Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever. Psalm 136:1
It must have been a scene! The Temple that Solomon built for the Lord was a marvel, as was the dedication itself. God’s glory had filled the Temple and now the Lord appears to Solomon and shares His heart with him about this magnificent Temple that had touched His heart.
1 Kings 9:3-4 says, The Lord said to him, “I have heard your prayer and your petition. I have set this Temple apart to be holy—this place you have built where my name will be honored forever. I will always watch over it, for it is dear to my heart.
4 “As for you, if you will follow me with integrity and godliness, as David your father did, obeying all my commands, decrees, and regulations, 5 then I will establish the throne of your dynasty over Israel forever. For I made this promise to your father, David: ‘One of your descendants will always sit on the throne of Israel.’
Did the Lord just say what I think He said in verse three? “As for you, if you will follow me with integrity and godliness, as David your father did, obeying all my commands, decrees, and regulations.” Didn’t God forget that this “David” He was referring to had committed adultery and murder? How could God leave out such big sins and say that David had “followed Him with “integrity and godliness, obeying all his commands, decrees and regulations?” Didn’t God forget a few things?
Yes, He absolutely did. And, it’s a pattern we see throughout scripture. Just go read the “Hall of Faith” in Hebrews. Many of the folks mentioned there had lives full of colorful past, to say the least, yet there is no mention. Why? Because, God chooses to forget our mistakes, sins, and shortcomings. By design, every time we come to Him, He throws all memory of those transgressions into the “Sea of Forgetfulness” and deletes them from the record as far as the “East is from the West.”
So if Father God is so quick to “forgive and forget” then why can’t we? Why do we continue to mark and marginalize people, including ourselves, with the mistakes of the past? We just simply need to “get over it.”
I’m thankful that He chooses not to remember our sins and failures, aren’t you? Today you can take heart knowing that in His eyes the past is the past, and “His faithful love endures forever!”