SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
6/16/2012 8:49:09 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Psalm 95 PT-2
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Psalm 95:6-11
Message of the verses: In the last SD we looked at several
introductions from different Bible Commentators and then looked at the first
five verses of Psalm 95. At the end of his introductory commentary Dr.
Wiersbe wrote the following, “As the psalmist calls God’s people to celebrate
the Lord, he gives us three admonitions to obey.”
Bow Down and Worship the Lord (vv.
6-7a): “6 Come, let us worship and
bow down, Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker. 7 For He is our God, And we are the people of
His pasture and the sheep of His hand.”
Dr. Wiersbe
writes “Praise means looking up, but worship means bowing down.” As I wrote a bit about some of the problems
that the church faces in today’s world, that there are some people who love to
praise the Lord in their services, but do not desire to bow the knee in worship
to the Lord. It was now perhaps ten
years ago that while vacationing in Florida that my wife and I visited a church
where for the first hour of the service all that was going on was singing with
people getting out in the isles to sing and dance before the Lord. After that was done there was a sermon that
lasted just fifteen minutes. I felt then
as I still do now that the preaching should take up an hour and the singing
fifteen minutes and from his commentary on this I believe that Dr. Wiersbe
feels the same way. Bowing down before the
Lord to worship Him takes time and is a very important in the growth of the
believer. Worship is 24/7 for whatever
we are doing we are in worship whether we know it or not. We are to prepare for our corporate worship
that happens in our church services by making our private worship meaningful
through the rest of the week.
Dr. Wiersbe
writes “True worship is much deeper than communal praise, for worship involves
realizing the awesomeness of God and experiencing the fear of the Lord and a
deeper love for Him. Too often Christian
‘praise’ is nothing but religious entertainment and it never moves into
spiritual enrichment in the presence of the Lord. Our singing must give way to silence as we
bow before the Lord. He alone is
Jehovah, the Lord, the covenant making and covenant-keeping God. He is our Maker and our Shepherd. Jubilation has its place only if it becomes
adoration and we are prostrate before the Lord in total submission, ‘lost in
wonder, love and praise.’ What a
remarkable miracle of grace that we sinners should be called ‘His people.’ He made us, He saved us, and He cares for
us! Why should we hesitate to fall
before Him in total surrender?”
Hear and Obey the Lord (vv. 7b-11): “Today, if you would hear His voice,
8 Do not harden your hearts, as at
Meribah, As in the day of Massah in the wilderness, 9 ‘When your fathers tested Me, They tried Me,
though they had seen My work. 10
"For forty years I loathed that generation, And said they are a
people who err in their heart, And they do not know My ways. 11 "Therefore I swore in My anger, Truly
they shall not enter into My rest.’”
We learned
in the last SD that this section is quoted in the book of Hebrews 3:7-4:13.
We can
divide this section into smaller portions so that we can better understand it,
and if we better understand it then we will be able to live a life that is
pleasing to the Lord and grow up in our walk with the Lord. In the last part of verse six we see these
words “Hear His voice.” When we got to our
churches we are privileged to hear the Word of God. When we pick up our Bibles and read and study
them we are again privileged to hear the Word of God, and that is so very
important in our walk with the Lord. In
the 119th Palm the psalmist writes 176 verses about the Word of God
and he mentions the Word of God in some form in all but three of those 176
verses. This is the longest chapter in
the longest book of God’s Word and it speaks about God’s Word. Dr. Wiersbe writes “The way we treat the Word of God is the way we treat the God of the
Word.” Let’s look at three verses
from the Gospels that will show us that Jesus admonishes us to take heed that we hear: “"He who has ears, let him hear.’” (Matthew 13:9) Take heed what
we hear: “And He was saying to them,
"Take care what you listen to. By your standard of measure it will be
measured to you; and more will be given you besides.” (Mark 4:24)
Take heed how we hear: “"So
take care how you listen; for whoever has, to him more shall be given; and
whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has shall be taken away from him.’” (Luke 8:18)
The
psalmist mentions two incidents from the earlier times in the history of the
nation of Israel as he goes back to the incident that took place in Rephidim
that is found in Exodus 17:1-17. He then
goes back to the incident that took place in Kadesh Barnea that is found in
Numbers chapters 13-14. In the book of
Genesis chapter 15 God made a promise to Abraham that his offspring would go
into a land where they would be treated badly for four hundred years and then
God would send a deliverer to bring them out of that land and bring them into
the land where Abraham had come to live, and that of course was the Promised
Land. It happened just as God told
Abraham as Moses was born and lived in Egypt for 40 years and then left and
lived in the wilderness tending sheep for 40 years and then the Lord called him
to return to Egypt to deliver Israel from there where he was to bring them back
to the Promises Land just as God had promised.
God did ten miracles through Moses in order to destroy Egypt and thus
Pharaoh allowed Israel to leave, but God would harden his heart one more time
and so pharaoh would go after Israel and he found them up against the Red
Sea. Pharaoh must have thought that he
had them now, but God had other plans.
The people of Israel were in a panic and cried out to Moses for
help. Moses cried out to God and God
opened the Red Sea so that Israel passed through on dry land, but when Pharaoh
followed God closed the sea and they all drowned in the Red Sea and would not
bother Israel again. Now the people have
just seen another miracle from God that saved their lives.
Now after
this the people arrived at Rephidim and began to complain that they did not
have any water to drink. Dr. Wiersbe
writes “Instead of trusting God they blamed God and His servant Moses. God graciously game them water out of the
rock, but Moses commemorated the even with two new names for the site: Meribah means ‘strife, quarreling,
contention,’ and Massah means testing (See also Numbers 20:1-13).”
We move a
bit ahead in the history of Israel, about 14-15 months, for Israel spent 14
months at Sinai where God gave them His Law and the tabernacle was built so
that sacrifice could be offered to the Lord.
The tribe of Levi was chosen to care for the tabernacle and the family
of Aaron was chosen to be priest to minister at the tabernacle. The next step was to go into the Promised
Land in order to conquer it and then they would live there in this land that God
had promised Abraham so many years ago.
We see that when the children of Israel made it to Kadesh Barnea that
according to the book of Deuteronomy the people asked Moses and the Lord to
send spies into the land in order to spy it out. It took forty days and ten of the twelve
spies came back with a bad or should I say fearful report. God was very upset with Israel because of
their unbelief and because of their unbelief God make Israel march in the
wilderness for the next 38 years making a total of 40 years marching in the
wilderness as all of the older generation died off. Dr. Wiersbe reports that it was the longest
funeral march in history as probably 2 million people died in that march. Israel did not enter into God’s rest and the
writer of Hebrews picks up on this when he writes to the church saying that
they have to enter into God’s rest. This
passage in Hebrews has been puzzling to Bible commentators for a long time
wondering what this rest was all about.
The children of Israel spent 40 years wondering in the wilderness because
they failed to believe God would use them to conquer Canaan and the rest that
is spoken about in Hebrews is salvation rest, which was provided by Jesus
Christ with His death on the cross. Dr.
Wiersbe writes “Hebrews 1-4 is God’s admonition to the church today to live by
faith, and ‘faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God’ (Romans
10:17, NKJV). Because the Jews refused
to hear His Word but hardened their heats instead, God was disgusted with His
people, and all the people twenty years old and older died during that
wilderness journey. We harden our hearts when we see
what God can do but refuse to trust Him so He can do it for us. We fail to cultivate a godly heart that fears
and honors the Lord. It is a grievous
sin to ask for the gifts (food, water, etc.) but ignore the Giver, and the
consequences are painful.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I desire to trust the Lord to teach me from
His Word so that I can claim the promises that are found in them in order to live
a life that is pleasing to the Lord.
According to this passage I am to trust the Lord and not to have
unbelief in my heart as the children of Israel did in their wilderness journey.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: Continue to abide “remain” in
the Vine.
Memory verses for the week:
2Peter 1:1-2, 1. “Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus
Christ,
To those
who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, but the righteousness of
our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: 2. Grace and peace be multiplied to you in
the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; “
6/16/2012 10:24:22 AM
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