SPIRITUAL
DIARY FOR 2/11/2012 9:37:05 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2
Ps. 41
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm
41:5-13
Message
of the verses: “When we find
ourselves in difficulty, we may use this psalm to take an inventory of our
spiritual condition by asking and answering four questions.” In yesterday’s SD we looked at the first
question that Dr. Wiersbe asked and today we will look at the next three
questions.
Treachery: How Do Others Treat Us (vv. 5-9)? “5 My enemies speak evil against me,
"When will he die, and his name perish?" 6 And when he comes to see
me, he speaks falsehood; His heart gathers wickedness to itself; When he goes
outside, he tells it. 7 All who hate me whisper together against me; Against me
they devise my hurt, saying, 8 “A wicked thing is poured out upon him, That
when he lies down, he will not rise up again." 9 Even my close friend in whom I trusted, Who ate my
bread, Has lifted up his heel against me.”
It is the belief of Dr. Wiersbe
that this Psalm was written around the time when Absalom was plotting against
David and was trying to take over the kingdom.
The history of this goes back to David’s sin with Bathsheba and the
discipline from the Lord that followed.
There were many sins involved in David’s adultery with Bathsheba
including the murder of her husband who as one of David’s mighty men and loyal
to David. Bathsheba’s grandfather was a
counselor of David and he sided with Absalom during his uprising and because of
what David did to Bathsheba and her husband Ahithophel hated David. Now the Lord had promised to David that there
would always be one of his descendants who would sit on the throne of Judah and
Absalom did not have any children and so if Absalom was successful then the
plans for David would stop, but God was not going to allow this to happen.
David was sick during this time,
probably sick over what was happening and his friends and family may have
wished him well, but David knew better for even this close friend who he
trusted and ate with David turned against him.
Verse nine is the verse that is quoted for what Judas did to the Lord
Jesus Christ.
I want to go back to the story of
David and Bathsheba and talk about the great love that the Lord had for their
son Solomon. God has a special love for
Solomon as seen in 2Samuel 12:24-25 “Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba,
and went in to her and lay with her; and she gave birth to a son, and he named
him Solomon. Now the LORD loved him and sent word through Nathan the prophet,
and he named him Jedidiah for the LORD’S sake.”
As I looked back at my SD on September 25, 2010 I had some trouble
understanding this special love that God had for Solomon. John Gill helps to explain this name
Jedidiah, “and he called
his name Jedidiah, because of the Lord: that is, David also called him
by this name, because of
the love of the Lord unto him; for Jedidiah signifies "the beloved of the Lord";
a name and character which well agrees with the Messiah, Solomon’s antitype,
#Mt 3:17 17:5.” Matthew 3:17 says, “and
behold, a voice out of the heavens said, "This is My beloved Son, in whom
I am well-pleased.’”
I don’t want to get too far off the
track here but God’s special love for Solomon was kind of hard for me to
understand for a long time and yet it all has to do with the grace of God. When you think of the background of how
Solomon came into the world one could think that there could be a problem here,
but God’s love reaches to places where we would never think it could reach and
it is all because the grace of God.
God’s grace is truly an amazing grace.
One more thing about verse nine and
that is that when we look at this verse and how it is repeated in John 13:18 "I do not speak of all of you. I know the
ones I have chosen; but it is that the Scripture may be fulfilled, ’HE WHO EATS
MY BREAD HAS LIFTED UP HIS HEEL AGAINST ME.’”
The words “in whom I trusted” is not seen in the verse from John 13:18,
and Dr. Wiersbe explains this: “Note
that our Lord didn’t quote the phrase “whom I trusted” from verse 9, for He
knew that Judas had no saving faith (John 6:70-71). This psalm opens with a statement about the
poor, and Judas tried to identify himself with the poor (John 12:4-6; 13:26-30). David’s enemies wanted the king’s name to
perish, but it was Judas who destroyed a good name—‘Judah’ which means
‘praise.’ We call our sons David but we
would never call a son Judas (See 2 Samuel 16:15-17; 23 for Ahitophel’s part in
the rebellion.) The phrase ‘lifted up
his heel’ pictures a deceptive and underhanded attack, but see Joshua 10:4 and
Romans 16:20.”
Mercy:
How Does God Treat Us (vv. 10-12)? “10
But You, O LORD, be gracious to me and raise me up, That I may repay them. 11
By this I know that You are pleased with me, Because my enemy does not shout in
triumph over me. 12 As for me, You uphold me in my integrity, And You set me in
Your presence forever.”
The answer to this question for a
believer is that God in His mercy doesn’t give us what we do deserve, and God
in His grace gives us what we do not deserve, and the reason that God can do
this is because of the death of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ who paid the
penalty for sin for all those who believe in Him.
We see in this section the words
“That I may repay them,” and perhaps we wonder about that statement, thinking
that David is vindictive. David was the
anointed king of Israel, anointed of the Lord and was given the promise of
having his descendants following him in reigning over that nation with the Lord
Jesus Christ, the greater son of David coming to reign over all the earth and
David did not want to see his enemies destroy this promise from God as stated
earlier.
David wielded the sword of justice
in Israel at that time and we can see this same principle in Romans 12:1-4, “1Every
person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no
authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. 2
Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they
who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. 3 For rulers are
not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no
fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; 4
for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be
afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of
God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.”
The thing that drove David was his
desire to please the Lord and once again we can go back to the passage that
tells us that David was a man after God’s own heart.
Glory: How Do We Treat God (v.13)? “13 Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel,
From everlasting to everlasting. Amen and Amen.”
In order to understand what this
verse teaches I think it necessary to quote from Dr. Wiersbe’s commentary: “This verse was probably added later by an
editor to mark the end of book one of the Psalms. Each of the first four books ends with a
similar doxology (72:18-20; 89:52; 106:48), and Book Five ends with a praise
psalm (150). But the verse reminds us
that the main thing in our lives must be the eternal praise and glory of the
Lord. ‘Hallowed be thy name’ is the
first request in the Disciple’s Prayer (Matt.6:9), and it governs all the other
requests. God answers prayer, not to make His people more
comfortable, but to bring glory to His name. The Lord still had more work for David to do,
particularly the preparation for the building of the temple, and His glory
would one day move into that holy sanctuary (1Kings 8:1-11).
“Can we honestly say ‘Amen and
amen!’ to the prayer in verse 13?”
I wish to make a short comment on
the highlighted section from Dr. Wiersbe’s commentary and it has to do with how
we end most of our prayers “in Jesus’ name Amen.” In John 15 we read "If you abide in Me,
and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” This is where we get the ending of most of
our prayers, and saying in Jesus name is not going to necessarily get be the
results that is seen in the verse seven from John 15. Dr. Wiersbe has the right thing to say about
God answering prayer, and asking in Jesus’ name means that our prayers will
bring glory to the Lord and would be the thing that He wants accomplished. John MacArthur write the following statement
as he comments on John 15:7-10, “True believers obey the Lord’s commands,
submitting to His Word (14:21, 23).
Because of their commitment to God’s Word, they are devoted to His will,
thus their prayers are fruitful (14:13, 14), which puts God’s glory on display
as He answers.”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: Whenever
I sin it is hard for me to get my arms wrapped around the fact that God still
loves me. God’s love does not change for
me when I sin, but He does want me to agree with Him that what I have done is
sin, just like David has done in these last two psalms that we have looked
at. Understanding the love of God is a
difficult thing to do, yet I know that God’s love for me is truly awesome.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1. Trust in the love of God.
2. Continue to trust the Lord to
teach me contentment.
3. Pray those prayers that will
bring glory to the Lord and would be what Jesus Christ wants for me in my life.
2/11/2012
11:57:57 AM
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