SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
2/13/2012 10:36:11 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
God’s
Word penetrating the heart
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm
42:6-43:5
Message
of the verses: In yesterday’s SD we began to look at Psalm
42 and because Dr. Wiersbe believes that Psalms 42-43 were once one psalm he has
put them together in his commentary so that is the way we will look at
them. At the end of his introduction to
these two psalms he writes “We see him” (the author of these two psalms)
“passing through three stages before he comes to victory and peace.” We looked at the first stage yesterday and
will begin with the second stage this morning.
Remembering
God (42:6-11): “6 O my God, my soul
is in despair within me; Therefore I remember You from the land of the Jordan
And the peaks of Hermon, from Mount Mizar. 7 Deep calls to deep at the sound of
Your waterfalls; All Your breakers and Your waves have rolled over me. 8 The
LORD will command His lovingkindness in the daytime; And His song will be with me in the
night, A prayer to the God of my life. 9 I will say to God my rock,
"Why have You forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression
of the enemy?" 10 As a shattering of my bones, my adversaries revile me,
While they say to me all day long, "Where is your God?" 11 Why are
you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in
God, for I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.”
In yesterday’s SD I stated that
different commentators that I had read had a difference of opinion of who wrote
Psalm 42 and at that time I did not have an opinion of my own, but after
reading this portion of the psalm a number of times I find it hard to believe
that David wrote this psalm because I cannot remember any time in the life of
David that he was captured like it seems the author as it seems that he was in
this portion of the psalm.
In this section we see the psalmist
remembering God unlike in the earlier portion of the psalm when he was
remembering the “good old days.” The
scene has changed from a drought to a storm which pictures the despair that he
is going through at this time. The
Jordan River begins in the mountains of Hermon and in the spring there would be
waterfalls coming from the melting snow which would make the psalmist seem
small and that is the meaning of the word “Mizar.” Because the psalmist was now trusting in the
Lord the waves and waterfalls were not something that he would fear, which is
unlike the disciples who were in the boat with Jesus when He went to sleep. The psalmist realized that God was in
control, something that I also have to realize when troubles come into my
life.
When trouble comes God will give us
songs in the night, and that is what the psalmist is saying in verse
eight. There is a program that
originated from Moody Church in Chicago that is called “Songs in the Night,”
and is aired on the Moody radio stations.
I believe that this program began when Warren Wiersbe was the Pastor at
Moody Church and if my memory is correct that is where he got his material for
his book “The Bumps are what we Climb on,” which is one of my favorite books
for it was in the last chapter of that book that I began to learn about
learning to be content.
We see the name of God used in verse
eight as Jehovah while all of the other mentions of God in these two psalms
were Elohim, and this was the turning point in the psalmist difficult
experience. Dr. Wiersbe writes “Jehovah
is the God of the covenant, the faithful God who cares for His people. He is the God who showers His people with
lovingkindness, gives them promises they can claim when they pray, and hears
them when they praise and worship. The
writer didn’t have to go to Jerusalem to worship; he could worship God right
where he was! The hand of God was with
him in the day time and the song of the Lord in the long hours of the
night. Everything might be changing, but
the Lord was still his Rock—stable, strong, and unchanging. (See 18:2, 31, 46; Ex. 33:22; Deut. 32:4;
1Samuel 2:2).”
Trusting
God (Psalm 43:1-5): “1 Vindicate me, O God, and plead my case against
an ungodly nation; O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man! 2 For You
are the God of my strength; why have You rejected me? Why do I go mourning
because of the oppression of the enemy? 3 O send out Your light and Your truth,
let them lead me; Let them bring me to Your holy hill And to Your dwelling
places. 4 Then I will go to the altar of God, To God my exceeding joy; And upon
the lyre I shall praise You, O God, my God. 5 Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why are you disturbed
within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, The help of my countenance
and my God.”
Again we see the landscape change
again from the desert to the storm and now to the dawn and the dawn announce
the morning and reminds the psalmist of God’s light and truth as seen in verse
three. The psalmist must have been
remembering when the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt and in the day He
provided a pillar of cloud to protect them from the heat and at night a pillar
of fire to keep them warm and so this light or faithfulness would bring the
psalmist back to Jerusalem. The holy
hill that the psalmist refers to in verse three is Mt. Zion where God’s
sanctuary was located, the dwelling place of God. This is the hill where Abraham was willing to
offer Isaac up as a burnt offering and was the hill where David offered burnt
offerings in order to stop the plague that was caused by his sin of numbering
the people, and was the same hill where David’s son Solomon would construct the
temple of God.
The psalmist praise was not just
because of God delivering him from his enemies, but also for the privilege of
coming to God at His sanctuary and also to offer sacrifices to the Lord
there. The psalmist began as Dr. Wiersbe
writes, “He had made great progress since he watched the hind seeking for
water. The ‘living God’ (42:2) became
‘the God of my life’ (42:8), and now He is ‘God my exceeding joy…God, my God
(43:8). His focus is no longer on
himself, his disappointments, or his circumstances, but on the Lord his God,
and that makes all the difference.” Dr
Wiersbe goes now talking about the word ‘help’ found in verse five, which is
the refrain of these two psalms, “The word ‘help’ can be translated
‘health.’ When by faith we see the face
of God smiling upon us (Nu. 6:22-27), our own countenance brightens up and
becomes spiritually healthy. We know God
is for us, that God will set us free and guide us to His holy city, where we
shall worship Him and sing His praises.
Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning’ (30: NKJV).”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I see in
these two psalms the psalmist taking the Word of God from his mind to his heart
where it will do the work that God desires it to do. The Word of God is so important to us as we
seek to walk with the Lord and to grow in His grace. Colossians 2:6 states, “Therefore as you have
received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,” and verse seven states “having
been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith,
just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.” We receive the Lord Jesus Christ by grace
through faith (Eph. 2:8-9) and if we walk in Him that way we will be as Col.
2:7 explains, and it is then that we will be able to have the Word of God go
from our head to our heart.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1. Follow the path that the psalmist
took in psalms 42-43.
2. May the Word of God penetrate my
heart so that my walk with Him will be how it should be.
3. Continue to learn contentment.
2/13/2012
11:54:15 AM
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