SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/14/2012 9:48:53 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Return of Jesus Christ
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm 24
Message of the verses: “1 A Psalm of David: The earth is the LORD’S,
and all it contains, The world, and those who dwell in it. 2 For He has founded
it upon the seas And established it upon the rivers.
3 Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD?
And who may stand in His holy place? 4
He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul
to falsehood And has not sworn deceitfully. 5 He shall receive a blessing from
the LORD And righteousness from the God of his salvation. 6 This is the
generation of those who seek Him, Who seek Your face- even Jacob. Selah.
7 Lift up your heads, O gates, And be
lifted up, O ancient doors, That the King of glory may come in! 8 Who is the
King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, The LORD mighty in battle. 9 Lift up
your heads, O gates, And lift them up, O ancient doors, That the King of glory
may come in! 10 Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, He is the King of
glory. Selah.”
We
need to remember when we began to look at Psalm 22 that it was said that
Psalm’s 22-24 were a trilogy about the Shepherd and we saw in Psalm 22 that the
good Shepherd died for His sheep and then rose again, and then in Psalm 23 we
saw that the good Shepherd lived for His sheep to take care of them, and now in
Psalm 24 we will see that the Great Shepherd will return for His sheep: “And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you
will receive the unfading crown of glory (1Pe. 5:4).
This
psalm may have been written for when the ark of God was brought up to Jerusalem
by David as some think, but it also looks to the return of Christ in its
prophetic form. Dr. Wiersbe points out
that this is an antiphonal psalm. (a
hymn or psalm performed by two groups of singers chanting alternate sections). He also reports that the psalm was sung in
Herod’s temple each Sunday, and that some connect the psalm with our Lord’s
entrance into Jerusalem on what we call Palm Sunday. Some in the early church they would sing this
psalm forty days after Easter as that is when the Lord Jesus was to have gone
back to heaven after His passion and then He will return again as He spoke of “"But
when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He
will sit on His glorious throne (Matt. 25:31).”
Dr.
Wiersbe writes that this psalm presents a threefold privilege God has given His
people.
We Are Stewards Who Enjoy His Goodness in
Creation (vv.1-2): “The earth is the
LORD’S, and all it contains, The world, and those who dwell in it. 2 For He has
founded it upon the seas And established it upon the rivers.”
This first
statement in verse one of Psalm 24 is a statement that many people do not
believe, and yet it is true for this is the Word of God and God cannot
lie. Many people today believe that
there are certain parts of the earth that are theirs because they have paid for
it or in fact are paying for it monthly, but the truth of the matter is that
all of the universe belongs to the Lord because He created it.
God
has chosen the earth and the people whom He created on this earth to live out
the greatest drama ever imaged and that was having the second person of the
Godhead come to earth to live on His earth and to die on His earth for His
people. We know this as we have read it
in His Word, but there are times when we seem to not think about it in the way
we should think about it for this was the greatest thing that ever happened on
His earth.
As
believers we are to care for the earth and not spoil it for we are all stewards
of God for He has created us. God
created us and before that He created the world and verse two speaks of God
creating the world out of water. “For
when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the
heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water
(2Pe. 3:5).” The creation story in
Genesis tells us that this verse in 2 Peter is true, that God did use water to
create the earth: “1 In the beginning
God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was formless and void, and
darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving
over the surface of the waters.” The word
used for “moving” is interesting in that it can mean shaking. John MacArthur speaks of this event by saying
that when the Holy Spirit was moving over the waters He was kind of like
incubating the earth. When a mother
chicken lays and egg and sits on it to keep it warm in order to have the little
chicken form inside the egg and this is kind of like what happened to the
earth, the Holy Spirit was incubating the earth causing it to be formed in the
way He wanted it formed. We must
remember that water was used.
We Are Worshipers Who Experience His Grace
in Redemption (vv. 3-6): “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.
Interlude”
“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.
Interlude” (NLT)
The
verses here and also in Psalm 15 are parallel and they emphasize that when we
worship the Lord we have to move up higher for Psalm 2:6 says, “"But as
for Me, I have installed My King Upon Zion, My holy mountain.’”
Verse
four speaks of those who can worship the Lord and they must have hands and
hearts that are pure. The Levites who
carried the Ark of God had to be ceremonially clean and believers today must
have their hearts right before the Lord, making sure that they have taken
inventory of themselves to find out that they do not have any sins in their
hearts that have not been confessed.
Paul writes to the Corinthian believers in chapter 11 about having their
hearts right before the Lord before taking communion and speaks of some who did
not follow this process: “27 Therefore
whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner,
shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. 28 But a man must examine himself,
and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For he who eats and drinks, eats
and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. 30
For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. 31 But if
we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged.”
In
the rest of verse four there is a warning that believers must not worship idols
and are not to lie. We mentioned before
that an idol is anything that can come between you and God and it doesn’t have
to mean a gold or silver statue.
The
reward of doing these things in verse four is salvation, yet we know that there
is no one who can do this on their own and so it had to be done for us in order
to receive the gift of salvation.
Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness as
Genesis 15:6 tell us and believing in what Christ has done for us is part of
the process of salvation along with admitting to God that we are sinners in
need of His precious gift of salvation. In
the statements above referring to 1Cor. 11 I was applying the first part of
verse four to those who already are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Worshiping
the Lord in the way we should worship Him is seen in verse six and this happens
after a person has put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior and
Lord. However as we have seen believers
must keep themselves clean in order to have this kind of fellowship and worship
of the Lord.
We are Victors Who Celebrate His Glory in
conquest (vv. 7-10): “7 Open up, ancient gates! Open up, ancient doors, and let the King of
glory enter. 8 Who is the King of glory?
The LORD, strong and mighty; the LORD, invincible in battle. 9 Open up,
ancient gates! Open up, ancient doors,
and let the King of glory enter. 10 Who is the King of glory? The LORD of Heaven’s Armies- he is the King of glory. Interlude”
(NLT)
“7 Lift up your
heads, O gates, And be lifted up, O ancient doors, That the King of glory may
come in! 8 Who is the King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, The LORD
mighty in battle. 9 Lift up your heads, O gates, And lift them up, O ancient
doors, That the King of glory may come in! 10 Who is this King of glory? The
LORD of hosts, He is the King of glory. Selah.”
(NASB)
This may have been
what David was thinking about when the Ark of God was brought up to Jerusalem
in the day he had it brought into the city of Jerusalem through its gates. We can also think about the time when the
Lord Jesus Christ came into the city of Jerusalem on what is called Palm Sunday
and some of the people were celebrating His arrival, and some were planning to
have him killed. This can also picture
when the Lord Jesus Christ comes back as described in Revelations 19 and will
begin to fight a battle with those who are trying to destroy Jerusalem and He
will destroy them. 11 And I saw heaven opened; and behold, a white horse, and He who sat
upon it is called Faithful and True; and in righteousness He judges and wages
war. 12 And His eyes are a flame of fire, and upon His head are many diadems;
and He has a name written upon Him which no one knows except Himself. 13 And He
is clothed with a robe dipped in blood; and His name is called The Word of God.
14 And the armies which are in heaven,
clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. 15 And
from His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may smite the nations;
and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the
fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. 16 And on His robe and on His thigh He has a
name written, "KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS." 17 And I saw an
angel standing in the sun; and he cried out with a loud voice, saying to all
the birds which fly in midheaven, "Come, assemble for the great supper of
God; 18 in order that you may eat the flesh
of kings and the flesh of commanders and the flesh of mighty men and the flesh
of horses and of those who sit on them and the flesh of all men, both free men
and slaves, and small and great." 19
And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies,
assembled to make war against Him who sat upon the horse, and against His army.
20 And the beast was seized, and with
him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence, by which he
deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped
his image; these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with
brimstone. 21 And the rest were killed with the sword which came from the mouth
of Him who sat upon the horse, and all the birds were filled with their flesh.
(Rev. 19:11-21)
I
believe that those who come with the Lord Jesus Christ are those who have been
taken in the rapture before the tribulation period began, the entire Church,
His bride will return with Him and help to rule during the 1000 years that the
Lord Jesus Christ will rule from Jerusalem.
Dr.
Wiersbe ends his commentary of this psalm with these words, “As children of
God, we belong to three worlds: the
world of creation around us, the world of the new creation within us (2Cor.
5:17), and the ‘world to come’ of the wonderful final creation that will be our
home for eternity (Rev. 21-22).”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I want to quote from the last chapter of
2Peter for this portion of my SD today:
“the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will
pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and
the earth and its works will be burned up.11 Since all these things are to be
destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and
godliness.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today:
1. I
want to be a person that is ready to tell others about the saving grace of the
Lord and live a life that is pleasing to the Lord each day.
2. Continue
to learn contentment as I serve the Lord and trust Him to rule in my life.
1/14/2012 11:38:51 AM
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