Psalms 78 - Teach Me Your Experience

January 23, 2017 Monday Message:

“We will not hide (knowledge of the past) from our descendants; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord.” Psalms 78:4 (NIV)

If you could graph Israel’s relationship with God, it would look like a roller coaster — up and down, up and down, over and over again. Here’s the pattern: the people sin and forget about God, grow far from God, until God finally rescues them (again and again) and the people repent and return and honor God — until they once again forget and fall away.

Psalm 78 is long - 72 verses! As I said, the pattern repeats itself numerous times, and the Psalmist’s point is that if we don’t hide these things, perhaps the next generation can learn from our past mistakes.

As leaders, it’s our responsibility to raise up, convince and equip the next generation. Teach them what God would have us do, but first give them knowledge of the past. God wants us to learn from those mistakes – to do better next time. He needs each succeeding generation to be able to take a step forward – to be equipped to do better, and we’re to help with the equipping!

The psalmist Asaph concludes with a call for Jewish unity. He says that everyone needs to support David, who was chosen through heavenly intervention. David is God’s man for the job, a man after God’s own heart.

Learn from Asaph’s examples – everything goes better when you’re working WITH God!

Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship gathers next Sunday, January 29, 2017. We meet at the Akina Church, 3249 30^th Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55406, 10:30am.