David's Examples of Prayer PT-1 Psalm 35)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/29/2012 7:36:07 AM

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  David’s Examples of Prayer

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Psalm 35

            Message of the verses:  The first thing that I would like to mention about Psalm 35 is that it is an imprecatory psalm.  I quoted from Dr. Wiersbe’s commentary on the importance of the imprecatory psalms when I did the commentary on Psalm 5 and so I am not going to go over all of that in this introduction for this psalm, but ask that those interested who have not read the commentary on Psalm 5 do so in order to have a better understanding about imprecatory psalms as there will be more of them as we go along with our study of the psalms.

            The background of this psalm is again the hounding of Saul as he goes after David because his desire is to kill David and have one of his sons be the next king in Israel, however Saul knows in his heart of hearts that God has chosen David to be king in Israel, but there were times when Saul would listen to his men who also wanted David dead.  Saul’s men would spread lies about David and this would enhance the anger in Saul for David and instead of doing the business of the kingdom he would go out after David.  Dr. Wiersbe writes at the end of the introduction of this psalm these words, “David made three requests of God, and eventually He granted all of them.”

            Protect Me (vv. 1-10):  “1 A Psalm of David: Contend, O LORD, with those who contend with me; Fight against those who fight against me. 2 Take hold of buckler and shield And rise up for my help. 3 Draw also the spear and the battle-axe to meet those who pursue me; Say to my soul, "I am your salvation." 4 Let those be ashamed and dishonored who seek my life; Let those be turned back and humiliated who devise evil against me. 5 Let them be like chaff before the wind, With the angel of the LORD driving them on. 6 Let their way be dark and slippery, With the angel of the LORD pursuing them. 7 For without cause they hid their net for me; Without cause they dug a pit for my soul. 8 Let destruction come upon him unawares, And let the net which he hid catch himself; Into that very destruction let him fall. 9 And my soul shall rejoice in the LORD; It shall exult in His salvation. 10 All my bones will say, "LORD, who is like You, Who delivers the afflicted from him who is too strong for him, And the afflicted and the needy from him who robs him?’”

            When David was a teenager Samuel came to the house of Jessie who was David’s father looking to anoint the next king of Israel.  Samuel was mourning over the fact that Saul had not turned out the way that he hoped he would for Saul had turned against following the commands of the Lord and could no longer be trusted.  As Samuel was mourning over Saul the Lord came to him and told him to fill his flask with oil so that he could go and anoint the next king of Israel who was a son of Jesse.  Samuel was frightened of Saul and so the Lord told him to go to the house of Jesse in Bethlehem for a sacrifice.  This story is told in 1Samuel 16.  When Samuel got there he began to look at Jesse’s sons and none of them were the ones that God had chosen.  Some of his sons were very handsome and strong and this must have reminded Samuel of what the people thought about Saul, for Saul was a king that the people wanted, but David was the king that God wanted to rule over Israel for he was a man after God’s own heart.  After looking over all of Jesse’s sons and not finding who he was looking for Samuel asked Jesse if he had any other sons.  He replied that he had a younger son who was tending the sheep in the pasture.  Samuel told Jesse to go and quickly get him and when Samuel saw him he knew that this was the one whom God had chosen to be Israel’s next king and he anointed him with oil.

            Now we fast forward to the time when David is writing this psalm and we wonder what is going through the mind of David as Saul’s men continue to chase him and try to kill him.  This would go on for ten years and could it be that David is beginning to doubt that God would fulfill his promise of making David king over Israel.  Remember the story of the butterfly and the struggle that it had to get out of the cocoon well we can look at David as being in that stage of struggling as he is chased by Saul and his men.  We can also look back at the life of Joseph and see the same thing as Joseph was put in a pit by his brothers and then sold in Egypt where he was falsely accused of rape and then put into prison unjustly for a few years before being elevated to the second in command of the nation of Egypt.  Years later Moses, who knew that God had chosen him to lead the people out of Egypt tried in vain to do this when he was forty years old, but had to flea for his life and tend sheep for the next forty years before God called him back to Egypt to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt.  Years later David was also tending sheep as God chose him to lead the children of Israel back to the Lord by anointing him king.  Many, many years after this Peter would write in 1Peter 5 these words, “1 Therefore, I exhort the elders among you, as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed, 2 shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness; 3 nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock. 4 And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.”  We see in this passage that Peter was an elder and now called his fellow elders to shepherd the flock of God, God is calling those who belong to Him sheep and Jesus Christ the Chief Shepherd and so we can see the importance in understanding how sheep act, for people are like sheep and perhaps we can now understand why two of the most prominent people of the Old Testament were shepherds, in fact we know that probably Joseph tended sheep too before sold into slavery.  When John MacArthur was preaching through the book of 1Peter he tells the story of how he and his family went to New Zealand to see how sheep were tended there.  He also read a book by the most famous shepherd who lived in New Zealand in order to understand how the Elders, Pastors, are to shepherd the flock of God and according to him learned a valuable lesson from being there and from reading the book too. 

            Isaiah writes these words in Isaiah 53:6 “All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him. 7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.”

            I said all of this because I think that when we are in a position that we don’t like and don’t understand why we are there we may be like David, or Moses, or Joseph being prepared to do something for the Lord and as we read through psalms like Psalm 35 and see how David reacted we can learn from them as we go through these difficult times in our life that perhaps we are being prepared by God for something special.

            We can see two aspects in verse one of Psalm 35, one of a soldier and one of a judge, for David wants God to plead his case for him and also wants God to fight for David.  We see images of the soldier in verses two and three as David asks God to fight for him with a spear and a battle-ax while being clothed with buckler and shield.  David knows in his heart that God had him anointed as king and for that reason he asks God to fight against his enemies for him.

           

            David wanted his enemies to fall into the traps that they had set for him, and these traps were probably holes in the ground covered by sticks and leaves that were used to catch animals, but the animals were the ones who were setting the traps for David.

            We will see in each section of this psalm that David will end the three sections with a song of praise to the Lord (vv. 9-10, 17-18, and 27-28).     

            We will continue with Psalm 25 tomorrow, Lord willing.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  David had to have a lot of contentment and trust in the Lord as he faced the troubles of being hunted by Saul for ten years, and my prayer is that I will learn from how David lived his life while he, like the butterfly, was being strengthened by his struggling.

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1.     Proverbs 3:5-6.

2.     Romans 12:1-2.

3.     Romans 8:28.

4.     Philippians 4:11b.

5.     Ephesians 6:10-18.

1/29/2012 8:47:54

PT-3 of Psalm 34

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/28/2012 9:42:24 AM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  Psalm 34 Part-3

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Psalm 34:17:22

            Message of the verses:  In today’s SD we will look at the last section of Psalm 34 which is the last six verses.  I am going to quote again the words of Dr. Wiersbe that he wrote at the end of his opening comments on Psalm 34:  “Out of his experience in Gath, David shared in this psalm four instructions for his own followers (1Sam. 22:1-2), as well as for us today, to help us keep out of tight situations and live a life that pleases God.”  The last instruction he entitles trust the Lord.

            Trust the Lord (vv. 17-22):  “17 The righteous cry, and the LORD hears And delivers them out of all their troubles. 18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted And saves those who are crushed in spirit. 19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the LORD delivers him out of them all. 20 He keeps all his bones, Not one of them is broken. 21 Evil shall slay the wicked, And those who hate the righteous will be condemned. 22 The LORD redeems the soul of His servants, And none of those who take refuge in Him will be condemned.”

            I mentioned in yesterday’s SD that I thought that the verses in Psalm 34 reminded me of what is in the book of Proverbs in that they seem to be short bits of wisdom in each of the verses like what is found in the book of Proverbs and I can see that in these six verses too.

            In this last section we see a contrast of what will happen to the “righteous” and what will happen to the “wicked.”  Verse 17 we see the righteous cry and then the Lord answers.  In verse 21 we see what will happen to the wicked and what happens to them is seen in the first part of verse 21 where David writes “Evil shall slay the wicked.”  Dr. Wiersbe writes “The Lord is able to keep our enemies in check, and their evil deeds will destroy them, for sin is its own executioner.”  “His own iniquities will capture the wicked, And he will be held with the cords of his sin Proverbs 5:22.” 

            The Bible never assures us that when we become believers that are lives will then be without troubles, but we see verses in this section of Scripture that tell us that the Lord will be with us through all of the troubled times.  Verses 17-20 gives us this promises and we can see that even though at times we don’t feel like the Lord is with us and helping us He is doing this.  We must remember what we said about feelings in an earlier SD and that is they cannot always be trusted.  These verses say what I wrote in an earlier SD and that is that God will heal us every time but the last time and at that time we can be assured that our work on earth will be done.

            It makes me sad and also it makes me angry when I see on TV from time to time that a “preacher” will come on and say that if you send me some money then I will pray over your letter and the Lord will heal you.  I have also heard them say that once you become a believer that your life will be wonderful and that you will not have any more problems.  These are lies that come from the enemy.  To illustrate what I am talking about I want to tell a story about a butterfly and the struggle that it takes for a butterfly to get out of the cocoon.  This story begins with a worm and the worm will begin its life eating and will continue to eat and then it will be time for the worm to make a cocoon for itself.  We can see in this story something that pictures a person who is born into this world and then is transformed into a new life once they realize that they are a sinner and believe in their heart that Christ died for their sins and we see in 2Cor 5:17 “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”  Now back to the butterfly and we mentioned that it is a struggle for the butterfly to get out of the cocoon and this is a good thing for the struggle will make it strong in order for it to accomplish the things that butterflies do.  If someone would see the butterfly struggling and decide that it would be better for them to help it out of the cocoon then the butterfly would probably die because it would not have the strength to live because it did not build up its strength by getting out of the cocoon on its own.  Now what can we learn from this story is actually seen in this section of Psalm 34?  We can see that God allows us to go through difficult times, we have seen this when we looked at the book of Job, and we know that God has a plan for our lives and will see us through the difficult times so that we can bring glory to Him, and also so we can help others who will go through perhaps the same trouble that we are going through.  Paul writes about this in 2Cor. 1: 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. 6 But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer.”

            One more thing from Psalm 34 and that comes from verse twenty were at the end of this verse we read “Not one of them is broken.”  David is writing about bones and we know that Jesus is the Passover Lamb and it is said of the Passover Lamb that none of its bones are to be broken and so John quotes this verse in John 19:36 speaking of Jesus:  “For these things came to pass to fulfill the Scripture, "NOT A BONE OF HIM SHALL BE BROKEN."

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  As I look at the nation that I live in and see all of the moral corruption that is going on and what seems to me that the blessings of God are now like they once were on our country I am distressed and saddened over this, and I must admit at times a little bit frightened.  The words of this section of Psalm 34 have been an encouragement to me in that I am once again reminded that the Lord is surely in control and will see me through until my work on earth is done either by dying of by going to be with the Lord in the clouds after I am changed on the way up to meet the Lord.  1Cor. 15:51-58 and 1Thes.& 4:13-18 speak of this event which is called the rapture of the Church.

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1.     Continue to trust the Lord through the difficulties of life knowing that he will never leave me and He will never forsake me.

2.     Continue to learn contentment through the trials and difficulties of life.

1/28/2012 10:53:42 AM

PT-2 of Psalm 34

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/27/2012 9:34:10 AM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  Psalm 34 Part Two

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Psalm 34:9-22

            Message of the verses:  As I begin this second part of Psalm 34 I began to wonder exactly what it means to “bless the Lord” which is found in the first verse of this psalm.  This is something that I have struggled with the understanding of for a long time and when I looked up the word in the Hebrew/English dictionary I was even more confused by it because the Hebrew word “barak” is actually translated as curse five times in the KJV of the Bible.  I began to look to the internet for some answers and came across an article that was written in 1978 by John Piper that helped me to understand what “bless the Lord” is all about.  I am going to put this article on this SD and hopefully it will be a help to others who have struggled with this.

“What Does It Mean to Bless God?

November 1, 1978| by John Piper| Topic: Prayer

My thesis is that in the Scripture when God "blesses" men they are thereby helped and strengthened and made better off than they were before, but when men "bless" God he is not helped or strengthened or made better off. Rather (with C. A. Keller in THAT, I, 361) man's blessing God is an "expression of praising Thankfulness" (ein lobendes Danksagen), when the OT speaks of blessing God it does not "designate a pro­cess that aims at the increase of God's strength" (THAT, I, 361). It is an "exclamation of gratitude and admiration" (THAT, I, 357).

This is not at all a strange semantic phenomenon. If God is the primal and inexhaustible "blesser," then he must be above all others in a "blessed" state—the fullness and source of all "blessing." If this is so, then a most nat­ural burst of praise would be "You are blessed!" That this recognition and joyful exclamation of God's blessedness should then be described as "blessing God" is not unusual. Other analogies, though not exact, would be our expressions like: "I mag­nify the Lord" or "Let us exalt his name." Both of these expressions properly recognize and give joyful expression to God's magnificence and his exalted status. They do not mean that we make God larger or higher. So to bless God means to recognize his great richness, strength, and gracious bounty and to express our gratitude and delight in seeing and experiencing it.

Here are some texts that have led me to these conclusions:

Deuteronomy 8:10 And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.

Here "bless" is virtually identical to "thank" or "gratefully recognize as the giver of blessing."

Psalm 100:4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!

Psalm 145:10 All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord, and all your saints shall bless you!

Psalm 103:2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits,

Psalm 96:2-3 Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples!

Here bless probably means: joyfully announce all these good things about God.

Psalm 104:1 Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord my God, you are very great! You are clothed with splendor and majesty,

This psalm begins and ends with "Bless the Lord, O my soul!" This probably means that the psalm is meant as the blessing. Therefore blessing God means heartily saying things like "God, you are very great!"

2 Chronicles 29:10 Therefore David blessed the Lord in the presence of all the assembly. And David said: "Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of Israel our father, forever and ever."

This is a clear example of what one does when one blesses the Lord: he calls him blessed! The same thing is seen in comparing Gen. 24:27 and 48.

Psalm 34:1 I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

Psalm 145:1-2, 21 I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever. My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord, and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever.

Psalm 113:1-2 Praise the Lord! Praise, O servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord! Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore!”

Fear the Lord (vv. 9-16):  “9 O fear the LORD, you His saints; For to those who fear Him there is no want. 10 The young lions do lack and suffer hunger; But they who seek the LORD shall not be in want of any good thing. 11 Come, you children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD. 12 Who is the man who desires life And loves length of days that he may see good? 13 Keep your tongue from evil And your lips from speaking deceit. 14 Depart from evil and do good; Seek peace and pursue it. 15 The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous And His ears are open to their cry. 16 The face of the LORD is against evildoers, To cut off the memory of them from the earth.”

We have spoken about the fear of the Lord in past SD’s but if one fears the Lord then he does not need to fear anything else.  Dr. Wiersbe writes some interesting comments on this subject:  “God promises to give us what is good for us and to cause all things to work together for good (Romans 8:28).  If we don’t receive what we think we need, it means it isn’t good for us and we don’t need it at this time.”  He goes on to write:  “At this point, David may have gathered the children and youths around him to teach them the secret of real living.  Peter quoted verses 12-14 in 1Peter 3:10-12, and his instructions are wise and workable.” 

Desire what is good (v. 12):  “12 Who is the man who desires life And loves length of days that he may see good?”  What does David mean when he writes “desires life” or “love life?”  Does it mean that one has to have a lot of possessions to love life, for that is what the world would teach us.  Solomon who was probably the richest man ever to live as far as possessions wrote in Eccl. 2:17-20 “17 So I hated life, for the work which had been done under the sun was grievous to me; because everything is futility and striving after wind. 18 Thus I hated all the fruit of my labor for which I had labored under the sun, for I must leave it to the man who will come after me. 19 And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the fruit of my labor for which I have labored by acting wisely under the sun. This too is vanity. 20 Therefore I completely despaired of all the fruit of my labor for which I had labored under the sun.”  This does not sound to me like possessions are the answer.  Character is certainly part of the answer, along with faith, and a desire to honor God.  Jesus ways in as seen in John 10:10 “"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”  That word abundantly means “beyond measure.”

Speak what is true (v. 13):  “13 Keep your tongue from evil And your lips from speaking deceit.”  Both James and Solomon have something to say about the tongue:  “5 So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! 6 And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell. 7 For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by the human race. 8 But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; 10 from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way (James 3:5-10).”  “He who guards his mouth and his tongue, Guards his soul from troubles (Pr. 21:23).”  Paul writes in Ephesians 4:15 these words, “but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ.”  I must say that the 34^th Psalm actually sounds to me like how the Proverbs are written.

Pursue what is right (v. 14):  “14 Depart from evil and do good; Seek peace and pursue it.”  David, one would think, is not exactly the man who would write “seek peace and pursue it” for he was a man of war, a man who was not allowed to build the temple because he had shed so much blood.  As Christians we are not to seek peace at any price, because peace depends on purity. “13 Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. 15 This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. 16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. 17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. 18 And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace (James 3:13-18).”  As Christians we are to make every effort not to make enemies, and yet when we look at the life of Jesus and the things that He said to the Pharisees and the Scribes we know that there is a time to stand up for what is right as Jesus did when talking to these people.  Dr. Wiersbe says that the word “pursue” means that we have to work at it, with the help of the Lord, and this makes perfect sense because we are to seek the help of the Lord in all we do.

Expect what is best (vv. 15-16):  “15 The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous And His ears are open to their cry. 16 The face of the LORD is against evildoers, To cut off the memory of them from the earth.”  We see the entire face of the Lord including His eyes and His ears in these two verses and this should give us confidence God sees us and hears us when we pray and God is against evildoers.  There is a great example of this in the 12^th chapter of the book of Acts where we see Peter in prison, sent there by Herod who was king at that time.  The church began to pray to God so He would have Peter released and God answered their prayer and had Peter released using a miracle.  A little while later Herod was killed because he did not honor God, thus taking care of that evildoer.

                        Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Today the 27^th of January in the year of our Lord 2012, by the grace of God I begin my 39^th year in serving the Lord, and my prayer is that I will bring honor and glory to His name.

Character is something that has spoken to me as I did this SD, and having good character is important to me and one of the ways to accomplish this is to continue to, not only read and study the Word of God, but to put the things into practice what I have learned.  Difficult at times because of the enemies that we all face, the world, the flesh and the devil are all against us, but God is for us and that is all we need.

My Steps of Faith for Today:                                                                                        

1.     By the help and grace of God I desire to put into practice what I am learning.

2.     Continue to learn contentment.

1/27/2012

Fear and Trust the Goodness of the Lord (Ps. 34)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/26/2012 8:23:49 AM

My Worship Time                                    Focus:  Fear and Trust the goodness of the Lord

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Psalm 34

            Message of the verses:  “1 A Psalm of David when he feigned madness before Abimelech, who drove him away and he departed: I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. 2 My soul will make its boast in the LORD; The humble will hear it and rejoice. 3 O magnify the LORD with me, And let us exalt His name together. 4 I sought the LORD, and He answered me, And delivered me from all my fears. 5 They looked to Him and were radiant, And their faces will never be ashamed. 6 This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him And saved him out of all his troubles. 7 The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear Him, And rescues them. 8 O taste and see that the LORD is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him! 9 O fear the LORD, you His saints; For to those who fear Him there is no want. 10 The young lions do lack and suffer hunger; But they who seek the LORD shall not be in want of any good thing.

    “11 Come, you children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD. 12 Who is the man who desires life And loves length of days that he may see good? 13 Keep your tongue from evil And your lips from speaking deceit. 14 Depart from evil and do good; Seek peace and pursue it. 15 The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous And His ears are open to their cry. 16 The face of the LORD is against evildoers, To cut off the memory of them from the earth. 17 The righteous cry, and the LORD hears And delivers them out of all their troubles. 18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted And saves those who are crushed in spirit. 19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the LORD delivers him out of them all. 20 He keeps all his bones, Not one of them is broken. 21 Evil shall slay the wicked, And those who hate the righteous will be condemned. 22 The LORD redeems the soul of His servants, And none of those who take refuge in Him will be condemned.”

            In his introduction to Psalm 34 Dr. Wiersbe reveals that this psalm is an acrostic psalm, but with the omission of the Hebrew letters waw and with an extra pe in the beginning of verse twenty-two.  He writes the following at the end of his introduction:  “Out of his experience in Gath, David shared in this psalm four instructions for his own followers (1Sam. 22:1-2), as well as for us today, to help us keep out of the tight situations and live a life that pleases the Lord.”

            David wrote this psalm because of his experiences of acting “crazy” when he fled to the Philistines in Gath, and this story is found in 1Samuel 21:10-22:1. 

            Bless the Lord (vv. 1-3):  “I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. 2 My soul will make its boast in the LORD; The humble will hear it and rejoice. 3 O magnify the LORD with me, And let us exalt His name together.”

            Before I begin to comment on these verses from Psalm 34 I want to go back to the 30^th of June in 2010 to pick up my comments from the verses in 1Samuel where this 34^th Psalm is written from.  “David was more in fear of Saul than in trust of the Lord and that is probably why he ran to the Philistia city of Gath.”

            “These verses are from Psalm 34:9-16 and point out that David began to know what fearing the Lord was about while he was in that situation in Gath.  I read or heard somewhere recently that David felt badly that he did not trust the Lord while in this city of Gath, and he relied on his own ways to get out of this situation instead of trusting the Lord.” 

            It seems that because of David’s fear of Saul that he ran to Gath, yet if he would not have feared Saul, but feared the Lord he probably not have gone there in the first place.  Again we see Romans 8:28 come into play for God worked it out for David’s good and through David’s experiences there he wrote two psalms that people can learn from.  In no way am I faulting David for going to Gath for I am sure that I have struck out on my own out of fear of something when I should have been trusting the Lord.

            David was probably telling his men of his experiences while in Gath and the result was this psalm.  David uses words like bless, exalt, boast, and magnify in order to lift up the name of the Lord.  The word LORD is used sixteen times in this psalm.

            We see in this psalm that the Lord answered David’s prayer (vv. 4, 15), He provided for his needs (vv. 9-10), delivered him from trouble (v. 17), and He protected him from danger (v. 7).  It is no wonder that David was praising the Lord.  Dr. Wiersbe writes “Knowing who we are in Christ and who the Lord is ought to make us want to bless the Lord.”  I want to add something that I learned recently about the words “bless the Lord,” and what it means.  We get the word elegy from this word and this happens usually at a funeral when someone tells good things about the person who had just died, so we are to say good things about the Lord and this blesses Him.

            Seek the Lord (vv.4-8):  “4 I sought the LORD, and He answered me, And delivered me from all my fears. 5 They looked to Him and were radiant, And their faces will never be ashamed. 6 This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him And saved him out of all his troubles. 7 The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear Him, And rescues them. 8 O taste and see that the LORD is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!”

            As we look at these five verses we see a threefold witness of what the Lord does for His own.  We see in verses 4-8 that He saves us and in verse seven we see that He keeps us and in verse eight we see that the Lord satisfies us.  When David sought the Lord the Lord saved him from his fears (terrors) that we within him and the Lord also delivered him from the troubles that he was in and were around him.  Dr. Wiersbe points out that seeking the Lord is the same as looking unto Him and when we look at Him by faith we will see that the Lord “shines upon us” (Psalm 4:6 & Numbers 6:22-27).  Numbers 6:22-27 are very familiar verses, especially to the Jews:  “22 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 23  ‘Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, ’Thus you shall bless the sons of Israel. You shall say to them: 24  The LORD bless you, and keep you; 25  The LORD make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you; 26  The LORD lift up His countenance on you, And give you peace.’ 27 “So they shall invoke My name on the sons of Israel, and I then will bless them.’”

            That is the positive side, if we are walking with the Lord, however if we are not and are walking in unbelief are faces will be ashamed and not aglow like the face of Moses in Ex. 34:29. 

            David speaks of the angel of the LORD in verse six and the angel of the LORD is none other than the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ who came to the children of Israel on different occasions in the OT.  We see that He came to Joshua right before the children of Israel were about to conquer the Promised Land.  He came to the parents of Samson before he was born. 

            We see in verse eight that the Lord not only saves and keeps but He also satisfies and in his commentary on this subject Dr. Wiersbe writes the following:  “It was a great blessing for David to be delivered from Gath, and it was a greater blessing for him to be protected by the Lord after he fled, but the greatest blessing was drawing nearer to God and enjoying His presence, not just His gifts.  David found God’s Word sweet (119:103), and he rejoiced in the goodness of the Lord.  ‘Good’ is an important word in this psalm (vv. 8, 10, 12, 14).”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  What I think is most important to me as I have read this first part of Psalm 34 was to be satisfied with the Lord and not have to be so concerned about the gifts that the Giver gives to me, but getting to know the Giver of the gifts is much more important.  David knew this wonderful truth and we can see it in many of the psalms that he wrote.

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1.     Be satisfied with only the Lord and not so concerned about the gifts that He has given me. 

2.     Continue to learn contentment as I walk with the Lord.

3.     Have the desire in my heart that whenever I meet the Lord that He will say to me “Well done.”

1/26/2012 9:58:29 AM

           

A Psalm of Praise (Psalm 33)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/25/2012 9:08:56 AM

My Worship Time                                                                     Focus: A Psalm of Praise

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                      Reference:  Psalm 33

            Message of the verses:  “1 Sing for joy in the LORD, O you righteous ones; Praise is becoming to the upright. 2 Give thanks to the LORD with the lyre; Sing praises to Him with a harp of ten strings. 3 Sing to Him a new song; Play skillfully with a shout of joy. 4 For the word of the LORD is upright, And all His work is done in faithfulness. 5 He loves righteousness and justice; The earth is full of the lovingkindness of the LORD. 6 By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, And by the breath of His mouth all their host. 7 He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap; He lays up the deeps in storehouses. 8 Let all the earth fear the LORD; Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. 9 For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast. 10 The LORD nullifies the counsel of the nations; He frustrates the plans of the peoples. 11 The counsel of the LORD stands forever, The plans of His heart from generation to generation.

    “12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, The people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance. 13 The LORD looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men; 14  From His dwelling place He looks out On all the inhabitants of the earth, 15  He who fashions the hearts of them all, He who understands all their works. 16 The king is not saved by a mighty army; A warrior is not delivered by great strength. 17 A horse is a false hope for victory; Nor does it deliver anyone by its great strength. 18 Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him, On those who hope for His lovingkindness, 19 To deliver their soul from death And to keep them alive in famine. 20 Our soul waits for the LORD; He is our help and our shield. 21 For our heart rejoices in Him, Because we trust in His holy name. 22 Let Your lovingkindness, O LORD, be upon us, According as we have hoped in You.”

            In his introduction to this psalm Dr. Wiersbe points out that everyone of the verbs in this psalm are plural and this means that the psalm is for worship of the Lord at the sanctuary.  We see in verses 1-3 that the leader calls them to worship and the choir led the assembly in the praising of the Lord.  All closed with the affirmation of faith which is found in verses 22-23.  As we look at verses 10-11 and 16-19 we get a hint that the praises to the Lord were because of a victory over an enemy nation.  Dr. Wiersbe writes “Except for the prayer in verse 22, the entire psalm is devoted only to praise and forms a helpful ‘primer of praise.’”

            Who should Worship the Lord? (v. 1):  “1 Sing for joy in the LORD, O you righteous ones; Praise is becoming to the upright.”

            We first want to look at a parallel verse from Psalm 32:11 “Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you righteous ones; And shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart.”  These two verses answer the question posed at the beginning of this section and the answer is those who are righteous by faith and obedient in their walk with the Lord (“upright”).

            We must remember that everyone who has been born into this world is born a sinner an sins because they are sinners, but when the Lord gives new life to a person he then becomes a new creature and all things are new and therefore this person will have a desire to praise the Lord and to worship the Lord.  Those of us who have had this new birth must also walk with the Lord, to be “upright” in our walk with the Lord so that we can have fellowship with Him and thus have a desire to praise the Lord for not only what He has done for us but for all that He has created as we will look at later in this psalm of praise.  There are many other reasons for praising the Lord too.

            How They Should Worship The Lord (vv. 2-4):  “2 Give thanks to the LORD with the lyre; Sing praises to Him with a harp of ten strings. 3 Sing to Him a new song; Play skillfully with a shout of joy. 4 For the word of the LORD is upright, And all His work is done in faithfulness.”

            “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God (Col. 3:16),”  “speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord (Eph. 5:19)” These are two NT verses that show how we should worship the Lord.

            The Lord has given music to mankind and His children are to use music to worship the Lord.  I once read and studied a book written by Warren Wiersbe entitled “Real Worship.”  In that book Mr. Wiersbe points out that music, and the type of music has always been a battle ground in the church and that I have to agree with him.  Wiersbe writes “When God works; He obeys His own Word; so any worship that is contrary to God’s Word will not please the Lord.”  While living in Hawaii last year I attended a church there and the praise team led a song that was not true to the Word of God.  There were a number of Pastors in attendance and none of them said anything about the song.  I spoke to a  couple of them to  point out the error in the song and later spoke to one of the members of the praise team who told me that when she looked up the song on the internet that there was a word that was different and she told me what the difference was.  It made the difference of being a song of praise to the Lord or a song that was not Scriptural.

            Why They Worship the Lord (vv. 5-19):  “5 He loves righteousness and justice; The earth is full of the lovingkindness of the LORD. 6 By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, And by the breath of His mouth all their host. 7 He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap; He lays up the deeps in storehouses. 8 Let all the earth fear the LORD; Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. 9 For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast. 10 The LORD nullifies the counsel of the nations; He frustrates the plans of the peoples. 11 The counsel of the LORD stands forever, The plans of His heart from generation to generation. 12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, The people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance. 13 The LORD looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men; 14  From His dwelling place He looks out On all the inhabitants of the earth, 15 He who fashions the hearts of them all, He who understands all their works. 16 The king is not saved by a mighty army; A warrior is not delivered by great strength. 17 A horse is a false hope for victory; Nor does it deliver anyone by its great strength. 18 Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him, On those who hope for His lovingkindness, 19 To deliver their soul from death And to keep them alive in famine.”

            I suppose that we could take these verses one by one and have great reasons to praise the Lord.

            We can see in verse four that there is a mention of the Word of the Lord and we can only get to know the God of the Word by spending time in the Word of God, but we have to have the right motive when we study the Word of God and to know the God of the Word is a wonderful motive in studying the Word of God.  I can think of two different stories from the NT that speak of getting to know the God of the Word.  The first is mentioned in the book of Philippians and that of course was written by the Apostle Paul and he was much closer to his death than his birth when he wrote these words:  “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.”  The more Paul knew the Lord the more he wanted to know about the Lord.  The other story is one of my favorite stories and it comes from the Gospel of Luke and the 24^th chapter where we find two men walking on a road and then the resurrected Lord Jesus comes along and begins to talk to them, but He does not disclose Himself to them for a while.  The men are sad because of the death of Jesus and begin to tell Him about what happened to Jesus.  We then read these words:  “25 And He said to them, "O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! 26 “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?" 27 Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.”  Jesus is telling them that they should have been studying the Word of God and then they would have understood the things that happened to Him and why they happened to Him.  I have always wished that I could have listened in on that conversation as Jesus began with Moses and went through the OT telling them about how the Messiah was seen in the OT.

            As mentioned above this psalm speaks of the creation and that surely is a wonderful reason to praise the Lord.  I have mentioned in earlier SD’s that Satan has convinced many Christians to believe in evolution and this will curtail their worship of the God of creation who has told us in His Word how He created the world and how long it took Him to create the world and it is very plain to see this in Genesis chapter one and is actually reiterated in this psalm of praise.

            We see in the verses above from this psalm that the Lord loves justice and righteousness, and He love that so much that He sent His Son to become sin for us in order that we might receive His righteousness so that we will be able to enter heaven and be with the Lord forever.

            Dr. Wiersbe writes “Unless our worship focuses on the character of God, we have ignored the Person who ought to be the center of true worship.”  How do we know about the character of God?  Well we can find this out by reading His Word, and we can also look at good Christians authors who have written about the attributes of God for in His attributes we will find out about His character.  Three examples:  “The Knowledge of the Holy” and “The Attributes of God” both by A. W. Tozer and then “Knowing God” is a classic book written by J. I. Packer.  Chip Ingram has also written a book entitled “God as He longs for You to See Him.”

            One of the attributes of God is His wisdom and this is alluded to in verses 10-11 of Psalm 33.  When I think of all of God’s attributes this is one that is very amazing to me because of verses like Romans 8:28 that tells me how a Holy God can cause all things to work out for the good of His people and for His glory and that is just amazing to me.  I can see His wisdom in creation, but most of all I can see His wisdom in salvation.  One reason I know that the Bible was not inspired by man is because man would have never put into it about how one can be saved, but God had this all planed from eternity past.  We truly serve a wise and wonderful God.

            What Should Happen Because They Worship the Lord (vv. 20-22):  “20 Our soul waits for the LORD; He is our help and our shield. 21 For our heart rejoices in Him, Because we trust in His holy name. 22 Let Your lovingkindness, O LORD, be upon us, According as we have hoped in You.”

            Again I wish to quote the ending comments from Dr. Wiersbe’s commentary as we close this section of my Spiritual Diary.  “Worship should not only strengthen our inner peace and power, increase our hope, and give us greater confidence in the Lord, but it should increase our joy.  The psalm begins and ends with the theme of joy.  Along with the blessing, we find our faith strengthened as we behold the beauty and glory of the Lord in our worship.  ‘Let your unfailing love surround us’ is the closing prayer (NLT), so we have the three great Christian virtues brought together:  faith (v. 21), hope, and love (v.22).  It isn’t enough to leave the place of worship simply ‘feeling good,’ because feelings are temporary and sometimes deceptive.  If we find ourselves loving God and His people more, having greater faith and hope in the Lord, and going forth into the battle of life with greater confidence and joy, then our worship has accomplished what God wanted to accomplish.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I love God’s Word and love to study God’s Word and I always want my motive for doing this to be pure.  I want the things that I learn to bring glory to the Lord and I want to help others with the things that I have learned so that they too can walk with the Lord having a “new song” in their hearts of praise and worship to the Lord.  I know that there are many times that I fail in doing this, but I want to continue to pursue this hope.

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1.      Give myself to the Lord for worship and for service to the Lord.

2.      Ask the Holy Spirit to search my heart for unconfessed sin so that my walk with the Lord and my fellowship with the Lord will be pure.

3.      Continue to trust the Lord in teaching me contentment.

4.      Trust in the Lord with all of my heart and lean not on my own understanding, in all of my ways acknowledge Him and then He has promised to direct my path.

1/25/2012 10:44:59 AM