SPIRITUAL
DIARY FOR 3/20/2012 8:11:26 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: “Prayer & Praise”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm
61
Message
of the verses: “David, in this
psalm, as in many others, begins with a sad heart, but concludes with an air of
pleasantness—begins with prayers and tears, but ends with songs of praise. Thus
the soul, by being lifted up to God, returns to the enjoyment of itself. It should
seem David was driven out and banished when he penned this psalm, whether by
Saul or Absalom is uncertain: some think by Absalom, because he calls himself
‘the king.’” (Matthew Henry)
“TITLE. To the Chief Musician upon
Neginah, a Psalm of David. The original indicates that both the hymn and the
musical instrument were David’s. He wrote the verses and himself sang them to
the stringed instrument whose sound he loved so well. We have left the Psalms
entitled Michtam, but we shall still find much precious meaning though the
golden name be wanting. We have met with the title of this Psalm before, in #Ps
4:1 6:1 54:1 55:1, but with this difference, that in the present case the word
is in the singular number: the Psalm itself is very personal, and well adapted
for the private devotion of a single individual.” (Charles H. Spurgeon)
“David could have written this psalm
during any of the many times he was in danger, but perhaps the best context is
the rebellion under Absalom (2 Sam. 15-18). David prayed about a foe (v. 3),
protection for his life (v. 6), and the security of his throne (v. 7, where he
‘abide’ means ‘be enthroned’). The psalm
opens with David crying out in distress but closes with him singing praises to
God.” (Warren Wiersbe)
“Hear Me”—A Cry to the Lord (vv. 1-4): “1 For the choir director; on a stringed
instrument. A Psalm of David: Hear my cry, O God; Give
heed to my prayer. 2 From the end of the
earth I call to You when my heart is faint; Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. 3 For You have been a refuge for me, A tower of
strength against the enemy. 4 Let me dwell in Your tent forever; Let me take
refuge in the shelter of Your wings. Selah.”
It seems that we have looked at many
psalms that were written by David when he had moved out of Jerusalem because of
Absalom and according to most of the commentators I read this is another one
that came from that very difficult time in the life of David. I believe that we can gain courage and
strength from that difficult time in the life of David because we can see God’s
hand of love and mercy upon David during that difficult time in his life. We must remember that the reason that David
was in trouble was because of his sin with Bathsheba and Uriah and we must also
remember the words that the Apostle Paul wrote to the Romans, “but where sin increased, grace abounded
all the more”, (Romans 5:20b). It
was not in the plan of God to have Absalom rule in Israel and David knew that
so I am sure that this encouraged him and even though He was down hearted we
see in this first part of Psalm 61 that David cried out to the Lord in prayer
in verse one. The phrase “from the end
of the earth” is speaking spiritually because even though David was not too far
from Jerusalem he was away from where he worshiped the Lord at the tent where
the dwelling place of God was he felt that he was at the end of the earth. We know that David took worshiping the Lord
very seriously, something that we all should do.
We also see in verse three that
David refers to God as “Rock” something we have seen in other psalms written by
David. David knows that in himself he
cannot handle this difficult situation so he desires to go to the Rock that is
higher than he is.
In verse three we see the history of
David’s trust in the Lord and how the Lord in the past has taken care of David
and got him out of some very difficult situations and so David reminds the Lord
of this in his prayer. I believe that
this kind of prayer is pleasing to the Lord, for when we pray in this way God
knows that we have remembered His work in our lives that He has done.
We see something familiar in verse
four and that is that David wants to dwell with the Lord forever, David wants
to be in the tent where the presence of God is where the two cherubim’s were on
the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies.
Now we know that David was not a priest and could not enter the Holy of Holies
but David knew about this from the Scriptures.
Believers today can enter into the presence of God for when the Lord
Jesus Christ died on the cross the curtain that divided the holy place from the
Holy of Holies was torn from top to bottom opening up the Holy of Holies to all
who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for their salvation. “19 Therefore,
brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of
Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil,
that is, His flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22
let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our
hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure
water.” (Hebrews 10:19-22)
“You Have Heard Me”—Confidence in the Lord
(vv. 5-8): “5 For You have heard my vows, O God; You have given me the inheritance
of those who fear Your name. 6 You will prolong the king’s life; His years will
be as many generations. 7 He will abide before God forever; Appoint lovingkindness
and truth that they may preserve him. 8 So I will sing praise to Your name
forever, That I may pay my vows day by day.”
In verse five we see that David
speaks of the vows that he had made to the Lord while he was wandering in the
wilderness, vows that had to do with how he would lead God’s chosen people of
Israel. David lead the people in a godly
way, in a way, for the most part, honored the Lord. We find these words written in 1Kings 15:5 “because David did what was right in the
sight of the LORD, and had not turned aside from anything that He commanded him
all the days of his life, except in the case of Uriah the Hittite.” When we go to the account of David’s life in 1
Chronicles we do not even see the incident of David and Bathsheba and Uriah at
all, and the NT does not mention it either.
I think that we as believers must remember that because our sins have
been paid for that they are as far away as the East is from the West. When we sin, and we will sin, we must do as 1
John 1:9 instructs us to do “If we
confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
We are to agree with God that what we have done is sin, for God is just
in forgiving our sins because of what Jesus Christ did on our behalf.
In verse six and seven we see that
David is talking about the covenant that the Lord made with him about having
someone from David’s family on the throne forever and that someone is Jesus
Christ the Lord who is the greater Son of David and who is on the throne at
this time and will remain there forever.
There were many sons of David that were not good kings, who did evil in
the sight of the Lord, but when you look back at the genealogy of Jesus Christ in
the books of Matthew and Luke you will see a bit of a difference in their lists. Most commentators believe that Matthews’s
genealogy is the kingly line through Solomon to Joseph while in Luke’s
genealogy most believe that the line goes through David’s son Nathan to Mary. I
believe that David knew that Messiah would come through his family and for this
David was truly in awe of the grace of God.
Dr. Wiersbe writes “David’s concern
was not for his own name or family but for the future of Israel and God’s great
plan of redemption. His own throne was
in jeopardy at that time, but he had confidence that God would keep His
promises. ‘May he sit enthroned forever’ (v. 7 AMP) meant ‘May King David live out his full life,’
protected by God’s mercy and truth, but to believers today it means, ‘May Jesus Christ reign forever!’ The throne of glory is secure, for God has
set His King on His holy hill of Zion! (2:6).
In view of this, let’s follow David’s example and trust the Lord, call
on Him, obey him ‘day after day,’ and sing His praises.”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I want to
go back to one of the comments that I made about the forgiveness of God and the
grace of God, something that David knew much about. I want to live my life to do the will of God
in my life and when I sin I want to confess my sin right away to the Lord so
that I do not have any long lists of unconfessed sin, and in that way I can be
in fellowship with the Lord. When David
was confronted with his sin by Nathan he confessed his sin right away, he did
not argue with Nathan and I cannot argue with the Holy Spirit when He convicts
me of sin.
I also want to remember that the
Lord is my Rock who is higher than I as David wrote and because of this I
desire to rely on the Holy Spirit of God to lead me so that the works that I do
are the works that the God planned for me to do in eternity past (Eph. 2:10).
My
Steps of Faith for Today: Follow the
leading of the Holy Spirit and do the works that God has planned for me to do
in eternity past. I desire to seek the
Holy Spirit to search my heart for unconfessed sin (Psalm 139:23-24). I desire to continue to learn contentment
(Phil. 4:11b).
3/20/2012
9:40:49 AM
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