Remembering What God Remembers

Psalm 103:14 reminds us of a sobering truth.  It is a truth that is easily side-stepped and often does not impact our self-assessment.  Yet it is foundational and we are told that God remembers it, even if we don't!

The verse actually tells us something God knows and something he remembers.

He knows our frame.  That is he knows how we are put together.  He knows because he did it.

Knowing our frame he remembers that we are dust.  This is a deflating reality!  We like to think we are a lot of things but dust does not often rank at the top of the list.  We forget we are dust, God remembers that we are dust!

One of the most amazing verses in the bible addresses this very truth.  We read it and go past it because we don't want to remember our humble origins because we don't want to be humble.

Genesis 2:7 - And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, . . . .

He knoweth our frame because he formed us.  In fact these two words "formed" and "framed" are very similar in nature.  God did not make man of gold, or diamonds, or silver, but dirt!  I never think of this event without remembering as a little boy taking the gumbo clay of the Texas Gulf Coast and making little clay men.  When they sat in the sun for a few hours they would become hard like rock.  God made clay men.  He made man of the dust of the ground.

The verse goes on to say in Genesis 2:7 - . . . . and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

So God took the clay man and breathed into his nostrils the "breath of life".  When God did so the clay man shudder and came to life.  The breath of God, the life of God animated the clay figure.  The eyes popped open, the heart came to life.  God imparted to his clay man what I could never impart to my little clay men.

The animation did not change the little detail that it was still the dust of the ground that had been formed by the hand of God into a man.  It was, we are animated dirt.

We wash it, and dress it, and comb it's hair, and adorn it with gold, silver, and precious stones.  We educate it, we refine it, and we cherish it and we forget that it is dust.  Forgetting it does not change it.  Remembering it might change us!  We might not have such a tendency to parade around if we remembered what God does!

Genesis 3:23 - Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.