SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
5/3/2012 8:32:56 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
More on Worship
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm
81:5b-16
Message
of the verses: We began to look at
Psalm 81 in yesterdays and we looked at the first five verses and also several
introductions. At the end of Dr.
Wiersbe’s introduction he wrote: “The
psalm reminds us of three different aspects of true worship.” We looked at the first aspect in yesterday’s
SD.
Hearing God’s Word (vv. 6-10):
“I heard a language that I did not know: 6 “I relieved his shoulder of
the burden, His hands were freed from the basket. 7 “You called in trouble and
I rescued you; I answered you in the hiding place of thunder; I proved you at
the waters of Meribah. Selah. 8
"Hear, O My people, and I will admonish you; O Israel, if you would listen
to Me! 9 “Let there be no strange god among you; Nor shall you worship any
foreign god. 10 "I, the LORD, am your
God, Who brought you up from the land of Egypt; Open your mouth wide and I will
fill it.”
“I heard an unknown voice say, 6 “Now
I will take the load from your shoulders;
I will free your hands from their heavy tasks. 7 You cried to me in
trouble, and I saved you; I answered out of the thundercloud and tested your
faith when there was no water at Meribah.
Interlude 8 “Listen to me, O my people, while I give you stern
warnings. O Israel, if you would only
listen to me! 9 You must never have a foreign god; you must not bow down before
a false god. 10 For it was I, the LORD your God, who rescued you from the land
of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I
will fill it with good things.” (NLT)
We see that the last part of verse
five from both the NLT and the NASB95 versions says that they heard an unknown
voice, and Dr. Wiersbe points out that this unknown voice is the voice of God
and He speaks in verses 6-10.
In the first five verses of this
psalm we looked at one of the festivals that God had set up while the children
of Israel were in the wilderness and Dr. Wiersbe points out that “at some point
in the festal celebration, a pries received God’s message and declared it to
the people.” This reminds me of when
Jesus came into the festival of booths and spoke to the people declaring “"If
anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. 38 “He who believes in Me, as
the Scripture said, ’From his innermost being will flow rivers of living
water.’’” Jesus was speaking of the Holy
Spirit when making this statement. Dr.
Wiersbe comments on this by writing “At the Feast of Tabernacles, the priests
poured out water in the temple to commemorate these events.” The events that he is speaking of are what
happened at Meribah where the people had not trusted the Lord (See Exodus 17
and Numbers 20).
One of the things we should be doing
when we pray to the Lord is to listen to the Lord, and one of the ways that we
can listen to Him is to meditate upon the Word of God, but we can also listen
to Him by asking Him to speak to our hearts when we are praying. I have always found this difficult to do
because it seems that your mind never shuts down, you are always thinking about
something and so I have to pray that the Lord will slow me down so that I can
listen to Him. We see many times in the
book of Deuteronomy that the Lord desires His people to listen to Him.
By speaking of God’s covenant to His
people in this psalm He reminds them that they too are part of this covenant
that their forefathers had made with the Lord.
Dr. Wiersbe writes when commenting
on the Lord reminding the people of His deliverance from the land of Egypt
these words: “Frequently the Lord
reminded His people of their miraculous deliverance from Egypt (v. 6), the
power of God that accomplished it, and the love of God that motivated it.” These are two of the attributes that God
possesses Power and Love.
Obeying God’s Will (vv.
11-16): “11 “But My people did not listen
to My voice, And Israel did not obey Me. 12 “So I gave them over to the stubbornness of their heart,
To walk in their own
devices. 13 “Oh
that My people would listen to Me, That Israel would walk in My ways! 14
“I would quickly subdue their enemies And turn My hand against their
adversaries. 15 “Those who hate the LORD would pretend obedience to Him, And
their time of punishment would be forever. 16 “But I would feed you with the
finest of the wheat, And with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.’”
“11 “But no, my people wouldn’t
listen. Israel did not want me around. 12
So I let them follow their own stubborn desires, living according to their own
ideas. 13 Oh, that my people would listen to me! Oh, that Israel would follow me, walking in
my paths! 14 How quickly I would then subdue their enemies! How soon my hands would be upon their foes! 15
Those who hate the LORD would cringe before him; they would be doomed forever. 16
But I would feed you with the finest wheat.
I would satisfy you with wild honey from the rock.’’” (NLT)
First we will look at two verses
that show that worship and service go together:
“"You shall fear only the LORD your God; and you shall worship Him
and swear by His name.” (Deu. 6:13) “Then Jesus said to him, "Go, Satan! For
it is written, ’YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND SERVE HIM ONLY.’"” (Matthew 4:10) We read in Psalm 81:1-16 that God’s people
would not serve the Lord but wanted to go their own way and so the Lord let
them do this. Sometimes the hardest thing that God can do to us
is to let us have our own way.
The children of Israel that came out of Egypt did not listen to the Lord
and after Israel went into the Promised Land their children did not listen to
the Lord either and in the book of Judges we see a decline of the spirituality
of the children of Israel throughout that entire book. If the children of Israel would have obeyed
the Lord then He would have blessed them as He said He would in the covenant
that He made with them. Dr. Wiersbe
writes “When we disobey
the Lord, not only do we feel the pain of His chastening, but we also miss out
on the blessings He so desires to give us. The Lord gave Israel water out of the rock,
but He was prepared to give them honey out of the rock (Deu. 32:13). He sent manna from heaven, but He would have
given them the finest wheat. The word
‘if’ (v. 13) is small, but it carries big consequences (Der. 5:29; 32:29; Isa.
48:18; Matt. 23:37).
“Of all sad words of tongue or pen,
The saddest are these: ‘It might
have been.’” (John Greenleaf Whittier)
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I desire
to listen to the Lord and obey what He tells me to do. This is one of the things that I have been
reminded of in these two sections from Psalm 81.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I
want to be a better listener of God and obey Him.
5/3/2012
9:30:17 AM
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