SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/3/2012 8:39:31 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Psalm 119-PT-5
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Psalm 119:25-32
Message of the verses: We continue in our long look at the 119th
Psalm in Today’s Spiritual Diary by looking at the fourth section in the psalm.
Daleth—Down but Not Out (vv. 25-32): “25 Daleth. My soul cleaves to the dust; Revive me according to Your
word.
26 I have told of my ways, and You have answered me; Teach
me Your statutes. 27 Make me understand
the way of Your precepts, So I will meditate on Your wonders.
28 My soul weeps
because of grief; Strengthen me according to Your word. 29 Remove the false way from me, And
graciously grant me Your law.
30 I have chosen the faithful way; I have placed Your
ordinances before me. 31 I cling to Your
testimonies; O LORD, do not put me to shame!
32 I shall run the way of Your commandments, For You will enlarge my
heart.”
We saw in
yesterday’s SD that at the end of the section we were looking at (vv. 17-24)
that the psalmist was delighting in the Word of God, and now at the beginning of
this section he is down. In our walk
with the Lord we have spiritual highs and lows.
When Jesus took Peter, James, and John on the mountain they saw the Lord
transfigured and He was speaking to Moses and Elijah about His upcoming death
on the cross. It was a spiritual high
for His disciples seeing all of this, but the next day they were back down from
the mountain and were encountered with a boy who was possessed with a demon
that their fellow disciples could not cast out of him. We have situations just like this in our walk
with the Lord so we can listen to the counsel of Andrew Bonar who said “We must
be as watchful after the victory as before the battle.” I wish that I would have had this advice many
years ago when my son went through a very dangerous heart surgery which left me
on top of the world because of the success of it, but that summer was one of
the worst times spiritually that I ever experienced.
Dr. Wiersbe
writes “When he found himself down, the psalmist knew what to do—he prayed!”
“Revive
me” (vv. 25): “My soul cleaves
to the dust; Revive me
according to Your word.”
Dr. Wiersbe
writes “His enemies were slandering his name (v. 23), restricting him (v. 61),
lying about him (v. 69), causing him to suffer (v. 83) and be despised (v.
141), and even threatening his life (v. 109), so it is no wonder that he felt
like an insect in the dust.”
In 2Cor.
1:3-11; 12:1-10 the apostle Paul encourages his readers showing them that when
we seem to be at our worst, the Lord comes along with the very best and in
doing this He gives us His much needed grace.
I want to
give the definition of the word “revive” that the NASB uses in verse 25, while
the NIV uses the words “preserve my life.”
“to live, have life, remain alive, sustain life, live prosperously, live
for ever, be quickened, be alive, be restored to life or health.” The Hebrew word is “chayah khaw-yaw’” and it
is used 262 times in the OT (KJV) and here is how the KJV translates it: “AV-live 153, alive 34, save 13, quicken 14,
revive 12, surely 10, life 9, recover 8, misc 9; 262”
Dr Wiersbe
point out that “there is much more involved in this request. It involves saving his life, of course, but
also invigorating him and breathing new life within him.” We will see that the psalmist prayed this
prayer often and we will find out that the Lord answered him each time. (Verses 25, 37, 40, 40, 88, 93, 107, 149,
154, 156, and 159.)
“Teach
Me” (vv. 26-27): “26 I have told
of my ways, and You have answered me; Teach me Your statutes. 27 Make me understand the way of Your
precepts, So I will meditate on Your wonders.”
While
walking on my treadmill yesterday I was listening to a sermon by John MacArthur
in which he was speaking about prayer, and that prayer is the highest form of
worship. He was talking about different
prayers that are found in Scripture and states that many times we think of God
as the One who moves at our beckon call, while in reality God desires us to be
conformed to what He wants us to be and when this happens we will begin to pray
the things that God desires in our hearts and He will answer those
prayers. The psalmist knew this for he
was not thinking “How can I get out of this trouble,” but was thinking “What
can I get out of this experience,” as he did not want to waste his sufferings
(James 1:2-8): “2 ¶ Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you
encounter various trials, 3 knowing that
the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4
And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect
and complete, lacking in nothing. 5 But
if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and
without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But he must ask in faith without any
doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed
by the wind. 7 For that man ought not to
expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, 8 being a double-minded man, unstable in all
his ways.”
We are all
in the school of life, as was the psalmist, and wanted to learn from the school
of life and pass all of the tests that are given in that school. We see from the verses in James that we are
to ask wisdom from the Lord and He will give it to us.
“Strengthen
Me” (Vv. 28-30: “28 My soul weeps because of grief; Strengthen me according
to Your word. 29 Remove the false way
from me, And graciously grant me Your law. 30 I have chosen the faithful way; I
have placed Your ordinances before me.
Our Pastor
was speaking on “Copy-Cat” Christianity in the service last evening and he was
speaking about some of the mega-churches, the feel good churches who do not
preach the whole counsel of God. He ask
a question that seems to go along with this section, He asked if difficult
persecution came to our country would these feel good mega churches be able to
stand. We see in this section and throughout
the psalm that the psalmist was being persecuted for his beliefs and yet he did
not wish to destroy those who were persecuting him but he wept over them and
turned them over to God. The psalmist
wanted strength, strength according to the Word of God to continue to live for
the Lord and to magnify His Word. The
psalmist mentions grace in verse 29, and he learned that was all that he
needed, something that Paul speaks about:
“And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in
weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my
weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.” Dr. Wiersbe writes “When we find ourselves pressured
by the enemy, our first response is usually to pray that God will change them,
when perhaps our best response would be that God would change us and enable us
to overcome.”
“Defend
me” (vv 31-32): “31 I cling to
Your testimonies; O LORD, do not put me to shame! 32 I shall run the way of Your commandments,
For You will enlarge my heart.”
The
psalmist is saying that he did not want to bring shame upon the Lord, and this
would happen if he was put to shame because of his relationship with the Lord
so he turned the situation over to the Lord by faith.
Paul instructs
us not to think up clever ways or clever schemes to slander our enemies, for if
we do that the Lord will not be able to defend us: “17
Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the
sight of all men. 18 If possible, so far
as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. 19 Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of
God, for it is written, "VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY,"
says the Lord. 20 "BUT IF YOUR
ENEMY IS HUNGRY, FEED HIM, AND IF HE IS THIRSTY, GIVE HIM A DRINK; FOR IN SO
DOING YOU WILL HEAP BURNING COALS ON HIS HEAD." 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil
with good.”
As
believers we are to hold to the truth of the Word of God and we are to trust
His promises even though at times we want to go out on our own and take matters
into our own hands, but will latter realize that this is not the way to
go. Dr. Wiersbe concludes by
saying: “Faith delivers us from the
confinement of the enemy’s plots and sets us free to enjoy a larger place. He has gone from biting the dust (V.25) to
running freely in the way of the Lord.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: As I see many things happening in our country
that I do not agree with, and yet I suppose if I were the Lord I would have
judged our country more harshly and earlier that He is doing now, for I do
believe that the Lord is judging us.
Billy Graham said to an audience many years ago that if God did not
judge the United States that He would have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorra. I have to trust the Lord to do what He knows
is best, and not to get so angry over the people who are destroying our
country. I will have to admit that this
is hard for me to do, but these lessons in Psalm 119 are helping me.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: Trust the Lord and lean upon
His Word.
Memory verses for the week:
1Corinthians 13:1-2
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.
9/3/2012 10:18:58 AM
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