SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/26/2012
7:36:13 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Psalm 131
PT-2
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm 131:2-3
Message of
the verses: Dr. Wiersbe wrote the following at the end of
his introductory commentary on Psalm 131:
“In this brief psalm, he tells us the essentials of a life that
glorifies God and accomplishes His work on earth.” We looked at the first essential in yesterday’s
SD and will continue looking at the next two in today’s SD.
Humility—Accept God’s Will (v.2)
2 Surely I have composed and quieted my soul;
Like a weaned child rests against his mother, My soul is like a weaned child
within me.”
In yesterday’s SD we looked
at honestly accepting yourself, and in today’s SD we will look at humbly
accepting God’s will and then the hope we have in accepting the future.
David speaks of the weaning
of a child in verse two, and the way that this was when he wrote this psalm
from the land of Israel is much different than the way that it is in the United
States today. Although it may be that
more and more mothers are breast feeding their children today, I don’t think
that the majority of women are breast feeding their children until age three or
four today as was the custom when David wrote this psalm. It is different and so in order to understand
this verse we have to understand the times when this psalm was written. David begins this verse by speaking of being
composed and being quiet. The word
speaks of the calming of the sea or the leveling of the ground after it is
plowed. This kind of emotion would
happen to the child from feeding from the mother, as opposed to having
emotional highs and lows. When a baby is
born there is a crisis from the birth and feeding at the mother’s breast is a
calming experience for the baby, but there would come a time when this had to
end and this would again be a difficult time for the young child. This could be described as a painful loss for
the child. Now we will look at this in
the light of several different short Bible stories that Dr. Wiersbe has included
in his commentary in order to help us understand this in terms of grownups. “Abraham had to leave his family and city,
send Ishmael away, separate from Lot, and put Isaac on the altar. Painful weanings! Joseph had to be separated from his father
and brothers in order to see his dreams come true. Both Jacob and Peter had to be weaned from
their own self-sufficiency and learn that faith means living without scheming. The child that David described wept and
fretted but eventually calmed down and accepted the inevitable.” Later he goes on to write, “Successful living
means moving from dependence to independence, and then to interdependence, always
in the will of God. To accept God’s will
in the losses and gains of life is to experience that inner calm that is so
necessary if we are to be mature people.”
I have to say that as I
read the commentary from Dr. Wiersbe that there are times when things seem to
jump right off the page with meaning for me.
Hope—Anticipate the Future (v. 3)
3 O Israel, hope in the LORD From this time
forth and forever.
I suppose that we have all
heard from our parents or said to our children when something we have to do is
painful that it is four our own good, and this is the case of the weaning child
in this psalm for when they were weaned they were set free in able to meet the
future and to make the most of it. Some people
have a hard time in making changes, but when we look at our growth in our walk
with the Lord there always have to be changes made. Paul writes the following to the Corinthians,
“2Co 3:18 But we all, with unveiled
face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed
into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” Being transformed from one glory to another
means that the Spirit is working inside our hearts to cause us to become more
mature in the Lord. We have looked at
this word “transformed” in earlier SD’s, and it is a word that we get the word
metamorphoses from where a ugly worm turns into a beautiful butterfly. The word is also used in Romans 12:2, “2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will
of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” We also see the word when Jesus when up on
the mountain with Peter, James, and John and He was transformed so that they
could see His glory.
There are times in our
lives when we desire not to change, but as Dr. Wiersbe puts it, “When we fret
over a comfortable past, we only forfeit a challenging future.” He concludes his commentary by writing, “Like
the child being weaned, we may fret at our present circumstances, but we know
that our fretting is wrong. Our present
circumstances are the womb out of which new blessings and opportunities will be
born. (Romans 8:28)”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: Changes that seem
to be bad are changes that I have a hard time with even though they are in the
will of God. This is where faith has to
come in believing what Romans 8:28 teaches us, “Moreover we know that to those
who love God, who are called according to his plan, everything that happens
fits into a pattern for good (Phillips).”
I’m sure that from age seventeen to age thirty-three that Joseph had a
hard time believing that the dreams that he had when he was a child would still
come true.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Contentment is something that means that I
know that God is always in control of my life in spite of going through
difficult circumstances.
Memory verses for the
week: 1Cor. 13:8-13
8 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy,
they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is
knowledge, it will be done away. 9 For
we know in part, and we prophecy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes the
partial will be done away. 11 When I was
a child, I use to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child;
when I became a man I did away with childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then
face to face, now we know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also
have been fully known. But now faith,
hope, and love, abide these three, but the greatest of these is love.
10/26/2012 8:35:38 AM
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