SPIRITIUAL DIARY FOR 11/9/2012
8:20:05 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Psalm 135
PT-1
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm 135:1-4
Message of
the verses: We will begin to look at the 135th
Psalm in Today’s Spiritual Diary by looking at several introductions to the
psalm, and then begin to comment on the psalm.
“This Psalm has no title. It is mainly made up of
selections from other Scriptures. It has been called a mosaic, and compared to
a tessellated pavement. At the outset, its first two verses (#Ps 135:1-2) are
taken from #Ps 134:1-3; while the latter part of #Ps 135:2 and the commencement
of #Ps 135:3 put us in mind of #Ps 116:19; and #Ps 135:4 suggests #De 7:6. Does not #Ps 135:5 remind us of #Ps 95:3? As
for #Ps 135:7, it is almost identical with #Jer. 10:13, which may have been
taken from it. The passage contained in
#Ps 135:13 is to be found in #Ex. 3:15, and #Ps 135:14 in #De 32:36. The
closing verses, #Ps 135:8-12, are in Psalms 136. From #Ps 135:15 to the end the
strain is a repetition of #Ps 115:1-18 This process of tracing the expressions
to other sources might be pushed further without straining the quotations; the
whole Psalm is a compound of many choice extracts, and yet it has all the
continuity and freshness of an original poem. The Holy Spirit occasionally repeats himself; not because
he has any lack of thoughts or words, but because it is expedient for us that
we hear the same things in the same form. Yet, when our great Teacher
uses repetition, it is usually with instructive variations, which deserve our
careful attention.
“Division:
The first fourteen verses contain an exhortation to praise Jehovah for his
goodness (#Ps 135:3), for his electing love (#Ps 135:4), his greatness (#Ps
135:5-7) his judgments (#Ps 135:8-12), his unchanging character (#Ps 135:13),
and his love towards his people. This is
followed by a denunciation of idols (#Ps 135:15-18), and a further exhortation
to bless the name of the Lord. It is a song full of life, vigor, variety, and
devotion.” (Charles H. Spurgeon)
“The
emphasis of the psalm is on praising the Lord because of who He is and what He
has done for His people. It opens with
the command to ‘praise the Lord’ repeated four times and concludes with the
command to ‘bless the Lord’ also repeated four times. ‘Jehovah’ is found thirteen times in the
psalm, and the familiar phrase ‘praise the Lord’ (‘hallelujah’) is repeated
eight times. The psalm has been called ‘a
mosaic’ because it contains numerous quotations from other parts of Scripture,
no doubt collected by a temple liturgist who, led by the Spirit, put the
material together for a special occasion of worship. Some students think that the occasion was the
one described in Nehemiah 9, and the use of the phrase ‘our God’ (vv. 2, 5) is
characteristic of the book of Nehemiah (4:4, 20; 6:16; 9:32; 13:2). (See also Ex. 5:8; Deut. 31:7; 32:3; Josh.
24:18.) The Jewish people spoke of
Jehovah as ‘our God’ to affirm their separation from the false gods of the
nations around them (vv. 15-18; 48:14; 67:6; 77:13; 115:3; 116:5). This psalm is an inspired statement of faith
and believers today can shout a hearty ‘Amen!’ to its affirmations.” (Dr. Warren Wiersbe)
The Lord is Our God—He Chose Us
(vv. 1-4):
“1 ¶ Praise the LORD! Praise the
name of the LORD; Praise Him, O servants of the LORD, 2 You who stand in the house of the LORD, In
the courts of the house of our God! 3
Praise the LORD, for the LORD is good; Sing praises to His name, for it
is lovely. 4 For the LORD has chosen
Jacob for Himself, Israel for His own possession.”
Maybe
we need to go all the way back in history to the time when the Lord created the
earth along with the rest of the stars and then after five plus days of
creating the earth he then made man.
However man sinned shortly thereafter and it was at this time that we
read about God’s provision for One to come in order to take away the sins of
those who would trust Him. “And I will
put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He
shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.’” (Genesis 3:15) We do not have a lot of recorded history
after that, and what I mean by that is that once God began to establish the
nation of Israel there is much more recorded history. From Genesis 1:1 to Genesis 12:1 there was a
great deal of time that passed, perhaps as much as 2000 years. As the prophecy of Genesis 3:15 begins to be
fulfilled, God will call Abram who would later be named Abraham to begin what
would be called Israel. God chose
Abraham to begin the nation of Israel, and it was the miracle birth of Isaac to
Abraham, (100 years old), and Sara, his wife (90) years old that Isaac was born
to. From there we see that God would
chose one of Isaac’s sons, Jacob to continue on with His promise of Gen. 3:15,
and then Jacob’s twelve sons would continue the promise. It would take 400 years for the Lord to take
a family and make it into a nation, but God chose this nation to bring the
Savior into the world. The line would
then be passed on to the tribe of Judah, and then to the family of David, and
eventually Jesus Christ would be born to Mary and Joseph who were both from the
line of David. God would lay the nation
of Israel aside in 70 A.D. but He would have a voice in the world, the Church
would be that voice as we would be grafted into the Olive tree as Paul states
in Romans. God would bring his beloved
Israel back to their rightful nation in May of 1948, where she is there today
awaiting Her Savior to return to planet earth, although most of Israel does not
know that Jesus Christ is their Messiah, but as Paul states there will come a
time when “all Israel will be saved.” It
was God’s sovereign choice to choose Israel and the psalmist praises the Lord
for this act of grace.
In
his commentary on this section Dr. Wiersbe asks and answers this question: “Why did God choose Israel? Because ‘the Lord is good’ (v.3). The church today is an elect people, saved by
the grace of God (Rom. 1:6; 8:30; Eph. 1:4 ;) and called to glorify God (1Peter
2:9-12). All believers are priests of
the Lord and we must worship Him as He has instructed in His Word.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: As times in
this wonderful country we live in grows worse it is good to be reminded of the
history of God’s grace and mercy, along with His plans for Israel and for the
Church. We see the faithfulness of God
in the history of both Israel and the Church and it is good to reflect on it.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to learn contentment and continually
seek the Holy Spirit to transform me by the renewing of my mind through His
Word.
Memory verses for the
week: Psalm 130:1-3
1 Out of the depts. I cried to You, O LORD. 2 Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my
supplications. If You, LORD, should mark
iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?
11/9/2012 9:30:45 AM
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