SPIRITUAL
DIARY FOR 4/16/2012 9:02:48 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
“Remember
Who is in control!”
Bible Reading & Meditation
Reference: Psalm 74:12-23
Message
of the verses: In today’s SD we will
begin to look at the rest of Psalm 74, remembering that the psalm is a psalm by
Asaph and the subject is the destruction of the temple of God in Jerusalem by
the Babylonians. How he deals with this
is what this psalm is about and in the first eleven verses we saw that Asaph
thought that the Lord had rejected Israel.
The Throne:
“The Lord Reigns!” (vv. 12-17):
“12 Yet God is my king from of old, Who works deeds of deliverance in
the midst of the earth. 13 You divided the sea by Your strength; You broke the
heads of the sea monsters in the waters. 14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan;
You gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness. 15 You broke open
springs and torrents; You dried up ever-flowing streams. 16 Yours is the day,
Yours also is the night; You have prepared the light and the sun. 17 You have
established all the boundaries of the earth; You have made summer and winter.”
“12
Yet God my King is from of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth. 13
You divided the sea by your might; you broke the heads of the sea monsters on
the waters. 14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan; you gave him as food for the
creatures of the wilderness. 15 You split open springs and brooks; you dried up
ever-flowing streams. 16 Yours is the day, yours also the night; you have
established the heavenly lights and the sun. 17 You have fixed all the
boundaries of the earth; you have made summer and winter.” (ESV)
We can picture Asaph standing in
the ruins of Jerusalem as it burns and is smoldering and he wonders who is
still in charge, and then a turning point comes and he remembers that the Lord
is still on His throne and in control of what is happening on the earth. Asaph remembers that God brings salvation to
those on the earth and he probably was speaking of not only the salvation of
humans from sin but the salvation that God would provide for the nation of
Israel in caring for them. Asaph then
goes back to the Exodus, remembering how the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt
by dividing the sea and the he is probably speaking of the Egyptians when he
talks about the sea monsters, for God killed all the Egyptians who had followed
Israel into the sea. In verse 15 Asaph
speaks of God giving water to Israel in the wilderness and then even goes back
to the creation in verse 16 as he speaks about the creation of the day and
night and the sun. Verse 17 continues
speaking of creation speaking of how God set the boundaries for the seas and
dry land. It was good for Asaph to
remember these things at such a difficult time.
The Covenant: “The Lord Remembers Us!” (vv.18-23): “18 Remember this, O LORD, how the enemy
scoffs, and a foolish people reviles your name. 19 Do not deliver the soul of
your dove to the wild beasts; do not forget the life of your poor forever. 20
Have regard for the covenant, for the dark places of the land are full of the
habitations of violence. 21 Let not the downtrodden turn back in shame; let the
poor and needy praise your name. 22 Arise, O God, defend your cause; remember
how the foolish scoff at you all the day! 23 Do not forget the clamor of your
foes, the uproar of those who rise against you, which goes up
continually!” (ESV)
Psalm 89:14 says, “Righteousness and justice are the
foundation of Your throne; Lovingkindness and truth go before You.” Since this is true then Asaph could now move
on in his mind to the covenant that God had made with Israel. The covenant is found in Lev. 26 and also in
Deu. 28-30. The covenant says that if Israel obeys the Lord then He will bless
them and if they disobey Him God would chasten them. God had sent prophets to speak to the people
and the kings of Israel, but they would not listen to them. In this paragraph we see that Asaph is
talking about how the Babylonians are mocking God and this is a concern to
him. In the world we live in today we
have seen leaders of nations mock God, but rest assured those who have done
this and not confessed it and are now in the grave are not mocking God
anymore. We must remember the story that
the Lord Jesus told in Luke’s gospel about the rich man and Lazarus. In that story the rich man died and was in
the flames and looked across a great divide to see Abraham and Lazarus asking
Abraham to send Lazarus back to tell his brothers of what awaits them, but
Abraham told them that they had the Word of God and even if a person came back
from the dead to tell them to repent they would not do it. I remind us of this story to show that death
is final, and as John the Baptist said in John 3:36 there are only two kinds of
people in this world: “"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.’” The wrath of
God would come upon the Babylonians for their mocking of God (See Daniel
5).
Israel would repent of their sins
(See Daniel 9, Ezra 9, and Nehemiah 9), and God would remember them as He
promised that He would and bring them back into the land. (See Jeremiah 25:11-12 and also 29:10) and
when we look at chapters 44 & 45 of Isaiah we will even see that God had
called Cyrus to send His people back to Israel.
Dr. Wiersbe writes about Asaph’s
cause “It was God’s cause that was uppermost in his (Asaph) mind. The prophet Jeremiah had preached about the
dependability of God’s covenant (Jer. 33:19-20), and Asaph was asking God to
fulfill His purposes for the nation.”
“The nation had been ravaged, the
city of Jerusalem had been wrecked, and the temple had been destroyed and
burned—but the essentials had not been touched by the enemy! The
nation still had Jehovah God as their God, His Word and His covenant had not
been changed, and Jehovah was at work in the world! God is at work in our world today, and we
need not despair.”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: “God is
at work in our world today, and we need not despair.”
My Steps of Faith for Today: remember
that God is at work in our world today, and we need not despair.
4/16/2012
9:52:47 AM
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