remembering God's faithfulness & review

Today we looked at a couple of Psalms during our high school class. This accomplished a few things. One, some of the high schoolers wanted to study the Psalms. Two, it shows us something we can do when we are restless. These psalms (not written by David for a change) shows us what we can do to give us hope for the future. Remember the past and what God has done for you and your ancestors. Then realize that God has always been there and is here right now to this day.

The first few verses in Psalm 77 show the psalmist's restlessness. Then he goes on starting in verse 5: "I thought about the former days..." The rest of this psalm and especially the next one is a great recap on Israel's history. History that had been passed down from generation to generation. A history that shows God's faithfulness giving the Israelites victory, but also a history that showed the Israelites rejecting God and being unfaithful. In turn, God drew away from them sometimes.

After questioning whether God will continue to reject or be merciful, the psalmist finishes by referring to God parting the Red Sea to lead the Israelites to safety from Pharoah. Psalm 78 goes into quite more history of the Israelites. In fact, verses 59-64 refer directly to I Samuel 4. From the plagues inflicted on the Egyptians, to the time wandering in the desert, questioning God's faithfulness to provide water and food. It seems there was a pattern of God's people doubting Him and being unfaithful.

And you know what? That continued on to the days of the psalmist. That's why he is remembering it. At the beginning of Psalm 78 he says he will speak in a parable. This is so the people will remember past mistakes and strive towards being right with God and not making those mistakes again. And they continue on today. We are unfaithful and place idols above God. They make look different from the idols back then, but they hurt God nonetheless. That's why we need to look at Israel's history and our history, just like the psalmist, and recognize how God has been faithful. Maybe then we can see hope for our future.


For the jr. high class we did review. We got through most of the Foundations of faith lessons. Again, I encourage you to go back to those blogs. Jesus being around since the beginning of time, His teachings, His miracles, God's Word, and prayer is what we went over.