"Psalm 7" (ALL)

 

SPIRITURAL DIARY FOR 12/25/2011 7:37:23 PM

My Worship Time                                                                                                   Focus:  Psalm 7

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                               Reference:  Psalm 7

 

            Message of the verse:  “1 A Shiggaion of David, which he sang to the LORD concerning Cush, a Benjamite. O LORD my God, in You I have taken refuge; Save me from all those who pursue me, and deliver me, 2 Or he will tear my soul like a lion, Dragging me away, while there is none to deliver. 3 O LORD my God, if I have done this, If there is injustice in my hands, 4 If I have rewarded evil to my friend, Or have plundered him who without cause was my adversary, 5 Let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it; And let him trample my life down to the ground And lay my glory in the dust. Selah. 6 Arise, O LORD, in Your anger; Lift up Yourself against the rage of my adversaries, And arouse Yourself for me; You have appointed judgment. 7 Let the assembly of the peoples encompass You, And over them return on high. 8 The LORD judges the peoples; Vindicate me, O LORD, according to my righteousness and my integrity that is in me. 9 O let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous; For the righteous God tries the hearts and minds.

    “10 My shield is with God, Who saves the upright in heart. 11 God is a righteous judge, And a God who has indignation every day. 12 If a man does not repent, He will sharpen His sword; He has bent His bow and made it ready. 13 He has also prepared for Himself deadly weapons; He makes His arrows fiery shafts. 14 Behold, he travails with wickedness, And he conceives mischief and brings forth falsehood. 15 He has dug a pit and hollowed it out, And has fallen into the hole which he made. 16 His mischief will return upon his own head, And his violence will descend upon his own pate. 17 I will give thanks to the LORD according to His righteousness And will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High.”

 

            We will start off with the word Shiggaion and tell you that the meaning is not really known, but it could mean a passionate psalm with strong emotion.  It is used here and in Habakkuk 3:1 and nowhere else in Scripture.

           

            Dr. Wiersbe says that the theme of Psalm 7 is God’s vindication of His servant and judgment on his enemies.  He also writes “The psalm described four different judgments.”

           

            This has to be an early Psalm of David as it is about one of the men under Saul who was telling lies about David and in the process making Saul’s hatred of David grow, and so Saul would hunt David more and more.  David knew that this Benjamite was lying about him and so he writes this psalm speaking to the Lord about Cush, the Benjamite.

 

            Other People Judge us Wrongly:  (vv.1-2):  “1 A Shiggaion of David, which he sang to the LORD concerning Cush, a Benjamite. O LORD my God, in You I have taken refuge; Save me from all those who pursue me, and deliver me, 2 Or he will tear my soul like a lion, Dragging me away, while there is none to deliver.”

           

            We see in verse one (NASB) that David uses a plural reference to those who were pursuing him and in verse two he uses the word “he” speaking of Saul who is the one who is pursuing David.  In this we can see that David was being judged wrongly.  David knew that Saul’s judgment of him was wrong and so he cried out to the Lord about being falsely accused.  When people judge us wrongly we first should cry out to the Lord, but we must make sure that we are innocent before doing this.

 

            We Judge Ourselves Honestly:  (vv.3-5):  “3 O LORD my God, if I have done this, If there is injustice in my hands, 4 If I have rewarded evil to my friend, Or have plundered him who without cause was my adversary, 5 Let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it; And let him trample my life down to the ground And lay my glory in the dust. Selah.”

           

            David is making sure that he has done nothing wrong and if he did do something wrong then he asks the Lord to have his enemies trample him to the ground.  David knew that he was innocent but we know that David was not sinless, as we are not sinless, and David was not claiming to be sinless.  David was stating that he was sinless in his motives and actions. 

           

            As we remember the life of David at this time period we know that David had two opportunities to kill Saul, but he could not do so because he could not kill the Lord’s anointed, and so this was reason enough to have a clear conscience when it came to the things of Saul. 

 

            God Judges Sinners Righteously (vv. 6-13):  “6 Arise, O LORD, in Your anger; Lift up Yourself against the rage of my adversaries, And arouse Yourself for me; You have appointed judgment. 7 Let the assembly of the peoples encompass You, And over them return on high. 8 The LORD judges the peoples; Vindicate me, O LORD, according to my righteousness and my integrity that is in me. 9 O let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous; For the righteous God tries the hearts and minds. 10 My shield is with God, Who saves the upright in heart. 11 God is a righteous judge, And a God who has indignation every day. 12 If a man does not repent, He will sharpen His sword; He has bent His bow and made it ready. 13 He has also prepared for Himself deadly weapons; He makes His arrows fiery shafts.”

 

            I have had people do me wrong on more than one occasion and when this happens I have a desire to handle the situation on my own without consulting the Lord, and then I begin to think about it and at that point trust the Lord to handle the situation.  This is a hard thing to do, but we can see in this section that David asks the Lord to judge these men, Saul and his men who are wronging David, what should be done to them as punishment from the Lord.  Now when this type of things happens to me and I allow the Lord to handle it then it will be done right even though I have to remember that it will be done on the Lord’s timetable and that takes patience.  In the end all the wrongs that were done to David and also the wrongs that are done to the Lord’s children will be made right and we can see that in this section.  God does know about the wickedness that goes on each day and there is much wickedness that goes on.  He allows sinners to reap the sad consequences of their sins day after day; however when these men continue to be rebellious God may send special judgment when His longsuffering has run its course. 

 

            Sin Itself Judges Sinners Ultimately (vv. 14-17):  “14 Behold, he travails with wickedness, And he conceives mischief and brings forth falsehood. 15 He has dug a pit and hollowed it out, And has fallen into the hole which he made. 16 His mischief will return upon his own head, And his violence will descend upon his own pate. 17 I will give thanks to the LORD according to His righteousness And will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High.”

 

            Let us take a look at James 1:13-15 to help us understand this section better:  “13 Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. 14 But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. 15 Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.”  This is an example of how pregnancy is used in Scripture as an image of sin.  Sin will eventually destroy the sinners who do not repent to the Lord and turn from their sins.  The Bible says that “The wages of sin is death,” the wages of sin is always death.  God told Adam that when he would eat of the forbidden fruit he would die, and as soon as he ate of it he died spiritually and eventually physically. 

           

            Friedrich von Logau writes, “Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small.”  We read in the Scriptures that the same day that the Holy Spirit left Saul He came upon David.  Now that does not mean that Saul was not a believer because in the OT the Holy Spirit did not come upon those who were believers the same way that He does to those of us who are living after the cross. 

           

            My wife is reading the book of Psalms too as she read the book of Job, and she pointed out a quote from Dr. Wiersbe’s commentary that is fitting especially for this time of the year:  “for what every reason God chose to make man as he is—limited and suffering and subject to sorrows and death—He had the honesty and the courage to take His own medicine.”  I know that today is Christmas but the reason for Christmas was to bring God’s Son into the world in order to (as Dorothy Sayers put it in the quote I just made) to take His own medicine.

           

            David speaks at the end of this psalm about sinners being judged and so the reason for the paragraph that is above this one is to say that there is only two ways sinners are going to be judged through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ for those who accept it or by each sinner that refuses this pardon to be judged for their own sin.  Which will you choose?

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Christmas day 2011 is a reminder to everyone that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, to do as Dorothy Sayers writes, to take His own medicine.  I am thankful for the reminder of what this day means, to give me something that I will never deserve as a free gift, and that is the best Christmas present that anyone can ever have.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:

 

1.     Make sure that when I ask the Lord to avenge those who have wronged me that I am innocent.

2.     Trust the Lord to take care of all those who avenge me in His own way and in His own time knowing He will do it the best way it can be done.

3.     Continue to learn contentment.

 

12/25/2011 8:50:48 PM

PT-2 "Psalm 6" (Psalm 6:5-10)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/23/2011 9:14:46 AM

 

 

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus: PT-2 “Psalm 6”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Psalm 6:5-10

 

            Message of the verses:  “1 For the choir director; with stringed instruments, upon an eight-string lyre. A Psalm of David. O LORD, do not rebuke me in Your anger, Nor chasten me in Your wrath. 2 Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am pining away; Heal me, O LORD, for my bones are dismayed. 3 And my soul is greatly dismayed; But You, O LORD-how long? 4 Return, O LORD, rescue my soul; Save me because of Your lovingkindness. 5 For there is no mention of You in death; In Sheol who will give You thanks? 6 I am weary with my sighing; Every night I make my bed swim, I dissolve my couch with my tears. 7 My eye has wasted away with grief; It has become old because of all my adversaries.

    “8 Depart from me, all you who do iniquity, For the LORD has heard the voice of my weeping. 9 The LORD has heard my supplication, The LORD receives my prayer. 10 All my enemies will be ashamed and greatly dismayed; They shall turn back, they will suddenly be ashamed.”

 

            The Strain of Despair (vv. 5-7):  “5 For there is no mention of You in death; In Sheol who will give You thanks? 6 I am weary with my sighing; Every night I make my bed swim, I dissolve my couch with my tears. 7 My eye has wasted away with grief; It has become old because of all my adversaries.”

           

            Dr. Wiersbe points out that we are back to an evening psalm as we see in verse six that David has a hard time sleeping and it seems to be because of pain and as a result of the pain came tears as he would make his bed swim with tears.  This must be a very bad pain that David is going through and as we saw in Psalm 4:8 David spoke of restful sleep even though he was in trouble, but now sleep will not come.  God had a plan for David as he went through this difficult time, and one of the plans was to be able to write this psalm in order to help others who were in pain and having a hard time sleeping.

           

            Some people run from God when trouble comes, and some run to Him and then the Lord will cause them to grow in their relationship with Him.  Some people see what they will get out of their experiences of going through difficult times and even pain and others ask what CAN I get out of this.  Some will want God to make the difficult time go away, and sometimes God will do that, and some will ask God what He wants them to learn as they go through this difficult time.

 

            The Joy of Deliverance (vv.8-10):  “8 Depart from me, all you who do iniquity, For the LORD has heard the voice of my weeping. 9 The LORD has heard my supplication, The LORD receives my prayer. 10 All my enemies will be ashamed and greatly dismayed; They shall turn back, they will suddenly be ashamed.”

            We see a dramatic change in the direction of the psalm as David begins to praise the Lord for deliverance and speaks of the shame of his enemies as they turned back because of their shame.  We don’t know how long David had to wait for the answer to his prayer, or if the answer came when he wrote this section, for he could have had a great peace come over him and that was what he was writing about here in this section.  Regardless David received an answer to his prayers and a part of that answer was having his enemies be ashamed for trying to do harm to the Lord’s anointed.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I have mentioned in earlier SD’s that for some time I have  had some difficulty with my prayer life, not that I don’t pray, but at times it seems like real work to pray, and I suppose that may even be kind of normal.  One thing I see in this psalm is the praise that David gives for answered prayer, and sometime this is missing in my life, for at times I am so happy about receiving an answer that I forget to praise the Lord for the answer.  This is something that should change, for the praise portion is as important as the praying portion.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:

 

1.     In everything give thanks, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

2.     Remember to praise the Lord for answered prayers.

3.     Continue to seek the help of the Lord to learn contentment.

4.     Put on the spiritual armor, and part of that armor is prayer.

 

12/23/2011 10:08:47 AM

PT-1 "Psalm 1-6:

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/22/2011 9:18:18 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                                          Focus:  PT-1 Psalm 6

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                         Reference:  Psalm 6:1-5

 

            Message of the verses:  “1 For the choir director; with stringed instruments, upon an eight-string lyre. A Psalm of David:  O LORD, do not rebuke me in Your anger, Nor chasten me in Your wrath. 2 Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am pining away; Heal me, O LORD, for my bones are dismayed. 3 And my soul is greatly dismayed; But You, O LORD-how long? 4 Return, O LORD, rescue my soul; Save me because of Your lovingkindness. 5 For there is no mention of You in death; In Sheol who will give You thanks?

 

            It is not clear as to when David wrote this psalm, but in the psalm we see that David is ill and thinks that he will soon die.  I think that is one of the beauties of the book of Psalms, in that whatever a person seems to be feeling there seems to be a psalm that will help.

 

            The Pain of Discipline (vv.1-3): “1 For the choir director; with stringed instruments, upon an eight-string lyre. A Psalm of David:  O LORD, do not rebuke me in Your anger, Nor chasten me in Your wrath. 2 Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am pining away; Heal me, O LORD, for my bones are dismayed. 3 And my soul is greatly dismayed; But You, O LORD-how long? 

 

            We see verse one of this psalm repeated in verse one of Psalm 38 and it has to do with discipline.  We also see David using the covenant name for God in this psalm eight times, “LORD” which is Jehovah. 

           

            Dr. Wiersbe points out that God usually rebukes His children and then disciplines them when needed, but it is that of a loving father as seen in Hebrews 12:5-6 and also in Proverbs 3:11-12.  The idea of this chastening from the Lord is always to bring them back into fellowship with God. 

           

            We see in this psalm that David was sick, and he was surrounded by his foes, who were evil doers and his enemies.  He was weak from the sickness and when you put all of this together you will see that David felt that God was surely mad at him because of the circumstances that he found himself in.  Let us look at verses 2-3 in the KJV: “2 Have mercy upon me, O LORD; for I am weak: O LORD, heal me; for my bones are vexed. 3 My soul is also sore vexed: but thou, O LORD, how long?”  The highlighted word vexed is also used in John 12:27 “Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour.”  This word vexed, when put into the Septuagint (The Greek translation of the OT) is the same word as in John 12:27 and this was very close to when the Lord would go to the cross.

           

            Dr. Wiersbe writes that the words “How long” are seen at least 16 times in the Psalms and he says the answer to that question is “I will discipline you until you learn the lesson I want you to learn and are equipped for the work I want you to do.”

 

            The futility of Death (vv. 4-5):  “4 Return, O LORD, rescue my soul; Save me because of Your lovingkindness. 5 For there is no mention of You in death; In Sheol who will give You thanks?”

           

            We see in verse five that David is asking the Lord to return to him so David must have felt that the Lord had gone away from him, that there was not the fellowship with the Lord that there had been before the incident that David was writing about in this psalm.  David knew that the Lord was merciful as most Jews knew for we see in Exodus 34:6-7 “"The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations."

           

            In the NASB we see the word Sheol, and this is speaking of the place of the dead, and David is saying that he could not praise the Lord from the place of the dead, so David wants the Lord to heal him.  This is a similar prayer that Hezekiah prayed when he was about to die and God answered his prayer and gave him 15 more years to live.

           

            In the OT times there was not as much known about the afterlife as we know now since the Lord Jesus has come and conquered death for all of His own.  We know that absence from the body is present with the Lord, but this was not known then.  We see in the parable that Jesus spoke about the rich man and Lazarus that the dead in the OT times went to a place called Abraham’s bosom, “Lu 16:22  "Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried.”  Some believe that when Jesus was resurrected from the grave that he brought all of the OT saints with Him to heaven, and others think that Abraham’s bosom was actually heaven.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I can understand the feeling that David thought God was made at him, but you can’t always go by your feelings.  Job felt the same way as we learned when going through the book of Job.  The Bible says that God will never leave us or forsake us, and that is a great promise.  We can however loose fellowship with the Lord by sinning and not confessing that sin.  This is something I do not desire to do, for fellowship with the Lord is necessary for our growth and maturity in our walk with God.  We can learn what it is that God desires for us to accomplish for Him that will give Him glory through these accomplishments.  Psalm 139:23-24 are essential in our walk with the Lord, for we surely need the Holy Spirit to search our hearts for sins that we may be harboring in our hearts.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:

 

1.     Psalm 139:23-24

2.     Romans 12:1-2

3.     Phil. 4:11b

PT-2 "Psalm 5:1-12"

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/21/2011 10:27:28 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                                  Focus:  PT-2 Psalm 5:1-12

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                         Reference:  Psalm 5:1-2

 

            Message of the verses:  “For the choir director; for flute accompaniment. A Psalm of David. Give ear to my words, O LORD, Consider my groaning. 2 Heed the sound of my cry for help, my King and my God, For to You I pray. 3 In the morning, O LORD, You will hear my voice; In the morning I will order my prayer to You and eagerly watch. 4 For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness; No evil dwells with You. 5 The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes; You hate all who do iniquity. 6 You destroy those who speak falsehood; The LORD abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit.

            “7 But as for me, by Your abundant lovingkindness I will enter Your house, At Your holy temple I will bow in reverence for You. 8 O LORD, lead me in Your righteousness because of my foes; Make Your way straight before me. 9 There is nothing reliable in what they say; Their inward part is destruction itself. Their throat is an open grave; They flatter with their tongue. 10 Hold them guilty, O God; By their own devices let them fall! In the multitude of their transgressions thrust them out, For they are rebellious against You. 11 But let all who take refuge in You be glad, Let them ever sing for joy; And may You shelter them, That those who love Your name may exult in You. 12 For it is You who blesses the righteous man, O LORD, You surround him with favor as with a shield.”

 

            We Prepare to Meet the Lord (vv.1-3):  ““1 For the choir director; for flute accompaniment. A Psalm of David:  Give ear to my words, O LORD, Consider my groaning. 2 Heed the sound of my cry for help, my King and my God, For to You I pray. 3 In the morning, O LORD, You will hear my voice; In the morning I will order my prayer to You and eagerly watch.”

           

            We have already mentioned that David had a morning time with the Lord, and these three verses give us a bit of detail on how David would prepare to meet with the Lord during these morning devotionals.  The word uses as “groaning” in verse one can also mean meditations so we could say that as he spoke with the Lord he wanted the Lord to understand the things that he had been meditation on.  Verse two we see that David asks the Lord to hear his prayer, and in this case it was a prayer for help.  Now we see in verse three the word “order” used and this word speaks of how David would do his devotions and prayer time with the Lord.  The word can be used on how the sacrifices were arranged on the altar, or how a soldier presents himself to his commanding officer. 

 

            We Seek to Please the Lord (vv. 4-6):  “4 For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness; No evil dwells with You. 5 The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes; You hate all who do iniquity. 6 You destroy those who speak falsehood; The LORD abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit.” 

           

            We see in these verses that God hates evil, and He hates sin, for God has to hate sin since there is no wickedness or evil in Him, nor could there be, and justice is a part of His attributes.  We see people in these verses that we will see in verses 9-10, people who have no fear of doing wrong, no fear of the Lord.  I have mentioned that God hates sin, and some will ask about God hating sin and people who will not accept the provision that He has made for their salvation through Jesus Christ.  The Bible speaks of this in different places:  “Ro 9:13 Just as it is written, "JACOB I LOVED, BUT ESAU I HATED.’”  This word for hated means to hate, and nothing less than that as some would say that the word means to “love less,” but this is not the case:  “3404. μισεω miseo mis-eh’-o; from a primary μισος misos (hatred); to detest (especially to persecute); by extension, to love less:— hate(-ful).” 

           

            There are other verses that speak to this but I think this one is enough to understand that God can surely hate people who are sinners.  God hated sin so much that He made a provision for those who would accept it, that of Christ’s death on the cross.  Remember what Jesus said from the cross as He quoted Psalm 22:1, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?”  Jesus was not only in agony over the physical pain that He was exercising, but He was in more agony of having to take the punishment for our sins in His body on the cross, He was more in agony because of the separation He had with His Father.  That is how much God hates sin, and also how much He loves us.  Dr. Wiersbe writes, “God’ hatred of evil isn’t emotional; it’s judicial, and expression of His holiness.  If we want to fellowship with God at His holy altar, then we need to feel that same anguish (anger plus love) as we see the evil in this fallen world.”

 

            We Submit to the Lord (vv. 7-12):  “When he wrote ‘But as for me,’ David contrasted himself with the wicked crowd that rebelled against the King.  David had come to pray, and he had three requests.” 

           

            He prayed for guidance (vv.7-8):  “    “7 But as for me, by Your abundant lovingkindness I will enter Your house, At Your holy temple I will bow in reverence for You. 8 O LORD, lead me in Your righteousness because of my foes; Make Your way straight before me.”

           

            David was not a member of the tribe of Levi, and he knew that he could not enter into the places that the priest entered in the tabernacle, but he was talking about coming into the presence of the Lord in his prayers and in his worship.  David had prepared to worship the Lord as we saw earlier, and now he was going to bring his requests to the Lord and that request would be for guidance.  James wrote, “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.”  (James 1:5) 

 

            He prayed for justice (vv.9-10):   “9 There is nothing reliable in what they say; Their inward part is destruction itself. Their throat is an open grave; They flatter with their tongue. 10 Hold them guilty, O God; By their own devices let them fall! In the multitude of their transgressions thrust them out, For they are rebellious against You.”

 

            I like what Dr. Wiersbe writes in his commentary on this section, “Anybody who resents this kind of praying can’t honestly pray, ‘Hallowed be Thy name.  Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven’ (Matt. 6:9-10).”  We also see a part of verse nine quoted by Paul in Romans 3:19.  In that passage Paul is writing about the evilness of unbelievers, for Paul was seeking to show that all mankind was made up of sinners and therefore the need for the Savior.

           

            I want to mention briefly here that when David was being hunted by Saul, David had chances to destroy him and he would not do it because David knew that Saul was the Lord’s anointed, appointed by the Lord to rule Israel and although he knew that God had promised him to become the next king, he also knew that God would take care of moving Saul out of the way when He desired.  Absalom did not see things like this and therefore he was trying to take over the kingdom on his own, and therefore was sinning against the Lord, as all sin is against the Lord.  David prayed that the Lord would take care of this and we read in this account in 2 Samuel 18:8 that the trees killed more of Absalom’s men than David’s men did.  David’s prayer was answered.

 

            He prayed for God’s blessing (vv.11-12):  “11 But let all who take refuge in You be glad, Let them ever sing for joy; And may You shelter them, That those who love Your name may exult in You. 12 For it is You who blesses the righteous man, O LORD, You surround him with favor as with a shield.’”

 

            David was thankful for the answer to his prayers for the God of Israel had been glorified and His king had been vindicated.  God desires us to pray for things which will bring glory to His name, and as we grow close to the Lord the Holy Spirit will show us what to pray about, and He can show us through His Word and through the preaching of His Word. 

           

            Dr. Wiersbe writes, “The outcome of our fellowship with the Lord should be joy in His character, His promises, and His gracious answers to prayer.  Even though some of his own people had turned against him, David prayed that God would bless and protect them!  This sounds like our Lord on the cross (Luke 23:34) and Stephen when he was stoned (Acts 7:60).”  David was a man of forgiveness and love for his people.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I want to focus on the preparation of doing devotions, which includes prayer.  I need work in preparation for prayer.  I do have a list of people that I pray for that is in my head, but as of yet not on a prayer list.  I do have a way of doing my devotions and that is the use of these Spiritual Diaries, but again the prayer time needs to be richer.

 

My Steps of Faith for today:

 

1.     Have a richer prayer life.

2.     Continue to learn contentment in my walk with the Lord.

 

12/21/2011 11:39:57 AM

 

 

"INTRO TO PSALM 5"

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/20/2011 11:50:06 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                                        Focus: PT-1 “Psalm 5”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                    Reference:  Psalm 5 (Intro)

 

            Message of the verses:  “1 For the choir director; for flute accompaniment. A Psalm of David. Give ear to my words, O LORD, Consider my groaning. 2 Heed the sound of my cry for help, my King and my God, For to You I pray. 3 In the morning, O LORD, You will hear my voice; In the morning I will order my prayer to You and eagerly watch. 4 For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness; No evil dwells with You. 5 The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes; You hate all who do iniquity. 6 You destroy those who speak falsehood; The LORD abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit.

   “7 But as for me, by Your abundant lovingkindness I will enter Your house, At Your holy temple I will bow in reverence for You. 8 O LORD, lead me in Your righteousness because of my foes; Make Your way straight before me. 9 There is nothing reliable in what they say; Their inward part is destruction itself. Their throat is an open grave; They flatter with their tongue. 10 Hold them guilty, O God; By their own devices let them fall! In the multitude of their transgressions thrust them out, For they are rebellious against You. 11 But let all who take refuge in You be glad, Let them ever sing for joy; And may You shelter them, That those who love Your name may exult in You. 12 For it is You who blesses the righteous man, O LORD, You surround him with favor as with a shield.”

 

            This SD will only deal with the introduction of Psalm 5 and because of the importance of what it written about this Psalm by Warren Wiersbe I will be quoting two paragraphs from that introduction.  There is a good reason for these quotations because we are introduced to the first imprecatory psalm in the book of Psalms and I want all to realize the importance of understanding what this type of psalm is all about.  First we I want to mention that this is like Psalm 3 in that it is a morning psalm.  As I go through the book of Psalms I am finding out that there many different types of Psalm that I did not know existed, like “morning psalms.”  It is not known as to when this psalm was written but some suggest that this was also written during the time of the takeover of Absalom, but that may not be the case.  We cannot assume that because the words Your house that is used in verse seven that it was written after the temple was built for these words can also apply to the tabernacle. Since in am using the NASB we do not see the word “Nehiloth” in the introduction, which does appears in the KJV and it means flutes.

 

            We will now look at the quotation from Warren Wiersbe:  “Because of the prayer in verse 10, Psalm 5 is classified as one of the ‘imprecatory psalms’ (see 12, 35, 37, 58, 59, 69, 79, 83, 109, 139, and 140).  In these psalms, the writers seen to describe a God of wrath who can hardly wait to destroy sinners.  The writers also seem to picture themselves as people seeking terrible revenge against these enemies.  But several facts must be considered before we write off the psalmist as pagan brutes who cannot forgive, or God as a ‘dirty bully.’  To begin with, the enemies described are rebels against the Lord (5:10), and in some instances, against the Lord’s anointed king.  The Jews were a covenant people whom God promised to protect as long as they obeyed Him (Lev. 26; Deut. 27-29).  In His covenant with Abraham, God promised to bless those who blessed Israel and to curse those who cursed them (Gen. 12:1-3).  When the Jews asked God to deal justly with enemies, they were only asking Him to fulfill His covenant promises, He must deal with sin.  Ever since the fall of man in Genesis 3, there has been a battle going on in the world between truth and lies, justice and injustice, and right and wrong; and we cannot be neutral in this battle.  ‘If the Jews cursed more bitterly the Pagans,’ wrote C. S. Lewis in Reflections on the Psalms, ‘this was, I think, at least in part because they took right and wrong more seriously.  For if we look at their railings we find they are usually angry and not simply because these things have done to them but because these things are manifestly wrong, are hateful to God as well as to the victim’ (P.30).

           

            “Those who have difficulty accepting the ‘imprecations’ in The Psalms must also deal with them in Jeremiah (11:18ff; 15:15;17:18; 18:19ff; 20:11ff) and in the preaching of John the Baptist (Matt. 3) and Jesus (Matt. 23), as well as in the requests of the martyrs in heaven (Rev. 6:9-11). However, no one will deny that these servants of God were filled with the Spirit and wanted the Lord’s will to be accomplished.  Perhaps our problem today is what C. S. Lewis pointed out:  we don’t hate sin enough to get upset at the wickedness and godlessness around us.  Bombarded as we are by so much media evil and violence, we’ve gotten accustomed to the darkness.”

 

            I think with this quotation one can see that along with other portions of both the NT and the OT, and of course these imprecatory psalms that they are just as much a part of the Word of God as the passages that speak of God’s love for us.  We must remember that one of the attributes of God is His justice, and as we read in Psalm 5 and other places justice is what is being asked for.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  As we get to this time of the year when we again celebrate our Lord’s birth we seem to be busier than other times of the year, and thus is the case with me and also my family.  I desire to accomplish more on these Psalm SD’s, but today something came up and we had the privilege of taking care of two of our six grandchildren and so I was only able to write on the introduction of Psalm 5.

            As I think of what both Warren Wiersbe and C. S. Lewis wrote I must confess that the media has caused me to not look at sin as I should and therefore I need to think about this and pray about this in order to be able to see sinfulness as what it is.

 

My Steps of Faith For Today:

 

1.     Remember the awfulness of Sin.

2.     Continue to seek to learn contentment.

 

12/20/2011 1:22:14 PM

     

PT-2 Psalm 4 (Ps. 4:2-8)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/19/2011 7:42:29 AM

 

 

My Worship Time                                                                                          Focus:  PT-2 Psalm 4

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                         Reference:  Psalm 4:2-8

 

            Message of the verses:  We will begin today’s SD with the second point from Dr. Wiersbe’s commentary:  “Confront the Enemy (vv.2-3).”  “2 O sons of men, how long will my honor become a reproach? How long will you love what is worthless and aim at deception? Selah. 3 But know that the LORD has set apart the godly man for Himself; The LORD hears when I call to Him.”

           

            David is speaking of the men who have chosen to follow Absalom when he uses the words “sons of men.”  He contrasts that statement with the “godly man” in verse three.  These sons of men were in fact following a false god when they followed Absalom.  Absalom used flattery to get the people to follow him, for the people knew who it was that God had put on the throne of Israel and when they stopped following David they were in effect not following the plans of God for Israel.  Dr. Wiersbe writes “When you follow vain things and believe falsehood, you can only go astray.  The people weren’t just deposing a king; they were fighting against the Lord Jehovah who placed David on the throne.”

 

            “Encourage Your Friends (vv.4-5)”:  “4 Tremble, and do not sin; Meditate in your heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah. 5 Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, And trust in the LORD.”

           

            In this brief section we see David writing about his friends, and his friends were probably not thinking the way that they should be because of their anger towards what Absalom had done to David and so David gave them six instructions. These instructions are just as useful for us today when we find ourselves getting angry.

1.      Tremble before the Lord (4a): When we fear the Lord we need not fear anything else and so David’s men need not fear Absalom.   

2.     Don’t sin (4b):  The Apostle Paul quotes this in Ephesians 4:26 using the Septuagint (Greek version of the Bible) and writes in that verse “Be angry, and do not sin.”  From that we can learn that there is a holy anger that we should be angry about, that is be angry what God is angry about, and then there is an anger in which you will be sinning.  Paul goes on to say “do not let the sun set on your anger,” and so when we experience this unholy anger we must be willing to confess it before the end of the day otherwise we will be in danger of allowing our anger to turn into bitterness, and if that is not taken care of depression is next after bitterness.

3.     Search your own hearts (4c):  David is asking his men to search their own hearts to make sure that there is no sin found in them.  Psalm 139:23-24 give us this instruction.  David did not want his men to be so angry at Absalom and over look any sin in their lives, which is what David did in 2 Samuel 12:1-7.  Jesus speaks of this also in Matthew 7:1-5. When doing this on your bed you will avoid the problems of not sleeping.

4.     Be still (4d):   When we look at the Amplified Bible it is translated “Be sorry for the things you say in your heart.”  Another translation reads “say to your heart,” that is tell your heart “Sin not.” 

5.     Offer right sacrifices (5a):  While these men were in the wilderness they could not offer sacrifices, but they could be like Jonah and promise the Lord that they would do this when they returned to Jerusalem.

6.     Trust the Lord (5b):  In the case of Absalom he was not trusting in the Lord, but his men and his leadership ability, and the popularity that he had, which would not do him any good so his plans were doomed to fail.

David on the other hand, even though he was a great military man, he would put his trust in the Lord and so he would not fail.

 

Praise the Lord (vv. 6-8):  “6 Many are saying, "Who will show us any good?" Lift up the light of Your countenance upon us, O LORD! 7 You have put gladness in my heart, More than when their grain and new wine abound. 8 In peace I will both lie down and sleep, For You alone, O LORD, make me to dwell in safety.”

 

            It was because of reports that David received from the ranks that he knew what many of his people were saying, therefore he knew of their discouragement.  We read “who will show us any good,” and the Amp. Version reads “O that we might see some good!” or “Who can get us out of this plight?”  Dr. Wiersbe writes “the tense of the verb indicates that this discouraging statement was repeated again and again by the complainers, and the more they complained the more others took up the strain.  The Jewish Publication Society version reads, ‘O for good days!’  It’s well been said that ‘the good old days’ are a combination of a bad memory and a good imagination.  What kind of ‘good’ were the people looking for—material wealth, peace and security and at any price, a godly king, a successful new king?”

           

            David wanted the right king of goodness for the people as he says at the end of verse six, for he wanted the light of the Lord to come upon his people so that they could see what were the good things that they can have from the Lord.

             

            In verse seven David expands this thought by speaking of the goodness that comes from the Lord that is the gladness that he has in his heart, and this is what comes from the Lord and it is better than having grain and new wine, in other words riches.

           

            David ends this psalm with a verse that I have actually claimed when I had trouble going to sleep and so I would quote this verse to the Lord so He could cause me to go to sleep.  David is saying that even though trouble is surrounding him he would trust the Lord and the Lord would allow him to sleep well in spite of his troubles.  His trust was in the Lord.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I have been going through a difficult time over things from the past that have come back to me again and I have had to deal with them and again it has been hard on me and so this psalm has been an encouragement to my heart and I am thankful to the Lord for the contents of this psalm.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:

 

1.     Trust the Lord to give me the right attitude as I think about this old problem again.

2.     Seek the Holy Spirit to search my heart and therefore convict me of any unconfessed sin in my life.

3.     Trust that the Holy Spirit will help me in the area of having a better prayer life.

4.     Continue to learn to be content.

12/19/2011 8:45:08 AM