Remembering God’s Faithful Acts Series

Remembering God's Faithful Acts

Psalm 78:1-8

You can listen to a full recording of this message at http://www.nec.org.au/listen-to-a-sermon-series/responding-to-god-psalms/

Introduction to Reading

We have been making our way through a series of sermons on the Psalms. We have discovered that the best way to understand what the Psalms are all about is to focus on the genre. A genre is a group or a type or a family. In the Psalms there are seven genres of Psalms.

Hymns

Confidence

Remembrance

Kingship

Lament

Thanksgiving

Wisdom

This morning we are going to focus on the Remembrance Psalms

The main feature of a Remembrance Psalms is that to call to mind the actions of God in the past, especially the way God acted to save His people. We do that because we understand that all history is God’s History. When means everything that happens is not a series of unconnected events – but that there is a plan and we are included in that plan.

Some of the Remembrance Psalms include:-

Psalm 78

Psalm 105

Psalm 106

Psalm 135

Psalm 136

The key to understanding these types of Psalms is to recognise that God is at work and He will include us in His plans. Psalm 78 is a great example of this.

Series: Responding to God

Remembering God’s Faithful Acts

A sermon on Psalm 78:1-8

Read straight away.

The Psalm then continues on for another 64 verses. Mainly talking about events which happened in the days of Moses.

The plagues.

Going through the Red Sea.

The rebellion of the people through the whole trip.

God’s continued faithfulness.

Remembering. Remembering the way the people of God acted. Remembering the way God responded at that time. Because it is through remembering these things that faith in God is passed on from one generation to the next. God wants to see the next generation in His family. This Psalm makes it so clear.

He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel,

which he commanded our forefathers

to teach their children,

so the next generation would know them,

even the children yet to be born,

and they in turn would tell their children.

Psalm 78:5-6

Altogether there are five generation mentioned here:-

1) Forefathers.

2) Their children

3) Next generation

4) Children yet to be born

5) Their children

Five generations.

• 5 generations who hear about the acts of God.

• 5 generations who are told the amazing stories of the scriptures.

• 5 generations who can recite the Torah – the first five books of the Bible.

• 5 generations being encouraged over the times when God’s people were faithful.

• 5 generation being challenged over the times when God’s people were unfaithful.

It was a formula to have 5 generations remain in the faith. All you need to do is

- get them to listen to the words of your mouth (vs.1).

- and tell them of the old story things hidden from old (vs.2).

- and pass on the testimony of faith things our fathers have taught us (vs.3).

- and speak about the deeds of the Lord, His power and the wonders He has done (vs.4).

Once you do this the result takes place.

Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands. 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.

Psalm 78:7-8

That is the formula for five generations coming to faith. If it is such a good formula why hasn’t it worked?

I look at my own family heritage. I’ll start from my grandfather.

(Tell your own family history).

Or I look around the churches in our local area.

(Describe what has happened to churches in the loacl area in the last 40 years)

In both of those situations the story was told. Generations heard about the acts of God and the amazing stories of the Scriptures. Generations were encouraged to be faithful, and challenged when they were unfaithful. We all have the stories. People close to us who grew up in faithful households, yet who are no longer in the faith. Let’s face it. As we look to the future ... let’s say 50 years from now ... how many of us expect the next two generations of our descendants to be in the faith? Or 100 years from now … do we expect the next four generations to be in the faith?

And it is not as if we won’t put in the effort. We will do what the Psalmist says:-

We get them to listen to the words of your mouth. We will sit with our children and talk with them about the Lord. Sometimes we will do it even when they do not want to listen because we know it is what they need to hear.