SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/14/2012 8:38:43 AM
My Worship Time Focus: God’s Justice
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm 58:1-5
Message of the verses: Today we begin looking at Psalm 58 and I will
first of all look at several introductions and decide which of them I will use
on this Spiritual Diary.
“As
a lament against tyranny, the first half of the psalm rehearses a series of
charges against wicked leaders and judges; and the second half is an
imprecatory prayer that they be obliterated.
In the end, the psalmist is certain that God will act with ultimate
justice.” (The John MacArthur Study
Bible)
“During
David’s exile years, Saul led the nation down a path of political and spiritual
ruin as he disobeyed God’s law and opposed God’s anointed king. Saul was surrounded by a group of fawning
flatterers who fed his ego and catered to his foolish whims (1Sam. 22:6ff), and
he put into places of authority people who used their offices for personal gain
and not for the national good. They
wanted to get as much as they could before the kingdom collapsed. David himself had been treated illegally, and
it’s likely that many of his men lost all they had because they followed
David. (1Sam.22:1-2). This psalm was probably written late in
David’s exile, or very early in his reign in Hebron, and may have grown out of
his pondering the mess he had inherited from his father-in-law. (See Psalm 82 for a parallel psalm by
Asaph.) The prophets often preached
against the lawlessness of the leaders in Israel (Isa. 1:23-28; 5:22-25;
10:1-4; Amos 5:7-13; Mic. 3:1-4, 9-12; 7:1-6).
Certainly nations, corporations, and even churches today need to take
this kind of leadership crisis seriously.
This is an imprecatory psalm (see Psalm 6).” (Warren Wiersbe)
“Accusation—Lawlessness Practiced” (vv. 1-5):
“1.TO THE CHOIRMASTER: ACCORDING TO DO NOT DESTROY. A MIKTAM OF DAVID:” Do
you indeed decree what is right, you gods?
Do you judge the children of man uprightly? 2 No, in your hearts you
devise wrongs; your hands deal out violence on earth. 3 The wicked are
estranged from the womb; they go astray from birth, speaking lies. 4 They have
venom like the venom of a serpent, like the deaf adder that stops its ear, 5 so
that it does not hear the voice of charmers or of the cunning enchanter.” (ESV)
As I look at this
psalm and then look around me today I can see similar things and the need for
similar actions that David prayed for.
There is indeed lawlessness practiced in our nation today and many other
nations around the world especially pertaining to how people now view the
Gospel. I am reading the autobiography
of Billy Graham, a book that is very long in length and starts at the birth of
Billy Graham and continues through his celebrated life of preaching the Gospel
to more people than any other person in the history of mankind. It was early in his preaching that he spent time
in Europe speaking to millions of souls who were ripe to hear the gospel. People around the world were ripe to hear the
good news of Jesus Christ, but it seems today that people do not want to hear
the good news of Jesus Christ in the same way that they did when Billy Graham
began his preaching. There has been a
turn in the lives of the people around the world. Many people today are being killed for their
faith as I read on “The Voice of the Martyrs” that as many as 1000 people
everyday around the world will die for their faith. I am not a date setter as far as when I
believe the Lord Jesus Christ will return for His Church, but it seems to me
that the times are being made ready for His return. It was my fear of the end of the world that
the Lord used to call me to Himself and since 1974 I have studied eschatology
(study of the end times) with great interest as many others have and it seems
to me from what I have learned that many believe the time is near for the
return of Jesus Christ.
It
is the lawless leaders that these verses from Psalm 58:1-5 that David is
addressing and he asks if their words were just, if their decisions were legal,
and also if their sentences were fair and honest. Were these leaders upholding the law or
making up their own laws to their benefit and the benefit of the wicked. David knew the answer and it was that these
men were evil and going against the things that God had made clear to them to
do but didn’t do them. We know that the
Bible teaches that all are born sinful do to the fall that is spoken of in Genesis
and David has also pointed this out in Psalm 51:5 where he wrote, “Behold, I
was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.” We have already discovered that this did not
mean that there was adultery involved, but David was speaking of his sin
nature, something Paul goes into detail about in Romans 7. These men seemed to enjoy sinning and did not
look to do things according to the Law of the Lord. The very fact that men are sinners is the
reason that God established government and law, for without law society would
be in chaos. Evil comes from the heart
of man as Jesus spoke of when the Pharisees were trying to impose their
tradition on Him to ceremonially wash before eating, which was their man made
rule.
Dr
Wiersbe writes about these unjust judges when he calls them liars, “Their words
were like venom that poisoned society instead of like medicine that brought
health. David compared them to snakes in
verses 4-5 and lions in verse six, both of which are images of the Devil (Gen.
3; 2Cor. 11:3; 1Peter 5:8). Like the
cobra, they obeyed the charmer only when they got something out of it, but they
had a mind of their own. Snakes have not
visible ears or internal eardrums, but they do have small bones in the head
that conduct sound vibrations. The cobra
responds more to the movements of the charmer than to the tune he plays.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: As I look at Psalm 58, and part of this psalm
is an imprecatory psalm, which many people have trouble with, I see the justice
of God being spoken of. Many people
today only want to see God’s love and God is love, but God is also just, and
David knew a lot about the justice of God along with the mercy and grace of
God, so David was getting the whole picture of God.
I
look around the country that I live in and the country that I love and see many
unjust things happening that I desire to have the Lord do something about. I believe the verse that says vengeance is
mine saith the Lord, and I believe that all of the wrongs that are done to
believers today will be dealt with, but like others, I sometimes want it to
happen right away, but as I continue to learn contentment I believe that it
will happen when the Lord wants it to happen, and that will be the perfect time
for it to happen.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I
want to be steadfast like I learned yesterday, and I want to continue to learn
contentment. I want to trust the Lord to
lead my life as Proverbs 3:5-6 speaks of.
I need the spiritual armor on as Eph. 6:10-18 speaks of. I give myself to the Lord for worship and
service as Romans 12:1-2 talk about.
3/14/2012 10:04:27 AM
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