SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/1/2012 12:01:17 PM
My Worship Time Focus: Psalm 119-PT-3
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Psalm 119:9-16
Message of the verses: In Today’s SD we will look at the next
section in the 119th Psalm, the second of twenty-two sections.
Beth—Take Time to Be Holy (vv. 9-17): “9 Beth. How can a young man keep his way pure?
By keeping it according to Your word.
10 With all my heart
I have sought You; Do not let me wander from Your commandments.
11 Your word I have
treasured in my heart, That I may not sin against You.
12 Blessed are You, O
LORD; Teach me Your statutes.
13 With my lips I
have told of All the ordinances of Your mouth. 14 I have rejoiced in the way of Your
testimonies, As much as in all riches. 15
I will meditate on
Your precepts And regard Your ways.16
I shall delight in
Your statutes; I shall not forget Your word.
The
psalmist really packs a lot of spiritual truth in this small section of Psalm
119, as I am sure he does in each section.
He begins this section by asking a question, and directs the question to
the young men, but it is applicable to everyone who reads it. He ended the last section with the answer to
the question in this section: “8 I shall keep Your statutes; Do not forsake me
utterly!” We can see that verse 145 is
similar to verse 8: “I cried with all my
heart; answer me, O LORD! I will observe Your statutes.” The psalmist is determined to keep the
statutes of the Lord, and this will keep his way pure.
In verse
fifteen we see that the psalmist is determined to meditate upon the Word of God
and in verse sixteen he determines to delight in the Word of God and not to
forget it. You have to memorize the Word
of God before you meditate upon it and you cannot forget it if you desire to
meditate upon it. The apostle Paul knew
that this was a difficult thing to accomplish, for it is easier to make a
promise than to keep that promise. We
see in Romans 7:14-25 these very famous words written by the apostle Paul about
himself: “14 ¶ For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I
am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. 15 For what I am
doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do,
but I am doing the very thing I hate. 16
But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law,
confessing that the Law is good. 17 So
now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for
the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. 19 For the good that I want, I do not do, but I
practice the very evil that I do not want. 20
But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one
doing it, but sin which dwells in me. 21
I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants
to do good. 22 For I joyfully concur
with the law of God in the inner man, 23
but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against
the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my
members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from
the body of this death? 25 Thanks
be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with
my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of
sin.” Dr. Wiersbe writes “Paul learned,
as we must also learn, that the indwelling Holy Spirit enables the child of God
to fulfill God’s righteousness in daily life (Romans 8:1-11). We must live according to God’s Word which
means, cultivation a heart for God. Pul called this ‘seeking the things that
are above’ (Co. 3:1).” Before we leave
this though I want to share Romans 8:1-11 because it is a very important
section of Scripture: “1 ¶ Therefore there is now no condemnation for
those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the
law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin
and of death. 3 For what the Law could
not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the
flesh, 4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in
us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
5 For those who are according to the
flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according
to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6
For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit
is life and peace, 7 because the mind
set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the
law of God, for it is not even able to do so, 8
and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the
Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the
Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.10 If Christ is in you,
though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of
righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of
Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give
life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”
We can see
from verse ten that we need a heart that seeks God, for by seeking God our feet
will not stray from Him. Dr. Wiersbe
states “Such a heart will see Him in all of life, learn more about Him,
fellowship with Him, and glorify Him in all that is said and done.” It is the Holy Spirit who enables us to do
these things for as Paul has written in the verses above that we are not in the
flesh, but in the Spirit and so by being in the Spirit, the Spirit will enable
us to accomplish these things.
Verse
eleven teaches us that we must spend time in His Word, and by doing this we
will not sin against the Lord. This is
not our promise to the Lord, but the Lord’s promise to us as His children that
He will give us victory over sin. In
both Luke, and Matthew chapters 4 and Mark chapter one we see the Lord Jesus
using the Word of God to fight against the arrows that Satan was shooting against
Him.
According
to verse 12, “Blessed are You, O LORD; Teach me Your statutes,” we need a
thankful heart and a teachable spirit, and this will enable us to learn from
the Lord. One thought here and that is
that we have to be careful as to whom we are learning form. Ephesians teaches us that the Pastors who
have been called by the Lord are to teach us in order for us to do the work of
the Lord. This is how it works in a NT
church, for God will call a Pastor, equip Him through the Word and the Spirit
so that he can teach the flock what the Spirit has taught him. A word of caution and that is we should know
the Word of God to make sure that what is being taught to us is true, for we
are to be like the Bereans who search the Scripture to make sure what Paul was
teaching them was true. Dr. Wiersbe also
adds the caution: “But unless the truth
we hear moves from the head (and the notebook) into the heart, written there by
the Spirit (2Cor. 3:1-3), and then to the will, we have not really learned the
Word or been blessed by it. The blessing
comes, not in hearing the Word, but in doing it (James 1:22-25).”
According
to verse thirteen we are to tell others in order to enrich them with the
spiritual treasures we have learned. A
few months back a dear and precious friend of mine died, and I remember him for
his love of the Lord and his desire to tell others about the Lord. Willard died in a hospital in Brazil, and
even on his death bed he was witnessing to his nurse. Willard would send me the most encouraging
emails by telling me to keep those nuggets coming to him as I would send some
of my Spiritual Diaries to him. I can
say that I truly miss this wonderful man of God.
Dr. Wiersbe
writes “To treasure any possession above the Word of God is idolatry and leads
to trouble.” We see examples of those in
the OT who did not do this and it caused them trouble, men like Lot, Achan,
King Saul, and then in the NT Ananias and Sapphira found in Acts 5. However there were men from both the OT and
NT who were on the positive side of this, Abraham, Moses, Mary of Bethany (Mark
14:3-9), and Paul (Phil. 3:1-11),
Dr. Wiersbe
concludes his commentary on this section with these words, “Whatever delights
will capture our attention and we will think about it and meditate on it. This is true of God’s Word. In this psalm, delighting in the Word, loving
the Word, and meditation on the Word are found together (vv. 15-16, 23-24, 47-48,
77-78, 97-99), and they should be found together in our hearts and lives. We must take time to be holy.”
Take Time
to be Holy is the name of a song that is packed full of wonderful truths from
the Word of God. I think that the song
should be entitled “It Takes Time to be Holy.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I must remember that it truly does take time
to be holy, and also remember the word that were written in yesterday’s SD “the
successful Christian life is a series of new beginnings,” for there are times
when I fall and have to begin again.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: To get the Word of God from
my mind into my heart in order for it to become real in my life as I seek to
live my life to the glory of God.
9/1/2012 1:13:37 PM
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