SPIRITUAL
DIARY FOR 4/1/2012 8:40:03 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: The nations praise the Lord, and He sends the
harvest
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Psalm
67:3-7
Message
of the verses: Dr. Wiersbe writes
the following at the end of his introduction to Psalm 67: “God blesses us that
we might be a blessing to others. The
psalm describes the stages in this sequence.”
We looked at the first one in yesterday’s SD and now will continue looking
at the last two in today’s SD.
The
Nations Praise the Lord (vv. 3-5): “3
Let the peoples praise You, O God; Let all the peoples praise You. 4 Let the
nations be glad and sing for joy; For You will judge the peoples with
uprightness And guide the nations on the earth. Selah. 5 Let the peoples praise
You, O God; Let all the peoples praise You.”
In yesterday’s SD we learned that
Israel Blesses the Nations from verses one and two of Psalm 67 and now we will
discover how after Israel blesses the nations that the nations will praise the
Lord.
The question is when will the
nations praise the Lord and the answer is during the 1000 year reign of Jesus
Christ upon the earth. According to
Psalm 2:1-3 this is not happening now: “1Why
are the nations in an uproar And the peoples devising a vain thing? 2 The kings
of the earth take their stand And the rulers take counsel together Against the
LORD and against His Anointed, saying, 3 “Let us tear their fetters apart And
cast away their cords from us!’”
“1 The word which Isaiah the son
of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 2 Now it will come about that In
the last days The mountain of the house of the LORD Will be established as the
chief of the mountains, And will be raised above the hills; And all the nations will stream
to it. 3 And many peoples will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the
mountain of the LORD, To the house of the God of Jacob; That He may teach us
concerning His ways And that we may walk in His paths." For the law will
go forth from Zion And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. 4 And He will judge
between the nations, And will render decisions for many peoples; And
they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning
hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, And never again will they
learn war. 5 Come, house of Jacob, and let us walk in the light of the LORD.” (Isaiah 2:1-5)
Dr. Wiersbe points out that the
prayer in the verses of Psalm 67:3-5 is like the section of what is called the
“Lord’s Prayer” in Matthew 6:9-13 where in that section we read “thy kingdom
come.”
In an earlier SD, perhaps it was
from the study of Mark that I mentioned that the Kingdom of God has three
parts, the invisible part,
which is what we are in as Jesus Christ rules from heaven after dying on the
cross, being buried and then raised from the dead, and now He sits at
the right hand of the Father in heaven. The next part will be His
earthly kingdom, which will be the 1000 year rule of Jesus Christ upon
the earth after He returns in glory at the end of the tribulation period
described in Revelations 6-19. The final part of the Kingdom of
God is the eternal Kingdom and this is described in the last chapters of
Revelations.
The
Lord Sends the Harvest (vv. 6-7): “6 The earth has yielded its produce; God,
our God, blesses us. 7 God blesses us, That all the ends of the earth may fear
Him.”
Verse six is a quotation from
Leviticus 26:4, and Leviticus 26 is a summary of God’s covenant with Israel,
and it is also found in Deuteronomy 28-30.
In that covenant God made it clear to Israel that if they obeyed Him
that He would provide the rains so that Israel would have food to eat, but if
Israel did not obey the Lord then He would withhold the rains and Israel would
not have enough food to eat. In both
cases the nations around them would see that God was in control and would fear
the Lord. Israel did not do a good job
in spreading the Word of God, but as we see in the NT time of Jesus, the
Scribes and the Pharisees had the religious system turned into something that
was all wrong. It was so wrong that they
crucified the Lord of Glory.
Dr. Wiersbe ends his commentary
on Psalm 67 with these words: “The
application to the church today is obvious:
as we obey the Lord, pray and trust Him, He provides what we need, and
the unsaved around us see that He cares for us.
This gives us opportunity to tell them about Jesus. While verse 6 speaks of a literal harvest, it
also reminds us of the ‘spiritual harvest’ that comes as we witness for the
Lord (John 4:34-38).
“God blesses the nations through
His people Israel and through His church, and all the nations should trust Him,
obey Him, and fear him.”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: There is no better time in my life than when
I have the opportunity of telling someone what the Lord Jesus Christ has done
for me in saving me from my sins and giving me eternal life. I cherish these wonderful moments when the
Lord gives a “divine appointment” to me and sends someone into my life that is
ready to hear the Gospel. The harvest is
ripe.
My
Steps of Faith for Today: I have
been praying for my sick mother that God’s will, will be done in her life, that
the God of all comfort will comfort her and give her peace and rest. I have been praying that the Lord will
prepare my heart for a special Lord’s Supper Service at our church this
morning, that my heart will be ready to receive the elements that remind me of
what the Lord has done for me when He suffered and had His body broken for me
and shed His precious blood that I may become His child. I continue to pray that the Lord will
continue to teach me contentment.
4/1/2012
9:22:40 AM
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