Psalm 78:1-4English Standard Version
Tell the Coming Generation
A Maskil[a] of Asaph.
78 Give ear, O my people, to my teaching;
incline your ears to the words of my mouth!
2 I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will utter dark sayings from of old,
3 things that we have heard and known,
that our fathers have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their children,
but tell to the coming generation
the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might,
and the wonders that he has done.
The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.
Do you take any nominal or significant measure of time in these hectic days of getting everything exactly “just right” for Christmas or any other day, to look into mirror before and after you brush or comb your hair, to consider, ponder,
Everyone who calls themselves a Christian is in essence a teacher of the faith, because we represent God to the outside world. What we say and do is a testimony to our faith and beliefs. To honour our Heavenly Father’s great love and compassion for all mankind, let us represent Jesus well to all our family and friends.
“What has God done in my life?”
“What has God done in your life?”
“What is God doing in my life right now?”
Looking at your husband or your wife, your children, grand children, best friends, the workers being busy in the grocery store or department store?
Looking at all your neighbors house’s outside your living room window?
Looking at the rest of the surrounding homes on the street where you live?
At the person who just drove their car or their SUV or their truck by you?
Maybe God healed someone in your family…
Maybe God helped you restore a broken relationship…
Maybe God miraculously provided for unmet financial needs…
Maybe God just healed and restored them or a member of their family?
Miraculously provided for and just met one of their specific financial needs?
Miraculously provided measure of courage and strength to meet a difficult and insurmountable personal challenge – talking to their bosses or their coworkers?
No matter what God has done, is doing and will certainly do for you or others, in their immediate and far off futures, we always be prepared to give an answer to that question with a story, a personal story, an inspired and empowering story.
The human brain is wired by God to tell, to learn from, and remember, stories.
That is why today’s verses from what would later become Psalm 78 were so fully and completely and utterly meaningful, Asaph had to write them down.
Not just write them down in some private personal journal kept in his bedroom.
But written down for the benefit of countless future generations yet to be born.
That’s why today’s devotional verses from Psalm 78 are so MY GOD powerful.
When the psalmist wrote:
“we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, tell of his power, and the wonders he has done,”
God very specifically meant parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, leaders and teachers, those ‘influential ones’ in all our lives would share of their God stories with their kids, God’s, their neighbors, at every available opportunity.
When we zoom out, the Bible is not primarily a singular collection of rules or of covenant propositions—it is filled with stories of God’s power and wonders too.
- Of Adam and Eve, their Sin, hiding from God, the resultant consequences…
- Of Noah and his hardcore faithfulness before God – building an ark…
- Of the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children…
- Of a young idealistic boy named Joseph and his techno colored coat…
- Joseph, betrayed by his brothers out of jealously, thrown down a well…
- Joseph, conspired against eventually sold into slavery into Egypt…
- Joseph, whom God used to set the example of redemption, mercy…
- A Judge named Deborah who led her people, delivered them in battle…
- Young Barren Woman named Hannah severely scorned by her people…
- The Scorned Hannah who prayed and found favor with God – A Son …
- Young Samuel, who said: “speak Lord for your servant is listening”…
- God delivering the Israelites from Egypt through miracle after miracle…
- The Miraculous Life of a once condemned Moses – leading God’s people…
- The faith and courage of a young David standing up to the bully Goliath…
- God answering young King Solomon’s prayer for wisdom to rule wisely…
- Story of a man named Job going from blessed to utter chaos and back…
- Stories of genealogies’ and generations – Matthew 1:1-17, Luke 3:21-38
- The Story of a young teenage Girl named Mary who found favor with God…
- Fulfillment of Prophecy: The Birth Narratives of Immanuel, God With Us…
- Story of an older couple Zacharias, Elizabeth who found favor with God…
- Miraculous Interactions with the Thousands, of Feedings and Healings…
- Of a Good Samaritan, a Prodigal Son, A lonely, isolated woman at a well…
- Crossing un-crossable Borders long considered to be “high end taboo.”…
- the unredeemable – at a tax booth, Zacchaeus climbing a community tree…
- the outcasts, one’s no one else would dare to approach, named “Legion”…
- who were declared to be untouchables – Lepers, Incurables, Prostitutes…
- those who have struggled their whole lives for anyone to help them…
- raising the dead of a lonely widow, of a family friend named Lazarus…
- Jesus’ perfect life, substitutionary death, and resurrection…
- The Holy Spirit’s work through the New Testament church…
And these are just a few I could think of in this devotional moment
The list quite literally goes on!
Too many personal stories to tell in this one short devotion ….
Each one with a story of immeasurable significance to us reading this today.
Everyone one of us who calls themselves a Christian is in essence a teacher of the faith, because we represent God to the outside world. What we say and do is a testimony to our faith and beliefs. To honour our Heavenly Father’s great love and compassion for all mankind, let us represent Jesus well to all our family and friends.
So, here’s a challenge I am presenting to you and for your consideration:
Write down a list of your God stories to share with the next generation.
What if every holiday you shared a new story with your kids, grandkids, nieces, or nephews?
What if everyday you would share a new story with your wife or husband, your children, your grandchildren, your siblings, your friends, your own neighbors?
What would happen, what could happen, what might, will happen if the next generation saw God didn’t just do “blessed and highly favored” “praiseworthy” “trustworthy, stuff untold thousands of years ago—GOD IS still active today?
Every single one one of us who confesses Christ as their Savior, who calls upon the Lord for His Grace and for His Favor, who calls themselves a James 1:22-25 Christian, is in essence a teacher and proclaimer of the faith, because we each represent, each reveal, God to the outside world. What we say and do, how we act and behave, in public and in private is a testimony to our faith and beliefs. To genuinely honor our Heavenly Father’s great love and compassion for all of mankind, as Jesus did, let us represent Jesus well to all our family and friends.
And not just in other families, but in your own.
Not just in your home but other people’s homes?
In a whole entire street and block of homes?
In a whole entire community of neighborhood homes
You don’t even need to be a parent to do this.
If you teach Sunday school, volunteer at youth group, mentor kids…
Share your God stories!
If you talk to someone while you are shopping or you are working …
Share your God stories!
If you are talking to someone about getting help for your computer or your internet service or for your smart phone ….
Close the conversation with something like this …
When they ask if you have anymore questions or if there is “anything else” …
“Yes, there is just one thing more thing … “May you find favor with God today!”
You just never know what that will do for that person on the other end …
You just can never know what GOD will do for that person on the other end …
Make your list.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit …
Check it once and then check it twice and then thrice times more …
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit …
Share your God stories. Do not “hide them from your ‘descendants.’”
Countless future generations are counting on you and me to do our parts!
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
God, my Father ….
Let my testimony of you in my life be as true and faithful your testimony is faithful and true of me in your life. Please, let my story reveal your story!!!
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 