Remember When

Psalm 42:4 When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday.

Psalm 42 is a great psalm about the affliction of the soul but here in verse 4 is light. His memory takes him to a place of shared experience with people. This is at the heart of remembering.

This past week while my brother-in-law lay in bed he talked about a friend. “You remember Charles. He was with us when you were having that great round of golf.” My memory was stirred by the experience we shared together. He was right, that was the best round of golf I have ever played, ever.

What made it memorable was that he had an emergency call from work and had to leave. I never finished that round. I didn’t not get to score my best round ever. I quit in the middle of it. Now mind you I could have finished that round but to what end? I would not have been able t share it with my best friend.

It is people that make things memorable, not events. You can recount endless events in your life or things too wonderful to imagine but without someone to share them with they lose the luster in the telling. People make memories shine, they give light to life.

Luke 24:13-15 And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs. And they talked together of all these things which had happened. And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them.

What really made it memorable was being together, for where two or more are gathered, He is there.

Expound

1 Corinthians 13:5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;

Think no evil? That is pretty generic. Could we expound on that? Can we find something a little more reality based?

ESV it is not irritable or resentful; that version clarifies it a little, but still could use some clarity.

PHILLIPS It does not keep account of evil or gloat over the wickedness of other people. That helps but I must say it sounds a little like proverbs. Maybe that is wisdom.

NASB does not take into account a wrong suffered, OK now we are getting somewhere.

NIV it keeps no record of wrongs.

Now I see something I can sink my life experiences into. Love doesn’t keep score. This matches up well with the rest of the characteristics of love in this section 1 Corinthians 13. So sometimes it is helpful to look at many versions of the bible to help relate to general terms.

The Greek word for evil here is kakos. The meaning of that one word is so broad, boiling it down to one meaning is very difficult. Here is the usage of kakos.

  1. of a bad nature
    1. not such as it ought to be
  2. of a mode of thinking, feeling, acting
    1. base, wrong, wicked
  3. troublesome, injurious, pernicious, destructive, baneful

This is perhaps why these passages mean one thing to you at one time and something else at another. It is dependent upon your current life experiences and how you relate to it today.

Today I am feeling like love doesn’t keep score.