SPIRITUAL DIARY
FOR 10/27/2012 10:46:03 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Psalm 132 PT-1
Bible Reading & Meditation
Reference: Psalm 132:1-5
Message of
the verses: We begin to look at Psalm 132 in Today’s
Spiritual Diary by looking at several introductions from this psalm.
“David bound himself
to find a place for the Lord, for the ark, the token of God’s presence. When
work is to be done for the Lord, it is good to tie ourselves to a time. It is
good in the morning to fix upon work for the day, with submission to
Providence, for we know not what a day may bring forth. And we should first,
and without delay, seek to have our own hearts made a habitation of God through
the Spirit. He prays that God would take up his dwelling in the habitation he
had built; that he would give grace to the ministers of the sanctuary to do
their duty. David pleads that he was the anointed of the Lord, and this he
pleads as a type of Christ, the great Anointed. We have no merit of our own to
plead; but, for His sake, in whom there is a fullness of merit, let us find
favour. And every true believer in Christ, is an anointed one, and has received
from the Holy One the oil of true grace. The request is that God would not turn
away, but hear and answer their petitions for his Son’s sake.” (Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary)
“A joyful song
indeed: let all pilgrims to the New Jerusalem sing it often. The degrees or
ascents are very visible; the theme ascends step by step from,
"afflictions" to a "crown," from "remember
David," to, "I will make the horn of David to bud." The latter
half is like the over arching sky bending above "the fields of the wood"
which are found in the resolves and prayers of the former portion.
“Our translators have
rightly divided this Psalm. It contains a statement of David’s anxious care to
build a house for the Lord (#Ps 132:1-7); a prayer at the removal of the Ark
(#Ps 132:8-10); and a pleading of the divine covenant and its promises (#Ps
132:11-18).” (Charles H. Spurgeon)
“It is not likely
that this is a post-exilic psalm. The
ark is mentioned (v.8), and after the destruction of the temple, the ark
disappeared from the scene. Also, the
writer referred in verse 10 to a king from David’s dynasty, and there was no
Davidic king after Zedekiah, until Jesus came to earth. Nobody in post-exilic Jerusalem was anointed
as king. Since verses 8-10 are quoted by
Solomon in his prayer at the dedication of the temple (2Chron. 6:41-42),
perhaps this psalm was written for that occasion. It could well have been a litany, with the
worship leader opening (vv. 1-5) and the people responding (vv.6-10). The leader then quoted God’s words to David
(vv. 10-12), and the people or a choir closed with a recital of God’s promises
to Israel (vv. 13-18). Note especially
the references to David in Solomon’s prayer (2Chron. 11, 15-17). Psalm 132 also parallels Psalm 89 but is more
optimistic in outlook. Note in 89 the
use of anointed (v.20; 132:10), enemy (vv. 22-23; 132:18), horn (v. 24;
132:17), and throne (v.29). (For other ‘Zion psalms,’ see 24, 48, 68, and
89.) The completion of the temple was no
assurance of God’s blessing on Israel, for the important thing was that the
people fulfill their responsibilities toward the Lord.” (Dr. Warren Wiersbe)
Give
God His rightful Place (vv. 1-5)
“1 A Song of Ascents: Remember, O LORD, on David’s behalf, All his
affliction; 2 How he swore to the LORD
And vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob, 3 "Surely I will not enter my house, Nor
lie on my bed; 4 I will not give sleep
to my eyes Or slumber to my eyelids, 5
Until I find a place for the LORD, A dwelling place for the Mighty One
of Jacob.’”
As we begin this section we will
look at a brief history of the Ark of God.
Whenever we read the book of Exodus we find that after God took Israel
out of Egypt by those ten plagues that He gave to Egypt so that Israel
eventually ended up at Mt. Sinai and stayed there for about one year. During this time Moses went up on the
mountain two times and while He was up there God gave him the plans to build
the Ark of the Covenant along with the Tabernacle of God. Once this was completed and set up the
Israelites were again on the move towards the Promised Land. Forty years later they arrived in the
Promised Land and begin to conquer the sinful people who lived there. Dr. Wiersbe writes that “it is possible that
the ark was temporarily at Bethel (Judges 20:7), and then Mizpah (Judges 21:5),
but it finally rested at Shiloh (1Samuel 1-3).
The wicked sons of Eli used the ark as a ‘good luck charm’ and took it
into battle against the Philistines. The
Philistines captured the Ark but after some miracles done by the Lord they returned
the ark to the Jews, and for twenty years it rested in the house of Abinadad in
Kirjath Jearim (1Sam. 6:1-7:2).” After
this David tried to move it to Jerusalem, but failed at his first attempt
because they did not follow the procedure that God had set up to move the Ark
and instead of having the Levites carry it they put it on a cart and it was about
to slip off the cart and Uzzah took hold of it and the Lord killed him. This angered David and I suppose that after
he realized that it was not being carried in the right way he got over his
anger and had it carried in the correct way.
The Ark went into a tent that David had prepared for it and stayed there
until the day that Solomon finished the temple and it was moved into the
temple. It stayed there until the
Babylonians captured Jerusalem, but when the new temple was built it was
returned to the new temple and was there until the Romans destroyed the city of
Jerusalem in 70 A.D by Titus.
Where is the Ark
now? This is a good question. When the Dead Sea scrolls were found in 1948
there was a scroll in them called the “Copper” scrolls and in that scroll there
was suppose to be directions to where the Ark was to be found. In the 1980’s there was a man whose last name
was Jones who along with some college students were looking for the “Ashes of
the Red Heifer” and he believed that according to the Copper Scrolls thought that
the Ark was in the same place. The next
part of the story is kind of funny, but true as I used to have the video that
showed Mr. Jones standing outside a cave where they were looking for these
articles and he had a hat on his head as he was talking about what he was doing
there. Well some Hollywood producers saw
him there and that is the background for the “Indiana Jones” movies.
Back to Psalm 132 as we want to look
at the phrase “The Mighty One of Jacob.”
But his bow remained firm, And his arms were agile, From the hands of
the Mighty One of Jacob (From there is the Shepherd, the Stone of
Israel).” This verse is Genesis 49:24
and it is spoken by Jacob and this is the first time we see this written in the
Scriptures, but this is an ancient word for Jehovah.
David had two desires and the first
one was to move the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem and then to build a temple
for the Lord. He accomplished the first
one, but God would not allow him to accomplish the second, but did allow his son
to build it. David had the plans for the
temple and had all the provisions for the temple, even the land for the
temple. God told David that He would
build a dynasty from Him that would bring Messiah to the earth, and He did in
the person of Jesus Christ.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: Dr.
Wiersbe writes the following that I will use for this part of my SD: “Unless God is on the throne of our lives,
not enterprise we attempt can be really successful.”
My Steps of Faith for Today: I have been
using the word “contentment” in this section, and still desire to learn
contentment, but now I want to use another word that we have looked at in past
SD’s. The word is “transformed,” and
this being the first time I used this I will give the definition of it from the
Greek/English Dictionary.
“1) to change into
another form, to transform, to transfigure
1a) Christ appearance
was changed and was resplendent with divine brightness on “the mount of
transfiguration.
This word means to
change from the inside out as Christ did on the mount of transfiguration, and
that is what believers are to do. How is
this accomplished? Romans 12:2 says that
we are transformed by the renewing of our minds, and that has to be done by the
Word of God, for the only way to have our minds renewed is to have the Lord do
it as we read, study, listen, memorize, and meditate upon the Word of God.
Memory verses for the
week: 1Cor. 13:1-13 (Since this is the last time for these verses
to appear on my SD before I began my next series of verses I want to do all of
them this one time.)
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 deliver 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 5 does
not act unbecomingly, it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take
into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but
rejoices with the truth, 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all
things, endures all things.
8 Love never fails;
but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are
tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. 9 For we know in part, and we prophecy in
part, 10 but when the perfect comes the partial will be done away. 11 When I was a child, I use to speak like a
child, thought like a child, reasoned like a child; when I became a man I did
away with childish things. 12 For now we
see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I
will know fully just as I also have been fully known. 13 But now, faith, hope, love, abide these
three, but the greatest of these is love.
10/27/2012 12:51:21
PM
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