Psalm 78:5-8 - August 7, 2009

Ps 78:5-8 “He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which he commanded our forefathers to teach their children, 6 so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children. 7 Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands. 8 They would not be like their forefathers — a stubborn and rebellious generation, whose hearts were not loyal to God, whose spirits were not faithful to him." NIV

This psalm displays the importance of intergenerational transfer! The Lord has done his mighty works. He has also established a system of law to govern society. Each of these, His works and His laws, is a facet of God’s method of shaping our thoughts in relationship to both our day to day living and our long term planning and thinking. God has clearly made himself known through both of these means so that our decisions and thoughts are impacted by the background knowledge of God’s power and His values system.
Prov 9:10 introduces us to the importance of this principle: "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” God has shown us His power so that we will be conscious of His power and ability to act and has then established His laws and values system so that we will live in a Holy fear. Laws are not easily respected if there is no fear of consequence associated with their violation. Just as a parent cautions a child with instruction and punishment for transgression, teaching the child to fear disobedience, even so God has parented us through conveying these same things through the voice of His written word. Those who have been trained to fear the Lord by learning of His ways and His precepts have been given an advantage in life because of their respect for the very principles of God that bring favor upon our lives.
The psalmist is reflecting upon this importance, knowing that if the next generation is not properly trained in the word of God that they forget His deeds and place their confidence in life in their own abilities rather than God’s. It is God’s command that we teach these truths to the next generations because of the importance that this knowledge plays on our future choices and God’s ability to bless us.
We rob the generations to come by withholding from them a foundation of right understanding. This is the reason for the condition of lawlessness within our culture today. We wonder how things have become the way they are and why so many of today’s youth are making poor life choices but the answer is as simple as the reality that they are what we have created them to be. From decade to decade we have pushed the foundational learning of the ways of God further and further from the lives our children and their children. We have taken the word of God and prayer out of the school systems and relegated spiritual truth to the back burner in our evaluation of what is important to teach our children and this has resulted in a society void of conscience and a restraining fear of the Lord. Schools try to teach ethics and values but these principles have no motivator if they are not attached to the fear of the Lord. If there is no absolute, no God to honor, whose ways I must uphold to bring His pleasure upon my life then my life choices are now driven by a survival of the fittest mentality. There is no motivation for ethical conduct beyond myself and the accepted practice of society. So if the accepted practice of society has changed then my morality and ethics change with them. The problem with this thinking is that ethics and morality are now as fluid as the loudest voice in culture. Whoever shouts the loudest for their values now becomes the leader in culture and morality. Anyone who can sway public opinion to make some new behavior or practice acceptable has now shaped our ethics and morality.
This principle is the root of the crisis in this generation. We have told them there are no absolutes and because of this our society is now being shaped by the loudest voices in culture, the media and a few other specific areas. Whoever controls television, music, the internet, and the entertainment industries has repeatedly been able to bend the values system of the upcoming generations to their particular point of view because these spheres have the loudest voice. The media shapes public opinion and public opinion shapes our governments and our educational institutions. We have stripped away the foundations from our young people and then set them adrift in the winds of public opinion. Media then drives public opinion to reflect the values of whoever controls the media. This condition results in a struggle by each focus group for control of each
of these spheres.
The only hope for a restoration of our culture is a restoration of its foundations. We must regain the fear of the Lord so that we can regain the wisdom of building our lives upon concrete truths that do not change like “shifting shadows." The culture has lost its way and morality has lost its anchor. It is time to raise our voice on behalf of God and become a shaping force that calls for the restoration of Godly principles in the systems of government and education and it is time that each one of us applies the biblical mandate to teach our own children thoroughly in the ways of God so that we can see a restoration of truth and right foundations for the ages to come to build upon.