generations set free

Let this be recorded for a generation to come,

so that a people yet to be created may praise the Lord:

that he looked down from his holy height;

from heaven the Lord looked at the earth,

to hear the groans of the prisoners,

to set free those who were doomed to die,

Psalm 102:18-20

This is the prayer of every soul in need of salvation. All Christians know that God has done just what this psalm hopes for through the death and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus Christ is the answer from God for the "prayer of one afflicted, when he is faint and pours out his complaint before the LORD" (see the inscription of Psalm 102). God moved from His holy height, sending His only Son from heaven to earth to respond to the groans of those imprisoned by sin and doomed to death!

And the beauty of the salvation the Jesus brings is that it spans generations. My great grandparents on my mother's side came from German Prussia, They heard the gospel preached in German by Mennonite pastors. My grandparents knew the same message from their parents. My parents responded to the gospel call promising release from the prison of sin in a Baptist revival meeting up the road from our home. I first understood it in a children's lesson at Vacation Bible School the summer of 1971. And each generation the Lord saves, He does so through the proclamation of the gospel, so that a people yet to be created may praise His great name.

Lord,

I thank You for salvation in Jesus. The Old Testament saints praised You while longing for it. And in the gospel You brought salvation forth. Generations have been saved from the doom of death. May we be faithful to proclaim it to the next generation.

Amen