THURSDAY 19th
Psalm 78
NIV (vv1-4) – ‘My people, hear my teaching; listen to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth with a parable; I will utter hidden things, things from of old— things we have heard and known, things our ancestors have told us. We will not hide them from their descendants; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, his power, and the wonders he has done.’
ESV (vv1-4) – ‘Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth! I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old, things that we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us. 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.’
There is a similarity today with the verses that I have chosen from this psalm to yesterdays in that the psalmist is talking of the importance of recalling and passing on the things from the past. It is a passing on from one generation to another, a principle which was an important part of the history and life of the children of Israel, we will remember that as they were coming out of Egypt and making there way toward the promised land that they were instructed; ‘Hear, O Israel: The LORD 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. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, 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. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.’ Deuteronomy 6:4–9
I want to bring from this devotion today a renewed call to the importance of the passing on of the things of God, yes, the good things he has done, but more importantly the passing on of his Word, essentially the importance of the need to be preaching and teaching the Word of God. It must be one of my top priorities as a pastor, an individual called to shepherd the flock of God that I pass on to the sheep the pure food of the Word of God. I personally am forever grateful for all those who I have sat under as they have ministered faithfully the Word of God, realising that especially in my youth it gave me a good spiritual grounding as I grew, developed, and matured spiritually, we should be grateful for the Scripture, we should have a desire to read and meditate upon it and we also should be eager to come and hear it being preached, expounded or taught. In my recent personal study times in preparing ministry to bring to the Church family, a couple of verses which I will also quote when we come together on a Wednesday evening for our look at the first epistle of Peter that have guided me are from 2 Timothy—‘Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching’ Paul continues to say why the preaching of the word is so vital, ‘For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but have itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions . . .’ that is people will look for those who will preach what they want to hear rather than to hear what the Word of God actually says!
May God help us to remain faithful as a local Church in Gateshead to the sound preaching of the Word of God, as it says in Ephesians 4 ‘. . . until we attain the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning by craftiness of schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.’ Ephesians 4:13-16