SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
5/28/2012 9:46:25 AM
My Worship Time Focus: A Flourishing people
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm 92:12-15
Message
of the verses: In Today’s SD we will
be looking at the last main point from the 92nd Psalm. Dr. Wiersbe writes at the end of his
introductory commentary these words:
“The psalm describes the characteristics of believers who trust a
sovereign God.”
A
Flourishing People (vv. 12-15): “12
The righteous man will flourish like the palm tree, He will grow like a cedar
in Lebanon. 13 Planted in the house of the LORD, They will flourish in the
courts of our God. 14 They will still yield fruit in old age; They shall be
full of sap and very green, 15 To declare that the LORD is upright; He is my
rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.”
“12 But the godly will flourish
like palm trees and grow strong like the cedars of Lebanon. 13 For they are
transplanted to the LORD’s own house.
They flourish in the courts of our God. 14 Even in old age they will
still produce fruit; they will remain vital and green. 15 They will declare,
“The LORD is just! He is my rock! There is no evil in him!’’”
I think that these verse describe a
person who has come to know the Lord, realizing that they were born into sin as
all people are, and realizing that they sin as all people do, and realizing
that they can do nothing on their own to take care of the sin problem and so
they fall on their face before God and confess their sinfulness to Him asking
for His great mercy. People in the OT
times who were believers looked forward to the Messiah coming to take away
their sins, while people in the NT era look back to what Jesus Christ has done
for them on the cross to take care of their sin problem. In both eras the sinner had to confess his
sin before the Lord asking Him to save them and then just as a person is saved,
by grace through faith, they are to walk.
“6 Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,
7 having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in
your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.” (Col. 2:6-7)
These two verses go along with the verse in Psalm 92, for they are both
speaking about spiritual growth in the believer as they picture trees with the
right food and sunshine to make them grow, which is what we need as believers
to grow up in the Lord. We need the
right food which is the Lord of God, and we need the sunshine which is the Son
of God. At times the “sap” mentioned
here can represent the Holy Spirit which will produce fruit in the life of the
believer (see John 15). It is so
important for the believer to grow once they have been born again into the
kingdom of God and that is one of the purposes for my Spiritual Diaries that I
may grow in the Lord as I study His Word each day.
Dr. Wiersbe compares the people from
verse seven with the people from verses 12-13 when he writes: “The word ‘flourish’ in verse 7 means ‘to be
conspicuous, to shine,’ while the word in verses 12-13 means ‘to be vigorous,
to flourish richly.’ The stately date
palm and cedar were highly valued by people in the Near East, the psalm for its
fruit and the cedar for its wood. Both
were appreciated for their beauty, and both trees can survive for many
years. Not all godly people live long;
some, like Robert Murray M’Cheyne and David Brainerd, die very young. But generally speaking, those who obey God
avoid a great deal of danger and disease that can cause an early death.”
One of the things that I often think
about is to finish strong in my walk with the Lord, not to ever be satisfied
with not continuing to grow in the Lord, but to continue to study the Word of
God as long as I am able to.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I have to
remember that the spiritual walk with the Lord is a marathon and not a short
100 meter race, and I also need to remember what an old Scottish preacher said
many years who Dr. Wiersbe quotes many times in the different books that he has
written, and that is “The secret to the Christian life is a series of new
beginnings.”
My Steps of Faith for Today:
To abide (remain) in the Vine.
5/28/2012
10:26:05 AM
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