SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
6/16/2012 8:49:09 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Psalm
95 PT-2
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm
95:6-11
Message
of the verses: In the last SD we
looked at several introductions from different Bible Commentators and then
looked at the first five verses of Psalm 95.
At the end of his introductory commentary Dr. Wiersbe wrote the
following, “As the psalmist calls God’s people to celebrate the Lord, he gives
us three admonitions to obey.”
Bow
Down and Worship the Lord (vv. 6-7a): “6
Come, let us worship and bow down, Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker. 7 For He is our God, And we are the people of
His pasture and the sheep of His hand.”
Dr. Wiersbe writes “Praise means
looking up, but worship means bowing down.”
As I wrote a bit about some of the problems that the church faces in
today’s world, that there are some people who love to praise the Lord in their
services, but do not desire to bow the knee in worship to the Lord. It was now perhaps ten years ago that while
vacationing in Florida that my wife and I visited a church where for the first
hour of the service all that was going on was singing with people getting out
in the isles to sing and dance before the Lord.
After that was done there was a sermon that lasted just fifteen
minutes. I felt then as I still do now
that the preaching should take up an hour and the singing fifteen minutes and
from his commentary on this I believe that Dr. Wiersbe feels the same way. Bowing down before the Lord to worship Him
takes time and is a very important in the growth of the believer. Worship is 24/7 for whatever we are doing we
are in worship whether we know it or not.
We are to prepare for our corporate worship that happens in our church
services by making our private worship meaningful through the rest of the week.
Dr. Wiersbe writes “True worship is
much deeper than communal praise, for worship involves realizing the awesomeness
of God and experiencing the fear of the Lord and a deeper love for Him. Too often Christian ‘praise’ is nothing but
religious entertainment and it never moves into spiritual enrichment in the
presence of the Lord. Our singing must
give way to silence as we bow before the Lord.
He alone is Jehovah, the Lord, the covenant making and covenant-keeping
God. He is our Maker and our
Shepherd. Jubilation has its place only
if it becomes adoration and we are prostrate before the Lord in total
submission, ‘lost in wonder, love and praise.’
What a remarkable miracle of grace that we sinners should be called ‘His
people.’ He made us, He saved us, and He
cares for us! Why should we hesitate to
fall before Him in total surrender?”
Hear
and Obey the Lord (vv. 7b-11): “Today,
if you would hear His voice, 8 Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, As in
the day of Massah in the wilderness, 9 ‘When your fathers tested Me, They tried
Me, though they had seen My work. 10 “For forty years I loathed that generation,
And said they are a people who err in their heart, And they do not know My
ways. 11 “Therefore I swore in My anger, Truly they shall not enter into My
rest.’”
We learned in the last SD that this
section is quoted in the book of Hebrews 3:7-4:13.
We can divide this section into
smaller portions so that we can better understand it, and if we better
understand it then we will be able to live a life that is pleasing to the Lord
and grow up in our walk with the Lord.
In the last part of verse six we see these words “Hear His voice.” When we got to our churches we are privileged
to hear the Word of God. When we pick up
our Bibles and read and study them we are again privileged to hear the Word of
God, and that is so very important in our walk with the Lord. In the 119th Psalm the psalmist
writes 176 verses about the Word of God and he mentions the Word of God in some
form in all but three of those 176 verses.
This is the longest chapter in the longest book of God’s Word and it
speaks about God’s Word. Dr. Wiersbe
writes “The way we treat the Word of God
is the way we treat the God of the Word.”
Let’s look at three verses from the Gospels that will show us that Jesus
admonishes us to take heed that we
hear: “"He who has ears, let him
hear.’” (Matthew 13:9) Take heed what
we hear: “And He was saying to them,
"Take care what you listen to. By your standard of measure it will be
measured to you; and more will be given you besides.” (Mark 4:24)
Take heed how we hear: “"So
take care how you listen; for whoever has, to him more shall be given; and
whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has shall be taken away from
him.’” (Luke 8:18)
The psalmist mentions two incidents
from the earlier times in the history of the nation of Israel as he goes back
to the incident that took place in Rephidim that is found in Exodus
17:1-17. He then goes back to the
incident that took place in Kadesh Barnea that is found in Numbers chapters
13-14. In the book of Genesis chapter 15
God made a promise to Abraham that his offspring would go into a land where
they would be treated badly for four hundred years and then God would send a
deliverer to bring them out of that land and bring them into the land where
Abraham had come to live, and that of course was the Promised Land. It happened just as God told Abraham as Moses
was born and lived in Egypt for 40 years and then left and lived in the
wilderness tending sheep for 40 years and then the Lord called him to return to
Egypt to deliver Israel from there where he was to bring them back to the
Promises Land just as God had promised.
God did ten miracles through Moses in order to destroy Egypt and thus
Pharaoh allowed Israel to leave, but God would harden his heart one more time and
so pharaoh would go after Israel and he found them up against the Red Sea. Pharaoh must have thought that he had them
now, but God had other plans. The people
of Israel were in a panic and cried out to Moses for help. Moses cried out to God and God opened the Red
Sea so that Israel passed through on dry land, but when Pharaoh followed God
closed the sea and they all drowned in the Red Sea and would not bother Israel
again. Now the people have just seen
another miracle from God that saved their lives.
Now after this the people arrived at
Rephidim and began to complain that they did not have any water to drink. Dr. Wiersbe writes “Instead of trusting God
they blamed God and His servant Moses.
God graciously game them water out of the rock, but Moses commemorated
the even with two new names for the site:
Meribah means ‘strife, quarreling, contention,’ and Massah means testing
(See also Numbers 20:1-13).”
We move a bit ahead in the history
of Israel, about 14-15 months, for Israel spent 14 months at Sinai where God
gave them His Law and the tabernacle was built so that sacrifice could be
offered to the Lord. The tribe of Levi
was chosen to care for the tabernacle and the family of Aaron was chosen to be
priest to minister at the tabernacle.
The next step was to go into the Promised Land in order to conquer it
and then they would live there in this land that God had promised Abraham so
many years ago. We see that when the
children of Israel made it to Kadesh Barnea that according to the book of Deuteronomy
the people asked Moses and the Lord to send spies into the land in order to spy
it out. It took forty days and ten of
the twelve spies came back with a bad or should I say fearful report. God was very upset with Israel because of
their unbelief and because of their unbelief God make Israel march in the
wilderness for the next 38 years making a total of 40 years marching in the
wilderness as all of the older generation died off. Dr. Wiersbe reports that it was the longest
funeral march in history as probably 2 million people died in that march. Israel did not enter into God’s rest and the
writer of Hebrews picks up on this when he writes to the church saying that
they have to enter into God’s rest. This
passage in Hebrews has been puzzling to Bible commentators for a long time
wondering what this rest was all about.
The children of Israel spent 40 years wondering in the wilderness
because they failed to believe God would use them to conquer Canaan and the
rest that is spoken about in Hebrews is salvation rest, which was provided by Jesus
Christ with His death on the cross. Dr.
Wiersbe writes “Hebrews 1-4 is God’s admonition to the church today to live by
faith, and ‘faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God’ (Romans
10:17, NKJV). Because the Jews refused
to hear His Word but hardened their heats instead, God was disgusted with His
people, and all the people twenty years old and older died during that
wilderness journey. We harden our hearts when we see
what God can do but refuse to trust Him so He can do it for us. We fail to cultivate a godly heart that fears
and honors the Lord. It is a grievous
sin to ask for the gifts (food, water, etc.) but ignore the Giver, and the
consequences are painful.”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I desire
to trust the Lord to teach me from His Word so that I can claim the promises
that are found in them in order to live a life that is pleasing to the
Lord. According to this passage I am to
trust the Lord and not to have unbelief in my heart as the children of Israel
did in their wilderness journey.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue
to abide “remain” in the Vine.
Memory
verses for the week: 2Peter 1:1-2, 1. “Simon
Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who have received a faith
of the same kind as ours, but the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus
Christ: 2. Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of
Jesus our Lord; “
6/16/2012
10:24:22 AM
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