Psalm 42: 3-4;
“Day and night, I have only tears for food,
while my enemies continually taunt me, saying,
“Where is this God of yours?”
My heart is breaking
as I remember how it used to be:
I walked among the crowds of worshipers,
leading a grand procession to the house of God,
singing for joy and giving thanks
amid the sound of a grand celebration!”
2 Timothy 2: 8 Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead,
A ‘FORTRESS’ is a place of security, of survival. A fortress exists to protect against harm and loss. But in the case of protecting an individual’s Memory from such, is FORTRESS a misnomer? A defence, to safeguard Memory against loss? Really?
Of all the things in which we mortals rejoice, none is more treasured than one’s Memory! O! How different life would be for all of us if tonight we could lie down to sleep in the certainty that this invaluable treasure is safe and will remain so, as long as life shall last and may somehow reach beyond into the life that is yet to be. This distinguishing feature of our humanity inhabits the frail casket of a human body, subject to the ravages of time.
Without the content of Memory’s storehouse, a person’s life is little more than a meaningless conglomeration of unrelated episodes. It is like a handful of beads that can never be formed into one string to create a thing of beauty that reveals a distinctive whole.
Alfred Lord Tennyson’s s elegy: “Break, Break Break,” immortalizes the importance of memories to define the human experience.
“Break, break, break,
On thy cold grey stones, O Sea!
And I would say that my tongue could utter
The thoughts that arise in me.
O well for the fisherman’s boy,
That he shouts with his sister at play!
O well for the sailor lad,
That he sings in his boat on the bay!
And the stately ships go on
To their haven under the hill;
But O for the touch of a vanish’d hand,
And the sound of a voice that is still!
Break, break, break,
At the foot of thy crags, O Sea!
But the tender grace of a day that is dead,
Will never come back to me.” (2)
In the never-ending ebb and flow of the Sea, Tennyson’s crashing waves eulogizes the power of life to create memories. In every human experience, there is the influence of life’s ebb and flow. The Sea of life crashes upon us with life-changing results. This poem captures the undeniable fact that in this life, nothing remains the same. The restless pounding of the Sea upon the headlands is forever changing the seascape. so too, the swift passage of the years changes radically an individual’s life.
Tennyson realizes that beyond Memory’s recall are likely many details of the games that the fisherman’s boy and his sister played, and the reason for the sailor’s song from his boat on the bay. It seemed impossible at the time that the joys of that day’s activity would one day fade from Memory. To immortalize a young friend’s Memory, Tennyson writes this powerful elegy. But is that the ultimate stronghold of Memory? Does that meet the standards for our envisioned fortress?
How poignant are the expressions recorded in Psalm 42!
“My heart is breaking
as I remember how it used to be:
I walked among the crowds of worshippers, leading
a great procession to the house of God, singing for joy and giving thanks amid the sound of a great celebration!”
Memory itself is not beyond the ravages of time. Would not his faith appear futile if the Psalmist’s experience of fellowship with God, drifts into the realm of a lost memory? What is our comfort if Memory refuses to open its doors to persistent knocking, begging for recall, when the only response is a heart-wrenching silence about the things that used to be? It may well be that the occurrence of just such a fleeting thought prompts the author’s admission of discouragement. ” Why am I so discouraged? Why am I so sad?”
God, however, refuses to permit him to wallow in this swamp of despair! Put your hope in God, For I will yet praise Him, my Savior and, my God “.
The ultimate conclusion reached by the author of Psalm 42 is that God, Himself, is the fortress that remains unaffected in the surging flood of nature’s declinations. “I will put my hope in God! I will remember You. By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with me- a prayer to the God of my life. ( Ps.42: 5 – 8) His even more important inference is that God will remember him! What matters most, in the end for us all, is not our feeble hold on God, but God’s mighty grasp on us!
But the two essential truths GOD and MEMORY when placed in juxtaposition seem untenable and misplaced. God is eternal, Memory is temporal. Yet it remains a truth to be fixed to our souls “with hoops of steel”, that no experience ever had is ever lost to God. Memory here on earth made fade but the eternal fortress remains. One day God will unlock, the casket containing life’s experiences. Here is the soul that never dies, and upon it’s opening its entire contents will be revealed.
The poet, Robert Browning, in his marvelous poem, Rabbi Ben Ezra, testifies :
“All that is, at all,
Lasts ever, past recall;
Earth changes, but thy soul and God stand sure:
What entered into thee,
That was, is, and shall be:
Time’s wheel runs back or stops: Potter and clay endure.” (3)
Saint Paul advises the young man, Timothy “My Son remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead.”
There is no better advice! It is time for all of us to enter inside ourselves and in the presence of Christ to examine the contents of our soul’s Memory. Remember that the only thing God ever forgets is sins which are forgiven through Jesus Christ. You are bound to be awestruck to have revealed to you the number of occasions when God was closer to you than breathing, nearer than hands or feet.
“Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead.”
Rise now, and let us all go forward and, continue to build memories of undertakings in His Name. Neither life nor death nor anything else in all creation can destroy such memories or alter the Heavenly acclamation, ” Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” ( Matt.25: 23, KJV)
Prayer To Follow This Meditation
Father, whose days are without end, we marvel that You remember each person who ever addressed You as ‘ Father.’ We grow old, and often with that, comes the dimming of Memory. Father, if that is the destiny that awaits us, grant us to know with certainty that You, will never, ever forget us.
In the meantime, it is the essence of Your love for us, to understand our daily prayer that our memories stay green until the day You call us Home.
Father, at this moment, while our memories remain keen and alert, we gratefully acknowledge that the memories most precious to us are those that reflect Your Presence. Every good and perfect gift comes from You, Gifts too numerous to recall here. One day, You will unlock the casket of our souls wherein is stored every experience. Lost in awesomeness for that gracious promise we are now, but then it will be the theme of our thanksgiving throughout eternity. In Jesus Name, we pray. Amen.
Hymn: PRECIOUS MEMORIES
EDITORIAL NOTES
- Scripture quotations in the meditation are from the New Living Translation of Scripture unless otherwise noted. It is further recommended that Psalm 43 be read in its entirety.
- Alfred Lord Tennyson, ” Break, Break, Break”
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45318/break-break-break
3.Robert Browning, Rabbi Ben Ezrahttps://www.gradesaver.com/…/study-guide/summary-rabbi-ben-ezraPhoto: Stock photo, Cabot Tower, St. John’s NL.