SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
6/13/2012 9:46:13 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Psalm
94 (Introduction)
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm
94:1-7
Message
of the verses: We will begin this
psalm like we have begun many others, and that is by looking at some different
introductions from Bible Commentators whom I have access.
“SUBJECT: The writer sees evil doers
in power, and smarts under their oppressions. His sense of the divine
sovereignty, of which he had been singing in the previous Psalm, leads him to
appeal to God as the great Judge of the earth; this he does with much vehemence
and importunity, evidently tingling under the lash of the oppressor. Confident
in God’s existence, and assured of his personal observation of the doings of
men, the psalmist rebukes his atheistic adversaries, and proclaims his triumph
in his God: he also interprets the severe dispensation of Providence to be in
very deed most instructive chastisements, and so he counts those happy who
endure them. The Psalm is another pathetic form of the old enigma —"
Wherefore do the wicked prosper?" It is another instance of a good man
perplexed by the prosperity of the ungodly, cheering his heart by remembering
that there is, after all, a King in heaven, by whom all things are overruled
for good.” (Charles H. Spurgeon)
“The psalmist’s urgent concern in
this psalm is that the righteous are being oppressed, the wicked are
prospering, and it does not look as though God cares. The psalmist thus pleads with God to punish
the wicked (cf. Pss. 73, 82).” (The John
MacArthur Study Bible)
“Along with 10, 14, 73, and 92, the
writer deals with the seeming triumph of the wicked and the unjust treatment of
the helpless. But it is not foreign
conquerors who were guilty, but the leaders of the nation cooperating with the
local judges. Even the king was abusing
the people by issuing unjust edicts (v.20).
Perhaps the psalm came out of the sufferings of the godly during the
reign of wicked King Manasseh (2 Kings 21), whom the Lord blamed for the
destruction of Jerusalem (2 Kings 24:1-4).
But why is this psalm included in the section that magnifies the
kingship of the Lord (93-100)? Because
few problems cause God’s people to question His rule more than, ‘Why do the
helpless and the godly suffer and the wicked get away with their crimes?’ When it comes to dealing with the injustices in society, the psalm
teaches us that the righteous have four responsibilities.” (Warren Wiersbe)
Praying
to the Lord for Justice (vv. 1-7): “1
O LORD, God of vengeance, God of vengeance, shine forth! 2 Rise up, O Judge of
the earth, Render recompense to the proud. 3 How long shall the wicked, O LORD,
How long shall the wicked exult? 4 They pour forth words, they speak
arrogantly; All who do wickedness vaunt themselves. 5 They crush Your people, O
LORD, And afflict Your heritage. 6 They slay the widow and the stranger And
murder the orphans. 7 They have said, "The LORD does not see, Nor does the
God of Jacob pay heed.’” (NASB)
“1 O LORD, the God of vengeance,
O God of vengeance, let your glorious justice shine forth! 2 Arise, O judge of
the earth. Give the proud what they
deserve. 3 How long, O LORD? How long
will the wicked be allowed to gloat? 4 How long will they speak with
arrogance? How long will these evil
people boast? 5 They crush your people, LORD, hurting those you claim as your
own. 6 They kill widows and foreigners and murder orphans. 7 “The LORD isn’t
looking, ‘they say, “and besides, the God of Israel doesn’t care.’’” (NLT)
I have written about the attributes
of God in the past. It is the attribute of justice that we must look at as we
look at this Psalm. We see the word
“vengeance” in verse one of this psalm and many people get this mixed up with
the word “revenge.” Revenge often speaks
of being vindictive, and this would mean that God may be having a temper
tantrum and that is why He is avenging those who have wronged. God’s justice has to be completed for God is
holy, which is another, and perhaps the most important attribute that He
has. When we look at salvation in light
of God’s justice we know that sin had to be paid for because God is just and so
it was because of God’s love for the lost that He sent His Son to pay the price
of sin, and when Jesus hung on the cross and the world was dark He was making
sure that the justice of God was satisfied.
Now in the case of this section of
Psalm 94 we see the psalmist crying out to God for justice upon those who are
breaking God’s Laws. Dr. Wiersbe writes
“to avenge’ means to uphold the law and give justice to those who have been
wronged. Since the Lord is omniscient,
He is able to judge motives as well as actions and deal with situations and
people justly.”
I want to make one more point from
this section and that is from verse seven where we read that the wicked think
that the Lord is not looking and so they can do what they want. I can say that the psalmist does say that
these wicked people know that there is a God, but believe He is just not
looking, but we know that this is wrong for another of God’s attributes is that
He is omnipresent.
In our
world today we see that the wicked today are actually trying to tell people
that there is no God at all, and to me, this is worse than these wicked people
in this psalm. Today we see the “Theory
of Evolution” as one of the most dangerous teachings in our world today, for
the teaching of this “false religion” is that the world was not created, but it
just happened by an accident and thus we are not accountable to God who did
create the world.
Okay I do have one more point and so
the one before this one was not the last for me from this section. The psalmist talks about widows, orphans, and
foreigners in this section and these are special people that God looks out
for. There are many different passages
to show this but let us look at a couple, “20 “He who sacrifices to any god,
other than to the LORD alone, shall be utterly destroyed. 21 “You shall not
wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. 22
“You shall not afflict any widow or orphan. 23
"If you afflict him at all, and if he does cry out to Me, I will
surely hear his cry; 24 and My anger will be kindled, and I will kill you with
the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless.” (Ex. 22:20-24) “18 “He executes justice for the orphan and
the widow, and shows His love for the alien by giving him food and clothing. 19
“So show your love for the alien, for you were aliens in the land of
Egypt.” (Deu. 10:18-19) “17 Learn to do good; Seek justice, Reprove
the ruthless, Defend the orphan, Plead for the widow.” (Isa. 1:17)
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: It was a
number of years ago that I was leading a class at church. I was teaching on the life of Abraham and I
don’t remember exactly how the subject of justice came up but I do remember
that it did, and what I remember was that as believers, we are to ask the Lord
for justice on those who are doing wrong, but we are also to remember that God
will answer it in His timing. If God
would care for the things we do wrong right away we would not like that and so
we have to have patience that one day all of God’s wrath will be satisfied, and
so we must wait for God’s timing, but we are still to pray. Re 15:1 Then I saw another sign in heaven,
great and marvelous, seven angels who had seven plagues, which are the last,
because in them the wrath of God is finished.”
My Steps of Faith for Today:
Trust the Lord as I desire to remain or abide in the Vine so that I can
do what the Lord has for Me to do, and do it in His power for His glory.
Memory
verse for the week: 2Peter 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, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus
Christ.
6/13/2012
11:05:57 AM
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