SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/10/2012
9:47:19 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
“Praise
for Victory”
Bible Reading
& Meditation Reference: Psalm 21:1-13
Message of the verses: “1 For
the choir director. A Psalm of David: O
LORD, in Your strength the king will be glad, And in Your salvation how greatly
he will rejoice! 2 You have given him his heart’s desire, And You have not withheld the
request of his lips. Selah. 3 For You meet him with the blessings of
good things; You set a crown of fine gold on his head. 4 He asked life of You,
You gave it to him, Length of days forever and ever. 5 His glory is great
through Your salvation, Splendor and majesty You place upon him. 6 For You make
him most blessed forever; You make him joyful with gladness in Your presence. “7
For the king trusts in the LORD, And through the lovingkindness of the Most
High he will not be shaken. 8 Your hand will find out all your enemies; Your
right hand will find out those who hate you. 9 You will make them as a fiery
oven in the time of your anger; The LORD will swallow them up in His wrath, And
fire will devour them. 10 Their offspring You will destroy from the earth, And
their descendants from among the sons of men. 11 Though they intended evil
against You And devised a plot, They will not succeed. 12 For You will make
them turn their back; You will aim with Your bowstrings at their faces. 13 Be
exalted, O LORD, in Your strength; We will sing and praise Your power.”
In
yesterday’s SD it was stated that the prayer of Psalm 20 was answered in Psalm
21, and the prayer was that victory would be given by the power of the Lord as
He gave David and his army strength to defeat their enemies.
Dr.
Wiersbe in his introduction to this psalm writes, “The Jewish Targum states that
this psalm is about ‘King Messiah.’ Of
course, David is a type of Jesus Christ.”
Looking
Back: Celebration for Past Victories
(vv.1-7): “1 For the choir director. A
Psalm of David: O LORD, in Your strength
the king will be glad, And in Your salvation how greatly he will rejoice! 2 You
have given him his heart’s desire, And You have not withheld the request of his lips.
Selah. 3 For You meet him with the blessings of good things; You set a crown of
fine gold on his head. 4 He asked life of You, You gave it to him, Length of
days forever and ever. 5 His glory is great through Your salvation, Splendor
and majesty You place upon him. 6 For You make him most blessed forever; You
make him joyful with gladness in Your presence.
7 For the king trusts
in the LORD, And through the lovingkindness of the Most High he will not
be shaken.”
The people and their king are
addressing the Lord to give thanks to Him for what He did for them in answer to
their prayers, and it is believed that the prayers of Psalm 20 are what they
are thanking the Lord for in Psalm 21.
We see the word “salvation” in
verses one and five and this means deliverance, victory.
In
verse three we see the phrase “for You
meet him with blessings” and this means that the Lord went before the king
in order to give him victory over his enemies.
In Joshua 5:13-15 we see that the Lord meet Joshua before the battle of
Jericho and Melchizedek who also is a type of Jesus Christ, met Abraham after
battle with the kings and now we see that God went before David and welcomed
him to the battlefield and victory. The
word welcomed is found in the NIV in verse three instead of “meet” as found in the NASB and “preventest” that is found in the
KJV. Dr. Wiersbe writes: “That God goes before His obedient people is
a great encouragement.” I would have to
say “Amen” to that.
The
gold crown that is seen in verse three is probably a symbol of God’s special
blessing or His goodness to David (see verse five). We see “length of days forever (v-4) and
blessings forever (v-6) and this may refer to the covenant that God had given
to David and was fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. Dr. Wiersbe writes “While he reigned, David
would not be ‘shaken’ by his
enemies, because his faith was in the Lord (v.7; 10:6; 16:8; 55:22:
121:3). This declaration of faith is the central verse of the
psalm.”
Looking
Ahead: Anticipation of Future Victories (vv. 8-12): “8
Your hand will find out all your enemies; Your right hand will find out those
who hate you. 9 You will make them as a fiery oven in the time of your anger;
The LORD will swallow them up in His wrath, And fire will devour them. 10 Their
offspring You will destroy from the earth, And their descendants from among the
sons of men. 11 Though they intended evil against You And devised a plot, They
will not succeed. 12 For You will make them turn their back; You will aim with
Your bowstrings at their faces.”
In these verses we see that the
king and the people trusted in the Lord for future victories because their
faith had grown from the last victory that they had over their enemies. “God’s right hand is more than a symbol of
power; it actively works for His people and brings defeat to their enemies.” We see in verse eight the words “find out”
and this actually means to dispose of in a similar way that fire destroys or
disposes of what it comes in contact with so the Lord will do it to devour the
enemies of David. Israel will have a
future but the enemies of Israel will not have a future and we can see that
down through history. Someone wrote that
Israel stands at the graves of all that have persecuted her and this is
true. Israel is now in their land and has
been since May of 1948 and just as in David’s time they are surrounded with
enemies, but God will take care of Israel today just as He did in David’s time.
Looking
Up: Exaltation of the Lord of the
Victories (v. 13): “13 Be exalted, O LORD, in Your strength;
We will sing and praise Your power.”
In Psalm 20 we see it closed with
the people and the king asking God to hear their prayer, and now Psalm 21
closes with the prayer that God would be “lifted up on high” to be
exalted. God will honor those who honor
Him and we must not forget to thank and exalt the Lord for answers to prayers
that we pray to Him.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: “Be exalted O Lord above the heavens’ let Thy
glory be over all the earth.” This
begins one of my favorites hymns and this is my prayer that whatever I do will
bring glory to the Lord and when my prayers are answered from the gracious hand
of the Lord then I will exalt Him as David did in this psalm.
My Steps of
Faith for Today:
1.
Praise the Lord for answers to my prayers.
2.
Continue to seek to learn contentment.
1/10/2012 10:45:45 AM
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