The Town That Kept Forgetting

In the winter of 1734, something extraordinary swept through Northampton, Massachusetts. Under Jonathan Edwards's preaching, nearly three hundred townspeople professed faith within six months. Longtime grudges dissolved. Families gathered for prayer who had barely spoken in years. Edwards wrote to a colleague that the town seemed "full of the presence of God."

By 1737, the fervor had faded. Old rivalries crept back. Attendance thinned. The same neighbors who had embraced at the communion rail returned to quarreling over property lines and social rank. Edwards watched the retreat with grief — their repentance had been genuine, but it had not held.

Then in October 1740, George Whitefield rode into town, and revival erupted again. Once more the people wept. Once more they crowded the meetinghouse and remembered that God was their Rock.

This is exactly the cycle the psalmist traces in Psalm 78 — a people who sought God urgently in seasons of need, who "remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God their Redeemer," yet whose hearts "were not steadfast toward Him." But verse 38 reveals the stunning counterpoint: "Yet He, being compassionate, forgave their iniquity." The Almighty did not demand flawless faithfulness before extending mercy. He met His wandering people in their unsteady turning, again and again, because His compassion runs deeper than our inconsistency.