SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
2/1/2012 9:01:15 AM
My Worship Time Focus: God’s
Character
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm
36
Message
of the verses: In yesterday’s SD we
looked at the introduction and first main point of Psalm 36. That first main point spoke of the corruption
of the human heart and now David moves on to write about the character of God
and then will write about the confidence of the believer’s heart.
Adoration: The Character of God’s Heart (vv. 5-9): “5 Your lovingkindness, O LORD, extends to
the heavens, Your faithfulness reaches to the skies. 6 Your righteousness is
like the mountains of God; Your judgments are like a great deep. O LORD, You
preserve man and beast. 7 How
precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! And the children of men take
refuge in the shadow of Your wings. 8 They drink their fill of the abundance of
Your house; And You give them to drink of the river of Your delights. 9 For
with You is the fountain of life; In Your light we see light.”
David takes a dramatic turn in
this psalm from where he began the psalm, for now David praises the Lord for
His lovingkindness (mercy KJV) in these verses.
We know that mercy can be described as God not giving us what we do
deserve and of course grace is God giving us what we do not deserve. Both of these are part of God’s character and
stem from His love which is one of the attributes of God. “1Jo 4:16 We have come to know and have
believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides
in God, and God abides in him.”
We also see as part of the character
of God faithfulness and David writes that it reaches to the skies. Next he speaks of the righteousness of God
and describes it to be like a mountain, the mountains of God. He then writes about the judgments of God,
for judgment has to be a part of the character of God otherwise there would not
be a punishment for sin.
In verse seven we see the phrase
“men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings,” and this could be talking about
the Holy of Holies and then the God’s wings could be referring to the cherubim
on the mercy seat which is in the Holy of Holies.
In verse eight if we continue the
thought that David is speaking of the Holy of Holies and of the tabernacle we
know that some of the offerings and sacrifices that were offered that a portion
of them were given to the priest, but David speaks of a time when all of God’s
children will receive from the Lord and not just the priests, although
Revelations speaks of God’s children as kings and priests along with Peter
speaking about the priesthood of the believer in 1Peter.
David then writes about a river in
verse 8 “They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and
thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures (KJV).” Dr. Wiersbe points out that the word that is
translated “pleasures” comes from the same root as “Eden” in Genesis 2-3. The word means delight and that is how it is
translated in the NASB. When we think of
Eden we remember the rivers that flowed through Eden and David writes about a
river in verse eight. We can also see a
river in Revelations 22:1. I believe
that this speaks of the abundance of God because the river provides water which
is needed to produce food.
Dr. Wiersbe writes the
following: Life and light go together
(v. 9; 49:19, 56:13; John 1:4; 8:12), and the Lord is the source of both. The wicked feed on flattery (v.2), but the
righteous feed on the Lord’s rich blessings.”
We have seen some of the
characteristics of God in this section and when we look at the salvation that
God offers we see that these characteristics are essential in salvation. Many people forget that not only love, mercy,
grace, and faith are a part of salvation but justice is also a part of
salvation and it was God’s justice that everyone deserves, but for those who
have accepted Christ as their Savior and Lord it was God’s wrath taken out on
Jesus Christ on the cross that produced God’s justice, for we see a word in
several places in the NT that means the satisfaction of an angry God and that
word is propitiation. This word was used
in heathen practices of satisfying and angry god and it is a good word to see
that God was satisfied with the death of His Son for the payment of sin.
Expectation: The Confidence of the Believer’s Heart (vv.
10-12): “10 O continue thy
lovingkindness unto them that know thee; and thy righteousness to the upright
in heart. 11 Let not the foot of pride come against me, and let not the hand of
the wicked remove me. 12 There are the workers of iniquity fallen: they are
cast down, and shall not be able to rise.”
Dr. Wiersbe begins his commentary
on this section by writing “What a privilege it is to be God’s children! We are resting safely under His wings,
feasting joyfully at His table, drinking abundantly from His river, and walking
confidently in His light! In response to
these blessings David prayed that the Lord would continue His blessings on His
people (v. 10) and one day judge the wicked (vv. 11-12). God will continue to
bless us if we love Him, get to know Him better, and walk in obedience to His
will.”
We see in verse 11 that David did
not want to become over confident and he asked that the foot of pride not come
against him, and also the hand of the wicked (his enemies) remove him and he is
probably speaking about removing him from his land.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: One of
the things that I seen in this psalm is a cycle that at times I go
through. The things that Dr. Wiersbe
wrote about how we are to walk with the Lord were wonderful to read and I truly
want to follow them, and sometimes when I am following them pride will come in
and say “you are pretty good in following the Lord,” and then I will fall and
have to get up and start over again.
Satan will temp us to do something wrong and then accuse us of doing
it. I am grateful to the Scottish Pastor
that Dr. Wiersbe has quoted in his books that said “The successful Christian
life is a series of new beginnings.”
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1. I am thankful that I live by
grace and not by Law.
2. I am thankful for the great
salvation that God has provided for me through Jesus Christ.
3. I want to continue to seek to
learn contentment.
2/1/2012
10:05:08 AM
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