3/6/2012 7:22:10 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: Trust in the Lord
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm 54:1-7
Message of the verses: We will begin by looking at several introductions to Psalm 54.
“The occasion of writing this psalm were the discoveries the Ziphims or Ziphites made to Saul of David being in their neighbourhood; which they did twice, as appears from #1Sa 23:14,19 26:1. Which of these gave occasion to the psalm is not certain; it is very likely that it was composed after both had been made. These Ziphims were the inhabitants of a city called Ziph, which was in the tribe of Judah, #Jos 15:55, near to which was a wilderness, which had its name from the city in which David was when they came to Saul with this news of him.” (John Gill)
“The key of this psalm hangs at the door, for the title tells us upon what occasion it was penned—when the inhabitants of Ziph, men of Judah (types of Judas the traitor), betrayed David to Saul, by informing him where he was and putting him in a way how to seize him. This they did twice (#1Sa 23:19; 26:1), and it is upon record to their everlasting infamy. The psalm is sweet; the former part of it, perhaps, was meditated when he was in his distress and put into writing when the danger was over, with the addition of the last two verses, which express his thankfulness for the deliverance, which yet might be written in faith, even when he was in the midst of his fright.” (Matthew Henry)
“This psalm apparently comes from the same period of David’s life as does Ps. 52. Even though David had recently rescued an Israelite border town from the Philistines, he was still considered a traitor to Saul (1Sam. 23 & 26). In the wake of this emotional devastation, David prayed to God for vindication. The psalm provides encouragement to any believer who has been maligned.” (John MacArthur Study Bible)
“The Ziphites lived about fifteen miles southeast of Hebron (see 1Sam. 23:13-24 for the background). Twice they betrayed David to Saul (see 1Sam. 26) and both times the Lord delivered him. This psalm reveals three stages in David’s experience as he turned to God for help.” (Warren Wiersbe)
“The Starting Point—Danger from the Enemy” (vv. 1-3): “1 ¶ «For the choir director; on stringed instruments. A Maskil of David, when the Ziphites came and said to Saul, "Is not David hiding himself among us?"» Save me, O God, by Your name, And vindicate me by Your power. 2 Hear my prayer, O God; Give ear to the words of my mouth. 3 For strangers have risen against me And violent men have sought my life; They have not set God before them. Selah.”
In this short psalm David uses three names for God, elohim (vv. 1, 2, 3, 4), Adonai (Lord, v. 4), and Jehovah (lord v. 6). We see the words “Hear my prayer” in verse two and as we study the psalms that David wrote we will see that this is one of David’s favorite approaches (See Ps. 4:1; 39:12; 143:1).
David knew that the Lord had anointed him to be king, but David was waiting for the time when the Lord would take Saul from the earth, which happens in 1Sam. 31. We have learned in an earlier SD that David was on the run for around ten years, and it was during this time that David wrote most of his psalms. It was also during this time when David’s trust for the Lord had increased. We see evidences of both of these in this psalm as David cries out to the Lord to save him and also he cries out to the Lord to vindicate him, and he does this by the name of the Lord as seen in verse one. By doing this David was crying out to the Lord on the basis of His character, especially His strength as seen in verse one and then His faithfulness as we will see in verse five.
One more point before we move on and that has to do with the word “strangers” as seen in verse three. One might think that David is speaking of Gentiles, but the people who were against him were from the very tribe of Judah, the tribe of David. Matthew Henry said that this was a picture of Judas who would betray the Lord Jesus Christ of whom Jesus said it would have been better if he had never been born. In Job 19:13 he uses this word to speak of his family and his friends and David uses it again in Psalm 69:8. These “strangers” we not like David who would always set the Lord before him.
“The Turning Point—Confidence in the Lord: (v. 4): “4 ¶ Behold, God is my helper; The Lord is the sustainer of my soul.”
Dr. Wiersbe points out that verse four is the central verse of Psalm 54 as it records the turning point in David’s experience. I wish to talk about the word “help or helper” as seen in this verse. It is related to the word “Ebenezer” which is found in 1Samuel 7:12. At this time I want to quote from my SD from May 3, 2010 that is about 1Sam 7:12: “The word Ebenezer means a stone of help.
“Since the Lord called Abram to begin the nation of Israel they have been setting up stones to commemorate an event that was significant and so this was not something that had not been done before. Dr. Wiersbe writes in his commentary that J. Hudson Taylor who founded the China Inland Mission would put a place on each of the places of his residence these words, “Ebenezer—Jehovah Jireh” which means the following, “The Lord has helped us to this point, and He will see to it from now on.”
“There is a stone of standing in front of the church that I have attended since 1978, and the stone was placed there in September of 2004, but I really wonder if anyone at this time remembers why it was place there.”
At was about this time in David’s life that Jonathan came to visit David, which I believe is the last time that David would see Jonathan, at least it was the last time it is recorded in the Bible that David sees him. Jonathan came to see David to encourage him in the Lord, for Jonathan knew in his heart that God had anointed David to be king. It was a while back that I was listening to a series of tapes by David Jeremiah on the subject of “encouragement” and his definition of encouragement was “to pour courage into someone.” I like that definition and it is something that I need to incorporate into my life a lot more. There are times when the Lord would send angels to encourage people like in Elijah’s case and also when the Lord Jesus was here on earth, but it is more times than the sending of angels that He will send people to encourage people and we all need that from time to time.
“The Finishing Point—Praise to the Lord” (vv. 5-7): “5 He will recompense the evil to my foes; Destroy them in Your faithfulness. 6 Willingly I will sacrifice to You; I will give thanks to Your name, O LORD, for it is good. 7 For He has delivered me from all trouble, And my eye has looked with satisfaction upon my enemies.”
We see in this section that David was confident in the Lord that He would one day slay the enemies of David, and as stated before that would happen to Saul in 1Sam. 31. The first six verses of this psalm are spoken to the Lord while verse seven is spoken to those around David showing the confidence that David had in the Lord to take care the circumstances that he was in. I am reading the biography of Billy Graham, which has in it close to 700 pages. Billy speaks of a crusade that he had early in his life in the city of Boston and during the last day of the crusade, which was to take place in the Boston Commons where some 50,000 people were to gather it started out we heavy rain. Billy and his team began to ask the Lord for sunshine and when the newspaper people called him to see if he was going to cancel, he told them that the crusade would be bathed in sunshine. It rained all morning up until the time of the meeting and then the sun broke through and the crowd was bathed in sunshine. It took a great deal of faith in the Lord to write what David wrote, but the truth of the matter is that both David and Billy Graham knew the Lord and trusted in Him.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: As I was studying 1Samuel back in 2010 one of the things that I discovered was why it was that Jonathan was killed along with his father Saul in that battle against the Philistines. The Lord had chosen David to be king and also to begin a dynasty that would end with the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ and if Jonathan would have been alive then some of the people would have wanted him to be king instead of David and that was not in the plans of God. However it was in the plans of God to have Jonathan give encouragement to David when David needed it. As I stated earlier this is something that I need to be much better at and desire to be better at. For some it comes natural, for others they have to work at it. I have to work at it.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1. Be a person that will pour courage into others, to give them encouragement.
2. Continue to learn contentment.
3/6/2012 8:32:45 AM
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