SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
6/24/2012 8:01:10 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Psalm 97 PT-2
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Psalm 97:3-12
Message of the verses: In the last SD we began to look at Psalm 97
as we looked at the first two verses and also several introductory commentaries
by different Bible Commentators. We will
pick up at verse three in today’s SD.
The Lord Is Exalted over His Enemies (vv.
3-6): “3 Fire goes before Him And burns up His
adversaries round about. 4 His
lightnings lit up the world; The earth saw and trembled. 5 The mountains melted like wax at the presence
of the LORD, At the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. 6 The heavens declare His righteousness, And
all the peoples have seen His glory.”
We see in
verses 3-5 a storm, and this is not the first time we have seen a storm in
Scripture, for we can see a storm back when the Lord took Israel out of Egypt
in the Exodus (Psalm 68:7-8): “7 ¶ O
God, when You went forth before Your people, When You marched through the
wilderness, Selah. 8 The earth quaked; The heavens also dropped rain at the
presence of God; Sinai itself quaked at the presence of God, the God of Israel.” When Israel was at Mt. Sinai there was also a
storm going on and the writer of the book of Hebrews picks up on it when he
writes, “18 ¶ For you have not come to a
mountain that can be touched and to a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom
and whirlwind, 19 and to the blast of a
trumpet and the sound of words which sound was such that those who heard begged
that no further word be spoken to them. 20
For they could not bear the command, "IF EVEN A BEAST TOUCHES THE
MOUNTAIN, IT WILL BE STONED." 21 And
so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, ‘I AM FULL OF FEAR and trembling.’”
Storms also
look to the return of the Lord Jesus Christ to earth, for Jesus said "For
just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will
the coming of the Son of Man be.’”
(Matthew 24:27)
We read the
following in Deut. 4:24, “’For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous
God.’” The lightning and the fire
reminds of this verse along with Hebrews 12:29 where it says, “for our God is a
consuming fire.” In the past we have
mentioned that because justice is one of the attributes of God that His justice
(Judgments) brings glory to God. The
phrase “Lord of all the earth” is only seen in four OT places. Joshua used that when Israel crossed the
Jordan River (Joshua 3:11, 13), and Zechariah uses it in 4:14; 6:5. Jesus used this title of God in Luke 10:21 “At
that very time He rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit, and said, "I praise
You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from
the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for
this way was well-pleasing in Your sight.”
The Lord is Exalted over the False Gods
(vv. 7-9): “7 Let all those be ashamed who serve graven
images, Who boast themselves of idols; Worship Him, all you gods. 8 Zion heard
this and was glad, And the daughters of Judah have rejoiced Because of Your
judgments, O LORD. 9 For You are the
LORD Most High over all the earth; You are exalted far above all gods.”
Israel knew
that idols were something that they should not worship, for they knew that the
Lord was the One true God who created the earth and all of the other planets
and stars. In the ancient times of the
Near East nations believed that when one nation conquered another it was
because their “gods” were stronger than those of the defeated nations, but this
surely was not the truth. Babylon
conquered Judah because God planned for this to happen and wrote about it in
the Scriptures many times. God even
wrote as to how long Israel would be in captivity, when they would return and
who would allow them to return. Isaiah
44:28 says “It is I who says of Cyrus,
’He is My shepherd! And he will perform all My desire.’ And he declares of
Jerusalem, ’She will be built,’ And of the temple, ’Your foundation will be
laid.’" Isaiah goes on to write in
chapter 45 that Cyrus would not only allow Israel go back to Jerusalem, but
would also conquer other nations, and it was Cyrus who conquered Babylon. Daniel chapter five speaks of the Medes and Persians
conquering Babylon in one night.
Dr. Wiersbe
writes of idols, “People may not bow down before ugly man-made idols today, but
there are certainly plenty of false gods for them to worship—money, power,
possessions, sex, pleasures, recognition—for whatever people serve and sacrifice
for, that is what they worship (Matt. 4:10).”
The Lord Is Exalted among His People (vv.
10-12): “10 Hate evil, you who love the LORD, Who
preserves the souls of His godly ones; He delivers them from the hand of the
wicked. 11 Light is sown like seed for
the righteous And gladness for the upright in heart. 12 Be glad in the LORD, you righteous ones, And
give thanks to His holy name.”
(NASB) “10 You who love the LORD, hate evil! He protects the lives of his godly
people and rescues them from the power
of the wicked. 11 Light shines on the
godly, and joy on those whose hearts are
right. 12 May all who are godly rejoice
in the LORD and praise his holy name!” (NLT)
As
believers in Jesus Christ we are to love the Lord and we are to hate evil. God has given great mercy and love to those
who are His and therefore we are to love and worship the Lord. Jesus stated that this was the greatest
commandment in all of Scripture to love the Lord with all of your heart, soul,
and mind, and then went on to say that the second greatest commandment was to
love one’s neighbor like he loved himself.
Out of these two commandments flows the Ten Commandments, and out of the
Ten Commandments flows all the other commandments in Scripture. Loving the Lord and our neighbor pictures the
cross, for the vertical post pictures loving the Lord and the horizontal beam
pictures loving your neighbor, and this is a difficult thing to do even
impossible without the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. When Jesus was on the earth He spoke to the
storm and it stopped, and when Balham’s started talking it was because she was
obeying the Lord in talking to Balham.
We can see a storm and a donkey obey the Lord without hesitation, but
how about man?
Dr. Wiersbe
writes “The image in verse 11 is that of the sower; the Lord plants light like
seeds so that His people will not always walk in darkness and what He plants
will eventually bear fruit. ‘Sowing’ is
a frequent metaphor in Scripture for the deeds of both God and people. The psalm begins with a universal revelation
of God’s glory (vv 2-6), with dramatic flashes of lightning , but it ends with
His light quietly shining on the paths of His people.---“God’s people have their
dark days when life is difficult, but there are always seeds of light and joy
to accompany us along the way. Is there
any reason why we should not be rejoicing now?”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I think that those seeds of light come from
the reading of the Word of God. Romans
12:2 speaks of renewing our minds so that we can know and do the will of God,
and this can only happen when our minds are filled with the Word of God.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: Continue to abide in the vine,
and this means to memorize the Word of God as I abide in the Vine.
Memory verses for the week:
2Peter 1:1-3
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; 3. seeing that His divine
power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through
the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.
6/24/2012 9:16:22 AM
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