SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
4/19/2012 8:14:02 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Knowing & Trusting the Lord
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm
76 PT-1
Message
of the verses: We will begin looking
at several introductions to Psalm 76 in order to better understand what the
psalm is all about.
“This psalm teaches that God is
willing to use His great power for His people.
Some commentators, including the editors of the LXX, have suggested that
this psalm was written to celebrate the destruction of Sennacherib’s Assyrian
army in 701 B.C. as well as the subsequent assassination of Sennacherib himself
(vv. 5-6; cf. 2Ki. 18, 19; Isa. 36-37).
The psalm also includes eschatological overtones (especially vv. 8-12),
when Jehovah will defeat His enemies and bring them into judgment.” (The John MacArthur Study Bible)
“The background of this psalm is
probably God’s judgment of the Assyrian army as recorded in Isaiah 37-38 and
2Kings 18-19. Other ‘Zion’ psalms
include 46, 48, 87, 126, 132, and 137.
But the emphasis in this psalm is on the God who accomplished the
victory and not on the miracle itself.
God’s might works reveal the greatness of His character and His power
(75:1). Sennacherib’s officers boasted
of their kin and his conquests, but their dead idols were no match of the true
and living God (115:1-18). Asaph shares
four basic truths about Jehovah God. (Dr. Warren Wiersbe)
God
Wants Us to Know Him (vv. 1-3): “1 For
the choir director; on stringed instruments. A Psalm of Asaph, a Song: God is
known in Judah; His name is great in Israel. 2 His tabernacle is in Salem; His
dwelling place also is in Zion. 3 There He broke the flaming arrows, The shield
and the sword and the weapons of war. Selah.”
(NASB95) “1 TO THE CHOIRMASTER:
WITH STRINGED INSTRUMENTS. A PSALM OF ASAPH. A SONG: In Judah God is known; his
name is great in Israel. 2 His abode has been established in Salem, his
dwelling place in Zion. 3 There he broke the flashing arrows, the shield, the
sword, and the weapons of war. Selah” (ESV)
In 722 B. C. the Assyrians
captured the northern tribes of Israel, which had been divided from Judah since
Solomon’s son became king in Judah. The
northern kingdom was very ungodly and in all of its history had never had a
godly king. Their religious system did
not follow the Law of God and so many godly people left the northern kingdom
and came to Judah where they could worship the Lord in the way that the Lord
had set up in His Law. We see in verse
one that this is spoken of when we read that “In Judah God is known; his name
is great in Israel,” and then in verse two we see that God’s abode is in
Jerusalem in the temple that Solomon had built.
It has always been the desire of God
to have all people’s know Him, and Israel was chosen to make God’s name known
to others around Israel. One of the ways
that God was known by the peoples around Israel was through His mighty power and
in 701 B.C. the Assyrian’s were ready to attack Jerusalem and they were
bragging about their god’s and saying that Judah’s God was weak. The angel of the Lord killed 185,000
Assyrian’s in one night and later on their king was killed in the temple of his
god by his sons.
Jesus said to the woman at the well
that “Salvation is of the Jews.” The
Bible was written by the Jews and Jesus Christ, the Son of God was born into
the family of David who was surely Jewish.
In order to truly know the God of the Universe one must accept His Son
as their Saviour and Lord, the One who paid for the sins of the world while
suffering and dying on the cross.
God
Wants Us to Trust Him (vv. 4-6): “4
You are resplendent, More majestic than the mountains of prey. 5 The
stouthearted were plundered, They sank into sleep; And none of the warriors
could use his hands. 6 At Your rebuke, O God of Jacob, Both rider and horse
were cast into a dead sleep.”
(NASB) “4 Glorious are you, more majestic
than the mountains of prey. 5 The stouthearted were stripped of their spoil;
they sank into sleep; all the men of war were unable to use their hands. 6 At
your rebuke, O God of Jacob, both rider and horse lay stunned.” (ESV)
God wants us to trust Him, and
King Hezekiah, along with the prophet Isaiah, and the elders of Judah trusted
that God would keep Jerusalem safe from the invading Assyrians. When you read the story in Isaiah’s account
and the account in 2Kings you will find that Hezekiah was in a most difficult
situation as the officers of the Assyrian army came and read a letter to the
people of Jerusalem stating what they would do to them. In that letter they were blaspheming the God
of Jacob and so when the letter was given to King Hezekiah he laid the letter
down before the Lord and prayed to the Lord:
“14 Then Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and
read it, and he went up to the house of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD. 15 Hezekiah prayed before the LORD and said,
"O LORD, the God of Israel, who are enthroned above the cherubim, You are
the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and
earth. 16 “Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see;
and listen to the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God.
17 "Truly, O LORD, the kings of
Assyria have devastated the nations and their lands 18 and have cast their gods into the fire, for
they were not gods but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. So they have
destroyed them. 19 “Now, O
LORD our God, I pray, deliver us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the
earth may know that You alone, O LORD, are God." (2Kings 19:14-19)
When I was a new believer in the
Lord I went to our church one day for something, I don’t remember exactly what
it was, but while there we happened to come into the office of our Pastor who
was laying sheets of paper on the floor of his office. I have always thought that he was doing like
Hezekiah did in laying his prayer requests out before the Lord.
We see in the account of Hezekiah
that he put his faith in the living God in this very hard situation and God
answered His prayers and saved Jerusalem.
I think of the three men in the book of Daniel who told the king of
Babylon who was about to put them into a fiery furnace to kill them because
they would not worship him, and they told him that their God was able to save
them from the furnace, but if He chose not to do so He was still God. He chose to save them from the furnace.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I had to
trust God in order to know Him, for when I was an enemy of God far from Him, He
saved me and I became His child. I know
that there will be difficult times for me in which I must continue to trust the
Lord whom I now know and by trusting Him it will bring honor and glory to Him.
Hezekiah had a remarkable faith
and I desire to have such a faith as that, trusting the Lord in difficult
situations.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
Continue to trust the Lord and as I trust the Lord He will continue to
teach me contentment.
4/19/2012
9:16:21 AM
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