TEXT: Psalm 78:1-8
Grandparent Quotes:
Grandmas are moms with lots of frosting. Author Unknown
Grandfathers are just antique little boys. Author Unknown
Never have children, only grandchildren. Gore Vidal
When grandparents enter the door, discipline flies out the window. Ogden Nash
Grandmas never run out of hugs or cookies. Author Unknown
If I had known how wonderful it would be to have grandchildren, I'd have had them first. Lois Wyse
My grandkids believe I'm the oldest thing in the world. And after two or three hours with them, I believe it, too. Gene Perret
An hour with your grandchildren can make you feel young again. Anything longer than that, and you start to age quickly. Gene Perret
Grandmother - a wonderful mother with lots of practice. Author Unknown
Grandparents are similar to a piece of string - handy to have around and easily wrapped around the fingers of their grandchildren. Author Unknown
No cowboy was ever faster on the draw than a grandparent pulling a baby picture out of a wallet. Author Unknown
If you ever think that being a grandparent isn’t important then listen to these statistics:
6.1 million - The number of grandparents whose grandchildren younger than 18 live with them. {Source: 2006 American Community Survey}
2.5 million - The number of grandparents responsible for most of the basic needs (i.e., food, shelter, clothing) of one or more of the grandchildren who live with them. These grandparents represent about 40% of all grandparents whose grandchildren live with them. Of these caregivers, 1.6 million are grandmothers, and 896,000 are grandfathers.
918,000 - Number of grandparents responsible for caring for their grandchildren for at least the past five years.
5.7 million - The number of children living with a grandparent; these children comprise 8% of all children in the United States. The majority of these children, 3.7 million, live in the grandparent’s home. {Source: Families and Living Arrangements: 2006} <
Do you know how Grandparents Day got started?
Residents of Fayette County, West Virginia, Marian McQuade and her husband Joe are the parents of 15 children, grandparents of 40 and great grandparents of 8. It was her work that began in 1956 that eventually helped persuade President Richard Nixon to proclaim a National Shut-in Day.
In 1973, after a 5-year campaign, Mrs. McQuade pushed the legislation that Congress passed proclaiming the first Sunday after Labor Day as National Grandparents Day. September was chosen to honor Grandparents because it symbolized the “autumn years” of life. President Jimmy Carter signed the proclamation.
In a special aired on MSNBC several years ago, researchers found that “The most defining social change taking place is the aging of America.” Here are some stats from the Census Bureau, the National Institute on Aging, and AARP (which I am a member).
• Someone turns 50 years of age every six seconds and people over 50 account for 43% of all U.S. households
• The over-85 age group is the fastest growing segment of the population and the number of citizens over 85 will double by 2030
• The U.S. population age 65 and over is expected to double in size within the next 25 years
• Life expectancy at the turn of the century was approximately 46 years; today it is approximately 76 years
We live in a culture that promotes youthfulness and denies the importance of the elderly. The Bible calls us to instead honor the aged. Leviticus 19:32 – “You shall rise before the gray headed and honor the presence of an old man, and fear your God: I am the Lord.”
Now let’s get to our text.
Verse 4 – “We will not hide them from their children.” This is talking about the law or Word of God. Each generation has a responsibility to help the next generation. It is the older generations that teach the younger generation at home and in school.
If the older generation does not teach the younger ones, then they will not be taught. Oh, they can learn some things on their own and from their peers (mainly bad stuff). Mostly they learn from the older generation.
The CALL of this Psalm is a call to Pass it Forward—to pass on to emerging generations the knowledge of the Lord.
We of this generation must be faithful in passing down this information to the next generation. We stand between past generations and the generations to come. We are entrusted by those who have gone before us with great and important truths; truths to be preserved and transmitted in their purity to future ages. We must be faithful to discharge this responsibility.
Notice verses 3 and 4 - “3What we have heard and known, what our fathers have told us. 4We will not hide them from their children; we will tell the next generation.”
That’s what a lady named Lois did in her lifetime. She passed on her faith to her daughter, Eunice. Then Eunice passed it on to her son, little Timmy. And one day Timmy grew up to be a great man of faith in the early church. Paul wrote to him in 2 Timothy 1:5 - 6 with this instruction, “5I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also. 6For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.”
We don’t know who invested in Lois a heritage of faith. But we do know that she passed it on to the next generation who then passed it on to the next.
The CONTENT of our instruction to the next generation.
It is “what our fathers have told us” (verse 3). We don’t need to come up with some new spiritual reality to get our kids through these perilous times. The same God who brought Noah through the flood and Israel through the Red Sea and Daniel through the lion’s den can bring our kids through whatever they may face. The Old Time Religion really is good enough for me and you and our kids. I don’t mean old methods and old ways of communicating. But the substance, the reality, the basics will never change and we must never try to change them. People still need to know their Bibles. People still need to know how to pray and worship. People still need to know how to love their enemies and forgive others. The essentials of what our fathers and our mothers told us have not changed and must be passed on.
Four scholars were arguing over Bible translations. One said he preferred the King James Version because of its beauty, eloquent old English. Another said he preferred the American Standard Bible for its literalism, the way it moves the reader from passage to passage with confident feelings of accuracy from the original text. A third man preferred Moffatt because of its quaint, penetrating use of words, the turn of a phrase that captures the attention of the reader. After giving the issue further thought, the fourth scholar admitted, ’I have personally preferred my mother’s translation.’ When the other scholars chuckled, he responded, ’Yes, she translated it. She translated each page of the Bible into life. It is the most convincing translation I ever saw.
Our kids need the word of God.
But they need it lived out before them. They need it applied to daily events. They need to learn its principles. But they need to also learn how to apply its principles.
According to Psalm 78 what is it that we need to communicate to our kids?
First, the Goodness of the Lord. Tell of His mighty deeds. Look closely at Psalms 78:4 – “We will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and His strength and His wonderful works that He has done.”
I think it is significant that verse 4 comes before verse 5. Verse 5 talks about the commandments of the Lord. Our kids need to know that. But foundational to that is the goodness of the Lord. Our kids need to hear the Bible stories that talk about God’s faithfulness to His people. But they also need to hear our stories about how God has been faithful to us. I think it is a wonderful thing if we can tell our kids stories about His faithfulness to our parents and their parents.
They also need to know the will of God. Verse 5 “He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which he commanded our forefathers to teach their children” Life is to be lived in the boundaries of God’s commandments. Every child should know the Ten Commandments as a foundation for good decisions in life.
The positive CONSEQUENCE of us following Asaph’s instruction is found in Verse 7.
Then they would put their trust in God. KJV says put their hope in God.
There is no greater heritage we can give our kids than a solid faith in God. Money will easily fail them. There are some problems no amount of money can solve. The economy may fail them. Their friends may even fail them. But God will not fail them. And if they know what He has done in the past. If they know how powerful He is and how willing He is to intervene in their lives, then they can live with an abiding peace and joy confident in God’s goodness. They can take their problems to God in prayer and get some help.
[That they might set their hope in God] That they might place confidence in God; that they might maintain their allegiance to him. The object was to give such exhibitions of his character and government as to inspire just confidence in him, or to lead people to trust in him; and not to trust in idols and false gods.
[And not forget the works of God] His doings. The word here does not refer to his "works" considered as the works of creation, or the material universe, but to his acts-to what he has done in administering his government over mankind.
Obey His commandments—live godly lives that lead to the blessing of the Lord. We are seeking to train our kids in the value of obeying the will of God. We want them to know God. We want them to experience His love and kindness. We want them to know right from wrong and understand why God has set boundaries on their behavior.
The purpose was that they might see such wisdom, justice, equity, and goodness in his administration, that they would be led to keep laws so suited to promote the welfare of mankind.
And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God.
[And might not be as their fathers] Their ancestors, particularly in the wilderness, as they passed through it to the promised land. See Ex 32:7-9; 33:3; 34:9; Acts 7:51-53.
[A stubborn and rebellious generation] Stiff-necked, ungovernable; inclined to revolt. Nothing was more remarkable in their early history than this.
[A generation that set not their heart aright] Margin, as in Hebrew, "prepared not their heart." That is, they took no pains to keep their heart aright, or to cherish right feelings toward God. They yielded to any sudden impulse of passion, even when it led them to revolt against God. This is as true of sinners now as it was of them, that they "take no pains" to have their hearts right with God. If they did, there would be no difficulty in doing it. It is not with them "an object of desire" to have their hearts right with God, and hence, nothing is more easy or natural than that they should rebel and go astray.
[And whose spirit was not steadfast with God] That is, they themselves did not maintain a firm trust in God. They yielded readily to every impulse, and every passion, even when it tended to draw them away wholly from him. There was no such "strength" of attachment to him as would lead them to resist temptation, and they easily fell into the sin of idolatry.
Grandparents
Grandparents bestow upon
their grandchildren
The strength and wisdom that time
And experience have given them.
Grandchildren bless their Grandparents
With a youthful vitality and innocence
That help them stay young at heart forever.
Together they create a chain of love
Linking the past with the future.
The chain may lengthen,
But it will never part....
- Author Unknown
