This Generation

 March 24, 2022

When it seems that the world is shaking, tottering off its foundations, it is good to know Psalm 24. 

“The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness, 

the world and those who dwell within. 

For he has founded it upon the seas, 

and established it upon the waters.” —v.1

Adults often worry about the world their kids or grandkids are growing up in. Things are certainly different than when I was growing up in the ‘50s and ‘60s, but the promise of God remains:

“This is the generation of those who seek him, 

who seek your face.” —v.6

And finally, 

“Lift up your heads, O you gates!

And be lifted up, you everlasting doors!

And the King of glory shall come in.

Who is this King of glory?

The LORD strong and mighty,

The LORD mighty in battle.” —vv.8-9

God makes no mistakes. He has raised up our children for this hour, and will be as faithful to them as he has been to us. Of course, not every child seeks his face, but there is a generation of young adults who are doing so with an intensity and purpose that many of us older folks would do well to emulate. And the world they are inheriting from us, for all its tragedy, danger, and sorrow, is still God’s world. He is the one who establishes it, and even when the foundations tremble, God’s Word endures. He who calmed the troubled sea will one day calm all of Creation as every knee bows and every tongue confesses Jesus Christ to be Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Jesus himself guaranteed it: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my Word shall never pass away.” (Matthew 24:35) So I pray for my kids and grandkids, and for many other young adults I know. I don’t pray in fear, hoping against hope that nothing bad happens to them. We know better. “In this world, you shall have tribulation,” Jesus promised (John 16:33). My prayer is that when that trouble comes, this generation will have learned how to stand strong, how to get up when they’ve fallen, how to overcome adversity. If they don’t, it’s on us for not teaching them.

This old earth may totter and shake, but we can lift up our heads because the glorious LORD of all the earth is coming! Contrary to some (deficient) theology, the world doesn’t belong to Satan. He is at work, but he is an intruder, and this world, sad and broken as it is, belongs to God, who will restore it to even greater beauty than at the beginning. 

In the meantime, this generation is rising up; a generation who seeks God’s face, and in seeking, will find, and in finding, will stride forth in the power of the Holy Spirit to shake this world in a whole different way.