SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
4/23/2012 10:56:02 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Day of Deliverance
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm 77:13-20
Message of the verses: In Today’s SD we will look at the last section of Psalm 77 and again I want to insert what Dr. Wiersbe has written at the end of his introductory commentary in order to better understand this psalm. “In this psalm, he described how he moved from disappointment and despair to confidence that the Lord would care for His people.”
The Day of Deliverance (vv. 13-20): “13 Your way, O God, is holy; What god is great like our God? 14 You are the God who works wonders; You have made known Your strength among the peoples. 15 You have by Your power redeemed Your people, The sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah. 16 The waters saw You, O God; The waters saw You, they were in anguish; The deeps also trembled. 17 The clouds poured out water; The skies gave forth a sound; Your arrows flashed here and there. 18 The sound of Your thunder was in the whirlwind; The lightnings lit up the world; The earth trembled and shook. 19 Your way was in the sea And Your paths in the mighty waters, And Your footprints may not be known. 20 You led Your people like a flock By the hand of Moses and Aaron.”
“13 O God, your ways are holy. Is there any god as mighty as you? 14 You are the God of great wonders! You demonstrate your awesome power among the nations. 15 By your strong arm, you redeemed your people, the descendants of Jacob and Joseph. Interlude 16 When the Red Sea saw you, O God, its waters looked and trembled! The sea quaked to its very depths. 17 The clouds poured down rain; the thunder rumbled in the sky. Your arrows of lightning flashed. 18 Your thunder roared from the whirlwind; the lightning lit up the world! The earth trembled and shook. 19 Your road led through the sea, your pathway through the mighty waters- a pathway no one knew was there! 20 You led your people along that road like a flock of sheep, with Moses and Aaron as their shepherds.” (NLT)
We see a change at this point in this psalm as Asaph does not use words like “I” and “my” but he now speaks of the Lord using “You” and “Yours.” He began to look to the Lord and away from himself in trying to solve the circumstances that he found himself in. The circumstances did not change by the way that he looked at them did change. Dr. Wiersbe writes these wise words: “When we look at our circumstances, we focus on ourselves and see not hope, but when we look by faith to the Lord, our circumstances may not change but we do.”
When we read verses 13-15 we can see that Asaph looked up by faith and he rejoiced in the greatness of our God. He writes that God’s ways are always holy and goes on to say that God is great and He works great wonders. In showing the greatness and great wonders of the Lord Asaph then looks back to the Exodus from Egypt which truly show the awesomeness of the Lord. We have mentioned before in commenting on this psalm that it is good to look back at how the Lord has worked in your life, and mentioned that it is good to remember how the Lord brought you along in order to save you. I know personally that I can think of things back when I was twelve years old that the Lord was using in my life to bring me into a saving knowledge of the Lord. I did not get saved until I was almost 27 years old, but looking back there were many things that the Lord was doing to prepare me for salvation.
As Asaph looks at the Exodus he may have been asking himself would God go to all of that care in bringing Israel out of Egypt and put them into the Promised Land to completely destroy them? He would only have to look back at some of the promises that God gave to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob along with David to see that God still has plans for Israel. This is, of course, still true today as God has brought Israel back into their land for the third time and all of the promises that I am writing about that were given to the people of Israel are still promises that will be fulfilled as when the rapture of the Church takes place God will once again focus in on the nation of Israel. There are seven more years left on the prophecy from Daniel chapter nine that have not been fulfilled and as soon as the antichrist signs a defense pack with Israel that will usher in the last seven years of Daniel’s prophecy which we call the tribulation. Well I don’t want to get too far off the track here but prophecy is the tool that the Lord used to draw me to Himself and I have always loved to study it.
We as believers look back to Calvary where the Lamb of God gave His life for us. When Israel came out of Egypt the celebration of Passover began as a lamb had to die in order to shed its blood on the doorposts of the houses of the children of Israel so that the death angel would pass over their house. The Passover lamb was killed at 3:00 in the afternoon the very same time that Jesus died for our sins as He was our Passover Lamb. The Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world as John the Baptist said before the baptism of Jesus. Because of the death of Jesus Christ we as believers have a wonderful future. When we celebrate the Lord’s Supper we look back at the death of Jesus and we should also look forward to His coming again to take us to be with Him.
We see in verse 20 that Asaph sees the Lord as our Shepherd who leads His flock. Moses and David were Shepherds and the Lord has used them in a mighty way. I suppose that when Moses and David were shepherding their flocks that it was wonderful training for them to shepherd the people of God. Jesus stated that He was our Shepherd and Peter picks up on this in the fifth chapter of Peter’s first letter calling Jesus the Great Shepherd.
Dr. Wiersbe writes in the conclusion of his commentary these words: “Asaph had some struggles during this difficult period in his life, but in the end he knew he could trust the Lord to work out everything for good, and like an obedient sheep, he submitted to the Shepherd. That is what we must do.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: God’s Word is always on time for the situations that come along in my life and that is surely true today and I am always thankful for the Word of God and how the Holy Spirit speaks to my heart through it.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to trust the Lord in the circumstances of life so that as I trust Him more and more He will guide me beside the still waters and feed me from His Word. I desire to continue to learn contentment through the circumstances of life.
4/23/2012 11:47:26 AM
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