Our fathers have told us The work that You did in their days

Psalm 44:1-8 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Former Deliverances and Present Troubles.

O God, we have heard with our ears,
Our fathers have told us
The work that You did in their days,
In the days of old.
² You with Your own hand drove out the nations;
Then You planted them;
You afflicted the peoples,
Then You spread them abroad.
³ For by their own sword they did not possess the land,
And their own arm did not save them,
But Your right hand and Your arm and the light of Your presence,
For You favored them.

⁴ You are my King, O God;
Command victories for Jacob.
⁵ Through You we will push back our adversaries;
Through Your name we will trample down those who rise up against us.
⁶ For I will not trust in my bow,
Nor will my sword save me.
⁷ But You have saved us from our adversaries,
And You have put to shame those who hate us.
⁸ In God we have boasted all day long,
And we will give thanks to Your name forever. Selah.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9;20-24 says:  “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. ⁷ You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.  You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates…  “When your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What do the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments mean which the Lord our God commanded you?’ then you shall say to your son, ‘We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and the Lord brought us from Egypt with a mighty hand. Moreover, the Lord showed great and distressing signs and wonders before our eyes against Egypt, Pharaoh and all his household; He brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land which He had sworn to our fathers.’ So the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God for our good always and for our survival, as it is today. It was commanded, not suggested that the Israelites should teach their children what God said and also the great things He did on their behalf.  In today’s text the psalmist says:  O God, we have heard with our ears, Our fathers have told us The work that You did in their days, In the days of old.  You with Your own hand drove out the nations; Then You planted them; You afflicted the peoples, Then You spread them abroad. For by their own sword they did not possess the land, And their own arm did not save them, But Your right hand and Your arm and the light of Your presence, For You favored them.  So, up to that point they had been faithful, they passed down the stories of God’s goodness and of His commandments.  What about us? What about this generation of God’s people, have we been faithful to tell of God’s goodness? Have we been faithful to tell our children of His commandments?  For nearly the first two hundred years of our nation’s history the accounts and commandments of God were integral to the curriculum of our schools. Our colleges and universities were founded with the mission of teaching Biblical history, values and truth. Today we have not only neglected to teach our children, we have regulated God out of our schools and universities. The result is that we now have a generation of children being raised by a generation that does not know God. Our education system and its results have declined from being among best in the world to failing. Many of our schools are more like battlegrounds than playgrounds.  Not only do our children no longer know God’s commandments and law, they also have little respect for any law or authority. In Matthew 18:5-7 Jesus says:  “Whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me; but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks! For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come; but woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes!”  Politicians, judges, school administrators; all those responsible for removing God from our schools and education will answer for their decisions and policies that have caused our children to stumble. Ultimately though we as believers, the mothers and fathers of this generation will also share in the woe, if we have not taught and told our children.

The psalmist says:  You are my King, O God; Command victories for Jacob.
Through You we will push back our adversaries; Through Your name we will trample down those who rise up against us. For I will not trust in my bow, Nor will my sword save me. But You have saved us from our adversaries, And You have put to shame those who hate us. In God we have boasted all day long, And we will give thanks to Your name forever.   Proverbs 22:6 says:  Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it.  In truth many of us who were trained up in the way we should go, like prodigals, may have departed from the way. Yet having been told of God’s goodness and His commandments, were able to return. What of this generation who has never been told? To whom will they turn? They rely on the system that failed and deceived them. Romans 15:13 says:   May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Depression and anxiety are rampant in our society; they are at unprecedented levels among young people. There is no peace or joy because they have not been told of God, in whom they can trust.  Those who do not know about the God of hope are hopeless.  Revelation 17:14 says:  He is Lord of lords and King of kings.   Philippians 2:10-11 says:  At the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,  and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.  Those who do not know the goodness, the love and compassion of God, those who have not been told of His wonderful work on the cross cannot like the psalmist say: You are my King, O God. Through You we will push back our adversaries; Through Your name we will trample down those who rise up against us. For I will not trust in my bow, Nor will my sword save me. But You have saved us from our adversaries, And You have put to shame those who hate us. In God we have boasted all day long, And we will give thanks to Your name forever. 

Forgive us heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ and precious Holy Spirit for the generations who have not been told of Your great works and Your great love. Redeem the lost and wasted years and call forth prodigals and orphans to Your kingdom. May all the world come to know the God of hope; the King of kings and the Lord of lords. May they know the one who loves and redeems them; Jesus Christ the Lord.  Amen.