Remembering: A central theme in Biblical worship

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Mar 2000 by Merrill, Eugene H

Of all the capacities of the human brain, the acquisition, retention, and recall of information are undeniably among the most marvelous and mysterious. Experts in intelligence declare that every impression experienced by an individual, verbal or otherwise, is stored away in the cognitive memory bank, waiting there to be retrieved and brought to the consciousness of those who wish and are able to recover it. 1 Such capacity, though not understood scientifically by the ancients (or even fully by moderns for that matter), has been celebrated and pressed into the service of the intellectual, cultural, and religious life of all people. Human beings have always had the desire and the ability to bring the past into the present by way of memory and in ao doing to perpetuate tradition by repristination and reenactment.2

This was true, of course, of OT Israel as well, as her sacred texts, canonical and otherwise, abundantly attest. But to the natural proclivity to remember as a cultural necessity is added, in Israel's case, the remarkable assertion that Yahweh, her God, also remembers and demands of his people that they too remember. And the thing that Israel is most of all mandated to remember is God himself, namely, his person and his acts in history and experience.

To remember presupposes something memorable, a ward or event that has taken place and became part of the perception. For Israel to remember God, then, is to suggest that the ultimately unknowable has become at least partially knowable through revelation, that is, through Scripture and other means, and to remember his redemptive acts is to become aware of those events of history that truly are the substance of Heilsgeschichte.3 The meaning of these events was not left to the random guesswork of historical observers to decipher but was identified as meaningful theological events worthy of recall by spiritually enlightened prophets who could see the hand of God in particular circumstances.

If a purpose of memory, especially collective or community memory, is to retrieve the past so as to bring it into the heuristic service of the present, then the injunction placed on Israel to remember Yahweh and his works of the past was precisely designed to inculcate the truth embodied in them and to reenact or even relive them for every generation. This is a leading theme of OT worship. It was only as Israel reflected upon Yahweh and repeated the paradigmatic acts of his sovereign grace on their behalf that they could justly claim to be worshiping him.4

The purpose of this paper is to explore the notion of remembrance in the Bible (particularly in the OT) as it relates to worship. There is remarkably little information in the Bible about modes or forms of worship but the concerns and topics of worship are pervasive, especially in Psalms and Chronicles. Underlying it all are the implicit and explicit predications of the indispensability of memory, the affirmations that worship is inconceivable without knowing (remembering) who God is and what he has done on behalf of his people. If this is the Biblical model, it is quite unnecessary to emphasize that modern worship can ill afford to neglect remembrance as a core theological principle.

1. THE LEXICAL DATA

By far the most common term in the OT for "remember" is the root zkr in all its various cognate forms.5 The verb occurs 222 times in all parts of the canon, 165 times in Qal and otherwise divided nearly evenly between Ni and Hi. The standard lexicons6 translate respectively "remember," "be thought of, named, remembered," "cause to remember, make known;" and the like. Synonyms consist of phrases such as "keep a thing in one's knowledge," "lay something upon one's heart," or "do not forget" (Lo' siklzi ). The nominals zeker and zikkaron, meaning "remembrance, memory, memorial" are used interchangeably for the most part.

LXX translates zkr primarily by mimneskomai or mnemoneuo, the two most common terms also in the NT to speak of remembering. The theological significance of the Hebrew terminology is carried over into the NT where memory also is appealed to as a part of Christian worship. The verb skh is usually rendered by Greek epilanthanomai.

1.The verbs zkr and (lo') skh. The verbs zkr and skh, the only two that are significant to this study, occur with either a divine or human subject and with a number of direct objects. These two will be considered with their various subjects and objects and then; more particularly, in the context of worship.

a. zkr with the divine subject. In obviously anthropomorphic language the OT speaks of God as remembering a number of things including (1) the covenant (Gen 9:15, 16; Exod 2:24; 6:5; Lev 26:42, 45; Jer 14:21; Ezek 16:60; Pss 105:8; 106:45; 111:5; 119:49; cf. 104:42); (2) his hesed, etc. (2 Chr 6:42; Hab 3:2; Pss 25:6; 98:3; cf. Jer 2:2); (3) people, including mankind in general (Ps 8:4 [5]); Israel/Judah (Jer 31:19 [20]; Pss 115:12; 13$:23), various individuals (Gen 8:1; 19:29; 30:22; Exod 32:13; Neh 6:14; 13:14, 22, 29, 31; Isa 49:1; Jer 15:15; Ps 106:4), and his servants (Deut 9:279 and the congregation (Ps 74:2); (4) offerings and sacrifices EPs 20:4 [3]); (5) iniquity (Isa 64:8; Jer 14:10; 44:21; Hos 8:13; 9:9; Ps 25:7); and (6:) Israel's troubles (Lam 3:19; 5:1).