SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
7/10/2012 5:53:56 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Psalm 104 PT-1
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm 104:1-9
Message of the verses: In Today’s SD we will begin to look at Psalm 104 by looking at several different Bible commentators introductions to the psalm. I believe that this is a good way to get an idea of what the psalmist is saying in the psalm.
“INTRODUCTION TO PSALM CHAPTER 104
It is very probable that this psalm was penned by the same hand, and at the same time, as the former; for as that ended this begins, with
"Bless the Lord, O my soul!"
and concludes with it too. The style indeed is somewhat different, because the matter is so: the scope of the foregoing psalm was to celebrate the goodness of God and his tender mercy and compassion, to which a soft and sweet style was most agreeable; the scope of this is to celebrate his greatness, and majesty, and sovereign dominion, which ought to be done in the most stately lofty strains of poetry. David, in the former psalm, gave God the glory of his covenant mercy and love to his own people; in this he gives him the glory of his works of creation and providence, his dominion over, and his bounty to, all the creatures. God is there praised as the God of grace, here as the God of nature. And this psalm is wholly bestowed on that subject; not as Psalm 19, which begins with it, but passes from it to the consideration of the divine law; nor as Psalm 8, which speaks of this but prophetically, and with an eye to Christ. This noble poem is thought by very competent judges greatly to excel, not only for piety and devotion (that is past dispute), but for flight of fancy, brightness of ideas, surprising turns, and all the beauties and ornaments of expression, the Greek and Latin poets upon any subject of this nature.” (Matthew Henry)
“In vivid poetic detail, the psalmist sings of the Lord’s creation (cf. Gen. 1, 2; Job 38-41; Pss. 19:1-6; 148:1-6; Pr. 30:4; Is. 40:1-6; Jn. 1:1-3; Rom. 1:18-25; Col. 1:16, 17). He refers to the original creation (cf. 104:5) without forgetting the fall of man and the cursed earth (104:23, 29, 35). He alternates reciting God’s greatness by 1) personal praise to the Creator (104:1, 2, 5-9, 20-30), and 20 declaring God’s handiwork to his human audience (104: 3, 4, 10-19, 31-35). The flow of the psalm loosely follows the order of creation as first reported in Gen. 1:1-31 but closes (v. 35) with an allusion to the end time events recorded in Rev. 20-22.” (The John MacArthur Study Bible)
“This is a magnificent hymn celebrating the glory of the Creator and the incredible greatness of His creation. Paul may have had this psalm in mind when he spoke to the Athenian philosophers (Acts 17:22-34, especially vv. 24-28), for it presents a God who created and now sustains a beautiful and bountiful world that reflects His glory (v. 31). The writer of the psalm certainly had Genesis 1 in mind when he wrote, even though he did not follow all six days of creation in detail, nor did he include the creation of man and woman (see. vv. 14, 23). He began with light (v. 2; Gen. 1:1-5) and continued with the separation of the upper and lower waters (vv. 2-4; Gen 1:6-8) and the separation of land and water (vv 5-9; Gen 1:9-10). The provision of vegetation is mentioned (vv. 14-17; Gen 1:11-13), as well as the placing of the sun and moon (vv. 19-23; Gen. 1:14-19), and the creation of land and sea creatures (vv. 24-25: Gen. 1:20-28). The psalm declares that our God is very great (v.1), very wise (v. 24), and very generous (v. 27). In spite of the fact that creation is in bondage to sin since the fall of man (Rom. 8:18-23), we still live in an amazing universe run by divinely ordained laws that are so remarkable we can send people to the moon and bring them back! Whether the scientist uses the telescope, the microscope, or the x-ray, he beholds the wonders of God’s creation.” (Warren Wiersbe)
The Greatness of Our God (vv. 1-9): “1 Bless the LORD, O my soul! O LORD my God, You are very great; You are clothed with splendor and majesty, 2 Covering Yourself with light as with a cloak, Stretching out heaven like a tent curtain. 3 He lays the beams of His upper chambers in the waters; He makes the clouds His chariot; He walks upon the wings of the wind; 4 He makes the winds His messengers, Flaming fire His ministers. 5 He established the earth upon its foundations, So that it will not totter forever and ever. 6 You covered it with the deep as with a garment; The waters were standing above the mountains. 7 At Your rebuke they fled, At the sound of Your thunder they hurried away. 8 The mountains rose; the valleys sank down To the place which You established for them. 9 You set a boundary that they may not pass over, So that they will not return to cover the earth.”
It was a little over a year ago while living in Hawaii that I began to study more about the creation due to a discussion that I had with a relative. We had to agree to disagree that the earth was young, which of course was my view, since that is what I believe the Bible teaches. At any rate the study of creation begin to cause my spiritual juices to begin to flow, and not it ranks up there with the study of the end times as one of my favorite themes in the Scriptures, so it is with great anticipation that I begin to look at Psalm 104. I want to comment on verse seven with regard to the psalmist writing “At the sound of Your thunder they hurried away.” It was in a baseball game that was played in Arlington Texas this past Sunday, July, 8, 2012 that there was such a loud blast of thunder that all of the ball players from both sides along with all the umpires ran off of the field, and headed for cover. There was no rain, just an extremely loud blast of thunder. One of the players was quoted as saying that he thought the Jesus was about to return to the earth.
I think that one of the greatest injustices that is happening in the world today is the study of evolution, something that I have said in earlier SD’s. It is amazing that one can look at this world, this universe and think that it happened by some kind of an accident. I attended a men’s breakfast late last year and the speaker commented about a Rolex watch that he was wearing that had been awarded to him, and his remarks were that the watch was a very fine watch, and that one could see that it had to have a designer, for it did not just happen by some kind of cosmic accident. His point was that this is what the evolutionists are teaching about something this is millions of times more complex than a watch.
The psalmist begins the psalm with the description of a King so great that He wears light for a robe and has a palace in heaven above the waters (“God made the expanse, and separated the waters which were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so.” Gen. 1:7) God can use the clouds for His chariot and is moved along by the wind. Verse four speaks of messengers, and these are His angels (“And of the angels He says, "WHO MAKES HIS ANGELS WINDS, AND HIS MINISTERS A FLAME OF FIRE.’” Hebrews 1:7). We read in verses 6-7a that the earth was covered with water and God spoke and the waters went into the place where God wanted them to go. Peter writes that the earth was made of water 2Pe 3:5 “For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water.” I think at times we underestimate the value of water, for our bodies are made up of a great majority of water and we need water. My wife plants tomato plants most years and it is my job to give them water, and God will turn the water that I give them into tomatoes. (I suppose some people just look at that as a cosmic accident.)
I want to go back to verse five and talk about the Lord just hanging the earth out in the middle of space. The verse says that the earth will not totter. This is a remarkable statement, for the earth is in perfect balance at it travels through space, and if it were not then the people who live on the earth would fly off the earth because of the vibration. ‘”He stretches out the north over empty space And hangs the earth on nothing.’” (Job 26:7)
Dr. Wiersbe writes “In all this creative activity, the Lord has revealed Himself in His power and glory. ‘The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands’ (19:1, NASB). Day and night, the visible things of creation shout aloud to the inhabitants of the earth that there is a God, that He is powerful and wise, and that all people are accountable to Him (Rom. 1:18-32). Are the people paying attention?” Good question!
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Evolution is something that causes great anger to well up in me because it is a lie and people believe lies so that they do not have to be accountable to God, but the fact remains that all of the people in the world, both those who are dead, alive and yet to be born are accountable to God. God makes Himself known through His creation but people would rather believe a lie.
The Heavens declare the glory of God!
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to abide in the Vine, and continue to study His Word.
Memory verses for the week: 2Peter 1:1-5
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 be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of 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 own glory and excellence. 4. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.
5. Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge,
7/10/2012 7:23:40 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment