THURSDAY OF THE 5TH WEEK OF LENT

7TH APRIL 2022

THE LORD REMEMBERS HIS COVENANT FOREVER.

7TH APRIL 2022

GENESIS 17 : 3 – 9 PSALM 105 : 4 – 9 JOHN 8: 51 – 59

In your relationship with people, would you prefer someone who remembers or someone who forgets? What spices up a relationship of any kind, is it remembering or is it forgetting?

The response to today’s Psalm 105 is: The Lord remembers his covenant forever and this Psalm shows how God has been faithful all along to the promises he made to his people. This Psalm was used at the feast of tabernacles when the Israelites renewed their allegiance to God by acknowledging what God has done for them meaning it is not just God who remembers but the people also remember. When two people are able to remember a very important and pertinent issue, their relationship becomes more formidable because each party will faithfully and rightfully play its role.

The covenant that God remembers is the one mentioned in today’s First Reading in Genesis 17 in which God promises Abram a new name, that is, Abraham, and this new name is related to the covenant that God establishes with him. When the Psalmist writes that the Lord remembers his covenant forever, we get to see that it is in the present tense. It is not written: The Lord will remember his covenant forever. It is not written: The Lord remembered his covenant forever. It is written in the present tense so as to invite us to participate now in the covenant. If it were to be written in the past tense, it would have meant that the covenant ended yet it is supposed to be forever.

Today’s Psalm is very profound because remembering is so central to who we are even in faith, so central even to our relationships. That is why forgetting can be very terrifying. When God remembers the covenant, this remembrance is deliberate so that we can see that God does not forget and therefore we must not. God remembering the covenant shows that there is something required on our part and what is required is for us to turn to God his strength and seek God’s face constantly.

If you tell me that you have a social event and I tell you that I remember, it means I will be required to do something towards that event in terms of attending. We invest a lot financially, and mentally and even time wise so that we can remember because as we said earlier forgetting can be terrifying. How many times have our relationships been strained by forgetting? How many times have important things stalled because we forgot? There are instances when forgetting has spiritual and emotional and physical advantages which is good but today we are being given the opportunity to remember the faithfulness of God and play our part in it and be renewed.

The Psalm offers us the opportunity to look into how remembering positively affects our inter-human relational covenants that we enter into. What good thing would you like to remember today? What role does remembering play in our faith and in our lives? What do you wish God to remember about you today? When the cock crowed and Peter remembered that he had denied Jesus he wept bitterly. When the Prodigal Son remembered the good situation at his father’s home he went back there. What does remembering prompt you to do?