TLIC Psalms. September 8. A Generation to Come.

Read Psalm 102:18-22. ¹⁸Let this be recorded for a generation to come, so that a people yet to be created may praise the Lord: ¹⁹that he looked down from his holy height; from heaven the Lord looked at the earth, ²⁰to hear the groans of the prisoners, to set free those who were doomed to die, ²¹that they may declare in Zion the name of the Lord, and in Jerusalem his praise, ²²when peoples gather together, and kingdoms, to worship the Lord.

This section of the psalm pretty much sums up the entire redemptive plan of God, and the entire Bible. God looks down from Heaven, he hears the groans of us prisoners, those doomed to die, and he sets us free to praise his name, gather together and worship him.

The psalmist is thinking about the Exodus from slavery in Egypt, but in Christ we are thinking about our exodus from sin and the grave made possible by Christ’s rescuing life and death for us. Even before creation this was God’s plan, the giving of the incarnate God-man to rescue his fallen creation. The creating of a people to gather and worship his name. This is what we are graciously set apart for – declaring the name of the Lord.

Is this how you see your life? Is your small story part of God’s huge story? Of course it is. But the question is how often are we living as though we are a player in the great divine drama? Or are we trying to write our own script?

God has done his part. He has heard you, rescued you, re-created you as his people. Now, are you doing your part? Are declaring his name and worshiping him with the gathered people of God? Are you telling the next generation the greatest story ever told? Inviting them to be a part of the divine drama of grace and love through Jesus?

To live is Christ is to live within a story much bigger than yours alone. And it is to invite the next generation to join you in Christ’s eternal drama of rescue and relationship.

Prayer. Jesus, I confess that I often try to tell my own story, write my own script. Let me see my small life as significant only as it is absorbed into your story. Help me tell the next generation too, of this greatest story ever told. Amen.