SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/29/2012 7:52:55 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Remembering the works of the Lord.
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference:
Psalm 66:1-7
Message of the verses: In today’s SD we will begin to look at Psalm
66, the first thing will be to look at several introductions.
“This joyful
psalm begins with group praise and then focuses on the individual worship. The psalmist rehearses some of the major
miracles in Israel’s history and testifies that God has always been faithful in
the midst of serious troubles.” (The
John MacArthur Study Bible)
“At the close of the previous psalm,
you hear nature praising the Lord, and the psalm exhorts all mankind to join
creation in celebrating God’s greatness.
It appears that Israel had gone through severe trials (vv. 8-12) and yet
won a great victory with the Lord’s help. Some students believe this even it
was the Lord’s miraculous defeat of Assyria (Isa. 36-37) and that the
individual speaking in verses 13-20 was King Hezekiah, whose prayer the Lord
answered (37:14-20). The exhortation to
praise the Lord begins with the Gentile nations (vv. 1-7), moves to Israel (vv.
8-12), and concludes with the individual believers (vv. 13-20).” (Warren Wiersbe)
A Global Invitation: “All
Nations, Praise the Lord!”: “1 For
the choir director. A Song, A Psalm: Shout joyfully to God, all the earth; 2 Sing the
glory of His name; Make His praise glorious. 3 Say to God, "How awesome are Your works!
Because of the greatness of Your power Your enemies will give feigned obedience
to You. 4 “All the earth
will worship You, And will sing praises to You; They will sing praises
to Your name." Selah. 5 Come and see the works of God, Who is awesome in
His deeds toward the sons of men. 6 He turned the sea into dry land; They
passed through the river on foot; There let us rejoice in Him! 7 He rules by His might forever;
His eyes keep watch on the
nations; Let not
the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah.”
It was in the 63rd Psalm
that David remembered what the Lord had done for him in the “night watches,”
and remembering what the Lord has done in a person’s life is a wonderful way to
worship the Lord, although we must remember that the past can aid us in that
way, but we still have to move on in life each day. We see in this section that the psalmist is
remembering the exodus of Israel from Egypt as they crossed the sea on dry land
and then came into Canaan by crossing the dried up Jordan River that the Lord
had dried up so they could cross into Canaan.
This psalm is also a missionary
psalm and the psalmist wants the Gentile nations to praise the Lord because of
what God has done for Israel. This is
not unusual for all believers praise the Lord for what the Lord Jesus Christ
did to bring about their salvation.
Jesus said to the woman at the well that “Salvation is of the Jews” and
of course He was speaking of His death, burial and resurrection. The Church has much to praise the Lord about
for what has come from the nation of Israel and we would do good to thank the
Lord for the accomplishment that He has done through Israel. Satan hates Israel and has done much to try
and destroy her, but this will never happen, for that which is going to happen
to Israel is written in the pages of Scripture and will not be changed.
Dr. Wiersbe writes the following
describing what the Exodus and Passover mean to the nation of Israel: “What the resurrection of Jesus Christ is to
believers today, the Exodus was to Israel (Eph. 1:15-23). The Jews remember the Exodus at Passover, and
the church remembers the death and resurrection of Christ at the Lord’s
Supper.” Yes God wants us to remember.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: To
remember what the Lord has done in my life is a wonderful reason to worship the
Lord. A young Christian couple, who knew
little about living the Christian life, but had a desire to learn was given a
small boy through birth who had a difficult heart problem along with a number
of other smaller problems that also needed surgery to correct. I believe that it was around May 7th
or 8th of 1981 that we entrusted our son to the Lord and the doctors
who did very major surgery on our son’s heart and heart valve. The surgery was long and the results were
mixed and may have to be repeated, but by the grace of God and the prayers of
the saints more surgery on his little heart was not necessary and today that little
son of ours has three children of his own.
Yes it is good to remember the wonderful works of the Lord and praise
and worship Him because of those wonderful works.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: Continue to trust the Lord
for the healing of my mother who is quit ill at this time. Continue to remember the works of the Lord,
especially the perfect salvation He has provided for me. Continue to learn contentment in the Lord as
I go through life’s trials and troubles.
3/29/2012 8:40:08 AM
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