My morning devotional reading is quite varied. I do a personal Bible reading as well as reading for Sunday school and Bible studies. I usually read a devotional, and I keep two additional books going, one for spiritual growth and another for general personal growth.
All of those things vary and rotate depending on what’s in front of me at the moment. But, a number of years ago, I decided to add something consistent to my devotional reading: the Psalms. Every morning, I read from the Psalms. Some years it has been one a day, while other years I’ve slowed down and spent a week on each Psalm. Sometimes I’ve just focused on reading the Psalms themselves while other times I’ve included coordinating devotionals or commentary reading.
Through it all, it still amazes me that year after year I can see new things. These songs and prayers have become very familiar to me, and yet I still can be surprised by them.
Take Psalm 111, for example. It’s a beautiful “Hallelujah!” song of praise. But, for some reason, this year the contrast between Psalm 111 and the preceding Psalms hit me like it’s never hit me before.
In case you’ve never noticed, some of the Psalms can be quite brutal. Even in my darkest of times or heaviest of moods, I squirm at the extremity of some of the prayers I read in this emotion-filled ancient hymnal. But the greatest jolt comes when those deep, dark, and sometimes ugly prayers are followed immediately by ecstatic songs of praise.
Many of the Psalms preceding Psalm 111 are those dark, heavy prayers. In past readings, I’ve often felt a sense of relief in arriving at Psalm 111 after sitting through the heaviness of some pretty extreme lament. This year, though, the opening “Hallelujah!” hit me with a jolt and made me sit up and take notice. When I did, I was taken off guard, not by the disconnect, but by the continuity of this praise on the heels of grief. By the way it merges so well with the deep laments of some of the preceding Psalms.
The key for me was verse four: “He has caused his wondrous works to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and compassionate.” (CSB)
His wondrous works. Remembered.
We often think of words like wondrous, wonderful, and awesome in strictly positive terms. With that mindset, reference to God’s amazing and wondrous works bring to mind His miraculous hand rescuing His people. The parting of the Red Sea. The provision of nourishment. Healings. Resurrections. And those are all very, very valid remembrances and are some of the exact works that would have come to mind when the ancient Israelites recited or sang Psalm 111 together.
But, his wondrous works are also seen in His judgment. Why? Because the “works of his hands are truth and justice; all his instructions are trustworthy. They are established forever and ever, enacted in truth and in uprightness.” (verses 7-8)
Even when His works aren’t positive but instead bring the pain of judgment and leave us feeling forgotten and abandoned — themes many of the preceding Psalms explore — His wondrous works are still perfect and good and trustworthy.
We remember His wondrous works and we praise in ecstatic joy. But we also remember His wondrous works to give us something to cling to when it feels like everything is falling apart around us. We remember so that, even when we feel forgotten and abandoned, we can know somewhere in the depths of our beings that we aren’t.
He causes His wondrous works, whether miraculous works or works of judgment, to be remembered so that we can know we, too, are always remembered by Him. Whether we can lift up shouts of delight and joyful songs of praise or are simply grasping for whatever we can find to just help us survive in our depths, we remember. And our remembering assures us that we are remembered.
Wherever you are today, may this remembrance be yours. He is true. He is trustworthy. And He remembers you.
Not Quite Ordinary 