PT-1 "Restore Us!" from Psalm 80

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR4/30/2012 9:41:04 AM

My Worship Time                                                                            Focus:   “Restore Us!”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                           Reference:  Psalm 80:1-3

            Message of the verses:  We will begin to look at Psalm 80 in today’s SD by looking at several introductions to the psalm by different Bible Commentators.

            “DIVISION:  The Psalm divides itself naturally at the refrain which occurs three times: "Turn us again, O God," etc.  #Ps 80:1-3 is an opening address to the Lord God of Israel; from #Ps 80:4-7 is a lamentation over the national woe, and from #Ps 80:8-19 the same complaint is repeated, the nation being represented in a beautiful allegory as a vine.  It is a mournful Psalm, and its lilies are lilies of the valley.”  (Charles H. Spurgeon)

“This is Asaph’s prayer to God on behalf of the Northern Kingdom (‘Israel, Samaria’) after it was taken captive by Assyria in 722-21 B. C. while ‘Joseph’ can refer to the whole nation (77:15; 8-:4-5), the mention in verse 2 of Ephraim and Manasseh (Joseph’s sons) and Benjamin (Joseph’s brother) suggests that the Northern Kingdom is meant.  These are the children and grandchildren of Rachel, Jacob’s favorite wife.  Samaria, the capital of the Northern Kingdom, was located in Ephraim.  The temple was still standing in Jerusalem (v. 1), and the fall of Samaria should have been a warning to Judah not to disobey the Lord.  That Asaph would pray for Samaria and ask God for restoration and reunion for the whole nation indicates that some of the old rivalries were ending and that some of the people of Judah were concerned over ‘the ruin of Joseph’ (Amos 6:6).  It’s unfortunate that it sometimes takes dissension, division, and destruction to bring brothers closer together.  Joseph and his brothers are a case in point.  The refrain ‘Restore us’ (vv. 3, 7, 19) marks out the three requests Asaph made to the Lord for both kingdoms.”  (Warren Wiersbe)

“Save Your Flock” (vv. 1-3):  “1 For the choir director; set to El Shoshannim; Eduth. A Psalm of Asaph: Oh, give ear, Shepherd of Israel, You who lead Joseph like a flock; You who are enthroned above the cherubim, shine forth! 2 Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh, stir up Your power And come to save us! 3 O God, restore us And cause Your face to shine upon us, and we will be saved.”

Asaph begins this psalm in verse one by asking God to Shepherd Israel, thus we see a very common metaphor from the Scriptures and that is that God’s children are called His flock and of course He is our Shepherd.  We see this many times in both the OT and NT, but I want to just mention one occasion from the OT that is very familiar to us all and that is Psalm 23.  This psalm begins with the very familiar words “The Lord is my Shepherd,” and the whole psalm speaks of how the Lord cares for His sheep (His children).  In John chapter ten we see the Lord Jesus speak of Himself being “The Good Shepherd” and goes on to speak of how He will die for His sheep.  In 1Peter 5 we see the terms Chief Shepherd, who is Jesus Christ, and also the shepherd, which is speaking of the pastors or the leaders of the local churches.  God is called “Shepherd of Israel” in verse one of Psalm 80.

As Dr. Wiersbe wrote in his introduction we see from verse two that Asaph is praying on behalf of the Northern Kingdom of Israel asking the Lord to save them.  We know that the Northern Kingdom was made up of ten tribes who split off from the whole nation of Israel after Solomon died, and although from a human point of view this seemed wrong, or at least not good, we read that it was the plan of God for this to be done.  We read this in 2Kings.

Just a note here:  My computer is not working right.  I had this devotion done and somehow a portion of it got deleted.  This was very upsetting to me, but I know who is in charge of all things, but I also know that the enemy of all of us does not want me to do these SD’s each day and could be the one who causes these kinds of problems. 

I want to write about the refrain that is seen in three different verses in Psalm 80 beginning in verse three, and that refrain is “restore us.”  Asaph is asking the Lord to restore the children of Israel to their God is how I see this verse and that reminds me of revival.  I think that there are some people in the Church today who do not understand what revival is all about.  We have to have something given to us and then not take advantage of it in order for us to get it back.  Asaph is saying restore us and that means to me to get something that perhaps we have lost.  I am in no way saying that a true born again believer in Jesus Christ can lose his or her salvation, but they can grow cold in their walk with the Lord and loose fellowship with Him   They can give up on praying, going to church, reading and studying their Bibles and spending time with fellow believers to mention a few things, but not lose their salvation.  Dr. Wiersbe quotes and old Scottish Pastor in many of his commentaries who said “The secret to the Christian life is a series of new beginnings.”  I love the meaning of this statement, and it has meant a lot to me in hearing them and thinking about them because even though I am a born again believer in Jesus Christ I fall into sin on occasions and just as Jesus washed the feet of His disciples telling them that walking around in the world will cause one’s feet to get dirty, so when we walk around in the world we sin and are in need of getting clean.  1John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  Psalm 139:23-24 says “23 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: 24 And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”  These verses teach us the need for “a series of new beginnings.” 

How does revival begin?  I have heard that major revivals began with one person praying for a revival, and then others joining him and then the flames of revivals start to burn and as the song says “It only takes a spark to get a fire going,” so revival begins and spreads and eventually God’s children are seeking the Lord in ways they had not done for a while, and they are going out and telling others about the saving power of Jesus Christ and out of the revival of God’s children comes new people being born again.  It seems to me that Asaph is asking God to revive the children of Israel.

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I desire the Lord to restore me and begin a revival in my heart and pray that it will spread all around the world.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  God begin a revival in my heart and fill me with Yourself so that I will desire the things that You desire.  4/30/2012 11:52:37 AM

Looking at Some of God's Attributes from Ps. 79:5-13

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/29/2012 6:16:32 AM

My Worship Time                                          Focus:  Seeing some of God’s Attributes

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Psalm 79:5-13

            Message of the verses:  We will continue to look at Psalm 79 in today’s SD.  Warren Wiersbe writes the following near the end of his introductory commentary:  “We see Asaph playing four different roles as he contemplates the defeat of Judah by the Babylonians.”  We looked at the first role in the last SD.

            The Sufferer:  Feeling God’s Anger (vv. 5-8):  “5 How long, O LORD? Will You be angry forever? Will Your jealousy burn like fire?  6 Pour out Your wrath upon the nations which do not know You, And upon the kingdoms which do not call upon Your name. 7 For they have devoured Jacob And laid waste his habitation. 8 Do not remember the iniquities of our forefathers against us; Let Your compassion come quickly to meet us, For we are brought very low.”

            In verse five we see two questions from Asaph which he asks of God.  How long will you be angry is the first question, but we really don’t get an answer from God at this time in the Psalm, but we know from Jeremiah 25:11 that God had promised to bring the children of Israel back into their land.  Next we see that Asaph wants to know about the jealousy of God.  Dr. Wiersbe points out that “God is not jealous of anyone or anything, for He is wholly self-sufficient and needs nothing, but His is jealous over His land and His people.  He is jealous for His name, His land , and the His inheritance (Zech. 1:14). 

            Asaph wants the Lord to take care of the nations that have attacked Israel, because they don’t know the Lord and have destroyed Jerusalem and the temple.  Then Asaph asks the Lord not to remember the sins of his forefathers against Israel and asks for compassion.  Asaph knew that the punishment that the Lord had given to Israel was just, for God is a just God, but because of the sins of the forefathers the wrath of God had built up and because of God’s holiness, He had to move on them.  Let us look at Genesis 15:16 “"Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.’”  In this passage God is speaking to Abraham, telling him that in four hundred years his offspring will return to the Promised Land and conquer it then because the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.  The way that I look at this passage is that I picture a bottle in heaven that God’s puts His wrath into and when it is full He has to act.  I don’t just see this happening to those nations who existed in the OT, but to nations in today’s world, and when that bottle is full God will act for He is not only just and loving but holy.  Dr. Wiersbe writes “We are guilty before God for only our own sins (Deu. 24:16; Jer. 31:29-30; Ezek. 18), but we may suffer because of the sins of our ancestors (Ex. 20:5; 34:7; 2Kings 17:7ff; 23:26-27; 24:3-4; Lam 5:7; Dan. 9:4-14).”

            The Intercessor:  Pleading for God’s Help (vv. 9-11):  “9 Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your name; And deliver us and forgive our sins for Your name’s sake. 10 Why should the nations say, "Where is their God?" Let there be known among the nations in our sight, Vengeance for the blood of Your servants which has been shed. 11 Let the groaning of the prisoner come before You; According to the greatness of Your power preserve those who are doomed to die.”

            We see that Asaph was concerned about the glory of God and His name, and this shows that he was not selfish, just trying to look out for himself, but cared about God’s glory and His reputation too.  Moses interceded with God on behalf of the children of Israel in like matter when he pleaded with God to forgive them of their sins that they had committed in the wilderness.  In ancient times we saw that each nation had their own god and when they defeated another nation they would taunt them about how weak their god was and how strong their own gods were.  Asaph knew that there was only one God and all the rest of the gods were idols.  This is what Moses had said to God that the nations would say of the children of Israel that there God was not strong enough to bring them into the land He promised them.

            Asaph wanted vengeance for the blood that the Babylonians had shed, for blood was precious to the Jews for they saw the blood of the animals shed in order to have their sins covered and now they were seeing the blood of the Jews shed by the Babylonians and this greatly concerned and angered Asaph.  He may have though that God did not love them anymore because of the blood that was being shed.  As believers today we know that because of the blood that Jesus Christ shed for us shows that God loves us.  “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”  (Romans 5:8)

            The Worshiper:  Promising to Praise God (vv. 12-13) “12 And return to our neighbors sevenfold into their bosom The reproach with which they have reproached You, O Lord. 13 So we Your people and the sheep of Your pasture Will give thanks to You forever; To all generations we will tell of Your praise.”

            In verse 12 Asaph asks the Lord to return to those who had devastated the nation of Israel seven times, something we see in other OT passages (Lev. 26:18, 21, 24, 28; Deut. 28:7).  God had told His prophets that He was going to use the Babylonians to bring about His wrath upon Judah, but they seemed to enjoy doing this more than they should have and so a bit later God will use the Medes and the Persians to destroy them and it will take place in one day.  (See Dan. 5) 

            God wanted the children of Israel to reach out and witness to the nations around them about the greatness of their God and tell them about their God so that they too could know Him.  Israel failed to do this, but Asaph wants God to allow them to still do this and if He allows them to do this then they will praise the Lord and tell all generations about the Lord.  We do know from the OT prophets that wrote after the exile of Jews to Babylonian that some of them did speak to their captors about the Lord.  Ezra, Nehemiah, and Daniel did this.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I see in these three sections of Psalm 79 God’s justice, God’s holiness, God’s mercy, God’s love, and God keeping His promises that He had made.  These are all attributes of God and by seeing them in action I know that they are true, and I also want to worship God because of His attributes, for He is worthy of my worship.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I desire to trust the Lord and to give Him glory for the great salvation that He had provided me with.  I pray that the Lord will continue to teach me contentment.

4/29/2012 7:35:41 AM

"The Mourner: Beholding God’s Judgment" from Psalm 79:1-4

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/28/2012 10:27:16 AM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  Psalm 79 PT-1

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Psalm 79:1-4

            Message of the verses:  We begin to look at Psalm 79 in today’s SD and will first look at several introductions from different Bible commentators of which the first one will be Charles H. Spurgeon:  “Title and Subject.  A Psalm of Asaph: A Psalm of complaint such as Jeremiah might have written amid the ruins of the beloved city.  It evidently treats of times of invasion, oppression, and national overthrow.  Asaph was a patriotic poet, and was never more at home than when he rehearsed the history of his nation. Would to God that we had national poets whose song should be of the Lord.

“Division:  From #Ps 79:1-4 the complaint is poured out, from #Ps 79:5-12 prayer is presented, and, in the closing verse, praise is promised.”

“This psalm, if penned with any particular event in view, is with most probability made to refer to the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, and the woeful havoc made of the Jewish nation by the Chaldeans under Nebuchadnezzar. It is set to the same tune, as I may say, with the Lamentations of Jeremiah, and that weeping prophet borrows two verses out of it (#Ps 79:6-7) and makes use of them in his prayer, #Jer. 10:25. Some think it was penned long before by the spirit of prophecy, prepared for the use of the church in that cloudy and dark day. Others think that it was penned then by the spirit of prayer, either by a prophet named Asaph or by some other prophet for the sons of Asaph. Whatever the particular occasion was, we have here,

  “I. A representation of the very deplorable condition that the people of God were in at this time, #Ps 79:1-5.

  “II. A petition to God for succour and relief, that their enemies might be reckoned with (#Ps 79:6-7,10,12), that their sins might be pardoned (#Ps 79:8-9), and that they might be delivered, #Ps 79:11.

  “III. A plea taken from the readiness of his people to praise him, #Ps 79:13. In times of the church’s peace and prosperity this psalm may, in the singing of it, give us occasion to bless God that we are not thus trampled on and insulted. But it is especially seasonable in a day of treading down and perplexity, for the exciting of our desires towards God and the encouragement of our faith in him as the church’s patron.”

            “God gave His people victory over Egypt (77) and helped them march through the wilderness and then conquer Canaan (78).  He also gave them King David who defeated their enemies and expanded their kingdom.  But now God’s people are captive, the city and temple are ruined, and the heathen nations are triumphant.  (See also 74 for parallels: 79:1/74:3, 7; 79:2/74:19; 79:5/74:10; 79:12/74:10, 18, 22)  We see Asaph playing four different roles as he contemplates the defeat of Judah by the Babylonians.  Each division of the psalm opens with an address to Jehovah: ‘O God’ (v.1); ‘O Lord’ (v. 5); ‘O God our Savior (v.9); and ‘O Lord’ (v.12).”  (Warren Wiersbe)

            I will begin looking at this psalm using the different verses from 79 and 74 that Dr. Wiersbe has written about in his introductory commentary.

Ps. 79:1 “1 A Psalm of Asaph: O God, the nations have invaded Your inheritance; They have defiled Your holy temple; They have laid Jerusalem in ruins. /Psalm 74:3 & 7 “3 Turn Your footsteps toward the perpetual ruins; The enemy has damaged everything within the sanctuary.  7 They have burned Your sanctuary to the ground; They have defiled the dwelling place of Your name.”

Psalm 79:2 “2 They have given the dead bodies of Your servants for food to the birds of the heavens, The flesh of Your godly ones to the beasts of the earth. / Psalm 74:19 19 Do not deliver the soul of Your turtledove to the wild beast; Do not forget the life of Your afflicted forever.”

Psalm 79:5 “5 How long, O LORD? Will You be angry forever? Will Your jealousy burn like fire? /Psalm 74:10 “10 How long, O God, will the adversary revile, And the enemy spurn Your name forever?”

Psalm 79:12 “12 And return to our neighbors sevenfold into their bosom The reproach with which they have reproached You, O Lord. /Psalm 74:10 “10  How long, O God, will the adversary revile, And the enemy spurn Your name forever? Psalm 74:18 Remember this, O LORD, that the enemy has reviled, And a foolish people has spurned Your name. Psalm 74:22 Arise, O God, and plead Your own cause; Remember how the foolish man reproaches You all day long.”

 

            The Mourner:  Beholding God’s Judgment (vv. 1-4):  “1 A Psalm of Asaph.:  O God, the nations have invaded Your inheritance; They have defiled Your holy temple; They have laid Jerusalem in ruins. 2 They have given the dead bodies of Your servants for food to the birds of the heavens, The flesh of Your godly ones to the beasts of the earth. 3 They have poured out their blood like water round about Jerusalem; And there was no one to bury them. 4 We have become a reproach to our neighbors, A scoffing and derision to those around us.”

            The first thing that I want to look at here is the reproach that Israel had become to their neighbors which is seen in verse 4.  “Deuteronomy 28:37 You will become an object of horror, ridicule, and mockery among all the nations to which the LORD sends you.”  (NLT)  “You make us a reproach to our neighbors, A scoffing and a derision to those around us.” (Psalm 44:13)  You make us an object of contention to our neighbors, And our enemies laugh among themselves.”  (Psalm 80:6)  GOD, remember those Edomites, and remember the ruin of Jerusalem, That day they yelled out, "Wreck it, smash it to bits!’  (Psalm 137:7 Message)  In the 25^th chapter of the book of Ezekiel, which has 17 verses in it, the prophet gets a Word from the Lord that says He is going to destroy these nations because of how they acted when Israel was being ravished by the Babylonians.  This leads me to the second point that I want to make from this section and that is that the Land of Israel was God’s inheritance and He shared it with the children of Israel.  God made a covenant with Israel and they did not fulfill their part of the covenant and so they were invaded by the Babylonians and taken into captivity, which was part of the covenant that God had made with Israel that if they did not follow the Lord He would lead them into captivity.

            There is one more thing that I want to mention here and that is what we read in verse one “Your Inheritance” and “Your holy Temple” and in verse 2 “Your servants.”   Asaph realizes that all of this that has happened, the defeat by the Babylonians, the mocking of the neighbors, the burning of Jerusalem, and the temple, and the awfulness that was done to the bodies of the children of Israel was done to God because it is all Gods.  There are times, too many times, when all we are thinking of is ourselves and not about the holiness of God.  If you are a born again believer in Jesus Christ you belong to God and be thankful for that for otherwise you would belong to Satan and the world and end up in hell.  Our lives are all about God and we need to live for God.  There is a gospel going around called the health and wealth gospel, where if you accept Jesus Christ as your Savior you will be blessed with health and wealth, but that is not at all what God has promised for believers.  What happened to all of the Apostles of Jesus Christ?  All but one of them was martyred for the cause of Christ.  I have read that in today’s world there are 1000 people each day in this world of seven billion souls that dies for the cause of Jesus Christ.  This is a far cry from the health and wealth gospel that is being preached in today’s world. 

THE SHORTER CATECHISM EXPLAINED

QUESTION 1: What is the chief end of man?

ANSWER: Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.

            This comes from the West Minster Catechism and gives the first question and the answer to the first question, and it says that as believers, we are to bring glory to God, and we are also to enjoy God forever.  The question and answer is Scriptural, but there is nothing in this to show that we are to expect in this life wealth and health.  Asaph realized this when he wrote Psalm 79, he also realized that it was all about God.  When we look at the prayers in the ninth chapter of Ezra, and also the ninth chapter of Daniel we see both Ezra and Daniel confessing to God the sins that the people had committed that caused them to be captive in Babylon, but they also put themselves in that same category as those who had sinned against the Lord.  Both Ezra and Daniel knew that they were born sinners and that is probably why the put themselves with those who had sinned against the Lord, but they also knew that it was all about God and not about them and so did Asaph.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I want to remember that I am to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Bring glory to my Lord this day.  Continue to learn contentment.

4/28/2012 11:52:27 AM

"Appreciating the Present" from Psalm 78:65-72

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/27/2012 7:51:56 AM

My Worship Time                                                            Focus: Appreciating the Present

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Psalm 78:65-72

            Message of the verses:  In today’s SD we will look at the last main section in Psalm 78.  Once more I want to quote from Dr. Wiersbe’s introductory comments in order for us to better understand this psalm.  “Since Israel is a covenant nation, she has the responsibility of obeying and honoring the Lord, and this psalm presents three responsibilities God expected His people to fulfill.”

            Appreciating the Present (vv. 65-72):  “65 Then the Lord awoke as if from sleep, Like a warrior overcome by wine. 66 He drove His adversaries backward; He put on them an everlasting reproach. 67 He also rejected the tent of Joseph, And did not choose the tribe of Ephraim, 68 But chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which He loved. 69 And He built His sanctuary like the heights, Like the earth which He has founded forever. 70 He also chose David His servant And took him from the sheepfolds; 71 From the care of the ewes with suckling lambs He brought him To shepherd Jacob His people, And Israel His inheritance. 72 So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, And guided them with his skillful hands.”

            The time in which Asaph wrote Psalm 78 is not clear, for he may have written it before Israel was divided into two nations or he may have written it just before that happened.  We do know that the temple had been built, for he speaks of it in verse 68, so his writing of Psalm 78 took place after the death of David.  If he is writing this psalm after Israel split, then he is warning them not to follow the ways of the Northern Kingdom that is not to follow the idolatrous ways of the Northern tribes.

            Verse 65 is speaking metaphorically, for God does not get drunk, and God does not sleep.  Asaph is stating that when God chose David to led Israel as their shepherd it was as if God had woke up from a long sleep and began again to work in the nation of Israel.  We know from Genesis 49:10 the following, “"The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes, And to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.”  Jacob is saying that Israel’s king will come from the tribe of Judah and from that line the Messiah will come.

            Asaph is saying in verse 67 that the Lord had rejected the tribe of Joseph, that is Ephraim as having the temple built there, and also God rejected the tribe of Benjamin as the tribe where the king would come from, for Saul came from Benjamin. 

            Like Moses before him David was a shepherd and it was from the sheepfolds that the Lord took both of them to lead the children of Israel.  The kings Israel were called shepherds for they were to lead and shepherd the flock of Israel.  When we look at 1Peter 5 we will see that the leaders of the local churches today are called shepherds, that is the Pastors or Elders are to shepherd the flock of God.  We sometimes wonder if God created sheep in order to compare them to humans for there are many similarities between sheep and humans.

            We read the following statement from the end of Warren Wiersbe’s commentary on Psalm 78 as he is writing on the integrity of leaders like David.  “Integrity and skill need each other, for no amount of ability can compensate for a sinful heart and no amount of devotion to God can overcome lack of ability.”  We know from studying the life of David and other leaders from the pages of Scripture that this is a true statement.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  It is my prayer that God has given me an ability to serve Him so that my service will bring glory to my Lord, and with this God given ability I will serve Him with integrity.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I pray that the Lord will continue to use me in whatever way He desires to use me and that I will do it with integrity, and that as I serve Him He will continue to teach me contentment.

4/27/2012 8:29:34 AM

"More of the Power of God" as seen in Psalm 78:40-64

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/26/2012 10:04:44 AM

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  More on the Power of God

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Psalm 78:40-64

            Message of the verses:  This is the third SD on Psalm 78 becuse it is a very long psalm with 72 verses in it.  Dr. Wiersbe in his ending commentary on the introduction for this psalm writes the following:  “Since Israel is a covenant nation, she has the responsibility of obeying and honoring the Lord, and this psalm presents three responsibilities God expected his people to fulfill.”  We looked at the first responsibility in the first SD on Psalm 78 and half of the second responsibility and will pick it up now trying to finish the second responsibility in this SD.  The second responsibility is entitled “Understand the Past.”

            The forgotten lessons of Egypt (vv. 40-53):  “40 How often they rebelled against Him in the wilderness And grieved Him in the desert! 41 Again and again they tempted God, And pained the Holy One of Israel. 42  They did not remember His power, The day when He redeemed them from the adversary, 43 When He performed His signs in Egypt And His marvels in the field of Zoan, 44  And turned their rivers to blood, And their streams, they could not drink. 45 He sent among them swarms of flies which devoured them, And frogs which destroyed them. 46 He gave also their crops to the grasshopper And the product of their labor to the locust. 47 He destroyed their vines with hailstones And their sycamore trees with frost. 48 He gave over their cattle also to the hailstones And their herds to bolts of lightning. 49 He sent upon them His burning anger, Fury and indignation and trouble, A band of destroying angels. 50 He leveled a path for His anger; He did not spare their soul from death, But gave over their life to the plague, 51 And smote all the firstborn in Egypt, The first issue of their virility in the tents of Ham. 52 But He led forth His own people like sheep And guided them in the wilderness like a flock; 53 He led them safely, so that they did not fear; But the sea engulfed their enemies.”

            I want to again quote Mark 6:52 once more, a verse that I have been reading most every day as I make my way through the book of Mark studying one chapter a month.  The background of this verse is Jesus feeding the 5000 with five loaves and two fish.  His disciples did not understand the significance of that miracle, and the children of Israel, as reported in these verses did not understand the significance of the miracles that the Lord did in order to bring them out of Egypt.  “For they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves, but their heart was hardened.”  Having hard hearts is mentioned to the generation that came out of Egypt, and it was because of their unbelief and heard hearts that they all died in the wilderness with the exception of Joshua and Caleb. 

            I have highlighted a couple of portions of different verses in the text above that help me to understand this passage.  “And pained the Holy One of Israel,” and this is something that the children of Israel did when they rebelled on many different occasions while in the wilderness.  This is something that I do all too often, but it is something that when I do it, it pains my heart too because of all that the Lord has done for me in providing a great salvation for me.  The second highlighted portion is “They did not remember His power,” and this is the reason that Israel did the terrible things that they did in the wilderness.  The situation was that when Israel was camped at Kadesh Barnea, which is right across the Jordan River from the Promised Land the people wanted to send spies into the Promised Land to make sure that they could defeat the nations living there.  Now when you read this account in Numbers you do not realize that it was the people who wanted to send out the spies, but in Deuteronomy you read that Moses says that it was the idea of the people.  They spent twelve spies out to spy out the land and ten came back and convinced the people that they could not defeat the people in the Promised Land because there were giants in the land.  When we read that Israel did not remember the power of the Lord, I believe that it means that they did not remember the ten miracles that the Lord did to bring Israel out of Egypt along with not remembering that God split open the Red Sea so Israel could cross on dry land and then the Egyptians were all drowned when God closed up the sea on them. 

            In the section above Asaph mentions six of the ten miracles that God did when He brought Israel out of Egypt, but did not mention the gnats, the boils, the killing of the livestock, and the three days of darkness, which happened right before the killing of the first born of Egypt.

            The sins in Canaan (vv. 54-64):  “54 So He brought them to His holy land, To this hill country which His right hand had gained. 55 He also drove out the nations before them And apportioned them for an inheritance by measurement, And made the tribes of Israel dwell in their tents. 56 Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God And did not keep His testimonies, 57 But turned back and acted treacherously like their fathers; They turned aside like a treacherous bow. 58 For they provoked Him with their high places And aroused His jealousy with their graven images. 59 When God heard, He was filled with wrath And greatly abhorred Israel; 60 So that He abandoned the dwelling place at Shiloh, The tent which He had pitched among men, 61 And gave up His strength to captivity And His glory into the hand of the adversary. 62 He also delivered His people to the sword, And was filled with wrath at His inheritance. 63 Fire devoured His young men, And His virgins had no wedding songs. 64 His priests fell by the sword, And His widows could not weep.”

            Asaph then picks up the story when after thirty-eight years God brings the nation of Israel into the Promised Land.  Once again they find themselves at Kadesh Barnea (Deu. 1:1-2), and this time Joshua brings them into the Promised Land through the dried up Jordan River, that the Lord dried up so Israel could walk through on dry land.

            Whenever you read through the book of Judges you get depressed because of the downward spiral of sin and it is not until you get to the reign of David that Israel begins again to have great revival in the land.  Before this we read in 1Samuel about how the Philistines captured the Ark of the Covenant from Israel.  The Ark was in a tent at Shiloh, in the territory of Ephraim and the children of Israel decided to take it with them into battle as kind of a good luck charm, but God allowed it to be captured by the Philistines who took it into the temple of Dagon who was their god, and the next morning Dagon had fallen down before the Ark so they set it up again, and the next day it fell and was broken.  They then moved it to another city and the people got sick there and so they finally sent it back to Israel on a cart.  What I can see here, but did not see before, is that God was bringing the Ark out of Ephraim and moving it into Judah because it was God’s plan to have His temple built in Jerusalem for God had chosen Judah as the kingly tribe way back in the 48^th chapter of Genesis. 

            Asaph speaks of the children of Israel offering sacrifices on the “high places,” which is something that we see throughout the OT, something that angered the Lord.

            We mentioned the “faulty bow” in an earlier SD because it was also mentioned earlier in this psalm and it is also mentioned in Hosea 7:16: “They turn, but not upward, They are like a deceitful bow; Their princes will fall by the sword Because of the insolence of their tongue. This will be their derision in the land of Egypt.”  I looked up the two different words “deceitful” and “treacherous” and they both come from the same root word which means “1) laxness, slackness, slackening, deceit, treachery.”  Asaph says that they turned aside like a treacherous bow, and it means that they turned aside like a bow that was not working correctly, like a bow that perhaps had the string loose on it and therefore would not shoot correctly because it was lazy. Charles H. Spurgeon says the following about this verse:  “They were turned aside like a deceitful bow, which not only fails to send the arrow towards the mark in a direct line, but springs back to the archer’s hurt, and perhaps sends the shaft among his friends to their serious jeopardy.  Israel boasted of the bow as the national weapon, they sang the song of the bow, and hence a deceitful bow is made to be the type and symbol of their own unsteadfastness; God can make men’s glory the very ensign of their shame, he draws a bar sinister across the escutcheon of traitors.”   The dictionary says the word escutcheon means “a plate or shield fixed around something such as a light switch or keyhole, as an ornament or to protect the surrounding surface.”

           

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  From this section of Scripture along with the section of from Mark six I see that I am to remember what the Lord has done for me.  I can say that the Lord has provided a place for me to remember what He has done for me when it comes to my salvation, and that is the celebrating of the Lord’s Supper.  I have to remember the power that He demonstrated through His death, burial, and resurrection.  Paul writes in the book of Ephesians that believers have the same kind of power that God used to raise Jesus from the dead.  I don’t avail myself to that power as much as I should.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I want to remember the power of God and how He used it to save me.  I want to continue to learn contentment.

4/26/2012 11:56:49 AM

           

               

PT-1 "Understanding the Past from Psalm 78:9-39

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/25/2012 9:41:24 AM

My Worship Time                                                               Focus:  Understanding the Past

Bible Reading & Meditation                                         Reference:  Psalm 78:9-39

            Message of the verses:  In yesterday’s SD we began to look at the first section in Psalm 78, a psalm that is longer than others that we have looked at so far.  Dr. Wiersbe in his closing comments from his introduction writes the following:  “Since Israel is a covenant nation, she has the responsibility of obeying and honoring the Lord, and this psalm presents three responsibilities God expected His people to fulfill.”

            Understanding the Past (vv. 9-64):  We will begin to look at the different ways that Israel, in the past had disobeyed the Lord.

            I have been listening to the sixth chapter of Mark for the last week or so and there is a story in that chapter that reminds me of what Israel missed, or better why Israel missed understanding the miracles that the Lord had done for them when He took them out of Egypt.  It was because they had missed the meaning of the Exodus that caused them to fall at the different times in their history that Asaph will write about in this section.  The incident from the book of Mark is like a condensed version of what happened to Israel that Asaph describes in verses 9-64.  “49 But when they saw Him walking on the sea, they supposed that it was a ghost, and cried out; 50 for they all saw Him and were terrified. But immediately He spoke with them and said to them, "Take courage; it is I, do not be afraid." 51 Then He got into the boat with them, and the wind stopped; and they were utterly astonished, 52 for they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves, but their heart were hardened.”  

            The apostasy of Ephraim (vv. 9-11):  “9 The sons of Ephraim were archers equipped with bows, Yet they turned back in the day of battle. 10 They did not keep the covenant of God And refused to walk in His law; 11 They forgot His deeds And His miracles that He had shown them.” 

            You can see from verse 11 the similarities with Mark 6:52.

            I was a bit confused why Asaph would begin this section of Psalm 78 with a more recent story than he will then get into, but Dr. Wiersbe points out that the reason he begins with this story is so that Judah would not follow in the rebellious past of the ten tribes who broke off from Judah. 

            Ephraim was an adopted son of Jacob, as he was actually the son of Joseph but on Jacob’s death bed he adopted he and his brother Manasseh as his sons.  You can read this story in Genesis 48:8-20.  Ephraim replaced Jacob’s first born son and I believe that is because his first born son had slept with one of Jacob’s wives.

            Joshua was from Ephraim and that tribe gave problems to him as seen in Joshua 17:14 along with Hosea 7:16.  Another thing to remember about Ephraim is that the tabernacle was first placed in Ephraim at Shiloh and then it was later moved to Jerusalem by David.

            The nation’s sins in the wilderness (vv. 12-39):  “12 He wrought wonders before their fathers In the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan. 13 He divided the sea and caused them to pass through, And He made the waters stand up like a heap. 14 Then He led them with the cloud by day And all the night with a light of fire. 15 He split the rocks in the wilderness And gave them abundant drink like the ocean depths. 16 He brought forth streams also from the rock And caused waters to run down like rivers. 17 Yet they still continued to sin against Him, To rebel against the Most High in the desert. 18 And in their heart they put God to the test By asking food according to their desire. 19 Then they spoke against God; They said, "Can God prepare a table in the wilderness? 20 “Behold, He struck the rock so that waters gushed out, And streams were overflowing; Can He give bread also? Will He provide meat for His people?" 21 Therefore the LORD heard and was full of wrath; And a fire was kindled against Jacob And anger also mounted against Israel, 22 Because they did not believe in God And did not trust in His salvation. 23 Yet He commanded the clouds above And opened the doors of heaven; 24 He rained down manna upon them to eat And gave them food from heaven. 25 Man did eat the bread of angels; He sent them food in abundance. 26 He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens And by His power He directed the south wind. 27 When He rained meat upon them like the dust, Even winged fowl like the sand of the seas, 28 Then He let them fall in the midst of their camp, Round about their dwellings. 29 So they ate and were well filled, And their desire He gave to them. 30 Before they had satisfied their desire, While their food was in their mouths, 31 The anger of God rose against them And killed some of their stoutest ones, And subdued the choice men of Israel. 32 In spite of all this they still sinned And did not believe in His wonderful works. 33 So He brought their days to an end in futility And their years in sudden terror. 34 When He killed them, then they sought Him, And returned and searched diligently for God; 35 And they remembered that God was their rock, And the Most High God their Redeemer. 36 But they deceived Him with their mouth And lied to Him with their tongue. 37 For their heart was not steadfast toward Him, Nor were they faithful in His covenant. 38 But He, being compassionate, forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them; And often He restrained His anger And did not arouse all His wrath. 39 Thus He remembered that they were but flesh, A wind that passes and does not return.”

            Dr. Wiersbe quotes George Santayana in his commentary which gives us insight into understanding this section of Scripture from verse 9-64, and it will also help all of us in our lives:  “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”  How true this statement is.

            The section above is a very long section, but after reading it one can remember from the stories that are found in the books of Exodus through Deuteronomy where Asaph read about what He wrote. 

            I have often wondered how I would have acted when God brought all the children of Israel out of Egypt by performing ten great miracles and then in the wilderness the children of Israel began to rebel against the Lord.  Would I have been like Joshua and Caleb?  I hope that would be the case and that I would not be like those who constantly rebelled against the Lord.  While studying the book of Exodus I remember that in his commentary on that book, Dr. Wiersbe mentioned that there were a certain people who were not Jewish, but came along with Israel, who started most of the rebellions, but surely not all of them for I am sure that Israel was a large part of the rebellion too.

            When the children of Israel asked the Lord for meat he gave them so much meat that he told them that it would come out of their noses.  I think, at times, the worst kind of discipline from God can be giving us what we ask for, for when we get what we want it is often times something selfish.  When we trust the Lord to give us what He wants us to have we will surely draw closer to the Lord. 

            In an effort not to make my Spiritual Diaries to long I will conclude with this section and begin to pick up in the next SD. 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Paul writes to the Corinthians that the reason for having all of the stories in the NT was for us to learn from them so we do not repeat their sins, and I am glad that this great history is found in my Bible so I can learn from it.  I can learn to trust the Lord more by reading about the great saints of the OT, like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, along with Moses and David and also Daniel.  There is Job who, although I don’t truly understand all of what his friends said to him, I can learn that having trouble come my way does not mean that I am living a sinful lifestyle, but perhaps I am being tested like Job so that I can come out like gold.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Continue to trust the Lord and continue to strive to learn contentment.

4/25/2012 9:41:24 AM

Protecting the Future from Psalm 78:1-8

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/24/2012 7:54:34 AM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  Protecting the Future

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Psalm 78:1-8

            Message of the verses:  In Today’s SD we will begin a rather long psalm; Psalm 78 has 72 verses in it so it will probably take a few days to complete it.  We will first take a look at three introductions from different commentators and then begin to look at the psalm.

            This first one comes from a commentary on Psalms entitled “Basic Bible Commentary” and this is a series of books on the different books of the Bible. 

“God in History (Psalm 78)

            This psalm provides a digest of some early events in Israel’s long and turbulent history.  The narrative is preceded by a prologue (verses 1-4) uttered by a teacher of history.  The announced intention of speaking in parables and dark sayings (NRSV) or hidden things (NIV) (riddles) was to make that history known to the then-present generation of listeners.  Verses 3-4 identify the source of historical information as the oral tradition.

            “The story begins with God’s institution of the covenant and commandments (verse 5).  Instructions were provided (verses (6-7) so that all generations might be kept informed and would not forget the reverse to reverse the law.  The people were also counseled not be rebellious and unfaithful as the preceding generation was.

            “The story moves on, describing an incident with the Ephraimites not recorded elsewhere in the Bible.  Perhaps the teacher is using it to show what happens when the covant is ignored.  In verses 12-16 the miracle of the Exodus is related.  The wilderness experiences are examined in some detail in verses 17-31.  Historical incidents to which they refer are found in passages throughout Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.  The years in the wilderness were fraught with almost constant bickering and even rebellion.  God’s patience was tested not simply because of their discontent; they had witnessed miracles, manna from heaven, and water from rocks on Mount Horeb, for example.  It was their insistence on more miracles and good works that tried God so severely and caused the uncommon loss of patience.  The result was the slaying of the strongest men of Israel (verse 31).

            “What follows in verses 32-39 is an account of human behavior which is far from unusual.  Punished by having lost their best men (verse 31), the wandering Israelites pretended to repent, praising God as their refuge.  But all the while they continued their sinful, lying ways, and defied the provisions of the covenant.  Having regained patience, God forgave their sins and extended compassion, remembering that they were only human (verse 39).

            “At verse 40 the wilderness history is resumed with descriptions of the periods of slavery in Egypt prior to the exodus.  Emphasis is on the plagues recorded in Exodus 7-12.  These plagues are crucial to the history of Israel as evidence of God’s saving acts.  By the hands of Moses and Aaron, God made the rivers run with blood (Exodus 7:14-20), made frogs, flies, and locusts swarm over the land (Exodus 8:6; 8:24; and 10:14), and caused hail to destroy vegetation all over Egypt (Exodus 9:25.  The sycamores (NRSV) of verse 47 are figs, as the NIV makes clear.  Smiting the firstborn Egyptians (verse 51), the descendants of Ham, the third son of Noah, is God’s final act before the departure from Egypt.  The incident is recorded in Exodus 12:29-13:29, and follows the institution of the feast of the Passover.

            “In verses 52-55 there is a brief digest of the history of the entire period, from flight from Egypt to the crossing of the Jordan under Joshua (Joshua 3:17) and to the settlement of the tribes of Israel in Canaan.

            “The remainder of the psalm is not so much a history of specific episodes as it is a tale of continued rebellion by Israel, of more treachery and deceit, provoking God to anger as it did in the Wilderness.  The consequence is rejection of Israel (verses 61-62).  But all is not lost.  God awakes and saves Israel by routing its enemies.  An account of the establishment of the monarchy under David is given in the final stanza.

            “The primary objective of this psalm is not necessarily Israel’s history.  It is the recounting of numerous instances of God’s direct involvement in that history.  Evidences of God’s action make that history rich indeed.”  (Written  by the one who writes these SD’s on December 24, 2018)

 “The psalm concludes with the coronation of David, but the mention of the temple in verse 69 indicates that David’s reign had ended.  ‘Ephraim’ in verse 9 probably refers, not to the tribe, but to the Northern Kingdom (Israel) that had split from Judah and Benjamin when Rehoboam became king (1Kings 12).  The leaders of Israel abandoned the faith of their fathers and established a religion of their own making, while the people of Judah sought to be faithful to the Lord.  In this psalm, Asaph warned the people of Judah not to imitate their faithless ancestors or their idolatrous neighbors and disobey the Scriptures and teach them to their children.  Judah had the temple on Mt. Zion, the covenants, the priesthood, and the Davidic dynasty, and all this could be lost in one generation (see Judges 2).  Since Israel is a covenant nation, she has the responsibility of obeying and honoring the Lord, and this psalm presents three responsibilities God expected His people to fulfill.”  (Dr. Warren Wiersbe)

            Protecting the Future (vv. 1-8):  “1 A Maskil of Asaph: Listen, O my people, to my instruction; Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. 2 I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old, 3 Which we have heard and known, And our fathers have told us. 4 We will not conceal them from their children, But tell to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, And His strength and His wondrous works that He has done. 5 For He established a testimony in Jacob And appointed a law in Israel, Which He commanded our fathers That they should teach them to their children, 6  That the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born, That they may arise and tell them to their children, 7  That they should put their confidence in God And not forget the works of God, But keep His commandments, 8 And not be like their fathers, A stubborn and rebellious generation, A generation that did not prepare its heart And whose spirit was not faithful to God.”

            The first verse sounds to me a bit like verses in Proverbs, when Solomon was teaching his son things that were important for him to learn.  We read in the 6^th chapter of Deuteronomy and other places that the fathers were to teach their children the things of the Lord, for if they did not pass the truth of God’s Word to their children then the next generation would not know the truth.  Paul writes to Timothy these words, “The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”

            We read these words of Jesus from Mathew 13:35: “This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: "I WILL OPEN MY MOUTH IN PARABLES; I WILL UTTER THINGS HIDDEN SINCE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD.’”  Asaph writes these words in verse two of Psalm 78.  Asaph goes on to say that these words have been known by their fathers, for they have told them to their sons.  Then he says that these words must be taught to the children. 

            Just think if the nation of Israel and not taken the time to write down all of God’s Word so that it could be passed on to the next generation.  This was a painstaking job for these scribes, for they would count all the letters that they would write and if they came up one short of how many they were copying then they would through it away and begin again.  This took a great deal of work and dedication.

            Dr. Wiersbe writes “Asaph helped his readers understand an enigma in their history.  He explained why God rejected the tribe of Ephraim and chose the tribe of Judah, and David to be king, and why He abandoned the tabernacle at Shiloh and had a temple built on Mt. Zion.”  This was very important for his readers to understand so they would obey the Lord.  Asaph will tell about the rebellious generation that came out of Egypt and all died in the desert.  He will tell of the generation who lived in Canaan and turned to idols, and about the division of the ten tribes as they set up their own blasphemous religion.  Asaph did this so this generation would understand what God wanted them to know and follow the Law of the Lord and therefore be blessed.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  There are two things that I can learn from this section and from this Psalm 78 that are important for me to know.  I know that I can praise the Lord that through the Holy Spirit of God He has kept the Word of God intact so that I can read, study, meditate on it and know that what I am reading is God’s truth.  History is important and I can learn from the history of the nation of Israel and not follow their mistakes.  “11 Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. 12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.”

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Continue to study the Word of God in order to learn what the Lord has for me each and every day.  Continue to trust the Lord to teach me contentment through the trials that I face, trusting that God has a definite plan for my life.

4/24/2012 9:01:42 AM