“I Will Not Forget Your Wordâ€
“I will not forget thy wordâ€
(Psalm 119:16, KJV)
Pavese wrote, “We do not remember days, we remember moments†(The Burning Brand (1961). This may be true in many respects, but, there are admonitions in Scripture to remember both days and years (Deut. 32:7). Yet, there is a forgetting which goes beyond the trivial and enters the terrible. The psalmist declared: “I will not forget your word†(Ps. 119:16, 176). Psalm 119 is closely aligned with the law of the LORD, as given through Moses (see John 1:17; Deut. 1:5; Ps. 119:1).
In Deuteronomy 8, the word “remember†occurs twice (8:2, 18). The word, “forget†occurs three times (8:11,14,19). Of course, to not forget, and to remember, are expressions of the same intended object. That object is “the LORD your God†(8:2, 7, 11, 14, 18, 19, 20). But, to remember and not forget the LORD includes a foundational approach to the Bible. Note—“And you shall remember the whole way†(Deut. 8:1,2, emphasis on the whole); “…but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD†(8:3).
The psalmist wanted to express where he stood in relation to the law of the LORD. If it should ever seem like he has forgotten you, perhaps, rather, it is you that have forgotten him (Isa. 49:14,15; 51:12,13;Lk. 12:6). “Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.†“Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And yet not one of them is forgotten before God.†If God should not forget us, how could we forget such a God?
-Robert M. Housby