A God-Centered Vision from Generation to Generation - Psalm 145:4
We have one more aspect of the Good Shepherd vision to consider today. You can read our vision statement on the inside cover of the WG, in the second sentence: We are a multi-generational congregation worshipping according to Scripture in a contemporary style, gathering as one body on Sunday mornings and in small groups throughout Florence during the week, and introducing more people to the life-giving community of the local church.
Today, our focus is the “multi-generational” component. What does that have to do with the God-centered vision of this group of people that God has gathered together, that God has built up to be Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church? Well, certainly God has gathered us from each generation, and He has done so for a reason. Yes, to join Him on mission to produce mature disciples of Jesus Christ for His glory and our joy. But part of His mission is to make us more like Jesus, to transform us and help us embrace the bigger thing that He is doing not only in our world today, but throughout history.
You see, we naturally have a vision for our own lives: for our own joy, and fulfillment, and progress. That can be good; but we can quickly become self-absorbed. We can be short-sighted, forgetting the bigger thing of which our lives are but one part. A vision only for our own lives and time is not a complete vision according to the will of God. It is God’s will for us to also be concerned with future generations.
The Scriptures of the OT and NT are clear that the lives and experiences of those who have gone on before us were not only for them, but also for the people of God from generation to generation. Jesus Christ came to set us free from the power of sin not only so we could pursue a God-centered vision in our times, but also, to pass that vision on for times yet to come.
But how do we do that? How is a God-centered vision passed on from generation to generation? Two ways are described in Psalm 145:4. You can find an outline on page 6 in the WG. To the ones who will remain once we are gone, we must one, praise God’s actions, and two, teach His attributes. So let’s examine this verse together.
The theme of Psalm 145 as a whole is “Honor belongs to God our King.” Line after line in the psalm pours out praise to God for who He is and what He has done. It begins with these words: “I will extol You, my God and King, and bless Your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless You and praise Your name forever and ever. Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable.”
And then, in the next verse, the writer of the psalm, who is the great King David, makes an interesting statement. He brings up the generations; the various age groups. The nation of Israel was the covenant community of God on earth. They were His visible people: folks of every age and in every stage of life, young and old and in-between.
This was the case from the time God led the Hebrews out of Egypt under Moses. These people were all in it together, and from the time God gave the Israelites His law, they were commanded to make known to their children and to their children’s children God’s deeds and His truth. God says this in Deut. 4 in the OT, and other places as well.
God had a vision for people of all ages in community together, the older generations ministering to the younger, teaching them the faith. And the NT indicates that the early church looked this way as well. In the apostle Paul’s letter to Titus, he gives instructions for how older men and women should behave, and also younger men and women. And in his letter to the Ephesians, he gives instructions for how parents and children in the church should behave toward one another.
The covenant community is a picture of the past, the present, and the future all at once. And I would submit to you today that no matter what, we will pass on a vision, but without intentionality, without the guidance of God’s Word and Spirit, the vision and the values we pass on will be man-centered, worldly, and vain.
Now notice verse 4 again: “One generation shall commend Your works to another.” The Hebrew manuscripts literally read, “Generation to generation.” There is this successive nature to life among God’s people. One generation after another after another. It’s good to stop and consider that your life is just one short period on a very long timeline, overlapping with many others.
But that doesn’t make your life insignificant. On the contrary, it speaks to the importance of your life. It signifies the value of it. This is the design of God; this is His plan: generation after generation doing two things. First, “commending God’s works.” In other words, praising His actions, speaking of all He has done.
Have you ever thought that you would like to have seen the great Biblical events of the past: the parting of the Red Sea, Moses coming down from Mt. Sinai with the tablets of stone, David leading the way as the ark of the covenant returned to Israel, Jesus performing miracles, later dying on the cross, later rising from the dead and appearing to His disciples?
Those historical experiences were limited to the people who were present according to the providence of God. That’s how time and space work. We couldn’t be there, but we benefit from the knowledge of these things. God still uses those things to teach us; He still shapes us through our knowledge and understanding of them. Even the later generations of Israel didn’t see the things observed by the younger generations.
Those older generations were to praise God’s actions of the past to those who would remain after they were gone. They were to continue to tell all that God had done for their ancestors. But also, each generation was to tell what God had done for them, in their own lifetime. “Great is the LORD. Generation after generation will praise Your actions.” What this means is that God is at work in every generation. The former works of God are amazing, and so are His present works.
What has the LORD your God done for you? If you are born again, you can testify to the works of God in the past, of course. Redemptive history is your history. But what has God done during your life and times? What good has God directed toward you? What mercies has He shown you? How has He guided you and directed you and carried you? How has He helped you?
Whatever He’s done, He hasn’t done it only for you. This is part of the beauty of life in God: not only for you to give praise to Him for His actions toward you, but also, for you to praise His actions to others. We pass on a God-centered vision from generation to generation as we praise His actions to the ones who will remain once we are gone.
We must praise His actions, but also, we must teach His attributes, His qualities or characteristics. Notice the rest of verse 4. Reading it in light of the whole, “Generation to generation…shall declare Your mighty acts.” That is a good interpretation of the Hebrew, but it literally says, “shall declare Your might” or “Your strength.” Of course, God’s actions reveal His power, just as they reveal His love and many other qualities.
We declare what God has done, but also, we make much of who He is. His works are somewhat unique in each generation, but the same God is behind them all. In the Malachi 3 in the OT, God says, “I the LORD do not change.” And Hebrews 13 in the NT famously states, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” Interestingly, if you back up one verse in Hebrews 13, the writer says, “Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.” Each generation teaches God’s attributes to the next.
Have you ever tried to tell someone about a person you knew and loved who has passed away? Maybe a family member or a friend. And you wanted this person in the present to know a little bit about this person you knew in the past. You might try to describe some of their qualities. And that person in the present might express that they would have liked to have known him, or her. But you can’t really do a person justice, can you? You really have to experience knowing a person for yourself.
This is where knowing the living God is different. We teach God’s attributes to future generations, just as these things were taught to us, and just as generations past knew the living God personally and deeply, so we can know Him during our lives, and future generations can know and experience Him throughout their own lives.
Psalm 100 says, “For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.” So we praise God’s actions and teach His attributes to each generation in our conversations, and in our small groups, and at the table in our homes with our families, and gathered here together each Lord’s Day.
We pursue a God-centered vision, and simultaneously, we pass it on. This is yet another reason why we must daily fix our eyes on Jesus Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith. We must recognize, and we must teach future generations, that nowhere are God’s glorious actions and attributes more clearly seen than in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
We should not trust in our ability to pass on a God-centered vision; but we believe by faith that the vision will endure as future generations see and follow Jesus. Colossians 1 in the NT says that in Jesus Christ, “all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.” Jesus is the pinnacle of God’s actions in the world; in Him is the grand total of God’s qualities, because Jesus is God come to earth.
Maybe you recall that I said earlier that the theme of Psalm 145 is “Honor belongs to God our King.” The King reigns over the generations of God’s people; He rules by His Word and His Spirit. And His name is Jesus. Have you humbled yourself before Him in repentance and faith? Have you admitted your sin and trustings in His saving work? And do you look to and rely upon Him each day to keep you and His church to the end? “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion.” Bow with me in prayer.