For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children;
Psalm 78 retells Israel's history so that the next generation would learn from it, and verse 5 names what God set in place: a testimony and a law. It raises a question every family faces: who must pass God's truth on to the children coming after?
Verse 5 names two things God put in place: a testimony to Himself, and a law. One writer compares that law with the laws of the surrounding nations.
Early in their history God established a testimony to Himself in Jacob, and He appointed a law in Israel — a law far wiser than any laws the nations had adopted (v. 5). When He gave the command to their fathers, He made it clear that they were to teach His laws to the children. The next generation would then be fully informed, and would pass this on from one generation to another (v. 6).
The psalm does not praise the fathers who received this charge. One writer reads verse 5 in the flow of the whole psalm, and shows what the law and the testimony were meant to prevent.
There was not only a redemption long ago, which faith looked back to, but also a testimony given, and a law to guide Israel's ways, so that they should make them known to their children. But the fathers had been a stubborn and rebellious generation. God gave the law and the testimony so that the children would not be like their fathers. Yet they were like them, and this psalm sets out their history.
"Which He commanded our fathers" fixes where the duty sits. Commenting on verses 5–7, one writer names both who must teach and what the teaching aims at.
God placed the responsibility on the Jewish parent to teach his children the knowledge of His word, His work, and His ways, so that the children's hope might also be in God. They were to teach in the confident expectation that God would bless their work, knowing that it was not His will that one of their little ones should perish.
The command went to the fathers themselves. That matters in practice, because parents can hand the teaching to someone who seems better qualified.
There is also a very common danger of handing over to others the responsibility of training children for the Lord. However devoted and steady those people may be who teach their children, nothing can relieve parents of their own responsibility... "You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise." Parents must seize every opportunity, because this is the one responsibility God has laid on the Christian parent.
No parent can make a child a Christian, and that fact can look like a reason to hold back. One writer answers it, and marks the line between the parent's part and God's.
True, we cannot make our children Christians; and we ought not to turn them into people who merely keep up outward religion, or into hypocrites. But we are not called to make them anything. We are only called to do our duty by them, and to leave the results to God. God instructs and commands us to bring up our children "in the discipline and instruction of the Lord." When is this "bringing up" to begin?... Surely at the beginning. The very moment we enter a relationship, we also take on the responsibility that comes with it.
The verses that follow name the goal of all this passing on.
The purpose of all this was that each generation might set their hope in God, not forgetting His marvelous works, but truly keeping His commandments (v. 7). Such positive obedience would guard them from the stubborn rebellion their fathers had shown (v. 8).
- God gave. The testimony and the law both came from Him, and that law was wiser than anything the nations had drawn up for themselves.
- God commanded. With the law came an order: the fathers were to pass it on to their children.
- Parents carry it. The duty is personal. No one else can take it, however devoted they are, and it starts the moment you become a parent.
- Children receive it. The aim was that a generation not yet born would know, and would in turn tell their own children.
- Hope is the point. The chain ends with each generation setting its hope in God, instead of repeating the stubborn rebellion of the fathers.
That the generation to come might know [them], the children that should be born; that they might rise up and tell [them] to their children,
God set up a testimony in Israel that was meant to travel: from the fathers, to their children, and on to children who had not yet been born. This verse names the target of all that teaching. It is not the next generation only, but the generation after that, who will "arise and tell them to their children."
The children who receive this teaching are not the end point. They become the next carriers.
When He commanded their fathers, He made it clear that they should teach His laws to the children. The next generation would then be fully informed too, and would pass this on from one generation to another (v. 6).
The psalm names two things that travel together: what God commanded, and what God did.
Before turning to the history of Israel, the psalmist reminds us that God had "established a testimony." The fathers were to pass it on to the children, and the children to their children. The aim was that they might set their hope in God, walk in obedience, and not forget His works.
God built the retelling into the testimony, and He chose who would do the telling.
The second part here declares that God designed this ongoing testimony. It keeps the memory of His acts and the authority of His commands alive, because man always tends to forget. The living voice of the preacher was to make the Word living, in a lower sense of that word. And the preacher was not to be an official one, but, as we may say, the one everywhere installed by nature. God, as the Author of nature, confirms that appointment.
The instruction behind this psalm puts the job in the parent's hands. It starts with the parent's own heart.
First, the word taught must be in the heart of the parent. He must have it and love it, for indeed no one can teach anything of which they have not themselves felt the power. Second, the responsibility is personal and cannot be handed off: the parent himself must be the instructor. Third, he must be diligent, seizing every passing opportunity to impress God's word on the hearts of his children. So it is not too much to say that this responsibility outweighs every other. That includes anything affecting the path and welfare of his children in this world.
The chain of telling has a destination, stated in the next verse: hope set on God. One thing blocks it.
This touches the root of the trouble. It is "unbelief." This hindered Israel of old from setting their hope in God (Psalm 78:7). This left them open to forgetting His works and breaking His commandments. Their hearts were not set right and their spirits were not steadfast with God. It is impossible that He should lie or be unfaithful — indeed He is gracious. He invites faith, and faith may be bold to rest on Him with confidence.
Israel's later history shows what a break in the chain produces.
Here, in Judges, a generation arose that did not know the Lord and did not know His works... The fathers and mothers clearly carried the responsibility of passing on to the children the great events of Israel's history and the Lord's blessings to them. So if a generation arose that did not know the Lord or His works, that points to a lapse in the teaching of the fathers and mothers... and because they did not know His works it was so easy for them to give up. They had nothing to hold on to.
Three generations can hold the same faith, and it can still be more than family habit in the third.
It is beautiful to see sincere faith living in one generation after another of the same family, as in the grandmother Lois, the mother Eunice, and the child Timothy. But it is beautiful also to read, in the third of those family generations, the tears and the affections that draw out full assurance. Their religion is not imitation. It is not schooling, and it is not just a family influence they picked up. It is the precious power, worked inside them, of a kingdom which God Himself has set up in the soul.
- Told. God set up a testimony. The fathers tell the children, and those children tell theirs.
- Repeated. The retelling is built in on purpose. It keeps the memory of His acts and the authority of His commands alive, because man always tends to forget.
- Personal. The appointed teacher is not an official but the parent. The word comes first in his own heart, the duty cannot be passed on, and the effort is daily.
- Aimed. The point of the telling is that they would set their hope in God; unbelief is what stopped Israel from doing it.
- Owned. Where the teaching lapses, a generation grows up with nothing to hold on to. Where it lands, the faith is no longer family influence but God's own work in the soul.
And that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but observe his commandments;
Verse 7 gives the reason behind the two verses before it. God gave the law to the fathers. The fathers told their children, and those children told theirs. It all aims at one result: a generation that hopes in God, remembers His works, and keeps His commands.
The verse is not a new command. It states the goal of a chain of teaching that runs from parents to children.
Before turning to the history of Israel, the psalmist reminds us that God had "established a testimony." The fathers were to pass it on to their children, and those children to theirs. The aim was that they might set their hope in God, walk in obedience, and not forget His works.
God laid this task on parents, and He tied a goal to it.
God placed the responsibility on the Jewish parent of teaching his children to know His word, His work, and His ways. The goal was that the children's hope might also be in God. So they were to teach in the confident expectation that God would bless their work, knowing that it was not His will that one of their little ones should perish.
The same writer draws two conditions out of Moses' words to Jewish fathers in Deuteronomy:
First, the word taught must be in the heart of the parent. He must have it and love it. No one can teach anything whose power they have not felt themselves. Second, the responsibility is personal and cannot be handed to someone else. The parent himself must be the teacher.
Hope, memory and obedience belong together here. The next verse shows what they guard against.
This was to be done so that each generation might set their hope in God, not forgetting His marvelous works, but truly keeping His commandments (v. 7). Such positive obedience would keep them from the negative character their fathers had shown, which was stubborn rebellion (v. 8). Their fathers were a generation that had not set its heart right, and their spirit was not faithful to God.
So why did that earlier generation never reach this goal? One writer traces the failure to a single root:
Here the root of the trouble is exposed. It is "unbelief." This stopped Israel of old from setting their hope in God (Psalm 78:7). This left them open to forget His works and to break His commandments, with the heart not right and the spirit not steadfast with God. It is impossible for Him to lie or to be unfaithful; indeed, He is gracious. Faith is invited, and it may be bold to rest on Him with confidence. That is even more true now that He has raised Christ from the dead and given Him glory, so that our faith and hope might be in God.
Notice the order. Unbelief comes first. Forgetting and disobedience follow it.
The same forgetting shows up later. One writer compares the disciples' amazement at sea, a day after they handed out the multiplied loaves, with Israel's habit:
Israel of old tended to forget the Lord and their rescue from Egypt (Ps. 78:7, 1). In the same way, the worries of the moment wiped the wonderful mercies of the past from the minds of the disciples. They even forgot the miracle of the previous afternoon, when they had the honour of handing out the Lord's provision. That is the natural bent of our hearts, for they were men with the same feelings as ours.
Does this duty end with Israel? One writer sees it as a mark of that era, yet not dropped afterwards:
I note the teaching of children as the order of blessing in this psalm. Compare Genesis 18:19; Deuteronomy 4:9-10; 6:7; 11:19. It is a distinct mark of that period of God's dealings, and of blessing in its ordered form. Christianity does not pass it by either: see Ephesians 6:4.
- The goal. The law, the fathers, the retelling in verses 5–6 all serve one end: hope in God in the next generation.
- The teachers. God gave the work to parents who have and love His word themselves. No one can do it for them.
- The proof. Hope produces two things: memory of His works and obedience to His commands. Lose the memory and the obedience goes with it.
- The block. Unbelief stopped Israel from hoping. Forgetting and disobedience followed.
- The reach. The disciples forgot the loaves within a day. The call to teach children still stands in Christianity.