Friday, 5th March 2021
Rev Daniel Xi An Poon
Section One: V1-4 Cry Out, Must Believe
At the beginning of the Psalm, the Israelites declared the Name of the LORD. When we declare the Name of the LORD, His presence will be with us. Why do we need to declare His Name? It’s not to ask Him to come and solve our problems, but to know we need to humble ourselves and admit that we need Him in our lives. When the Lord’s presence is with us, then we need to open up ourselves completely to Him.
“Depths” symbolise our lusts, weaknesses, sins, and loopholes. We look upon the Lord because only He can take us out from the depths, and we must be convicted of sins, of righteousness and of judgment. We will always sin because this is our weaknesses, we can never be perfect, but we can always come to the Lord, let our sins to be revealed in the light, so do not lie to ourselves. There is nothing to be afraid of when we admit our mistakes and cry out to Him in the deep. Crying out is to call out loudly admitting our weaknesses and our lacking, and when we do this, God’s presence will be filled in where our sins are.
Do not try to act that we are holy, but let our weaknesses be exposed before the Lord. We cannot hide, no one can stand before the Lord because of our iniquities. Instead, we should believe God has the power to forgive, He will save and deliver us. The power of forgiveness of God can be so great that we will no longer live in the shame and accusations, we will not live in the law, but have the heart of the Lord.
Section Two: V5-8 Wait Upon, Must Hope
V5-6 When we wait for the Lord, it doesn’t mean we just sit there and do nothing, but “in His word I do hope”. Our hope is in His Promises, His Logos, His Rhema, His Torah. We need to wait from the heart because it’s easy for us to just talk about it, but in our heart and our mind we still cannot stay still. Waiting upon the Lord is like being a watchman, standing outside the gate and making sure nothing happens. Those who watches at the night-time would always hope for daylight, because troubles tend to happen at night.
Being a watchman, we would be hoping for the sunlight and hoping no troubles would come. If we put the hope in people and in ourselves, we will surely be disappointed; but if we put our hope in the Lord, then our life will be in light. As we wait, let our hearts be convicted of sin, of righteousness and of judgement, to know that we are not good enough and we need God!
V7-8 “Israel” – the chosen people. For us, we are called and chosen to follow God, we can definitely hope and look upon Him. People who did not receive calling from God cannot wait, because they don’t know God is a gracious and merciful God. His mercy is not about giving you whatever you want but the abundant redemption that overflows. He wants to save us with His abundant redemption, so we should not be afraid, and we should not hide in the deep.
Why do we share testimony? Satan will accuse us and say that if we share testimony, bad things will still happen to us, but even if we don’t share, troubles will always come. By sharing our testimonies and our weaknesses, we uplift the Lord and let Him come to our lives to rule and reign. May God give us strength so we will be willing to expose our weakness and testify for God.
God called us out from all our iniquities, He will surely deliver. God is love, we should walk out from our deep boldly, stand in the gap, invite God to come and have hope in His abundant love.
Pursuit & Respond
May the LORD bless us and keep us, may His face shine upon us and be gracious to us. May the Lord lift up His countenance upon us and give us peace. May His Shalom be with us; may the fear leave us, and may the earthquakes and COVID-19 leave our country. Bless us, our family, our church, our community, and out ministry. In the victories Name of Jesus, amen!
2021年3月05日 星期五
-潘锡安牧师-
诗篇 130
仰望耶和华
这同样是一首上行之诗，也就是以色列男子每年三次走回耶路撒冷时敬拜神的诗歌。当以色列人从他们的住处走回耶路撒冷的圣殿时，若不能抬头仰望神，他们无法这样一年三次走上去。我们要从中学习如何来仰望耶和华。
一、求告 要相信（v.1-4)
V1-2，“耶和华啊”- 诗人一开始就宣告神的主权、大能和创造。耶和华的名是不能随便使用的，所以当他们宣告的时候，他们在宣告神的同在。我们宣告神的名不是为了满足自己解决日常问题，而是要谦卑承认我们需要主。当神与我们同在，我们就要完全敞开自己。“从深处”- 我们的深处在哪里？就是我们的情欲。我们是否愿意站在我们的破口面对神？是否愿意打开我们的深处，承认自己的软弱，还是觉得自己可以处理自己的问题？我们仰望神，是为了求神帮助我们能够从我们的深渊中走出来。我们走出来后仍然要为罪为义为审判站在破口，不要轻看耶稣基督宝血 – 虽然我们的过去被涂抹遮盖，但深渊一直都在，我们就要对我们的软弱之处警醒，要让它见到神的光，不要遮掩自己的深渊，不然罪和毒根就会长出来。不要害怕在我们的深渊来呼求神。“求告”- 就是大声的喊叫，承认“这就是我的破口、软弱，我的需要！”如此神才能充满在我们软弱的地方，我们才不会被欺骗，我们的老我才不会躲藏在里面。我们常常都伪装自己，不愿意让人看见自己里面的深渊-就是我们的软弱、罪、破口，但唯有愿意谦卑仰望主，敞开自己，才能得到神的拯救。
V3-4, “究察”-就是观察，我们无法用自己的公义、律法来遮掩我们里面的破口、生命的问题，唯有相信神的“有赦免之恩”才有神的拯救，其能力大到让人敬畏 – 不是惧怕神，而是神所做的事大而可畏。求神帮助我们仰望神的时候能敞开自己，相信他有赦免之恩。我们不再是陷在羞愧里，而是在光明之中，就不会在律法中限制自己或论断人，而是有基督的心去宽容别人。
二、等候 要仰望（v.5-8)
V5, 我们等候耶和华的时候，不是什么事都不做，而是仰望神 – 不仅从心里等候神，也要仰望神的话 – 神对我们的承诺，给我们的道，灵粮, 妥拉。我们不要嘴上说要等候而心里却胡思乱想，要将我们的信心放在神的话语上，坚持参加晨祷，因为神的话是我们脚前的灯、路上的光。
V6, 当我们仰望等候神的时候，我们的心态要“胜于守夜的等候天亮”。晚上站岗的人的心态是如何呢？第一是非常盼望天亮，因为通常都是在黑夜出问题，而白天会比较平安；第二个盼望是没有事情发生，就是当我们在等候的时候，要有为罪为义为审判的心。不要觉得自己是没问题不会犯罪的，如果我们这样将盼望放在自己身上就一定会跌倒，所以要将盼望放在给我们带来光明的神身上。
V7, “以色列啊”- 不是所有人能够等候，唯有被呼召出来、愿意相信跟从的人才能够等候、仰望耶和华。我们唯一的出路是相信神是有慈爱的。唯有如此，我们才能站在深渊之处呼求神。“因他有慈爱，有丰盛的救恩”- 不是你要什么他就给你什么，而是他的救赎是丰盛到满溢出来，所以不要害怕而躲在自己的深渊，而是让深渊成为人生的一个景观。当神的光照进来的时候，深渊就不能在我们的生命中起作用，反而成为我们的见证，见证神如何将我们从深渊中拉出来。不要被撒旦欺骗就觉得对人讲见证后会有负面的事情发生，我们要愿意用自己的软弱为神作见证，因这是神光照我们的证据，是值得感恩的。
V8，要找出自己的深渊，在哪里跌倒，就在那里呼求神，因为“他必救赎以色列脱离一切的罪孽”- 耶和华必救赎他所拣选的子民从那400年为奴为仆的埃及出来，成为我们的主，为要救我们脱离在埃及拜偶像的一切罪。
神是爱，求神帮助我们勇敢的走出深渊，站在破口，让神的光进来，盼望耶和华，相信他有丰盛的慈爱，在他有赦罪的恩典。
*追求：
愿耶和华赐福给我们，保护我们，愿耶和华使他的脸光照我们，赐恩给我们，愿耶和华向我们仰脸，赐我们平安。愿耶和华的平安与我们同在，让恐惧离开我们、让地震离、COVID-19离开我们的国家，愿平安与我们同在。祝福我们，我们的家、土地、社区、事奉。谢谢主，祷告奉耶稣基督得胜的名求。阿们！