Faithful God,
Thank you for being Who you are. Thank you for the many miracles you have done for your people and the ways in which you have guided them through the generations. Thank you that you provide manna and meat in our physical and spiritual wildernesses. You are our Rock; God Most High, you are our Redeemer. You are merciful and powerful, beating back our enemies and putting them to everlasting shame. You chose us to be your servants and, through the generations, have given us spiritual leaders who have integrity of heart and abundant leadership skills. You are so faithful to your people and we give you thanks and praise for that. Where our hearts are hard toward you, give us new, soft hearts and spirits. Where we willfully put you to the test or don’t trust in your deliverance, realign our wills to your ways. Give us hearts that are loyal to you and faithful to your covenant. Help us not to forget the true stories about our rich heritage. Help us to continue to tell our children – to tell the rising generation – the great marvels of our God. Help us to pass down your ways from one generation to the next, even to those not yet born. Help every generation to set its hope in God and not forget your wonderful works, but to keep your commandments, to keep their hope and trust in you. By the empowerment of the Holy Spirit and in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ we pray. Amen
3-4 We’ve heard true stories from our fathers about our rich heritage.
We will continue to tell our children
and not hide from the rising generation
the great marvels of our God—
his miracles and power that have brought us all this far.
6 For perpetuity God’s ways will be passed down
from one generation to the next, even to those not yet born.
7 In this way, every generation will set its hope in God
and not forget his wonderful works but keep his commandments. (Psalm 78: TPT)
1 O my people, listen to me!
Hear my instruction; soak up every word of what I am about to tell you.
2 I will open my mouth in parables;
I will speak of ancient mysteries—
3 Things that we have heard about, things that we have known,
things which our ancestors declared to us again and again.
4 We will not keep these things secret from their children;
rather, we will tell the coming generation
All about the praise that is due to the Eternal One.
We will tell them all about His strength, power, and wonders.
5 He gave His holy law to Jacob,
His teaching to the people of Israel,
Which He instructed our fathers
to pass down to their children
6 So that the coming generation would know them by heart,
even the children who are not yet born,
So that they might one day stand up and teach them to their children,
7 tell them to put their confidence and hope in God,
And never forget the wondrous things He has done.
They should obey His commandments always
8 And avoid following in the footsteps of their parents,
a hard-headed and rebellious generation—
A generation of uncultivated hearts,
whose spirits were unfaithful to God. (Psalm 78:1-8 VOICE)
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. (Ezekiel 36:26 NIV)
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.
9
The men of Ephraim, though armed with bows,
turned back on the day of battle;
10
they did not keep God’s covenant
and refused to live by his law.
11
They forgot what he had done,
the wonders he had shown them.
12
He did miracles in the sight of their ancestors
in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.
13
He divided the sea and led them through;
he made the water stand up like a wall.
14
He guided them with the cloud by day
and with light from the fire all night.
15
He split the rocks in the wilderness
and gave them water as abundant as the seas;
16
he brought streams out of a rocky crag
and made water flow down like rivers.
17
But they continued to sin against him,
rebelling in the wilderness against the Most High.
18
They willfully put God to the test
by demanding the food they craved.
19
They spoke against God;
they said, “Can God really
spread a table in the wilderness?
20
True, he struck the rock,
and water gushed out,
streams flowed abundantly,
but can he also give us bread?
Can he supply meat for his people?”
21
When the Lord heard them, he was furious;
his fire broke out against Jacob,
and his wrath rose against Israel,
22
for they did not believe in God
or trust in his deliverance.
23
Yet he gave a command to the skies above
and opened the doors of the heavens;
24
he rained down manna for the people to eat,
he gave them the grain of heaven.
25
Human beings ate the bread of angels;
he sent them all the food they could eat.
26
He let loose the east wind from the heavens
and by his power made the south wind blow.
27
He rained meat down on them like dust,
birds like sand on the seashore.
28
He made them come down inside their camp,
all around their tents.
29
They ate till they were gorged—
he had given them what they craved.
30
But before they turned from what they craved,
even while the food was still in their mouths,
31
God’s anger rose against them;
he put to death the sturdiest among them,
cutting down the young men of Israel.
32
In spite of all this, they kept on sinning;
in spite of his wonders, they did not believe.
33
So he ended their days in futility
and their years in terror.
34
Whenever God slew them, they would seek him;
they eagerly turned to him again.
35
They remembered that God was their Rock,
that God Most High was their Redeemer.
36
But then they would flatter him with their mouths,
lying to him with their tongues;
37
their hearts were not loyal to him,
they were not faithful to his covenant.
38
Yet he was merciful;
he forgave their iniquities
and did not destroy them.
Time after time he restrained his anger
and did not stir up his full wrath.
39
He remembered that they were but flesh,
a passing breeze that does not return.
40
How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness
and grieved him in the wasteland!
41
Again and again they put God to the test;
they vexed the Holy One of Israel.
42
They did not remember his power—
the day he redeemed them from the oppressor,
43
the day he displayed his signs in Egypt,
his wonders in the region of Zoan.
44
He turned their river into blood;
they could not drink from their streams.
45
He sent swarms of flies that devoured them,
and frogs that devastated them.
46
He gave their crops to the grasshopper,
their produce to the locust.
47
He destroyed their vines with hail
and their sycamore-figs with sleet.
48
He gave over their cattle to the hail,
their livestock to bolts of lightning.
49
He unleashed against them his hot anger,
his wrath, indignation and hostility—
a band of destroying angels.
50
He prepared a path for his anger;
he did not spare them from death
but gave them over to the plague.
51
He struck down all the firstborn of Egypt,
the firstfruits of manhood in the tents of Ham.
52
But he brought his people out like a flock;
he led them like sheep through the wilderness.
53
He guided them safely, so they were unafraid;
but the sea engulfed their enemies.
54
And so he brought them to the border of his holy land,
to the hill country his right hand had taken.
55
He drove out nations before them
and allotted their lands to them as an inheritance;
he settled the tribes of Israel in their homes.
56
But they put God to the test
and rebelled against the Most High;
they did not keep his statutes.
57
Like their ancestors they were disloyal and faithless,
as unreliable as a faulty bow.
58
They angered him with their high places;
they aroused his jealousy with their idols.
59
When God heard them, he was furious;
he rejected Israel completely.
60
He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh,
the tent he had set up among humans.
61
He sent the ark of his might into captivity,
his splendor into the hands of the enemy.
62
He gave his people over to the sword;
he was furious with his inheritance.
63
Fire consumed their young men,
and their young women had no wedding songs;
64
their priests were put to the sword,
and their widows could not weep.
65
Then the Lord awoke as from sleep,
as a warrior wakes from the stupor of wine.
66
He beat back his enemies;
he put them to everlasting shame.
67
Then he rejected the tents of Joseph,
he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;
68
but he chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion, which he loved.
69
He built his sanctuary like the heights,
like the earth that he established forever.
70
He chose David his servant
and took him from the sheep pens;
71
from tending the sheep he brought him
to be the shepherd of his people Jacob,
of Israel his inheritance.
72
And David shepherded them with integrity of heart;
with skillful hands he led them. (Psalm 78 NIV)