The List
They did not remember His [w]power, the day when He redeemed them from the enemy, Psalm 78:42 NASB
Not remember – In the next ten verses Asaph lists all the mighty works that God did to redeem His people from Egypt. You might notice that his list isn’t quite the same as the sequence of events in Exodus. For example:
“He sent swarms of flies among them that devoured them,
And frogs that destroyed them” (v. 45). Yes, there were flies and frogs, but I don’t recall that they destroyed the Egyptians.
“And their sycamore trees with frost” (v. 47). But there isn’t any reference to this in the Exodus account.
“A band of [y]destroying angels” ( v. 49). “ . . . turned their lives over to the plague,” (v. 50), but unless Asaph means the death of the first born, no other “plague” is mentioned in Exodus.
Asaph’s poetic license continues after the departure from Egypt.
“He also drove out the nations from them and apportioned them as an inheritance by measurement,” (v. 55). But the nations weren’t driven out. In fact, the story of Joshua makes it quiet clear that Israel allowed the Canaanites to remain, and eventually become a continuous temptation and political problem for Israel.
Apparently Asaph exaggerates a bit, just to make his point. God did it all. Israel failed to acknowledge Him. There’s also a bit of political exaggeration at the end of this psalm (we will eventually get there). We have to allow poetry to expand scenes. After all, a poet is not an historian.
Is that all we learn here? No, I don’t think so. First, there’s that little footnote in the NASB text. “Power” is actually the Hebrew word yād (hand). Not too surprising. We find bodily idioms in Hebrew all the time. But if we stop to think about this, there’s something extraordinary about yād as an idiom for “power.” Usually we find “arm” (the outstretched arm of the Lord[1]). “Hand” has a little bit different connotation. A hand offers comfort, connection, direction, acceptance, and in this case, support. Power? Yes, but not quite the same as powerful arms. A hand turned in just the right way is welcoming. Turned the other way, it’s foreboding. A hand becomes the vehicle of gentle caress or the instrument of chastisement. Hands pray—and pardon. In fact, other than the face, hands are probably the most expressive element of human communication. We say a lot with hands. Apparently, so does God.
Asaph’s point is that the people of Israel forgot God’s hand. He uses the stronger negative particle (lōʾ), an unconditional forgetting. It’s actually more serious than forgetting. It’s not remembering. The verb is zākar. It’s umbrella of meanings include think about, meditate, pay attention to, remember, recall, recite, proclaim, commemorate, confess, declare and invoke. They didn’t do any of these. What’s worse is that a derivate of zākar (with exactly the same consonants) means “male.” In other words, if you will allow a bit of midrash, they failed to be human! They forgot to be men. God redeemed Israel so that Israel might demonstrate to the world what it means to be in His image, to be fully human. And they did not remember. The consequence of not remembering the hand of God is to become something other than human.
Look around you. Where homo sapiens have not remembered the hand of the Lord, they have stopped being human. Asaph’s insight is just as true today. It has always been so. To be human is to be zākar, as noun and verb.
Topical Index:
not remember, lōʾ , zākar, yād, hand, power, human, Psalm 78:42, 45, 47, 49-50, 55
[1] “the great trials which your eyes saw and the signs and the wonders and the mighty hand and the outstretched arm by which the Lord your God brought you out. So shall the Lord your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid” (Deuteronomy 7:19).
