Psalm 119:49 is the kind of hope we find in all those who long for redemption, who long for God to make God\u2019s glory present, and who yearn for justice. In fact, people like Mary and Simeon and Anna \u2014 from Luke\u2019s first two chps \u2014 are the kind for whom this prayer is so characteristic. Here it is: Psalm 119:49 is the kind of hope we find in all those who long for redemption, who long for God to make God\u2019s glory present, and who yearn for justice. In fact, people like Mary and Simeon and Anna \u2014 from Luke\u2019s first two chps \u2014 are the kind for whom this prayer is so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1753],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-psalm-119"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nRemember your word to your servant,
\nin which you have made me hope.
\nTwo points: First, it is likely (in my mind) that the hope here follows from disappointment after the previous section (vv. 41-48). The hopes of those verses \u2014 deliverance, answers, walking about at ease, and not being ashamed before the royals \u2014 evidently did not materialize.
\nThe psalmist\u2019s response is not to say: if God doesn\u2019t answer my (emphasis) prayers, God must not care; maybe even God doesn\u2019t exist. No, this psalmist presses on further. Request, request not granted, expression of hope and confidence in God, request again.
\nSecond, the psalmist calls God to \u201cremember\u201d (zakar<\/em>). God can remember sins; God can remember promises. Thus, \u201cremember\u201d here does not mean recall or memory; instead, it means \u201cto remember in such a way as to bring that promise to pass.\u201d Zechariah\u2019s name, you may know, means \u201cYHWH remembered.\u201d A good example of all of this is Hannah saying God remembers her by giving to her a baby (1 Sam 1:11, 19). Thus, Exodus 32:13: \u201cRemember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them\u2026\u201d
\nBoth Mary and Zechariah connect the conceptions of their children to God\u2019s remembering of the covenant with Abraham.
\nTo summon God to remember is to call on God to glorify himself by establishing the promise.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"