“They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy.”
My Notes
What Does Psalms 78:42 Mean?
"They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy." The failure is memory failure: Israel forgot God's hand and forgot the day of their deliverance. The rescue that should have produced permanent gratitude produced temporary relief. The hand that saved them was forgotten by the people it saved.
The phrase "remembered not his hand" (lo zakru et yado — they did not remember His hand) means they forgot the INSTRUMENT of their salvation: not just the event, but the hand that performed it. The hand of God — the active, intervening, miracle-working hand — was forgotten. The most intimate detail of the rescue (God's hand reaching into their crisis) was the first thing lost.
The "day when he delivered them" (yom asher padah — the day He ransomed them) identifies a specific moment: there WAS a day. A specific calendar date when God acted. The rescue happened in time, on a day that could be remembered and commemorated. And they forgot it. The day that should have been their national holiday became an unmarked calendar square.
Reflection Questions
- 1.What specific rescue have you forgotten — what day when God's hand intervened?
- 2.How does forgetting the hand (not just the event) represent a deeper failure of gratitude?
- 3.What does a specific day being forgotten teach about the importance of commemoration?
- 4.What cycle of crisis are you repeating because you forgot the rescue that ended the last one?
Devotional
They forgot His hand. They forgot the day He rescued them. The people God saved from their enemies forgot that God saved them. The hand that reached into their crisis and pulled them out — forgotten. The specific day when everything changed — unmarked, uncelebrated, unremembered.
The 'remembered not his hand' is the most devastating kind of forgetting: it's not forgetting a fact. It's forgetting an experience. They FELT God's hand. They experienced the intervention. The hand touched their lives in a specific, tangible, undeniable way. And they forgot it. The experience that should have been unforgettable was forgotten.
The 'day when he delivered them from the enemy' had a date: a specific day, a specific event, a specific rescue from a specific enemy. It wasn't vague or abstract. It happened on a Tuesday (or a Sabbath, or a Passover). And the day that should have been their national holiday — their annual celebration of God's power — became a day they couldn't remember. The calendar square went blank.
Psalm 78's point is that forgetting leads to repeating: the generation that forgets God's hand falls into the same traps the previous generation was rescued from. The memory loss produces a faith loss. The faith loss produces a behavior collapse. The behavior collapse produces the exact same crisis God had already rescued them from.
What day — what specific rescue, what specific moment when God's hand intervened — have you forgotten? And what would remembering it change?
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
How he had wrought his signs in Egypt,.... The plagues which he brought upon the Egyptians, for refusing to let Israel…
They remembered not his hand - His gracious interpositions; the manifestations of his power. They forgot that power had…
The matter and scope of this paragraph are the same with the former, showing what great mercies God had bestowed upon…
his hand His power exerted on their behalf. See Exo 3:19, and often. nor the day&c. Nor the day when he redeemed them…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture