SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
7/7/2012 7:36:50 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Psalm 103 PT-1
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm 103:1-6
Message of the verses: We will begin Today’s SD by looking at several introductions to the 103rd Psalm, and then begin to look at the psalm.
“This psalm calls more for devotion than exposition; it is a most excellent psalm of praise, and of general use. The psalmist,
“I. Stirs up himself and his own soul to praise God (#Ps 103:1,2) for his favour to him in particular (#Ps 103:3-5), to the church in general, and to all good men, to whom he is, and will be, just, and kind, and constant (#Ps 103:6-18), and for his government of the world #Ps 103:19.
“II. He desires the assistance of the holy angels, and all the works of God, in praising him #Ps 103:20-22. In singing this psalm we must in a special manner get our hearts affected with the goodness of God and enlarged in love and thankfulness.” (Matthew Henry)
“TITLE: A Psalm of David. — Doubtless by David; it is in his own style when at its best, and we should attribute it to his later years when he had a higher sense of the preciousness of pardon, because a keener sense of sin, than in his younger days. His clear sense of the frailty of life indicates his weaker years, as also does the very fullness of his praiseful gratitude. As in the lofty Alps some peaks rise above all others so among even the inspired Psalms there are heights of song which overtop the rest. This one hundred and third Psalm has ever seemed to us to be the Monte Rosa of the divine chain of mountains of praise, glowing with a ruddier light than any of the rest. It is as the apple tree among the trees of the wood, and its golden fruit has a flavor such as no fruit ever bears unless it has been ripened in the full sunshine of mercy. It is man’s reply to the benedictions of his God, his Song on the Mount answering to his Redeemer’s Sermon on the Mount. Nebuchadnezzar adored his idol with flute, harp, sacbut, psaltery, dulcimer and all kinds of music; and David, in far nobler style awakens all the melodies of heaven and earth in honour of the one only living and true God. Our attempt at exposition is commenced under an impressive sense of the utter impossibility of doing justice to so sublime a composition; we call upon our soul and all that is within us to aid in the pleasurable task; but, alas, our soul is finite, and our all of mental faculty far too little for the enterprise. There is too much in the Psalm, for a thousand pens to write, it is one of those all-comprehending Scriptures which is a Bible in itself, and it might alone almost suffice for the hymn-book of the church.” (Charles H. Spurgeon)
“Psalm 103 and 104 appear as an intentional pair designed to promote the blessing and exaltation of God. This psalm represents a soliloquy in which David surveys God’s goodness and encourages the angles and the works of God’s creation to join him in divine praise.” (John MacArthur Study Bible)
“The Four psalms that close Book Four of the book of Psalms (90-106) emphasize praise to the Lord for several reasons: His benefits to His people 103), His care of His creation (1-4), His wonderful acts on behalf of Israel (1-5), His longsuffering with His people’s rebellion (106). There are not requests in this psalm; it is only praise to the Lord. In studying this psalm, we must remember that God’s blessings on Israel depended on their obedience to His covenant (vv. 17-18), and believers today must also be obedient to God’s will if they would enjoy God’s best (2Cor. 6:14-7:1). The psalm also admonishes us not to forget the blessings after we have received them and enjoyed them. ‘In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you’ (1Thes. 5:18 NKJV). David started with individual and personal praise (vv. 1-6), then moved to national praise (vv. 6-19), and concluded with universal praise (vv. 20-22).” (Warren Wiersbe)
Personal Praise to the Lord (vv. 1-6): “1 A Psalm of David: Bless the LORD, O my soul, And all that is within me, bless His holy name. 2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget none of His benefits; 3 Who pardons all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases; 4 Who redeems your life from the pit, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion; 5 Who satisfies your years with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle. 6 The LORD performs righteous deeds And judgments for all who are oppressed.”
As we begin to look at this psalm we need to have a definition of what the word “bless” means when we see it in the Scriptures: “To ‘bless the Lord’ means to delight His heart by expressing love and gratitude for all He is and all He does.” (Warren Wiersbe) I believe we get the word “elegy” from the Hebrew word for bless which means we are to say wonderful things about the Lord.
There are times when my little grandson Matthew will come up to me and tell me “I love you grandpa, or he will say “you’re the best.” This is the kind of thing that we, as children of God are to say to Him, not just because He has done something for us, but just because we love Him and desire to bless His heart. Dr. Wiersbe writes “True praise comes from a grateful heart that sincerely wants to glorify and please the Lord. ‘All that is within me’ means that all of our inner being is focused on the Lord—heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark. 12:28-31). It also means that we are prepared to obey His will after our praise has ended.” We will find the word “all” some nine times in this psalm, and from this we can see that we need to have a total commitment to the Lord.
As we look at verses 3-5 we see six special blessings from the hand of the Lord that David gives to us. They are forgiveness, healing, redemption, love, satisfaction and renewal. When we look at the word ”forgiveness” and how it is used in the Scriptures we will see that it only refers to God’s forgiveness of sinners (see verses 10-12 of Psalm 103). The word translated “iniquity” means: “perversity, depravity, iniquity, guilt or punishment of iniquity.” Those who have trusted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior have been forgiven of all of their sins. We know from reading the story of David that he knew something about the forgiveness of God. Read both Psalm 32 and 51 to get a picture of this as both psalms were written after David had sinned with Bathsheba.
When we read that God heals every disease (Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness,” Matthew 9:35), we see that He has the power to heal every kind of disease, but God is not obligated to do so. I believe that if we as believers hold God accountable to heal us that we are putting God into a box and that is not a right thing to do. When the Church began we saw that the apostles had the power to heal many people and even raise some from the dead. I believe that these were “sign gifts,” given to the early church in order to show that God is the One behind it. We read of many times when Paul would heal many people, yet we also read towards the end of his ministry in Philippians 2:25-30 and also in 2Timothy 4:20 that he was unable to heals two of his friends. In both of these circumstances the Church has been established and so these sign gifts were not necessary any longer. I am not saying that God does not heal people today; for when I was a new believer a friend explained this to me by telling me “God heals you every time except the last time.” This has always made good sense to me.
When we look at the word redeem the Jewish people must have remembered when the Lord took them out of Egypt, for they were in great bondage while in Egypt and the Lord redeemed them from the land of slavery to give them a new land that flowed with milk and honey. We can also look at the word redeem and also the use of the word “pit” found in verse 4 and see that God is the One who redeems us who are about to fall into a pit. David was familiar with this word pit for he wrote in Psalm 40:2 these words, “He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm.”
We see the word crown and we know that David knew something about crowns, for he was king of Israel, “but no crown he ever would compared with God’s lovingkindness and compassion.”
In the KJV of the Bible we read in verse five the word “mouth” “Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” In the NASB we read “5 Who satisfies your years with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle.” The Amplified version of the Bible reads, “Who satisfies your mouth [your necessity and desire at your personal age] with good; so that your youth renewed, is like the eagles [strong, overcoming, soaring]! [Isa. 40:31)” Dr. Wiersbe writes “The word translated ‘mouth’ is a bit of a puzzle since it is usually translated ‘ornaments’ or jewelry,’ words that hardly fit this context. Some students interpret the word to mean ‘duration’ or years’ (seen NASB). No matter how old we become God can satisfy the needs of our lives and the spiritual desire of our hearts. The legend about the physical renewal of the eagle is not what David had in mind in verse 5. Like most birds, eagles do molt and have what seems to be a new lease on life. But the picture here is that of the believer being strengthened by the Lord even in old age and able to ‘soar’ like the eagle (Isa. 40:31).”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: In yesterday’s SD we looked at the last part of Psalm 102 and in that psalm the psalmist asked the Lord not to take his life from him at an age where he was not old. In today’s SD we read that David speaks of healing and soaring like an eagle. Both of these had great meaning to me in what I was going through and I can praise the Lord today.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to abide or remain in the Vine in order to get my marching orders from the Lord. Continue to learn contentment.
Memory verses for the week: 2Peter 1:1-4
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: 2. Grace and peace by multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord; 3. seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His glory and excellence. 4. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them we can become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.
7/7/2012 9:25:19 AM
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