SPIRITUAL
DIARY FOR 10/3/2012 9:31:33 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Psalm
121-PT-3
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Psalm 121:5-8
Message
of the verses: I really want to
finish up with the 121st Psalm in Today’s Spiritual Diary, looking
at the last four verses. I once again
want to quote from Dr. Wiersbe’s ending introductory commentary in order to
have a better idea of how to look at this psalm. “The message of the psalm applies to God’s
pilgrims today and gives us the assurances we need as we journey in this life.”
“My
Father’s Presence Is Beside Me” (vv. 5-6):
“5 The LORD is your keeper; The LORD is your shade on your right
hand. 6 The sun will not smite you by day, Nor the moon by night.”
It is possible to get the wrong
idea of what the psalmist is talking about when we read these verses. We may even begin to believe in the health
and prosperity gospel when we look at these verses, but that is not what the
psalmist is writing about here. Just a
few words on those who proclaim this health and prosperity gospel, and that is
all we have to do is look at the life of the Lord Jesus Christ while He was on
the earth to see that what they are proclaiming, that once you become a
believer that no harm will come to you ever and that you will become wealthy,
for materially Jesus was not rich while on the earth, nor was He kept from
physical harm, for after all He suffered and died at the hands of His
enemies. Dr. Wiersbe writes “The things
that God permits to happen to us in His will may hurt us but they will not harm us.
David had many experiences that brought heartache and even threatened
his life, but the Lord enabled him to turn those seeming tragedies into
beautiful psalms that encourage us today.”
When the psalmist speaks of the sun
and the moon we need to understand a bit about the weather that they have in
that part of the world. We remember from
the book of Exodus that when the children of Israel were coming out of Egypt
that the Spirit of God was a cloud for them in the day light hours and then a
fire for them when the sun went down. He
kept them cool in the daytime, and warm in the night time. One more thing to learn from the sun and the
moon and that is that the children of Israel used a lunar calendar and so every
month was a cycle of the moon and so this verse may also be talking about the
Lord caring for His children every month and every year without fail. Dr. Wiersbe writes, “Whether by day or by
night, in heat or cold, whatever the changes might be, the Father’s presence
provides all that we need. We need not be afraid of sudden attacks that can
come in the day or the night, for ‘the shadow of the Almighty’ covers us (see
Psalm 91).”
“My
Father’s Care Is Around Me” (vv. 7-8): “7 The LORD will protect you from all evil; He
will keep your soul. 8 The LORD will guard your going out and your coming in
From this time forth and forever.”
We have talked about fear in many
of these Spiritual Diaries, and have mentioned that the only thing that we need
to fear is the Lord, and that kind of fear is not a dread but the kind of fear
that a child has for a godly parent, knowing that the parent has the best
interest in mind for the child. So when
we look at life or death, today or tomorrow, time or eternity we must realize
that they are all in the hands of our Loving Father and we are not to
fear. When we see the words “all evil”
we can learn from Dr. Wiersbe what that means, “anything that could harm us,
but in His grace, He turns into good the things we think are evil.” Now we have a good example of this in the
life of Joseph and as we look at his life from the book of Genesis we see that
because of the hatred and jealousy of his brothers that they sold him to people
who took him to Egypt where he was bought by a man who made him his salve. It was because God was with him that he rose
to be the top slave for this man and took care of all his property, but because
of his good looks the wife of the man tried to sleep with Joseph, but he refused
and because he would not do this she accused him of trying to sleep with her
and he then ended up in prison. While in
prison God was with him and he rose to be the top prisoner and eventually told
the future of two of the kings men who ended up in prison. God gave him the ability of understand their
dreams and because of this Joseph eventually was released from prison to tell
the meaning of the kings dream and was made second in command of all of Egypt. Next we see his brothers coming to buy food
from Egypt because of a famine in the land and Joseph could have gotten even
with his brothers, but he knew that God was the One who was working all of
these evil things that were happening for the good of his family. We read from Genesis 50:20 these words, “’As
for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring
about this present result, to preserve many people alive.’” Now we read the following from Romans 8:28, “And
we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love
God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”
We can see from the words in verse
eight, “The LORD will guard your going out and your coming,” that God cares for
all that is going on in our lives. I
want to look at three Scriptures that speak of this going out and coming
in. “6 “Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed
shall you be when you go
out (Deu. 28:6).” “Then Achish
called David and said to him, "As the LORD lives, you have been upright,
and your going out and
your coming in with me in the army are pleasing in my sight; for I have
not found evil in you from the day of your coming to me to this day.
Nevertheless, you are not pleasing in the sight of the lords (1Sam.
29:6).” “"You know Abner the son of
Ner, that he came to deceive you and to learn of your going out and coming in and to find out
all that you are doing,’ (2Sam. 3:25).”
Now let us look at the wonderful
promise that is at the end of verse eight, “From this time forth and forever.” So we see that God cares for all that is
going on in our lives from the time we are born until the time when we enter
glory. Dr. Wiersbe concludes his
commentary by writing, “What a delight it is to know that, as we go in and out
of the house, to and fro in the city, and even fly from city to city and
country to country, the Father is with us and cares for our every need. ‘Casing all your care upon Him, for He cares
for you’ (1Peter 5:7).” And His loving
care will go on! (v.-8). ‘You will guide me with Your counsel, and afterward
receive me to glory….My flesh and my heart fail; but God is the strength of my
heart and my portion forever’ (Psalm 73:23, 26 NKJV).
“Who can mind the journey when the
road leads Home.”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I am
thankful to be reminded that the Lord, the God and Creator of the universe and
all creation care for my going out and my coming in and will continue to care
for this until my coming into glory.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
I do not want to be conformed to this world, but I desire to be
transformed by the renewing of my mind in order to understand what God’s will
is for me. How can I be transformed? I
believe that there are five ways.
1. Listen to the Word of God
(good preaching); 2. Read the Word of God; 3.
Study the Word of God; 4.
Memorize the Word of God; and 5.
Meditate upon the Word of God.
Memory
verses for the week: 1Cor. 13:8
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.
10/3/2012
10:41:01 AM
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