Do not forget Your promise to Your servant;
through it You have given me hope. Psalm 119:49 Voice
Hope Wins because the One who makes the promises in God’s Word will always keep them.
Promises are powerful especially when the one who makes them keeps them.
Grandma was an amazing lady. As I was growing up we didn’t visit her that often because we lived in Latin America. What I do remember was her love for the Lord and her discipline to read through the Bible every morning. We would all gather in her little living room when we were visiting and take turns reading out loud. I could only hope that my turn didn’t contain one of the genealogical lists with all the odd names joined together by “begats.”
The other strong memory was a little box she kept on the kitchen table – the Promise Box. It contained little cards with Scripture verses on them. It was a wonderful day when it was my turn to read the promise for the day.
Context
As with so many of the Psalms, there is a debate on who wrote it. Some say that it was David who wrote it throughout his entire life. Others feel that this longest chapter in the Bible, was composed during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah after the return from exile. It is divided into 22 stanzas, denoted by the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Each stanza is made up of eight verses with each line starting with that letter of the alphabet. This acrostic pattern was perhaps used as a memory aid. It contains praises and explains the value of God’s Word in almost every verse (in at least 171 of the 176 verses).
Remembering
Clearly, this verse does not mean that God could forget. We are the ones who need to remember the promises we have been given. That’s why it is so important to memorize God’s Word in order to remind ourselves with confidence of His promises during difficult times. God is not the one who is going to forget because that would be impossible. We are the ones who need to remember and stand on what we know is true even in difficult times.
Spurgeon once said,
“But God – let us speak with reverence – when he gives a promise, binds himself with cords of his own making. He binds himself down to such and such a course when he says that such and such a thing shall be. Hence, when you grasp the promise, you get a hold on God.”Trusting
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