SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
6/11/2012 8:34:28 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Psalm 93 PT-1
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Psalm 93
Message of the verses: After looking at First and Second Peter for
sometime we are back into the book of Psalms picking up where we left off a
short while ago with Psalm 93. We will
begin with the introduction of Psalm 93 and then look at the Psalm.
“This short
psalm sets forth the honour of the kingdom of God among men, to his glory, the
terror of his enemies, and the comfort of all his loving subjects. It relates
both to the kingdom of his providence, by which he upholds and governs the
world, and especially to the kingdom of his grace, by which he secures the
church, sanctifies and preserves it. The administration of both these kingdoms
is put into the hands of the Messiah, and to him, doubtless, the prophet here
hears witness, and to his kingdom, speaking of it as present, because sure; and
because, as the eternal Word, even before his incarnation he was Lord of all.
Concerning God’s kingdom glorious things are here spoken.” (Matthew Henry)
“This brief
Psalm is without title or name of author, but its subject is obvious enough,
being stated in the very first line. It is the Psalm of Omnipotent Sovereignty:
Jehovah, despite all opposition, reigns supreme. Possibly at the time this
sacred ode was written, the nation was in danger from its enemies, and the
hopes of the people of God were encouraged by remembering that the Lord was
still King. What sweeter and surer consolation could they desire?” (Charles H. Spurgeon)
“Psalms 93
and 95-100 emphasize the sovereign rule of Jehovah, the King of Israel, in the
affairs of the nations. (Psalm 94
focuses on God the Judge, which is an important aspect of His righteous
rule.) Psalm 93 was perhaps written by
one of the Levites who returned to Judah with the Jewish remnant after the
Babylonian captivity. The Medes and
Persians defeated Babylon in 539 B.C. and the next year Cyrus, the new king,
gave the Jews permission to return to their land, rebuild their temple, and
restore their nation. It was an
especially difficult time for the Jewish remnant (see Ezra and Haggai) and
their work was interrupted, attacked, and neglected. The leaders and the people needed
encouragement to continue the work, and this encouragement could come only from
the Lord. This brief hymn magnifies the
Lord by presenting three divine assurances.”
(Warren Wiersbe)
God Reigns Supremely (vv. 1-2): “1 ¶
The LORD reigns, He is clothed with majesty; The LORD has clothed and
girded Himself with strength; Indeed, the world is firmly established, it will
not be moved. 2 Your throne is
established from of old; You are from everlasting.”
Our Pastor has been preaching
through the book of 1Peter and in that book one can see the hopefulness that
one can have when they are a part of the family of God through putting their
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord. There was persecution coming to the readers
of Peter’s first letter and he wanted to give them hope. As I look at these first two verses of Psalm
93 I can also see reasons to be confident and hopeful in the Lord. I see the powerfulness of the Lord as He
reigns, as He is clothed in majesty, as He is strong, for He is stronger than
anyone else. The Lord controls all
aspects of this world even though some don’t think this is true. The fact is that if the Lord did not have
control over on single molecule, then He would cease to be God. However He does have control over everything
and thus He is God over all.
In verse
two we see that the Lord has in the past and will in the future reign over all
because God is eternal and has always existed and has always been supreme. As humans we have a hard time understanding
the eternality of God because we live in “time,” and God lives outside of
time. God created time when He created
the earth and the stars and all the planets for our time is measured as the
earth rotates around and also rotates around the sun. One rotation of the earth is twenty-four
hours, and one rotation around the sun is one year, thus we have time.
As we have
seen in Dr. Wiersbe’s introduction he believes that this psalm was written in
the post captivity of the nation of Judah, after they came back into their
land. We know that God allowed
Nebuchadnezzar to attack and defeat the Jewish people and to destroy the temple
and also the city of Jerusalem, but God also used Daniel to witness to the
leaders of the nation of Babylon and also the nation of the Medes and the Persians. God is always in control and God had promised
through the prophet Isaiah that Cyrus would allow the people to return to their
land. We read about this in Isaiah
chapters 44 and 45. We see by this that
God is in control, working out what He has planned, for God naming Cyrus many
years before he was even born shows that God not only knows all things but is
in control of all things. The Jewish
people needed to be reminded that Jehovah was still king even though they were going
through some difficult times and so Psalm 93 would be an encouragement to
them.
I just
listened to Isaiah chapter six last night and in that chapter I am reminded of
what I read in verses one and two of Psalm 93:
“1 ¶ In the year of King Uzziah’s
death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of
His robe filling the temple.” (Isaiah
6:1)
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I see that God is in total control of all
things, I see that God is on His throne, and because of this I can trust the
Lord even in difficult times. I must
admit that when things are going well it is harder to trust the Lord, but that is
when it is most important to trust the Lord.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: I desire to remain in the Vine,
to abide in the Vine so that I can produce the fruit that God has planned for
me to produce in my life.
Memory verse for the week:
2Peter 1:1, “Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To
those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness
of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ:”
6/11/2012 9:12:34 AM
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