Psalm 105

"Remember"

Psalm 105 is one of those psalms where Israel shares, recounts, and reflects upon her story. The call at the start of the song is to remember:

Remember the wondrous works he has done.

So the song remembers. The promises made to Abraham and Isaac. The story of Joseph. Israel coming to live in Egypt. Moses, the ten plagues, and the Exodus. The Lord's provision in the desert wanderings.

In Hunting Magic Eels I describe enchantment as a discipline of memory. The "wondrous works" of God in our lives are not everyday affairs. Like Israel, many of these moments are in our past. And as time passes our faith begins to dissipate like a mist. God becomes a distant memory.

Given this drift, Psalm 105 sets before us a spiritual practice. Enchantment is a recovery of memory. For small groups who have used Hunting Magic Eels one of the most impactful things they have done is simply telling their stories, revisiting those moments in their lives where God acted wondrously. For many, these events were years, even decades, ago. But in remembering faith is rekindled.

The story I tell in Hunting Magic Eels to illustrate this relationship between enchantment and memory is from the life of Blaise Pascal.

Pascal had a profound encounter with God on the evening of November 23, 1654. The experience lasted two hours, beginning at 10:30 p.m. and ending at 12:30 a.m. Pascal wrote an account of the experience, here, in his own words:

The year of grace 1654,
Monday, 23 November, feast of St. Clement, pope and martyr, and others in the martyrology.
Vigil of St. Chrysogonus, martyr, and others.
From about half past ten at night until about half past midnight,
FIRE.
GOD of Abraham, GOD of Isaac, GOD of Jacob not of the philosophers and of the learned.
Certitude. Certitude. Feeling. Joy. Peace.
GOD of Jesus Christ.
My God and your God.
Your GOD will be my God.
Forgetfulness of the world and of everything, except GOD.
He is only found by the ways taught in the Gospel.
Grandeur of the human soul.
Righteous Father, the world has not known you, but I have known you.
Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy.
I have departed from him:
They have forsaken me, the fount of living water.
My God, will you leave me?
Let me not be separated from him forever.
This is eternal life, that they know you, the one true God, and the one that you sent,
Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ.
I left him; I fled him, renounced, crucified.
Let me never be separated from him.
He is only kept securely by the ways taught in the Gospel:
Renunciation, total and sweet.
Complete submission to Jesus Christ and to my director.
Eternally in joy for a day’s exercise on the earth.
May I not forget your words.

Amen.

We know about this experience because, upon his death, it was discovered that Pascal had pinned this written account to the inside of his coat. He carried it with him, wherever he went. That is a discipline of memory, fidelity to the moments of grace that have been gifted us.

Just like Psalm 105, Pascal would remember.