SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
4/20/2012 10:41:37 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Fear and Obey the Lord
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm
76-PT-2
Message
of the verses: In yesterday’s SD we
learned as part of the introduction that Dr. Wiersbe said the following “Asaph
shares four basic truths about Jehovah God.”
We looked at the first truths about Jehovah God yesterday and we will
look at the next two in this SD.
God
Wants Us to Fear Him (vv. 7-9): “7 You,
even You, are to be feared; And who may stand in Your presence when once You
are angry? 8 You caused judgment to be heard from heaven; The earth feared and
was still 9 When God arose to judgment, To save all the humble of the earth.
Selah”
7 No wonder you are greatly feared! Who can stand before you when your anger
explodes? 8 From heaven you sentenced
your enemies; the earth trembled and stood silent before you. 9 You stand up to
judge those who do evil, O God, and to rescue the oppressed of the earth. Interlude.
(NLT)
We see that the psalmist writes
about the fear of the Lord in verses 7, 8, 11, and 12, but what exactly is the
fear of the Lord. A. W. Tozer writes “No
one can know the true grace of God who has not first known the fear of
God.” Dr. Wiersbe points out that “God’s
people love Him and rejoice in Him, but they also ‘worship the Lord with
reverence and rejoice with trembling’ (Psalm 2:11). Jesus Christ paid for the sins of those who
will trust Him as their Savior and therefore they need not fear Him in the same
way that those who have not trusted Him.
To believers fearing the Lord means the reverential awe, the respect and
veneration that can only belong to God.
God was patience with the army of
Sennacherib who had blasphemed Him up to a point and then judgment came upon
them as seen in verse 8.
There is a question asked in verse
seven that is also asked in Revelations 6:17 and also Psalm 130:3 and the
answer is given in Ezra 9:15: “"O
LORD God of Israel, You are righteous, for we have been left an escaped
remnant, as it is this day; behold, we are before You in our guilt, for no one can stand before You
because of this.’”
Dr. Wiersbe writes “According to
verses 9 and 10, God’s judgments accomplish at least three purposes: they bring glory to God as they reveal His
justice and holiness; they punish the wicked for their evil deeds; and they
bring salvation those who trust the Lord (See 72:4)”
God
Wants Us to Obey Him (vv. 10-12): “10
For the wrath of man shall praise You; With a remnant of wrath You will gird
Yourself. 11 Make vows to the LORD your God and fulfill them; Let all who are
around Him bring gifts to Him who is to be feared. 12 He will cut off the
spirit of princes; He is feared by the kings of the earth.” (NASB)
“10 Human defiance only enhances
your glory, for you use it as a weapon. 11 Make vows to the LORD your God, and
keep them. Let everyone bring tribute to
the Awesome One. 12 For he breaks the pride of princes, and the kings of the
earth fear him.” (NLT)
We see in verse ten that man’s wrath
brings praise to God. I suppose that
this does not seem right to some people who have read this but never the less
it is true. While studying the
attributes of God I learned that all of God’s attributes bring glory to Him. It is easier to see how the attributes of
goodness, and love bring glory to God, but harder to see how God’s justice bring
glory to Him.
While studying this subject of the
attributes of God I came across something that at first was hard for me to
understand, but after thinking about it for a while it seems that the Holy
Spirit of God has made it clear to me.
When a believer in Jesus Christ dies we read that those remaining are
not to grieve as those who have no hope grieve.
Unbelievers who die have no hope, but believers are transported right to
be with the Lord for “6 Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing
that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord- 7 for we
walk by faith, not by sight- 8 we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather
to be absent from the body
and to be at home with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:6-7).” It is easy to believe that when a believer
dies that they bring honor and glory to the Lord, but harder to believe that
when an unbeliever dies that they too bring glory to the Lord. However this is true for the reason that
God’s justice brings glory to Him just as God’s love and goodness bring glory
to Him. The justice and judgment of a
believer has been taken out on Jesus Christ on the cross for them, while the
justice and judgment of God is taken out on the unbeliever who has not accepted
God’s grace through Jesus Christ and must pay for their own sins.
Dr. Wiersbe concludes his commentary
by writing “The psalm begins at Jerusalem and its environs (vv. 1-6), then
moves to the entire land of Israel (vv. 7-9), and now it reaches the whole
earth (v. 12). There will be a day when
the rulers of the earth will bow to Jesus Christ and worship Him as King of
Kings (Isa. 2:1-4; 11:1ff. Rev. 19:11-16).”
For those who obey the Lord they
will receive eternal life, and will not encounter the wrath of God like the
army of the Assyrian’s did when the angel of the Lord killed 185,000 in one
moment. We must remember that God is not
a God who desires to get even like we humans tend to do, but God is a God who
is completely Holy and cannot stand for sin and therefore has to judge sin one
way of the other.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: The more
that I study about God the more I see His holiness and the more I see my sin in
all of its ugliness. Then the more I am
amazed by the grace of God.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
Continue to learn more about our glorious God, and continue to learn
contentment that causes me to trust the Lord more and more with whatever He
brings into my life.
4/20/2012
11:36:30 AM
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