I will
declare what he has done for my soul are we those who desire
to talk of God's doings But as some who profess to be Christians
and all they ever want to do is talk about their doings. And
we've probably met such characters in certain evangelical circles.
They speak of themselves and what they do for the Lord. Oh,
but let us be those who are moved to confess again and again what
the Lord has done for us. that the Lord has been pleased
to deal with us, not according to our just deserts, but in accordance
with His abundant mercy. We are told, are we not, in the
New Testament, if they shall confess with thy mouth the Lord
Jesus, and believe in thine heart they shall be saved. With the
mouth confession is made unto righteousness. and with the heart
we believe unto salvation. There is to be that believing,
where there is that believing there will be that acknowledgement,
that confession and we see it, we see it in David, when David
is an old man there in the 71st Psalm, he's old, he's grey headed
and yet still he desires to be speaking of God and speaking
of the works of God Verse 16 it says, I will go in the strength
of the Lord God, I will make mention of thy righteousness
even of thine own. Going at the end of that 71st
Psalm, my tongue also shall talk of thy righteousness. All the
day long they are confounded, they are brought unto shame that
seek my help. Or what will he speak of, David?
He will speak of the great doctrine of justification by faith. He'll
speak of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Just as Paul, you see, has that
one desire to be found in Christ. Not having his own righteousness
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ. That righteousness which is of God by faith. here as the man remembers God
then he will confess God he will acknowledge all that God has
done for him all that God has done for his soul he will talk
of these things thy doings this is a subject matter of all his
conversation or are we those friends who desire thus to speak,
ready to give an answer to every man, that asks the reason of
the hope that is within us. Is there not, alas, for us the
great grievous danger of only murmuring? And we see something
in the language of what Asaph is saying here in verse 7, Will
the Lord cast off forever? And will he be favourable no
more? Is his mercy clean gone forever? Doth his promise fail
forevermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious?
Hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Complaining? Mutterings against God? Are we
not warned against the danger of such language as that? In 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and
verse 10 Neither murmurings as some of them also murmured, it
says, and were destroyed of the destroyer. Reference here is
to those in the wilderness. In those years of wandering so
time and again they would murmur against God, never satisfied.
Or be those who rather are moved to acknowledge God and the goodness
of God and to speak of God. and that great salvation and
that righteousness that was wrought by the Lord Jesus Christ not
to be murmurs how searching are those words of the hymn, we often
sing it the hymn 394 by William Cooper and it's a hymn on prayer
of course and the necessity of us coming to God and calling
upon God, but he says, where half the breath thus vainly spent
to heaven in supplication sent, your cheerful song would often
be, hear what the Lord hath done for me. Ought to be those then
who would confess God and the works of God and acknowledge
all his great goodness. This was the word that was given
to them as they came to the borders of that promised land there in
the book of Deuteronomy there on the borders now of Canaan
and what does Moses say in chapter 8 they shall remember all the
way which the Lord thy God led thee these 40 years in the wilderness
to humble thee and to prove thee to know what was in thine heart
whether thou wouldest keep his commandment or no and he humbled
thee and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna which
thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know, if ye might
make thee to know, that man doth not live by bread only, but by
every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth
man live. They were to remember all that
were, all the works of God, all the dealings of God. And this
is what we are to do, if we would remember God a right. Surely
we would be those then who are brought to this resolution that
we will only confess Him and all His great goodness to us.
Surely I will remember thy wonders of old, I will meditate also
of all thy works and talk of thy doings." The consequences
then of this remembering of God. Yes, we began by speaking of
that trouble that comes into the heart I remembered God and
was troubled and sometimes we are not only
troubled but confused we cannot understand God's dealings with
us but then if we remember it right we will look to ourselves
and examine ourselves and as we do that so we will seek also
to to meditate the more upon God to contemplate his works,
his ways and we'll come then to make confession to acknowledge
him as our God and then finally with regard to the consequence
of this remembering of God will it not move us to call upon Him. Will you not move us to be those
who would come and pray to Him and return our thanks to Him?
Look again at the language here in verses 10 to 12 where we have
this emphasis upon remembering I said this is my infirmity but
I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High
I will remember the works of the Lord. Surely I will remember
thy wonders of old. I will meditate also of all thy
work and talk of thy doings. Now observe here how in the middle
of verse 11 there is a change. In the middle of verse 11 he
begins to use the second person. He begins to speak to God rather
than to speak of God he says initially I will remember
the years of the right hand of the Most High I will remember
the works of the Lord but then suddenly he says surely I will
remember thy wonders of all I will meditate also of all thy work
and talk of thy doings see how he begins now to address God
directly And isn't that what prayer is? We address God. We
don't speak of God. We come to speak to God. And in this psalm we see how
the language does turn to prayer. He begins to speak of himself
and how he had called upon God. Yes, he's speaking of prayer.
I cried unto God with my voice even unto God with my voice and
he gave ear unto me he's telling us that he prayed and he didn't
pray in vain that God heard and God answered his prayers but
it is interesting how that in the course of the psalm he does
time and again turn to address God he begins to pray again in
verse 13 he says I wail God is in the sanctuary. Who is so great
a God as our God? Our God, you see, he is pleased
to come and to make himself known in the sanctuary, in the midst
of his people. Has he not ordained public worship? And has he not honored that he
has himself appointed we are not to forsake the assembling
of ourselves together as we come together in this fashion we desire
that God himself might come and make himself known and manifest
himself amongst us as he doesn't manifest himself in the world that's our great hope is it not
that our coming together will not be in vain and so we acknowledge
it that God is pleased to make his way known as his people come
together to worship him there in the Old Testament the sanctuary
reference to the tabernacle and then ultimately to the temple
of the Lord thy way of God is in the sanctuary who is so great
to God as our God he is addressing God and again see how he addresses
God in the 19th verse he says thy way is in the sea and thy
path in the great waters and thy footsteps are not known or
there is a mystery God's ways are all together above and beyond
our understanding the mystery of His providence. God moves
in a mysterious way. His wonders to perform. He plants
His footstep in the sea and rides upon the storm. He cannot always
fathom His ways. We don't see footsteps at all
in the sea. But in all of this, you see,
He is brought to come to God and to cry to God, to acknowledge
God, and so he prays as he addresses God directly, but he knows that
God's ways are so different. My thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are my ways your ways, for as the heaven is higher than
the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts
than your thoughts. He says there in Isaiah chapter
55, this is the God that we seek to remember, this is the God
that we have dealings with. He is the Great God. He is the
High, He is the Holy One. But He is that God who has graciously
made Himself known and has revealed Himself, has He not, in the person
and in the work of His only begotten Son, or the greatest. of all
those works of God, those things that we come to remember as we
gather together every Lord's Day. The first day of the week
do we not remember that great historic event when Christ rose
again from the dead, having finished all of the work that the Father
had given to Him in the Eternal Covenant, how He was acknowledged
by the Father, owned by the Father, declared to be the Father's Son
with power. By that resurrection I will remember
the works of the Lord. Surely I will remember thy wonders
of old. May the Lord help us even to
die to be those who would be remembering our God. Amen.