Let Each Generation Tell

Let each generation tell its children of your mighty acts;

let them proclaim your power.

I will meditate on your majestic, glorious splendor

and your wonderful miracles.

Your awe-inspiring deeds will be on every tongue;

I will proclaim your greatness.

Everyone will share the story of your wonderful goodness;

they will sing with joy about your righteousness. Psalm 145:4-7

WE PASS ALONG many lessons to our children that we do not particularly intend to teach them. They pick up on and often mimic our mannerisms, attitudes, and aptitudes. In this final psalm of David, he urges us to purposefully pass along to our children a commitment to telling, proclaiming, meditating on, sharing, and singing about who God is and what he has done. David seems to have exploited all of the vocabulary he can muster to describe the outgoing, declaring nature of praise we should have. He encourages parents not to limit their praise to private devotions or even public worship. He wants us to talk to our kids about what really amazes us, encourages us, and makes us want to sing —God himself.

It is David’s glad intention to praise God every day, forever. But he doesn’t want this proclamation of praise to end with him. He encourages every generation to tell the next about God’s mighty acts, his glorious splendor, and his righteousness. Once again, David used every expression possible to extol what makes God worthy of such praise —a list of what to talk about with our kids around the table, in the car, in good times and bad.

Lord, loosen my tongue to tell ________ of your mighty acts, which I read about in your Word and experience in my own life. Let me proclaim to ________ your power demonstrated both in history and in the present as your divine power is at work in me. As I tell of your greatness, fill me with hope that your awe-inspiring deeds are not merely a thing of the past. May everyone in our home sing with joy and share the story of your goodness to us!