2/14/2012 10:02:18 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: It’s Good to Look back
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm 44
Message of the verses: We look at Psalm 44 in today’s SD and I will begin with the introduction of this psalm by Charles H. Spurgeon, and he will break down the psalm in a similar way that Warren Wiersbe does, and that will be the way we look at it. “Title. To the Chief Musician for the sons of Korah, Maschil. The title is similar to the forty-second, and although this is no proof that it is by the same author it makes it highly probable. No other writer should be sought for to father any of the Psalms when David will suffice, and therefore we are loathe to ascribe this sacred song to any but the great psalmist, yet as we hardly know any period of his life which it would fairly describe, we feel compelled to look elsewhere. Some Israelitish patriot fallen on evil times, sings in mingled faith and sorrow, his country’s ancient glory and her present griefs, her traditions of former favour and her experience of pressing ills. By Christians it can best be understood if put into the mouth of the church when persecution is peculiarly severe. The last verses remind us of Milton’s famous lines on the massacre of the Protestants among the mountains of Piedmont.
The song before us is fitted for the voices of the saved by grace, the sons of Korah, and is to them and to all others full of teaching, hence the title Maschil.
Division. From #Ps 44:1-3, the Lord’s mighty works for Israel are rehearsed, and in remembrance of them faith in the Lord is expressed #Ps 44:4-8. Then the notes of complaint are heard #Ps 44:9-16, the fidelity of the people to their God is aroused, #Ps 44:17-22, and the Lord is entreated to interpose, #Ps 44:23-26.
It is interesting that some of the commentaries written by men a long time age mention that Psalm 44 was written for the Church. The reason that they say this is because of all of the troubles that the Church has gone through since its beginning in Acts chapter two. Those of us who have been privileged enough to live in countries where the Church has not been persecuted may not truly understand why these early writers and preachers would say this. I am told and have read that in the age that we now live in there are 1000 people every day who die for the cause of Jesus Christ, and unless you do some research you may never hear of this. Voice of the Martyrs has a website that tells of this.
In my John MacArthur Study Bible I find these words of introduction to help me understand this psalm. “Psalm 44 is a national lament following some great but historically unidentifiable defeat in battle. Throughout this psalm there are subtle shifts between speakers of the first person plural and the first person singular. This may indicate that the psalm was originally sung antiphonally with alterations coming from both the beaten king-general and his defeated nation. The prayer of vv. 23-26 may have been offered in unison as a climax. By employing 3 historical centers in psalm 44, the psalmist tries to understand and deal with a national tragedy.
I. Focus on Past History: The Shock of This National Tragedy (44:1-8)
II. Focus on Current History: The Inscrutability of This National Tragedy (44:9-26)
III. Focus on Future History: A Prayer for an End of This Nation Tragedy (44:23-26)”
In Dr. Wiersbe’s introduction to this psalm I have found similar things written, but I wish to
quote the following words: “Perhaps this psalm was used at a national ‘day of prayer’ with a worship leader speaking the ‘I/my’ verses and the people the ‘we/our’ verses. The four stanzas that make up this psalm reveal four different attitudes on the part of the people.”
Boasting in God: “You Have Helped Us” (vv. 1-8): “1 ¶ «For the choir director. A Maskil of the sons of Korah.» O God, we have heard with our ears, Our fathers have told us The work that You did in their days, In the days of old. 2 You with Your own hand drove out the nations; Then You planted them; You afflicted the peoples, Then You spread them abroad. 3 For by their own sword they did not possess the land, And their own arm did not save them, But Your right hand and Your arm and the light of Your presence, For You favored them. 4 You are my King, O God; Command victories for Jacob. 5 Through You we will push back our adversaries; Through Your name we will trample down those who rise up against us. 6 For I will not trust in my bow, Nor will my sword save me. 7 But You have saved us from our adversaries, And You have put to shame those who hate us. 8 In God we have boasted all day long, And we will give thanks to Your name forever. Selah.”
In Deuteronomy chapter six we find a very interesting passage that instructs the parents to tell their children of all that happened to them when the Lord destroyed the nation of Egypt so that the children of Israel could leave Egypt and marched into the Promised Land that God was going to give them. The meaning of Deuteronomy means “The Renewing of the Law,” and the reason for the book is that after the Law was given to Israel at Mt. Sinai the children of Israel sinned against the Lord by not believing that God could cause them to conquer the people in the land and so everyone who was twenty years old and older would die in the wilderness as they marched for forty years in the wilderness. Now that older generation was all dead and so Moses reinstructs the next generation, thus we have the book of Deuteronomy. The psalmist looks back to the time when God enabled the children of Israel to conquer those who were in the Promised Land. Now before we think that this was not a “just” thing for God to do we need to look back at Genesis 15 at the words that God told to Abraham (Abram) in making a covenant with him and the nation of Israel which would come from Abraham and Sarah. “12 ¶ Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, terror and great darkness fell upon him. 13 God said to Abram, "Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years. 14 "But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions. 15 "As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age. 16 "Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete." We know that God had a great love for Israel, but we also know that God had a plan for the nation of Israel and the brining of the Messiah into the world was a major part of that plan. We see that from this Genesis passage that Egypt would suppress the children of Israel for four hundred years and then God would bring them out of Egypt and take them into the Promised land and in the process destroy some very sinful nations in the process. It would take these nations four hundred years of sinning until God would use the nation of Israel to destroy them. In four hundred years of God’s patient these nations never turned to the Lord for salvation.
The psalmist is looking back at this reminding his readers of the greatness of God and bringing glory to God in the process. Dr. Wiersbe writes “The psalmist affirmed that Jehovah was still King (v. 4; 10:16; 29:10; 47:6; 74:12) and could easily command (decree) victories for His people. The nation wanted no glory for itself; they wanted the Lord to receive all the glory.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I believe that it is good to look back at what the Lord has done for me and to praise His name for the wonderful things that He has done for me. I am so thankful for that January day in 1974 when the Lord saved me and changed my life and my destination forever by giving me eternal life. I am thankful for my wife and my children whom the Lord has given to me along with six grandchildren. I am thankful for the salvation of my two children and their spouses and their desire to do as Moses wrote in Deuteronomy chapter six that is to tell them about the Lord and His wonderful salvation.
The Bible teaches us to give thanks for everything in 1Thes. And as I look back there have been some difficult things for me to give thanks for, and yet it was those things that God has used to cause me to grow in His grace and my walk with my Lord.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1. 1Th 5:18 “in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
2. Psalm 139:23-24.
3. Romans 12:1-2.
4. Phil. 4:11b.
5. Eph. 6:10-18.
2/14/2012 11:11:59 AM
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