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February 10, 2008AM
Psalm 103:6-22
God’s Memory of You
There are some things about us that God chooses to forget.
There are other things He chooses to remember.
It is interesting that our memories are often the exact opposite of God’s.
What do we choose to remember?
We choose to remember times of injustice.
We remember events or words that caused us hurt and pain.
We remember moments of failure.
We remember the things people did that angered us.
We remember our sins.
And we are haunted and plagued by these memories.
Regrets hound our every move.
We feel unworthy, dirty because of the things we choose to remember.
What do we choose to forget?
We forget who we are.
We forget that we are dust and instead think we are invincible.
We forget that we are created and think we are in charge of life.
What does God choose to forget about us?
God wants to forget that we are sinners.
“He does not deal with us according to our sins.” (vs. 10)
“As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.” (vs. 12)
He does not want to be steeped in anger.
“He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger for ever.” (vs. 9)
“The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” (vs. 8)
God chooses to forget everything about our sin.
He chooses to heal the damage and bruising of sin.
He chooses to blot out every sign and memory of the separation sin caused.
What we remember so vividly vanishes from His memory.
What does God choose to remember about us?
He chooses to remember the very thing that we choose to forget.
He remembers that we are dust.
He remembers our frailty and vulnerability.
He sees our weaknesses.
He knows we are not invincible.
“For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.”
God chooses to remember that He is God and we are the creature.
“As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone.” (vs. 15-16)
He knows we are weak and frail and yet He loves us supremely.
Until we see ourselves the same way God does, we will reject His love.
We will refuse to let Him be God.
We will be in tension with His Lordship over our lives.
But we can remember what God remembers.
We can forget what God forgets.
We can see ourselves the way God sees us.
That is made possible through Jesus.
Jesus can bring our thoughts into alignment with the Father’s.
He voluntarily took upon Himself our dust and our sin.
In Him we see the perfection of humanity.
In that perfection there is the forgiveness and casting out of sin.
And in that perfection there is the awareness of our dust and frailty.
“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the Pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with Good as long as you live so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” (vs. 1-5)
After God created everything else in the universe He created Adam.
God looked around and found the most basic, nothing, empty thing in the world.
He gathered some dust.
God began to shape and mold out of the nothingness of dust a masterpiece.
This being would have a brain to contemplate and a heart to love.
This masterpiece would have hands to care for others.
This masterpiece would have the capacity to worship God rightly.
This masterpiece would be in communion with God.
This masterpiece is you and me.
We are God-shaped.
And we are God breathed.
You are God’s masterpiece in the world.
You were created to bear the very image of God.
But since the beginning of creation, we have marred God’s work.
We have tried to make something out of ourselves.
We are swollen with love of self, with pride.
We take God’s masterpiece and tarnish it.
As a result, you and I don’t always bear God’s image in the world.
We don’t love our neighbors.
We don’t love our enemies.
We don’t love our co-workers.
We often don’t even love our families.
We see no higher authority than our own feelings.
If we refuse to be dust God can do nothing with us.
We try to make ourselves better than Jesus.
We think we can save ourselves without a Saviour.
Lent reminds us of who Jesus is.
“Being found in human form He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:8)
The ashes of Lent remind us that we are dust.
And we desperately need to be delivered from this body of sin.
When we remember that we are dust Jesus restores the masterpiece.
When we confess our sinful lordship He offers forgiveness.
He casts our sin into the sea of forgetfulness.
It is remembered against us no more.
We are freed to be nothing more than what God created us to be.
In Jesus let’s remember what God remembers – we are dust.
In Jesus let’s forget what God forgets – our sin.
Having God’s memory of our lives turns dust and ashes into beauty.
Let’s remember we are dust during this season of Lent.