SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/6/2012
9:25:39 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Psalm 134
PT-1
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm 134:1-3
Message of
the verses: We will begin today’s SD by looking at
several introductions to Psalm 134 by different Bible Commentators.
“An exhortation to bless the Lord: We must stir up ourselves to give glory to
God, and encourage ourselves to hope for mercy and grace from him. It is an
excellent plan to fill up all our spare minutes with pious meditations, and
prayers and praises. No time would then be a burden, nor should we murder our
hours by trifling conversation and vain amusements, or by carnal indulgences.
We need desire no more to make us happy, than to be blessed of the Lord. We
ought to beg spiritual blessings, not only for ourselves, but for others; not
only, The Lord bless me, but, The Lord bless thee; thus testifying our belief
that there is enough for others as well as for us, and showing our good will to
others.” (Matthew Henry’s Concise
Commentary)
“We have now reached the last of the Gradual Psalms. The
Pilgrims are going home, and are singing the last song in their psalter. They
leave early in the morning, before the day has fully commenced, for the journey
is long for many of them. While yet the
night lingers they are on the move. As soon as they are outside the gates they
see the guards upon the temple wall, and the lamps shining from the windows of
the chambers which surround the sanctuary; therefore, moved by the sight, they
chant a farewell to the perpetual attendants upon the holy shrine. Their
parting exhortation arouses the priests to pronounce upon them a blessing out
of the holy place: this benediction is contained in the third verse. The
priests as good as say, ‘You have desired us to bless the Lord, and now we pray
the Lord to bless you.’”
“The
Psalm teaches us to pray for those who are continually ministering before the
Lord, and it invites all ministers to pronounce benedictions upon their loving
and prayerful people.”
“The
last of the ‘Songs of Ascents’ series is quite brief, but it deals with a vast
subject: worshiping the Lord and sharing
His blessings with others. It is a short
psalm –-117 is the shortest—but it deals with a subject that could fill
volumes. The psalm closes the collection
with a benediction and leads into a series of psalm that emphasize praising the
Lord. The inferences we draw from this
psalm ought to encourage us in our own pilgrim journey and make us a blessing
to others.” (Dr. Warren Wiersbe).
A God Who Never Sleeps (v.1): “1 ¶ «A Song of Ascents.» Behold, bless the LORD,
all servants of the LORD, Who serve by night in the house of the LORD!”
This is the last of the “Ascent Psalms,” and it could be
seen as the weary travelers are finally entering the city of Jerusalem from
their long journey or it could be seen as they are about to leave and return to
their homes and have a desire to look around the city one last time, and as
they do they see that there are even choirs singing in the night at the temple,
and that the watchman are guarding the gates of the city. The story of Elijah gives us some insight
into the fact that our Lord never sleeps or rests, for while Elijah was
confronting the prophets of Baal he teases them by stating that perhaps Baal
was tired and needed a nap. Psalm
121:3-4 states, “3 He will not allow
your foot to slip; He who keeps you will not slumber. 4 Behold, He who keeps Israel Will neither
slumber nor sleep.” This is so good to
know for there are times when we awake in the middle of the night and then have
trouble going back to sleep and it is during this time that we can talk to our
Lord. It seems that in my life I have
had the best conversations with the Lord in the wee hours of the morning. I have gotten to the point to where if I
awake and cannot go back to sleep that I will ask the Lord what it is that He
wants me to hear from Him, and take the time to listen to that still small
voice.
A Worship That Never Ends (v.2): “2 Lift up your hands to the sanctuary And bless
the LORD.”
When we look back at the life of David we see that he had
set up choirs in the temple to continually worship the Lord. “Now these are the
singers, heads of fathers’ households of the Levites, who lived in the chambers
of the temple free from other service; for they were engaged in their work day
and night.” (1Chron. 9:33) “They are to
stand every morning to thank and to praise the LORD, and likewise at evening.” (1Chron.23:30) “It is good to give thanks to the LORD And to
sing praises to Your name, O Most High; 2
To declare Your lovingkindness in the morning And Your faithfulness by
night.” (Psalm 92:1-2) Some examples of this happening to people can
be seen in the Scriptures. “But about
midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and
the prisoners were listening to them.”
(Acts 16:25) This verse speaks of
true worship in my way of describing it.
Let me try to explain. Worship is
24/7/365 and not just when we are doing devotions or attending a Bible Study,
or attending a church or Sunday school service.
We are worshiping the Lord in everything we do so we must remember to be
doing things that please the Lord all of the time, even when we are
asleep. There are times when we are
asleep that we have bad dreams, and when this happens we are to remember before
we go to bed to ask the Lord to even be with us when we dream so it will
glorify the Lord. Paul and Silas we able
to sing songs in worship to the Lord even after being beaten and put into a
jail because of how they had continually been worshiping the Lord, for what was
in them was coming out of them in this difficult time.
Dr. Wiersbe has written a book entitled “Real Worship,” a
book that is a great read to help us understand more about worship. He writes the following from his section here
by stating, “The greatest responsibility and highest privilege of individual
believers and of churches is to worship God, for everything we are and do flows
out of worship. Yet today, worship is
often trivialized into cheap, clever entertainment, and the sanctuary has
become a theater… True worshipers lift ‘clean hands and a pure heart’ to the
Lord (24:4; James 4:8), for the Lord looks on the heart. We will worship God for all eternity (Rev.
4-5), so we had better start learning now.”
A Blessing That Never Stops (V.3): May the LORD
bless you from Zion, He who made heaven and earth.
Let’s begin this section by looking at Numbers 6:22-27, “22
¶ Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
23 "Speak to Aaron and to his sons,
saying, ’Thus you shall bless the sons of Israel. You shall say to them:
24 The LORD bless you, and keep you; 25 The LORD make His face shine on you, And be
gracious to you; 26 The LORD lift up His
countenance on you, And give you peace.’ 27 "So they shall invoke My name on the
sons of Israel, and I then will bless them.’”
It is important to know that the pronoun “you” is singular. Dr. Wiersbe writes, “for blessings of God is
for each of us personally.” It is
singular in this passage in Numbers and also in verse three of Psalm 134. I think that this is a very important point
to remember for in it we see that God desires to bless each of us individually,
think about the God who created all things that have been created, who desires
to bless us, each of us.
When we realize that God desires to bless us we have the responsibility
to bless others, to pass the blessings on to others. God told Abraham that in him all the world
would be blessed, and it truly has been when we look at the nation of Israel,
for that is where the Word of God came through, and also where the Lord Jesus
Christ was born into and through Him all the world has been blessed. It all started with a 100 year old man and
his 90 year old wife.
Dr. Wiersbe concludes his commentary from this
psalm: “If God never sleeps and our
worship never ends, then the blessing will not stop. Like the precious gift that Mary of Bethany
gave to Jesus, the fragrance of the blessing will reach around the world (Mark.
14:1-9).”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: There is a hymn that
goes like this that goes along with this SD.
Make Me a Blessing
(1) Out in the high-ways and by-ways of life,
Many are weary and sad;
Carry the sunshine where darkness is rife,
Making the sorrowing glad.
CHORUS:
Make me a blessing, Make me a
blessing --
Out of my life May Jesus shine;
Make me a blessing, O Savior, I
pray,
Make me a blessing to someone
today.
(2) Tell the sweet story of Christ and His love,
Tell of His power to forgive;
Others will trust Him if only you prove
True, every moment you live.
(3) Give as 'twas given to you in your need,
Love as the Master loved you;
Be to the helpless a helper indeed,
Unto your mission be true.”
The
story behind this song is as follows: “Make Me A Blessing
George Shuler and Ira Wilson were roommates at Moody Bible Institute in 1924.
At the Institute, they combined their talents and gave the world a
beautiful song of consecration, “Make Me A Blessing.” Wilson wrote the lyrics
and Shuler the music.
At first the song was rejected by music publishers, so Shuler had one
thousand copies printed to distribute on his own.
One fell into the hands of George Dibble, an outstanding singer who was
at that time music director for the International Sunday School Convention in
Cleveland, Ohio. Dibble asked for permission to use the song and it was granted.
Soon people everywhere were singing the song, and publishers were wanting to
distribute copies.
Between the time Ira Wilson wrote the lyrics and the time the song
began to be so well known, Wilson apparently forgot that he was the author!
Until he died, he never remembered that he had written these famous
words.
—Adapted from Lindsay Terry
My Steps of Faith for Today: Being a blessing to others is
my step of faith for today.
Memory verses for the week: Psalm 130:1-3
1
Out of the debts I cried to You, O LORD.
2 Lord, hear my voice! Let you
ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. 3 If You, LORD, should mark iniquities, O
Lord, who could stand?
11/6/2012 10:48:01 AM
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