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Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced, you his servants, the descendants of Abraham, his chosen ones, the children of Jacob. He is the Lord our God; his judgments are in all the earth. He remembers his covenant forever\u2026\xa0 For he remembered his holy promise given to his servant Abraham. He brought out his people with rejoicing, his chosen ones with shouts of joy; he gave them the lands of the nations, and they fell heir to what others had toiled for\u2014that they might keep his precepts and observe his laws. (Psalm 105:5-7a, 42-45)

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This is a psalm of praise.\xa0 It is also one of the few historical psalms that recounts the story of Israel.\xa0 What is unique about this psalm though, is that it doesn\u2019t share anything about Israel\u2019s own part in that story.\xa0 Nothing is said of Israel\u2019s failures or faithlessness.\xa0 The psalm focuses squarely on God.\xa0

But it is addressed to Israel.\xa0 This account of what God has done is given to inspire their praise, focus their eyes, sharpen their memories and their obedience.\xa0

It was God who gave the promise; God who brought them to Egypt; God who raised up Moses; God who brought the plagues; God who brought them out; God who protected and shepherded them through the wilderness; God who brought them safely to a new land.\xa0 All of this was God\u2019s work and not their own.\xa0 It was not Moses\u2019 doing, it was not Abraham\u2019s doing, it was the accomplishment of no one but God.\xa0

Most significantly, the psalm is bracketed by the God\u2019s own \u201cremembering.\u201d\xa0 God remembers his covenant forever the psalm says at the beginning.\xa0 Then it launches into the story of Israel to prove again exactly how God showed his remembering of that covenant.\xa0 At the end, the psalm circles back around to the point, declaring: \u201che remembered his holy promise given to his servant Abraham.\u201d\xa0 In other words: God was faithful.\xa0 God did what he said he would do, even though it was some 400 years later.\xa0 God remembers his covenant forever.

The question left open in this psalm is how will Israel respond?\xa0 The very last line of the psalm declares that God not only kept his promise, but that he did it with a purpose: so that Israel \u201cmight keep his precepts and observe his laws.\u201d\xa0 God meant for Israel not only to be the people who belonged to him, but also to be the people who embodied his words and ways to the nations around them.\xa0 God\u2019s desire was that Israel might be \u201cthe word of God made flesh\u201d among the nations.

And so: faced with the purposes and promises of God that God remembers and brings to fulfillment in them and in the nations\u2014how will Israel respond?\xa0 Will they remember God as God has remembered them?\xa0 Will they faithfully embody the word of God that God has spoken into them?\xa0

The same question comes to the church.\xa0 Will you hear, see, remember and believe that your God has remembered you: chosen you, loved you, forgiven you, and adopted you as his very own in Jesus?\xa0 Will you embody this word made flesh in Jesus in your own flesh as you die to yourself and live and speak and act each moment of this day in the ways that Jesus himself lived and spoke and acted?

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