SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/12/2012 7:38:56 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Beyond Bible Study
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Psalm 119:97-104
Message of the verses: “97 ¶
Mem. O how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day.
98 Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, For they
are ever mine. 99 I have more insight than all my teachers, For Your
testimonies are my meditation. 100 I understand more than the aged, Because I
have observed Your precepts. 101 I have restrained my feet from every evil way,
That I may keep Your word. 102 I have not turned aside from Your ordinances,
For You Yourself have taught me. 103 How sweet are Your words to my taste! Yes,
sweeter than honey to my mouth! 104 From Your precepts I get understanding;
Therefore I hate every false way.”
When one
first reads through this section they can sense the great importance that is
found there, and yet it is like what the entire psalm is about, the Word of
God. This section shows the importance
of not just having a head knowledge of the Word of God, but also a heart
knowledge of the Word of God. In today’s
technical world we have many great tools that aid in the study of God’s Word,
and this make Bible Study easier, but we have to be careful not to just
understand the Bible in our heads and mind, but we must understand it in our
hearts so that we can be able to apply it to difficult situations in our daily
life. Dr. Wiersbe writes “Our
relationship to the Lord is determined by our relationship to His will, and
that is determined by how we relate to His Word. Too many believers have only academic head
knowledge of the Word, but they do not know how to put this knowledge into
practice in the decisions of daily life.
What we all need is a heart knowledge of the Word, and this means being
taught by God (v. 102). Here are the
conditions we must meet.”
We must love His Word and meditate on it
(vv. 97-100): “97 ¶ Mem. O how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day.
98 Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, For they are ever mine. 99 I
have more insight than all my teachers, For Your testimonies are my meditation. 100 I
understand more than the aged, Because I have observed Your precepts.”
In this
section we see the word meditation two times and we also see the results of
meditation upon the Word of God.
Meditation may seem a bit obscure or difficult to understand and
practice in today’s world. I have heard
that when a person worries that he is actually meditating upon his worries, and
probably should be meditating upon the Word of God. I suppose that a crude picture of meditating
upon the Word of God, and the results of meditating upon the Word of God could
be seen in taking vitamins. We take vitamins in order to build up our bodies so
that if we come into contact with something that is harmful to our bodies we
are better able to fight it off. When we
meditate upon the truths of God’s Word we are building our spiritual life up so
that when troubles come, and they will, we are better off in caring for
them. Joshua is a good example of this
as we read in Joshua 1:1-9 these words, “1 ¶
Now it came about after the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, that
the LORD spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ servant, saying, 2 "Moses My servant is dead; now therefore
arise, cross this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am
giving to them, to the sons of Israel. 3
"Every place on which the sole of your foot treads, I have given it
to you, just as I spoke to Moses. 4
"From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even as far as the great
river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and as far as the
Great Sea toward the setting of the sun will be your territory. 5 "No man will be able to stand before you
all the days of your life. Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you;
I will not fail you or forsake you. 6
"Be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people
possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. 7 "Only be strong and very courageous; be
careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do
not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success
wherever you go. 8 "This book of the law shall not depart
from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be
careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make
your way prosperous, and then you will have success. 9 "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and
courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you
wherever you go." These are the
Word’s of God that He spoke to Joshua right after the death of Moses and right
before Israel crossed the Jordan. Joshua
learned from Moses, who was his teacher, and he also learned from his enemies
in the battles that he had already fought, Joshua also learned from his
teachers, and all three of these are mentioned in this section of Psalm
119. Learning from one’s enemies is
found in verse ninety-eight, and learning from teachers in verse ninety-nine,
and we find learning from older saints who have had the experiences of live is
found in verse 100.
Dr. Wiersbe
explains meditation and what it means when he writes, “Rather, it means that
our minds and hearts are so yielded to the Spirit that He can remind us of the
Word when we need it and give us fresh understanding in the new challenges we
face.” He said that meditation “does not
mean that we abandon our daily responsibilities or that we constantly quote
Bible verses to ourselves and ignore our work.”
We must obey His Word (vv. 101-102): “101 I have restrained my feet from every
evil way, That I may keep
Your word. 102 I have not turned aside from Your ordinances, For You
Yourself have taught me.”
As
believers we are not to pick and choose what we learn from the Scriptures, but
study all of the Word of God and obey the things that we know is true from His
Word. We are not to brag about what we
learn, but one must have an obedient heart and love to do the will of God. In my memory verses for this week from 1Cor.
13 we read, “Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not
brag and is not arrogant.” F. W.
Robertson writes, “Obedience is the organ of spiritual knowledge” (See John
7:17) “"If anyone is willing to do
His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak
from Myself.’”
We must enjoy His Word (vv. 103-104): “103 How sweet are Your words to my taste!
Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth! 104 From Your precepts I get
understanding; Therefore I hate every false way.”
We know
from the study of God’s Word that there are sweet things in it and there are
things that are bitter,” Re 10:9 So I
went to the angel, telling him to give me the little book. And he *said to me,
"Take it and eat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth
it will be sweet as honey." Re
10:10 I took the little book out of the
angel’s hand and ate it, and in my mouth it was sweet as honey; and when I had
eaten it, my stomach was made bitter.”
Jeremiah says, “Jer 15:16 Your
words were found and I ate them, And Your words became for me a joy and the
delight of my heart; For I have been called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts.”
Dr. Wiersbe
concludes with these words, “God’s Word is pure, not defiled, and gives energy
we need to obey His commands. The
unsaved person finds the Bible boring, but the devoted child of God feeds on
the Scriptures and enjoys the sweet taste of truth. This is what it means to go beyond Bible
Study.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Learning to be a person who meditates upon
the Word of God is something that I desire to do.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: To go beyond Bible Study.
Memory verses for the week:
1Cor. 13:1-4
1 ¶ If I speak with
the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy
gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have
the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have
all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
3 And if I give all my possessions to
feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love,
it profits me nothing.
4 ¶ Love is patient, love is kind and is not
jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant,
9/12/2012 8:39:32 AM
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