1/22/2012 8:24:50 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: Trusting the Lord
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm 31
Message of the verses: “1 ¶ «For the choir director. A Psalm of David.» In You, O LORD, I have taken refuge; Let me never be ashamed; In Your righteousness deliver me. 2 Incline Your ear to me, rescue me quickly; Be to me a rock of strength, A stronghold to save me. 3 For You are my rock and my fortress; For Your name’s sake You will lead me and guide me. 4 You will pull me out of the net which they have secretly laid for me, For You are my strength. 5 Into Your hand I commit my spirit; You have ransomed me, O LORD, God of truth. 6 I hate those who regard vain idols, But I trust in the LORD. 7 I will rejoice and be glad in Your lovingkindness, Because You have seen my affliction; You have known the troubles of my soul, 8 And You have not given me over into the hand of the enemy; You have set my feet in a large place.
“9 ¶ Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am in distress; My eye is wasted away from grief, my soul and my body also. 10 For my life is spent with sorrow And my years with sighing; My strength has failed because of my iniquity, And my body has wasted away. 11 Because of all my adversaries, I have become a reproach, Especially to my neighbors, And an object of dread to my acquaintances; Those who see me in the street flee from me. 12 I am forgotten as a dead man, out of mind; I am like a broken vessel. 13 For I have heard the slander of many, Terror is on every side; While they took counsel together against me, They schemed to take away my life. 14 But as for me, I trust in You, O LORD, I say, "You are my God." 15 My times are in Your hand; Deliver me from the hand of my enemies and from those who persecute me. 16 Make Your face to shine upon Your servant; Save me in Your lovingkindness. 17 Let me not be put to shame, O LORD, for I call upon You; Let the wicked be put to shame, let them be silent in Sheol. 18 Let the lying lips be mute, Which speak arrogantly against the righteous With pride and contempt.
“19 ¶ How great is Your goodness, Which You have stored up for those who fear You, Which You have wrought for those who take refuge in You, Before the sons of men! 20 You hide them in the secret place of Your presence from the conspiracies of man; You keep them secretly in a shelter from the strife of tongues. 21 Blessed be the LORD, For He has made marvelous His lovingkindness to me in a besieged city. 22 As for me, I said in my alarm, "I am cut off from before Your eyes"; Nevertheless You heard the voice of my supplications When I cried to You. 23 O love the LORD, all you His godly ones! The LORD preserves the faithful And fully recompenses the proud doer. 24 Be strong and let your heart take courage, All you who hope in the LORD.”
In Dr. Wiersbe introduction to this psalm he states that he believes that the background for Psalm 31 is when Absalom was taking over the government and then making an attempt to kill his father. He states that verse twenty-one could stated in a metaphorically way making the besieged city a picture of what David was going through, and verse twenty could also be metaphorically speaking of hiding David in the Holy of Holies. I believe that it helps to understand the Psalms when we can understand the situation in which they originated out of.
In verse thirteen we read “While they took counsel together against me,” and this could be speaking of Ahithophel who was one of David’s wisest counselors who went over to Absalom to give advice to him.
Dr. Wiersbe writes at the end of his introduction: “Out of this harrowing experience David learned some valuable lessons and recorded them in this psalm. They can be summarized in three statements.”
When Other Do Evil, Trust God for His Strength (vv. 1-8): “1 ¶ «For the choir director. A Psalm of David.» In You, O LORD, I have taken refuge; Let me never be ashamed; In Your righteousness deliver me. 2 Incline Your ear to me, rescue me quickly; Be to me a rock of strength, A stronghold to save me. 3 For You are my rock and my fortress; For Your name’s sake You will lead me and guide me. 4 You will pull me out of the net which they have secretly laid for me, For You are my strength. 5 Into Your hand I commit my spirit; You have ransomed me, O LORD, God of truth. 6 I hate those who regard vain idols, But I trust in the LORD. 7 I will rejoice and be glad in Your lovingkindness, Because You have seen my affliction; You have known the troubles of my soul, 8 And You have not given me over into the hand of the enemy; You have set my feet in a large place.”
We can see in Psalm 71:1-3 the same verses as that are in Psalm 31. Psalm 71 is an unidentified psalm that is attributed to David.
We see in this psalm that David is in trouble again as he has been in some of the earlier psalms we have looked at. I keep going back to the statement that God made of David when He had him anointed as king over Israel and that is that David is a man after God’s own heart and I believe that it can be seen clearly in the psalms, psalms like Psalm 31 where David is showing his great trust in the Lord to get him out of troubles and then as God delivers him out of these troubles he is in David’s faith is increased. We can read between the lines in this psalm that it is because that David is God’s anointed king over Israel that God will get him out of trouble. We see in verse three that David also says to God that it is because of Your name’s sake You will lead me and guide me. I believe that these are the kind of prayers that God loves to hear from His children because the one that prays this is one who knows the Lord in an interment way and realizes that if God answers their prayers that it will bring glory to the Lord. Many times we end our prayers with the words “in Jesus’ name Amen.” Jesus spoke of asking for things in His name in John 15 when He was speaking of the Vine and the branches. David did not tack on the statement in Jesus’ name or in Jehovah’s name, but his prayer was showing that what he was praying for was actually in the name and will of God and that is what Jesus was talking about in John 15.
We see in verse five the words “Into Your hand I commit my spirit” and these words are quoted by the Lord Jesus Christ from the cross right before He died, and He is the greater David. What the lesser David is talking about here is that his trust was committed to the Lord, like a person puts their money in a bank trusting that he will get it back when he wants it, it’s a matter of trust and that is what we see here from David.
Dr. Wiersbe writes in his commentary on this section these words: “Along with God’s protection, David needed God’s direction so he would avoid the traps the enemy had set for him. ‘You are my strength’ was his affirmation of faith (v-4), for his own strength had failed (v-10).”
When Others Cause Pain, Ask God for His Mercy (vv. 9-18): “9 ¶ Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am in distress; My eye is wasted away from grief, my soul and my body also. 10 For my life is spent with sorrow And my years with sighing; My strength has failed because of my iniquity, And my body has wasted away. 11 Because of all my adversaries, I have become a reproach, Especially to my neighbors, And an object of dread to my acquaintances; Those who see me in the street flee from me. 12 I am forgotten as a dead man, out of mind; I am like a broken vessel. 13 For I have heard the slander of many, Terror is on every side; While they took counsel together against me, They schemed to take away my life. 14 But as for me, I trust in You, O LORD, I say, "You are my God." 15 My times are in Your hand; Deliver me from the hand of my enemies and from those who persecute me. 16 Make Your face to shine upon Your servant; Save me in Your lovingkindness. 17 Let me not be put to shame, O LORD, for I call upon You; Let the wicked be put to shame, let them be silent in Sheol. 18 Let the lying lips be mute, Which speak arrogantly against the righteous With pride and contempt.”
We see the word “lovingkindness” in verse sixteen, while it is translated as “mercies” in the KJV and mercy is what David needed. David may have found sin in his life as he searched his soul and perhaps that was another reason that he was down, but the main reasons were what others were doing to him. If this psalm depicts the events of Absalom’s take over then the emotions we see here are similar to the ones seen in the account in 2Samuel that David showed. We know that David was a very emotional man and there is nothing wrong with that. We see a lot of David’s emotions showing through in this psalm in the statements that he makes in this section as his enemies were speaking lies about him and the trouble was that people believed them. That reminds me of the political situation that has been going on in our country for the last few years as when good people are running for office the bad people will make up lies about them, put them in the press, either on TV or other media forms and try and destroy them and the trouble is that people believe these lies without even bothering to find out if they are true. David was going through the same thing here and it was hurting him in physical and emotional ways and it did not need to happen.
When Others See the Victory, Give God the Glory (vv. 19-24): “19 ¶ How great is Your goodness, Which You have stored up for those who fear You, Which You have wrought for those who take refuge in You, Before the sons of men! 20 You hide them in the secret place of Your presence from the conspiracies of man; You keep them secretly in a shelter from the strife of tongues. 21 Blessed be the LORD, For He has made marvelous His lovingkindness to me in a besieged city. 22 As for me, I said in my alarm, "I am cut off from before Your eyes"; Nevertheless You heard the voice of my supplications When I cried to You. 23 O love the LORD, all you His godly ones! The LORD preserves the faithful And fully recompenses the proud doer. 24 Be strong and let your heart take courage, All you who hope in the LORD.”
Dr. Wiersbe has some encouraging words that he wrote from his commentary on this section. I have stated before of my love for Dr. Wiersbe’s commentary and that is why I read from it each day that I do these Spiritual Diaries. He puts the cookies on the shelf where you can reach them and I like cookies.
“God’s goodness and marvelous lovingkindness were all David needed to weather the storm and survive to lead his people.”
“It wasn’t the enemy that frightened him but the thought of being abandoned by the God he trusted and served. He did what all of us must do when we sense that God is no longer near: he cried out to the Lord for His mercy, and the Lord answered.”
“The courage and strength we need in the trials of life are available from the Lord if we will put our faith in Him. Let’s be sure that we give Him the glory.” That is what David did.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I want to trust the Lord to see me through all of the circumstances that I face as I believe He will lead me through them in order to teach me what I need to learn that I may draw closer to Him and then give glory and praise to Him for His leading.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1. Trust the Lord to lead me and remember to praise Him for leading me.
2. Continue to learn contentment.
1/22/2012 9:37:18 AM
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