SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/12/2011 7:21:28 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Remainder of Psalm 1
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Psalm 1:3-6
Message of the verses: In today’s SD we will look at verse three of
Psalm 1. We must look at how the outline
of this Psalm is presented from yesterday’s SD.
“While the Psalm depicts two ways, it actually describes three different
persons and how they relate to the blessing of the Lord.” (Quote from Warren Wiersbe)
The Person Who Is a Blessing (v-3): “3 He will be like a tree firmly planted by
streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not
wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers.”
(NASB)
In the twelfth chapter of the
book of Genesis we see the call of Abram from the Lord and the first three
verses of Genesis twelve are very familiar verses. We want to look at just the second verse in
order to see that Abram will be a blessing to others similar to the person of
the third verse of Psalm 1: “And I will
make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so
you shall be a blessing.”
Dr. Wiersbe
writes “If the blessing stays with us, then the gifts become more important
than the Giver, and this is idolatry. We
are to become channels of God’s blessing to others. It’s a joy to receive a blessing but an even
greater joy to be a blessing. ‘It is more
blessed to give than to receive.’” (Acts
20:35)
We see some
word pictures in this third verse of Psalm one.
We see the word tree and the person who receives God’s blessing and then
channels them to others is like this tree, and the tree in verse three is
planted by a stream of water so that its roots can receive the water it needs
to continue to grow and prosper as a fully mature tree. The tree can then produce fruit and that
fruit will be the blessings that will be given to others.
There are a
few times in Scripture that speaks of trees and in Daniel chapter four and
Ezekiel chapter 17:24 along with Matthew 13:32 we see the tree as a symbol of a
kingdom. We can see the tree symbolizing
as an individual in Psalm 52:8; 92:12-14; Proverbs 11:30; Isaiah 44:4 and
58:11; Jeremiah 17:5-8; Matthew 7:15-23.
In the book
of Numbers 24:5-6 we see Balaam bringing a blessing on the children of Israel
and this is how he pictures them: “5 How fair are your tents, O Jacob, Your
dwellings, O Israel! 6 "Like
valleys that stretch out, Like
gardens beside the river, Like aloes planted by the LORD, Like cedars
beside the waters.” We now see the next
word picture and that is a river, and as mentioned this river in verse three is
the means of growth for the tree that produces fruit which are the blessings of
the tree. Now this is a reminder of John
15:1-9: “1 ¶ "I am the true vine, and My Father is
the vinedresser. 2 "Every branch in
Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit,
He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. 3
"You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to
you. 4 "Abide in Me, and I in you.
As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so
neither can you unless you abide in Me. 5
"I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in
him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. 6 "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is
thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into
the fire and they are burned. 7 "If
you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will
be done for you. 8 "My Father is
glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.9 "Just as the Father has loved Me, I have
also loved you; abide in My love.’”
Psalm 1:3
is a great picture of a person who is remaining in the vine, and remaining is
the same as abiding in the vine. This
person is receiving their spiritual blessings from the Word of God, from
fellowship with others, from meditating on the Word of God because they delight
in the Word of God and then they are passing this fruit onto others as the Holy
Spirit brings opportunity to be a blessing to others because they are abiding
or remaining in the vine. I have
mentioned this section of Scripture in earlier SD’s so it should be somewhat
familiar. I will put onto a separate
blog a letter that I wrote to a friend of mine while living in Hawaii last
summer that will help to explain more fully what I learned from the study of
John 15 about the vine and the branches.
I wish to
draw one more quote from Dr. Wiersbe’s commentary on Psalm 1 at this time: “The godly person described in verses 1-3 is
surely a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to John 14:6 is the
way (v. 1), and the life (v.3).” Dr.
Wiersbe has a great way of finding the Lord Jesus Christ in many of the
Scriptures that we study. This reminds
me of a favorite passage of Scripture that of Luke 24 when Jesus is walking
with some friends along the road to Emmaus and the friends of Jesus were prevented
from know the resurrected Lord. Jesus
began to explain to them about how the Messiah is seen in the OT as the
traveled along together. There are many
pictures of the Lord Jesus Christ in the OT and that is reason enough to study
it so that we can find these jewels and then pass them on to others so we can
be a blessing to them.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I desire to love the Giver of the gifts more
than the gifts and therefore pass on the blessing that I receive from the Lord
to others who are in need of them.
My Steps of Faith for
Today:
1.
I use to listen to a radio Pastor who is now
with the Lord and he would always say at the end of his message, right before
he would sign off with these words:
“Walk with the King today and be a blessing.”
2.
Continue to learn contentment.
12/12/2011 8:13:08 AM
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