Caribbean Moravian Devotions

We have heard with our ears, O God, our ancestors have told us, what deeds you performed in their days, in the days of old. Psalm 44:1

Today’s text is the beginning of a Psalm of lament to God for help. Israel’s enemy has defeated them and as they regroup, they call out for God to do for them what had been done for their ancestors. God had brought their ancestors out of Egypt with a mighty hand and they had grown up on this story. They knew God’s capabilities and power from the stories of their fore parents. The cry was for God to do it again. The Deuteronomic principle was being carried out. ‘…and that you may tell in the hearing of your son, and of your grandson, how I made a mockery of the Egyptians and how I performed My signs among them, that you may know that I am the LORD." Ex 10: 2. The children were learning of God’s might on behalf of God’s people. They had heard it with their own ears. What a way to transmit the message. They had heard it for themselves. What do you tell?

In today’s world a lot is being heard. I oftentimes check my son’s headphone to see what he is listening to, to hear what he is hearing with his own ears. I check to see what I must compete with when I tell him of God’s goodness to our family. What are you hearing today? What are you sharing? What do you tell? The verse continues, ‘our fathers have told us’. The tradition was to tell what you had seen with your own eyes than add to that what had happened in history. What do you tell? It was the father’s responsibility to ensure that the children knew. It was on the basis of this knowledge that they could now call upon God to do for them what they had been told. Every generation needed their storied to pass on to the next. What is your story/experience? What will you pass on to your children? What do you tell?

Friends, it is good when our children have faith in God enough to be able to call on God in their times of need. We will not always be there to protect them but God can. It is our responsibility to teach the next generation about the saving power of God and how God took the children of Israel out of countless situations. We therefore are to ensure that this knowledge is passed on to the next generation so that they will always know the might of our God. They would also know that they can go to God for help. ‘My help cometh from the Lord …!’. What do you tell?

Till next Tuesday, be blessed!