What have you done for me lately?

A sometime actor and politician from Nova Scotia once wrote a book called, What have you done for me lately?: A politician explains. (out of print, alas) The book is, in essence, a politician’s lament about a fickle public with short memory. This may be a paradigm shift for some, a politician’s lament rather than our lamentations about politicians. Politicians, usually, are not people who garner our sympathy. But having grown up in a political household, I have some appreciation for the shortness of human memory. Indeed, having grown up in my own body, I have the same appreciation.

We are forgetters. Or expressed another way, we are existentialists, all about the present moment and its existence, not historicists, remembering what has been. In the midst of today’s distress, we will have forgotten last week’s joy. Some of us are more inclined to this than others.

The author of psalm 77 perhaps understands this. He is experiencing some distress. “In the day of my trouble, I seek the Lord.” (v.2) And part of his experience is the felt absence of God:

“Will the Lord spurn forever,

and never again be favorable?

Has his steadfast love forever ceased?

Are his promises at an end for all time?

Has God forgotten to be gracious?

Has he in anger shut up his compassion? (vv. 1-9)

In the middle of the existential angst, there is the question, “Where is God?” The psalmist knows how to deal with this, though. He IS an historicist. The second half of the Psalm is the cure for the doubt of the moment. Verse 11 and 12 read like this, “I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes I will remember your wonders of old. I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your mighty deeds.” God’s past action is the best predictor of his future faithfulness.

I am fickle and have a short memory. I am always looking at what is currently problematic and am not naturally inclined to look back at progress or the past faithfulness of God. It took a manager at work to start to teach me on at least an annual basis, to look back and ask, “Where were we a year ago? What progress have we made?”

This can be applied to our professional lives but also our spiritual lives. In my distress, I can choose to recall the past faithfulness of God with thankfulness, instead of lamenting, “What have you done for me lately?”