Tell the Coming Generation! - Tell ‘em!

The Call to Remember - Psalms 78:1-8 A Maskil of Asaph. Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth! (2) I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old,(3) things that we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us. (4) We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the LORD, and his might, and the wonders that he has done. (5)He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, (6)that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, (7) so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments; (8) and that they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God.

1. Foundation: importance of memory & legacy
2. (2) I will open my mouth in a parable; Quoted in Matthew 13:34-35All these things Jesus said to the crowds in parables; indeed, he said nothing to them without a parable. (35) This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet: "I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world."
3. That our father’s have told us
4. Tell to the coming generation
5. Deeds, Might, Wonders
6. Teach to their children
7. That the next generation - Might (actually) know them
8. Have you ever known someone else’s story?
9. Watermelon in the refrigerator, etc.
10. The main point – v7 that they Set their hope in God.
11. Can you think of a higher goal in life? But to set someone else’s hope IN GOD?
12. Faithful to God
13. Its OK to learn from your father’s mistakes.
14. Become faithful to God.

Ephraim’s Failure and Lessons from the Wilderness - Psalms 78:9-16 The Ephraimites, armed with the bow, turned back on the day of battle. (10) They did not keep God's covenant, but refused to walk according to his law. (11) They forgot his works and the wonders that he had shown them. (12) In the sight of their fathers he performed wonders in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan. (13) He divided the sea and let them pass through it, and made the waters stand like a heap. (14) In the daytime he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a fiery light. (15) He split rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep. (16) He made streams come out of the rock and caused waters to flow down like rivers.

1. Historical lesson (Ephraim, exodus)
2. Refused – They heard, they knew, they refused.
3. Forgot – They heard their father’s stories, but it was insignificant. They forgot.
4. In the sight of their fathers – They had first had eyewitness, but they discounted it.
5. In the fields of Zoan – watch this video later about Tanis (Zoan). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvY_o-mLKpo (Jimmy Corsetti, Bright Insights – “1878 Image of Ancient Egypt’s Mysteriously Destroyed Lost Capital of Tanis Will Shock You…“
6. Ezekiel 30:13-15 "Thus says the Lord GOD: "I will destroy the idols and put an end to the images in Memphis; there shall no longer be a prince from the land of Egypt; so I will put fear in the land of Egypt. (14) I will make Pathros a desolation and will set fire to Zoan and will execute judgments on Thebes. (15)And I will pour out my wrath on Pelusium, the stronghold of Egypt, and cut off the multitude of Thebes.

Israel’s Rebellion Despite Miracles - Psalms 78:17-22 Yet they sinned still more against him, rebelling against the Most High in the desert.(18) They tested God in their heart by demanding the food they craved. (19) They spoke against God, saying, "Can God spread a table in the wilderness? (20) He struck the rock so that water gushed out and streams overflowed. Can he also give bread or provide meat for his people?" (21) Therefore, when the LORD heard, he was full of wrath; a fire was kindled against Jacob; his anger rose against Israel, (22) because they did not believe in God and did not trust his saving power.

1. Response to God’s provision/miracles
2. Yet they sinned still more against him – by unbelief. Look carefully. Can God…?
3. They tested God in their heart, vs 18, 41, 56.
4. 1 Corinthians 10:9-13 We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, (10)nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. (11) Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. (12) Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. (13) No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
5. Because they did not believe in God
6. They did not trust His saving power.

Psalms 78:17-23-31 (23) Yet he commanded the skies above and opened the doors of heaven, (24) and he rained down on them manna to eat and gave them the grain of heaven. (25) Man ate of the bread of the angels; he sent them food in abundance. (26) He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens, and by his power he led out the south wind; (27) he rained meat on them like dust, winged birds like the sand of the seas; (28) he let them fall in the midst of their camp, all around their dwellings. (29)And they ate and were well filled, for he gave them what they craved. (30) But before they had satisfied their craving, while the food was still in their mouths,(31) the anger of God rose against them, and he killed the strongest of them and laid low the young men of Israel.

1. Manna – God’s provision, snubbed.
2. Quoted in John 6:28-31 Then they said to him, "What must we do, to be doing the works of God?" (29) Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent." (30) So they said to him, "Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? (31) Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'"
3. He gave them what they craved – a punishment.
4. Numbers 11:1-6 And the people complained in the hearing of the LORD about their misfortunes, and when the LORD heard it, his anger was kindled, and the fire of the LORD burned among them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp. (2) Then the people cried out to Moses, and Moses prayed to the LORD, and the fire died down.(3) So the name of that place was called Taberah, because the fire of the LORD burned among them. (4)Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. And the people of Israel also wept again and said, "Oh that we had meat to eat! (5)We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. (6)But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at."
5. Numbers 11:31-34 Then a wind from the LORD sprang up, and it brought quail from the sea and let them fall beside the camp, about a day's journey on this side and a day's journey on the other side, around the camp, and about two cubits above the ground. (32) And the people rose all that day and all night and all the next day, and gathered the quail. Those who gathered least gathered ten homers. And they spread them out for themselves all around the camp. (33) While the meat was yet between their teeth, before it was consumed, the anger of the LORD was kindled against the people, and the LORD struck down the people with a very great plague. (34)Therefore the name of that place was called Kibroth-hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had the craving.
6. Watch your cravings. You might get them.
7. He killed the strongest of them and laid low the young – Think about that. What if God killed the strongest among us? And laid low the young?
8. Laid low the young. – A judgement. The most vibrant. Optimism Shattered.

Forgetfulness and Continued Sin - Psalms 78:32-39 In spite of all this, they still sinned; despite his wonders, they did not believe. (33) So he made their days vanish like a breath, and their years in terror. (34)When he killed them, they sought him; they repented and sought God earnestly. (35)They remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God their redeemer. (36)But they flattered him with their mouths; they lied to him with their tongues. (37)Their heart was not steadfast toward him; they were not faithful to his covenant. (38) Yet he, being compassionate, atoned for their iniquity and did not destroy them; he restrained his anger often and did not stir up all his wrath. (39) He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes and comes not again.

1. Sin & partial repentance, God’s mercy
2. They did not believe
3. David Guzik –"You know, in some ways, verse 32 is the most tragic line of the whole psalm. Verse 32 reads:

“In spite of this, they still sinned.”

In spite of all the great blessings that God gave to them, they still sinned. In spite of the strong corrections that God gave to them, they still sinned. Israel didn’t learn either from God’s goodness or from His strong correction.

Therefore, verse 33: “Therefore their days He consumed in futility, and their years in fear.”

You see, God said that the generation of unbelieving people in the wilderness could never enter the promised land, and that generation would be consumed in the wilderness. That’s in Numbers chapter 14.

The futility was expressed in the idea that they came out of Egypt but they never came into Canaan.

The fear was expressed in their unwillingness to take the land by faith."

1. They sought him
2. They repented and sought God earnestly
3. They remembered
4. They flattered with their mouth – But how?
5. Isaiah 29:13-14 And the Lord said: "Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men, (14)therefore, behold, I will again do wonderful things with this people, with wonder upon wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden."
6. Scary
7. Ezekiel 33:30-32 "As for you, son of man, your people who talk together about you by the walls and at the doors of the houses, say to one another, each to his brother, 'Come, and hear what the word is that comes from the LORD.' (31) And they come to you as people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear what you say but they will not do it; for with lustful talk in their mouths they act; their heart is set on their gain. (32) And behold, you are to them like one who sings lustful songs with a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument, for they hear what you say, but they will not do it.
8. No sermon benefits you if it does not lead you to a change of action.
9. Compassionate
10. Exodus 34:6-7 The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, (7)keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation."
11. They remembered /He remembered
12. Psalms 103:13-17 As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him. (14)For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust. (15) As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; (16) for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. (17) But the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children's children,

The Plagues and Exodus - Psalms 78:40-55 How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the desert! (41) They tested God again and again and provoked the Holy One of Israel. (42) They did not remember his power or the day when he redeemed them from the foe, (43) when he performed his signs in Egypt and his marvels in the fields of Zoan. (44) He turned their rivers to blood, so that they could not drink of their streams.(45) He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them, and frogs, which destroyed them. (46) He gave their crops to the destroying locust and the fruit of their labor to the locust. (47) He destroyed their vines with hail and their sycamores with frost. (48) He gave over their cattle to the hail and their flocks to thunderbolts. (49) He let loose on them his burning anger, wrath, indignation, and distress, a company of destroying angels. (50) He made a path for his anger; he did not spare them from death, but gave their lives over to the plague. (51) He struck down every firstborn in Egypt, the firstfruits of their strength in the tents of Ham. (52) Then he led out his people like sheep and guided them in the wilderness like a flock. (53) He led them in safety, so that they were not afraid, but the sea overwhelmed their enemies. (54)And he brought them to his holy land, to the mountain which his right hand had won. (55) He drove out nations before them; he apportioned them for a possession and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.

1. Plagues, deliverance, covenant
2. How they…grieved Him
3. Ephesians 4:30-32 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.(31) Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. (32) Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
4. Verse 41 - (KJV) Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.
5. Matthew 13:55-58 Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? (56) And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?"(57) And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household." (58) And he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief.
6. Plagues - THEN – He led them out

Spiritual Failure in the Land of Promise - Psalms 78:56-64 Yet they tested and rebelled against the Most High God and did not keep his testimonies,(57) but turned away and acted treacherously like their fathers; they twisted like a deceitful bow. (58)For they provoked him to anger with their high places; they moved him to jealousy with their idols. (59) When God heard, he was full of wrath, and he utterly rejected Israel. (60) He forsook his dwelling at Shiloh, the tent where he dwelt among mankind, (61) and delivered his power to captivity, his glory to the hand of the foe. (62) He gave his people over to the sword and vented his wrath on his heritage. (63) Fire devoured their young men, and their young women had no marriage song. (64) Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows made no lamentation.

1. Idolatry, rejection, warning
2. Shiloh was God’s “place of dwelling” – He left.
3. Watch this video later - https://youtu.be/gLYx_qE--uM (Ruslan KD - “Buried for 3,000 Years Then The Bible Revealed it's Location”)
4. Jeremiah 7:12-14 Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel. (13) And now, because you have done all these things, declares the LORD, and when I spoke to you persistently you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer, (14)therefore I will do to the house that is called by my name, and in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh.
5. Jeremiah 26:6 then I will make this house like Shiloh, and I will make this city a curse for all the nations of the earth.'"
6. The site was excavated by Danes between 1926 and 1932, and by Finkelstein, 1981–84. A fortified town with a glacis existed in the Middle Bronze Age (2100–1600 bc); following its destruction, occupation existed on a reduced scale until about 1200 bc when an Israelite settlement was constructed which included complexes of storehouses on the slopes of the MBA glacis. The site was destroyed about 1050 bc, probably by the Philistines[1]

God’s Election of Judah and David - Psalms 78:65-72 Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, like a strong man shouting because of wine. (66) And he put his adversaries to rout; he put them to everlasting shame. (67)He rejected the tent of Joseph; he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim, (68) but he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loves. (69) He built his sanctuary like the high heavens, like the earth, which he has founded forever.(70)He chose David his servant and took him from the sheepfolds; (71)from following the nursing ewes he brought him to shepherd Jacob his people, Israel his inheritance. (72)With upright heart he shepherded them and guided them with his skillful hand.

1. Divine choice, hope, looking to Christ
2. “One who, going forth to meet his enemy, having taken a sufficiency of wine to refresh himself, and become a proper stimulus to his animal spirits, shouts – gives the war-signal for the onset; impatient to meet the foe, and sure of victory. The idea is not taken from the case of a drunken man. A person in such a state would be very unfit to meet his enemy, and could have little prospect of conquest.” (Clarke)
3. He chose the tribe of Judah – an unexpected place.
4. He chose David his servant – an unexpected leader.
5. With upright heart he shepherded them

[1] Taylor, J. B., and J. Woodhead. “Shiloh.” New Bible Dictionary, edited by D. R. W. Wood et al., 3rd ed., InterVarsity Press, 1996, p. 1094.