Humanity is forgetful.
Most civilizations have special days set aside to remind them of significant things which should not be forgotten. In America, for example, there is Memorial Day, Flag Day, Mothers Day, Armed Services Day, Fathers Day, Independence Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving Day, et. al. Under the Law of Moses, the Jews observed the Sabbath Day to remind them of the creation week and their redemption from Egypt (Deuteronomy 5:13-15). They also had the Day of Atonement, the Passover Day, the Day of Pentecost, and added the days of Purim (Esther 9:17-22). In the New Testament, the Lord’s Day—the first day of the week—has been designated by God as the day on which His Son’s death is to be remembered (Acts 20:7; 1st Corinthians 11:24-25).
How often we humans quickly and easily lose our focus on what is most important! How easily the urgent suffocates the essential! How quickly spiritual thorns—the cares, riches, and pleasures of this life—can grow in the soil of one’s heart, choke the word, and produce spiritual unfruitfulness! How soon we forget the debt of ten thousand talents that we have been forgiven when someone owes us a hundred denarii (cf. Matthew 18:21ff)!
In Psalm 18:4-6/2nd Samuel 22:5-7, David describes his near-death experience (2nd Samuel 21:15-17) with the following words: “The pangs of death surrounded me, and the floods of ungodliness made me afraid. The sorrows of Sheol surrounded me; the snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called upon the Lord and cried out to my God; He heard my voice from His temple, and my cry came before Him, even to His ears.” Yet, sandwiched between David’s near-death experience and its resulting praise of Jehovah (2nd Samuel 21-22) and his actual death (1st Kings 2), his biography is scarred by an episode of spiritual amnesia (2nd Samuel 24).
How quickly David forgot the One he described as “my rock…my fortress…my deliverer…my strength…my shield…the horn of my salvation, my stronghold” (Psalm 18:1-2).
Spiritual amnesia is serious.
