SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/11/2012
10:28:18 PM
My Worship Time Focus: Psalm 147-PT-2
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ps. 147:7-20
Message of
the verses: We will continue to look at Psalm 147 in
Today’s Spiritual Diary. Dr. Wiersbe
wrote the following at the end of his introductory commentary, “The psalm
presents three reasons why the people should praise the Lord, and each section
is marked off by the command praise the Lord (vv. 1, 7 and 12).”
Sing to the
Lord—the Land Has Been Refreshed (vv. 7-11):
“7
Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving; Sing praises to our God on the lyre,
8 Who covers the heavens with clouds,
Who provides rain for the earth, Who makes grass to grow on the mountains.
9 He gives to the beast its food, And to
the young ravens which cry. 10 He does
not delight in the strength of the horse; He does not take pleasure in the legs
of a man. 11 The LORD favors those who fear Him, Those who wait for His
lovingkindness.”
As we began to look at this psalm yesterday we decided
that the psalm was written after the captives of Israel had returned from
Babylon to Jerusalem. These exiles knew
that they would need rain to come from the Lord in order to have their crops
grow and so the psalmist praises the Lord for providing the clouds and the rain
to cause their crops to grow. The Lord
caused the grass to grow on the mountains even though no one had planted it
there, and this grass was used to feed the beasts that lived there. This feeding of these beasts would cause them
to stay there and not go down where the children of Israel were.
As far as feeding the young ravens Dr. Wiersbe writes, “The
ancients believed that the young ravens were abandoned by the parent birds and
had to find their own food (Luke 112:24).”
It is remarkable that we as His children can bring pleasure to the heart
of God.
Extol the Lord—the Word Has Been Revealed (vv. 121-20): “12 ¶
Praise the LORD, O Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion! 13 For He has strengthened the bars of your
gates; He has blessed your sons within you. 14
He makes peace in
your borders; He satisfies you with the finest of the wheat. 15 He sends forth His command to the earth; His
word runs very swiftly. 16 He gives snow
like wool; He scatters the frost like ashes. 17
He casts forth His ice as fragments; Who can stand before His cold?
18 He sends forth His word and melts
them; He causes His wind to blow and the waters to flow. 19 He declares His words to Jacob, His statutes
and His ordinances to Israel. 20 He has not dealt thus with any
nation; And as for His ordinances, they have not known them. Praise the
LORD!”
The psalmist speaks of peace in verse fourteen and Dr.
Wiersbe writes the following about this word:
“In the Hebrew language ‘peace’ (shalom)
is much more than the absence of war. It
describes total well being, including material prosperity and physical and
spiritual health. Peace at the borders
means peace in the nation, for invaders have to cross the borders before they
can attack.” The psalmist speaks of this
in this section of the psalm. He also
speaks of snow, which does not happen a lot in Jerusalem, but in the higher elevations
it does snow.
In verse nineteen the psalmist begins to talk about the
Word of God that He had given to Israel, and states that God has not given any
other nation the Law of God. It was the
responsibility of the children of Israel to take care of the Word of God as
their scribes would copy the different books.
They would count the letters on each page that they copied and if it was
not the correct number they would throw away the page and begin again. The problem was not that they did not know
the Word of God, but that they did not follow it. D. L. Moody states “Every Bible should be bound
in shoe leather,” and Dr. Wiersbe states that this is another way of stating
that “faith without works is dead.”
Spiritual meaning for
my life today: I surely agree that
it is easier to know the Word of God than to practice and keep it.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to learn contentment, and continue
to seek to have my mind transformed by renewing it with the Word of God.
Memory verses for the
week: Psalm 130:1-8
1 Out of the depths I have 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 watchmen for the morning; Indeed, more than
the watchmen for the morning. 7 O Israel, hope in the LORD; For with the LORD
there is lovingkindness, And with Him is abundant redemption. 8 And He will
redeem Israel From all his iniquities.
12/11/2012 11:12:13 PM
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