SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
4/15/2012 9:07:48 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Has the Lord rejected us?
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm 74 PT-1
Message of the verses: In today’s SD we will begin to look at Psalm 74, another psalm of Asaph. This is the second of ten psalms in a row that were written by Asaph and this is the second psalm in the third book or section of the psalms. We will begin with several introductions from various commentators.
“This community lament expresses the agony of the people in the midst of the most excruciating of circumstances. It was bad enough that Israel’s enemies had destroyed the temple (cf. 2 Kings 25). But even worse, it seemed to the psalmist that God had abandoned them. In this prayer he reminds God of His bond with Israel, His past supernatural deeds in the protection of Israel, and begs God to save His covenant nation now (cf. Psalm 137 and Lamentations).” (From The John MacArthur Study Bible)
“Psalm 73 deals with a personal crisis of faith, but Psalm 74 moves to the national scene on and focuses on the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 58-86 B. C. The author is obviously not the Asaph of David’s day but a namesake among his descendants. Psalm 79 is a companion psalm, and you will find parallel passages in the book of Lamentations (4/2:6-7; 7/2:2; 9/2:6, 9) and Jeremiah 6-7/10:25; 1, 13/23:1). Even through the prophets had warned that judgment was coming (2Chron. 36:15-21), the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple were catastrophic events that shook the people’s faith. As he surveyed the situation, Asaph moved from despair to confidence and in the end affirmed that all was not lost.” (Warren Wiersbe)
The Sanctuary: “The Lord Has Rejected Us!” (vv. 1-11): “1 ¶ «A Maskil of Asaph.» O God, why have You rejected us forever? Why does Your anger smoke against the sheep of Your pasture? 2 Remember Your congregation, which You have purchased of old, Which You have redeemed to be the tribe of Your inheritance; And this Mount Zion, where You have dwelt. 3 Turn Your footsteps toward the perpetual ruins; The enemy has damaged everything within the sanctuary. 4 Your adversaries have roared in the midst of Your meeting place; They have set up their own standards for signs. 5 It seems as if one had lifted up His axe in a forest of trees. 6 And now all its carved work They smash with hatchet and hammers. 7 They have burned Your sanctuary to the ground; They have defiled the dwelling place of Your name. 8 They said in their heart, "Let us completely subdue them." They have burned all the meeting places of God in the land. 9 We do not see our signs; There is no longer any prophet, Nor is there any among us who knows how long. 10 How long, O God, will the adversary revile, And the enemy spurn Your name forever? 11 Why do You withdraw Your hand, even Your right hand? From within Your bosom, destroy them!”
Before we get started on these verses I want to continue the point that was made earlier that God had stated through His prophets that one day this would all come about, that is that Israel would be removed from their land and be taken to another country because they would not follow the Lord. This goes back to the writings of Moses in the book of Deuteronomy where God through Moses told the children of Israel that they would go into their land and then they would disobey the Lord and He would remove them from their land but then would bring them back to the land where they would disobey Him again and then the Lord would remove them again and they would offer themselves as slaves, but no one would buy them. This happened in 70 A. D. when Titus who lead the Roman army against Israel and defeated them, tore down the temple (the second temple) and then because there were so many slaves on the slave market at that time people would not even buy the children of Israel as slaves. Deuteronomy 28 which is called the “Palestinian Covenant” tells about this. 4/15/2012 9:34:08 AM
4/15/2012 1:02:11 PM
There are many promises that God gave to the nation of Israel, beginning with Abraham, that God would give the Promised Land to them, and of course after the destruction of the temple I am sure that there were many doubts in the minds of the people that God perhaps had changed His mind about having Israel stay in their land. This was a logical conclusion, but faith does not always seem logical, for there were times when God had told His prophets to do something that would not seem logical and it turned out okay. Elijah did some things by faith that from a human point of view seemed crazy. When he was with the prophets of Baal they both made a sacrifice to their gods and Baal was suppose to burn up the sacrifice, but could not do it so Elijah then dug a pit around the sacrifice he was offering and then filled it with water along with pouring water over the sacrifice and God consumed the sacrifice with water. This took faith on the part of Elijah to do something like this and it would also take faith on the part of the children of Israel who saw the city and the temple broken down, faith that God would restore it.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I have mentioned something similar when commenting on other psalms, and that is that we can see in certain psalms that they start out with a problem, in the case of Psalm 74 it is the problem of wondering what it is that God is doing in allowing the city of Jerusalem and His temple to be destroyed, and then as the psalmist begins to work his way through the writing of the psalm we find that his faith in the Lord is increased and so he will believe that God has a plan to take care of this problem. This is true in life as we go through life as a believer, we will see a problem and then we should begin to research in the Word of God on what He has to say about the problem and then this should increase our faith and we trust the Lord to take care of the problem. Psalm 56:3-4 says “3 When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You. 4 In God, whose word I praise, In God I have put my trust; I shall not be afraid. What can mere man do to me?” It takes trust in the Lord to have the faith to believe that God will take care of our problems. Where do we get our faith from? “Faith come by hearing, hearing the Word of God.”
My Steps of Faith for Today: I trust that the Lord will continue to teach me contentment as I go through different issues that I am facing.
4/15/2012 3:02:55 PM
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