We have a tendency now to think of ourselves individualistically. We tend to view salvation as me being saved from my sins so that I can have a personal relationship with God. While this is valid in one sense it is a deficient picture. The Bible views the people of God, past and present, as one unified whole. Paul’s metaphor of God’s people as one body with many parts was not a new concept. The upshot of this is that the sin of one becomes the sin of many. But it also means that the perfect righteousness of one becomes the righteousness of many (Romans 5:19). The one who sins carries the culpability, but we all carry the effect. And that effect is multigenerational: “I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren; the entire family is affected— even children in the third and fourth generations” (Exodus 34:7). Interestingly, recent research is showing that this is quite literally true. Problems in us that remain undealt with are simply passed on and re-enacted in the next generation. The most transformative form of confession therefore is that in which I recognise not just sins but patterns of sin that I am contributing to. This is the kind of confession made here in Psalm 106: “We have sinned, even as our ancestors did; we have done wrong and acted wickedly.” The psalmist does not blame or judge his forefathers. Rather he identifies with them, recognises the pattern and is therefore freed from it. He is then able to reconnect with the family promise of blessing inherited from Abraham.
Reflect on the patterns of behaviour in your family line and pray as the psalmist does to establish a new pattern.
Read Psalm 106
