Walking with the Wise #7: A Reminder to Remember

“Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you;
 

bind them around your neck;

write them on the tablet of your heart.

So you will find favor and good success

in the sight of God and man.”

—Proverbs 3:3-4

We are a forgetful people. We forget that we are living dust, and that we are only on this earth a short time. David expressed it so well when he wrote, “Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath!”—Psalm 39:5.

Our lives are short, a truth we so often forget. The Israelites, too, were extremely forgetful, continually forgetting how God delivered them out of Egypt and sustained them in the wilderness. Today’s passage is a reminder to remember. And what are we to remember? Two things specifically: God’s love and His faithfulness.

Solomon tells us to “bind [love and faithfulness] around your neck.” What does that mean? It means remember. The same for “the tablet of your heart.” In the ancient Near East one couldn’t go to the store to buy a pen and paper. There were tablets that scribes wrote on to record all manner of information—business transactions, military records, family histories, etc. Solomon tells us not to forget God’s love and faithfulness to us, but rather to inscribe them, not on mere scribes' tablets but on our very hearts, so that we might always be reminded. He loves us more than we deserve, and He is always faithful to His people and His promises.

Not only is God faithful, but when we continually remind ourselves of His love and faithfulness, we can trust in Him, and when we trust in Him, we are told that we will find favor and good success—with God and man. When we continually seek God and make Him the first priority of our lives, God blesses us. He may not bless us in ways we expect, but He will bless us nonetheless. We will have favor with both God and man. Jesus had this favor as He grew up, as Luke wrote: “And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man”—Luke 2:5.  When God is for us, who can stand against us?

God even goes so far as to make our enemies be at peace with us. As Solomon wrote, “When a man’s ways please the LORD, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him”—Proverbs 16:7. This is not to say that we will not have enemies, but that God is able to transform, direct, and control those who would normally be at war with us.

We must continually be reminded to remember who God is and what happens to those who choose to trust in Him—there is blessing. God blesses those who seek His face. He blesses those who love, fear, adore, obey, honor and worship Him.

May we make God the first priority of our lives! May we seek His face continually as we are reminded of His steadfast love made supremely available to us in Christ, and may our lives be ones of faithfulness, as we follow Him! May God be our advocate in our time of need and may He give us His favor and success in His sight and in the sight of mortal man. Amen.