SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
5/17/2012 8:16:35 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
God is Faithful in His Character—Praise Him
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm
89:1-18
Message
of the verses: In today’s SD we will
begin to look at a very long psalm.
Psalm 89 is one of the longer chapters in the Scriptures and we will
begin by looking at the introduction of the psalm quoting different Bible
commentators so that we will have a better idea of what the psalm is all about
and how we can apply some of the things that we learn to our lives so we pray
as the psalmist did in the 119th Psalm, “Open my eyes, that I may
behold Wonderful things from Your law.”
“Many psalms that begin with
complaint and prayer end with joy and praise, but this begins with joy and
praise and ends with sad complaints and petitions; for the psalmist first
recounts God’s former favours, and then with the consideration of them
aggravates the present grievances. It is uncertain when it was penned; only, in
general, that it was at a time when the house of David was woefully eclipsed;
some think it was at the time of the captivity of Babylon, when king Zedekiah
was insulted over, and abused, by Nebuchadnezzar, and then they make the title
to signify no more than that the psalm was set to the tune of a song of Ethan
the son of Zerah, called Maschil; others suppose it to be penned by Ethan, who
is mentioned in the story of Solomon, who, outliving that glorious prince, thus
lamented the great disgrace done to the house of David in the next reign by the
revolt of the ten tribes.” (Matthew
Henry)
“We have now reached the majestic
Covenant Psalm, which, according to the Jewish arrangement closes the third
book of the Psalms. It is the utterance of a believer, in presence of great
national disaster, pleading with his God, urging the grand argument of covenant
engagements, and expecting deliverance and help, because of the faithfulness of
Jehovah.
“ TITLE: — Maschil. This is most fitly called a Maschil, for it is
most instructive. No subject is more important or is so fully the key to all
theology as that of the covenant. He who is taught by the Holy Spirit to be
clear upon the covenant of grace will be a scribe well instructed in the things
of the kingdom; he whose doctrinal theory is a mingle mangle of works and grace
is scarcely fit to be teacher of babes. Of Ethan the Ezrahite: perhaps the same
person as Jeduthun, who was a musician in David’s reign; was noted for his
wisdom in Solomon’s days, and probably survived till the troubles of Rehoboam’s
period. If this be the man, he must have written this Psalm in his old age,
when troubles were coming thick and heavy upon the dynasty of David and the
land of Judah; this is not at all improbable, and there is much in the Psalm
which looks that way.
“DIVISIONS: — The sacred poet commences by affirming his belief in
the faithfulness of the Lord to his covenant with the house of David, and makes
his first pause at #Ps 89:4. He then praises and magnifies the name of the Lord
for his power, justice, and mercy, #Ps 89:5-14. This leads him to sing of the
happiness of the people who have such a God to be their glory and defense, #Ps
89:15-18. He rehearses the terms if the covenant at full length with evident
delight, #Ps 89:19-37, and then mournfully pours out his complaint and
petition, #Ps 89:38-51, closing the whole with a hearty benediction and a
double Amen. May the Holy Spirit greatly bless to us the reading of this most
precious Psalm of instruction.” (Charles H. Spurgeon)
“This psalm describes the author’s
attempt to reconcile the seeming contradictions between his theology and the
reality of his nations’ conditions.
Through the first 37 verses, he rehearses what he knows to be
theologically accurate. God has
sovereignty chosen Israel to be His nation, and David’s descendants to
rule. The last third of the psalm
reflects the psalmist’s chagrin that the nation had been ravaged and the
Davidic monarchy had apparently come to a disgraceful end. To his credit, the psalmist refuses to
explain away his theology, but instead keeps the tension, hopefully to be
resolved at a later time with the promised reestablishment of an earthly
kingdom under one of David’s descendants (cf. 110, 132).” (The John MacArthur Study Bible)
“If the author is the wise man Ethan
of Solomon’s reign (1Kings 4:31), then verses 39-45 describe the invasion of
Shishak and the Egyptian army recorded in 1Chronicles 12, which occurred during
the reign of Solomon’s son Rehoboam. But
this invasion did not mean the end of the Davidic dynasty, which is the major
theme of this psalm. However, the
invasion and captivity of Judah by the Babylonians did mean the end of the
Davidic dynasty, so this psalm could have been written after the crisis by an
unknown ‘Ethan.’ Young King Jehoiachin
has already been taken captive to Babylon and Zedekiah his uncle, named king in
his place (2Kings 24), and Jeremiah had announced that none of Jehoiachin’s
sons would ever sit on David’s throne (Jer. 22:24-29). What then, becomes of God’s covenant that
promised David a throne forever (vv. 3, 28, 34, 29), and see 2Sam. 7)? Does Jehovah no longer keep His promises? The faithfulness of the Lord is the major theme of this psalm
(vv. 1, 2, 5, 8, 14, 33, 49). Of course,
God’s great promises to David has their ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ,
the Son of David (Luke 1:26-38, 68-79). The psalm gives us four
assurances about the faithfulness of the Lord.” (Dr. Warren Wiersbe)
God Is Faithful in His
Character—Praise Him (vv. 1-18): “1 A Maskil of Ethan the
Ezrahite: I will sing of the lovingkindness of the LORD forever; To all
generations I will make known Your faithfulness with my mouth. 2 For I have said,
"Lovingkindness will be built up forever; In the heavens You will
establish Your
faithfulness." 3 “I have made a covenant with My chosen; I have
sworn to David My servant, 4 I will establish your seed forever And build up
your throne to all generations." Selah.
“5 The heavens will praise Your wonders, O LORD; Your faithfulness also in
the assembly of the holy ones. 6 For who in the skies is comparable to the
LORD? Who among the sons of the mighty is like the LORD, 7 A God greatly feared
in the council of the holy ones, And awesome above all those who are around
Him? 8 O LORD God of hosts, who is like You, O mighty LORD? Your faithfulness also
surrounds You. 9 You rule the swelling of the sea; When its waves rise, You
still them. 10 You Yourself crushed Rahab like one who is slain; You scattered
Your enemies with Your mighty arm. 11 The heavens are Yours, the earth also is
Yours; The world and all it contains, You have founded them. 12 The north and
the south, You have created them; Tabor and Hermon shout for joy at Your name. 13
You have a strong arm; Your hand is mighty, Your right hand is exalted. 14
Righteousness and justice are
the foundation of Your throne; Lovingkindness and truth go before You.
“15 How blessed are the people who know the
joyful sound! O LORD, they walk in the light of Your countenance. 16 In Your
name they rejoice all the day, And by Your righteousness they are exalted. 17
For You are the glory of their strength, And by Your favor our horn is exalted.
18 For our shield belongs to the LORD, And our king to the Holy One of Israel.”
I know that we have looked at the
word “Maskil” in different psalms for the word is found in 13 psalms. I thought it would be good to get a
definition for this word although it seems that the meaning of it is not at all
truly understood. “Maschil, (Maskil). A Heb.
Term found in the title of 13 psalms (Ps. 32, 42, 44, 45, 52, 53, 54, 55, 74,
48, 88, 89, 142), indicating the type of psalm, I,e., a didactic poem. The same Heb. Word is found in Ps. 47:7 where
in the KJV it is translated ‘understanding’ (NASB, ‘a skillful psalm’). It is probably based on a Heb. Verb meaning
‘to attend, to turn the mind to, to be understood or prudent.’ On the other hand, the term may indicate a
special kind of musical performance.” (Wycliffe
Bible Encyclopedia)
After reading the different
introductions on Psalm 89 I believe that this psalm was written after the fall
of Jerusalem, and was written for the purpose of praising the Lord for His
faithfulness even though I don’t see that the author has a total understanding
of what God is going to do. I sometimes
have this going on in my mind when I read something in Scripture and don’t
totally understand it, but I can say with confidence that the Lord understands
it and it is there for a purpose that He may reveal to me or He may not reveal
to me. When we look at the 7th
chapter of 2Samuel we see that it was the desire of David to build a temple for
the Lord, but the Lord would not allow him to build that temple because he had
shed much blood, but instead the Lord tells David that He would build a dynasty
for David, which of course ended with the coming of Messiah, Jesus Christ to
earth who reigns in heaven as King of Kings and will return to planet earth to
set up a 1000 year kingdom that He will lead from Jerusalem. The psalmist did not know all of these
details because the Lord had not revealed them at that time, yet the psalmist
is praising the Lord for His faithfulness for though he doesn’t understand all
of what God is going to do he still puts his trust in the Lord and this can be
seen in these beginning verses.
We see in these verses that the
earth praises the Lord, and there are praises going on in heaven to the
Lord. We see a good example of this from
Revelations 4-5. We see in verse 9-13
that the psalmist speaks of things on earth that cause praise to the Lord. Mt. Hermon is a high mountain where the
headwaters of the Jordan River begin.
Israel is God’s chosen nation and if
any people on earth have a right to praise the Lord it is them. God had given them the holy land and a
dynasty has sprung forth from David which will rule the earth, and they had the
light of the holy law that God had given to them. They had the special feast days to worship
the Lord. Yes God had given a lot to
Israel and Israel has given a lot to all mankind, especially the Lord Jesus
Christ, and the Word of God.
Dr. Wiersbe writes at the end of his
commentary on this section these words, “In verse 18, ‘our shield’ (NASB, NIV
refers to their king (84:9), now in captivity.
In many Jewish synagogues today, verses 15-18 are recited on their New
Year’s Day after the blowing of the shofar.”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: Praising
the Lord is a very important part of worship, and even when times are not what
we would want them to be it is still time to praise the Lord, and we can see
this from Psalm 89, for indeed the times were not the best, but the psalmist
begins this psalm with praise and knows that God is faithful.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
Knowing that God is faithful and worthy of my praise to Him teaches me
to be content.
5/17/2012
9:55:47 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment