12/17/2011 1:11:24 PM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: Psalm 3 PT-2
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.”
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 2Samuel 7 was the answer to the problem that he was in, and in 2Samuel 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 not 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 (2Sam. 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 1Sam. 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 and David 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
No comments:
Post a Comment