2/1/2012 9:01:15 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: God’s Character
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm 36
Message of the verses: In yesterday’s SD we looked at the introduction and first main point of Psalm 36. That first main point spoke of the corruption of the human heart and now David moves on to write about the character of God and then will write about the confidence of the believer’s heart.
Adoration: The Character of God’s Heart (vv. 5-9): “5 ¶ Your lovingkindness, O LORD, extends to the heavens, Your faithfulness reaches to the skies. 6 Your righteousness is like the mountains of God; Your judgments are like a great deep. O LORD, You preserve man and beast. 7 How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings. 8 They drink their fill of the abundance of Your house; And You give them to drink of the river of Your delights. 9 For with You is the fountain of life; In Your light we see light.”
David takes a dramatic turn in this psalm from where he began the psalm, for now David praises the Lord for His lovingkindness (mercy KJV) in these verses. We know that mercy can be described as God not giving us what we do deserve and of course grace is God giving us what we do not deserve. Both of these are part of God’s character and stem from His love which is one of the attributes of God. “1Jo 4:16 We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.”
We also see as part of the character of God faithfulness and David writes that it reaches to the skies. Next he speaks of the righteousness of God and describes it to be like a mountain, the mountains of God. He then writes about the judgments of God, for judgment has to be a part of the character of God otherwise there would not be a punishment for sin.
In verse seven we see the phrase “men take refuge in the show of Your wings,” and this could be talking about the Holy of Holies and then the God’s wings could be referring to the cherubim on the mercy seat which is in the Holy of Holies.
In verse eight if we continue the thought that David is speaking of the Holy of Holies and of the tabernacle we know that some of the offerings and sacrifices that were offered that a portion of them were given to the priest, but David speaks of a time when all of God’s children will receive from the Lord and not just the priests, although Revelations speaks of God’s children as kings and priests along with Peter speaking about the priesthood of the believer in 1Peter.
David then writes about a river in verse 8 “They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures (KJV).” Dr. Wiersbe points out that the word that is translated “pleasures” comes from the same root as “Eden” in Genesis 2-3. The word means delight and that is how it is translated in the NASB. When we think of Eden we remember the rivers that flowed through Eden and David writes about a river in verse eight. We can also see a river in Revelations 22:1. I believe that this speaks of the abundance of God because the river provides water which is needed to produce food.
Dr. Wiersbe writes the following: Life and light go together (v. 9; 49:19, 56:13; John 1:4; 8:12), and the Lord is the source of both. The wicked feed on flattery (v.2), but the righteous feed on the Lord’s rich blessings.”
We have seen some of the characteristics of God in this section and when we look at the salvation that God offers we see that these characteristics are essential in salvation. Many people forget that not only love, mercy, grace, and faith are a part of salvation but justice is also a part of salvation and it was God’s justice that everyone deserves, but for those who have accepted Christ as their Savior and Lord it was God’s wrath taken out on Jesus Christ on the cross that produced God’s justice, for we see a word in several places in the NT that means the satisfaction of an angry God and that word is propitiation. This word was used heathen practices of satisfying and angry God and it is a good word to see that God was satisfied with the death of His Son for the payment of sin.
Expectation: The Confidence of the Believer’s Heart (vv. 10-12): “10 O continue thy lovingkindness unto them that know thee; and thy righteousness to the upright in heart. 11 Let not the foot of pride come against me, and let not the hand of the wicked remove me. 12 There are the workers of iniquity fallen: they are cast down, and shall not be able to rise.”
Dr. Wiersbe begins his commentary on this section by writing “What a privilege it is to be God’s children! We are resting safely under His wings, feasting joyfully at His table, drinking abundantly from His river, and walking confidently in His light! In response to these blessings David prayed that the Lord would continue His blessings on His people (v. 10) and one day judge the wicked (vv. 11-12). God will continue to bless us if we love Him, get to know Him better, and walk in obedience to His will.”
We see in verse 11 that David did not want to become over confident and he asked that the foot of pride not come against him, and also the hand of the wicked (his enemies) remove him and he is probably speaking about removing him from his land.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: One of the things that I seen in this psalm is a cycle that at times I go through. The things that Dr. Wiersbe wrote about how we are to walk with the Lord were wonderful to read and I truly want to follow them, and sometimes when I am following them pride will come in and say “you are pretty good in following the Lord,” and then I will fall and have to get up and start over again. Satan will temp us to do something wrong and then accuse us of doing it. I am grateful to the Scottish Pastor that Dr. Wiersbe has quoted in his books that said “The successful Christian life is a series of new beginnings.”
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1. I am thankful that I live by grace and not by Law.
2. I am thankful for the great salvation that God has provided for me through Jesus Christ.
3. I want to continue to seek to learn contentment.
2/1/2012 10:05:08 AM
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