Sunday, July 15, 2012

All Believers--God's Dependable Promises (Ps. 105:42-45)


SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/15/2012 8:47:17 AM



My Worship Time                                                                     Focus:  Psalm 105 PT-3



Bible Reading & Meditation                                                      Reference:  Psalm 105:42-45



            Message of the verses:  In Today’s SD we will look at the last section in the lengthy 105th Psalm remembering that this psalm is talking about the history of the nation of Israel.



            All Believers—God’s Dependable Promise (vv. 42-45):  “41  He opened the rock and water flowed out; It ran in the dry places like a river. 42  For He remembered His holy word With Abraham His servant; 43  And He brought forth His people with joy, His chosen ones with a joyful shout. 44  He gave them also the lands of the nations, That they might take possession of the fruit of the peoples’ labor, 45  So that they might keep His statutes And observe His laws, Praise the LORD!”



            I am not sure how many Bible Scholars believe what I am about to write, but I heard a long time ago that there are many who believe that the rock that is spoken of in verse 41 was carried around by Israel in their wilderness wonderings so that it supplied water for them.  I suppose that this though does have merit because when you have at least two million people wandering in the wilderness they had to have a source of water to survive.



            I have mentioned earlier that Dr. Wiersbe believes that this psalm was written after the exiles of Israel returned from Babylon and when I look at this psalm in the way that it was written I can believe it.  I think about the books of 1st and 2nd Chronicles and it is believed that these two books were written after the exiles returned in order to give them a history of Israel.  In these two books you only see the history of Judah and they do not contain all of the sinfulness that went on, but focused more on how the Lord moved through the different peoples of Judah, especially focusing on King David.  It is in this book that we find out that the evil King Manasseh came to know the Lord in a saving way at the end of his life.  So we see in Psalm 105 that the psalmist leaves out all of the sinful things that happened by Israel on their wilderness wonderings, the things that went on at Mt. Sinai, and at Kadesh Barnes where Israel refused to enter the land and thus walked around in the wilderness for forty years until all who were over twenty years old had died.  This psalm focuses in on God’s great works and does not expose the great failures of man.  I have to say at this point, because we are on the subject, that the New Testament does not focus in on the sins of those in the OT when they are mentioned because their sins have been forgiven through Jesus Christ.  When the Bible mentions David in the NT it does not mention any of his sins or any other of the OT saints sins.

            The psalmist mentions the promise that God made with Abraham, giving them the Promised Land, and the fact that God kept His promise to Abraham as the people defeated the nations who were in that land, something God told Abraham in Genesis chapter fifteen.  God even told Abraham that Israel would come out from the land that kept them captive for 400 years with many spoils. 

            Dr. Wiersbe writes “God’s people live on promises, not explanations, and it is ‘through faith and patience’ that we see these promises fulfilled (Heb. 6:12).”  This is something very important to remember that believers live on promises and not explanations.  I am sure that the children of Israel who lived in Egypt those 400 years had to believe the promise that God would send a redeemer to remove them from Egypt, for their lives were surely very hard during those long year and they needed hope in the Lord in order to survive.  There was not written Word at that time from the Bible only the hope that was passed down from generation to generation of a promise that was given to Abraham concerning his descendants by the Lord.

            Dr. Wiersbe goes on to write “But God’s keeping His promise meant more for Israel than victory over the enemy and the acquisition of riches. It meant accepting the responsibility of obeying the God who had been so faithful to them.  Before his death, Joshua reminded the people what the Lord had done for them and admonished them to serve the Lord and not turn to idols (Josh. 24:1-28).  When we consider all that the Lord has done for us, we find we have the same obligation.”



            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  To remember all that the Lord has done for me through the “precious and magnificent promises” that He has given to me.



My Steps of Faith for Today:  I am having a difficult time memorizing the verses in 2Peter that I believe the Lord desires for me to memorize, and my step of faith today is to continue to work on them until I have them memorized in order to meditate on the great truths that are found in these verses.



Memory Verses for the Week:  2Peter 1:1-6



1.       Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,

To those who have received a faith of the same kind as our, by the righteous of our God

and Savior, Jesus Christ. 2. Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord; 3. seeing the 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. 4. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that you can be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.

            5. Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, 6. and in your knowledge self-control, and in your self-control perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness,



7/15/2012 9:27:11 AM


No comments:

Post a Comment