SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/14/2015
12:09 PM
My Worship Time Focus: The Song of the Worthy One PT-2
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
5:8-14
Message
of the verses: “8 When He had taken the book, the four living
creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one
holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. 9 And they sang a new song,
saying, "Worthy are You
to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for
God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. 10 “You
have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon
the earth." 11 Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around
the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of
myriads, and thousands of thousands, 12 saying with a loud voice,
"Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom
and might and honor and glory and blessing." 13 And every created thing
which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all
things in them, I heard saying, "To Him who sits on the throne, and to the
Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever." 14
And the four living creatures kept saying, "Amen." And the elders
fell down and worshiped.”
We will continue where we left of in
our last SD on this section of verses where we had just quoted Dr. Barnhouse
talking about four things that are out of place.
Today we want to begin by addressing
what the twenty-four elders had in their hands which were a harp and also
golden bowls full of the prayers of the saints.
First thing we say is that harps have been associated with OT worship
and as John MacArthur says they were also closely associated with
prophecy. You can look up a couple
examples from this, the first being in 1 Samuel 10:5 and following, the second
is found in 2 Kings 3:15 “But now bring me a harpist." While the harpist
was playing, the hand of the LORD came upon Elisha (NIV).”
Now we look at the bowls that were
full of incense and the prayers of the saints.
John MacArthur writes “These wide-mouthed bowls were used in the
tabernacle and temple, where they were connected with the altar. They symbolized the priestly work of
intercession for the people. Scripture
elsewhere associates the burning of incense with the prayers of the saints in
Psalm 141:2; Luke 1:9-10; and Revelation 8:2-4 (cf. 6:9-10). The incense in these bowls represents the
prayers of believers through the ages that God prophesied and promised
redemption of the earth might come.
Taken together, the harps and the bowls indicate that all the prophets
ever prophesied and all that God’s children ever prayed for is finally to be
fulfilled.” Perhaps a good example is
the prayer that we commonly call “The Lord’s Prayer” for at the end Jesus said “thy
kingdom come, thy will be done.”
When the elders brought the desires
and prayers before God we read that “they sang a new song.” I don’t want to open a can of worms here, but
there have been church splits over whether or not angels sing. You might think this foolish, but some
believers believe that because angels were never redeemed that therefore they
should not be able to sing. John
MacArthur writes the following “Since (with the possible exception of Job 38:7)
the Bible nowhere records angels singing, it is best to see only the elders as
singing here. (Adopting the variant
reading found in many manuscripts ‘You…have redeemed us to God,’ as the New
King James Versions does, further reinforces that point, since the four living
creatures are holy angles who had no need to be redeemed.) That is consistent with rest of Scripture,
which pictures the redeemed singing praise to God (cf. Judg. 5:3; 2 Chron.
5:13; Neh. 12:46; Pss. 7:17; 9:2; 6:18; 104:33; 146:2; Acts 16:25; Eph. 5:19)
and angels speaking it (cf. Luke 2:13-14).
Throughout Scripture the ‘new song’ is a song of redemption (Pss. 33:3;
40:3; 96:1; 98:1; 144:9; 149:1; Isa. 42:10; Rev. 14:3).”
We will look further into this song
in our next SD.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I am
thankful that my Lord is able to open this scroll, the deed to planet earth
because after the contents are fulfilled the people on earth will be able to
live in a world without war, without sin like we know it today, and to have the
King of Kings and Lord of Lords sitting on His rightful throne in
Jerusalem. What a day that will be.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To love the
Lord, with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to live in the
wonderful love He has for me as I better understand that kind of love.
Answer
to our next Bible question: “Palsy”
(Luke 5:18) “And some men were carrying on a bed a man who was paralyzed; and they were
trying to bring him in and to set him down in front of Him (Luke 5:18 NASB).”
Today’s
Bible question: “Who said ‘Neither is
there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given
among men. Whereby we must be saved?’”
Answer
in our next SD.
3/14/2015
12:44 PM
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