They forgot his works and the wonders that he had shown them. – Psalms 78:11
Psalms 78:1-32
1 O my people, listen to my instructions. Open your ears to what I am saying,
2 for I will speak to you in a parable. I will teach you hidden lessons from our past –
3 stories we have heard and known stories our ancestors handed down to us.
4 We will not hide these truths from our children; we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the LORD, about his power and his mighty wonders.
6 so the next generation might know them – even the children not yet born – and they, in turn will teach their own children.
7 So each generation should set its hope anew on God, not forgetting his glorious miracles and obeying his commands.
8 Then they will not be like their ancestors – stubborn, rebellious, and unfaithful, refusing to give their hearts to God.
13 For he divided the sea and led them through, making the water stand up like walls!
14 In the daytime, he led them by a cloud and all night by a pillar of fire.
15 He split open the rocks in the wilderness to give them water, as from a gushing spring.
16 He made streams pour from the rock, making the waters flow down like a river!
17 Yet they kept on sinning against him, rebelling against the Most High in the desert.
22 for they did not believe God or trust him to care for them.
32 But in spite of this, the people kept sinning. Despite his wonders, they refused to trust him.
Tuesday, June 4, 2019, forecasters working the evening shift at the National Weather Service’s San Diego office were confused. A large echo indicating rainfall showed up on weather radar over the San Gabriel Mountains near the town of Wrightwood, CA, but there were no clouds in the sky.
What could this UFO possibly be? Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a 15-mile-long swarm of ladybugs. Yes, ladybugs. The insects were flying at an altitude between 5,000 and 9,000 feet. They covered an area of almost 80 miles by 80 miles. This mass of ladybugs was a yearly migration bloom.
It was all part of the Father’s eternal plan to provide for them. They had filed no flight plan with the FAA, but the Father had filed one with them. In the same way, He cares for the lilies of the fields and the birds of the air, He cares for ladybugs. A large throng of ladybugs is called a loveliness.
Because many of us have a weak self-identity and poor self-image, it is easy to think we are unlovely and unlovable. We falsely conclude that the Father does not really love us. We have short memories and forget Him. And we think that He forgets us as well. Nothing could be further from the truth. We are altogether lovely and precious to Him.
But this was precisely the situation with ancient Israel. Some of the greatest miracles of the Old Testament occurred in their presence, yet they forgot the Father.
Psalms 78:32-33
32 But in spite of this, the people kept sinning. Despite his wonders, they refused to trust him.
33 So he ended their lives in failure, their years in terror.
REFLECT & PRAY
For many of us, it is easy to doubt the reality and faithfulness of the Father, Who we cannot see. But every now and then, He provides us reminders that point back to Him.
Father I recognize my own forgetfulness and doubt. Thank You for repeatedly and continually reminding me of Your love and concern for me. Thank you for giving me both the natural world and the Scriptures as reminders.
INSIGHT
The Father operates in the space-time continuum. He is the One Who set it up and put it in place. It is His design that has created the natural order of things everywhere present in the universe. The human race continually seeks to understand what is observed and experienced in the natural world. Modern man has taken this to the extreme through countless scientific discoveries.
The Earth has been characterized as a Goldilocks planet. The name comes from the children’s fairy tale of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, in which a little girl chooses from sets of three items, ignoring the ones that are too large or small, hot or cold, etc., and settling on the one in the middle, which is “just right.”
A Goldilocks planet is a planet that falls within a star’s habitable zone. The “Goldilocks Zone,” is the range of distance with the right temperatures for water to remain liquid. It is neither too close nor too far from a star to rule out liquid water on its surface and thus, life on the planet.
It is easy to forget that without ever reading about Goldilocks, the Father created a Goldilocks zone for Earth and placed it into it.
Periodically, the Father has interrupted the natural order of things and intervened supernaturally in human history. The Bible records many of these interventions. The people of Israel had the honor and privilege of being the stage upon which the Father played out many of His miracles.
Hebrews 1:1-3
1 Long ago, God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets.
2 And now, in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son, he created the universe.
3 The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command.
Yet tragically and sadly, the people forgot.
Psalms 78:34-43
34 They finally sought him. They repented and took God seriously.
35 Then they remembered that God was their rock, that God Most High was their redeemer.
36 But all they gave him was lip service; they lied to him with their tongues.
37 Their hearts were not loyal to him. They did not keep his covenant.
38 Yet he was merciful and forgave their sins and did not destroy them all. Many times he held back his anger and did not unleash his fury!
39 For he remembered that they were merely mortal, gone like a breath of wind that never returns.
40 Oh, how often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved his heart in that dry wasteland.
41 Again and again, they tested God’s patience and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
42 They did not remember his power and how he rescued them from their enemies.
43 They did not remember his miraculous signs in Egypt . . ..
From now on, when I see a ladybug, it will be a gentle, delightful reminder of the Father’s providence and also His personal, loving care for me.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 12-20-2 © Dr. H 2023
Dr H Reflections 