SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
7/19/2012 9:24:26 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Psalm
106 PT-2
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm
106:7-23
Message
of the verses: In Today’s SD we will
continue to look at Psalm 106, which is a fairly long psalm that is about some
of the history of the nation of Israel.
It is thought that this unknown psalmist wrote this psalm after the
Jewish people returned to Jerusalem from the nation of Babylon. It was necessary for the Jews to remember
where they came from and who they were in order to fulfill the plans that God
had for them to fulfill, which will include the birth of the Messiah, Jesus
Christ.
Dr. Wiersbe writes the following at
the end of his first major point to this psalm:
“As we study this psalm, it may be like witnessing an autopsy, but we
will benefit from it if, like the psalmist, we keep our eyes on the Lord of
glory and see His kindness and faithfulness to His sinful people.” There are nine parts to this psalm and we
looked at the first one yesterday and will proceed with the second part today
and perhaps we will go further.
Triumphant
Beginnings (vv. 7-12): “7 Our
fathers in Egypt did not understand Your wonders; They did not remember Your
abundant kindnesses, But rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea. 8 Nevertheless He saved them for the sake of
His name, That He might make His power known. 9 Thus He rebuked the Red
Sea and it dried up, And He led them through the deeps, as through the
wilderness. 10 So He saved them from the hand of the one who hated them, And
redeemed them from the hand of the enemy. 11 The waters covered their
adversaries; Not one of them was left. 12 Then they believed His words; They sang
His praise.”
In these verses we see what happened
to Israel when they first came out of Egypt, which is recorded in Exodus
14:10-31. God had just finished
performing ten mighty miracles in order for the Egyptians to allow Israel to
leave, and the scene we have here is that Israel has left and now they have
come to the Red Sea which is in front of them and then they turn around and see
Pharaoh’s army with all his chariots coming after them. The sea in front and the army behind, so the
people panic and cry out to Moses. I
suppose the first question that one would ask is “How are You going to get us
out of this mess that we are in Lord?”
This is not the attitude that they had though. Dr. Wiersbe writes “They were looking back
instead of looking up and were walking by sight and not by faith. They preferred the security of slavery to the
challenges of liberty. ‘Let us go back to Egypt!’ was frequently their response
when they found themselves in a situation that demanded faith.”
Moses on the other hand looked at
this situation differently for it was an experience of faith that would glorify
God. For the people this would be
another spectacular event which they had seen ten times before. Dr. Wiersbe writes “But are God’s people any
different today?” I suppose that the
answer is that God’s people today are not much different today than they were
back then, but they should be. Why
should they be? Well for one thing most
of God’s people today have a completed Bible to read, which those people did
not have then. Believers today have the
Holy Spirit living in them, which these people did not have. In one of his commentaries Dr. Wiersbe asked
a question in which the answer speaks volumes.
I think that the commentary was on the books of Ruth and Ester in which
he asked if the Holy Spirit was taken out of the Church today would it make any
difference. His answer was NO! I suppose that I would have to agree with him
in that answer because I believe that in most cases believers today are trying
to please the Lord and work for the Lord in their own strength, not depending
upon the Holy Spirit. Of course there
are people who do not fall into this category, but it seems that many believers
today do.
Dangerous
Decline (vv. 13:23): “13 They
quickly forgot His works; They did not wait for His counsel, 14 But craved
intensely in the wilderness, And tempted God in the desert. 15 So He gave them
their request, But sent a wasting disease among them. 16 When they became
envious of Moses in the camp, And of Aaron, the holy one of the LORD, 17 The
earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, And engulfed the company of Abiram. 18
And a fire blazed up in their company; The flame consumed the wicked. 19 They
made a calf in Horeb And worshiped a molten image. 20 Thus they exchanged their
glory For the image of an ox that eats grass. 21 They forgot God their Savior,
Who had done great things in Egypt, 22 Wonders in the land of Ham And awesome
things by the Red Sea. 23 Therefore He said that He would destroy them, Had not
Moses His chosen one stood in the breach before Him, To turn away His wrath
from destroying them.”
I want to begin this section with a
quote from George Morrison who wrote, “The Lord took Israel out of Egypt in one
night, but it took Him forty years to take Egypt out of Israel.” We see in this section that the seeds of
unbelief that were deep in the hearts of the children of Israel began to take
root and bear bitter fruit in their lives.
When I was studying the book of Exodus earlier I remember that there was
a group of people that came out of Egypt with Israel that caused a lot of
trouble, and most of them were not of the sons of Israel. They were like a bad sheep that leads the
rest of the sheep into trouble.
We see in this section of the psalm
different things that the children of Israel did wrong and thus caused a great
deal of trouble for Moses and Aaron their leaders. As soon as the Lord dried up the Red Sea
allowing Israel to walk through on dry ground they began to crave water (Ex.
15:22-27), and then it was food (Ex. 16) and then they craved meat (Num.
11:4-15, 31-35). At this craving for
meat the Lord said that He would give them enough meat so that it would come
out of their noses. How do you feed a
couple of million people meat in the desert?
The answer was quail as the Lord caused millions of quail to land on the
ground near the camp of Israel and Israel ate quail until it came out their
noses. We must remember to be careful
what we pray for, for sometime the answer is not what we really want. God then gave the people manna, which
actually means “what is it.” That is
what the people said when they first saw this bread that came with the dew on
the ground in the morning and Israel had to gather enough for their family each
morning with the exception of the Sabbath, where they were to gather enough for
two days the day before the Sabbath.
We also see the incident of making
the golden calf that happened when Moses was up on the mountain getting the Law
of the Lord, the Ten Commandments. It
has been said that the children of Israel were trying to put a face on God, who
brought them out of Egypt, but this would surely go against the commandments
that God was giving to Moses on the mountain.
This angered both the Lord and Moses and many people died because of
this incident. Moses had to intercede
for Aaron or God would have killed him too.
Another incident here in this
section is when there was rebellion in the camp about who was the real leader
that God had given to Israel. The answer
of course was Moses along with Aaron.
Because of this rebellion the earth would open up and kill Dathan and
some of his followers. Dr. Wiersbe
writes about the rebellion of Korah which is found in Numbers 16-17, and states
that this rebellion would lead to a bigger one that happened at Kadesh Barnea,
in which the children of Israel refused to enter the Promised Land. He writes “Korah was a Levite in the family
of Kohath whose privilege it was to carry the tabernacle furnishings. But Kohath was not satisfied with that task;
he wanted to function at the altar as a priest (Num. 14:8-10). Pride and selfish ambition have always
brought trouble to God’s people (Phil. 2:1-11; James 4:1-10). These rebels were opposing the will of God,
for it was the Lord who chose Moses and Aaron to lead the nation, and so the
Lord destroyed Korah and his followers.
Respect for God’s leaders is important to the success of the Lord’s work
(Heb. 13:7, 17).
“The first failure involved the lust
of the flesh and the second involved the pride of life (1John 2:15-17). The third failure, the worship of the golden
calf, involved the lust of the eyes.”
I want to focus in on verse
twenty-three where we read, “Had not Moses His chosen one stood in the breach
before Him.” This pictures a soldier
standing in the breach of the wall to keep the enemy from coming in, and this
is a wonderful picture of intercessory prayer. "I searched for a man among
them who would build up the wall and stand in the gap before Me for the land,
so that I would not destroy it; but I found no one.” (Ezekiel 22:30)
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I have to
go back to one of the quotes that Dr. Wiersbe gave, for it stepped on my toes,
“. Respect for God’s leaders is
important to the success of the Lord’s work (Heb. 13:7, 17). “Remember those who led you, who spoke the
word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their
faith.” “Obey your leaders and submit to
them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account.
Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable
for you.” I may be taking this a bit out
of context, but I also read in the book of Romans, and I believe it is towards
the end of that letter that Paul speaks of praying for our governmental
leaders, and at the time Paul wrote Romans they had some very bad political
leaders, but Paul admonishes believers to pray for them. Under the current leadership of our country
it is difficult for me to pray for them, but I know that I should for I read in
the book of Daniel, “"It is He who changes the times and the epochs; He
removes kings and establishes kings; He gives wisdom to wise men And knowledge
to men of understanding.’” God chooses
the leaders of nations to bring about His plans. It was in our church service this past Sunday
that a guest speaker said that even in a democracy evil people will elect evil
leaders, but we still as believes should pray for them that they would accomplish
God’s plans.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust
the Lord for His plans for our country, and trust that the leaders that He
appoints will accomplish what His plans are for this nation.
Memory
verses for the week: 2Peter 1:1-6
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; 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 be 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, 6. and in your knowledge self-control, and in your
self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance godliness 7/19/2012 11:15:00 AM
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