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back to the drawing board

Psalm 78:1-11 (JDV)

Psalm 78:1 My people, listen to my instruction; bend your ear to the words from my mouth.
Psalm 78:2 I will open for wise sayings my mouth; I will speak mysteries from the past —
Psalm 78:3 things we have heard and known and that our fathers have passed down to us.
Psalm 78:4 We will not conceal them from their children, but will tell a future generation the praiseworthy acts of Yahveh, his strength, and the wondrous works he has performed.
Psalm 78:5 He established a testimony in Jacob and set up an instruction in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children
Psalm 78:6 so that a future generation – children yet to be born – might know. They were to rise and tell their children
Psalm 78:7 so that they might put their confidence in God and not forget God’s works, but keep his commands.
Psalm 78:8 Then they would not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not loyal and whose breath was not faithful to God.
Psalm 78:9 The Ephraimite archers turned back on the day of battle.
Psalm 78:10 They did not keep God’s covenant and refused to walk by his instruction.
Psalm 78:11 They forgot what he had done, the miraculous works he had shown them.

back to the drawing board

Asaph had learned to not glorify the history of his people, because it contained a very important testimony for a future generation. That testimony includes the fact that his ancestors forgot about God’s miracles and refused to walk by his instruction.

It is very important for any people of any nation to own up to their failures. The country of my birth — The United States — is all the better for having begun to address how we have tolerated oppression and cruelty toward native Americans and African Americans. We are not finished correcting for those failures. We claim to be all about making our union more perfect, and we cannot do that without cleaning up our own messes.

What is the testimony that you will leave for your descendants? Will it be a stubborn insistence that you have always done what was right? Or, will you own up to your failures, and keep striving for his will — no matter how many trips back to the drawing board that entails?

LORD, here we go again. Thank you for your loving patience as we keep going back to you to correct our mistakes.