SPIRITUAL
DIARY FOR 9/1/2012 12:01:17 PM
My Worship Time Focus: Psalm
119-PT-3
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm
119:9-16
Message
of the verses: In Today’s SD we will
look at the next section in the 119th Psalm, the second of
twenty-two sections.
Beth—Take
Time to Be Holy (vv. 9-17): “9 Beth.
How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to Your word. 10 With all my heart I have sought You; Do
not let me wander from Your commandments.
11 Your word I have treasured in my heart, That I may not sin against
You. 12 Blessed are You, O LORD; Teach me Your statutes. 13 With my lips I have told of All the
ordinances of Your mouth. 14 I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies, As
much as in all riches. 15 I will meditate on Your precepts
And regard Your ways.16 I shall delight in Your statutes;
I shall not forget Your word.
The psalmist really packs a lot of
spiritual truth in this small section of Psalm 119, as I am sure he does in
each section. He begins this section by
asking a question, and directs the question to the young men, but it is
applicable to everyone who reads it. He
ended the last section with the answer to the question in this section: “8 I shall keep Your statutes; Do not forsake
me utterly!” We can see that verse 145
is similar to verse 8: “I cried with all
my heart; answer me, O LORD! I will observe Your statutes.” The psalmist is determined to keep the
statutes of the Lord, and this will keep his way pure.
In verse fifteen we see that the
psalmist is determined to meditate upon the Word of God and in verse sixteen he
determines to delight in the Word of God and not to forget it. You have to memorize the Word of God before
you meditate upon it and you cannot forget it if you desire to meditate upon
it. The apostle Paul knew that this was
a difficult thing to accomplish, for it is easier to make a promise than to
keep that promise. We see in Romans
7:14-25 these very famous words written by the apostle Paul about himself: “14 For we know that the Law is spiritual,
but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. 15 For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not
practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.
16 But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law,
confessing that the Law is good. 17 So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.
18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my
flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.
19 For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I
do not want. 20 But if I am doing the
very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells
in me. 21 I find then the
principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good.
22 For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner
man, 23 but I see a different law in the members of my
body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law
of sin which is in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of
this death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then,
on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the
other, with my flesh the law of sin.”
Dr. Wiersbe writes “Paul learned, as we must also learn, that the
indwelling Holy Spirit enables the child of God to fulfill God’s righteousness
in daily life (Romans 8:1-11). We must
live according to God’s Word which means, cultivation a heart for God. Paul
called this ‘seeking the things that are above’ (Co. 3:1).” Before we leave this though I want to share
Romans 8:1-11 because it is a very important section of Scripture: “1 Therefore there is now no condemnation for
those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ
Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 3 For what the Law could not do,
weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness
of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,
4 so that the requirement
of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but
according to the Spirit. 5 For
those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the
flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6
For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life
and peace, 7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it
does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, 8
and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if
indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does
not belong to Him.10 If Christ is in you, though the body is dead
because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 But if the
Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus
from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who
dwells in you.”
We can see from verse ten that we
need a heart that seeks God, for by seeking God our feet will not stray from
Him. Dr. Wiersbe states “Such a heart
will see Him in all of life, learn more about Him, fellowship with Him, and
glorify Him in all that is said and done.”
It is the Holy Spirit who enables us to do these things for as Paul has
written in the verses above that we are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit and
so by being in the Spirit, the Spirit will enable us to accomplish these
things.
Verse eleven teaches us that we must
spend time in His Word, and by doing this we will not sin against the
Lord. This is not our promise to the
Lord, but the Lord’s promise to us as His children that He will give us victory
over sin. In both Luke, and Matthew
chapters 4 and Mark chapter one we see the Lord Jesus using the Word of God to
fight against the arrows that Satan was shooting against Him.
According to verse 12, “Blessed are
You, O LORD; Teach me Your statutes,” we need a thankful heart and a teachable
spirit, and this will enable us to learn from the Lord. One thought here and that is that we have to
be careful as to whom we are learning form.
Ephesians teaches us that the Pastors who have been called by the Lord
are to teach us in order for us to do the work of the Lord. This is how it works in a NT church, for God
will call a Pastor, equip Him through the Word and the Spirit so that he can
teach the flock what the Spirit has taught him.
A word of caution and that is we should know the Word of God to make
sure that what is being taught to us is true, for we are to be like the Bereans
who search the Scripture to make sure what Paul was teaching them was
true. Dr. Wiersbe also adds the
caution: “But unless the truth we hear
moves from the head (and the notebook) into the heart, written there by the
Spirit (2Cor. 3:1-3), and then to the will, we have not really learned the Word
or been blessed by it. The blessing comes, not in
hearing the Word, but in doing it (James 1:22-25).”
According to verse thirteen we are
to tell others in order to enrich them with the spiritual treasures we have
learned. A few months back a dear and
precious friend of mine died, and I remember him for his love of the Lord and
his desire to tell others about the Lord.
Willard died in a hospital in Brazil, and even on his death bed he was
witnessing to his nurse. Willard would
send me the most encouraging emails by telling me to keep those nuggets coming
to him as I would send some of my Spiritual Diaries to him. I can say that I truly miss this wonderful
man of God.
Dr. Wiersbe writes “To treasure any
possession above the Word of God is idolatry and leads to trouble.” We see examples of those in the OT who did
not do this and it caused them trouble, men like Lot, Achan, King Saul, and
then in the NT Ananias and Sapphira found in Acts 5. However there were men from both the OT and
NT who were on the positive side of this, Abraham, Moses, Mary of Bethany (Mark
14:3-9), and Paul (Phil. 3:1-11),
Dr. Wiersbe concludes his commentary
on this section with these words, “Whatever delights will capture our attention
and we will think about it and meditate on it.
This is true of God’s Word. In
this psalm, delighting in the Word, loving the Word, and meditation on the Word
are found together (vv. 15-16, 23-24, 47-48, 77-78, 97-99), and they should be
found together in our hearts and lives.
We must take time to be holy.”
Take Time to be Holy is the name of
a song that is packed full of wonderful truths from the Word of God. I think that the song should be entitled “It
Takes Time to be Holy.”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I must
remember that it truly does take time to be holy, and also remember the word
that were written in yesterday’s SD “the successful Christian life is a series
of new beginnings,” for there are times when I fall and have to begin again.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To
get the Word of God from my mind into my heart in order for it to become real
in my life as I seek to live my life to the glory of God.
9/1/2012
1:13:37 PM
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