Psalm 39
Let’s hear God’s word from Psalm
39. It says, to the choir master, to Jeduthun, a Psalm of David. And David says, I will guard
my ways that I may not sin with my tongue. I will guard my mouth
with a muzzle, so long as the wicked are in my presence. I
was mute and silent. I held my peace to no avail,
and my distress grew worse. My heart became hot within me.
As I mused, the fire burned. Then I spoke with my tongue.
Oh Lord, make me know my end, and what is the measure of my
days. Let me know how fleeting I am. Behold, you have made my
days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before
you. Surely all mankind stands as
a mere breath. Surely man goes about as a shadow.
Surely for nothing they are in turmoil. Man heaps up wealth
and does not know who will gather. And now, oh Lord, for what do
I wait? My hope is in you. Deliver me
from all my transgressions. Do not make me the scorn of the
fool. I am mute, I do not open my mouth. For it is you who have
done it. Remove your stroke from me. I
am spent by the hostility of your hand. When you discipline
a man with rebukes for sin, you consume, like a moth, what is
dear to him. Surely all mankind is a mere
breath. Hear my prayer, O Lord. Give
ear to my cry. Hold not your peace at my tears,
for I am a sojourner with you, a guest like all my fathers. Look away from me that I may
smile again before I depart and am no more. Amen. This is God’s
holy word. If you take a look at the newspaper
rack in the grocery store, or you watch lifestyle television,
or you follow certain websites that talk about how to have a
good life, you will see that there are many people focused
on how to look good, which isn’t a bad thing, how to feel good,
which isn’t a bad thing, how to enjoy or get the most out
of life, which to a certain degree is not a terrible thing. But
if that’s all your aim in life is, we know as Christians that’s
not a good thing at all. But that’s what many people focus
on. They focus on having their best
life in this world, having the right fingernails, the right
hair color, the right clothes, the right jewelry, the right
house, the right vacations, the right retirement, the right you
name it. That’s what they want. And television
commercials are very helpful to this. They create in us needs
to feel good, look good, experience life, and have the good life. And David, in this little psalm,
Psalm 39, gives what we might call the minority report. Now
remember, David is a man who has, he has a pretty good bit. I mean, you can imagine at the
palace there in Jerusalem, he’s got internet and Apple products
and hot tubs. I mean, at least for that time
of life. He’s not missing anything. He’s got quite a bit. But he
gives this minority report. Psalm 39 is, maybe what we might
call David waxing philosophical. It’s a glimpse of what his son
Solomon will write in Ecclesiastes. And he’s basically gonna say
two things. One is life is meaningless and life is short. Did you notice
how many times he used the word breath? Life is a breath. Life is as nothing before God,
it’s a shadow. So he’s gonna speak to us about
the meaning of life and the shortness or the brevity of life. Now this
is in direct contrast with what we’ve mentioned just a moment
ago. I heard recently that because of the rise of smartphones and
how they’re literally everywhere, we are no longer living thoughtful
lives. We no longer live lives that
we think about, that we plan, and then we execute. We live
instinctive lives. I was in a conversation over
the weekend about how people communicate. And people communicate
instantly now. We made the little reference
that we used to sit in our chair. And often beside our chair, we
had the telephone. And when it rang, we answered
it. And when there was news, we hollered down the hallway
what the news was or somebody got on the other extension. But
now news is instant. It comes in our smartphones.
It comes in through text message. It’s instant. And we are no longer
thoughtful people. We’re more instinctive and trivial. And David gives us a dose of
reality here that I think we should consider. And there’s
a couple things, four things for us to think about in this
passage. The first is in verses one through
three, David basically says this. He says, I can’t speak. I’m not
gonna talk. I’m not gonna open my mouth.
I’m not gonna waste my words in front of the unrighteous.
Look how he says it. I said, I will guard my ways
that I may not sin with my tongue. How appropriate. That is with
our catechism this night, how God’s sovereignty, our catechism
was about not bearing false witness. But he says, I’ll guard my ways
that I may not sin with my tongue. I’ll guard my mouth with a muzzle. I’m gonna have self-control.
I’m not gonna talk. I’m not gonna speak. So long
as the wicked are in my presence. Then he says, I was mute. I was
silent. I held my peace, but to no avail. My distress grew
worse. My heart became hot within me
as I amused the fire burn and then I spoke with my tongue.”
It’s as if he’s saying, I don’t want to waste my words before
the unrighteous, before the wicked. Why might that be? Well, some
say maybe it is that David doesn’t want to speak words of wisdom
before the unrighteous because they can’t understand the words
of wisdom before the righteous, and they may take his words and
twist them and speak out against God. Because if David says to
the wicked, life is short, life is meaningless, life is full
of trouble and hardship, they won’t understand it. And then
if David, on the other hand, says that God is good and sovereign
and gracious, they’ll say, what kind of God gives you a short,
meaningless life? And so many have said, and it’s
probably the best way to take this, that David doesn’t want
to preach or speak words of wisdom or cast pearls before swine,
and so he keeps his mouth shut in their presence. But he’s hot,
he’s burning, he’s ready to explode, to speak of the brevity and the
vanity of life. Now we notice when we walk through
the rest of the psalm that he does speak, but who does he speak
to? He takes his concerns to Almighty
God. It’s a good reminder to us, be
careful who we speak to. Some people can’t understand
our troubles. Some people can’t understand our beliefs about
life. Some people aren’t fit, so to
speak. They aren’t able to process what
we believe about life because we have a view that is from the
Lord God. And that’s what David teaches
us here. Our words are important, and it’s important who we speak
them to. And here he shows that he speaks
them to the Almighty God. Well, the second little section
speaks about brevity or the meaninglessness of life. We find it in verses
four through six. He says, life is short. Life
is meaningless. Oh Lord, make me to know my end.
What is the measure of my days? Let me know how fleeting I am.
Behold, you have made my days a few hand breaths. My lifetime
is as nothing before you. Surely all mankind stands as
a mere breath. Then you have that little word
there, salo, which probably means stop and think about what he
just said. So stop and think for a moment about the brevity
of life, the shortness of life, how we need to think about our
days. I was thinking a couple months ago, well, it was 100
days ago, right? We’re about to celebrate, evaluate,
or give Trump his 100 days report card. I was thinking when Trump
was inaugurated, how back in, days of old in history, a king
or an emperor before he was crowned would go pick out his headstone.
He would be taken to the marble yard and he would pick out his
headstone. And it was a reminder on the
day he would be crowned or ordained or set apart as the greatest
man on the face of the earth, that he also was a dead man,
that someday he would lie beneath that piece of marble. And we
don’t think of that very often. We think we’re indestructible,
that we’re bulletproof. But it’s good for us to remember
that we’re like a mist, that when the sun rises by mid-morning,
we may vanish. And David is saying, think on
that. Put that in your mind and swish it around and think on
it. We strut as, oh, who was it? Was it King Lear? Or no, it was Macbeth in Shakespeare’s
play, says we strut about and we fret our hour on the stage,
and then we are no more. Life is very quick. Life passes
by. But if you have a grasp of reality, you will make the most
of life. If you realize that God is the
God of the universe, that he’s made us for himself, and that
he has made us to glorify and enjoy him, we do have a meaning
for life. At every moment of every day,
even our sufferings, even our joys are for the glory of God
and for the good of others. And so David’s reminding us we
need to have a grasp of reality, that we are mortal. Your days
may be short, that life under the sun is meaningless apart
from Almighty God. Verse seven gives us a good little
turning point in the psalm. It says, and now, O Lord, for
what do I wait? My hope is in you. What’s the
purpose of life? What’s the meaning of life? Well,
it’s to hope in God. It’s to rest in him, to trust
in him. The third little section we find
in seven through 11 is kind of, it’s really the question of Job.
Those of you who are in the Job class, and you’ve made it through
all the hardship Job has faced, you get to a point in Job where
Job says, all right, God, what do you want with me? You’ve fooled
around with my life. You’ve taken everything I had.
You’ve taken all my blessings and you’ve cursed me. You’ve
made my life miserable. What do you want with me? That’s sort
of the question David asked here. Now, oh God, for what do I wait?
My hope is in you. Deliver me from my transgressions,
my sins. Don’t make me the scorn or the
fool. I am mute, I do not open my mouth, for it is you who have
done it. Remove your stroke from me. I am spent by the hostility
of your hand. When you discipline a man with
rebukes for sin, you consume like a moth what is dear to him.
Surely all mankind is a breath. And there again is that word
selah. Think on it. I think Job and even David, and
maybe you felt this way, you wonder sometimes, is God just
messing with you? I see the big giant in the sky
who’s flicking you in the head, who’s afflicting you with things
that you can’t deal with. And you say, he’s big and I’m
little. Maybe it’s like a dad wrestling
his little boy. The little boy has no chance,
but it’s fun. And it makes the dad feel good.
like a champion, like he’s victorious. You know, you go out and play
a little kid in soccer or football or basketball and you’re twice
their size and you beat them and it makes you feel good about
yourself. Maybe that’s, in a sense, what David is saying. It’s what
Job thinks of. God, I’m like a flea. You can flick me and
smash me and stomp me. Why do you do this to me? What
do you want with me? Do you find this funny? What’s
your sense of humor? It’s interesting, though, to
note that David is more optimistic in this little section than in
the first couple of verses. He speaks of hope in God, speaks
of deliverance from sins. He speaks to God about his hardships. But he ultimately asked the question,
what is it that you want with me? What is it that you? What is it that you want out
of me? The last little section is a good way to end. David in
verses 12 and 13 says, I’m just passing through, I’m a sojourner,
I’m a guest, I’m an alien, I’m a stranger, I’m a pilgrim. He
says in verse 12 and 13, hear my prayer, O Lord, give ear to
my cry, hold not your peace at my tears, for I am a sojourner
with you, a guest, like my fathers. Look away from me that I may
smile again before I depart and am no more. He’s remembering
The citizenship of Christians, the citizenships of the people
of God is not an earthly citizenship, but a heavenly one. We drive
our tent stakes into the ground pretty deep. We set up life on
earth as if it’s forever. We ought to have some permanence
to life here. We ought to bloom where we’re
planted. We ought to put down roots, as they say. We ought
to live where God puts us and dwell there and serve him very
well. But God reminds us over and over
in the scriptures that we are wanderers, that we are without
a homeland. Our homeland is yet to come.
It’s driven home to us in the book of Hebrews. And it speaks
over and over that every old covenant hero of the faith knew
that this was not their home, that there was a better homeland.
Otherwise they would have not looked for a homeland. So we
got to look for heaven. Remember Abraham left up his
home in Ur of the Chaldeans and he went to the promised land,
but he didn’t inherit the promised land. Remember at the end of
his life, what did he own? All he owned was a little cave where
his wife was buried and eventually his own body would be laid to
rest. But he was a wanderer. He was a nomad, he was a stranger,
he was an exile. And Peter reminds us as Christians
that part of our calling by faith in Jesus is to be wanderers in
this strange land. As we make our way to heaven,
we look to God, we look to Jesus, and we live and serve for him.
But notice the one last little request he has. In verse 13 he
says, Give me a minute. Give me a minute where you’re
not messing with me. Give me a moment where you’re
not playing this game of divine, divine comedy, so to speak. Look
away from me that I may smile again before I depart. I think
Job even says something like this. Give me just a moment of
relief so that while I am walking towards the end of my life. I
may have a moment to be happy and joyful. Give me a moment’s
peace. This is a good passage to remind
us that life is short and that life apart from God is meaningless. Sometimes we wonder how others
get through life. How do we, how do others get
through life without God, without knowing Christ Jesus? Well, it
can be utterly hopeless. It can be pointless. It can be
meaningless. But with Christ, We know that we live to serve
and glorify and enjoy. So may God be gracious to us. We take these words to heart.
Let’s pray together. Our Lord, we pray like Moses
prayed in Psalm 90. Teach us to number our days.
Give us a heart of wisdom so that we might know how to live
rightly. We thank you for these words
to remind us who we are in light of you and we pray that Through
our faith in Jesus, we have great meaning in life as we live for
him and long to live before his presence in heaven. We thank
you for these words and may they encourage us in Christ’s name.