SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/9/2012 7:18:19 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Read the Instructions
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Psalm 119:73-80
Message of the verses: “73 Yodh. Your hands made me and
fashioned me; Give me understanding, that I may learn Your commandments. 74 May
those who fear You see me and be glad, Because I wait for Your word. 75 I know, O LORD, that Your judgments are
righteous, And that in faithfulness You have afflicted me. 76 O may Your lovingkindness comfort me,
According to Your word to Your servant. 77
May Your compassion come to me that I may live, For Your law is my delight. 78 May the arrogant be ashamed, for they
subvert me with a lie; But I shall meditate on Your precepts. 79 May those who fear You turn to me, Even
those who know Your testimonies.
80 May
my heart be blameless in Your statutes, So that I will not be ashamed.”
As we have
looked so far at Psalm 119 we can conclude that the author of this long psalm
wants to convince us that we are to make knowing and obeying the Word of God
the very most important activity we can do, for nothing use compares to knowing
and obeying the Word of God. We saw in
the last section what we can do when troubles or difficulties come, but that is
now where it stops for we need God’s Word for all of life. In this section the psalmist mentions several
ministries of the Word that are a must in the life of the person who is a
faithful child of God.
We learn about ourselves (v. 73): “73 Yodh. Your hands made me and fashioned
me; Give me understanding, that I may learn Your commandments.”
In a day
when some women think that have a child is their choice and that the little
person growing in their womb is not a person until it has been born we read in
this verse that God is the one who makes us and He is the One who fashions us.
The Bible
is our instruction manual, for the Bible is the only book that tells us the
truth about where we came from, and why we are here, what we are to do to succeed
in our life, and we also learn from it where we are going. Two places are spoken of in the Word of God
as to where people are headed when they leave this earth, and two people are
described in the Word of God: “’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.’” (John 3:36)
Let us look a bit closer to some verses that go along with the first
paragraph that I have written in this section:
“13 For You formed my inward
parts; You wove me in my
mother’s womb. 14 I will give
thanks to You, for I am
fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul
knows it very well. 15 My frame was not
hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the
depths of the earth; 16 Your eyes have seen my unformed
substance; And in
Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as
yet there was not one of them. 17 How
precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
18 If I should count them, they would
outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with You.”
When we
look around at the people in the world and see what they think about where they
came from and what they are doing here we must have compassion for them, for
they do not understand the only truth that is available on this earth and that
is the Word of God, for it shows what the world and its people are really like
for the real world and the real people are presented in the pages of the
Bible. James speaks of how the Bible is
a mirror in which we can see ourselves: “22 But prove yourselves doers of the word, and
not merely hearers who delude themselves. 23
For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man
who looks at his natural face in a mirror; 24 for once
he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind
of person he was. 25 But one who looks intently at
the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a
forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he
does. 26 If anyone thinks himself
to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart,
this man’s religion is worthless. 27
Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this:
to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by
the world.”
We become a blessing to others (vv. 74
& 79): “74 May those who fear
You see me and be glad, Because I wait for Your word.”
“79 May those who fear You turn
to me, Even those who know Your testimonies.”
As
believers we are to help others, to have compassion on them, to be patient with
them and if they are not believers we are to tell them of the hope that we
have: “1Pe 3:15 but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a
defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in
you, yet with gentleness and reverence.”
We receive God’s best in our afflictions
(vv. 75-78 & 80): “75 I know, O
LORD, that Your judgments are righteous, And that in faithfulness You have afflicted me. 76 O may Your lovingkindness comfort me,
According to Your word to Your servant. 77
May Your compassion come to me that I may live, For Your law is my delight. 78 May the arrogant be ashamed, for they
subvert me with a lie; But I shall meditate on Your precepts.”
“80 May my heart be blameless in Your statutes, So
that I will not be ashamed.”
We only
have to look at the book of Job to see that life is difficult and that we must
accept the hand of God both in the pleasant times and the not so pleasant times. (Look at Job 2:1-10 and also Phil.
4:10-13). “10 ¶ But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now
at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed, you were concerned
before, but you lacked opportunity. 11 Not that I speak from want,
for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. 12 I know how to get along with humble means,
and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have
learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance
and suffering need. 13 I can do all
things through Him who strengthens me.”
Philippians 4:11b have been seen on my SD’s many times as we learn to be
content in all circumstances like Paul learned and he learned it from difficult
circumstances like Job learned it too.
The Word of God is what sustained both of these two saints and it also
sustained the psalmist too, and we must remember it can sustain us too. Psalm 119:105 shows us that the Word of God
is light to us to help us not to stumble down the wrong path. Dr. Wiersbe points out “that we have the love
of God to comfort us and the promises of God to encourage us. We may not delight in our circumstances, but
we pray that God will use them to spread the Gospel and glorify His name (Phil.
1:12-16). The enemy attacks us, but we
turn to the Word and find the help that we need. Our determination in Christ is that we not be
ashamed. God’s decrees are perfect and
they come from His loving heart (33:11), so we have nothing to fear.
When all
else fails, read the instructions.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: It is good advice that Dr. Wiersbe gives here
in stating that we need to read the instruction manual.
I have mentioned that I am
reading a book that is about what D. L. Moody says about spiritual leadership
and in that book I found that one of the chapters speaks of reading the Word of
God and tells how much Moody studied. He
says that we need to continue to study the Word of God so that we can have more
things to tell others from what we have learned. We as humans tend to forget things so this is
another reason to continue to read and study in order to replenish what we have
forgotten.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: Continue to read and study
the instruction manual.
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.
9/9/2012 8:13:46 AM
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