The Lord Remembers His People (Psalm 8)                                                           2009.10.11                                 Pastor Edward Cheng 

This is an exciting time for Cindy and I personally—she is 19 weeks and two days pregnant as of today.  We just decided on the name of our son: Zachary.  Why Zachary?  It comes from the name Zechariah, in the Bible, a minor prophet.  It’s not after the prophet that we’re naming him, but because the name has such tremendous meaning.  Zechariah comes from the verb in Hebrew, zakar, meaning, “to remember.”  With a “–yah” at the end, it means “Yahweh remembers.” 

To say that the LORD remembers us is more than saying that He recalls us.  It’s not like leaving your grocery list behind when you go to the store, and finally remembering what that last item you wanted was before you check out—that is recall.  The LORD remembering is nothing like recall.  That the LORD remembers you, and me—what does that mean?

We’ll see different uses of the word zakar in the Old Testament.  Look at Psalm 8:1-4.  In this case, the NIV doesn’t translate it as “remember.”  Verse 4 should say, “What is man that you remember him?”  What this passage tells us is that the LORD remembers those who don’t deserve remembering.  The psalmist might be out in the desert looking up at a clear night sky, sitting there and saying, “How great are you, God?”  As you think about how big, how great God is, the natural reaction is, “Man, I am insignificant!”  To understand the concept of remembering, you have to start by understanding that we don’t deserve it.  We are nothing, compared to the greatness of God.  Yet for some reason, God pays us special attention, and He remembers us. 

This passage tells us another thing about remembering.  If we look in v. 4, we notice a Hebraic poetry device called parallelism—two lines that are meant to be taken together.  In this case we have synonymous parallelism, where the two lines say almost the same thing.  Line two, “The son of man that you care for him,” tells us that when God remembers us, it also means that He cares about us.  None of us deserve to have God pay attention to us.  God has so many other things to think about, like all the wars and poverty in the world.  And yet He does remember and care about us.

The second thing about remembering we can see from Genesis 8:1, 19:29, and 30:22.  These are the passages that sold me on the name Zachary, because they tell us that God remembers us in the midst of calamity.  Each one speaks of some terrible, trying circumstance that the people are in:  Noah and the flood and judgment upon people around him, the judging of Sodom and Gomorrah where Abraham’s nephew Lot lives, and Rachel who is barren while Leah has child after child.

These passages teach us not only that God remembers us in times of calamity, but also that He remembers us in those moments when we think He’s forgotten us.  It’s in those moments that even the most faithful of Christians begin to wonder, “Where are you, God, in my time of need?”  It’s natural to feel this way when we endure calamity, and for a long period of time.  These passages from Genesis teach us that God is listening, He does remember, and perhaps even more so than during other times, He remembers us in calamity.  Not only does He remember, but He acts.  He sent Noah a wind to cause the waters to recede, sent angels to deliver Lot, and opened Rachel’s womb.  God is not ignoring you.  He listens to every prayer, and He is acting.  It may not be what you’re asking for, but you can be sure that He always listens to us in our calamity, and He acts. 

Let’s look at Genesis 40, which is about Joseph, who is in prison along with Pharaoh’s cupbearer and baker.  He interprets dreams for each, and when he tells the cupbearer that he will be restored to his position of serving Pharaoh, Joseph asks him to remember him and to mention him to Pharaoh.  The concept of remembering is regularly applied to the LORD.  Here Joseph is asking it of a person, and what happens?  The cupbearer doesn’t remember.  By contrast, when God remembers us, He does not fail us.  People fail and forget each other, but no one remembers like God remembers us. 

It’s easy for us in times of calamity to think that God forgets us, or maybe He’s not there.  Passages like what we’ve read remind us that God remembers those who don’t deserve to be remembered and those who are in the midst of calamity, that He always acts, and that He never fails us.