Daily Meditations

Psalm 78:7 Then they will put their trust in God This whole business of passing on our faith to our children is obviously bothering Asaph, or one of his successors. In fact, as we look at this Psalm, we realise that the content of it is exactly what he expected Jewish parents to be telling their children. They must recount the stories of the past, the dealings God had with their ancestors, and at the same time ensure that the next generation understood the unfolding wisdom and protection that God had given. Anyone else could relate these events because they were historically proven, what Jewish parents must do is show their children the hand of God in it all and give Him sole credit for all that had transpired. Thus, the parables of earthly events became revelations of divine intervention.  It is so important that we pass on the stories, not just from the Bible, but also relate what God has fulfilled in our own lives. We tell our children so that they  “put their trust in God ...

Psalm 78:6 Pass it on! Faith is not just a personal thing, it is also a gift that can be passed on! We have faith because God gave it to us. Our beliefs are not just the product of a carefully considered and reasoned, intellectual debate. The eye-opening moment, the revelation of the truth, is a gift from God. That first awareness of who God is and what Christ has done is only the beginning, from that moment our life’s journey is a succession of faith gifts, a never-ending supply of revelations that come from the heart of our Father. That is why fathers, and mothers, are charged with passing on what they have received, to their children. Many Christian parents do, and their children go on to accept Christ and to live out their own lives of faith. This whole process is meant to be “kept in the family”, our lives and our homes and our teachings and our walk with God should be so convincing that no child in its right mind would dare to doubt! The greatest gift we can give to our offspring...

Psalm 78:5 The role of the Law The Law, so far as the Jews are concerned, is the first 5 books of the Bible. In those books we see the world moving from perfection to chaos, from harmony and communion with God, to outright rebellion. One of the consequences of this was the flood of judgement in Noah’s day when the Lord admitted that He rued the day that He made man! The problem was that without the Law the human race could argue that they did not know what God expected from them! And so, Israel was chosen to be the law-keepers and God revealed His standards and commands and statutes on Mount Sinai. Now it was up to men, in particular Israel, to keep those standards and to obey God’s Law. His Law still stands, the 10 Commandments still provide the foundation for any God-fearing and law-abiding society.  The Lord encouraged the Israelites to not keep His rules to themselves but to pass them on to their children so that there was order and a continuation of God’s rule through the gene...

Psalm 78:4 The wonders He has done It’s so easy to relate a story from the past, to tell our own stories and forget to give the appropriate glory and credit to God. If He has indeed been part of all of our lives, then nothing has happened that He did not know or involve Himself with. Nothing, except the moments when we rebelled and when we went against His will and deliberately disobeyed Him.  The narrations of these past events are to be told to our children and to the next generation, but the accounts must be truthful, they must include the times when the Lord intervened, or He answered our prayers, or He led us in the right direction. We must proclaim His glory and let it be known that the days and years that have gone well for us are all down to His grace and mercy and not our own wisdom and ingenuity. Every one of our lives is a parable, every day a testimony to the faithfulness of our God. I recently spoke at a meeting where I gave accounts of four occasions that I have witne...

Psalm 78:3 My story is His story This verse is at the heart of what Asaph was all about. The parables that he (or his descendant) was about to recount were stories from the past, events that were part of Israel’s history, events that everyone knew about and had narrated and had heard retold many times. However, these stories had lost much of their power and meaning because they had become written into folklore, they were proudly proclaimed but people had forgotten to look for the deeper meaning, they had abandoned the spiritual lessons and truths that were hidden in all that had happened. In other words, the stories were proclaimed, but the hand of God in all these things had been forgotten. Psalm 78 will recount the history of Israel once again but, in Asaph’s account, it is all about the Lord and what He was really saying and doing for His chosen people.  Has it ever occurred to many of us that our life story is really His story? That the twists and turns of our journey reflect H...

Psalm 78:2 Parables reveal hidden things In 2 Chronicles 29 we read of the reign of the godly King, Hezekiah. After they endured years of drifting away from the Lord God, under his predecessors, Hezekiah sought to restore faith and order and righteousness to his people and the land of Israel. The Temple had been closed for years, he re-opened it, purified it and consecrated the building and its sacred objects afresh. Sacrifices were offered, trumpets and musicians played, and everyone knelt down and worshipped. We read in 2 Chronicles 29:30,  “King Hezekiah and his officials ordered the Levites to praise the Lord with the words of David and of Asaph the seer. So, they sang praises with gladness and bowed down and worshipped.” Asaph was not just a Levite musician and songwriter then; he was also highly regarded as a sage and a prophet! (Seer) In Matthew 13:34-35 today’s verse is quoted in a completely different context, “ Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did...

Psalm 78:1 Introduction This is one of the longer Psalms and we will be taking a guided tour through 72 verses in all. So, it’s going to occupy our thoughts for over 2 months, and who knows what might happen to us during that time? And that is the whole point, for Psalm 78 guides us through the ups and downs of Israel’s relationship with the Lord God over a considerable period of time. We know that a descendant of Asaph wrote these words, and he was a godly man for he has a pretty accurate view of the rebellious nature of the people and the miraculous, and the gracious, provision of the Lord God despite this. I guess it will turn out to be a pretty accurate summary of our own volatility and the steadfast love of the God who watches over us.  The Psalm constantly calls us to remember God’s miraculous acts and was probably written after the time when the kingdom was split for it mentions Ephraim in verse 9, Ephraim was a collective term for the 10 northern tribes. So, sit back and co...