Click here to be a part of the Live Stream and interact with us in the Chat during this Bible Study.

Demonstrate A Fully Obedient Faith 

Develop a Mature Faith

Tell it to Your Children - Psalm 78 - A Contemplation Of Asaph.

“God’s ways in grace and Israel’s ways in perverseness”—that is how Bellett sums up the message of this Psalm. It is one of the great songs of Israel’s history. Its purpose is to teach us to learn from the past, so that we will not be condemned to relive it. As a people, what are some things do you feel that we haven’t learned from the past?

Psalm 78:1 Give ear, O my people, to my law; Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

As the psalmist calls his people to listen to the history of Israel, he begs them, incline your ears to the words of my mouth, i.e., bow your stiff necks and stretch forward to catch every word. 

Romans 10:17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Psalm 78:2 I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old, :3 Which we have heard and known, And our fathers have told us. 

Their history was a living allegory to the Israelites and a source of spiritual truth to all who followed, for 1 Corinthians 10:11 Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.

These enigmas of antiquity (Heb chidot) are, literally, riddles . We see this same word used in Judges 14:12 Then Samson said to them, “Let me pose a riddle to you. If you can correctly solve and explain it to me within the seven days of the feast, then I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing.

Here, the enigmas seem to be the historical facts mentioned in the subsequent part of the psalm, which will help unravel in the minds of the Israelites the method of God’s dealings with them.

Isaiah 55:8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.

Psalm 78:4 We will not hide them from their children, Telling to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, And His strength and His wonderful works that He has done. 

We must tell this generation of the wonders of God! We must give testimony of what He has done in our lives. How can this be done?

Psalm 78:5 For He established a testimony in Jacob, And appointed a law in Israel, Which He commanded our fathers, That they should make them known to their children;

God had established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel that from generation to generation there would be oral transmission of the divine dealings with Israel. There was to be absolute continuity throughout the years in this instruction process.

Psalm 78:6 That the generation to come might know them, The children who would be born, That they may arise and declare them to their children,

Adam Clarke notes that five generations appear to be mentioned: (1) fathers; (2) their children; (3) the generation to come; (4) and their children; (5) and their children.

Psalm 78:7 That they may set their hope in God, And not forget the works of God, But keep His commandments; :8 And may not be like their fathers, A stubborn and rebellious generation, A generation that did not set its heart aright, And whose spirit was not faithful to God.

These verses present six reasons why parents are to instruct their children in the things of the Lord. They are: (1) That the generation to come might know them, i.e., have a personal knowledge of their ancestors’ rebellion against God;

(2) and declare them to their children for a perpetual knowledge of the same;

(3) that they might set their hope in God, for faith cometh by hearing;

(4) and not forget the works of God, which could not happen if they were perpetually reminded of them;

(5) but keep his commandments, being doers of the Word and not hearers only;

(6) and might not be as their fathers, whose stubbornness was legendary; Jeremiah 9:14 but they have walked according to the dictates of their own hearts and after the Baals, which their fathers taught them,”

Use Every Opportunity To Teach (Deuteronomy 6:5-7 )

Think about it: What “teachable moments” have you recently experienced? What made it a teachable moment?

The Greatest Commandment

Deuteronomy 6:1 “Now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the Lord your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess,

Deuteronomy 6:2 that you may fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged.

Deuteronomy 6:3 Therefore hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as the Lord God of your fathers has promised you—‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’

Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! :5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

These verses are called the Shema, after the word Hear (Heb shama’). Even though some have tried to deny the Trinity because of this verse, the word one (Heb ’echad), means “compound unity.” The phrase one Lord means God has one name; it is also a testimony against polytheism. Both the unity and the trinity of the Godhead are taught in the Old Testament (Gen 1:26–27; Ps 2:7; Isa 48:16).

Love is the motive behind man’s relationship to God.

The personal pronoun your God points out the correct object of love. The heart is mentioned first because it is the seat of the intellect (Mk 2:6), emotion (Jn 14:1), and volition, or will (2 Cor 9:7; Rom 6:17). 

Christ calls this “the first and great commandment” (Mt 22:38) and uses it to summarize the first four commandments.

God has no higher commandment than love.

Deuteronomy 6:6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.

Deuteronomy 6:7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.

Deuteronomy 6:8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. :9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

These verses are still carried out literally by many orthodox Jews as they write verses on parchment and place them in little boxes that they bind with strips of leather to their foreheads and upon their hands. 

Also, they nail them near the doorways of their homes. 

The intent of this passage is that the Word of God should be hidden in a person’s heart and should constantly be a source of devotion and obedience to the Lord.

Macdonald, Farstad Grady Scott, Hindson, E. MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2006).