Psalm 74:2: “Remember Your congregation, which You have purchased of old, / The tribe of Your inheritance, which You have redeemed— / This Mount Zion where You have dwelt.”

March 20th, 2024 by Pastor Ed in devotional

According to one tradition, this psalm records the destruction of the temple by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C. The psalmist was asking God to not forget His people and Mount Zion, where the temple once stood, to remember His covenant with Israel, and to save His nation. If this psalm is from the Babylonian captivity, then although many cried out to God to spare them, He did not deliver them for many years. He of course hadn’t forgotten them, but had prescribed 70 years of captivity to discipline them for ignoring His word.

God doesn’t forget anything unless He chooses to forget. The one thing He does choose to forget is our sins, which are put away from us through confession and repentance. This is exactly what happens when we are forgiven by God. When God forgives us, He blots out our sins and forgets them, as it says in Psalm 103:12: “As far as the east is from the west, / So far has He removed our transgressions from us.” The New Testament also states this: “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more” (Heb. 8:12).

When the first missionaries came to Alberta, Canada, they were greatly opposed by a young Cree Indian chief named Maskepetoon. But he later responded to the gospel and accepted Jesus Christ. Shortly afterward, a member of the Blackfoot tribe killed his father. Maskepetoon rode into the village where the murderer lived and demanded that he be brought before him. Confronting the guilty man, he said, “You have killed my father, so now you must be my father. You shall ride my best horse and wear my best clothes.” In utter amazement and remorse, his enemy exclaimed, “My son, now you have killed me!” He meant, of course, that the hate in his own heart had been completely erased by the forgiveness and kindness of this chief.

“Father God, You have killed us by Your kindness and forgiveness through Your Son, Jesus Christ. Help us to live well today for You and Your Kingdom.”