SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
8/7/2012 8:19:48 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Psalm
112- PT-1
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm
112:1
Message
of the verses: In Today’s SD we will
begin to look at Psalm 112 by looking at several introductions from different
Bible Commentators so that we can get a better idea of what the psalmist is
presenting to us in this psalm.
“There is no title to this psalm,
but it is evidently a companion to the hundred and eleventh, and, like it, it
is an alphabetical psalm. Even in the number of verses, and clauses of each
verse, it coincides with its predecessor, as also in many of its words and
phrases. The reader should carefully compare the two psalms line by line. The
subject of the poem before us is — the blessedness of the righteous man, and so
it bears the same relation to the preceding which the moon does to the sun;
for, while the first declares the glory of God, the second speaks of the
reflection of the divine brightness in men born from above. God is here praised
for the manifestation of his glory which is seen in his people, just as in the
preceding psalm he was magnified for his own personal acts. The hundred and
eleventh speaks of the great Father, and this describes his children renewed
after his image. The psalm cannot be viewed as the extolling of man, for it
commences with "Praise ye the Lord;" and it is intended to give to
God all the honour of his grace which is manifested in the sons of God.” (Charles H. Spurgeon)
At the end of Warren Wiersbe’s
commentary on the 111th Psalm he writes the following in order to
tell us what to look forward to in the 112th Psalm. “The word ‘beginning’ means ‘the principal
part,’ and without this we are unprepared to learn God’s truth. But fearing the Lord leads to obeying the
Lord, and obedience is important to spiritual understanding (John 7:17). How all of this works out in our practical
daily life is explained in the next psalm.”
(The 112th Psalm)
“In the previous psalm, the writer
extolled the Lord for His great and marvelous works, and he ended by
admonishing us to fear the Lord and obey His precepts (111:10). The blessings of obeying that admonition are
described in 112 (Note v. 1). Like 111,
this psalm is an acrostic, and you will find the vocabulary of 112 similar to
that of 111. Both psalms use delight
(111:2; 112:1, righteousness (111:3; 112:3-4, 6, 9), established (111:8;
112:8), grace and compassion (111:4; 112:4), and just (111:7; 112:5). Both psalms must be read in light of God’s
covenant with Israel in which He promises to bless them if they fear Him and
obey His Word (Lev. 26:1-13); Deut. 28:1-14).
Nothing is said about the wife and mother in this home, but surely a man
of such godly character would have a wife like the one described in Proverbs
31. We must not conclude that, on the
basis of this psalm, all believers today can claim health, wealth, success, and
happiness if they faithfully obey the Lord, for this promise is not found in
the new covenant. For that matter, the
believer described in this psalm had times of darkness (v. 4), occasionally
received bad news (v. 7), had his enemies (vv. 8, 10), and had to consider the
justice of his decisions (v. 5). We who
live under the new covenant have in Jesus Christ every spiritual blessings that
we will ever need (Eph. 1:3; 2Peter 1:3-4), and we have the promise that our
God will meet our needs (Phil. 4:19). The attributes of God given in
111 become the character qualities of the godly believer in 112, for becoming more and more like
Jesus Christ is the greatest reward of a faithful life of obedience (Rom
8:29; 2Cor. 3:18). We want more than the blessing;
we want to be like the One who gives the blessing. The psalmist describes the faithful believer
in various relationships of life.”
(Warren Wiersbe).
Our
Relationship to the Lord (v. 1): “1 Praise
the LORD! How blessed is the man who fears the LORD, Who greatly delights in
His commandments.”
I have not ever read any
commentary on who the author of the 111th and the 112th
Psalms are, but it would not surprise me to find out that the author of the 119th
Psalm is the same as the author of these two Psalms.
We see in verse seven that the
psalmist talks about fearing bad news, and then in verse eight he speaks of
fearing his enemies, but in verse one he writes about fearing the Lord, and if
a believer fears the Lord he will not have to fear anything else. Solomon writes a lot of things in the book of
Ecc. that have to do with human wisdom, which is not too good as he found out,
but at the end of his writing he understands what is the most important thing
to do when he writes, “Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the
whole duty of man,” (Eccl. 12:13).The psalmist who wrote the 112th
Psalm would agree with Solomon.
When we have small children we teach
them that they should not cross the street without looking both ways, and we
teach them that the stove is hot, and we teach them not to talk to strangers,
these are all rational fears that energize us and protect us and our
children. Dr. Wiersbe writes “The
psalmist is writing about fears that can paralyze us and make life miserable. To overcome these fears, we cultivate a right
relationship with the Lord: we fear Him,
learn His will from His Word, and obey His commands. Learning His will and doing it is not a
burdensome thing, because we delight in His Word (Ps. 1:2; 119:16, 35, 47-48,
70, 97, 143). Fear and delight can live
together in the same heart because they are tied together by love (Ps. 1:11;
119:19-20; 1John 4:16-19). Because we
love the Lord, His commands are not burdensome to us (1John 5:3).”
We have already written about the
112th Psalm being written about a person, a man as can be seen in
verse one. This man fears the Lord first
of all and this man keeps the commandments of the Lord, and delights in keeping
the commandments of the Lord. With this
said we have to realize that when God made man and then made a woman they both
kept perfectly the Law or commandment that God gave them to keep for a
while. Then came the fall in the garden
and all of a sudden man dies spiritually and will then die physically because
of his sin. Now man does not have a desire to follow the
commands of the Lord because he has a sinful nature that he is born with. When a person is “born again” or “born from
above” they receive a new nature however they still have the old nature and so
the believer now has two natures. I
heard about a Native American Indian who became a believer in Jesus Christ and
after a while he came to his pastor to get some counseling. He told his pastor that he had two dogs
living in him, a black dog that always want to do wrong and a white dog that
always want to do good. His pastor asked
him which one he obeyed, and the Indian told his pastor the one that I say sicken
to. Yes the Christian life is, at times
complicated for we have two natures and we have the world, the flesh, and the
devil as our enemies, but we also have a new nature that always wants to obey
the Lord, and we have the Holy Spirit living in us to guide us and to help us
understand the Word of God. We should
also have a Bible believing church to attend where we can receive help from
pastors, and other friends that have a like faith.
Dr. Wiersbe writes the following
that is true, but it is also difficult to follow as he writes about the man
described in Psalm 112: “The person
described in this psalm praises the Lord in worship, stands in awe of the Lord,
delights in fellowship with the Lord, and seeks to obey the Lord. This kind of life brings blessing to the
entire family (Pss. 34:8-14; 37:25; 127:3-5; 128:3). If our life doesn’t make
an impact at home, among people we know and love, it is not going to make much
of a difference out in the marketplace where people blaspheme the name of the
Lord.”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I desire
to have my spiritual life to be an impact at home, which is probably the most
difficult place to have it make an impact because the people in your home know
you the best. I also desire to fear the
Lord and obey His commandments.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
Continue to abide in the vine.
Continue to work hard at my memory verses in order to apply them in my
life and to meditate on them.
Memory
verses for the week: 2Peter 1:1-9
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, 6 and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your
self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, 7 and in your
godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are
increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge
of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For he who lacks these qualities is blind or
short-sighted, having forgot his purifications from his former sins.
8/7/2012
10:03:31 AM
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