Psalm 102

“This will be written for the generation to come, that a people yet to be created may praise the Lord. For He looked down from the height of His sanctuary; from heaven the Lord viewed the earth, to hear the groaning of the prisoner, to release those appointed to death, to declare the name of the Lord in Zion, and His praise in Jerusalem, when the peoples are gathered together, and the kingdoms, to serve the Lord. He weakened my strength in the way; He shortened my days. I said, ‘O my God, do not take me away in the midst of my days; Your years are throughout all generations. Of old You laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands. They will perish, but You will endure; yes, they will all grow old like a garment; like a cloak You will change them, and they will be changed. But You are the same, and Your years will have no end. The children of Your servants will continue, and their descendants will be established before You.’” Psalm 102:18-28 (NKJV)

The older I get, the less I care about establishing a name for myself.  It is not that I do not want to leave a legacy, but the legacy I want to leave has more to do with preparing the next generation to live for the Lord than with enshrining my accomplishments.  After all, if we can do all things through Messiah, who strengthens us (Philippians 4:13), the emphasis should be less on all the things we do and more on Messiah, who enables the doing!  The writer of Psalm 102 is afflicted and unsure about his personal future.  But at the halfway point of the psalm, we learn his concern has to do with his anxiety over the next generation.  Will he be allowed to live so he can assure the next generation carries on faithfully?  Will the kingdom be lost if he dies? It’s a legitimate concern rooted in Israel’s history.

“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.” Judges 2:10 (NKJV)

“Now the boy Samuel ministered to the Lord before Eli. And the word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no widespread revelation.”  1 Samuel 3:1 (NKJV)

We await the day when all men, everywhere, will seek God’s Word and live by it!

“For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. Because finding fault with them, He says: ‘Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah - not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.’” Hebrews 8:7-11 (NKJV) (see also Jeremiah 31:34)