Today, I am reading and commenting on  Psalms 78-81.

The psalmist reminds us that God asks two things of us.  First, that we obey His commands.  Second that we tell the next generation about His power and the wonders He has done, both those we have witnessed and those we were told about by those who went before us.  God asks this of us so that the next generation will put their trust in Him, just as we have done (at least, I hope that you have put your trust in God as I strive to do).  The psalmist goes on to describe how the nations, the peoples of this world, are asking “Where is their God?”.  They attack those who believe in God and seek to serve Him, belittling the idea that He even exists.  Then in the last of today’s psalms, he tells us that if only we would listen to God and follow His ways, He would subdue those who hate Him.  So, let us cry out to God and ask Him to make His face shine upon us, let us listen to what He asks of us, so that we might be saved.  Then He will act and transform us into His likeness, and heal our society.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Psalms 78-81.

All four psalms today discuss God’s anger with His people when they rebel against Him.  In the first of today’s psalms the psalmist writes about how time and again the generation which God brought out of Egypt repeatedly saw God’s power displayed.  Yet, again and again they rebelled against Him.  In the next two psalms he writes about God’s people crying out to God for deliverance.  Over the last few years as I have read the Old Testament prophets I have felt like their prophecies of God’s coming judgement applied to us today.  Our society’s have sinned in terrible ways and will soon reap what they have sown.  In the same way, the psalmist writes of the Israelites reaping what they had sown.  Today, many of God’s people are echoing the psalmist’s cry, as they should:

Restore us, God Almighty;
make your face shine on us,
that we may be saved.

Unfortunately, too many of us are failing to follow the guidance God gave us through the psalmist in the next psalm:

If my people would only listen to me,
if only they would only follow my ways,
how quickly I would subdue their enemies
and turn my hand against their foes!

I am convinced that if we, God’s people, would listen to Him more closely, and follow His ways, rather than seeking a politician to save us, or trying to get the “right” laws enacted, we would see a transformation of ourselves, and of our nation.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Psalms 78-81.

I am not sure that the theme I am going to write about today truly flows through all of these psalms.  Nevertheless, it is what I see when I read them in light of what is going on in the world around us: the terrible economy, the war in Ukraine, the violence in the U.S. over recent Supreme Court rulings, etc..  What should our reaction to all of these be?  Well, let us tell the world, especially the next generation, about the praiseworthy deeds of God, about His power and the wonders He has performed.  Our goal should be that this will lead them to put their trust in God and keep His commands.  Let us remind ourselves, and those who will listen, about how our ancestors, and perhaps even ourselves, witnessed God’s power but still put Him to the test by failing to keep His laws.  Our failure to act according to His will has led us to the circumstances in which we find ourselves.  Let us call out to God, asking Him to restore us, to make His face shine on us so that we might see His light and be saved.  I am going to paraphrase the psalmist here to say what I believe God is saying to us today:

“If my people would only listen to me,
    if they would only follow my ways,
how quickly I would subdue their enemies
    and turn my hand against their foes!”

If we will listen to God, He will restore us to prosperity, but if we refuse, the problems we see now will soon be eclipsed by even greater disaster.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Psalms 78-81.

Teach the next generation the things which God has done, and not just the things recorded in the Bible.  If we teach each generation the ways in which God has worked, both in the depths of history and in our own lifetimes, perhaps the next generation will depart from God as so many have in the past.  As I read these psalms I was struck that we appear to be living in a time when God’s people have forgotten Him and are beginning to see the results of turning away from Him.  And yet these psalms give me hope for the future.   The psalmist reminds us how simple it is to obtain God’s redemption.  We need only listen to Him and follow His ways.  Then He will quickly turn His hands against our foes.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Psalms 78-81.

It is imperative that we teach the next generation what God has done and what He commands.  It is not enough to teach them history, although that is an important first step.  They must be given context and shown how God’s wondrous love brought about His will.  Each generation must choose for themselves to set their hope in God.  If they are not taught history truly and how God brought it about, they will not believe God when He speaks to them and will not trust Him to care for them.  We see this today where parents delegated teaching their children to someone else and thought they could rely on strangers to teach their children what they needed to know.  However, this is not just an obligation for parents, each one of us must strive to teach the generations which follow after us about what God has done, how He has guided history.