We Will Tell the Next Generation
WE WILL TELL THE NEXT GENERATION
The 2nd Sunday of Pentecost – June 18th/22nd 2014 (tlc)
382 – 416 – 536 – 752
Pastor Thomas Fricke
O my people, hear my teaching; listen to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter hidden things, things from of old— what we have heard and known, what our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done.
He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which he commanded our forefathers to teach their children, so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children. Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands. They would not be like their forefathers—a stubborn and rebellious generation, whose hearts were not loyal to God, whose spirits were not faithful to him. –Psalm 78:1-8
At our house, we have a book entitled Magnificent Seven: The Championship Games that Built the Lombardi Dynasty. I don’t have to tell you what the book’s about; the title says it all. It focuses on the good years in Packers history, the “glory years.” It covers the most memorable games and plays. But hardly a drop of ink is spent on the forgettable games, inept players, and hard times…like Curly Lambeau’s last year as coach, when the team went 2-10, or the 1958 season, when the Packers lost every road game, and had the worst record in franchise history…
We don’t like to be reminded of that stuff. It’s human nature. In sports, in our individual lives, and in our recollections of the church, we tend to remember the good things. We choose to focus on them, not the embarrassments; we commemorate victories, not defeats. Even as a nation, with a few notable exceptions—like the tragic events of 9/11 and the War in Vietnam—we tend to ignore the past, or at least re-cast it in a different light as if it were “the good ol’ days.” And so we run the danger of repeating our worst mistakes.
That’s precisely the mistake that Asaph, the writer of Psalm 78, wanted the people of Israel to avoid. He said, “I will utter things from of old, what we have heard and what our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from our children; we will tell the next generation…” (Psalm 78:2-4). You will hear these words again, I’m sure, as we celebrate 100 years of God’s blessing through the Christian education supplied through Trinity Lutheran School. But please, don’t misunderstand them.
Psalm 78 focuses not on the accomplishments of the nation of Israel or its leaders. No. In this psalm, Asaph highlights the failures of the nation and chooses to focus, instead, on the wonderful works of God. Listen to what he says: “We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done” (Psalm 78:4,5). As we prepare to celebrate an anniversary, that’s good for us to hear:
WE WILL TELL THE NEXT GENERATION…
1. The sad story of our own sinfulness
2. The praiseworthy deeds of the Lord
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Imagine how the Lord must have felt. From Abraham’s line he created a people to be his own and it grew to become a large nation in Egypt. Their Egyptian neighbors began to fear the Israelites’ numbers and made life difficult for them. So in their distress, they cried out to the Lord for help and the Lord heard their prayers and answered them. He called Moses to be their leader and brought them out of Egypt—out of the land of their oppression. It was a great deliverance and all the people praised the Lord. But it wasn’t long before they changed their tune: “They forgot what he had done, the wonders he had shown them. He divided the sea and led them through. …He guided them with the cloud by day and with light from the fire all night. …But they continued to sin against him, rebelling in the desert against the Most High…for they did not believe in God or trust in his deliverance” (Psalm 78:11-18,22).
They complained to Moses, “Why did you bring us out into the desert to die?” They were hungry. So the Lord rained down manna for them—bread from heaven—to feed them in the desert. He guided flocks of quail into their camps so they had meat to eat. They were thirsty, so he brought them water out of a rock. Yet, “In spite of all this, they kept on sinning; in spite of his wonders, they did not believe” (Psalm 78:32).
So the Lord chastised them, to bring them to their knees. The people repented, and the Lord rescued them. But their repentance was short-lived…and the same tired cycle continued to repeat itself throughout their days in the desert and beyond. “They remembered that God was their Rock, that God Most High was their Redeemer. But then they would flatter him with their mouths, lying to him with their tongues; their hearts were not loyal to him, they were not faithful to his covenant” (Psalm 78:35,36). The Lord was patient with his people…but how long would it be before his patience ran out?
In time, he brought the nation of Israel into the Promised Land. And there the Lord must have thought, “Now they’ll appreciate what I’ve done and worship me with all their hearts.” But no. They reverted to the same old sins and worse. “They angered him with their high places; they aroused his jealousy with their idols” (Psalm 78:58). They turned their backs on God and worshiped idols. So he finally gave them what they deserved. The Babylonians invaded the land, Jerusalem was destroyed, and the people were carried off into captivity….
There are no “glory days” here. We need to know that, because we must learn from it. St. Paul would later warn, “Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did…. So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!” (1 Corinthians 10:6,12). If we don’t learn from the mistakes of the past, we’re doomed to repeat them.
Do we think we’re standing firm? For some time, the Christian church has been steadily losing its confidence in Biblical truth. The fact that many churches have now chosen to accept of the sin of homosexuality and embrace “gay marriage” is only the latest indication of that trend –a trend that began over two centuries ago. But it doesn’t do us any good to point the finger at others. We need to take a good, hard look at ourselves. What about us? How firmly do we stand on God’s truth? How prepared are we to defend the faith? Or, more to the point, how committed are we to following God’s will when the rest of the world takes a different view? There comes a point when you can’t just lazily fall back on what you learned in catechism class.
God’s Word doesn’t change, but the world does…and it has changed dramatically in the past 50, 25, even 10 years. Satan’s shrewd. He’s constantly devising new challenges to the faith. We need to stay strong. We can never feel we know it all. We need to take to heart the warning, “If you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!”
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“We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord,” Asaph says. Do you see where the emphasis lies? It’s not on the praiseworthy deeds of our church and school, the wonderful things our kids have done in sports, or what they’ve achieved in the classroom. No. The story of our past, our history, is just the sad story of our own sinfulness. “We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord.”
The Lord knew the faults of his people and he knew them well. Yet loved them deeply—enough to send them a Savior. That same Lord knows your faults and mine. He chastens us in love to bring us to our knees. He does it so that he can keep us in his grace. “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He … does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” (Psalm 103:8,10-12).
He is our Savior, our Father in heaven, whose heart breaks when he sees his children go the wrong way. We can choose to turn away from him; he gives us that choice. We can live without him—apart from him and his love forever—if we want to. But if and when we choose to humble ourselves, to come back in faith and return to his fold, he’s ready to welcome us back with open arms. “If we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself” (2 Timothy 2:13).
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“O my people, hear my teaching; listen to the words of my mouth” (Psalm 78:1). Asaph spoke the truth—the whole truth—when teaching about the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord…and sometimes the truth can be painful. The truth is that over the years in the series between the Packers and Bears, the Bears have won more games…and truth is that Bud Grant’s Vikings teams were 22-14-1 against the Packers…something that Greatest Moments in Green Bay Packers Football History won’t tell you.
The truth of the Scriptures is this: We are “altogether sinful from birth.” In “countless ways” we have sinned against God and do not deserve to be called his children. The truth is: We sin…but the Lord forgives. We don’t deserve it, but he loves us and is compassionate toward us. We have been saved purely and solely by his grace. That means everything.
“We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord.” How can our children learn unless they are taught? And how can we teach them unless we know? Christian education begins with adults devoting themselves to the Word. Will you make this commitment today? Commit yourself to fill yourself with the Word of God. Spend time in it each day. Think deeply about it. Keep it in the center of your life, because when it fills your own heart you will be ready to pour it out in blessing on the next generation. Amen.