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By: David Bothof
You may listen to this devotion in audio form via podcast here.
One generation will commend your works to another; they will tell of your mighty acts. They will speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty, and I will meditate on your wonderful works. They will tell of the power of your awesome works, and I will proclaim your great deeds. They will celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness.
There is a quote by Ronald Reagan that I believe is very profound, not just for politics and government, but for any aspect of life. In his Inaugural Address (as Governor of California) on January 5, 1967, he said “Freedom is a fragile thing and it's never more than one generation away from extinction." I heard someone recite this quote when I was in college, and I haven’t forgotten it since. But Reagan didn’t stop that idea there. He continued to further drive his point home in the next couple of phrases: “It is not ours by way of inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. And those in world history who have known freedom and then lost it have never known it again.”
I thought of this quote when reading Psalm 145. From beginning to end, the author of this Psalm declares the greatness of God. But what made me think of the Reagan quote was verses 4-7, which begins “One generation will commend your works to another; they will tell of your mighty acts.” In the midst of extolling the greatness and wonder of God, the psalmist mentions this phenomenon that the knowledge of God’s glory is passed from one generation to another. I think the reason this stuck out to me is that I didn’t expect to see it in a psalm. The idea that we need to teach the next generation about God isn’t a new idea to me. It’s something that my dad has drilled into my head since high school. He has all sorts of quotes about the importance of raising children to know God. So I’m used to hearing this concept from him, and I’m used to reading it in other places in the Bible, like Deuteronomy 6, where it says “Impress them (God’s commandments) 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. Tie them as symbols on your hands, and bind them on your foreheads, write them on the doorframes of your houses, and on your gates.” This is a pretty common idea in the Old Testament.
But here is the same idea in the middle of a psalm. One of those emotional parts of the Bible that I tend to skim when I read because, well, I don’t tend to be a very emotional person and therefore poetic exclamations of praise, sorrow, happiness, anger, etc., like you find in the psalms, don’t usually do it for me. I guess having this more philosophical idea of passing the knowledge of God from generation to generation in the middle of a passionate and emotional poem of praise made me rethink my opinion on psalms. It made me contemplate whether I should be more open to using this psalmist’s method to pass the knowledge of God to the next generation by means of outward expressions of praise to him. I mean, I DO teach my own children and also other kids about God. It is literally my job as an Old Testament Bible teacher. I talk to them about aspects of God and being a Christian. I teach kids about the apologetics of Christian faith. But how often do I “proclaim His great deeds” to the next generation? Do I ever celebrate his abundant goodness with them? Do I exalt His name or speak of His might? Do I praise his name in their presence? Maybe. But even if I do, I don’t think I do it with the passion that is evident here in Psalm 145. He can’t contain his wonder at the goodness and glory of God. So I think seeing this idea of passing the knowledge of God’s goodness to the next generation in the middle of a psalm of praise stuck out to me because it convicted me to let my passion for God be a little more overt. A saying I made up (at least I think I did) is “great enthusiasm can make up for a great lack in skill.” I am a firm believer that the best way to get kids passionate about a subject is to demonstrate your own passion for that subject. So this psalm made me stop and ask myself, “Do I proclaim God’s greatness with enthusiasm and passion to this next generation?” Whether I see myself as an emotional person or not, am I letting my love for God and his greatness flow out of me in a way that this younger generation can see?
So I challenge myself, and whomever is reading or listening to this reflection, to let our love for God be evident in our outward praise to him. Enthusiastically praise his name constantly to the younger generation and don’t stop raving about how awesome and wonderful he is so that they, too, will praise his holy name forever and ever.