SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/19/2012 9:24:26 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Psalm 106 PT-2
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Psalm 106:7-23
Message of the verses: In Today’s SD we will continue to look at
Psalm 106, which is a fairly long psalm that is about some of the history of
the nation of Israel. It is thought that
this unknown psalmist wrote this psalm after the Jewish people returned to
Jerusalem from the nation of Babylon. It
was necessary for the Jews to remember where they came from and who they were
in order to fulfill the plans that God had for them to fulfill, which will
include the birth of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.
Dr. Wiersbe
writes the following at the end of his first major point to this psalm: “As we study this psalm, it may be like
witnessing an autopsy, but we will benefit from it if, like the psalmist, we
keep our eyes on the Lord of glory and see His kindness and faithfulness to His
sinful people.” There are nine parts to
this psalm and we looked at the first one yesterday and will proceed with the
second part today and perhaps we will go further.
Triumphant Beginnings (vv. 7-12): “7
Our fathers in Egypt did not understand Your wonders; They did not
remember Your abundant kindnesses, But rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea.
8 Nevertheless He saved them for the sake of His name,
That He might make His power known. 9
Thus He rebuked the Red Sea and it dried up, And He led them through the
deeps, as through the wilderness. 10 So
He saved them from the hand of the one who hated them, And redeemed them from
the hand of the enemy. 11 The waters
covered their adversaries; Not one of them was left. 12 Then they believed His words; They sang His
praise.”
In these
verses we see what happened to Israel when they first came out of Egypt, which
is recorded in Exodus 14:10-31. God had
just finished performing ten mighty miracles in order for the Egyptians to
allow Israel to leave, and the scene we have here is that Israel has left and
now they have come to the Red Sea which is in front of them and then they turn
around and see Pharaoh’s army with all his chariots coming after them. The sea in front and the army behind, so the
people panic and cry out to Moses. I
suppose the first question that one would ask is “How are You going to get us
out of this mess that we are in Lord?”
This is not the attitude that they had though. Dr. Wiersbe writes “They were looking back
instead of looking up and were walking by sight and not by faith. They preferred the security of slavery to the
challenges of liberty. ‘Let us go back to Egypt!’ was frequently their response
when they found themselves in a situation that demanded faith.”
Moses on
the other hand looked at this situation differently for it was an experience of
faith that would glorify God. For the
people this would be another spectacular event which they had seen ten times
before. Dr. Wiersbe writes “But are God’s
people any different today?” I suppose
that the answer is that God’s people today are not much different today than
they were back then, but they should be.
Why should they be? Well for one
thing most of God’s people today have a completed Bible to read, which those
people did not have then. Believers
today have the Holy Spirit living in them, which these people did not
have. In one of his commentaries Dr.
Wiersbe asked a question in which the answer speaks volumes. I think that the commentary was on the books
of Ruth and Ester in which he asked if the Holy Spirit was taken out of the
Church today would it make any difference.
His answer was NO! I suppose that
I would have to agree with him in that answer because I believe that in most
cases believers today are trying to please the Lord and work for the Lord in
their own strength, not depending upon the Holy Spirit. Of course there are people who do not fall
into this category, but it seems that many believers today do.
Dangerous Decline (vv. 13:23): “13 ¶
They quickly forgot His works; They did not wait for His counsel,
14 But craved intensely in the
wilderness, And tempted God in the desert. 15
So He gave them their request, But sent a wasting disease among them.
16 When they became envious of Moses in
the camp, And of Aaron, the holy one of the LORD, 17 The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, And
engulfed the company of Abiram. 18 And a
fire blazed up in their company; The flame consumed the wicked. 19 They made a calf in Horeb And worshiped a
molten image. 20 Thus they exchanged
their glory For the image of an ox that eats grass. 21 They forgot God their Savior, Who had done
great things in Egypt, 22 Wonders in the
land of Ham And awesome things by the Red Sea. 23 Therefore He said that He would destroy them,
Had not Moses His chosen one stood in the breach before Him, To turn away His
wrath from destroying them.”
I want to
begin this section with a quote from George Morrison who wrote, “The Lord took
Israel out of Egypt in one night, but it took Him forty years to take Egypt out
of Israel.” We see in this section that
the seeds of unbelief that were deep in the hearts of the children of Israel
began to take root and bear bitter fruit in their lives. When I was studying the book of Exodus
earlier I remember that there was a group of people that came out of Egypt with
Israel that caused a lot of trouble, and most of them were not of the sons of
Israel. They were like a bad sheep that
leads the rest of the sheep into trouble.
We see in
this section of the psalm different things that the children of Israel did
wrong and thus caused a great deal of trouble for Moses and Aaron their
leaders. As soon as the Lord dried up
the Red Sea allowing Israel to walk through on dry ground they began to crave
water (Ex. 15:22-27), and then it was food (Ex. 16) and then they craved meat
(Num. 11:4-15, 31-35). At this craving
for meat the Lord said that He would give them enough meat so that it would
come out of their noses. How do you feed
a couple of million people meat in the desert?
The answer was quail as the Lord caused millions of quail to land on the
ground near the camp of Israel and Israel ate quail until it came out their
noses. We must remember to be careful
what we pray for, for sometime the answer is not what we really want. God then gave the people manna, which
actually means “what is it.” That is
what the people said when they first saw this bread that came with the dew on
the ground in the morning and Israel had to gather enough for their family each
morning with the exception of the Sabbath, where they were to gather enough for
two days the day before the Sabbath.
We also see
the incident of making the golden calf that happened when Moses was up on the
mountain getting the Law of the Lord, the Ten Commandments. It has been said that the children of Israel
were trying to put a face on God, who brought them out of Egypt, but this would
surely go against the commandments that God was giving to Moses on the mountain. This angered both the Lord and Moses and many
people died because of this incident.
Moses had to intercede for Aaron or God would have killed him too.
Another
incident here in this section is when there was rebellion in the camp about who
was the real leader that God had given to Israel. The answer of course was Moses along with
Aaron. Because of this rebellion the
earth would open up and kill Dathan and some of his followers. Dr. Wiersbe writes about the rebellion of
Korah which is found in Numbers 16-17, and states that this rebellion would
lead to a bigger one that happened at Kadesh Barnea, in which the children of
Israel refused to enter the Promised Land.
He writes “Korah was a Levite in the family of Kohath whose privilege it
was to carry the tabernacle furnishings.
But Kohath was not satisfied with that talk; he wanted to function at
the altar as a priest (Num. 14:8-10).
Pride and selfish ambition have always brought trouble to God’s people
(Phil. 2:1-11; James 4:1-10). These
rebels were opposing the will of God, for it was the Lord who chose Moses and
Aaron to lead the nation, and so the Lord destroyed Korah and his followers. Respect for God’s leaders is important to the
success of the Lord’s work (Heb. 13:7, 17).
“The first
failure involved the lust o the flesh and the second involved the pride of life
(1John 2:15-17). The third failure, the
worship of the golden calf, involved the lust of the eyes.”
I want to
focus in on verse twenty-three where we read, “, Had not Moses His chosen one
stood in the breach before Him.” This
pictures a soldier standing in the breach of the wall to keep the enemy from
coming in, and this is a wonderful picture of intercessory prayer. "I
searched for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand in the gap
before Me for the land, so that I would not destroy it; but I found no one.” (Ezekiel 22:30)
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I have to go back to one of the quotes that
Dr. Wiersbe gave, for it stepped on my toes, “.
Respect for God’s leaders is important to the success of the Lord’s work
(Heb. 13:7, 17). “Remember those who led
you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their
conduct, imitate their faith.” “Obey
your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those
who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for
this would be unprofitable for you.” I
may be taking this a bit out of context, but I also read in the book of Romans,
and I believe it is towards the end of that letter that Paul speaks of praying
for our governmental leaders, and at the time Paul wrote Romans they had some
very bad political leaders, but Paul admonishes believers to pray for
them. Under the current leadership of
our country it is difficult for me to pray for them, but I know that I should
for I read in the book of Daniel, “"It is He who changes the times and the
epochs; He removes kings and establishes kings; He gives wisdom to wise men And
knowledge to men of understanding.’” God
chooses the leaders of nations to bring about His plans. It was in our church service this past Sunday
that a guest speaker said that even in a democracy evil people will elect evil
leaders, but we still as believes should pray for them that they would
accomplish God’s plans.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: Trust the Lord for His plans
for our country, and trust that the leaders that He appoints will accomplish
what His plans are for this nation.
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 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. 4. For
by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by
them you may 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 7/19/2012 11:15:00 AM
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