-- We cheerfully wait when we are certain that we shall not wait in vain -- Spurgeon

April 18, 2016

Worship:  

Call On The Name 
Worship Leader: Seth McConkey
(Jason Ingram, Andi Rozier, Reuben Morgan)

My light when I'm lost
My rest when I'm weary
My peace in the raging storm
You will never falter, You will never fail

My song in the night
My shield in the battle
My help when I need it most
You will never falter, You will never fail

I will call on the name
I will call on the name of the Lord
My God is greater
Find my strength in the name
Find my strength in the name of the Lord
Jesus, my Savior

My sin on the cross
My promise of Heaven
My hope is in You alone
You will never falter, You will never fail

You will not falter, You will not fail
For You are strong to save
You will deliver, You will prevail
Yes, You will make a way

© 2013 Sony/ATV Timber Publishing / Open Hands Music (SESAC) / Sony/ATV Cross Keys Publishing / HBC Worship Music / Jingram Music (ASCAP) All rights on behalf of Sony/ATV Timber Publishing, Open Hands Music, Sony/ATV Cross Keys Publishing, HBC Worship Music and Jingram Music administered by Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC. / Hillsong Music Publishing (APRA) (adm. in the US and Canada at CapitolCMGPublishing.com)

Video:  https://youtu.be/ic3e0y4v1Ak

Witness:

I was having one of those days again. I went to bed late and woke up to earlier than I wanted to. Fell asleep in the middle of the afternoon and slept till the early evening. So, I felt like I didn’t get to enjoy my day off or get anything accomplished. I did have a good time of fellowship tonight with my fellow Lifegroup leaders. We lead a Lifegroup at a Sober Living Facility every Saturday. We just started it two weeks ago.  Tonight, as I came to this portion of my journaling, I had to ask myself: “What, if anything, did I learn today?” First, I replied nothing. I had not learned anything. Then it hit me, like God slapped me “upside my head’!

Dummy, I thought, of course you hadn’t. What have you been studying for the last week? Psalm 25:4-5. What had you been saying about the privilege of asking the God of the universe to show, guide, and teach you? What about the passion in which David prayed it? If you want to be taught you need to make it a daily practice to pray Psalm 25:4-5. Some verses came to mind as I wrote this.

You do not have, because you do not ask God.

James 4:2b NIV

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

James 1:22 NIV

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

Matt 7:7-8 NIV

I had no excuse. How often we come to the Word and discover a precious nugget of truth and hide it under a bushel? How often do we discover a precious bejeweled necklace in the scripture and fail to adorn ourselves with it? More verses come to mind.

Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.

James 4:17 NIV

always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth

2 Tim 3:7 ESV

I realize it looks like I am taking 2 Timothy 3:7 out of context. However, I am really pulling out of it an application to my situation. In context, Paul is talking about certain women being led astray by evil men. They were always learning but never able to distinguish between the false and the true, so they were led astray.  We can read scripture after scripture. We can memorize it and expound on it, but if we don’t put it into practice then we are not “doers of the word” (KJV) and this would be a sin of omission. If we read scripture after scripture and don’t understand it and fail to ask the Lord to daily to show us, guide us, and teach us, we may just fall into the same mess that these women fell into.

WORD:

Ps 25:4-5 4 Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths; 5 guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long. NIV	Ps 25:4-5 4 Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. 5 Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long. ESV
Ps 25:4-5 4 Show me the right path, O Lord; point out the road for me to follow. 5 Lead me by your truth and teach me, for you are the God who saves me. All day long I put my hope in you. Holy Bible, New Living Translation ®, copyright © 1996, 2004 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.	Ps 25:4-5 4 Make me know Your ways, O Lord; Teach me Your paths. 5 Lead me in Your truth and teach me, For You are the God of my salvation; For You I wait all the day. NASU

We began this portion of scripture with a simple outline:

            I. A Prayer for Direction

                        A. Show me

                        B. Teach me

                        C. Guide me

                        D. Teach me

            II. The Grounds for this Prayer

We have discussed the first half of the outline. Let us look at the second. What were the grounds of his prayer? The answer is:

·        because He is the God of David’s past who had delivered him from many a trial and trouble

·        because He is the God of David’s present and future in whom he trusted would continue to deliver him

Listen to Calvin’s thoughts on this passage. It may be a little difficult to understand at first, but after reading it slowly several times you should at least get the gist of what he is saying.

At the same time, we ought to observe the argument which David here employs to enforce his prayer. By calling God the God of his salvation, he does so in order to strengthen his hope in God for the future, from a consideration of the benefits which he had already received from him; and then he repeats the testimony of his confidence towards God. Thus the first part of the argument is taken from the nature of God himself, and the duty which, as it were, belongs to him; that is to say, because he engages to maintain the welfare of the godly, and aids them in their necessities, on this ground, that he will continue to manifest the same favor towards them even to the end. But as it is necessary that our confidence in God should correspond to his great goodness towards us, David alleges it, at the same time, in connection with a declaration of his perseverance. For, by the expression all the day, or every day, he signifies that with a fixed and untiring constancy he depended upon God alone. And, doubtless, it is the property of faith always to look to God, even in the most trying circumstances, and patiently to wait for the aid which he has promised. That the recollection of the divine blessings may nourish and sustain our hope, let us learn to reflect upon the goodness which God has already manifested towards us, as we see that David did in making this the ground of his confidence, that he had found in his own personal experience God to be the author of salvation.

(from Calvin's Commentaries, PC Study Bible formatted electronic database Copyright © 2005-2006 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Because of his confident expectation and trust in the Lord, he knew God would answer his request for instruction, illumination, and implementation.

Psalms 25:5

It is a happy thing when we can address the Lord with the confidence which David here manifests, it gives us great power in prayer, and comfort in trial.

(from The Treasury of David, PC Study Bible formatted electronic database Copyright © 2005, 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Because of this, he could wait patiently for God to answer.

The Hebrew verb wait for expresses an attitude of hope, expectation, confidence.

(from UBS Old Testament Handbook Series. Copyright © 1978-2004 by United Bible Societies. All rights reserved.)

I end today’s entry with this thought from Spurgeon:

    

Psalms 25:5

On thee do I wait all the day. Patience is the fair handmaid and daughter of faith; we cheerfully wait when we are certain that we shall not wait in vain. It is our duty and our privilege to wait upon the Lord in service, in worship, in expectancy, in trust all the days of our life. Our faith will be tried faith, and if it be of the true kind, it will bear continued trial without yielding. We shall not grow weary of waiting upon God if we remember how long and how graciously he once waited for us.

(from The Treasury of David, PC Study Bible formatted electronic database Copyright © 2005, 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights   

reserved.)