Forget

Listen, O daughter; give attention and incline your ear; forget your people and your father’s house.  Ps 45:10

Reading this from a human standpoint, it seems a bit sad, especially in light of history. Forget your home? Forget your people? Forget your family? How is that possible? Very few stories are like Ruth’s – a passionate and willful choice to forget one’s home and totally embrace a new one.

But, when taken in context, it is revealed that this verse is, in fact, a beautiful one. Look at the next verse…

Then the King will desire your beauty, because He is your Lord, bow down to Him. Ps 45:11

This psalm is not discussing an earthly bride forgetting her family. It is about a people embracing their God. And, when we forsake what we have known and embrace our God,  what awaits our total surrender is perfection! Beauty! Wonder! No deprivation, only fulfillment. No lack of love, only perfect and complete love. No robbing of a past, but provision of a perfect future. This is what we are called to when we are called to forget and wholeheartedly give.

And yet…

I don’t know about you, but I struggle with forgetting my people. Who are my people? This world. The nature of it. The things of it. The possessions that don’t satisfy. The relationships that are incomplete. Perfection awaits me, but I cling to the imperfect.

When I see it in black and white before me, I am confounded by my own stupidity in clinging to “my people.” I am challenged to incline my ear and give my full attention to my King. To truly be found beautiful in His sight as I surrender the ugliness of my home and embrace the beauty of His Son’s sacrifice for me. Oh, may I truly become His bride.