Remember and Hope

Yesterday we looked at how Jonah remembered God’s deliverance from the last crisis, which enabled him to survive the current crisis with hope.

Today we’re going to unpack that process of remembering. Psalm 77 shows how remembering is not easy. Because the crises we find ourselves in are very real and very painful, it can take us a while to sift through our emotions and conflicting ideas of God to finally get to the place where we can both remember and hope. The remembering is the hard work of looking back at what God has done before this current crisis. The hope is the hard work of looking forward to see God doing work after this current crisis.

So as you read this prayer, see what strikes you. Can you relate to the groaning and the distress, or perhaps the blaming and the anger? Do you sense God calling you to remember or to hope or to both (or to something else?).

I cried out to God for help;
I cried out to God to hear me.
When I was in distress, I sought the Lord;
at night I stretched out untiring hands,
and I would not be comforted.

I remembered you, God, and I groaned;
    I meditated, and my spirit grew faint.[b]
You kept my eyes from closing;
    I was too troubled to speak.
I thought about the former days,
    the years of long ago;
I remembered my songs in the night.
    My heart meditated and my spirit asked:

“Will the Lord reject forever?
    Will he never show his favor again?
Has his unfailing love vanished forever?
    Has his promise failed for all time?
Has God forgotten to be merciful?
    Has he in anger withheld his compassion?”

Then I thought, “To this I will appeal:
    the years when the Most High stretched out his right hand.
I will remember the deeds of the Lord;
    yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago.
I will consider all your works
    and meditate on all your mighty deeds.” - Psalm 77:1-12