Behold His Faithfulness

If you have a Bible and—I hope you do—let me invite you to turn to Psalm 98. Today we’ll be looking at a number of Scriptures and I want you to read along in your Bibles. You don’t need to trust anything I say that you can’t see with your own eyes in this Book.It’s good to gather around this text as we look at the faithfulness of God on this Christmas Eve day. I know that emotions are often more tender in this season.

So as I was praying for you this week, I couldn’t help but think about all the different struggles I know are represented across this church family. Some of you are walking through some very real challenges in your family or your work. I know there are physical struggles with disability, infertility, loss, sickness, cancer. I know there are emotional struggles represented here, relational struggles, spiritual struggles. I was thinking about students who have gone off to college and may be back home for Christmas who are facing some real spiritual struggle.

But in the middle of all these struggles, I know we have lots of questions for God. “Where are You in this? Are You even there? Why is this or that happening in my life or family or work? What are You doing? When will this change?” Some days our question is simply, “God, how do I make it through this?” I was talking with folks after the first service this morning who are simply wondering how to do what they’re walking through. If you’re asking those questions now—or if you’ve ever asked those questions—I want you to know you are not alone. First, you’re not alone in that we all ask these questions at times—I ask them as well. And it’s not just us today.

The Bible is filled with people who ask God real honest questions like this. I was reading Habakkuk this past week. Habakkuk asked God, “How long will this go on? Why is this happening?” The Bible is not a book of shallow, trite faith that pretends everything is perfect in the world. This is a Book about real wresting with the realities of sin and suffering in the world and the inevitable questions that come with that.

So first, you’re not alone in asking those questions. And then second, you’re not alone in that God has not abandoned you in the middle of your questions. I want to show you today that in the midst of the inevitable questions you and I wrestle with in this world, God is faithful. Even when your faith is faltering, God is faithful to be with you, to help you, to uphold you—and ultimately to save you from a world of sin and suffering.

That’s what Psalm 98 is all about. I want to show you in this psalm what it means for God to be faithful—and why this matters for your life. Those are the two things I want to talk about today.

Two Questions

First, what does God’s faithfulness mean? And second, in a world of sin and suffering, why does God’s faithfulness matter in each of our lives? And in the process, I want to show you how all this ties in with Christmas. I didn’t realize when I planned to preach Psalm 98 that this would be the perfect text to study on Christmas Eve day. One of the most well-known Christmas carols, “Joy to the World” by Isaac Watts, was actually written 300 years ago as a poem based on this psalm. What you may not know, however, is that “Joy to the World” wasn’t written as a Christmas carol. It was actually written to celebrate a different occasion. [More on that later.]

Part of the beauty of Psalm 98 is that it was written in such a way that it can apply to all sorts of different occasions. In this psalm the psalmist is praising God for His faithfulness to come and save His people—but it doesn’t specify the setting. Some people think this psalm is celebrating when God saved His people out of slavery in Egypt.

Other people believe the psalm is celebrating the time when God saved His people out of exile, before He brought them back to Jerusalem. At the same time, you can totally read this psalm and think about the salvation we celebrate at Christmas, when Christ came to save us from our sins. So as we read this, picture how this psalm applies to what we’re celebrating today and tomorrow.

Oh sing to the Lord a new song, For he has done marvelous things! His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him. The Lord has made known his salvation; he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations.He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises! Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody! With trumpets and the sound of the horn make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord! Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; the world and those who dwell in it! Let the rivers clap their hands; let the hills sing for joy together before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth.  He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity.

Think about that last verse, “The Lord has come.” That’s exactly what we celebrate at Christmas. That’s what we think of when we sing, “Joy to the world, the Lord has come.” But the phrase I want us to really hone in on, though, is back in verse three when the psalmist says God “has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel.”

As I was studying this text this week, meditating on all these phrases here, that one stood out as being so interesting. “God has remembered…” Think about that—”God has remembered…” We’re talking about the omniscient God of the universe, Who has all knowledge at all times. He knows everything in the world. So how does He remember something? Doesn’t remembering something seem to imply that you forgot it—or at least that it was possible for you to forget it—and then you remembered it?

My wife, Heather, walked up to me just a couple weeks ago, on December 9, and said, “Do you remember what today is?” And immediately I stopped and thought, “Oh, no. Oh, no. What did I forget?” I sat there for that split second wracking my brain; my mind was totally blank. I don’t know if any other husbands have ever been there, but it is a hopeless feeling, because you’re not given any help. It’s all on you in that moment. So I’m thinking, “December 9. December 9. December 9. Uh, I know it’s not our anniversary. It’s not her birthday. It’s not anybody in our family’s birthday, I don’t think.” She’s looking at me and I am keenly reminded that I am not omniscient. I forget things.

Now, it turned out that she was thinking about the first time we officially started dating and had a DTR (define the relationship) talk. But as we discussed it, I reminded her that it was actually December 10. So I was safe. But we all have times when we forget something and we need to remember it. But not so with God. God is omniscient. He always knows everything. God is never wracking His brain thinking, “Oh, there’s something I’m supposed to remember; it’s just not coming to Me.”

But here’s why we see language like this in the Bible. There are times when we wonder, don’t we, if God has forgotten us. Almost like Heather was looking at me that day, we sometimes look to God as if to say, “Have You forgotten me? Have You forgotten to listen to me, to help me, to provide for me?” I was talking with one of my kids this week, as they were asking, “Dad, I’m praying for this, but it just doesn’t seem like God is hearing me.”

Let’s think about the history of God’s people in both the settings I mentioned earlier. Turn back to Exodus 2 —the story that tells about how God delivered His people out of slavery in Egypt. They had been slaves for 400 years. Imagine the struggles of their faith during that time, how they must have asked, “God, where are You? When is this going to end?” Listen to how it’s described in Exodus 2:23–25: “During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.”

Did you hear that? “God remembered…” Now, that doesn’t mean God had forgotten His people, like, “Oh, yeah, the Israelites. I forgot about them.” No. What it does mean that when God’s people were wondering, “Does He remember us,” God’s Word says, “Absolutely He remembered them. He had not for one moment forgotten them.”

Turn over to Exodus 6:2–6 and listen to what God says to Moses, which is then passed on to His people:

God spoke to Moses and said to him, “I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself known to them. I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners. Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment.’”

God says, “I hear you, I remember you and I will deliver you with My arm and with My judgment.” So now when we go back to Psalm 98, it makes sense. “Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation… He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel.” This psalm totally matches the exodus story.

It’s not just about the exodus—it’s about the exile as well. Turn now to the book of Lamentations 5. Lamentations was written to lament the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon, when the people of God were taken away from their homes. Imagine a foreign army coming in, destroying the city we’re in, then scattering us in a totally foreign land. So in this lament, listen to what the author of Lamentations says in 5:1: “Remember, O Lord, what has befallen us; look, and see our disgrace!” Then listen to what the author says to God in verse 20: “Why do you forget us forever, why do you forsake us for so many days?” It felt as though the people had been forgotten by God.

Go then to Ezekiel 16. In this book, God is speaking through the prophet Ezekiel to His people in the middle of their exile, He’s promising that He has not forgotten them, but is going to restore them. Listen to what he says in verse 59: “For thus says the Lord God: I will deal with you as you have done, you who have despised the oath in breaking the covenant…” Basically He’s saying to the people, “You have sinned against Me. You’ve forgotten me. “Yet,” verse 60, “I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish for you an everlasting covenant.” He’s saying, “Even in your sin, I have not forgotten you and I will bring you back from exile.” This is why many people think Psalm was written on that occasion.

 Psalm 98 reminds us of  God’s faithfulness

God’s faithfulness means two things. First, God’s faithfulness means He never forgets His people. Never. Even when it seems as though the world is caving in around you, you do not ever have to wonder if God has forgotten you. God is faithful, which means He hears you in your groaning, He sees you in your suffering, He knows you and loves you, and He has not forgotten you. God never forgets His people.

Second, God’s faithfulness means He always keeps His promises. That’s what Psalm 98 is saying, especially in verse three. When the Bible says God has remembered His steadfast love for the house of Israel, the word the psalmist uses for “steadfast love” is “covenant love.” When God called Abraham, the father of God’s people Israel, He entered into a covenant with him—almost like a marriage commitment. And in that covenant God promised to be with Abraham and his descendants. He promised to bless and protect them; to bring them into the Promised Land. So when God saved Israel from slavery in Egypt and then from slavery in exile, God was in a sense merely keeping His promises.

Look for a moment at Psalm 105. The psalmist is recounting the history of God’s people, how He had delivered them out of slavery in Egypt through miracle after miracle. When you get to verse 39, he starts talking about how God led them with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. He gave them bread from heaven and water from rocks in the wilderness. And then in verse 42, we see why God did all this. It sums it up so well: “For he remembered his holy promise, and Abraham, his servant.” Do you see that? God never forgets His people. He always keeps His promises. And that’s why God is praised for His faithfulness in Psalm 105, Psalm 98 and all over the Bible.

We’ve seen how this applied to God’s people in the exodus and in the exile. But here’s where I want to bring this into our world at Christmas. Go to Luke 2. Often we read or listen to Luke’s account of the birth of Jesus in the first 20 verses of Luke 2. But if we don’t keep going in this chapter, we miss out on a treasure of a story in a man named Simeon. Let’s begin reading in verse 25, after which I’ll try to color in some details behind it:

Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said,

“Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word;

for my eyes have seen your salvation hat you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.”

Picture this. Luke tells us that it had been revealed to Simeon by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the fulfillment of God’s promise in the coming of the Christ. “Christ” is a title that means the Promised One, or the Messiah. God’s promises to send the Messiah started centuries before Simeon was alive, all the way back in the beginning of the Bible. As soon as sin, suffering and death entered into the world, God promised in Genesis 3:15 that He was going to send a Seed from the woman Who would one day crush the head of Satan. A few chapters later, in Genesis 12:1–3, God foretold how the seed of Abraham would bring blessing to all the peoples of the earth.

He would be a Prophet like Moses, according to Deuteronomy 18:15. In 2 Samuel 7:16 said He would be a King from the line of David, and His throne would last forever. Isaiah talks about this promised One in Isaiah 7:14, saying He would be born of a virgin, and in Isaiah 9:6–7 we read that He would be called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father and the Prince of Peace. In Isaiah 11:5 it says that righteous will be His belt and faithfulness the sash around His waist.

All these promises were a perpetual source of comfort and consolation to God’s people in the middle of massive suffering, whether it was during their slavery in Egypt, or afterward when king after king after king in Israel and Judah turned away from God. Eventually they were plundered by foreign armies, taken into exile, but even then they clung to the promise of a Messiah. In Ezekiel 37:24–27 God promises His people, “There’s One Who’s coming from the line of King David Who will be a Good Shepherd for you. He will be your Prince. He will bring you peace.”

After God’s people returned from exile, they were still waiting for the Messiah. God promised them in Zachariah 9:9–10, “You have a King Who is coming to you. He’s going to bring righteousness and salvation and will speak peace to the nations.” Then in the last book in the Old Testament, in Malachi 4:2–3, God promised, “The Son of righteousness is coming with healing in His wings.” But then…

For 400 years God was silent. Can you imagine 400 years of silence? It’s awkward enough standing here in front of you in silence for 60 seconds. It’s awkward for me. It’s awkward for you. You don’t know where to look or what to do. “What’s wrong? Somebody help the guy out. Say something, man. We thought he could handle this stage, but apparently Christmas got to him. He just froze.” All these thoughts. But can you imagine generation after generation after generation saying, “Where do we look? What do we do? What’s wrong? Somebody help us out.” Just think of all their questions.

So after centuries of silence, Simeon—whom Luke says was an aged, righteous and devote man who had longed and looked every single day of his life for the consolation of Israel—walks into the temple, trusting the promise of God, trusting the faithfulness of God that day, just like he had every other day. But this day was different. Imagine being in his shoes. Your head is bowed in prayer with the people in the temple, someone says amen, you look up and see Him. Him! He’s here. The glory of God is in the temple. The consolation of Israel has come. You’ve waited all your life. Creation has waited for centuries—and now the Christ, the promised Messiah, is here, right in front of you.

You start slowly walking toward His parents, but then more swiftly with every step. When you get to them, you ask for permission to hold Him. They grant it to you and you take Him in your arms. Talk about surreal. You are standing there, grasping God in the flesh. You hold Him close, you lift Him up and this song springs from your lips: “Sovereign Lord, as You promised, You may now dismiss Your servant in peace, for my eyes have seen Your salvation.”

How is that possible? How can a wise, aged, righteous, devout man look in the face of a Baby and see his salvation? Simeon says this because he knows something. He knows this Baby was born for a reason—to save sinners like him. You see, Simeon doesn’t just know prophecies concerning this Baby’s birth. He knows prophecies concerning this Baby’s death. Simeon knows the Messiah will be pierced for our transgressions. He will be crushed for our iniquities. And this is the side of the Christmas story that we often miss, but we cannot forget.

Those soft little hands reaching up toward Simeon’s face were fashioned so that nails might be driven through them one day. Those baby feet, pink and unable to stand, would one day walk up a dusty hill to be pinned on a cross. That sweet infant’s head, with sparkling eyes and eager mouth, was formed so that one day men might force a crown into it. And that tender body, warm and soft, would one day be ripped open by a spear. This Baby came to live the life no one has ever lived—a life of sinless obedience to God—and then, even though He had no sin for which to pay, this Baby came to die the death we deserve to die.

Then ultimately this Baby was born to conquer the enemy we cannot conquer—sin and death itself—so, in Simeon’s words, all peoples and all nations can be saved from all their sins and reconciled to God for all eternity. This is the greatest news in all the world: God has not forgotten His people. God has kept His promise to bring salvation to you and me.

So what do we do? Psalm 98, We “sing to the Lord a new song…” for “…the Lord has made known his salvation. He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.”

 Psalm 98 reminds us why does God’s faithfulness matter?

Don’t just see what God’s faithfulness means. See why God’s faithfulness matters for your life. There are three reasons why God’s faithfulness matters for you.

Number one, because God is faithful, when you trust in Him you can have peace from your past. In Psalm 98, the psalmist looks to the past, then the present and then the future. Maybe he’s starting by looking back to slavery in Egypt. Maybe he’s looking back to slavery in exile. Regardless of the setting, he’s looking back and saying, “God, You saved me from something. You delivered me from something.”

So here we sit today on this side of the coming of Christ and His death on the cross for our sins. How much more should we sing this new song? Has God saved us from something? Absolutely He has. Look back and realize that God has saved us, not just from slavery in Egypt or exile. God has saved us from slavery to sin, from the power and penalty of sin altogether.

When we think about God’s faithfulness to us, let’s just pause for a moment and think about our unfaithfulness to Him. Think about your sin. I think about my sin against God. We can think about all the ways we’ve turned from Him and rebelled against Him. We have doubted Him and ignored Him and disregarded Him. There were points in our lives when we wanted nothing to do with Him. Yet praise God, amidst our unfaithfulness to Him, He has remained faithful to us. Praise God He’s not forgotten us. He’s not failed on any one of His promises to us. He’s kept His promises to love us, to care for us, to keep us, to preserve us, to save us from sin—even as we’ve been prone to turn from Him.

Talk about remembering and forgetting—how about this for a promise from God? In Jeremiah 31:34, God promises to all who trust in Jesus, “I will be merciful toward your iniquities.” And then listen to this language. God says, “I will remember your sins no more.” Oh, Christian, let that soak in. When you think about all your sin against God, realize that God has not just saved you from the penalty and power of sin; God has saved you from the remembrance of sin in your life altogether. I think about all the ways I’ve sinned against God, then I think that He chooses not to remember any of it.

Non-Christian friend or family member who’s in town for Christmas, I invite and urge you today to put your faith in Jesus. Don’t treat Christmas as just a casual holiday. Realize that in the coming of Christ, God has made a way for you to be saved from all your sin against Him. God has promised in His Word—John 3:16—He loves you so much that He has sent His Son to die on a cross for your sin. When you put your faith in Him, you will be forgiven of all your sin and you will be reconciled to God for all eternity. Trust in Him today and you can have peace from your past and from all your sin against Him. Then you can sing, “The Lord has saved me.” So because of God’s faithfulness, you can have peace from your past.

Second, because of God’s faithfulness you can have joy in the present. In light of God’s faithfulness, the psalmist says, “Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.” Then he says it again: “Break forth into joyous song.” I love that language. It’s like he can’t control himself. It’s an outburst of joy. Then in verse six: “Make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord!” Again, the language here is loud—with lyres and horns accompanying shouts and singing.

In a world of sin and suffering, because of the faithfulness of God we have a loud, triumphant song to sing. Even in the middle of struggle, we can know that God has not forgotten and will not forget us. He will keep every single one of His promises to us. So we sing because He promises to strengthen us in the middle of the storm in our weakness. He promises to give wisdom in the middle of confusion. He promises to give us peace in the midst of turmoil. Rest in the midst of stress. Calm in the midst of anxiety. Courage in the face of fear. And ultimately, He gives us hope in the face of despair. God has promised every single one of these things and He always keeps His promises, no matter how hard this world gets.

This leads to the last reason God’s faithfulness matters according to this psalm. Because God is faithful, you can have peace from your past, you can have joy in the present and you can have hope for the future. The last part of Psalm 98 is a call for all creation to celebrate the coming of the Lord. The picture it gives is the righteousness of God reigning over everyone and everything in the world, with everything in the world made right.

 Psalm 98 is about the anticipation of Christ ruling the world

This is where we realize that this psalm is about something much bigger than delivery from slavery in Egypt or exile. This psalm is even about something much bigger than the coming of Christ, the Messiah. This is why Isaac Watts wrote his hymn, “Joy to the World.” He wasn’t ultimately painting a picture of the birth of Christ. Ultimately he was painting a picture of the return of Christ. Listen to the words. He’s writing about a day when heaven and nature are fully united in song before Christ the King. There’s no more sorrow. There’s no more sin. There are no more thorns in the ground, because the blessings of God are now flowing as far as the curse was ever found.

Watts wrote this poem in anticipation of the day when Christ will rule the world with truth and grace, when we will perfectly enjoy the glories of His righteousness and the wonders of His love. Obviously all those things are only possible because of the first coming of Christ—His life, His death and His resurrection. But we’re still waiting for the day when sin and suffering will be no more. This is our hope. We have put our hope in the faithfulness of God.

Put all this together. Right now we’re living in a world of sin and suffering, with inevitable questions about why this or that happens and when these things will be no more. As we ask those questions, doesn’t it sometimes feel like silence is all around us? Yet we have hope. Even when things seem silent, we know that God is faithful. We know that God never forgets His people and God always keeps His promises.

It’s like 2,000 years later, we are standing in Simeon’s shoes. Sure, twenty centuries have passed, but some things have not changed. We live right now in a world of sin and suffering and death, and don’t we long for consolation? In a world of terrorism and war, in a world of oppression and injustice, in a world of sickness, disability, cancer, disease—in a world of relational hurt, emotional stress, physical pain—don’t we long for complete comfort and perfect peace?

If you long for that, I encourage you to do what Simeon did—hold fast to Christ. Maybe for some of you it will be the first time you see in Him the salvation of your soul. For others of you, be reminded that no matter what is going on in your life right now, you have hope. In a world of sin and suffering and death, remember that terrorism and war will not have the last word. Oppression and injustice will not have the last word. Sickness, cancer, disease and disability will not have the last word. Relational or emotional distress or physical pain will not have the last word.

Ladies and gentlemen, Christ has come, Christ has conquered, and Christ will have the last word. So fix your eyes on His face. Hold Him close to your heart. With Simeon of old and countless saints beside him, hold on to hope, because the Christ Who came is coming again soon. And He will bring complete comfort and perfect peace to all who are waiting for Him. We know this, because God is faithful. He is faithful!

 Psalm 98 leads us to pray.

O God, we praise You for Your faithfulness. We have put all our hope in Your faithfulness. We know, just as You have time and time again over generations and centuries, You always prove Yourself faithful. We praise You for never forgetting Your people and always keeping Your promises. We praise You, Lord Jesus, as the fulfillment of all those promises. We pray then that You would help us today, on this Christmas Eve day—in light of all that’s going on around us in a world of sin and suffering—help us to hold fast in faith to You. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

How can we apply this passage to our lives?

Question 1

Although God never truly abandons His people, when is the last time you “felt” abandoned? How did

you respond? What biblical promises or truths helped you?

Question 2

As Christians, we often say that God is faithful, but we don’t always act like it. What are some practical ways we demonstrate that we don’t trust God’s faithfulness?

Question 3

How does redemptive history (God’s plan of redeeming His people throughout Scripture) help us trust in God’s faithfulness? What’s an example of a promise God gave in the Old Testament that was fulfilled in the New Testament?

Question 4

How is God’s faithfulness evident in the story of Christmas? What are some specific promised God kept in sending His Son?

Question 5

How can God’s faithfulness strengthen us to face the following sins, temptations, and struggles: (1) anxiety, (2) lust, (3) greed, (4) envy, and (5) depression? Can you think of specific promises or passages that would be helpful?God’s glory in the coming year? Why is it preferable for your local church to be the largest channel of your giving?

Psalm 98:1 – 2

“Oh sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things! His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him. The Lord has made known his salvation; he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations. He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises! Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody! With trumpets and the sound of the horn make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord! Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; the world and those who dwell in it! Let the rivers clap their hands; let the hills sing for joy together before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity.”

Psalm 98:3a

“. . . remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel.”

Exodus 2:23 – 24

“During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.”

Exodus 6:2 – 6

“God spoke to Moses and said to him, ‘I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself known to them. I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners. Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. Say therefore to the people of Israel, “I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment.”’”

Lamentations 5:1

“Remember, O Lord, what has befallen us; look, and see our disgrace!”

Lamentations 5:20

“Why do you forget us forever, why do you forsake us for so many days?”

Ezekiel 16:59 – 60

“For thus says the Lord God: I will deal with you as you have done, you who have despised the oath in breaking the covenant, yet I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish for you an everlasting covenant.”

What God’s Faithfulness Means . . .

God never forgets His people.

What God’s Faithfulness Means . . .

God always keeps His promises.

Psalm 105:42

“For he remembered his holy promise, and Abraham, his servant.”

Luke 2:25 – 32

“Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God

and said, ‘Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.’”

Genesis 3:15

Genesis 12:1–3

Deuteronomy 18:15

2 Samuel 7:16

Isaiah 7:14

Isaiah 9:6–7

Isaiah 11:5

Ezekiel 37:24–27

Zechariah 9:9 – 10

Malachi 4:2 – 3

Why God’s Faithfulness Matters . . .

You can have peace from your past.

Why God’s Faithfulness Matters . . .

You can have joy in the present.

Why God’s Faithfulness Matters . . .

You can have hope for the future.