Psalm 78:1-8
Give ear, O my people, to my teaching;
incline your ears to the words of my mouth!
I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will utter dark sayings from of old,
things that we have heard and known,
that our fathers have told us.
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.
He established a testimony in Jacob
and appointed a law in Israel,
which he commanded our fathers
to teach to their children,
that the next generation might know them,
the children yet unborn,
and arise and tell them to their children,
so that they should set their hope in God
and not forget the works of God,
but keep his commandments;
and that they should not be like their fathers,
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation whose heart was not steadfast,
whose spirit was not faithful to God.
Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. Hey, everyone, this Sunday, we're starting something new, a sermon series about raising children in the faith over the next three Sundays. So our readings will be a little different from the normal lectionary. The psalm I've chosen for this upcoming Sunday is Psalm 78, verses one through eight. Give ear, oh my people to my teaching, incline your ears to the words of my mouth, I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings from of old things that we have heard and known that our fathers have told us, 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. He established a testimony and Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commands our fathers to teach to their children, that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments, and that they should not be like their fathers are stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God. Here ends the reading. This Psalm is an interesting Psalm that talks about the way that God passes on the faith from generation to generation. It begins by talking about the words of God going out into the world, and how they should not be hidden from the next generation. It says, 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. This is the role of every Christian congregation and every Christian parent, is that we are to talk about the glorious and wonderful deeds of God for the psalmist. This was the salvation that they accomplished in bringing them out of Egypt, out of slavery, and making them into people and plopping them into the Promised Land. And for Christians, it is about the death and resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ, and His Promise to come again to judge the living and the dead and bring about the resurrection. The funny thing about this is that the message of the gospel does not go on on its own. It always requires people to do it. And so it says, He commanded our fathers to teach their children that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God. God has set up a system where the the Word of God is always passed down through people. Primarily it happens through parents as they work with their their kids in their home, also through the church as we gather around our Sunday gatherings around Word and Sacrament. But it requires that people constantly speak to the next generation, always calling to bring them up. And what it wants to avoid is what often happens that a generation is stubborn. It says that they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God. The Psalmist I think has in mind all of the different generations that went through Israel that didn't turn to God. You can think about the people when they were wandering in the wilderness when Moses brought them to the promised land. And they sent spies into Israel to see if they could take it. And they didn't trust God enough to go in and conquer the promised land. You can think about them while they're wandering in the desert. And God is providing them with mana, and they are constantly complaining and he has to constantly remind them how much they need him. You can think about the book of Judges how every 40 or 60 years or so a new judge has to arise because the people were were unfaithful and went after false gods. And over and over and over again, this pattern happens. And I think we're surprised to see when this pattern happens in our day today. That has the word of God is going out perhaps in a more lackluster way. We're surprised when the new generation doesn't, doesn't follow. Seems like that has been the way that our church have done that all the way up until recently. And we need to be considerate that we need to teach the next generation. We need to be intentional about it. That's the end of our reading today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye
Transcribed by https://otter.ai