Monday, November 13, 2023
So each
generation should set its hope anew on God, not forgetting his glorious
miracles and obeying his commands. Then
they will not be like their ancestors—stubborn, rebellious, and unfaithful, refusing
to give their hearts to God. Psalm 78:7-8
Asaph, the writer of this Psalm,
makes a very compelling point of caution for each new generation in humankind
to set its hope anew on God so we don’t forget His great power, what He’s
done, and how we must not be stubborn about it.
If there is one consistent, and
nearly inviolate reality about the human family, it’s the tendency towards
promising fidelity lightly, and then breaking promises in favor of a supposed better
way. Israel’s history is a
microcosmic rule-of-thumb for humanity’s proclivity to agree with God today,
and discard their allegiance when the road gets a little bumpy.
From Asaph, fast-forward to Russell’s
generation, raised in the 1950’s/60’s. Yes,
we’re talking about the hippy-era, free love, LSD, marijuana, or alcohol, your
drug of choice, but everybody joins the march against Vietnam involvement. Yes, THAT generation! We were going to be different than our parent’s
generation. Everything was going to be
different, and much better than the old folks.
Music changed from swing to rock.
Clothing was unimportant, and we drove VW vans, not Cadillacs. But the truth is we were just making Asaph’s
point…every new generation has its own style, but the root of Adam’s nature, rebellion
against authority, puts us on a collision-course with our Creator’s authority. Our arrogant stubbornness separates us like
night and day from God’s love and care.
As the cartoon character Pogo once said:
We have met the enemy, and he is us!
Opposite the viewpoint of the “new”
generation is the head-shaking disapproval of the “old” generation. My parents didn’t like my music, and frankly
I’m not too thrilled with the stuff I hear and see in the current generation’s
entertainment. And this makes Asaph’s
point as well. It isn’t the style
of any generation that matters. I can
say that unreservedly because you won’t find style-police in Scripture. What matters is not a generation’s style, but
whether they will set their hope anew in God.
This brings a Scriptural focus to the
so-called “worship wars” down through the generations. There is enough criticism to fill the
universe with nausea about how people worship. The list includes music style, traditional
style, contemporary style, blended style, liturgical vs. free style, fogey or
edgy style, robes or skinny jeans, somber or giddy, silent or bedlam, pretribulation
rapturist, or anti-rapturist. Most
everything that creates an argument is a tempest in a teapot about
style. And there is a verse in John’s
Gospel that tells us what God thinks about all of it:
For You Today
A prayer for those with whom you see
wide gaps of difference, is to ask God to let the scales of criticism drop from
your own eyes, and help you to ignore the style of that next (or former)
generation, and pray for them to see the magnificent opportunity and blessing
they have to place their hope anew in God’s love and care. Much better to pray for
someone’s blessing than against their style.
There are about 2,600 devotional posts and 400 sermons
in the Rocky Road library.
Today’s title Image from Pixabay.com
Images without citation are in public domain or cited
via weblinks.
Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT©
