SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/18/2012 8:46:08 AM
My Worship Time Focus: In God We Trust
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Psalm 119:137-144
Message of the verses: “137 Tsadhe. Righteous are You, O LORD, And
upright are Your judgments. 138 You have commanded Your testimonies in
righteousness And exceeding faithfulness. 139 My zeal has consumed me, Because
my adversaries have forgotten Your words. 140 Your word is very pure, Therefore
Your servant loves it. 141 I am small and despised, Yet I do not forget Your
precepts. 142 Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, And Your law
is truth. 143 Trouble and anguish have come upon me, Yet Your commandments are
my delight. 144 Your testimonies are righteous forever; Give me understanding
that I may live.”
Romans
10:17 is a verse that is used many times to tell others about the way to be
saved as it is in what some call the “Romans Road to Salvation,” but as we look
more closely at Romans 10:17 we can see that if believers will follow the words
of this verse our faith will be increased, “So then faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God.” Our
faith in increased by reading, hearing, and living out the Word of God. The Bible speaks of those with nor faith,
little faith, or great faith, and faith the size of a mustard seed. Just as there is life in a mustard seed even
though it is very small, so there is life in God’s Word. Dr. Wiersbe ends his introductory commentary
on this section with these words, “The message of this section of the psalm is
that you can depend on the Word of God so—have faith.”
God’s Word is Trustworthy no Matter What
People do (vv. 137-139): “Righteous
are You, O LORD, And upright are Your judgments. 138 You have commanded Your
testimonies in righteousness And exceeding faithfulness. 139 My zeal has
consumed me, Because my adversaries have forgotten Your words.”
We can see discouragement in the
psalmist as although he has a zeal for the Word of God, not all people have
this zeal. He has told others to trust
in the Word, but many have not and this is the same today as it was in the psalmist
day. Jesus Christ, the living Word of
God also had a zeal for not only the Word but the temple as we see in Psalm
69:9 and in John 2:17, for because of His zeal He cleansed the temple.
A couple of
years ago I was in the hospital because I had trouble with kidney stones and a
doctor who had cared for this problem before ended up taking care of it again,
and this was through some circumstances that I felt were arranged by the Lord
and so I took the time to write a letter to him and in that letter I explained
to him why I thought that our paths had crossed again, and also told him the
story of how I came to know the Lord.
Yesterday I went to see him again, and things did not work out the way
that I hoped they would for he did not seem to remember much about the letter
that I gave to him and I have been praying for him, and still do for a very
long time. This was a great
discouragement to me and so I can relate to the psalmist from this section, but
I must remember like the psalmist that God will use His Word. I can also remember that those today who are
making fun of the Word of God will someday die, their books will forgotten but
the Word of God will still be here.
God’s Word is Trustworthy no Matter What
People Say (vv. 14—141): “140 Your
word is very pure, Therefore Your servant loves it. 141 I am small and
despised, Yet I do not forget Your precepts.”
The
psalmist thinks that he is small and despised, but the words that he has
written are a part of the Word of God and all those who have despised him are
long gone, but he lives on in heaven with the rest of the saints. When Jesus was talking to some of the Sadducees
who did not believe in the resurrection of the dead He told them about the
passage when God was speaking to Moses at the burning bush and God identified Himself
as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, therefore Jesus told the Sadducees
that God was the God of the living not the dead and so from that section we can
be assured that all of the saints who have died before us are now alive in
heaven waiting for their glorious bodies, but those who despised the psalmist
and God’s Word are in the fires of hell.
The Word of
God has been tested by those who are believers and will never fail us, even
though at times we are like the psalmist and become discouraged, but we can
trust in the Word of God as he did.
God is Trustworthy Regardless of how you
feel (vv. 142-143): “142 Your
righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, And Your law is truth. 143 Trouble
and anguish have come upon me, Yet Your commandments are my delight.”
Verse 142 says that God’s Word
is truth as Jesus also says this in John 17:17, “’Sanctify them in the truth;
Your word is truth.’” Jesus states in
John 14:6 that He is the Truth, “Jesus *said to him, "I am the way, and
the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” 1John 5:6 states that the Spirit is
Truth: “This is the One who came by
water and blood, Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and
with the blood. It is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the
truth.” Dr. Wiersbe states “The Spirit
of truth wrote the Word of truth and that Word reveals the Son of God. When your feelings deceive you into
concluding that it is not worth it to serve the Lord, immediately turn to the
Scriptures and delight in your Lord.”
God’s Word is Trustworthy no Matter how
Long you live (v. 144): “144 Your
testimonies are righteous forever; Give me understanding that I may live.”
The
psalmist says that the Word of God will live on forever, and this is not the
first time he has stated that, “Forever, O LORD, Your word is settled in heaven
(v.89).” “The sum of Your word is truth,
And every one of Your righteous ordinances is everlasting (160).”
As
believers we are to build our life on the Word of God as Jesus explains at the
end of His Sermon on the Mount, “24
"Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them,
may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 "And the rain fell, and the floods came,
and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for
it had been founded on the rock. 26
"Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them,
will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 "The rain fell, and the floods came, and
the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell-and great was its fall."
28 When Jesus had finished these words,
the crowds were amazed at His teaching; 29
for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their
scribes (Matthew 7:24-29).” John writes
these words in 1Jhon 2:17: “The world is
passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives
forever.”
We know
that the Bible teaches us that our life is just a breath or we are like the
flowers in the fields which are here today, but gone tomorrow, and so we must
conclude that it is not so much the quantity of our life that is important but
the quality of our life. Jesus lived 33
years on this earth, and only three of those years were in ministry, “yet He
accomplished a word that is eternal.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: The psalmist teaches us throughout this
wonderful psalm the importance of God’s Word and how we are to study it,
memorize it, meditate upon it, and to understand the importance of it even in
times when we are troubled by either outside or inside circumstances. I need to pay more attention to God’s Word.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: Two things that I have
thought about for a long time that come from the Word of God and that is to be
content, and also to abide in the Vine.
Memory verses for the Week:
1Cor. 13:1-7
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 to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all my possessions to feed the
poor, and 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
5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does
not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness,
but rejoices with the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all
things, endures all things.
9/18/2012
10:15:10 AM
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