Psalm 106:13-14 They soon forget his works, they waited not for his counsel; but lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in desert.
After God’s great Exodus miracle the people believed His Word. But soon after they forgot God and His salvation, did not pay attention to Him, and tempted Him in the desert. This was written for our learning: We may have been baptized and we believe, but it is easy to forget God and His Gospel, to be distracted by the things of the world, and to put Him to the test to prove Himself so we don’t need faith.
This is the story of our life. We sin and die, God forgives and saves, we complain and forget, but then we are reminded of the gospel of salvation and faith is renewed again. We stumble on the way to God, but we repent, believe, and remember. Because of our frail and corrupted memory, we need to rehear the gospel often to be reminded of God’s gracious life and salvation, lest we forget.
Because life is hard, and sin, death, and the devil looms, we can too easily look to other sources than God for help and hope. God understands, forgives, saves and restores because of Christ. Forgetting is too easy. Therefore, we listen to His loving call to remember, repent, return, and be restored weekly and daily.