SPIRITUAL
DIARY FOR 1/10/2012
9:47:19 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Praise
for Victory
Bible Reading
& Meditation Reference:
Psalm
21
Message
of the verses: “1 For the choir
director. A Psalm of David: O LORD, in
Your strength the king will be glad, And in Your salvation how greatly he will
rejoice! 2 You have given him his heart’s desire, And You have not withheld the request of his lips.
Selah. 3 For You meet him with the blessings of good things; You set a crown of
fine gold on his head. 4 He asked life of You, You gave it to him, Length of
days forever and ever. 5 His glory is great through Your salvation, Splendor
and majesty You place upon him. 6 For You make him most blessed forever; You
make him joyful with gladness in Your presence.
“7 For the king trusts in the LORD, And
through the lovingkindness of the Most High he will not be shaken. 8 Your hand
will find out all your enemies; Your right hand will find out those who hate
you. 9 You will make them as a fiery oven in the time of your anger; The LORD
will swallow them up in His wrath, And fire will devour them. 10 Their
offspring You will destroy from the earth, And their descendants from among the
sons of men. 11 Though they intended evil against You And devised a plot, They
will not succeed. 12 For You will make them turn their back; You will aim with
Your bowstrings at their faces. 13 Be exalted, O LORD, in Your strength; We
will sing and praise Your power.”
In yesterday’s SD it was stated that
the prayer of Psalm 20 was answered in Psalm 21, and the prayer was that
victory would be given by the power of the Lord as He gave David and his army
strength to defeat their enemies.
Dr. Wiersbe in his introduction to
this psalm writes, “The Jewish Targum states that this psalm is about ‘King
Messiah.’ Of course, David is a type of
Jesus Christ.”
Looking
Back: Celebration for Past Victories
(vv.1-7): “1 For the choir director.
A Psalm of David: O LORD, in Your
strength the king will be glad, And in Your salvation how greatly he will
rejoice! 2 You have given him his heart’s desire, And You have not withheld the request of his lips.
Selah. 3 For You meet him with the blessings of good things; You set a crown of
fine gold on his head. 4 He asked life of You, You gave it to him, Length of
days forever and ever. 5 His glory is great through Your salvation, Splendor
and majesty You place upon him. 6 For You make him most blessed forever; You
make him joyful with gladness in Your presence.
7 For the king trusts
in the LORD, And through the lovingkindness of the Most High he will not
be shaken.”
The people and their king are
addressing the Lord to give thanks to Him for what He did for them in answer to
their prayers, and it is believed that the prayers of Psalm 20 are what they
are thanking the Lord for in Psalm 21.
We see the word “salvation” in verses one and five and this means
deliverance, victory.
In verse three we see the phrase “for
You meet him with blessings” and this means that the Lord went before the king
in order to give him victory over his enemies.
In Joshua 5:13-15 we see that the Lord meet Joshua before the battle of
Jericho and Melchizedek who also is a type of Jesus Christ, met Abraham after
battle with the kings and now we see that God went before David and welcomed
him to the battlefield and victory. The
word welcomed is found in the NIV in verse three instead of “meet” as found in
the NASB and “preventest” that is found in the KJV. Dr. Wiersbe writes: “That God goes before His obedient people is
a great encouragement.” I would have to
say “Amen” to that.
The gold crown that is seen in verse
three is probably a symbol of God’s special blessing or His goodness to David
(see verse five). We see “length of days
forever (v-4) and blessings forever (v-6) and this may refer to the covenant
that God had given to David and was fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. Dr. Wiersbe writes “While he reigned, David
would not be ‘shaken’ by his enemies, because his faith was in the Lord (v.7;
10:6; 16:8; 55:22: 121:3). This
declaration of faith is the central verse of the psalm.”
Looking
Ahead: Anticipation of Future Victories (vv. 8-12): “8 Your hand will find out all your
enemies; Your right hand will find out those who hate you. 9 You will make them
as a fiery oven in the time of your anger; The LORD will swallow them up in His
wrath, And fire will devour them. 10 Their offspring You will destroy from the
earth, And their descendants from among the sons of men. 11 Though they
intended evil against You And devised a plot, They will not succeed. 12 For You
will make them turn their back; You will aim with Your bowstrings at their
faces.”
In these verse we see that the
king and the people trusted in the Lord for future victories because their
faith had grown from the last victory that they had over their enemies. “God’s right hand is more than a symbol of
power; it actively works for His people and brings defeat to their enemies.” We see in verse eight the words “find out”
and this actually means to dispose of in a similar way that fire destroys or
disposes of what it comes in contact with so the Lord will do to devour the
enemies of David. Israel will have a
future but the enemies of Israel will not have a future and we can see that
down through history. Someone wrote that
Israel stands at the graves of all that have persecuted her and this is
true. Israel is now in their land and
have been since May of 1948 and just as in David’s time they are surrounded
with enemies, but God will take care of Israel today just as He did in David’s
time.
Looking
Up: Exaltation of the Lord of the
Victories (v. 13): “13 Be exalted, O
LORD, in Your strength; We will sing and praise Your power.”
In Psalm 20 we see it closed with
the people and the king asking God to hear their prayer, and now Psalm 21
closes with the prayer that God would be “lifted up on high” to be
exalted. God will honor those who honor
Him and we must not forget to thank and exalt the Lord for answers to prayers
that we pray to Him.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: “Be
exalted O Lord above the heavens’ let Thy glory be over all the earth.” This begins one of my favorites hymns and
this is my prayer that whatever I do will bring glory to the Lord and when my prayers
are answered from the gracious hand of the Lord then I will exalt Him as David
did in this psalm.
My Steps of
Faith for Today:
1.
Praise the Lord for answers to my prayers.
2.
Continue to seek to learn contentment.
1/10/2012
10:45:45 AM
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