:: By Simon Chaplin
Intro:
Let me pose a question:
What are the different ministries of this church? What is its primary function? What’s the most important thing this church does? Our psalm today tells us that one of the first things that jump to mind should be Children.
Now that is counter cultural.
Around the world there are cultures that place children right at the very bottom of the heap. I heard stories from CMS summer school about Tanzania where it is the normal practise for all the men to eat first and they eat as much food as they can. Then all the scraps are brought together so all the women can eat, and eat as much as they can. The scraps of the scraps are gathered and ONLY then can the children eat.
Children cannot fend for themself. They cannot fight for rights. They are weak and defenceless and so often are taken advantage of. They are undervalued. But that’s Africa we might say. We here in Australia are much more sophisticated.
But is that true?
Australia along with other Western nations shows in a different way how it values children. In Tanzania there would not be a home with fewer than 3 or 4 children; in Australia this is now very rare. The birth rate has dropped below a sustainable level to keep our population growing. Our government has had to resort to rhetoric to get us to have more children. You know how it goes:
1 for mum 1 for dad and 1 for the country
We want less children, and we spend less time with them. Child care industry is booming as fewer people are prepared to give up work to look after them. Some mothers are forced to go back into full time work earlier than they would want, but this simply reflects further on our whole society’s refusal to value children, as we have not provided adequate welfare for caring mothers.
The psalmist challenges our value system today. He says all that God has ever done he has done for our children that he might know them and they might know him.
Indeed teaching the next generation is the most important thing that Israel can do.
To understand the psalmist urgency we need to set the scene. We are only looking at the first 8 so let me orient you with the rest of the psalm.
The psalm is set just after Israel’s wanderings in the wilderness. Most of the psalm is a summary of Israel’s rebellion against God during their time in the wilderness. And yet this is directly after God’s glorious deeds in saving them from Egypt. Verse 40 is a good summary of the perspective of this Psalm
vs 40 How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the desert.
Israel had seen
‘the glorious deeds of the lord and his might
the wonders that he has done.’ (vs 4) but they had ignored the hand that saved them.
Our psalmist knows how wrong it was to forget God and he puts out the call to fix the problem. He has the solution:
We need to tell the coming generation. WE need to tell them of the glorious deeds of the lord and his might, the wonders that he has done(vs 4).
This Psalm is a call to teach our children all that God has done so they won’t rebel against him, but will know and love him.
He gives us three reasons to teach our children.
Reason one:
God will remain hidden if we don’t
Look at the beginning of the psalm
vs 1-4Give ear o my people to my teaching
incline your ear 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 teach to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the lord and his might
the wonders he has done
What were ‘the parables’? Or the ‘Dark saying of old?’
It sounds a bit mysterious. Like he wants to initiate these children into a secret religion. But it is actually the opposite of that. These dark sayings simple mean hidden sayings. They are only hidden because the next generation do not know them yet. You can’t know the past until someone tells it to you.
The point is that these saying won’t stay hidden; they won’t say dark. They won’t stay as parables. Because He is going to teach the next generation so these truths about God will no longer be hidden. That is how on earth will the next generation know about God unless someone teaches them. This is how our psalmist knows God. As it says in verse 3 his father taught him. So just like his father taught him, so he will teach the next generation
Let me give an illustration of this.
The Passover. Ever year a child would see his father take a young lamb free from blemish. The whole family would gather together. They would eat this animal with unleavened bread and the young boy and the young girl would be wondering what an earth all this was about. They can have no idea that God used a lamb like this to save the Israelites from Egypt unless someone tells them. The Passover would seem like a parable, like a dark saying of old until someone explains it. Or the cross in our church. What does that mean? For the children here it will remain a mystery unless we tell them. Unless we tell them it was upon the cross that Jesus died for them, that they may know our loving heavenly Father.
The psalmist says I will not hide it from them. The coming generation need to know..
the glorious deeds of the lord and his might
the wonders that he has done.
2nd reason: God has commanded it
5He established a testimony in Jacob
and appointed a law in Israel,
which he commanded our fathers
to teach to their children,
6that the next generation might know them,
the children yet unborn,
and arise and tell them to their children,
God wants to be known. He wants a relationship with his people and he wants it to continue.
With their children and their children. With you and your children and their children.
When God rescued His people from Egypt time and time again he made stipulation that they pass on all he had done to their children
Let’s think about the Passover again.
Ex 12. 26 And when your children ask you, `What does this ceremony mean to you?’ 27 then tell them, `It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians
Or look what God commanded in Deuteronomy.
Deut 31:12 (NIV) Assemble the people—men, women and children, and the aliens living in your towns—so they can listen and learn to fear the LORD your God and follow carefully all the words of this law. 13 Their children, who do not know this law, must hear it and learn to fear the LORD your God as long as you live in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”
or again, in this famous passage
Deut 6 4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
Israel had this special law and within it was the command to pass it on. So as the next generation learnt the law they would also learn the law that required them to pass it on. As they knew God they were commanded to teach their children to know God and …the glorious deeds of the lord and his might
the wonders that he has done.
The NT reiterates this in Ephesians 6vs 4 where father are commanded to bring up their children in the Lord.
God commanded that we teach our children of what he has done. But it is never meant to simply be information
3rd Reason. Teach our children so they point their hope in him and do not forget him.
Look at verse 7
so that they should set their hope in God
and not forget the works of God,
but keep his commandments;
This is the Goal: that the next generation learn to trust in God. All that God had done in rescuing his people out of Egypt he had done for their children. And so as the next generation hear of what God has done in the past, they know what God has done for them. They can hear what kind of God we have. A faithful kind and loving God. And when you find out that God loves you, and has rescued you the only response is to set your hope on him.
The God who rescues his people from Egypt has done a far greater thing for us. He has given us Jesus. This is his most glorious deed, this is the greatest wonder he has done. Sending Jesus to die for us. And he sent Jesus to die for Children Too. In Jesus is where we know most truly we have a God in whom we can trust. Who loves us and loves children. This is the greatest hope they can have. And we need to teach them about Jesus so they won’t turn away. We need to teach them so
that they should set their hope in God
and not forget the works of God,
but keep his commandments;
8and 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.
So they won’t turn away from God
What do you want the children of today to hope in?
What are the goals for our children. To go to a really good school. To grow up in a really nice suburb. To get a really nice job. Its all very nice. But look at the world we live in. It is a broken world and all those hopes will fail our children. There is only one who will not fail our children. And that’s our LORD Jesus
I went to CMS summer school and there was a seminar called: WHAT! YOU’RE TAKING YOUR CHILDREN.
This point was made again and again during the week, that one of the hardest things about missionary work is taking children away from all the privileges in Australia. Because we think good health, education, chances to succeed are the MOST important thing.
There were many inspiring testimonies none the least from Amy Vince who has taken her children to Tanzania. She was asked how she felt when her kids suffered illness. She responded something along these lines.
‘We live in a village. There is no medical help nearby. The hospital? Well you just don’t go there. The nearest modern city is across the border in Nairobi 10 hours away. Our children all have had malaria. Our youngest Bree has had malaria twice. The first time so bad I didn’t think she would survive.
But I believe God has their days numbered. Whether they are in Australia or Tanzania God has them hands in his hands. My responsibility is to make the best decisions I can make to look after them but ultimately I have entrusted them to his care and he will look after them’
You could have heard a pin drop as she spoke. The point is what was best for her children and our children is not health or education or anything else. But that they grow up knowing God. Whether here or in Tanzania. And she could trust in God because she knew God loved her children.
Conclusion And so it is no surprise that when our lord walked on earth we see this response in Luke 18 15Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. 16But Jesus called them to him, saying, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. 17Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”
What is your response. How do you value Children? Is it like the disciples? Or is like our Lord Jesus.
Jesus values Children. Enough to die for them. Do we in our ministries value them?
So on a Sunday morning as we meet here, as millions are out playing sport or shopping, down at the beach or relaxing at home. What is one of the most important places to be? It’s the place you might least expect. It’s a place where not many people want to be. It’s often noisy out of control. It’s tiring.
It’s the Sunday schools of churches.
Glue stuck on carpet, paint on clothes, kids running wild. It seems along way away from being important. But this psalm is telling us that as the glorious deeds of God are recounted to the next generation nothing could be more important. Because all God has ever done for us in Jesus he has done for Children as well.