Psalm 78:6

Psalm 78:6, in plain English

The whole point is that future generations—even kids not yet born—will know God's works, learn about Him, and then teach their own children. It's a chain that should never break.

Why it's here

You're glimpsing the psalmist's vision of what should happen: an unbroken chain of knowledge and faith passing down through time. Each generation is responsible to the next.

Who's speaking

Asaph, expressing the purpose behind the command to teach.

Where it sits in the story

This is the vision of Psalm 100—eternal worship, eternal knowledge, eternal faithfulness passing from parent to child to grandchild into the future.

The scholarly reading

The purpose clause: so that future generations, even children not yet born, would know these things and become witnesses themselves to subsequent generations.

Language and setting

The inclusivity here—לְדוֹר אַחֵר (*leʾdor aḥer*, to another generation) and עַד־נוֹלַד (*ʿad-nolad*, until born)—suggests an almost eschatological vision of unbroken transmission extending into an indefinite future. Knowledge is perpetually renewable, each generation becoming both recipient and transmitter.

Voice

The voice articulating God's intention for His people's continuity.

Significance

This envisages Israel as a perpetual teaching community, where the fundamental task is not accumulation of wealth or military power but faithful remembrance and transmission of covenant history.

4We will not hide them from their children but will declare to the next generation the praises of the LORD and His might and the wonders He has performed.

5For He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers to teach to their children,

6that the coming generation would know them— even children yet to be born— to arise and tell their own children

7that they should put their confidence in God, not forgetting His works, but keeping His commandments.

8Then they will not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, whose heart was not loyal, whose spirit was not faithful to God.

Read all of Psalm 78 — The longest historical psalm — a retelling of Israel's journey from Egypt to David. Remember, so the next generation won't forget.