If I Could Do My Ministry Over Again . . . (Part Two)

Yesterday I reflected on what I would change in my ministry, if I had it to do over with the wisdom I now have. Today we look a different direction…

What speaks to my heart? Psalm 78!

I was in a conference several years ago where Bruce Wilkinson, at that time the director of the Walk Thru the Bible ministry, was the speaker. His initial action was to place three chairs on the platform. We were then invited to open our Bibles to the opening chapters of Judges. The chairs represented three generations:

• CHAIR #1: Joshua and his peers (Judges 2:7). “So the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen the great works of the Lord which He had done for Israel.”
• CHAIR #2: Next generation (1:19). “So the Lord was with Judah. And they drove out the mountaineers, but they could not drive out the inhabitants of the lowland.” Incomplete victory.
• CHAIR #3: Third generation (2:10). “When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord nor the work which He had done for Israel.”

I won’t forget how Bruce kept jumping from chair to chair and asking his youthful congregation which chair they wanted for their life. He stressed that it only took three generations for the people to forget God, and asked: What kind of followers do you want to be? At his invitation, 500 young people came forward saying they wanted to be 1st-chair followers of God and make a difference in their generation.

This is what Psalm 78 is all about. It’s the second-longest psalm and is mainly a lengthy account of failure to obey God generation after generation. But the opening verses (vv.1-8) are an appeal from Asaph for the readers of the text to be first-generation chair people who will, by their godly example, affect four generations for good. We’ll look at them tomorrow.