Psalm 78:1-8 “A contemplation by Asaph. Hear my teaching, my people. Turn your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable. 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, his strength, and his wondrous deeds that he has done. For he established a covenant in Jacob, and appointed a teaching in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children; that the generation to come might know, even the children who should be born; who should arise and tell their children, that they might set their hope in God, and not forget God’s deeds, but keep his commandments, and might not be as their fathers— a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that didn’t make their hearts loyal, whose spirit was not steadfast with God.”

Psalm 78 is not just history. It was written as a warning and a lesson. It shows how God chose His people, gave them His teaching, and instructed them to pass it on to their children. It isn’t just a record of their continued disobedience (take heed!), but it was written to show that God was faithful all the way. He both preserved and purged His children, and He still does today.

Hebrew 12:5-8 “You have forgotten the exhortation which reasons with you as with children, ‘My son, don’t take lightly the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by him; for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines, and chastises every son whom he receives.’ It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with children, for what son is there whom his father doesn’t discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have been made partakers, then you are illegitimate, and not children.”

For additional worship: Great Is Thy Faithfulness (Reawaken Hymns)