If I am to be truly honest with you, I must confess that I have my doubts. It’s just part of my fragmented human nature. This is why I love the Bible so. When I slip into the doldrums of doubt and despair I can pick up the Bible to discover that I am not alone.

Listen to these words of Isaiah to the people of Israel in exile:

“Thus says the Lord…I have answered you…I have helped you…I have kept you…I have given you….”  In other words, “I answered your cries in Egypt, I sent Moses to deliver you, I protected you in the wilderness, and I gave you a promised land.”

“And not only have I acted in the past, I promise to continue acting, reaching out and reaching in… giving you light in your darkness…feeding your hunger, quenching your thirst. I promise to protect, lead and guide you. I will transform mountains into roads, lift up highways and show you the way out of captivity…”

And what did the people say?  “Amen!”  No, not even close.

The people in exile responded to the voice of God the same way I suppose you and I sometimes respond—with a lot of doubt.

In verse 14 we read: “But Zion said, ‘The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.’”

Fifteen years ago I became good friends with Christopher Cash, a member of the National Guard.

On October 1, 2003, his unit was deployed to Iraq. As the only person I personally knew in Iraq, I specifically remember praying for my friend Chris on the Sunday morning before Memorial Day the following year.

About a month later, I picked up the Saturday newspaper and read the headlines on the front page: “Captain Christopher Cash Killed in Iraq.” I tried my best to read the article, but couldn’t. I never made it pass the sub-title: “Cash leaves behind his wife, Dawn, and two children.”

The room started spinning. I felt sick to my stomach. I was lost.  And I had never felt more alone. With Zion I wanted to cry out, “The Lord has forsaken me. The Lord has forgotten me.”

This is why I love the Bible. I love the sheer honesty of it! In spite of everything I knew about God, what God has done, and what God promises to do, like Zion, I doubted.

Now listen to the good news: In verse 15, we read God’s response to our doubts.

“Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb?  Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands…”

This weekend we honor those members of our armed forces who have paid the ultimate sacrifice. They have loved others supremely, selflessly. And we remember them.

However, the good news is that our God remembers them.

This is great news, for our remembering is shallow and weak. Our remembering is fraught with doubt, laden with despair. However, God’s remembering is deep and unfailing. God’s memory endures forever. God responds to our doubt with the assurance that our loved ones will never be forgotten by God, because they are literally in the very hands of God.