Thoughts From Psalms - Day 2

Psalm 78

A maskil of Asaph.

¹ My people, hear my teaching;
    listen to the words of my mouth.
² I will open my mouth with a parable;
    I will utter hidden things, things from of old—
³ things we have heard and known,
    things our ancestors have told us.
⁴ 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.
⁵ He decreed statutes for Jacob
    and established the law in Israel,
which he commanded our ancestors
    to teach their children,
⁶ so the next generation would know them,
    even the children yet to be born,
    and they in turn would tell their children.
⁷ Then they would put their trust in God
    and would not forget his deeds
    but would keep his commands.
⁸ They would not be like their ancestors—
    a stubborn and rebellious generation,
whose hearts were not loyal to God,
    whose spirits were not faithful to him.

        And then it goes on 64 more verses recounting the history of the Israelites up until the time of David, telling of how much God had done for them and their acts of rebellion against Him despite His patience and goodness to them. Here is a list of some of the things they did;

  vs 10 didn't keep God's covenant, refused to live by His law
  vs 17 continued to sin against Him, rebelled against the Most High in the desert
  vs 18 willfully put God to the test
  vs 19 spoke against God
  vs 22 Did not believe in God, did not trust His deliverance
  vs 36 flattered Him with their lips, lied to Him with their tongues
  vs 40 grieved Him in the wasteland
  vs 41 vexed the Holy One of Israel
  vs 42 didn't remember His power
  vs 58 angered Him with their high places, aroused His jealousy with their idols

        Notice how each of these verses have one thing in common - when we sin, it is against Him. Sin isn't some random breaking of a list of rules but something much more than that. Sin is a personal affront to a personal God. When Jesus told us how to address God, He overwhelmingly told us to use the name "Father". You can't get more personal than that. We often say that religion is following rules but Christianity is a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. If that is true, then every sin is a breech in that relationship. It is a slap in God's face. Thus, the best deterrent to sin is to get our hearts or our kid's "hearts loyal to God" and their "spirits faithful to Him," so that when we sin or are tempted to sin we are grieved at how this would or did affect the One we are in love with. Psalm 119:127,128 says

¹²⁷ Because I love your commands
    more than gold, more than pure gold,
¹²⁸ and because I consider all your precepts right,
    I hate every wrong path.

Psalm 1, which we just discussed, tells how to lead the fruitful life that God intended for us, and the key to that is found in verse 2;

"...but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,"

         I was contemplating how to illustrate this and I came up with this - Our middle son is a mess. When he comes home for Holidays or goes on vacation with us, the floor in his room is so cluttered in 6 hours that you can't walk on it. You should see the room where he lives! Now, I have to admit that he gets this honestly as I'm sure my messiness in the 20's was equal to his. The difference is I'm now married, and although I still see the floor as a reasonable place to place tomorrow's wardrobe, my wife doesn't. She sees it as an affront to her personally as she desires a tidy house. Therefore, the previous "clean up your room, it's a pig sty" or "messiness is a bad character trait" or whatever was used to motivate me to pick up after myself that never worked, was replaced by the effective "I will pick up after myself because it makes my wife happy and I love my wife."

      So how does one get this love for God that changes our hearts so we delight to do His will? And, how do we parent this heart for God into our children? Lets start with kids. Primarily it is to make God and the things of God winsome and fun. If you call to your kids and yell, "devotion time" or "time to go to church" or "time for youth group", your child should come racing. If they come groaning or complaining, you are losing the battle for their hearts. Devotions should be fun, kinetic, loud, and geared toward their level of comprehension. For example, we studied the parable of the sower last night. I showed a couple animated YouTube clips on the parable (that were short) after singing 3 songs that the kids love from the same site. Then we went outside and looked at a couple of planters one with plants growing and one where they didn't. Then we discussed why they didn't or did grow and related it to the parable and their lives. The problem was they were all under 4 so none of the grandchildren got it. They liked the story and worship time so it wasn't a complete bust. But, at least we did it and they had fun. Why do kids love VBS and church hop because they can't get enough? Because they sing and dance to fun songs, have excited teachers teaching stories to their level with crafts and snacks. Is there any reason you can't do that at home? If your kids don't like church, Sunday School or youth group, you seriously need to think about changing churches or leading their youth group or SS class. David says in Psalm 34:8;

     "Taste and see that the Lord is good"

   This should be our under-arching verse for every spiritual thing we do with our kids. But what about you? How do you rekindle your love for God? That's a tough one but I will tell you what did it for me. The parable of the sower and the seeds tells of the third destination of the seeds was the thorny soil. The seeds grew but they were choked by all the cares of the world. For me, mission trips to third world countries where there is no TV, internet, or other distractions - nothing but Jesus and His people serving the poor brings a closeness like nothing else. May it never be said of us, "These people honor me with their lips but their hearts are far from me."