A generational vision from Psalm 78:2-4

I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will utter dark sayings from of old, 
  things that we have heard and known,
that our fathers have told us. 
  We will not hide them from their children,
but tell to the coming generation
the glorious deeds of the LORD, and his might,
and the wonders that he has done. (Psalm 78:2-4)

Asaph calls us to pass on the traditions received from "our fathers," by which he means not only his own personal ancestors, but all the previous generations of Israel (a general Old Testament assumption, but particularly the case in Psalm 78). Interestingly, the traditions are to be passed on to "their children" rather than "our children." In other words, "the coming generation" should be considered the children of our ancestors in the Church: our children do not belong to us so much as they belong to the Church, and we are primarily conduits who connect all the children in the Church to all the saints who have gone before them.

A number of years ago now, I was struck by an elder in my presbytery who frequently said that we need "a generational vision," by which he meant, at least as far as I could tell, that Christians should order their lives and practice so that our descendants will maintain the faith. I agree with that proposition, so far as it goes, but if it only goes so far as one's own children and their children, it seems to me remarkably deficient. Asaph's generational vision moves not only forward in time, but backwards as well, to all who have come before us. A Biblical generational vision encompasses every prior generation of faithful Church members and all the children of the Church today and tomorrow.