September 29

Who remembered us in our low estate. - Psalms 136:23.

WE are here called upon to contemplate and admire the divine remembrance. Though we have forgotten him, he has not forgotten us. Observe what is included in this. When we are called upon to remember all the way the Lord our God has led us in the wilderness, or when young people are exhorted to remember their Creator in the days of their youth, something more than an intellectual process is enjoined. It is a remembrance which combines all proper feelings and actions. So God’s remembrance of us implies his regard, and this expression of it appears in five particulars.

First, In his providing a Saviour for us. This is the grand instance of his affectionate remembrance:-“God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life.” He sent not an angel, but the Lord of angels; not a servant, but his “own Son,” and “his only-begotten Son;” and surely “he that spared not his own Son, but freely gave him up for us all, will with him freely give us all things.”

Secondly, In furnishing us with a divine revelation. For what advantage could we derive from him unless we knew him? How could we call upon him of whom we had never heard? The dying patriarch said, “Unto him shall the gathering of the people be;” but how shall we repair to him unless we have been informed of him? But unto us is “the word of this salvation sent.”

Thirdly, In appointing the means of grace. This led him to set apart one day out of seven to recall man from all his cares to the consideration of the “one thing needful,” and to institute the Christian ministry, and to raise up a succession of those who should “show unto men the way of salvation,” and to “devise other means, that his banished ones be not expelled from him:” so he throws in the sinner’s way a good book: he bereaves him of a friend, or takes away his worldly substance, or strikes down the wife of his youth; or sickness comes and seizes him, and, detaching him from the crowd, lays him upon a bed of languishing; and now he is brought with weeping and supplication to seek the Lord. “Lo! these things worketh God oftentimes with man, to bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living.”

Fourthly, In bestowing upon them supplies of grace. He says to them, “O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of me.” Zion said, indeed, “My God hath forgotten me;” but this was a wrong conclusion. “Can a woman,” says God, “forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, she may forget. Yet will I not forget thee. Behold, t have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.” So he sends them from time to time the influences of his Spirit, to make them equal to their trials and conflict.

And lastly, He does not forget to correct them when they need the rod, “for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” And having in all these respects remembered us in our low estate, he will not now be unmindful of his promise:-“Thy bread shall be given thee, and thy water shall be sure.” “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong on the behalf of them whose heart is perfect towards him.” And, says the apostle, “All things work together for good to them that love God.” And here the Psalmist says, “Who remembered us in our low estate; for his mercy endureth forever.”