11/2/2010 8:13:03 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My
Worship Time Focus: The Lord rewarded David
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference: 2Samuel 22:20-28
Message of the verses: “20
"He also brought me forth into a broad place; He rescued me,
because He delighted in me. 21 "The
LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness; According to the cleanness
of my hands He has recompensed me. 22
"For I have kept the ways of the LORD, And have not acted wickedly
against my God. 23 "For all His
ordinances were before me, And as for His statutes, I did not depart from them.
24 "I was also blameless toward
Him, And I kept myself from my iniquity. 25
"Therefore the LORD has recompensed me according to my
righteousness, According to my cleanness before His eyes. 26 "With the kind You show Yourself kind,
With the blameless You show Yourself blameless; 27 With the pure You show Yourself pure, And
with the perverted You show Yourself astute. 28
"And You save an afflicted people; But Your eyes are on the haughty
whom You abase.”
Dr.
Wiersbe divides this section into two sub-sections and my plan is to cover both
of these this morning. He begins this
main section commenting on verse twenty and especially the words in the first
part of the verse speaking of the Lord bringing David into a broad place. I looked yesterday at this section of
Scripture, this Psalm as happening right after David had become king in Hebron,
after some ten years of being hounded by Saul, hiding from him in order to stay
alive, and now the Lord brings David into a broad place, a place where he will
not be hounded by Saul anymore for Saul is dead. Dr. Wiersbe writes “In the school of life,
God promotes those who, in times of difficulty, learn the lessons of faith and
patience and David had learned his lessons well.” Hebrews 6:12 goes along with this quote, “We
do not want any of you to grow slack, but to follow the example of those who
through sheer patient faith came to possess the promises (Phillips).
David’s righteousness (vv. 21-15). When first reading this section of this Psalm
one might be inclined to think that David was bragging about himself, but the
point of this section speaking of David’s righteousness is that David kept the
Law of God and he did not serve any idols for he was a man after God’s own
heart. There were times in this period
of David’s life when he went to the enemies of the Lord, but basically David
kept his heart pure before the Lord in circumstances that were very difficult
and during this time David put his trust in the Lord. Psalm 24:3-6 says the following that help
describe David’s life during these difficult times: “3 ¶ Who may climb the mountain
of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place?
4 Only those whose hands and hearts are
pure, who do not worship idols and never tell lies. 5 They will receive the LORD’s blessing and have a right relationship with God their
savior. 6 Such people may seek you and worship in your presence, O God of Jacob
(NLT).
The Lord’s faithfulness (vv. 26-28). This is one of those sections of
Scripture that when broken down is so very rich and so I will use different
quotes from Dr. Wiersbe to help me to understand the richness of this passage,
for Dr. Wiersbe has a way of saying and writing things that make it easy to
remember his sayings which help me to understand and hopefully apply what it is
that I have learned.
The
first thing to remember when looking at this section of Scripture is this: “The Lord never violates His own
attributes.” At the end of his
commentary on this section Dr. Wiersbe seems to add to this quote from the
beginning of his commentary: “God is always
faithful to His character and His covenant.
Knowing the character of God is essential to knowing and doing the will
of God and pleasing His heart. David
knew God’s covenant so he understood what God expected of him. The character of God and the covenant of God
are the foundations for the promises of God.
If we ignore His character and covenant, we will never be successful in
claiming His promises.”
Now
it is time to look into the passage, and in order to help understand this
passage Dr. Wiersbe compares the life of David with the life of Saul, and I
suppose you can guess who comes out on top.
“God deals with people according to their attitudes and their
actions.” “26 You stick by people who stick with you,
you’re straight with people who’re straight with you, 27 You’re good to good people, you shrewdly work
around the bad ones. 28 You take the
side of the down-and-out, but the stuck-up you take down a peg.” This is quoted from the Message and it seems
to help me understand a bit better what these verses mean.
David
was merciful to Saul, for he had a number of chances to kill him, but because
David knew that Saul was the Lord’s anointed he could not kill him. “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall
receive mercy” (Matthew 5:7). David was
not sinless, but no one on earth is sinless, but David had a pure heart in that
he wanted to be faithful to the Lord, and when David sinned he did not run from
the sin, but confessed it to the Lord and even lived with the consequences of
forgiven sin as seen the previous chapters of 2Samuel. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they
shall see God.”
Saul
was obstinate in his heart, but David was not.
Definitions for the word Obstinate:
“stubborn, determined not to agree with other people's wishes or accept
their suggestions, refusing to change, unwilling to change or give up something
such as an idea or attitude.” The NIV
translates verse 27 this way: “to the
pure you show yourself pure, but to the crooked you show yourself
shrewd.” This word for crooked means to
“wrestle,” and David did not fight God while Saul did fight God. When Nathan came to David and stuck his boney
finger in David’s face and said to him “you are the man” David did not call for
the executioner to have Nathan’s head removed, now David followed 1John 1:9 and
then he wrote Psalms 32 and 51, showing that he did not wrestle with God.
Finally
David was humble before the Lord while Saul was not. Look at verse twenty-eight in the NIV “You
save the humble, but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them low.” “When Saul began his reign, he stood head and
shoulders above everybody else, but at the end of his life, he fell on his face
in a witch’s house and fell as a suicide on the battlefield.” “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take
heed lest he fall (1Cor. 10:12 NKJV).”
“David fell on his face in submission, and the Lord lifted him up in
honor. Saul lifted himself up and
eventually fell on his face in humiliation.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: My study thus far, through the books of 1st
and 2nd Samuel have taught me much as I looked at the different
people that are found in them. Hannah is
the first person I met, and her story is brief, but so very powerful and
inspiring. Samuel’s life is uplifting to
my heart, and the way that the Lord used him to end one era in the history and
begin another is beautifully written and his life is a great example of someone
who followed the Lord in some difficult situations.
Saul’s
life is good to study in order not to follow for when there is discussion among
people about a person as to whether or not they were a believer or not you may
want to stay away from following them.
David’s
life is a life that is worth following in spite of the sins that he committed,
for we all sin and fall short of the glory of God. To read that David is a man after God’s
heart, and know that it was God who said that should make me want to follow the
examples of his life just from that one statement.
David
spent ten years in a very difficult situation, running for his life, and yet he
had the promise from the Lord that he would one day be king in Israel, and
although there were probably times when David actually doubted that, I’m sure
that most of the times David help onto that wonderful promises and this helped
him go on. David passed this great test
in his life as God was preparing him to be king even though these were
difficult times. As I dare to compare
some difficult situations that have occurred in my life since I retired from my
job I can take comfort in the life of David knowing that God is faithful and
knowing that I am to continue to follow the Lord and keep his commandments like
David did so that I can draw upon His strength in these difficult times.
My
Steps of Faith for Today:
1. Remember
the commandments of the Lord and keep them for the glory of the Lord and for my
own personal good and growth in the Lord.
2. 5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and
lean not unto thine own understanding.
3. 6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall
direct thy paths.
4. 7
¶ Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear
the LORD, and depart from evil.
11/2/2010 9:33:24 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment