PT2 "Psalm 3:3-8)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/17/2011 1:11:24 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                                                        Focus: PT-2 “Psalm 3”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                         Reference:  Psalm 3:3-8

 

            Message of the verses:  “1 A Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom his son. O LORD, how my adversaries have increased! Many are rising up against me. 2 Many are saying of my soul, "There is no deliverance for him in God." Selah. 3 But You, O LORD, are a shield about me, My glory, and the One who lifts my head. 4. I was crying to the LORD with my voice, And He answered me from His holy mountain. Selah. 5 I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the LORD sustains me. 6 I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people Who have set themselves against me round about. 7 Arise, O LORD; save me, O my God! For You have smitten all my enemies on the cheek; You have shattered the teeth of the wicked. 8 Salvation belongs to the LORD; Your blessing be upon Your people! Selah.”

 

            Confidence:  He Affirms His Trust in the Lord (vv.3-4):  We will begin today’s SD with the second main point from Dr. Wiersbe’s outline on Psalm 3.

           

            I heard a song a long time ago that fits well with this section, I don’t remember the title but a section of the song went something like this, “he didn’t look down, he didn’t look around, he just looked up, up, up.”  That is what David did; he looked up to the Lord in heaven to take care of the problems that were facing him.  David calls the Lord “a shield about me.”  In Genesis 15:1 this is what the Lord told Abraham, “After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, ‘Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; Your reward shall be very great.’”

           

            Even though the trouble was great as far as what Absalom was doing, David knew that promises that the Lord had given to him in 2 Samuel 7 were the answer to the problem that he was in, and in 2 Samuel 15:30 we see the fulfillment of that promise.

           

            The holy mountain that David writes about in verse four may have been the Ark of the Covenant, for that was in Jerusalem and Jerusalem was on a mountain. It may have been God throne in heaven too.

 

            Celebration:  He Anticipates the Victory (vv.5-8):  I can see that in verse five that David had no trouble sleeping for he knew that God would protect him and that the Lord would sustain him.  David knew that because the Lord had protected him and his family throughout the night that He would continue to protect.  We have to remember that this Psalm was written near the end of David’s life and that as David looked back and saw how the Lord had protected him in the past and had promised a dynasty for his family, and I believe by this time in David’s life that the Lord may already have revealed to him that Solomon would be his successor, so as he looked at all of this his faith in the Lord increased. This can be seen from reading the words of verse six.

           

            The faith demonstrated here by David reminds us of how the Lord Jesus was able to sleep in a boat during a great storm, and how Peter was asleep between guards when he was supposed to be executed the next day, for Peter knew that the Lord had promised him that he would die by being crucified and not killed by a sword.  Jesus knew that the only way that He would die would be when He would give up His life after His work was completed.

           

            Another thing we can see from this psalm, and confer with others is that for David the morning was the best time of the day for him.  In the morning is the best time to go to the Lord in prayer and in the reading and studying of His Word, for if we wait then there is a good chance we will forget it.  I write this at nearly 5:00PM, but this is not the normal time for me to do it as I try to do it the first thing after getting out of bed.  I have to tell of a story from a book and actually have seen it demonstrated while in church, and that is the story of having a jar, a kind of large jar, and then to begin to put rocks into it.  I believe the author’s name that wrote about this is Steven Curry.  He begins to put the rocks in jar in a class room setting and after he gets all of the rocks in the jar he asks his class “is the jar full.”  They answer yes so he proceeds to put some small pebbles into the jar and asks again if it is full.  No is the answer this time.  He then puts sand into the jar and then water, and now the jar is full.  He asks the class what this means and the answer he gets is not the one he is looking for.  One of the students says that if we try hard we can cram a lot of things into one day.  The correct answer is that if you don’t put the large rocks into the jar first then you will not get them in at the end.  Make the study of God’s Word to be the first rock into your jar each day.

           

            Dr. Wiersbe writes “God not only rested David but He also rescued him.  David’s prayer in verse 7—‘Arise, O Lord’ takes us back to the years when Israel was in the wilderness, as David was at that time.  When the guiding cloud of glory began to move and the camp set out, Moses would say (or sing) ‘Rise up.  O Lord!  Let Your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate You flee before You.’  (Numbers 10:35 NKJV).  David had sent the ark back to Jerusalem (2 Sam. 15:24-29), but he knew that the presence of a piece of sacred furniture was no guarantee of the presence of the Lord (See 1 Sam. 4)”

           

            David knew that it was what was in his heart, his heart attitude towards the Lord was what was important.  (See Psalm 51)

           

            We see in the book of Jonah chapter two and verse nine that he quotes verse eight.

           

            We also know that in the end Absalom would be defeated for David had confidence that the Lord would bring about victory for David as he promised.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I have a book that I bought when I was a young believer that is entitled “All the Promises in the Bible.”  There are a lot of promised in the Bible, I know this because it is a pretty large book.  The point is that God wants us to claim His promises just like David did, knowing that God is in charge, which brings about contentment in our lives.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:

 

1.      Believe the promises of God.

2.      Trust the God who has given these great and wonderful promises.

3.      Continue to learn contentment.

 

 

12/17/2011 5:19:33 PM          

             

PT-1 "Psalm 3)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/16/2011 10:09:27 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  Psalm 3 PT-1

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Psalm 3

 

            Message of the verses:  “1 A Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom his son. O LORD, how my adversaries have increased! Many are rising up against me. 2 Many are saying of my soul, "There is no deliverance for him in God." Selah. 3 But You, O LORD, are a shield about me, My glory, and the One who lifts my head.

    “4 I was crying to the LORD with my voice, And He answered me from His holy mountain. Selah. 5 I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the LORD sustains me. 6 I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people Who have set themselves against me round about. 7 Arise, O LORD; save me, O my God! For You have smitten all my enemies on the cheek; You have shattered the teeth of the wicked. 8 Salvation belongs to the LORD; Your blessing be upon Your people! Selah.”

 

            Conflict:  He Admits His Troubles (vv.1-2):  I want to begin this SD by quoting Dr. Wiersbe’s commentary on the word “Sela,” which is a word that we will see many times in the book of Psalms.  “This is the first use of the word ‘Sela’ in Scripture; it is used seventy-one times in the Psalms and three times in Habakkuk 3.  Scholars aren’t agreed whether it comes from words meaning ‘to lift up’ or ‘to be silent.’  If the first, then it might be a signal for louder voices or the lifting, and blowing the trumpets, perhaps even the lifting of hands to the Lord.  If the second, it could signal a pause, a moment of silence and meditation.”

 

            This is also the first time we see the words “A Psalm of David,” even though the second Psalm was written by David.  In the case of the second Psalm we see it attributed to David in the book of Acts. All of the psalms in book one were written by David with the exception of Psalms 1, 10, and 33. 

           

            We also see that this Psalm was written by David when Absalom was trying to take over the country as a result of David being disciplined by the Lord for his sin with Bathsheba and the killing of her husband.  Dr. Wiersbe writes “God in his grace forgave David when he confessed his sins (ps. 32 & ps. 51), but God in his government allowed David to reap the bitter consequences of those sins.”

           

            We can also see that this is a “morning” Psalm as opposed to Psalm 4, which was written about the same circumstances is an “evening” Psalm. 

           

            As this psalm begins we see David crying out to the Lord right away, something like Peter did when he began to sink in the water as seen in Matthew 14:30.  David was in trouble and so he got right to his prayer to the Lord, for he needed help in a hurry.  In verse two we see David saying to the Lord that many people were saying that this situation was without hope, yet David knew that the Lord can take care of any of the things that he was going through.  David knew this from experience as the Lord has saved him many times, and that is why many of the Psalms were written in praise to the Lord for saving David in times just like this.

            The story behind this psalm is found in 2 Samuel starting with the rise of Absalom’s power, for Absalom was a man who had a hard time telling the truth, but loved to sooth the hearts of the people of Israel, thus making him very popular with them.  British statesman James Callaghan said, “A lie can be halfway around the world before the truth has got its boots on.”  Yes for some reason people love to hear lies and they can spread them like wildfire.

           

            Dr. Wiersbe writes this interesting statement, “The word ‘help’ in the Hebrew (yeshua) is translated ‘save’ in verse 7 and ‘salvation’ in verse 8 and gives us the names ‘Jesus’ (Matt. 1:21) and ‘Joshua.’  It’s used 136 times in the Psalms.”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today: As mentioned above David wrote many of his psalms because of the trouble that he found himself in.  He must have gained much confidence in the Lord from going through the many trials and tribulations that he went through from the beginning of his life when he was tending the sheep right up to the end of his life when people were trying to put the wrong son of his on the throne. 

           

            Paul writes to the Corinthians that they could comfort others because of the comfort that they were receiving from the Lord; they were to pass that comfort on.  All of this greatly encourages me and give me more faith in the Lord.  The Psalms are a wonderful place to read from when troubles have come my way.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:

 

1.      Continue to trust the Lord in every situation that I face, knowing that He is on the throne and will guide me and direct me.

2.      Continue to learn contentment through life’s trials that I face.

 

 

12/16/2011 10:56:49 AM   

PT-2 "Psalm 2:4-12"

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/15/2011 8:45:17 AM

 

 

My Worship Time                                                                                          Focus: PT-2 Psalm 2

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                       Reference:  Psalm 2:4-12

 

            Message of the verses:  In yesterday’s SD we learned from the commentary of Dr. Wiersbe that the second psalm can be divided up into four different voices and we looked at the voice of the nations in yesterday’s SD.  Today we will begin with the next voice that is speaking and that is:  Mockery—The Voice of God the Father (vv. 4-6).  “4 He who sits in the heavens laughs, The Lord scoffs at them. 5 Then He will speak to them in His anger And terrify them in His fury, saying, 6 “But as for Me, I have installed My King Upon Zion, My holy mountain.’”

 

            Dr. Wiersbe writes “If we fail to see Jesus Christ in this psalm, we miss its message completely:  His death (vs.-1-3, Acts 4:23-28), resurrection (v.-7, Acts 13:33), ascension and enthronement in glory (v.-6), and His return and righteous rule on earth (vs.-8-9, Rev. 2:9, 27; 12:5).

            Some of you have read what I have begun from the Gospel of Mark and as I have been studying the Gospel of Mark from the first chapter I have seen from it that Mark begins right away with telling about the King who is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  We see Jesus as the Servant in the book of Mark, but we also see Him as King in the book of Mark.  Isaiah tells of a suffering Servant that will come to take the judgment that we deserve from God for our sins and all those who receive the forgiveness that Jesus offers because of His death on the cross will not have to face the furry that God will bring about on those who refuse this forgiveness.  The nation of Israel rejected Jesus as their Messiah, their King, for they said “we don’t want this man to rule over us.”  Jesus Christ now sits upon His throne beside His Father in heaven as King and at this time the Kingdom is a spiritual kingdom, yet there will be a time when King Jesus will return to the earth to rule over His Kingdom on earth for 1000 years as promised to the Jews, and seen in the book of Revelations, then King Jesus will rule in the eternal kingdom which is seen later in the book of Revelations.

           

            Verse four shows that there is no worry in heaven over the nations that are spoken of in the first part of this psalm for God the Father laughs at them, verses five and six show the anger of God for those who will not accept the forgiveness that is offered through the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

            Victory—the Voice of God the Son (vv. 7-9):  “7 "I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to Me, ’You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. 8 ’Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, And the very ends of the earth as Your possession. 9 ’You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware.’”

 

            Let us take a look at Acts 13:32-33 to understand when it was that verse seven comes into fulfillment:  “32 “And we preach to you the good news of the promise made to the fathers, 33 that God has fulfilled this promise to our children in that He raised up Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm, ’YOU ARE MY SON; TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU.’”  (NASB)  (The NASB always puts the OT quotes in the NT by using all caps). 

 

            This verse shows that Jesus Christ is King and that we are now in the first part of His Kingdom the Kingdom we are now living in on planet earth as He rules from heaven for this is what God the Father decreed as we see in Psalm 2:7 and fulfilled as seen in Acts 13:33.

           

            When I was a young believer reading this verse I always thought that it referred to the birth of Jesus Christ, but now I see that is not true.  This refers to the resurrection of Christ, when He was “begotten” from the tomb and came forth in glory (See Rom. 1:4 and Hebrews 1:4 and 5:5).

            We see in verse eight that God the Father gives the nations to His Son to rule over.  Satan offered Christ this as seen in Matthew chapter four, but Christ refused it then, but God will give Him rule over all the nations and this will take place in the Millennial Kingdom mentioned above.  We see in verse nine that Christ will rule His Millennial Kingdom with a rod of iron.  There will be no ciaos taking place in the Millennial Kingdom with Jesus Christ as King on earth.

 

            Opportunity—the Voice of the Holy Spirit (vv. 10-12):  “10 Now therefore, O kings, show discernment; Take warning, O judges of the earth. 11 Worship the LORD with reverence And rejoice with trembling. 12 Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way, For His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!”

 

            We see in the first part of this Psalm that the Father decreed judgment, and also the Son’s victorious enthronement in heaven, so the wise thing for people to do now is to accept the forgiveness that is offered through Jesus Christ, for the Holy Spirit is calling sinners to repent during this period that we are now living in.

           

            We see in verse ten and eleven that the Spirit of God speaks to the kings and rulers, but then in verse twelve He speaks to all, and urges them to trust in the Son.  We see in Romans chapter 13 that the leaders are accountable to God on how they rule and that is why the Spirit speaks to them first.  Dr. Wiersbe writes “The people are enraged against God mainly because their leaders have incited them.  They are ignorant because they follow the wisdom of this world and not the wisdom that comes from God (1Cor. 1:18-31).  They are proud of what they think they know, but they really know nothing about eternal truth.  How can they learn?  ‘Be instructed’ (v-10) from the Word of God.  The word also means ‘to be warned.’  How gracious the Lord is to save sinners before His wrath is revealed!”

           

            The Spirit now appeals to the will after He has instructed the mind and calls those rebels to stop serving sin (v-11).  When we become a true believer we understand what it means to both fear the Lord and to Love the Lord.  The fear we have for the Lord is reverence similar to the fear we have of our parents.  John writes in 1 John 4:18 these words, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.”  John is speaking of the kind of fear that involves punishment, but the punishment for our sins has been taken out on Christ on the cross as payment for our sins.

           

            The Spirit now appeals to the heart and He calls us to submissive love and devotion to the King.  And then we see the Spirit end with a word of blessing at the end of verse twelve. 

           

            Dr. Wiersbe concludes his commentary with these words:  “Psalm 1 opens with ‘blessed’ and Psalm 2 concludes with promised blessing for all who put their trust in the Son of god.  That promise still stands (John 3:16-18; 20:31).

 

3/29/2025 9:40 AM

 

 

 

 

 

           

PT-1 Psalm 2 (Psalm 2:1-3)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/14/2011 10:30:44 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                                            Focus:  Pt-1 Psalm 2

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                         Reference:  Psalm 2:1-3

 

            Message of the verses:  “1 Why are the nations in an uproar And the peoples devising a vain thing? 2 The kings of the earth take their stand And the rulers take counsel together Against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying, 3 “Let us tear their fetters apart And cast away their cords from us!’”

           

            Psalm 1 is never quoted in the NT, while Psalm 2 is either quoted or referred to at least eighteen times.  Psalm 2 is what is called a Messianic psalm.  Warren Wiersbe writes, “The test of a Messianic psalm is that it is quoted in the New Testament as referring to Jesus (Luke 24:27, 44).  But this is also a royal psalm, referring to the coronation of a Jewish king and the rebellion of some vassal nations that hoped to gain their freedom.”

           

            This is a psalm written by David and could have been written out of the events that are found in 2 Samuel 5:17-25, 8:1-14, 10:1-19.

           

            As we look back at the history of Israel we see that when they first came out of Egypt and conquered the Promised Land that the nation was ruled by the Lord, but when we get to the book of 1 Samuel we see that the leaders of the nation wanted a king to rule over them.  This broke the heart of Samuel, but the Lord told him to anoint Saul as their king.  There are places in the OT before this even took place that show that God knew that this was going to happen and it was actually part of His plan, but as we read the events that happened that surrounded the life of Saul we see that Saul was a man that the people wanted, for he was tall and he was strong, but God wanted a man from the tribe of Judah and a man that was after His own heart, and that man was David.  Later in David’s life he desired to build a temple for the Lord, but the Lord told him that he was going to build a dynasty through the line of David all the way to the coming Messiah whose humanity would come from the line of David and this is seen when we look at the genealogies of both Matthew and Luke.  Genesis 3:15 is the first prophecy about the coming of Messiah and we can see from that verse that the Father of the Messiah will be none other than God and this is seen in the Gospel of Luke.  Luke 1:35 “The angel answered and said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.”

           

            Dr. Wiersbe writes:  “Some psalms you see, some psalms you feel, but this one you hear, because it is a record of four voices.”  We will look at the first voice in today’s “Spiritual Diary.”

 

            Conspiracy—The Voice of the Nations (vv. 1-3):  “1 Why are the nations in an uproar And the peoples devising a vain thing? 2 The kings of the earth take their stand And the rulers take counsel together Against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying, 3 “Let us tear their fetters apart And cast away their cords from us!’”  (NASB)

 

            David did not expect an answer to his question that he presents in verse one, but it is a great question to think about and wonder about for God created the earth and all that we see in the heavens, and He created it to bring honor and glory to Himself, but He also created it for man and as we look through the first days of creation it as if we are looking at an Artist who is painting a masterpiece and waits until the last moment to put the finishing touches on the painting to make it complete.  The last day of creation God made the animals and then He made man, the finishing touch to His wonderful creation.  Man chose to sin against God and was thrown out of the beautiful garden that God had made for him, and so sin began to take on its ugly consequences on not only mankind but also the entire creation.  As mentioned above God at once spoke of a coming Redeemer who would be born of the seed of woman in order to provide salvation. 

           

            I want to quote a verse from the Gospel of John that is spoken of by John the Baptist that sums up the division between those who belong to God and those who don’t, and it is those who don’t belong to God that David is speaking about in this section:  “John 3:36 “"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.’”  What will be the wrath that comes upon them?  Well the answer is found in the first chapter of Romans and verses eighteen and following:  “18  For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 20  For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. 24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. 25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. 26  For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, 27  and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. 28  And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, 29  being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, 30  slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31  without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; 32  and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.”

           

            This is a very ugly picture of what happened to mankind and the worst thing that God could do to them is highlighted in this section “God gave them over.”  God just let them go and continue to slide down the slippery slope of sin and the result was the consequences of what they desired to get from their sinfulness.

 

            I just want to make one more point from this section of this Psalm and that is that nations were rebelling against the Holy One of God, the Messiah, The Lord Jesus Christ.  It is as if they were all saying what the Jews said about Jesus Christ, “"But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ’We do not want this man to reign over us.’”  (Luke 19:14)  The Psalm is speaking of the Messiah as seen in verse two when is says “His Anointed.”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am so thankful to the Lord for the salvation that He has given to me and that I am one of those that are spoken of on the redeemed side of John 3:36.  I do not want to ever be ungrateful for the wonderful gifts that the Lord has given to me, gifts that are given to all mankind such as air to breathe, food to eat, things like that for they are all gifts from God, but some do not see it that way.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:

 

1.      Have a thankful heart for the gifts that the Lord has provided for me.

2.      Remember to worship the Giver of the gifts and not the gifts that are given to me.

3.      Continue to learn contentment.

 

12/14/2011 11:32:39 AM

PT-3 "Psalm -1:4-6"

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/13/2011 2:18:22 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                                                          Focus: PT-3 Psalm 1

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                         Reference:  Psalm 1:4-6

 

            Message of the verses:  We will begin the last section of Psalm 1 which is the last two verses of the Psalm.  Dr. Wiersbe entitles this last section “The Person Who Needs a Blessing (vs. 4-6).”  “4 The wicked are not so, But they are like chaff which the wind drives away. 5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. 6 For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, But the way of the wicked will perish.”

 

            Let’s begin by looking at how John the Baptist  used the images of tree, fruit and also chaff to describe unbelievers from Matthew’s Gospel 3:7-12:  “7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8  "Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance; 9  and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ’We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham. 10 “The axe is already laid at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 11  "As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12  "His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.’”

           

            John says that the chaff will be burned up with fire, and this pictures hell, which is where those who have not accepted the Lord’s forgiveness will end up. 

           

            This last part of Psalm one is speaking about ungodly people, people that we as believers have an opportunity to wittiness to for the sake of the Gospel.  When we think about chaff and how close it is to the grain, the part that is used for food, the part that does not get thrown into the fire, we can think that in the illustration of wheat and chaff that the believers are the wheat, close to the chaff and therefore close to having an opportunity to speak to them about the Lord. 

           

            There is a parable in the book of Matthew where the Lord Jesus tells about a farmer who has planted his wheat and then an enemy comes out to his field and plants a weed called darnel which looks just like wheat until it grows into maturity and then there are no heads of wheat on it.  The servants of the farmer wanted to go out and try and pull the weeds out, but the farmer said no because they might pull out some of the wheat and thus destroy it.  There is coming a day when the Righteous Judge will separate the wheat from this darnel, the sheep from the goats, and the trees from the chaff and there will be no unbeliever who will be able to stand.

           

            Dr. Wiersbe speaks of the word “know” that is found in verse six where it says “the Lord knows the way of the righteous” and has this to say about that word:  “The verb know in verse 6 doesn’t mean that God is aware of them intellectually and has the godly in his mind.  Rather, it means that God has chosen them and providentially watched over them and brought them finally to His glory.  The word ‘know’ is used, as in Amos 3:2, to mean ‘to chose, to enter into covenant relationship with, to be personally acquainted with.’” 

           

            We see that this Psalm starts out with blessing, but it ends up with the ungodly to be cursed.  As believers we have great opportunity to pass on the blessing that we have received from the Lord when He saved us and pass on that blessing.  “3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight 9 He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him 10 with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him 11 also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, 12 to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. 13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation-having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.”  (Blessing from the Lord as told about in the letter to the Ephesians, 1:3-14)

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Sometimes when we receive gifts or blessing we don’t want to share them with others, but that is not what a believer should do, for believers are to share the blessings and gifts from the Lord so that they do not become idols in their lives.  I need to practice the passing on of blessings to others in my life.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:

 

1.      Pass on the gifts that the Giver has given to me so that I can be a better steward of the things that the Lord has blessed me with.

2.      Continue to learn contentment.

 

12/13/2011 2:57:02 PM

PT-2 of Psalm One (Ps. 1:3)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/12/2011 7:21:28 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                                      Focus:  PT-2 of Psalm 1

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                            Reference:  Psalm 1:3

 

            Message of the verses:  In today’s SD we will look at verse three of Psalm 1.  We must look at how the outline of this Psalm is presented from yesterday’s SD.  “While the Psalm depicts two ways, it actually describes three different persons and how they relate to the blessing of the Lord.”  (Quote from Warren Wiersbe)

 

            The Person Who Is a Blessing (v-3):  “3 He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers.”  (NASB)

           

            In the twelfth chapter of the book of Genesis we see the call of Abram from the Lord and the first three verses of Genesis twelve are very familiar verses.  We want to look at just the second verse in order to see that Abram will be a blessing to others similar to the person of the third verse of Psalm 1:  “And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing.”

           

            Dr. Wiersbe writes “If the blessing stays with us, then the gifts become more important than the Giver, and this is idolatry.  We are to become channels of God’s blessing to others.  It’s a joy to receive a blessing but an even greater joy to be a blessing.  ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”  (Acts 20:35)

           

            We see some word pictures in this third verse of Psalm one.  We see the word tree and the person who receives God’s blessing and then channels them to others is like this tree and the tree in verse three is planted by a stream of water so that its roots can receive the water it needs to continue to grow and prosper as a fully mature tree.  The tree can then produce fruit and that fruit will be the blessings that will be given to others.

           

            There are a few times in Scripture that speaks of trees and in Daniel chapter four and Ezekiel chapter 17:24 along with Matthew 13:32 we see the tree as a symbol of a kingdom.  We can see the tree symbolizing as an individual in Psalm 52:8; 92:12-14; Proverbs 11:30; Isaiah 44:4 and 58:11; Jeremiah 17:5-8; Matthew 7:15-23. 

           

            In the book of Numbers 24:5-6 we see Balaam bringing a blessing on the children of Israel and this is how he pictures them:  “5 How fair are your tents, O Jacob, Your dwellings, O Israel! 6 “Like valleys that stretch out, Like gardens beside the river, Like aloes planted by the LORD, Like cedars beside the waters.”  We now see the next word picture and that is a river, and as mentioned this river in verse three is the means of growth for the tree that produces fruit which are the blessings of the tree.  Now this is a reminder of John 15:1-9:  “1 "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2  "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. 3 “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. 5 “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. 6  "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. 7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.  9 “Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love.’”

 

 

            Psalm 1:3 is a great picture of a person who is remaining in the vine, and remaining is the same as abiding in the vine.  This person is receiving their spiritual blessings from the Word of God, from fellowship with others, from meditating on the Word of God because they delight in the Word of God and then they are passing this fruit onto others as the Holy Spirit brings opportunity to be a blessing to others because they are abiding or remaining in the vine.  I have mentioned this section of Scripture in earlier SD’s so it should be somewhat familiar.  I will put onto a separate blog a letter that I wrote to a friend of mine while living in Hawaii last summer that will help to explain more fully what I learned from the study of John 15 about the vine and the branches.

 

            I wish to draw one more quote from Dr. Wiersbe’s commentary on Psalm 1 at this time:  “The godly person described in verses 1-3 is surely a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to John 14:6 is the way (v. 1), and the life (v.3).”  Dr. Wiersbe has a great way of finding the Lord Jesus Christ in many of the Scriptures that we study.  This reminds me of a favorite passage of Scripture that of Luke 24 when Jesus is walking with some friends along the road to Emmaus and the friends of Jesus were prevented from knowing the resurrected Lord.  Jesus began to explain to them about how the Messiah is seen in the OT as the traveled along together.  There are many pictures of the Lord Jesus Christ in the OT and that is reason enough to study it so that we can find these jewels and then pass them on to others so we can be a blessing to them.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I desire to love the Giver of the gifts more than the gifts and therefore pass on the blessing that I receive from the Lord to others who are in need of them.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:

 

1.      I use to listen to a radio Pastor who is now with the Lord and he would always say at the end of his message, right before he would sign off with these words:  “Walk with the King today and be a blessing.”

2.      Continue to learn contentment.

 

12/12/2011 8:13:08 AM