Clergy/Leaders’ Mail-list No. 1-159 Sunday 16 Sep 2001

Reading: PSALM 78 – LEARNING FROM THE PAST

(From ‘Encounter with God’ Bible Reading Notes)

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it’ (George Santayana, 1863-1952). Pray for wisdom.

History was the subject I disliked most at school, and I gave it up at the first opportunity. Only later did I understand what a foolish decision I had made. However unimaginatively it may be taught, the study of history is indispensable if we are to understand the present in the context of the past, and learn from mistakes that have been made.

This psalm makes it very clear that the Israelites did not learn from their history, and it is a challenge to them to look at how their forefathers had behaved and choose not to follow the same destructive patterns. Over and over again, they had rebelled against their loving and caring God, and had been deliberately disobedient. God punished them, and then forgave them and showed them his love again. But again they rebelled … and so it went on. Generation after generation suffered God’s judgement because they did not learn the lessons that the psalm sets out so clearly.

We might say that they were ‘slow learners’, but before we are too critical, we need to be willing to ask questions about our own Christian lives. The philosopher Socrates, living five centuries before Christ, said, ‘The unexamined life is not worth living’, so the idea is not a new one.

As busy Christians, how often do we take time to reflect quietly in God’s presence, asking him to show us where he has been at work, or where we have acted unwisely? Without regular times of reflection, we miss seeing so much of what God is doing in our lives and in our world, and we may go on making mistakes that could have been avoided.

Spend a few minutes in silence, reflecting on the day, or the week. Ask God to show you what he wants you to learn.

– Rosemary Linton

Copyright Scripture Union, 2001