1/28/2012 9:42:24 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: Psalm 34 Part-3
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm 34:17:22
Message of the verses: In today’s SD we will look at the last section of Psalm 34 which are the last six verses. I am going to quote again the words of Dr. Wiersbe that he wrote at the end of his opening comments on Psalm 34: “Out of his experience in Gath, David shared in this psalm four instructions for his own followers (1Sam. 22:1-2), as well as for us today, to help us keep out of tight situations and live a life that pleases God.” The last instruction he entitles trust the Lord.
Trust the Lord (vv. 17-22): “17 The righteous cry, and the LORD hears And delivers them out of all their troubles. 18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted And saves those who are crushed in spirit. 19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the LORD delivers him out of them all. 20 He keeps all his bones, Not one of them is broken. 21 Evil shall slay the wicked, And those who hate the righteous will be condemned. 22 The LORD redeems the soul of His servants, And none of those who take refuge in Him will be condemned.”
I mentioned in yesterday’s SD that I thought that the verses in Psalm 34 reminded me of what is in the book of Proverbs in that they seem to be short bits of wisdom in each of the verses like what is found in the book of Proverbs and I can see that in these six verses too.
In this last section we see a contrast of what will happen to the “righteous” and what will happen to the “wicked.” Verse 17 we see the righteous cry and then the Lord answers. In verse 21 we see what will happen to the wicked and what happens to them is seen in the first part of verse 21 where David writes “Evil shall slay the wicked.” Dr. Wiersbe writes “The Lord is able to keep our enemies in check, and their evil deeds will destroy them, for sin is its own executioner.” “His own iniquities will capture the wicked, And he will be held with the cords of his sin Proverbs 5:22.”
The Bible never assures us that when we become believers that are lives will then be without troubles, but we see verses in this section of Scripture that tell us that the Lord will be with us through all of the troubled times. Verses 17-20 gives us this promises and we can see that even though at times we don’t feel like the Lord is with us and helping us He is doing this. We must remember what we said about feelings in an earlier SD and that is they cannot always be trusted. These verses say what I wrote in an earlier SD and that is that God will heal us every time but the last time and at that time we can be assured that our work on earth will be done.
It makes me sad and also it makes me angry when I see on TV from time to time that a “preacher” will come on and say that if you send me some money then I will pray over your letter and the Lord will heal you. I have also hear them say that once you become a believer that your life will be wonderful and that you will not have any more problems. These are lies that come from the enemy. To illustrate what I am talking about I want to tell a story about a butterfly and the struggle that it takes for a butterfly to get out of the cocoon. This story begins with a worm and the worm will begin its life eating and will continue to eat and then it will be time for the worm to make a cocoon for itself. We can see in this story something that pictures a person who is born into this world and then is transformed into a new life once they realize that they are a sinner and believe in their heart that Christ died for their sins and we see in 2Cor 5:17 “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” Now back to the butterfly and we mentioned that it is a struggle for the butterfly to get out of the cocoon and this is a good thing for the struggle will make it strong in order for it to accomplish the things that butterflies do. If someone would see the butterfly struggling and decide that it would be better for them to help it out of the cocoon then the butterfly would probably die because it would not have the strength to live because it did not build up its strength by getting out of the cocoon on its own. Now what can we learn from this story that is actually seen in this section of Psalm 34? We can see that God allows us to go through difficult times, we have seen this when we looked at the book of Job, and we know that God has a plan for our lives and will see us through the difficult times so that we can bring glory to Him, and also so we can help others who will go through perhaps the same trouble that we are going through. Paul writes about this in 2Cor. 1: 3 ¶ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. 6 But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer.”
One more thing from Psalm 34 and that comes from verse twenty were at the end of this verse we read “Not one of them is broken.” David is writing about bones and we know that Jesus is the Passover Lamb and it is said of the Passover Lamb that none of its bones are to be broken and so John quotes this verse in John 19:36 speaking of Jesus: “For these things came to pass to fulfill the Scripture, "NOT A BONE OF HIM SHALL BE BROKEN."
Spiritual meaning for my life today: As I look at the nation that I live in and see all of the moral corruption that is going on and what seems to me that the blessings of God are now like they once were on our country I am distressed and saddened over this, and I must admit at times a little bit frightened. The words of this section of Psalm 34 have been an encouragement to me in that I am once again reminded that the Lord is surely in control and will see me through until my work on earth is done either by dying of by going to be with the Lord in the clouds after I am changed on the way up to meet the Lord. 1Cor. 15:51-58 and 1Thes.& 4:13-18 speak of this event which is called the rapture of the Church.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1. Continue to trust the Lord through the difficulties of life knowing that he will never leave me and He will never forsake me.
2. Continue to learn contentment through the trials and difficulties of life.
1/28/2012 10:53:42 AM
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