There they were again. Situation desperate. “Save us, O LORD!” (v.47)

And when I say “again”, I mean AGAIN. This wasn’t their first rodeo. Not the first time they had blown it. Not the first time their waywardness had left them lost. So, the songwriter sings again, “Save us, O LORD.”

Hovering over Psalm 106 and what hits me is that these are a people who just can’t move on. They keep rehearsing the past — in so many ways a very unflattering past. The kind of past you’d just as soon forget. But the psalmist digs up the past, replaying the same old same old failures from long, long ago.

Both we and our fathers have sinned;
       we have committed iniquity;
              we have done wickedness.

(Psalm 106:6 ESV)

He plays again the vinyl LP of their redemption and rescue from Egypt, and it grates with the scratches and gouges of sin.

You redeemed, Lord. Lord, they soon forgot. You raised up a deliverer, but they were jealous of Moses. You showed Yourself mighty, but they made a calf and worshiped a metal image. Should them Your glory but they exchanged it for the image of an ox and forgot that you were their Savior (Ps. 106:16-21).

You led them to the promised land, but they despised it, having no faith in the promise. So, they murmured in their tents and they cheated with the Baal of Peor and ate sacrifices offered to the dead (Ps. 106:24-28).

Yeah, yeah. We’ve heard it all before. Many times! Can’t we just move on? Do we need to dredge up the past again and again and again?

Evidently, we do.

For isn’t it in remembering past faults while enduring present failings that we’re propelled to again cast ourselves upon the glorious gospel and know afresh our need once again for His abundant grace? I’m thinkin’ . . .

Nevertheless, He looked upon their distress,
       when He heard their cry.
For their sake He remembered His covenant,
       and relented according to the abundance of His steadfast love.

(Psalm 106:44-45 ESV)

Nevertheless . . . is there a more glorious word than nevertheless? A word that captures so succinctly the essence of the gospel? A word that ties every remembrance of a past failings to our steadfast hope for a promised future?

Nevertheless . . . He looked . . . He heard . . . He remembered . . . according to the abundance of His steadfast love . . .

That’s why, though we no longer bear the guilt of our past transgressions, we should never dismiss them. Why, though God remembers them no more, putting them as far away as the east is from the west (Ps. 103:12), we should never forget them. For when (not if) we sin again, we thus remember again the abundance of His steadfast love. We recall the nevertheless of grace — not to presume upon it but to persevere because of it. When we blow it again, we can know He will look again, and hear again, and remember again.

All so we can give thanks again.

Save us, O LORD our God,
       and gather us from among the nations,
that we may give thanks to Your holy name
       and glory in Your praise.

Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel,
       from everlasting to everlasting!
And let all the people say, “Amen!”
       Praise the LORD!

(Psalm 106:47-48 ESV)

Thank God, again, for His abundant grace, for His unfailing nevertheless.

To Him, again, be everlasting glory.