What Happens When We Forget God?
The law of sin and death has
been taken away by Christ’s death on the cross.
But does that mean we don't have to obey? Can we live any way we
want? Absolutely, not!
The one who keeps God's commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that He lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us. 1
John 3:24
This psalm reflects the
history of the unfaithfulness of Israel
He thinks back to the time
of Moses and goes on to the Davidic Covenant—God’s covenant to His people. It is God’s covenant with David that would
establish God’s kingdom and his throne forever. King David’s response to the covenant revealed
the depth of his spiritual insight and the loyalty of his heart to God’s will. The Lord promised His mercy would never
depart from Israel
According to an important
principle of God’s Word, “we will reap what we sow.” The world
will receive either blessing or judgment. For the follow of Christ, we will see “blessing
or consequence”.
As followers Christ, we have
helper, who lives in us. The Holy Spirit
dwells among His people. The Lord, He helps us to
recognize and repent of sinful actions. What
follows is forgiveness—while judgment comes to the
unfaithful and unbelieving.
Key points to remember:
(1) We should always remember God’s holiness—God in His absolute holiness, is completely set apart from sin. He is a holy God who cannot have fellowship with sinful man or allow sin in His presence without a solution to the sin problem.
(2) It shows the necessity of sacrifice for sin or the cross of Christ. Without faith in the cross and its cleansing, no man can be set apart for God’s use or blessing.
(3) To be used of God and to experience His deliverance—to experience God’s power, protection, and deliverance, we need to prepare our hearts and deal with the known sin in our lives through repentance of sin.
(4) The concept of being “set apart” for God is really a command,. We are to settle ourselves along with a commitment to God and His purpose. We are to be set apart so that we may “cross our own Jordan
Then Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain and said, “This is what you are to say to the descendants of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel
‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt
1 O
my people, hear my teaching - listen to the words of my mouth.
2 I
will open my mouth in parables; I will utter hidden things, things from of old.
3 What
we have heard and known, what our fathers have told us—
4 We will not hide them from their children.
We will tell the next generation the praise-worthy deeds of the Lord, His power, and the wonders he has
done.
5 He
decreed statutes for Jacob, He established the law in Israel
6 So
the next generation would know them—
even the
children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children.
7 Then
they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds, but would
keep his commands.
8 They
would not be like their forefathers—
a stubborn
and rebellious generation, whose hearts were not loyal to God, whose spirits
were not faithful to him.
9 The
men of Ephraim, though armed with bows, turned back on the day of battle, they
did not keep God’s covenant and refused to live by his law.
11 They
forgot what he had done, the wonders he had shown them.
12 He
did miracles in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt
13 He
divided the sea and led them through; He made the water stand firm like a wall.
14 He
guided them with the cloud by day and with light from the fire all night.
15 He
split the rocks in the desert and gave them water as abundant as the seas.
16 He
brought streams out of a rocky crag and made water flow down like rivers.
17 But they continued to sin against him,
rebelling in the desert against the Most High.
18 They
willfully put God to the test by demanding the food they craved.
19 They
spoke against God, saying, “Can God spread a table in the desert?
20 When he struck the rock, water gushed out,
and streams flowed abundantly.
But can he also give us food? Can he supply meat for his people?”
21 When
the Lord heard them, he was very
angry—
His fire
broke out against Jacob, and his wrath rose against Israel
22 For they did not believe in God or trust
in his deliverance.
23 Yet
he gave a command to the skies above and opened the doors of the heavens;
24 He
rained down manna for the people to eat; He gave them the grain of heaven.
25 Men
ate the bread of angels! He sent them
all the food they could eat.
26 He
let loose the east wind from the heavens and led forth the south wind by his
power.
27 He
rained meat down on them like dust, flying birds like sand on the seashore.
28 He
made them come down inside their camp, all around their tents.
29 They ate till they had more than enough, for
He had given them what they craved.
30 But
before they turned from the food they craved, even while it was still in their
mouths,
31 God’s
anger rose against them—
He put to
death the sturdiest among them, cutting down the young men of Israel
32 In
spite of all this, they kept on sinning; in spite of his wonders, they did not
believe.
33 So
he ended their days in futility and their years in terror.
34 Whenever God slew them, they would seek
him; they eagerly turned to him again.
35 They
remembered that God was their Rock, that God Most High was their Redeemer.
36 But then they would flatter him with their
mouths, lying to him with their tongues.
37 Their
hearts were not loyal to him — they were not faithful to his covenant.
38 Yet
he was merciful; He forgave their iniquities and did not destroy them. Time
after time he restrained his anger and did not stir up his full wrath.
39 He
remembered that they were but flesh, a passing breeze that does not return.
40 How
often they rebelled against him in the desert and grieved him in the wasteland!
41 Again and again they put God to the test;
they vexed the Holy One of Israel
42 They
did not remember his power — the day he redeemed them from the oppressor.
43 The
day he displayed his miraculous signs in Egypt
44 He
turned their rivers to blood; they could not drink from their streams.
45 He
sent swarms of flies that devoured them, and frogs that devastated them.
46 He
gave their crops to the grasshopper, their produce to the locust.
47 He
destroyed their vines with hail and their sycamore-figs with sleet.
48 He
gave over their cattle to the hail, their livestock to bolts of lightning.
49 He
unleashed against them his hot anger, His wrath, indignation and hostility…
A band of
destroying angels.
50 He
prepared a path for his anger; He did not spare them from death, but gave them
over to the plague.
51 He
struck down all the firstborn of Egypt
52 But
he brought his people out like a flock; He led them like sheep through the
desert.
53 He
guided them safely, so they were unafraid; but the sea engulfed their enemies.
54 Thus
he brought them to the border of his holy land, to the hill country his right
hand had taken.
55 He
drove out nations before them and allotted their lands to them as an
inheritance; He settled the tribes of Israel
56 But
they put God to the test—
They rebelled
against the Most High; they did not keep his statutes.
57 Like
their fathers they were disloyal and faithless, as unreliable as a faulty bow.
58 They
angered him with their [idol worship] in high places; they aroused His jealousy
with their idols.
59 When
God heard them, he was very angry; He rejected Israel
60 He
abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh , the tent He
had set up among men.
61 He
sent the ark of his might into captivity, His splendor into the hands of the
enemy.
62 He
gave his people over to the sword; He was very angry with his inheritance.
63 Fire
consumed their young men, and their maidens had no wedding song.
64 Their
priests were put to the sword, and their widows could not weep.
65 Then
the Lord awoke as from sleep, as a man wakes from the stupor of wine.
66 He
beat back his enemies; He put them to everlasting shame.
67 Then
he rejected the tents of Joseph, He did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;
68 But
he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loved.
69 He
built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth that he established
forever.
70 He
chose David his servant and took him from the sheep pens—
71
From tending the sheep he brought him, to be the shepherd of his people Jacob,
of Israel
72 And
David shepherded them with integrity of heart; with skillful hands he led them.
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