Two days ago I read the following in Psalm 78:
I will open my mouth with a parable;
I will utter hidden things, things from of old—
things we have heard and known,
things our ancestors have told us.
We will not hide them from their descendants;
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 ancestors 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.
When I reflect back upon years of pastoral ministry, I can think of all kinds of things I could or should have done better; opportunities for witness that I missed, people with whom I could have networked, times I neglected to do all I could have done, and others when I simply disobeyed God's command. Through all our failures, God remains faithful, and this Scripture is a good reminder of that faithfulness. A careful reading of the text reveals at least four, and possibly five generations affected when parents teach their children what they have learned from their parents and grandparents of the "praiseworthy deeds of the LORD."
This is Christian education at its finest. Sunday School teachers are at times, God's gift to children whose own parents don't claim to know Christ. I am thankful for the number of adults who poured themselves into me as a teenage new believer. I don't remember specific times when I was growing up when my father sat down and talked with me about life. But he was faithful in demonstrating Christian integrity and character in so many ways. I remember the time he confronted the father of my brother's girlfriend over the phone. I never did discover what prompted the conversation, but I do remember dad standing up for my brother. Dad was not a swearing man, so when he was agitated as he was that night, he didn't have the vocabulary that most men would use to drive home their point. The worst dad could come up with was to call the guy "buster." With a snarl.
Then there was the night he came home and announced that he had resigned all his church offices except the trustees because it was taking too many nights away from home and family. You get the picture. I look back on my parenting years from the vantage point of watching my children do it, and see them teaching in ways I failed to do with them. I see them and think to myself, "Why didn't I do that?" What they are doing is taking the foundation Linda and I laid, and building upon it, far more than we ourselves built. And Psalm 78 is being fulfilled before our very eyes. Our grandparents taught our parents who then taught us; we taught our children; they are teaching theirs. It's a generational thing; a blessing we are privileged to see playing out before our very eyes. None of it is guaranteed. I know faithful parents who shed many a tear for their wayward children.
We tell the praiseworthy deeds of our God, the things he has done for our salvation, trusting that a generation yet unborn will hear the Good News because we didn't let it die in ours. We live in a culture that is deliberately forgetting its roots. A plant without roots cannot live for long. So while our culture dies all around us, we tell the stories so our children won't forget. We teach them to send their roots down deep into the soil of God's marvelous love and grace, trusting that someday, a generation yet unborn shall hear and be saved. I'm a grandparent now; my influence is mediated through my children, except for my prayers. I keep telling the praiseworthy deeds of our God every chance I get. God is faithful, and the prayers, tears, and instruction will not return empty, and for that, I give thanks.
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