Heavenly Father, it pleases and honors You when grandparents and parents tell the next generation about You and all Your deeds which You have orchestrated upon earth and in their personal lives. Deeds of blessing as well as the deeds perpetrated upon them because of their disobedience to Your word and their own willful ways; suffering the consequences of disobedience or enjoying the fruit of obedience.
The children and grandchildren need to know this. They also need to know Your character, as psalmist Asaph recorded. Despite the waywardness, rebellion and disobedience of the Israelites, who did not "keep God's covenant" and "refused to walk according to his law" (vs 10), and forgot all the wonderful wonders God, in His favor, bestowed upon them (vs 11); You were compassionate towards them.
They forgot and they didn't tell their next generations. Sad testimony. Barely two generations despite Your commands, Father God, for the fathers to teach the next generation so they will know and so they could "set their hope in God" (vs 5, 7).
They did not tell their children as You had commanded to do, every waking moment, as seen in Deuteronomy 11:19-21. You told them,
"Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land that the LORD swore to give your forefathers, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth."
Father God, I know I'm reciting Your Scripture back to You but it feels like I need to say it all, to be reminded of Your desire for Your people. The people back then didn't always do it and the same today, many Christian parents forget to do these things for their children. Asaph was very concerned about the next generations and how ignorant they were of You and Your ways. It seems to be a serious, serious problem of neglect even today. The generations are not being told. It is alarming. We beseech You for Your mercy upon us all.
Help us all, even when we have both children and grandchildren, to faithfully tell out the testimony of Your love, grace, mercy, care and compassion upon us, may You be lifted up and these generations give You the glory and honor, may they know Your wisdom and power and how they too can know You and have a personal relationship with You; "setting their hope," in You with every breath they have and sing Your praises.
Father, do remember though that,
"...we are but flesh, a wind that passes and comes not again" (vs 39).
We are faltering folks and we grieve You. When we grieve You and Your Holy Spirit may our "next generations" know that when they come to You, their Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, Your Son, in repentance and confession, that You, in Your love and tender mercies, forgive and purify (1 John 1:9).
You gave the Israelites a shepherd in David who, with upright heart,
"...guided them with his skillful hand" (vs 72).
May the next generation know You have also given us, all Christian grandparents and parents alike, Your Holy Scriptures and Your Holy Spirit to aid and guide our own lives, as well as those of our children and grandchildren; these "next generations" who need to know. We implore You to galvanize the former generations to tell Your story of salvation and wondrous deeds, again and again. May they learn to sing praise to Christ alone.
In turn, may they too, tell their next generation to,
"...set their hope..."
in You, O Father God, and in Jesus Christ Your Son through Whom they can have salvation and life with You. Have mercy upon us.
In Jesus name we implore both You and them.
~ERC February 2021~
Based on Psalm 78:1-72 (ESV)
Sing the Sunday School song, Tell It Again (Salvation's Story)
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