1/16/2012 8:15:26 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: Trusting the Lord
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm 25:8-22
Message of the verses: “ 8 ¶ Good and upright is the LORD; Therefore He instructs sinners in the way. 9 He leads the humble in justice, And He teaches the humble His way. 10 All the paths of the LORD are lovingkindness and truth To those who keep His covenant and His testimonies. 11 For Your name’s sake, O LORD, Pardon my iniquity, for it is great. 12 Who is the man who fears the LORD? He will instruct him in the way he should choose. 13 His soul will abide in prosperity, And his descendants will inherit the land. 14 The secret of the LORD is for those who fear Him, And He will make them know His covenant.
15 ¶ My eyes are continually toward the LORD, For He will pluck my feet out of the net. 16 Turn to me and be gracious to me, For I am lonely and afflicted. 17 The troubles of my heart are enlarged; Bring me out of my distresses. 18 Look upon my affliction and my trouble, And forgive all my sins. 19 Look upon my enemies, for they are many, And they hate me with violent hatred. 20 Guard my soul and deliver me; Do not let me be ashamed, for I take refuge in You. 21 Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, For I wait for You. 22 Redeem Israel, O God, Out of all his troubles.”
Our God Can Be Trusted (vv. 8-14): “8 ¶ Good and upright is the LORD; Therefore He instructs sinners in the way. 9 He leads the humble in justice, And He teaches the humble His way. 10 All the paths of the LORD are lovingkindness and truth To those who keep His covenant and His testimonies. 11 For Your name’s sake, O LORD, Pardon my iniquity, for it is great. 12 Who is the man who fears the LORD? He will instruct him in the way he should choose. 13 His soul will abide in prosperity, And his descendants will inherit the land. 14 The secret of the LORD is for those who fear Him, And He will make them know His covenant.”
David takes some time now to meditate on the character of the Lord. This is a wonderful thing to do for by doing it one can understand that God is a God that can be trusted, for after all David was in trouble for that was the reason for this psalm, and David had to know in his mind that he could trust the Lord whom he was praying to. As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ we too need to realize that He can be trusted to care for us even if we go through difficult times in life and to understand His character will give us the confidence to continue to trust in the Lord in all circumstances of life.
In verse nine of this psalm in the KJV the word “meek” is used while in the NASB the word “humble” is used. The Hebrew/English dictionary says that the word means poor, humble, meek, or lowly and is translated as meek 13 times in the KJV of the Bible. When one thinks of a person who is meek one often times thinks the person is weak. Jesus described Himself as being meek and we never think of Jesus as being weak. The word can describe a horse that has been broken, a soothing wind on a hot day, or a healing medicine and none of these describes weakness. Meekness is power under control. When we think of Jesus being meek we know that Jesus Christ, the second person of the Godhead had the power to speak and the universe came into existence, and yet here He was walking on earth as a man having all of that power under control at the will of His Father in order to humble Himself: “He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” What a wonderful Savior!
In verse eight we see that David describes the Lord as good and upright. Goodness is on of the attributes of God and He can only do good for that is part of His character. The verse goes on to talk about grace and mercy for it is only by grace and mercy that the Lord can instruct sinners in His way. What a comforting thought that is.
In verse nine we learn how it is that the Lord can teach and lead a person and the means of this is to be humble before the Lord and then He will teach and lead you.
“God can bet trusted to guide those who obey His Word (v.10), for a willingness to obey is the first step toward spiritual understanding: “"Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth’” (John 17:17).
In verse eleven we see the need for repentance of our sins for this will bring about forgiveness. David realizes that his sins are many and so the need for repentance is also great.
We see in verse twelve that the Lord will instruct those who fear Him. Again we are not talking about fear as being dread, but fear is that of a child being fearful of a parent and wanting to please the parent because of the love the child has for them. “I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you.” (Psalm 32:8)
In verse fourteen we see how important it is to obey the Lord and to trust Him and we have already seen the need to fear Him. The result will be good for your family, they will benefit this as they see how you love and trust the Lord they too will begin to do this. I read a story of one of the early Puritans who lived back in the 1700’s and they followed their family down through the years and it was reported that there were many doctors and Pastors and even senators. The story tracked another family who did not fear the Lord and it told of the millions of dollars that were spent on that family to house many of the offspring in the jails and prisons.
Verse fourteen in the NLT reads as follows: “The LORD is a friend to those who fear him. He teaches them his covenant.” In the NASB we see the word secret and this word means “intimate conversation, plans and purposes.” John 15:15 reads as follows "No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.” The last part of verse fourteen in Psalm 25 goes along with the last part of John 15:15 in that Jesus speaks of telling His disciples (friends) what the Father has made known to Him and that would be what was written in the NT written by them. The end of verse fourteen reads as follows “And He will make them know His covenant.”
Trusting God Brings Us Victory (vv. 15-22):
We see in this section that the psalm again turns into another direction, the direction it was at the beginning and that is of prayer. David speaks of the dangerous enemies that he is facing, the distressing emotions that were within him because of these outside troubles, so his troubles were within and without. Dr Wiersbe writes: “But he wouldn’t mention them to the Lord if he didn’t believe the Lord could help him!” What were the enemies that God helped him to conquer?”
Danger (v. 15): “15 ¶ My eyes are continually toward the LORD, For He will pluck my feet out of the net.” David knew that his enemies were trying to set traps for him but trusted that the Lord would see him through these obstacles.
Loneliness (v.16): “16 Turn to me and be gracious to me, For I am lonely and afflicted.” David was a leader and there were times in his life when he had to make decisions as a leader that could cause him to become lonely. Being a leader can cause you to make decisions that are in the will of God, but will cause alienation between you and your family or you and your friends.
A broken heart (v.17): “17 The troubles of my heart are enlarged; Bring me out of my distresses.” David could have sat down and felt sorry for himself, but instead he turned to the Lord with his troubles asking that God bring him out of his distresses. His troubles were enlarged and so he needed a big God. This was a critical point in his life and it can be in ours when troubles come, for we can turn to God or turn away from God.
Regrets (v. 18): “18 Look upon my affliction and my trouble, And forgive all my sins.” We have already talked about the sin that David knew about and yet here he mentions it again which seems to show his regret. We have all sinned and have had regrets because of the sin and at times Satan will accuse us of those sins, bring them up, but if we have confessed them to the Lord His Word says, “As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us (Ps. 103:12)” I for one am glad that it is as far as the east is from the west and not as far as the north is from the south. That is only 12,500 miles, but it is endless from east to the west.
Fear (vv.19-20): “19 Look upon my enemies, for they are many, And they hate me with violent hatred. 20 Guard my soul and deliver me; Do not let me be ashamed, for I take refuge in You.” It is not clear what situation David was in but there was fear in his heart and not only fear for his life, but fear that he would bring disgrace on the name of the Lord. This was greatly troubling to him.
Despair (vv. 21-22): 21 Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, For I wait for You. 22 Redeem Israel, O God, Out of all his troubles.” To wait on the Lord means to have hope in the Lord and one thing David did not want to lose was his hope in the Lord, for that would mean to surrender the future to the enemy, and that only destroys the meaning of the present. We can see that in verse twenty-two “We are never alone in our trials, for as members of God’s believing community, we have encouragement for one another. Our brothers and sisters around the world are also suffering trials (1Peter 5:9), so we are not alone.”
“David survived his trials and was able to write Psalm 26:12—‘My feet stand on level ground; in the great assembly I will praise the Lord’ (NIV). May we follow his example.” (Warren Wiersbe)
Spiritual meaning for my life today: This psalm has spoken to my heart because of what I am going through at this time of my life and so it has caused my faith in the Lord to increase because of what I have seen in the life of David in this psalm, and how with the help of the Lord has overcome the difficulties he went through.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1. Trust the Lord in times of trouble knowing that He will help.
2. Continue to have a fear of the Lord. For when I fear the Lord I need not fear anything else.
3. Continue to learn contentment through the circumstances of life.
1/16/2012 10:03:27 AM
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