I’m studying the Psalms this year and sharing little nuggets of wisdom I come across as I do. Earlier today I read through Psalm 78, the second-longest poem in the book and one whose primary purpose is to encourage the current generation to teach the next generation about the wonderous works of God. Here’s a snippet from the early part of the Psalm…
Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done. For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children: That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children: That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:
(Psalm 78:3-7)
The history of Israel is not long-lost myth; it has been passed down, father to son, over the generations. It has been recorded by inspired writers like Moses. It has been memorized, memorialized, and meditated on. It’s one thing to be ignorant of history and, thus, to repeat past mistakes without even knowing they are “past” mistakes, but in Israel’s case: They have heard and known their history. Their ancestors (fathers) laid it bare to their descendants, warts and all. Israel is without excuse, in other words.
And yet, it only takes one generation for apostasy to take hold. If just one generation fails to teach its history to the next, then that next generation will grow up without any appreciation for what came before… and they will doom themselves to repeating their ancestors’ mistakes.
So, the Psalmist insists that his peers do not hide their history from their children. The next generation needs to know about the Lord and His wonderful works. They need the chance to praise the Lord for the things He has done in their past. Did the people of this Psalm’s day witness the Red Sea crossing, or the fall of Jericho’s walls? No, but they didn’t need to see them to know them, believe them, or be thankful for them: By teaching those miracles to the present generation, they can praise the Lord for what He has done in the past, as well as learn to rely on Him for the help they will need in the future.
God specifically directed His children to teach subsequent generations about His doings. The Psalmist says this was “established” by God, who “appointed a law” to ensure it was done. It wasn’t just that the people needed to teach the Law of Moses to their children; they also needed to tell about God’s miraculous deeds, all His mighty works, and His acts of grace that pulled Israel out of a pit, or kept them from falling. Why do they need to know this? Well, if we only ever teach the younger generation the “rules” of religion, and not also teach them the greatness of the God we serve, they will come to resent their faith. They will see their religion as a burden, full of boxes to check. Religion is not work. Religion is a life lived in service to a God worthy of our service. If our kids don’t know why God is worthy of worship and obedience, then they won’t commit their lives to Him. If our kids aren’t shown why God is worthy of praise, then He won’t be served.
The fact is, the Bible records a ton of miraculous deeds God performed, but those deeds are snapshots in time, miraculous moments peppered throughout all of human history. The Bible begins “in the beginning” and ends about two-thousand years ago. The Bible covers a time frame of eight thousand years or so. A lot can happen in eight thousand years, and most of it will be boring! The Bible wasn’t written to record every little thing that all of humanity did,nor every amazing thing God did for humanity. Maybe you’ve had a skeptical person ask you why they should believe the miracles of the Bible. “I’ve never seen a miracle like the ones talked about in the Bible,” they might say. They say that as if people, in the time the Bible was written, witnessed miracles every day.
Did you know that there are only about 200 specific miraculous acts recorded in the whole Bible? Only 200 recorded times did God supernaturally step in and change the world in one way or another. 200 times over the course of nearly ten thousand years! The point is: A lot of people lived “in the days of miracles” who never saw a miracle in their entire lives.
This Psalm reminds us that we have to teach our kids about things they have never seen before, so that they will know and believe those things even if they never will see them. We must teach our kids about the God who has done miracles, even if our kids will never personally witness one. Learning about the miracles of God is just as effective as witnessing them. Teaching God’s miracles to your kids is just as important as going to see one first-hand. Sure, it’d be more exicting to witness a miracle with our own eyes, but as said: Sometimes you can’t see it; sometimes you can only hear about it. God has already split the Red Sea. I don’t think He has any plans to do it again any time soon. We missed that one. We didn’t get to see that one. So what do we do? Do we forget it ever happened? No. We teach it to our children, and we use it to instill in our kids the importance of having faith in God.
Do you know what happened to the Israelites who did see the Red Sea split? They missed out on the Promised Land because they didn’t trust in the Lord (Numbers 14)! Can you imagine witnessing a miracle like that and still not trusting God? You don’t need to see a miracle to believe in the Miracle Maker, and seeing one doesn’t mean you will believe. We walk by faith because we don’t have to walk by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). Faith doesn’t come by seeing but by hearing the Word of God (Romans 10:17).
We may not have seen God’s supernatural acts, but we must tell our kids that they serve a God who can split a sea in two! We must teach them to trust in the power and salvation of God. We must teach them to put their hope in God. We must teach them what God has done so that they do not forget what God can do.
~Matthew