SPIRITUAL
DIARY FOR 6/11/2012 8:34:28 AM
My
Worship Time Focus: Psalm 93 PT-1
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm 93
Message
of the verses: After looking at
First and Second Peter for sometime we are back into the book of Psalms picking
up where we left off a short while ago with Psalm 93. We will begin with the introduction of Psalm
93 and then look at the Psalm.
“This short psalm sets forth the
honour of the kingdom of God among men, to his glory, the terror of his
enemies, and the comfort of all his loving subjects. It relates both to the
kingdom of his providence, by which he upholds and governs the world, and
especially to the kingdom of his grace, by which he secures the church,
sanctifies and preserves it. The administration of both these kingdoms is put
into the hands of the Messiah, and to him, doubtless, the prophet here hears
witness, and to his kingdom, speaking of it as present, because sure; and
because, as the eternal Word, even before his incarnation he was Lord of all.
Concerning God’s kingdom glorious things are here spoken.” (Matthew Henry)
“This brief Psalm is without title
or name of author, but its subject is obvious enough, being stated in the very
first line. It is the Psalm of Omnipotent Sovereignty: Jehovah, despite all
opposition, reigns supreme. Possibly at the time this sacred ode was written,
the nation was in danger from its enemies, and the hopes of the people of God
were encouraged by remembering that the Lord was still King. What sweeter and
surer consolation could they desire?”
(Charles H. Spurgeon)
“Psalms 93 and 95-100 emphasize the
sovereign rule of Jehovah, the King of Israel, in the affairs of the
nations. (Psalm 94 focuses on God the
Judge, which is an important aspect of His righteous rule.) Psalm 93 was perhaps written by one of the
Levites who returned to Judah with the Jewish remnant after the Babylonian
captivity. The Medes and Persians defeated
Babylon in 539 B.C. and the next year Cyrus, the new king, gave the Jews
permission to return to their land, rebuild their temple, and restore their
nation. It was an especially difficult
time for the Jewish remnant (see Ezra and Haggai) and their work was
interrupted, attacked, and neglected.
The leaders and the people needed encouragement to continue the work,
and this encouragement could come only from the Lord. This brief hymn magnifies the Lord by
presenting three divine assurances.”
(Warren Wiersbe)
God
Reigns Supremely (vv. 1-2): “1 The
LORD reigns, He is clothed with majesty; The LORD has clothed and girded
Himself with strength; Indeed, the world is firmly established, it will not be
moved. 2 Your throne is established from of old; You are from everlasting.”
Our Pastor has been preaching
through the book of 1 Peter and in that book one can see the hopefulness that
one can have when they are a part of the family of God through putting their
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord. There was persecution coming to the readers
of Peter’s first letter and he wanted to give them hope. As I look at these first two verses of Psalm
93 I can also see reasons to be confident and hopeful in the Lord. I see the powerfulness of the Lord as He
reigns, as He is clothed in majesty, as He is strong, for He is stronger than
anyone else. The Lord controls all
aspects of this world even though some don’t think this is true. The fact is that if the Lord did not have
control over on single molecule, then He would cease to be God. However He does have control over everything
and thus He is God over all.
In verse two we see that the Lord
has in the past and will in the future reign over all because God is eternal
and has always existed and has always been supreme. As humans we have a hard time understanding
the eternality of God because we live in “time,” and God lives outside of
time. God created time when He created
the earth and the stars and all the planets for our time is measured as the
earth rotates around and also rotates around the sun. One rotation of the earth is twenty-four
hours, and one rotation around the sun is one year, thus we have time.
As we have seen in Dr. Wiersbe’s
introduction he believes that this psalm was written in the post captivity of
the nation of Judah, after they came back into their land. We know that God allowed Nebuchadnezzar to
attack and defeat the Jewish people and to destroy the temple and also the city
of Jerusalem, but God also used Daniel to witness to the leaders of the nation
of Babylon and also the nation of the Medes and the Persians. God is always in control and God had promised
through the prophet Isaiah that Cyrus would allow the people to return to their
land. We read about this in Isaiah
chapters 44 and 45. We see by this that
God is in control, working out what He has planned, for God named Cyrus many
years before he was even born and this shows that God not only knows all things
but is in control of all things. The
Jewish people needed to be reminded that Jehovah was still king even though
they were going through some difficult times and so Psalm 93 would be an
encouragement to them.
I just listened to Isaiah chapter
six last night and in that chapter I am reminded of what I read in verses one
and two of Psalm 93: “1 In the year of
King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with
the train of His robe filling the temple.”
(Isaiah 6:1)
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I see
that God is in total control of all things, I see that God is on His throne,
and because of this I can trust the Lord even in difficult times. I must admit that when things are going well
it is harder to trust the Lord, but that is when it is most important to trust
the Lord.
My
Steps of Faith for Today:
I desire to remain in the Vine, to abide in the Vine so that I can
produce the fruit that God has planned for me to produce in my life.
Memory
verse for the week: 2Peter 1:1, “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:”
6/11/2012
9:12:34 AM
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