SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/14/2012 9:07:55 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Dealing with the Enemy
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference
Psalm 119:112-120
Message of the verses: “113 ¶
Samekh. I hate those who are double-minded, But I love Your law. 114 You are my hiding place and my shield; I
wait for Your word. 115 Depart from me,
evildoers, That I may observe the commandments of my God. 116 Sustain me according to Your word, that I
may live; And do not let me be ashamed of my hope. 117 Uphold me that I may be safe, That I may have
regard for Your statutes continually. 118
You have rejected all those who wander from Your statutes, For their
deceitfulness is useless. 119 You have
removed all the wicked of the earth like dross; Therefore I love Your
testimonies. 120 My flesh trembles for
fear of You, And I am afraid of Your judgments.”
As I look
around at all the situations that are going on in the world today, and what is
going on in our country I know that believers have enemies and their enemies
are strong, but our God is the strongest and His Word encourages us today and
every day. Acts 14:22b reads as follows, “’Through many tribulations we must
enter the kingdom of God.’” When we are
like the ten faithless men who spied out the Promised Land and saw their enemy
as too big and too powerful and melted at the size of them we know that they
were not depending upon the Lord to defeat their enemies, but if we look at
Joshua and Caleb they trusted in the Lord to defeat the enemies for they
remembered what the Lord had done to the nation of Egypt, how He destroyed them
through ten miracles and then dried up the Red Sea and allowed Israel to cross
on dry land, while drowning the remaining Egyptians. Dr. Wiersbe points out “Four assurances in
these verses help us face the enemy with courage and win the battle.”
God Protects His People (vv. 113-115): “113 ¶
Samekh. I hate those who are double-minded, But I love Your law. 114 You are my hiding place and my shield; I
wait for Your word. 115 Depart from me,
evildoers, That I may observe the commandments of my God.”
We see the
term “doubled-minded” in James 1:8 and 4:8, “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. Draw near to
God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify
your hearts, you double-minded.” I want
to give the definition of the Greek word that is translated as double-minded
and compare it with the Hebrew word double-minded that is found in Psalm
119: “1374 διψυχος dipsuchos
dip’-soo-khos double minded 1a)
wavering, uncertain, doubting 1b) divided in interest” “05588 ףעס
ce‘eph say-afe’ 1) ambivalent, divided,
half-hearted.”
While studying the book of James by looking at some DVD’s
from a man named Chip Ingram he stated that the word found in James as being
double-minded could be seen when a person is going through some type of problem
and prays about what he should do and then gets an answer from the Lord, but
does not like that answer so he goes on to do what he wants to do. I am not so sure that this is what the
psalmist is speaking of when he speaks of a person who is double-minded, for I
believe that being half-hearted is a better way to look at this type of
person. There are people who say that they
follow the Lord, but don’t and this was the case of the ten spies who were
afraid of the enemies, but not the case of Joshua and Caleb. These people were a great danger to the
children of Israel for when they came back and gave their report the people
followed them and so all the people who were over the age of twenty died in the
wilderness because they followed the advice of these half-hearted men. Another example of this type of person is
found in the book of 1Kings, “Elijah came near to all the people and said,
"How long will you
hesitate between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if
Baal, follow him." But the people did not answer him a word.” (1Kings 18:21)
Dr. Wiersbe
writes “There is nothing strange about believers experiencing both love toward
God and His Word and hatred toward those who reject the Lord: “From Your precepts I get understanding;
Therefore I hate every false way.” (Psalm 119:104) Psalm 97:10 states Hate evil, you who love
the Lord.’ Dr. Wiersbe continues, “If we
love the Word, we will hate lies and oppose liars. The psalmist knew that his shelter and shield
was the Lord alone, and he trusted in Him.
He is not hiding in the Lord from fear of facing the enemy, because he
addresses the enemy in verse 115. Only
in the Lord could he find the help he needed.
The Lord protects us that He might equip us to face the enemy and fight
the battle. The psalmist had his heart set on the Lord (v.112), so there was no
need to reconsider the matter. It was
settled!”
There is a
movie that comes out today entitled “Last Ounce of Courage” and this movie
speaks to what the Psalmist is writing about in this section.
God Upholds the Obedient (vv. 116-117): “116 Sustain me according to Your word, that
I may live; And do not let me be ashamed of my hope. 117 Uphold me that I may be safe, That I may have
regard for Your statutes continually.”
Sustain and
uphold are very similar words, while sustain is a picture of the believer
leaning on the Lord for support and rest, uphold also means that but adds the
idea of giving aid and refreshment.
There are times when we feel like giving up and then the Lord will come
along side and lift us up in ways that we will never understand.
God Rejects the Wicked (vv. 118:119): “118 You have rejected all those who wander
from Your statutes, For their deceitfulness is useless. 119 You have removed all the wicked of the earth
like dross; Therefore I love Your testimonies.”
The
psalmist is speaking about every person who does not follow the Lord and His
Word will be rejected by the Lord. “’He
who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will
not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.’” Unbelievers will do the wrong thing and be
deceitful just to get their own way, but God has rejected them. The psalmist says that God will remove the
wicked of the earth like dross or “slag.”
I know what this looks like because I worked for 35 years in a very
large foundry, and in that foundry we melted an average of 3000 tons of cast
iron a day and along with the cast iron that we melted we melted many tons of
slag or what the psalmist calls dross.
The cast iron went into the molds to make engine blocks and other parts
while the dross or slag went into the water to be thrown away, and this
pictures what the Lord will do with the wicked.
The melting of cast iron is also a picture of what believers go through
as they are being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ (John 8:29), for the
heating process through trials will get rid of the dross (sin) and thus we will
be better in serving the Lord.
In the OT
the children of God would fight their enemies with swords, and slings but according
to Ephesians 6:17b, we are to take “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word
of God.” In Mark one, and Matthew four,
and Luke four we see the Lord use the Sword of the Spirit in his confrontation
with Satan, for Satan is afraid of the Word of God.
God Alone Should be Feared (vv. 120): “120
My flesh trembles for fear of You, And I am afraid of Your judgments.”
Let us
begin by looking again at verse 63 “I am a companion of all those who fear You,
And of those who keep Your precepts.” “The
fear of the Lord is the fear that conquers every fear” writes Warren
Wiersbe. “so that we confidently say, ‘THE
LORD IS MY HELPER, I WILL NOT BE AFRAID. WHAT WILL MAN DO TO ME?’” (Hebrews
13:6 quoted from Psalm 118:6) As
believers we can come to the Lord like a son comes to his loving father, and
not like a criminal comes to a judge to be sentenced for a crime. We see in Psalm 15:4 these words, “In whose
eyes a reprobate is despised, But who honors those who fear the LORD; He swears to his own
hurt and does not change.” In Psalm
115:13 we find that God blesses those who fear Him, “He will bless those who
fear the LORD, The small together with the great.” Both Proverbs 3:7 and Psalm 119:15 we see that
if we fear the Lord we will depart from evil.
Dr. Wiersbe writes that “this verse takes us back to verse 113: if we
are single-minded, we will fear only the Lord and trust Him. ‘The battle is not
yours, but God’s (2Chronicles 20:15).” “and
he said, "Listen, all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and King
Jehoshaphat: thus says the LORD to you, ’Do not fear or be dismayed because of
this great multitude, for the battle is not yours but God’s.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: It was in the election time of 2008 that I
was very upset about all that was going on and then I read these words, “’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.” What this verse says that it is God who
chooses those who rule countries, and not only countries, but other forms of
government and so I am not to allow the fear of what my government can do to
me, but I am to trust the Lord to accomplish His plans, knowing that I worship
a God who is all knowing, all wise, all powerful, Love, compassionate, and
above all who is JUST. I am to fear the
Lord and not anything else.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: Fear the Lord.
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
9/14/2012 10:50:52 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment