SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
4/29/2012 6:16:32 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Seeing some of God’s Attributes
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm 79:5-13
Message of the verses: We will continue to look at Psalm 79 in today’s SD. Warren Wiersbe writes the following near the end of his introductory commentary: “We see Asaph playing four different roles as he contemplates the defeat of Judah by the Babylonians.” We looked at the first role in the last SD.
The Sufferer: Feeling God’s Anger (vv. 5-8): “5 How long, O LORD? Will You be angry forever? Will Your jealousy burn like fire? 6 Pour out Your wrath upon the nations which do not know You, And upon the kingdoms which do not call upon Your name. 7 For they have devoured Jacob And laid waste his habitation. 8 Do not remember the iniquities of our forefathers against us; Let Your compassion come quickly to meet us, For we are brought very low.”
In verse five we see two questions from Asaph which he asks of God. How long will you be angry is the first question, but we really don’t get an answer from God at this time in the Psalm, but we know from Jeremiah 25:11 that God had promised to bring the children of Israel back into their land. Next we see that Asaph wants to know about the jealousy of God. Dr. Wiersbe points out that “God is not jealous of anyone or anything, for He is wholly self-sufficient and needs nothing, but His is jealous over His land and His people. He is jealous for His name, His land , and the His inheritance (Zech. 1:14).
Asaph wants the Lord to take care of the nations that have attacked Israel, because they don’t know the Lord and have destroyed Jerusalem and the temple. Then Asaph asks the Lord not to remember the sins of his forefathers against Israel and asks for compassion. Asaph knew that the punishment that the Lord had given to Israel was just, for God is a just God, but because of the sins of the forefathers the wrath of God had built up and because of God’s holiness, He had to move on them. Let us look at Genesis 15:16 “"Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.’” In this passage God is speaking to Abraham, telling him that in four hundred years his offspring will return to the Promised Land and conquer it then because the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete. The way that I look at this passage is that I picture a bottle in heaven that God’s puts His wrath into and when it is full He has to act. I don’t just see this happening to those nations who existed in the OT, but to nations in today’s world, and when that bottle is full God will act for He is not only just and loving but holy. Dr. Wiersbe writes “We are guilty before God for only our own sins (Deu. 24:16; Jer. 31:29-30; Ezek. 18), but we may suffer because of the sins of our ancestors (Ex. 20:5; 34:7; 2Kings 17:7ff; 23:26-27; 24:3-4; Lam 5:7; Dan. 9:4-14).”
The Intercessor: Pleading for God’s Help (vv. 9-11): “9 Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your name; And deliver us and forgive our sins for Your name’s sake. 10 Why should the nations say, "Where is their God?" Let there be known among the nations in our sight, Vengeance for the blood of Your servants which has been shed. 11 Let the groaning of the prisoner come before You; According to the greatness of Your power preserve those who are doomed to die.”
We see that Asaph was concerned about the glory of God and His name, and this shows that he was not selfish, just trying to look out for himself, but cared about God’s glory and His reputation too. Moses interceded with God on behalf of the children of Israel in like matter when he pleaded with God to forgive them of their sins that they had committed in the wilderness. In ancient times we saw that each nation had their own god and when they defeated another nation they would taunt them about how weak their god was and how strong their own god was. Asaph knew that there was only one God and all the rest of the gods were idols. This is what Moses had said to God that the nations would say of the children of Israel that there God was not strong enough to bring them into the land He promised them.
Asaph wanted vengeance for the blood that the Babylonians had shed, for blood was precious to the Jews for they saw the blood of the animals shed in order to have their sins covered and now they were seeing the blood of the Jews shed by the Babylonians and this greatly concerned and angered Asaph. He may have though that God did not love them any more because of the blood that was being shed. As believers today we know that because of the blood that Jesus Christ shed for us shows that God loves us. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)
The Worshiper: Promising to Praise God (vv. 12-13) “12 And return to our neighbors sevenfold into their bosom The reproach with which they have reproached You, O Lord. 13 So we Your people and the sheep of Your pasture Will give thanks to You forever; To all generations we will tell of Your praise.”
In verse 12 Asaph asks the Lord to return to those who had devastated the nation of Israel seven times, something we see in other OT passages (Lev. 26:18, 21, 24, 28; Deut. 28:7). God had told His prophets that He was going to use the Babylonians to bring about His wrath upon Judah, but they seemed to enjoy doing this more than they should have and so a bit later God will use the Medes and the Persians to destroy them and it will take place in one day. (See Dan. 5)
God wanted the children of Israel to reach out and witness to the nations around them about the greatness of their God and tell them about their God so that they too could know Him. Israel failed to do this, but Asaph wants God to allow them to still do this and if He allows them to do this then they will praise the Lord and tell all generations about the Lord. We do know from the OT prophets that wrote after the exile of Jews to Babylonian that some of them did speak to their captors about the Lord. Ezra, Nehemiah, and Daniel did this.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I see in these three sections of Psalm 79 God’s justice, God’s holiness, God’s mercy, God’s love, and God keeping His promises that He had made. These are all attributes of God and by seeing them in action I know that they are true, and I also want to worship God because of His attributes, for He is worthy of my worship.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I desire to trust the Lord and to give Him glory for the great salvation that He had provided me with. I pray that the Lord will continue to teach me contentment.
4/29/2012 7:35:41 AM
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