We are never forgotten

I am thankful and glad, and I feel completely secure, because you protect me from the power of death, and the one you love you will not abandon to the world of the dead. (verses 9,10)

Read Psalm 16

How quickly people are forgotten after they have died! It sometimes takes a lot of delving into the past to find out a few details about our ancestors. Some of us can’t go back further than a few generations; we don’t have the historical documents and experts that help researchers in the TV series Who do you think you are?

For how many generations will you be remembered after you have died? Even if your name is in a family history and you have many descendants, and even if you have made some significant achievements in life, you will eventually be little more than a vague memory. Who will care whether you have ever lived?

God cares. That’s what gives the psalmist confidence. That’s what makes us feel secure in the face of our own mortality. The awful power of death is obvious, but we will not remain dust and ashes if we die ‘in Christ’. As St Paul recalled in an early sermon, God did not leave his beloved Son in the grave (Acts 13:35). Neither will he forget us in death. We are never forgotten by God.

Thank you, heavenly Father, for writing my name eternally in the book of life. Help me not to fear death but to look forward to life with you forever beyond the grave. Amen.

by Vic Pfitzner, in ‘Time Out…with Jesus’ (ACR, Australian Church Resources, 2013)

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