SPIRITUAL DIARY
FOR 12/5/2012 7:55:49 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Psalm 144-2
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm 144:5-15
Message of
the verses: We will continue to look at Psalm 144 in
Today’s Spiritual Diary. Dr. Wiersbe
writes the following at the end of his introductory commentary, “In this psalm,
he gave witness to Jehovah, the God of Israel and reminded his people that
their God was not like the gods of their neighbors.” We saw yesterday that Israel’s God was a
loving God who cared personally for all His children.
The
Mighty God Who Delivers Us Victoriously (vv. 5-11): “5 Bow Your heavens, O LORD,
and come down; Touch the mountains, that they may smoke. 6 Flash forth
lightning and scatter them; Send out Your arrows and confuse them. 7 Stretch
forth Your hand from on high; Rescue me and deliver me out of great waters, Out
of the hand of aliens 8 Whose mouths speak deceit, And whose right hand is a
right hand of falsehood. 9 I will sing a
new song to You, O God; Upon a harp of ten strings I will sing praises to You,
10 Who gives salvation to kings, Who rescues David His servant from the evil
sword. 11 Rescue me and deliver me out of the hand of aliens, Whose mouth
speaks deceit And whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.”
We went over a very brief history of David and how
he ascended to the throne of Israel in yesterday’s SD, and we learned that this
psalm was probably written during the time when David was just beginning his
reign as king. This helps us better
understand the things that David is writing in this psalm. David was a man of war as we also saw in
yesterday’s SD; he was so much a man of war that God would not allow him to be
the one to build His temple. What David
did was important to the nation of Israel, for God had promised Israel the
Promised Land, and yet for many years they had not taken control of all of it,
but because of their sin God would bring other nations against them until
Israel would cry out to the Lord for help and then God would send a deliverer
to deliver them, but soon they would fall into sin again and the whole cycle
would begin again, but each time they would descend further down, and would not
rise up as far. David would be the man,
a man after God’s own heart, who God would use to lead Israel into victory, and
eventually give peace to Israel for a long period of time. In this section David is asking the Lord for
victory in the battles that he would be involved in, and he uses graphic
language in his prayer to the Lord.
David knew the promises that God gave to Israel, and he took them very
seriously and therefore would pray to the Lord for deliverance from the enemies
of Israel who were also the enemies of God.
David knew that there were “aliens and foreigners” who wanted to destroy
Israel, and therefore David wanted God to destroy them. The language he uses in this psalm is similar
to language from Psalm 18, and it also reminds us of what the Lord did on MT.
Sinai.
Dr. Wiersbe concludes his commentary
on this section by writing “As he (David) contemplated God’s power and mercy,
David sang a new song to the Lord (33:3), for he had experienced God’s help in
a new way, learned afresh the wonderful character of the Lord, and was making a
new beginning as king of the nation. The
plural ‘kings’ refers to David’s successors.”
The Gracious God Who Blesses Us
Abundantly (vv. 12-15): “12 Let our sons
in their youth be as grown-up plants, And our daughters as corner pillars
fashioned as for a palace; 13 Let our garners be full, furnishing every kind of
produce, And our flocks bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our fields; 14
Let our cattle bear Without mishap and without loss, Let there be no outcry in
our streets! 15 How blessed are the people who are so situated; How blessed are
the people whose God is the LORD!”
I have heard some people say that
they have a difficult time in reading the Old Testament because of all of the
blood that is shed in it. From the very
first murder when Cain killed Abel we see much bloodshed as we read through the
pages of the OT. I suppose that some
think that David enjoyed the battles that he fought and with that they would
get the wrong perspective of who David was.
David was a man who loved his God, and who believed that the battles
that he was involved in were battles for the Lord, and that is exactly what
they were. We see in this section that
it was David’s desire to eventually have peace in the land, peace from the
enemies of Israel and the enemies of God.
David talks about the things that happen when there is peace in the
land, things that can only be given from the hand of God as He abundantly
blesses His people. David speaks of the
young men and young women growing up when there is peace in the land and God
giving blessings to the people through good crops and having their animals
multiply without issue. David ends the
psalm with praising the Lord who has blessed His people, and are blessed
because God is their Lord.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: When we
look back at the nation of Israel we see that God surely blessed them, yet they
rebelled against God and eventually God removed them from their land. We know that God is no respecter of people,
for when people like David sin against the Lord then God will discipline them
as He did when David sinned against the Lord.
When I think
of what is going on in our nation today I think of a statement that was made by
one of our founding fathers and was quoted by Warren Wiersbe, ““Over two
centuries ago, the American patriot Thomas Jefferson wrote in his Notes on the State of Virginia, ‘Indeed I tremble for my country
when I reflect that God is just.’
“Sober words for us to reflect on today.”
My
Steps of Faith for Today: To continue to learn contentment, to continue
to be transformed by the renewing of my mind through the Word of God in order
to be more and more like my Lord and Savior.
Memory verses for the
week: Psalm 130:1-7
1 Out of the debts I cried to You, O
LORD. 2 Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears be attentive to the voice of my
supplications. 3 If You, Lord, should mark
iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? 4
But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared.
5 I wait for the Lord, my soul does
wait, and in His Word do I hope. 6 My
soul waits for the Lord more than the watchman for the morning; indeed more
than the watchman for the morning. 7 O
Israel, hope in the LORD; For with the LORD there is lovingkindness, and with
Him is abundant redemption.
12/5/2012 9:01:38 AM
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