I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of the Lord… (Psalm 78:3-4).
If George Santayana* was right about the dangers of unlearned history lessons for the general population, he identified something even more vital for those who follow God.
Asaph recounts a history of God’s people where God blessed them, the people became complacent in His blessing, until they turned from God and became subject to His wrath. The cycle, sadly, repeats again and again.
Asaph wants today’s generation to learn this lesson and to break this cycle.
He calls on this generation to continually remind the next generation of God’s blessings for obedience, and God’s judgment for disobedience—
Make them known to their children (v. 5).
The children who would be born, that they may arise and declare them to their children (v. 6)
May this generation speak words of life to the generation to come!
* George Santayana said, “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” And he also noted, “A child educated only in school is an uneducated child.”
Craig T. Owens 