SPIRITUAL DIARY
FOR 10/26/2012 7:36:13 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Psalm 131
PT-2
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm 131:2-3
Message of
the verses: Dr. Wiersbe wrote the following at the end of
his introductory commentary on Psalm 131:
“In this brief psalm, he tells us the essentials of a life that
glorifies God and accomplishes His work on earth.” We looked at the first essential in
yesterday’s SD and will continue looking at the next two in today’s SD.
Humility—Accept God’s Will (v.2)
2 Surely I have composed and quieted
my soul; Like a weaned child rests against his mother, My soul is like a weaned
child within me.”
In yesterday’s SD we looked at
honestly accepting yourself, and in today’s SD we will look at humbly accepting
God’s will and then the hope we have in accepting the future.
David speaks of the
weaning of a child in verse two, and the way that this was when he wrote this
psalm from the land of Israel is much different than the way that it is in the
United States today. Although it may be
that more and more mothers are breast feeding their children today, I don’t
think that the majority of women are breast feeding their children until age
three or four today as was the custom when David wrote this psalm. It is different and so in order to understand
this verse we have to understand the times when this psalm was written. David begins this verse by speaking of being
composed and being quiet. The word
speaks of the calming of the sea or the leveling of the ground after it is
plowed. This kind of emotion would
happen to the child from feeding from the mother, as opposed to having
emotional highs and lows. When a baby is
born there is a crisis from the birth and feeding at the mother’s breast is a
calming experience for the baby, but there would come a time when this had to
end and this would again be a difficult time for the young child. This could be described as a painful loss for
the child. Now we will look at this in
the light of several different short Bible stories that Dr. Wiersbe has
included in his commentary in order to help us understand this in terms of
grownups. “Abraham had to leave his
family and city, send Ishmael away, separate from Lot, and put Isaac on the
altar. Painful weaning! Joseph had to be separated from his father
and brothers in order to see his dreams come true. Both Jacob and Peter had to be weaned from
their own self-sufficiency and learn that faith means living without
scheming. The child that David described
wept and fretted but eventually calmed down and accepted the inevitable.” Later Dr. Wiersbe goes on to write,
“Successful living means moving from dependence to independence, and then to
interdependence, always in the will of God.
To accept God’s will in the losses and gains of life is to experience
that inner calm that is so necessary if we are to be mature people.”
I have to say that as
I read the commentary from Dr. Wiersbe that there are times when things seem to
jump right off the page with meaning for me.
Hope—Anticipate the Future (v. 3)
3 O Israel, hope in the LORD From
this time forth and forever.
I suppose that we have all heard
from our parents or said to our children when something we have to do is
painful that it is four our own good, and this is the case of the weaning child
in this psalm for when they were weaned they were set free in able to meet the
future and to make the most of it. Some
people have a hard time in making changes, but when we look at our growth in
our walk with the Lord there always have to be changes made. Paul writes the following to the Corinthians,
2 Co 3:18 “But we all, with unveiled
face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed
into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the
Spirit.” Being transformed from one
glory to another means that the Spirit is working inside our hearts to cause us
to become more mature in the Lord. We
have looked at this word “transformed” in earlier SD’s, and it is a word that
we get the word metamorphoses from where an ugly worm turns into a beautiful
butterfly. The word is also used in
Romans 12:2, “2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by
the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that
which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
We also see the word when Jesus when up on the mountain with Peter,
James, and John and He was transformed so that they could see His glory.
There are times in our lives when we
desire not to change, but as Dr. Wiersbe puts it, “When we fret over a
comfortable past, we only forfeit a challenging future.” He concludes his commentary by writing, “Like
the child being weaned, we may fret at our present circumstances, but we know
that our fretting is wrong. Our present
circumstances are the womb out of which new blessings and opportunities will be
born. (Romans 8:28)”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: Changes
that seem to be bad are changes that I have a hard time with even though they
are in the will of God. This is where
faith has to come in believing what Romans 8:28 teaches us, “Moreover we know
that to those who love God, who are called according to his plan, everything
that happens fits into a pattern for good (Phillips).” I’m sure that from age seventeen to age
thirty-three that Joseph had a hard time believing that the dreams that he had
when he was a child would still come true.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Contentment
is something that means that I know that God is always in control of my life in
spite of going through difficult circumstances.
Memory verses for the
week: 1Cor. 13:8-13
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, think like a child, reason 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 we know in part, but then I will
know fully just as I also have been fully known. But now faith, hope, and love, abide these
three, but the greatest of these is love.
10/26/2012 8:35:38 AM
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