“Don’t keep it to yourself”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Tuesday, September 26, 2023
Psalm 78: 1-39 (Forward, p. 59) CEV p. 601
Years ago, back in 1969 in fact, Kurt Kaiser wrote a spiritual song that would become a staple of campfires and youth group sing-alongs called “Pass It On”. Some of its words go as follows, “Don’t keep it to yourself, give it away, to somebody else, it will make their day…”
This is exactly the sentiments of today’s psalm, except here, it will do far more than simply ‘make their day’. It will enlighten and stimulate their faith in God. And what is it that they are to ‘pass on’, but their experiences, and their history, of what God has done in their lives and in the life of Israel. So, what does our psalmist say on the matter? First, he explains what he plans to do:
“My friends, I beg you to listen as I teach. I will give instructions and explain the mystery of what happened long ago. These are things we learned from our ancestors, and we will tell them to the next generation. We won’t keep secret the glorious deeds and the mighty miracles of the Lord” (verses 1-4).
And then, as a kind of follow-up, he gives the rationale, the reason for so doing:
“God gave His Law to Jacob’s descendants, the people of Israel. And he told our ancestors to teach their children, so that each new generation would know his Law and tell it to the next. Then they would trust God and obey his teachings, without forgetting anything God has done. They would be difference from their ancestors, who were stubborn, rebellious, and unfaithful to God” (verses 5-8).
And then, if this isn’t enough, he explores, in some detail, just what were the consequences of their forgetting:
-they were defeated in battle and ran away from their enemies
and were eventually left desolate with their people killed and
their cities and their land left in ruins;
-because they forgot what God had done previously—or were
unaware of it, they became easily frustrated, worried and
anxious when ‘things didn’t go their way’, things like their
hardships in the desert. They fell easily into despair and
hopelessness because they didn’t see the bigger picture,
namely, what God could do. Thus, they had rather limited
hopes and expectations and so took ‘matters into their own
hands’, worshipping and serving useless idols that could
never be of any help;
-according—because they didn’t know any better--they doubted
God’s ability to work in their lives and provide for them. They
became demanding and critical and put God to the test and turned
away from Him to worship dumb idols. “They were as crooked as a
twisted arrow” (verse 57). What a delightful and telling image: they
were the very opposite of what they were meant to be!
And this, in spite of everything that God had done for them. All of this, however, simply because they did not remember. They forgot or were unaware of all that God had done, and so doubted God’s goodness and refused to trust Him or obey Him. They kept on rebelling and sinning. All because they forgot. And so, here is where telling the story, recounting the story, of what God has done is so very, very important. Let us, as that song says remember to ‘pass it on’. Let us then, you and I, be careful and diligent in so doing.
Forward notes: “I will open my mouth in a parable; I will declare the mysteries of ancient times. That which we have heard and known, and what our forefathers have told us, we will not hide from their children”
(verses 2-3).
“Reckoning with the past is not easy. It’s tempting to stifle stories of the bad by shrouding them in silence or varnishing them in half-truths. It’s tempting to cast condemnation on wrongs done in order to distance now from then, us from them. It can even be tempting to take the opposite extreme of pronouncing it all evil and discounting the good.
“What I find powerful about Psalm 78 is the psalmist’s commitment to try to remember and to teach Israel’s history to the generations to come. The psalmist does not hold back from naming their ancestors’ failures. Yet the purpose of rehearsing past mistakes is not to teach their children either that they are doomed to fail too or that they bear no similarity to those who
came before them. For the psalmist, these teachings can enable present and future generations to make different choices and avoid the same pitfalls as their predecessors. By remember all that their ancestors have passed down, they can also remember God’s deeds across the generations.”
Moving Forward: “Invite an elder to share their stories.”
A concluding note: Finally, in this last phrase, today’s author touches on what this entire psalm is about. It is about remembering what God has done and passing it on and thereby instilling in future generations a strong faith in God and a desire to trust Him, serve Him, and obey Him. The accumulated failures and bad choices are simply the result, the by-product of that forgetfulness or lack of knowledge of God’s deeds.