Thursday, July 25, 2019

A Bridge over Troubled Waters (Ps. 3:2)


SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/25/2019 9:49 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  A Bridge over Troubled Waters

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Psalm 3:2

 

            Message of the verse:  Many are they who say of me, "There is no help for him in God." Selah (NKJV)

 

            We are moving away from Ephesians today and I want to share with you some things that I am learning as I prepare my Sunday school lesson for this upcoming Sunday.  It comes from Psalm 3 which is a Psalm of David when his son Absalom was trying to take the kingdom away from him.  God had not chose Absalom to take over after David, but He chose Solomon and so this was an attempt from the evil one to destroy the promises that God gave to David about having a king on the throne of Israel, the kings that God would chose and eventually through the Davidic line would come the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

            David writes this psalm when there was a battle about to take place, a battle between the forces of David, and the forces of Solomon.  David turned to the Lord at this time, something that as a believer that we all ought to do, but because of our enemies we fail to do so.  The following is a part of my lesson that goes along with Psalm 3 and I hope and pray that if anyone who reads this is going through difficult times that this will aid you.

 

            David is going through adversity as seen in these verses, both human adversities and as we will see adversity from our enemy.  I am sure that we as believers go through things similar to what David is going through, oh maybe not having one of our children trying to destroy us, but perhaps things at work or even family issues.  Donald Williams writes the following that seems to be able to aid us if or when we go through difficult times like David is going through.  “The bottom line of our adversity lies not simply in the strength of our opponents but also in the charge ‘there is no help for him in God.’  Here is the threat of practical atheism.  It bears so many nuances.  First of all, from God’s side, practical atheism charges that God is impersonal, at best a ‘first cause.’  He is aloof; He doesn’t care.  Or God is so holy, He must be angry with us.  Or, God is unable to help; He is weak and impotent.  Second, from our side, practical atheism laments, ‘there is no help for him in God.’  We are too evil, too faithless, too unworthy—God certainly wouldn’t help us!  The consequences for us are clear.  The first attack is that God has abandoned us; the second attack is that we aren’t worth His attention anyway.  The third attack is in the conclusion that we should give up our faith in Him and turn elsewhere for help.

 

          Thus the skepticism of others and our own self-doubt do battle against the faith in our hearts.  As the evil in the world explodes upon us, and as our own frailty and compromise become more and more evident, the lie ‘there is no help for him in God’ sounds like the truth.  If we are going to fight against this lie we must remember its origin. Jesus says of Satan, ‘He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him.  When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources [or nature], for he is a liar and the father of it [or the father of lies]’ (John 8:44).  Our human attack against God, therefore, is ultimately satanic in its origin.  Thus Paul exhorts the Ephesians to take ‘the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one’ (Eph. 6:16).  This is exactly what David does in verse 3.  We must turn from the lie to the living God.”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Trust the Lord in troubled times, and not lean on my own understanding.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  It takes humility to trust the Lord, realizing that He is the only One to give me help in troubled times.

 

Verse that goes along with our unknown person’s quotation from yesterday is from 2 Timothy 1:7 “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

 

7/25/2019 10:03 AM

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