SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/3/2012
10:08:32 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Psalm
143-PT-2
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm
143:7-12
Message of
the verses: We will continue looking at the last five
verses from Psalm 143 in Today’s Spiritual Diary. I want to quote from the introduction of the
commentary that Dr. Wiersbe wrote on this psalm: “In this psalm, David presents many requests
to the Lord, all of which may be summarized in two prayers: ‘Hear me’ (vv. 1-6) and ‘Answer me’ (vv.
7-12). This kind of praying is a good
example for us to follow.” We looked at “Hear
me” in yesterdays SD, and now we will look at “Answer me” in today’s SD.
“Answer Me”—Wait
for the Answer in Expectation (vv. 7-12): “7 Answer me quickly, O LORD, my spirit
fails; Do not hide Your face from me, Or I will become like those who go down
to the pit. 8 Let me hear Your
lovingkindness in the morning; For I trust in You; Teach me the way in which I
should walk; For to You I lift up my soul. 9
Deliver me, O LORD, from my enemies; I take refuge in You. 10 Teach me to do Your will, For You are my God;
Let Your good Spirit lead me on level ground. 11 For the sake of Your name, O LORD, revive me. In Your righteousness bring my
soul out of trouble. 12 And in Your lovingkindness, cut
off my enemies And destroy all those who afflict my soul, For I am Your
servant.”
What were the answers that David was look for from the Lord? Well in verse seven David prays something
that all true believers pray and that is to see God’s face. I am reminded of the answer that Jesus gave
to Philip in John 14:8-9 “Philip *said to Him, "Lord, show us the Father,
and it is enough for us." 9 Jesus
*said to him, "Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to
know Me, Philip? He who
has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ’Show us the Father’?” There are days when I think about how it
would have been to be alive when Jesus walked on the earth, to go where He
went, to sit and talk to Him and see His face, and then I remember what Jesus
said to Thomas after He had risen from the dead, “Jesus *said to him, ‘Because
you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.’” We as believers can talk to our Lord at any
time and any place and although we do not see His face at this time we are
blessed because we have believed without seeing His face, and yet one day all
believers will see the face of Jesus.
There is a song that the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir sang a
few years back that speaks of a person who had died and went to heaven and he
was being shown around heaven meeting all the people that he had heard and read
about and then the person says that “I want to see Jesus, for He is the One who
died for me.” Yes heaven will be the
place where we will see the face of Jesus and that is what David wanted to
experience. David knew the truth of
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.’” David also knew that if the Lord was
displeased with Israel that He would hide His face from them, “Why do You stand
afar off, O LORD? Why do You hide Yourself in times of trouble? (Psalm 10:1).” “How long will You hide Your face from me?
(Psalm 13:1).” “And do not hide Your
face from Your servant, For I am in distress; answer me quickly (Psalm 69:17).” “Do not hide Your face from me in the day of
my distress; Incline Your ear to me; In the day when I call answer me quickly
(Psalm 102:2).”
Dr. Wiersbe points out, “To know the shining of His face
means to walk in the light of His countenance and enjoy the smile of God upon
our lives, but the absence of that blessing was like a living death, ‘1 ¶ «A Psalm of David.» To You, O LORD, I call;
My rock, do not be deaf to me, For if You are silent to me, I will become like
those who go down to the pit (Psalm 28:1).’”
The next thing that David prayed for and we also pray for
is found in verse eight, “8 Let
me hear Your lovingkindness in the morning; For I trust in You; Teach me
the way in which I should walk; For to You I lift up my soul.” Hearing God’s Word gave David strength, “So faith
comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ (Romans 10:17).” This verse in Romans is one we usually think
about it being a verse that is used to witness to someone, and it surely is,
but it also speaks to the believers so that are faith will be lifted up as we
read the Word of God, for the Word of God is, “living and active and sharper than any two-edged
sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints
and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Hebrews
4:12).”
Next we see in verse nine, “9 Deliver me, O LORD, from my enemies; I take
refuge in You.” David wanted protection from His enemies and
David knew that God was able to keep him safe from those who were trying to
harm him. The LORD was David’s Rock, and
like the song sates David wanted to hide himself in the LORD, “Rock of Ages,
cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee.”
I will
finish this portion of Today’s SD by quoting Dr. Wiersbe, “Another answer we
receive from the Lord is a knowledge of
the will of God (v.10). His good
Spirit (Neh. 9:20) teaches us from the Word and shows us the path we should
take (Psalm 119:105). A knowledge of God’s
will give us confidence in the difficulties of life; it keeps us going when the
going gets tough. Finally, God answers
prayer by helping us bring glory to His
great name (vv. 11-12). ‘For thy
name’s sake’ was the great motivation of David’s life and ministry (1Sam.
17:26, 36, 45-47). ‘Hallowed be Thy name’
is the first request in the Lord’s Prayer, and it ought to be the motivation of
all our prayers. David knew that he had
a great work to do for the Lord, and he depended on the Lord to help him
accomplish it and bring honor to His name.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: It is wonderful how the Lord works out
certain details in my life. As I have
been studying many of the psalms that David wrote our Pastor has just began a
series that he says will take up to ten months to complete and it is on the
life of David. David is my favorite
character in the OT and I truly enjoy studying about his life, so it looks like
it will continue for a while. David’s
life is an inspiration to me and I hope to others as they look at my Spiritual
Diaries.
My
Steps of Faith for Today: For many days I have put contentment into
this portion of my SD, and the reason is from what I have learned from Phil.
4:11b, “for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.” Paul states that he had learned to be
content, something that is difficult to learn, and yet possible to learn as
Paul states it here, and the reason he learned this is because of the troubles
that God sent him through, and as he went through those troubles he learned to
rely on the Lord to sustain him. Paul
was like David in many ways and that is why Paul is my favorite NT
character.
I
have also been putting the word “transformed” in this section, a word that
means to change from the inside out. We
get the word “metamorphous” from the Greek word that is translated “transformed.” Romans 12:2 states that we are to be
transformed by the renewing of our minds, and the only way that this will
happen is from the Word of God, which is living and active and sharper than any
two edged sword as we saw earlier in Hebrews 4:12. Memorizing and mediating on the Word of God
will transform our minds from the inside out, it will give us the strength we
need to go through difficult situations because we will have the mind of
Christ, “’For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?”
But we have the mind of Christ (1Cor. 2:16).’”
Memory verses for the week:
Psalm 130:1-7
1 Out of
the debts I cried to You, O LORD. 2
Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears be
attentive to the voice of my supplications.
3 If You, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? 4 But there is forgiveness with You, That You
may be feared.
5 I wait
for the Lord, my soul does wait, And in His Word do I hope. 6 My soul waits for the Lord more than the
watchman for the morning; Indeed more than the watchman for the morning. 7 O Israel hope in the LORD; For with the
LORD there is lovingkindness, and with Him is abundant redemption.
12/3/2012 11:48:48 AM
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