SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
4/20/2012 10:41:37 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Fear and Obey the Lord
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm 76-PT-2
Message of the verses: In yesterday’s SD we learned as part of the introduction that Dr. Wiersbe said the following “Asaph shares four basic truths about Jehovah God.” We looked at the first truths about Jehovah God yesterday and we will look at the next two in this SD.
God Wants Us to Fear Him (vv. 7-9): “7 ¶ You, even You, are to be feared; And who may stand in Your presence when once You are angry? 8 You caused judgment to be heard from heaven; The earth feared and was still 9 When God arose to judgment, To save all the humble of the earth. Selah. 9 When God arose to judgment, To save all the humble of the earth. Selah.”
7 ¶ No wonder you are greatly feared! Who can stand before you when your anger explodes? 8 From heaven you sentenced your enemies; the earth trembled and stood silent before you. 9 You stand up to judge those who do evil, O God, and to rescue the oppressed of the earth. Interlude. (NLT)
We see that the psalmist writes about the fear of the Lord in verses 7, 8, 11, and 12, but what exactly is the fear of the Lord. A. W. Tozer writes “No one can know the true grace of God who has not first know the fear of God.” Dr. Wiersbe points out that “God’s people love Him and rejoice in Him, but they also ‘worship the Lord with reverence and rejoice with trembling’ (Psalm 2:11). Jesus Christ paid for the sins of those who will trust Him as their Savior and therefore they need not fear Him in the same way that those who have not trusted Him. To believers fearing the Lord means the reverential awe, the respect and veneration that can only belong to God.
God was patience with the army of Sennacherib who had blasphemed Him up to a point and then judgment came upon them as seen in verse 8.
There is a question asked in verse seven that is also asked in Revelations 6:17 and also Psalm 130:3 and the answer is given in Ezra 9:15: “"O LORD God of Israel, You are righteous, for we have been left an escaped remnant, as it is this day; behold, we are before You in our guilt, for no one can stand before You because of this.’”
Dr. Wiersbe writes “According to verses 9 and 10, God’s judgments accomplish at least three purposes: they bring glory to God as they reveal His justice and holiness; they punish the wicked for their evil deeds; and they bring salvation those who trust the Lord (See 72:4)”
God Wants Us to Obey Him (vv. 10-12): “10 For the wrath of man shall praise You; With a remnant of wrath You will gird Yourself. 11 Make vows to the LORD your God and fulfill them; Let all who are around Him bring gifts to Him who is to be feared. 12 He will cut off the spirit of princes; He is feared by the kings of the earth.” (NASB)
“10 Human defiance only enhances your glory, for you use it as a weapon. 11 Make vows to the LORD your God, and keep them. Let everyone bring tribute to the Awesome One. 12 For he breaks the pride of princes, and the kings of the earth fear him.” (NLT)
We see in verse ten that man’s wrath brings praise to God. I suppose that this does not seem right to some people who have read this but never the less it is true. While studying the attributes of God I learned that all of God’s attributes bring glory to God. It is easier to see how the attributes of goodness, and love bring glory to God, but harder to see how God’s justice bring glory to Him.
While studying this subject of the attributes of God I came across something that at first was hard for me to understand, but after thinking about it for a while it seems that the Holy Spirit of God has made it clear to me. When a believer in Jesus Christ dies we read that those remaining are not to grieve as those who have no hope grieve. Unbelievers who die have no hope, but believers are transported right to be with the Lord for “6 Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord- 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight- 8 we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.” It is easy to believe that when a believer dies that they bring honor and glory to the Lord, but harder to believe that when an unbeliever dies that they too bring glory to the Lord. However this is true for the reason that God’s justice brings glory to Him just as God’s love and goodness bring glory to Him. The justice and judgment of a believer has been taken out on Jesus Christ on the cross for them, while the justice and judgment of God is taken out on the unbeliever who has not accepted God’s grace through Jesus Christ and must pay for their own sins.
Dr. Wiersbe concludes his commentary by writing “The psalm begins at Jerusalem and its environs (vv. 1-6), then moves to the entire land of Israel (vv. 7-9), and now it reaches the whole earth (v. 12). There will be a day when the rulers of the earth will bow to Jesus Christ and worship Him as King of Kings (Isa. 2:1-4; 11:1ff.; Rev. 19:11-16).”
For those who obey the Lord they will receive eternal life, and will not encounter the wrath of God like the army of the Assyrian’s did when the angel of the Lord killed 185,000 in one moment. We must remember that God is not a God who desires to get even like we humans tend to do, but God is a God who is completely Holy and cannot stand for sin and therefore has to judge sin one way of the other.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: The more that I study about God the more I see His holiness and the more I see my sin in all of its ugliness. Then the more I am amazed by the grace of God.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to learn more about our glorious God, and continue to learn contentment that causes me to trust the Lord more and more with whatever He brings into my life.
4/20/2012 11:36:30 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment