SPIRITUAL
DIARY FOR 9/14/2012 9:07:55 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Dealing
with the Enemy
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference Psalm 119:112-120
Message
of the verses: “113 Samekh. I hate
those who are double-minded, But I love Your law. 114 You are my hiding place and my shield; I
wait for Your word. 115 Depart from me,
evildoers, That I may observe the commandments of my God. 116 Sustain me according to Your word, that I
may live; And do not let me be ashamed of my hope. 117 Uphold me that I may be
safe, That I may have regard for Your statutes continually. 118 You have rejected all those who wander
from Your statutes, For their deceitfulness is useless. 119 You have removed
all the wicked of the earth like dross; Therefore I love Your testimonies. 120
My flesh trembles for fear of You, And I am afraid of Your judgments.”
As I look around at all the
situations that are going on in the world today, and what is going on in our
country I know that believers have enemies and their enemies are strong, but
our God is the strongest and His Word encourages us today and every day. Acts
14:22b reads as follows, “’Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom
of God.’” When we are like the ten
faithless men who spied out the Promised Land and saw their enemy as too big
and too powerful and melted at the size of them we know that they were not
depending upon the Lord to defeat their enemies, but if we look at Joshua and
Caleb they trusted in the Lord to defeat the enemies for they remembered what
the Lord had done to the nation of Egypt, how He destroyed them through ten
miracles and then dried up the Red Sea and allowed Israel to cross on dry land,
while drowning the remaining Egyptians.
Dr. Wiersbe points out “Four assurances in these verses help us face the enemy with courage and
win the battle.”
God
Protects His People (vv. 113-115):
“113 Samekh. I hate those who are double-minded, But I love Your
law. 114 You are my hiding place and my
shield; I wait for Your word. 115 Depart
from me, evildoers, That I may observe the commandments of my God.”
We see the term “doubled-minded” in
James 1:8 and 4:8, “7 For that man ought not to expect that he will receive
anything from the Lord, 8 being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” I want to give the definition of the Greek
word that is translated as double-minded and compare it with the Hebrew word
double-minded that is found in Psalm 119:
“1374 διψυχος dipsuchos dip’-soo-khos
double minded 1a) wavering, uncertain, doubting 1b) divided in
interest” “05588 ףעס ce‘eph say-afe’ 1) ambivalent, divided, half-hearted.”
While
studying the book of James by looking at some DVD’s from a man named Chip
Ingram he stated that the word found in James as being double-minded could be
seen when a person is going through some type of problem and prays about what
he should do and then gets an answer from the Lord, but does not like that
answer so he goes on to do what he wants to do.
I am not so sure that this is what the psalmist is speaking of when he
speaks of a person who is double-minded, for I believe that being half-hearted
is a better way to look at this type of person.
There are people who say that they follow the Lord, but don’t and this
was the case of the ten spies who were afraid of the enemies, but not the case
of Joshua and Caleb. These people were a
great danger to the children of Israel for when they came back and gave their
report the people followed them and so all the people who were over the age of
twenty died in the wilderness because they followed the advice of these
half-hearted men. Another example of
this type of person is found in the book of 1Kings, “Elijah came near to all
the people and said, "How
long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow
Him; but if Baal, follow him." But the people did not answer him a word.” (1Kings 18:21)
Dr. Wiersbe writes “There is nothing
strange about believers experiencing both love toward God and His Word and
hatred toward those who reject the Lord:
“From Your precepts I get understanding; Therefore I hate every false
way.” (Psalm 119:104) Psalm 97:10 states
Hate evil, you who love the Lord.’ Dr.
Wiersbe continues, “If we love the Word, we will hate lies and oppose
liars. The psalmist knew that his
shelter and shield was the Lord alone, and he trusted in Him. He is not hiding in the Lord from fear of
facing the enemy, because he addresses the enemy in verse 115. Only in the Lord could he find the help he
needed. The Lord protects us that He might equip us to face the
enemy and fight the battle. The psalmist had his heart set on the Lord
(v.112), so there was no need to reconsider the matter. It was settled!”
God
Upholds the Obedient (vv. 116-117):
“116 Sustain me according to Your word, that I may live; And do not let
me be ashamed of my hope. 117 Uphold me that I may be safe, That I may have
regard for Your statutes continually.”
Sustain and uphold are very similar
words, while sustain is a picture of the believer leaning on the Lord for
support and rest, uphold also means that but adds the idea of giving aid and
refreshment. There are times when we
feel like giving up and then the Lord will come along side and lift us up in
ways that we will never understand.
God
Rejects the Wicked (vv. 118:119):
“118 You have rejected all those who wander from Your statutes, For
their deceitfulness is useless. 119 You have removed all the wicked of the
earth like dross; Therefore I love Your testimonies.”
The psalmist is speaking about every
person who does not follow the Lord and His Word will be rejected by the
Lord. “’He who believes in the Son has
eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath
of God abides on him.’” Unbelievers will
do the wrong thing and be deceitful just to get their own way, but God has
rejected them. The psalmist says that
God will remove the wicked of the earth like dross or “slag.” I know what this looks like because I worked
for 35 years in a very large foundry, and in that foundry we melted an average
of 3000 tons of cast iron a day and along with the cast iron that we melted we
melted many tons of slag or what the psalmist calls dross. The cast iron went into the molds to make
engine blocks and other parts while the dross or slag went into the water to be
thrown away, and this pictures what the Lord will do with the wicked. The melting of cast iron is also a picture of
what believers go through as they are being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ
(Rom. 8:29), for the heating process through trials will get rid of the dross
(sin) and thus we will be better in serving the Lord.
In the OT the children of God would
fight their enemies with swords, and slings but according to Ephesians 6:17b,
we are to take “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” In Mark one, and Matthew four, and Luke four
we see the Lord use the Sword of the Spirit in his confrontation with Satan,
for Satan is afraid of the Word of God.
God
Alone Should be Feared (vv. 120): “120
My flesh trembles for fear of You, And I am afraid of Your judgments.”
Let us begin by looking again at
verse 63 “I am a companion of all those who fear You, And of those who keep
Your precepts.” “The fear of the Lord is
the fear that conquers every fear” writes Warren Wiersbe. “So that we confidently say, ‘THE LORD IS MY
HELPER, I WILL NOT BE AFRAID. WHAT WILL MAN DO TO ME?’” (Hebrews 13:6 quoted
from Psalm 118:6) As believers we can
come to the Lord like a son comes to his loving father, and not like a criminal
comes to a judge to be sentenced for a crime.
We see in Psalm 15:4 these words, “In whose eyes a reprobate is
despised, But who honors
those who fear the LORD; He swears to his own hurt and does not
change.” In Psalm 115:13 we find that
God blesses those who fear Him, “He will bless those who fear the LORD, The
small together with the great.” Both
Proverbs 3:7 and Psalm 119:15 we see that if we fear the Lord we will depart
from evil. Dr. Wiersbe writes that “this
verse takes us back to verse 113: if we are single-minded, we will fear only
the Lord and trust Him. ‘The battle is not yours, but God’s (2 Chronicles
20:15).” “and he said, "Listen, all
Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat: thus says the LORD
to you, ’Do not fear or be dismayed because of this great multitude, for the
battle is not yours but God’s.”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: It was in
the election time of 2008 that I was very upset about all that was going on and
then I read these words, “’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.” What this
verse says that it is God who chooses those who rule countries, and not only countries,
but other forms of government and so I am not to allow the fear of what my
government can do to me, but I am to trust the Lord to accomplish His plans,
knowing that I worship a God who is all knowing, all wise, all powerful, Love,
compassionate, and above all who is JUST.
I am to fear the Lord and not anything else.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
Fear the Lord.
Memory
verses for the week: 1Cor. 13:1-4
1 If I speak with the tongues of men
and of angels but do not have love I have become a noisy gong or a clanging
cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy
and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to
remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give all my possessions
to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have
love, it profits me nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind and
is not jealous, love does not brag and is not arrogant
9/14/2012
10:50:52 AM
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