BREAKING GENERATIONAL LEGACIES

DAILY WORD

9/27/22

1. {To the chief Musician, A Psalm for the sons of Korah.} O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph.

2. For the LORD most high is terrible; he is a great King over all the earth.

3. He shall subdue the people under us, and the nations under our feet.

4. He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom he loved. Selah.

5. God is gone up with a shout, the LORD with the sound of a trumpet.

6. Sing praises to God, sing praises: sing praises unto our King, sing praises.

7. For God is the King of all the earth: sing ye praises with understanding.

8. God reigneth over the heathen: God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness.

9. The princes of the people are gathered together, even the people of the God of Abraham: for the shields of the earth belong unto God: he is greatly exalted.

Psalm 47 KJV

Today’s DAILY WORD returns us to the Book of Psalms and the chronic, consistent consumption of God’s Instructions to His people. I’ve been working a job for the last two years that required morning hours, curtailing my ability to produce this content. That job is over, and I now have the time to revisit The Word more consistently. This is the first renewed installment. Thanks for your patience!

As I searched The Word for what I was going to cover today (an undertaking that may be more involved than you might think), I came across Psalm 47. No big deal. I’ve covered it before; I’m quite sure I’ll run across it again. There’s nothing inordinately special about this Chapter.

Of course, it’s God’s Word penned through a man’s hand, and the heading before the Chapter indicates that it is a Psalm “written for the sons of Korah.” It is a Song of Praise to God for His capability and capacity. It speaks about God’s ability to subdue and overcome even Isreal’s most problematic enemies. So, what’s so noteworthy about that? There are plenty of Psalms that do similarly.

When you read, if you’re going to critique The Word of God, you must be willing and quiet enough to LISTEN, and here’s what I heard. It was a question; “Who was this written for and why?” A simple enough inquiry. It says right at the beginning that this was written: “For the choir director: A psalm of the descendants of Korah.”

Alright, no big deal there, right? Korah was some old guy from Israelite antiquity whose story has nothing to do with this Passage or any of the others throughout the Psalms ascribed to Korah and his descendants. But if you already know the story of Korah, or if you too are a student at heart and looked it up, you may have the same questions I did when I realized who he was.

Korah was a contemporary of Meses and Aaron. He was a Levite who was apparently angry about the delineation of priestly duties and led a rebellion against Moses and, in reality, against God since it was His Instruction they were following. You can find the account of Korak and his followers in Numbers 16, but I warn you, it didn’t turn out well for them.

Korah thought he knew better than Moses and God and led 250 well-respected leaders against Moses before the entire congregation. Wrought by the rebellion, Moses challenged Korah and his people to return the next day to see who God’s leaders really were.

Korah accepted Moses’s challenge and returned the next day only to find God was not playing around. Moses warned the people to get away from Korah and his people, then the earth swallowed Korah and his family, and all his followers were burned to death by fire from Heaven. His pride and arrogance cost him everything, almost.

Here’s the thing, even in His quite justified Wrath, God can be Merciful. Not every descendant of Korah was apparently slain. It is suspected that either his sons were of age and refused to follow their father, or they were too young to be judged for his error. Because Heman, Asaph, and Ethan were each credited with penning Psalms, and each was a descendant of Korah. In fact, if you look, many of the songs in this Book are dedicated to or written by “The Sons of Korah.”

That brings us to Today’s Lesson. Just because you have grown up under circumstances that were less than conducive to success or even peace, that doesn’t necessarily mean your future is set. Somehow, God allowed some of the descendants of Korah, a clear rebel, to slip through to the next generation. These individuals, being Levites and God’s chosen to be priests and spiritual leaders, had a choice to make. They could hold onto their past and harbor bitterness over their predecessor’s mistake, or they could break their generational cycle and become something more than their past dictated.

Even though their late forebear messed up, these men did not allow his past to dictate their future. They broke with the past to cement a new future for themselves and their entire family line. How do we know this is true? The name of Korah, not simply his descendants, is preserved as the family name of the writers of many of the Psalms we enjoy today!

How was such an unimaginable change possible? Mercy, Grace, and determination! None of what Korah’s descendants achieved would have been possible without God’s intervention. He saved at least a remnant of Korah’s bloodline to allow them to redeem his name for the ages to come.

That is why breaking Generational Cycles is so vital! Doing so can reset the trajectory of an entire family. You can halt and reverse even the vilest, most heartless, and most damaging tragedies of your past, even if you weren’t the one who perpetrated them.

If you determine to do so and Trust God to Help, you too can alter the direction of your entire bloodline with one decision. But be careful. The story of Korah shows us that our decisions have long-lasting consequences leaving an impact far beyond our own lives. That moment of anger or arrogance can impact our families for generations.

Have a Terrific Tuesday and be Intentional and Wise With Your Actions; they may have a more influential effect than you might think!