Discipling The Next Generation

My people, hear my teaching; listen to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth with a parable; I will utter hidden things, things from of old—things we have heard and known, things our ancestors have told us. We will not hide them from their descendants; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord. – Psalm 78:1-4

The psalmist who wrote today’s key passage of Scripture is encouraging the people not to let history repeat itself, to learn from the mistakes of the past, and to defeat them in the present. In these eight verses, we are going to learn three things that we must do to make disciples of every generation. We’re going to look at the first thing today and we’ll look at the other two tomorrow.

The first thing we need to do is teach the mind to learn biblical truth. According to the author of Psalm 78, we are to look at history as one gigantic parable. It is a story of individuals, groups, and nations in the past. We are to use this history as a tool to help us glean how not to make the same mistakes twice. The way not to repeat a mistake that somebody made in the past is to know what mistake they made in the past to begin with, which is why history is so important. These things have to be taught and learned, which is where we come in.

I also want you to notice that the psalmist is not making a request of parents or grandparents or even of the present generation. He is making a declaration. We are not going to hide biblical truth from the next generation. We will tell the next generation who God is, what God has done for us, who we are, and what we should do. That applies to anyone who is reading the psalm, regardless of their age or their generation.

I pray you’ll come back tomorrow to learn more about how to make disciples of every generation.

Dear Lord, thank you for your heart for generational discipleship. I pray that you help me to learn from the mistakes of the past so that they aren’t repeated in my generation. Help me to pass along your truth to the generations after me so that they might continue to follow you. In Jesus’ name, amen.