SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/8/2012 7:41:26 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Psalm 103 PT-2
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Psalm 103:6-18
Message of the verses: We will continue to look at Psalm 103 this
morning, as in the last SD we began to look at the first section of the psalm
along with several introductions from different Bible commentators.
National Praise to the Lord (vv. 6-18): “ 6
¶ The LORD performs righteous deeds And
judgments for all who are oppressed. 7
He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the sons of Israel. 8 The LORD is compassionate and gracious, Slow
to anger and abounding in lovingkindness. 9
He will not always strive with us, Nor will He keep His anger forever.
10 He has not dealt with us according to
our sins, Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. 11 For as high as the heavens are above the
earth, So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him. 12 As far as the east is from the west, So far
has He removed our transgressions from us. 13
Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the LORD has
compassion on those who fear Him. 14 For
He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust. 15 As for man, his days are like grass; As a
flower of the field, so he flourishes. 16
When the wind has passed over it, it is no more, And its place acknowledges
it no longer. 17 But the lovingkindness
of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, And His
righteousness to children’s children, 18
To those who keep His covenant And remember His precepts to do them.”
This is
such a refreshing psalm, and it has so much information in it that makes a
person heart glad whenever one reads it.
It encourages my soul and causes me to want to praise the Lord for all
of His goodness and grace.
As soon as
man and woman sinned we see that the Lord came to them with the skins of an
animal, thus having to shed the blood in order to get the skins that He gave to
them. I believe that this animal was a
lamb or sheep. We see God’s plan to save
people and as we read through the OT we see that there is a line that will led
to the birth of Messiah. We can read of
this line in Luke’s Gospel as he gives the line from Jesus all the way back to
God. When God called Abraham the nation
of Israel was beginning, and it began with a miracle son born to Abraham and
Sarah. The nation of Israel was surely
blessed of God and the nation of Israel would give us the Word of God as God
gave His Law to Moses along with all that we read in the books of Genesis to
Deuteronomy. The nation of Israel would
give to the world the Messiah who would come through the line of King David. Because of all of these blessings that God
gave to Israel, Israel was obligated to express their praise and thanksgiving
to the Lord. We see in verse six that
Jehovah was their righteous Deliverer, and this does not just mean when He
delivered them from Egypt, but throughout their history. We see in verse seven that the Lord gave
guidance to Israel, as He first did this through Moses, and later on through
the Judges, kings and prophets. When we
look at Moses we see that he knew why God was doing what He was doing, while the
people just knew what He was doing. The
reason was that Moses had an intimate relationship with the Lord, Moses knew
the Lord in a personal way, while the children of Israel did not know Him that
way, and most of them probably did not want to know Him that way.
When we
look at verses eight through twelve we see the things that Moses knew when he
was with the Lord on Mt. Sinai, things that we can read about when we read
Exodus 33:12-13 and 34:5-9. One of the attributes
that I am learning that God has is His compassion, and because Israel had
sinned against the Lord on different occasion’s compassion was something that
they would need, and verse eight states that the Lord is compassionate. God forgave their sins because one day the
Lord Jesus would come to earth to die for their sins, for those in the OT
looked forward to the coming of Messiah to die for their sins, while we in the
NT age look back at the cross where Jesus died for our sins. Dr Wiersbe writes, “The picture in verses
8-12 is that of a courtroom in which God is both judge and prosecuting
attorney. He has all the evidence He
needs to condemn us, but He does not prolong the trial. When the judge is your Father, and when Jesus
has died for your sins, there is full and free forgiveness available to all who
will ask for it. If God gave us the
punishment we deserved, we would be without hope (Ezra 9:13). The punishment that we deserve was given to
Jesus (Isa. 53:4-6).”
We see that
in verses 11-12 that David uses some terms to describe God’s love and
forgiveness that we can understand. His
love is higher than the heavens are to the earth, and when He forgives our sins
they are as far from us as the east is to the west. I for one am glad that David did not say from
the north to the south, for that is 12,500 miles, but when we try to find out
how far the east is from the west it cannot be known. David may have been thinking of the Day of
Atonement when the sin was placed on a goat who was released in the wilderness,
symbolically bearing Israel’s sins far away.
John describes this in John 1:29, “The next day he *saw Jesus coming to
him and *said, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the
world!” Dr. Wiersbe writes, “But we must
remember that it is not God’s love or pity that saves us, but God’s grace (Eph.
2:8-10), for grace is love that has paid the price. Were it not for the death of Christ on the
cross, there could be not forgiveness of our sins. Yes, God is like a tender
Father, but His pity is not a shallow sentimental feeling. A Holy God demands that His law be satisfied,
and only His perfect Son could provide that satisfaction (Rom. 3:19-31).” The question is “are we worth saving?” For we
are only grass that grows us and quickly fades away, however the Lord our “formation”
because it was God who formed us out of the dust and He even watches over us
while we are in the womb. What a
wonderful God we serve! David goes on to
say that God will bless the children’s children, of all who fear the Lord and
who kept His precepts. Dr. Wiersbe
writes in conclusion to his commentary on this section, “Believers today have
already been blessed ‘with every spiritual blessing …in Christ’ (Eph. 1:4), and
as we trust Him and obey His will, He meets our every need.” Believers today are very rich and the book of
Ephesians tells of all the riches we have.
Dr. Wiersbe entitles his commentary on Ephesians “Be Rich.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I have been reminded of many things that God
has done for me in this section of Psalm 103, and also from reading the
commentary from Dr. Wiersbe and It makes me thankful for what the Lord has done
for me, and it makes me thankful that I can read good things from Warren
Wiersbe whom I have a great deal of respect for as a person and as a Bible
commentator. I don’t want to take for
granted the wonderful things that the Lord has done for me.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: Continue to abide in the Vine
so that I will be filled with the Spirit of God and do the things that He has
for me to do, things that He has planned for me to do in eternity past.
Memory verses for the week:
2Peter 1:1-5
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: 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. 4. For by these He has granted to us His
precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become 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,
7/8/2012 9:04:12 AM
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