SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
5/12/2012 8:48:31 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Talking about the character and Glory of God
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm 86:8-17
Message of the verses: We learned in the last SD that Psalm 86 is a psalm of David, and it is the only psalm of David that is found in the third book of Psalms, which runs from 73-91. We also read in the last part of the introduction by Warren Wiersbe these words “David found three encouragements in the Lord, and so may we today.” We will look at the last two encouragements that David found in the Lord in today’s SD.
God’s Character Is Unchanging (vv. 8-13): “8 ¶ There is no one like You among the gods, O Lord, Nor are there any works like Yours. 9 All nations whom You have made shall come and worship before You, O Lord, And they shall glorify Your name. 10 For You are great and do wondrous deeds; You alone are God. 11 Teach me Your way, O LORD; I will walk in Your truth; Unite my heart to fear Your name. 12 I will give thanks to You, O Lord my God, with all my heart, And will glorify Your name forever. 13 For Your lovingkindness toward me is great, And You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.”
To begin with let us look at Exodus 15:11 “"Who is like You among the gods, O LORD? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, Awesome in praises, working wonders?” Of course we know that the answer to this question is that there is no one like the Lord God who made the heavens and the earth.
In verse 9 David is looking forward to the Messianic kingdom when all of the nations would praise the Lord. God made the nations and assigns their boundaries and determines their destinies and we can see that from Acts 17:22-28 “22 ¶ So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, "Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. 23 "For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ’TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. 24 "The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; 25 nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; 26 and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, 27 that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 28 for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ’For we also are His children.’”
Isaiah 2:1-4 teaches us this too: “1 ¶ The word which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 2 Now it will come about that In the last days The mountain of the house of the LORD Will be established as the chief of the mountains, And will be raised above the hills; And all the nations will stream to it. 3 And many peoples will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, To the house of the God of Jacob; That He may teach us concerning His ways And that we may walk in His paths." For the law will go forth from Zion And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. 4 And He will judge between the nations, And will render decisions for many peoples; And they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, And never again will they learn war.” Isaiah also speaks of the nations coming to the Lord in the Messianic kingdom in Isa. 9:6-7; 11:1-16.
Verse tens speaks of the greatness of God who performs wondrous deeds, for God never changes and what He does is always good.
Now we see in verses 11-13 that David now focuses in on his walk with the Lord. We know that in the ten years that David lived in the wilderness hiding from Saul that he learned much about God and how faithful the Lord was to him, for God him king, and therefore David believed Him and trusted the Lord as he hid from Saul. It was because of these wilderness wanderings that David now believed that the Lord would protect him from the evil situation that he now found himself in. David writes that he will praise the Lord and walk with Him to please Him, knowing that God would deliver him from this situation that he finds himself in. We see at the end of verse 11 these words “Unite my heart to fear Your name.” Dr. Wiersbe writes “unite my heart’ means ‘I want to have an undivided heart, wholly fixed on the Lord.’ A perfect heart is a sincere heart that loves God alone and is true to Him (James 1:8; 4:8; Deut. 6:4-5; 10:12). He promised to praise God forever for delivering him from the grave (Sheol), a hint here of future resurrection. (See 49:15 and 73:23-24.)
God’s Glory Shall Prevail (vv. 14-17): “14 O God, arrogant men have risen up against me, And a band of violent men have sought my life, And they have not set You before them. 15 But You, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, Slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness and truth. 16 Turn to me, and be gracious to me; Oh grant Your strength to Your servant, And save the son of Your handmaid. 17 Show me a sign for good, That those who hate me may see it and be ashamed, Because You, O LORD, have helped me and comforted me.” (NASB) “14 O God, insolent people rise up against me; a violent gang is trying to kill me. You mean nothing to them. 15 But you, O Lord, are a God of compassion and mercy, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness. 16 Look down and have mercy on me. Give your strength to your servant; save me, the son of your servant. 17 Send me a sign of your favor. Then those who hate me will be put to shame, for you, O LORD, help and comfort me.” (NLT)
We said in yesterday’s SD that David had taken some of the verses for this psalm from other psalms that he had written and from other places in the OT. We must remember that the Holy Spirit is the author of the Bible as He moved in the hearts of the men who wrote the Scriptures, but making sure that it was what He wanted them to write even though their personalities were used in the writing of the Scriptures. “2Pe 1:21 for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” In verse 15 we see that David based it on Ex. 34:6 and following. Exodus 34 is a chapter that finds Moses up on the Mountain of God talking to the Lord and then asking Him to show Himself to Moses. It is one of the great chapters in all of Scripture and in that Chapter we see Moses praising the Lord telling Him that He is a God who is merciful and gracious and is slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness and truth. You see Moses was interceding for the children of Israel who had just made an idol to worship in their camp and God was very upset with their sin and wanted to destroy all of them, but Moses intercedes for them in this chapter.
In verse 14 we see that the men who were trying to harm David were arrogant, men who did not know the Lord, nor knew the power of the Lord.
David writes in verse sixteen that he wants God to save him, and calls himself “the son of Your handmaid.” Dr. Wiersbe writes “Children born to servants were considered especially faithful since they were brought up in the master’s household (Gen. 14:14). Since David was the Lord’s faithful servant, it was his Master’s duty to protect and deliver him. But David wanted that deliverance to bring glory to the Lord and to demonstrate to the nations that Jehovah alone was God. It wasn’t just warfare; it was witness, a ‘sign’ of the goodness of the Lord to David. It was his way of praying ‘Hallowed be Thy name’ (Matt. 6:9). When our requests are in God’s will and glorify His name, we can be sure He will answer.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: While driving in my car yesterday I was praying to the Lord about my prayer requests and saying that I want my prayer requests to be in the will of the Lord. We sometimes tack on “In Jesus’ Name, Amen,” to the end of our prayers and we believe that by doing that He is obligated to answer our prayers. While studying some verses in the 15th chapter of John’s Gospel last year I learned that Jesus said to His disciples that if they asked anything in Jesus’ name they would receive an answer to their prayers. What Jesus is talking about here is that our prayer requests must be as if Jesus wanted them to be answered. Jesus told His disciples that it was better for Him to leave them and go back to heaven for if He did this then greater miracles would be done, and that means greater in number, for when a person accepts the Lord Jesus as their Lord and Savior then Jesus works in their hearts to do the things that He wants done, and since there are many believers on earth at this time then there should be much done for the kingdom of God as we do things that the Holy Spirit of God leads us to do and when He leads us to do something we pray and ask the Lord to accomplish them in our lives and then our prayers will be answered. I’m glad that I had this talk with my Lord yesterday in the car.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Pray in Jesus’ name for the glory of Jesus. Trust the Lord to continue to teach me contentment in my life.
5/12/2012 9:54:22 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment