3/27/2012 7:18:19 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: Savior of Sinners
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm 65:1-4
Message of the verses: We begin Today’s Spiritual Diary with several introductions to Psalm 65.
“This is a praise psalm, full of hopeful, confident, even enthusiastic feelings in response to God’s goodness with no complaints of cruses. The setting is a celebration at the tabernacle, perhaps at Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the spring, or the Feasts of Booths, or Tabernacles, in the fall.” (The John MacArthur Study Bible)
“This is the first of four psalms (65-68) that focus on praising the Lord for His manifold blessings in nature and for His gracious dealings with His people. He is the God of creation and the God of the covenant. The psalm acknowledges our total dependence on the Lord to provide both our spiritual and material needs. The phrase ‘crown the year’ (v. 11) suggests a harvest festival in October, the first month of Israel’s civil year. (The religious calendar opened with Passover; Ex. 12:2.) Perhaps verse 3 suggests the annual Day of Atonement that ushered in the Feast of Tabernacles, a harvest festival (Lev.17; 23:26-44). The early rains usually began in late October, softening the hard soil and enabling the farmers to plow the ground and sow their seed (vv. 9-13). Perhaps God had disciplined His people by sending drought and famine (Lev. 26:3-6; Deut. 11:8-17) and allowing other nations to threaten Israel (v. 7). This discipline brought them to repentance and they anticipated the promised rains and a blessed harvest from the Lord. David’s unusual experience involving the Gibeonites might have been the occasion (2Sam. 21:1-14). Whatever the historical setting, the psalm helps us to worship our great God and glorify Him for who He is and what He does for us.” (Warren Wiersbe)
I stated in the last Spiritual Diary that it seemed that many of David’s writings in the psalms were due to difficult situations where we would see David write about the curses that would affect those who were causing him trouble and then he would go about praising the Lord because of his confidence in Him to take care of the adverse situation that he was in, but for the next four psalms it seems that this pattern will be changed.
He Is the Savior of Sinners (vv. 1-4): “1 ¶ «For the choir director. A Psalm of David. A Song.» There will be silence before You, and praise in Zion, O God, And to You the vow will be performed. 2 O You who hear prayer, To You all men come. 3 Iniquities prevail against me; As for our transgressions, You forgive them. 4 How blessed is the one whom You choose and bring near to You To dwell in Your courts. We will be satisfied with the goodness of Your house, Your holy temple.”
Charles H. Spurgeon writes the following which will help us to understand the first the first verse in this psalm: “A Psalm and song of David. The Hebrew calls it a Shur and Mizmor, a combination of psalm and song, which may be best described by the term, "A Lyrical Poem." In this case the Psalm may be said or sung, and be equally suitable. We have had two such Psalms before, Psalm 30 and 48, and we have now the first of a little series of four following each other. It was meant that Psalms of pleading and longing should be followed by hymns of praise.”
The first verse also speaks of being silent before the Lord; something we have already seen is Psalm 62:1 “My soul waits in silence for God only; From Him is my salvation.” Dr. Wiersbe writes “But silence is also a part of worship, and we must learn to wait quietly before the Lord.” I can remember that at times in our church services that the Pastor would come in and ask all of us to take the first moments of the service, even before someone was speaking or singing to be silent with reverence before the Lord, but the next Sunday there would again be a buzz in the congregation of people talking with others about who knows what. It is difficult to be silent before the Lord, for it seems that your mind is always working, for you are always thinking thoughts, but at least we can stop talking and just focus our thoughts on the goodness of the Lord which it seems that David is doing in this psalm.
It is good to come before the Lord with clean hearts so the first thing we must do is confess any sins that we have committed in body or in our thoughts and ask the Lord for forgiveness (1John 1:9). I think that we should then ask the Holy Spirit to search our hearts (Psalm 139:23-24) before we begin to approach the Lord. David speaks of our approach before the Lord in verses two and three and then in verse four David speaks of (it seems) the priests who can come before the Lord in the sanctuary of the Lord. We see in 1Peter 2:9-10 these words “9 But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 for you once were NOT A PEOPLE, but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD; you had NOT RECEIVED MERCY, but now you have RECEIVED MERCY.” Also in the book of Revelations chapter one and verses five and six we read: “5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood- 6 and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father-to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
After Jesus died on the cross the veil between the holy place and the holy of holies was torn into from the top to the bottom which opens the way to come into the presence of God, so as NT believers we can intercede for others before the throne of God in heaven, which makes us priests. Jesus Christ is all we need to be satisfied for we find our complete satisfaction in Him, where the OT saints had to go to the temple to worship the Lord and find that satisfaction.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: As I look at verse four in this psalm it reads that we will be satisfied with the goodness of Your house of Your temple and am thankful for the fact that I can come into the very presence of the Lord to find grace to help in a time of need. The OT temple was a shadow of what was to come in Jesus Christ. I find in Scripture that I am the temple of the Holy Spirit who lives in all believers and it is He who will guide me into all truth and even pray for me when things get too hard. “Ro 8:26 In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” At this difficult time in my life I am thankful for this very special promise.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I desire to continue to meditate upon God’s Word and seek to continue to learn contentment in Him.
3/27/2012 8:17:33 AM
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