Well, this does seem to be a bit late. Still, most of you who read this blog were not there when I spoke on this and probably didn't know I even spoke on it, so it's no huge loss. But if you feel like doing a skim over it looking for errors, or if you just like reading sermon notes: Enjoy.
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Hindsight is twenty-twenty.
It seems as though the best troubles are the ones that we see in the rearview mirror. They’re gone; ancient history.
But what about the difficulties that are still there? As long as they exist – in fact, the longer that they exist – the more difficult they seem. And when we pray, and they’re still there, with no end in sight, what do we do?
Depending on what it is, we may easily wonder why it doesn’t cease. In some cases, difficulty is God’s refining fire to purify us. It is part of his work to transform us more perfectly into his image.
Other times, we suffer difficulty to glorify God – we can think of Job, or the man blind from birth that Jesus healed in John 9. That God may be glorified through taking them away, or through our trust in him throughout it. In both cases, God’s glory is seen.
But there is a third reason for troubles, whether they be sickness, circumstances, or people that are simply a thorn in our side – sometimes God brings these things into our life because of our sin.
We see this in the life of David when he committed adultery with Bathsheba: The first child born of that union became sick and died. And throughout the rest of his life, David experienced much trouble because of this sin.
At first, it was because he lived unrepentant in that sin for a year after the initial wrongdoing. But second, it was God’s punishment on him. David was hand picked by God to rule over Israel. However, David abused that power and privilege to sin in the face of God. As David had used his God-given position to satisfy his own selfish desires, God punished him in that same position and caused strife and trouble throughout many of the following years of David’s reign.
In Psalm 38, David confesses an unnamed sin or sins before God and pleads for mercy. He describes the sorrows he has experienced as a result of his sin. How it ends may surprise you. I think in some ways, though, it is prescient in its reminder to us of what we see in our spiritual walk at times.
There are three points to this message.
- David’s Confession of sin
- David’s Confusion in trouble
- David’s Commitment to God
1. David’s Confession of Sin
"A Psalm of David, for the memorial offering.
1 O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath! 2 For your arrows have
sunk into me, and your hand has come down on me. 3 There is no soundness in my flesh because
of your indignation; there is no health in my bones because of my sin. 4 For my iniquities have
gone over my head; like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me. 5 My wounds stink and fester
because of my foolishness, 6 I am utterly bowed down and prostrate; all the day I go about
mourning. 7 For my sides are filled with burning, and there is no soundness in my flesh. 8 I am
feeble and crushed; I groan because of the tumult of my heart. 9 O Lord, all my longing is before
you; my sighing is not hidden from you. 10 My heart throbs; my strength fails me, and the light
of my eyes—it also has gone from me. 11 My friends and companions stand aloof from my plague,
and my nearest kin stand far off. 12 Those who seek my life lay their snares; those who seek my
hurt speak of ruin and meditate treachery all day long. 13 But I am like a deaf man; I do not hear,
like a mute man who does not open his mouth. 14 I have become like a man who does not hear,
and in whose mouth are no rebukes. 15 But for you, O Lord, do I wait; it is you, O Lord my God,
who will answer. 16 For I said, “Only let them not rejoice over me, who boast against me when my
foot slips!” 17 For I am ready to fall, and my pain is ever before me. 18 I confess my iniquity; I am
sorry for my sin. 19 But my foes are vigorous, they are mighty, and many are those who hate me
wrongfully. 20 Those who render me evil for good accuse me because I follow after good. 21 Do
not forsake me, O Lord! O my God, be not far from me! 22 Make haste to help me, O Lord, my
salvation!" (Psalm 38:1-22, ESV).
While there is a superscription over this Psalm, it is difficult to understand the meaning of it. “For the Memorial Offering” suggests that this is a public prayer for the nation, but with even the barest glance at the chapter we see that it is obviously the prayer of an individual. It may be that it was a prayer of David that was recorded and later used by others at the Memorial Offering. Beyond that, I have no insight into the title.
Clearly, David is struggling over sin. I am generally hesitant to identify particular problems or sicknesses as directly caused by sin, because people tend to abuse it – too often, dire circumstances or debilitating illnesses are instantly viewed as judgment by God for sin. Subsequently, the sufferer begins to systematically pore through their memory for every possible sin, no matter how slight, before proceeding to get in touch with everyone we might have wronged, whether they were aware of it or not.
I don’t mean that confession to God or those we have wronged is a bad thing. But my concern is that we are sometimes too quick to identify sin as our problem. In this case: David is absolutely certain that his sin is the issue – what the sin is, we are not told – but it is clear that David knows exactly why God has allowed the ills described here to happen to him. I think that if God is judging us for sin, he will not leave us in the dark over it: We will know exactly what the sin is in that case – we will not be left to guess about it.
In the first two verses, David describes God’s anger with him and the weight of God’s wrath that has leveled him to the ground.
“1 O LORD, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath! 2 For your arrows
have sunk into me, and your hand has come down on me.”
Again in verse 3:
“3 There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation; there is no health in my
bones because of my sin.”
There is sickness in David, and it is because God is angry with him. But not merely that: David’s sin is also the culprit. Whether through the great guilt on his conscience or through the natural ill effects on the body caused by sin, David is weakened and sick because of his disobedience of God’s law.
Verse 4 describes in vivid detail what this sin is like:
“4 For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.”
It is like a weighty burden in his arms, or perhaps like in Pilgrim’s Progress, on his back. And, like Christian in the Slough of Despond, David is sinking under the burden of his iniquity.
Truly, nothing weighs more on a Christian than unconfessed sin. If even the reprobate feel the stirrings of conscience, how much more do we who have been adopted by God feel the pain of loss without his nearness?
And as much as we may know this, we must always be reminded: It is not God who leaves us. True, God cannot allow sin in his presence, because he is holy. But at the same time, when we turn aside to sin, it is we who leave the path of God. When we confess our sins, we do not beg him to return to us – as though he went somewhere – but we beg him to restore us to his presence; to draw us back to his side, from which we have strayed. It is not the shepherd who leaves the flock; it is the sheep that leaves the shepherd.
I think we also fail to appreciate too often how much God initiates even our restoration. When David sinned with Bathsheba, it was not David who came to himself, it was God who sent Nathan to uncover the sin and command David to repent.
Just as God seeks and saves we who were lost, he also seeks us to sanctify us when we turn again to old paths we ought to have avoided.
When we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. But he does not always remove our difficulties from us immediately. In the process of this confession, David describes the difficulties caused by his sin.
2. Confusion in troubles
There are two kinds of troubles here: Physical troubles and spiritual ones.
a. Physical troubles
Verses 5-8 describe some sort of illness.
“5 My wounds stink and fester because of my foolishness, 6 I am utterly bowed down and
prostrate; all the day I go about mourning. 7 For my sides are filled with burning, and there
is no soundness in my flesh. 8 I am feeble and crushed; I groan because of the tumult of my
heart.”
He is wounded; his body is laid low; he is emotionally troubled; there is burning in his sides; he is weak; his heart is not at peace.
In verse 9, David breaks off to beseech the Lord – reminding him that God can see how downcast and sorrowful David is.
“9 O Lord, all my longing is before you; my sighing is not hidden from you.”
Verse 10 returns to the former story:
“10 My heart throbs; my strength fails me, and the light of my eyes—it also has gone from
me.”
David’s body is weak, so much so that the light of his eyes has weakened.
We are never told what this sin is that caused his trouble. For that matter, the history of David’s life in Samuel, Kings and Chronicles never really describes this kind of sickness that David is suffering under. That said, in those days sickness was undoubtedly more common. It may be related to the Bathsheba affair; it might also be related to David’s sinful call for a census later on. Of course it may simply be another event that God chose not to record for us. Certainly we don’t know about all the events in David’s life.
I’m not sure I’ve ever suffered physically because of sin. I think if I had, God would reveal the reason to me. But I’m sure we’ve all felt the weight of guilt when we do wrong before God. I think at least some of this is related to that, especially when we look back to verses 3-4 where David describes the iniquity being a heavy burden.
But the problems in this chapter are not merely physical. Verses 11-12 show that David’s relationships are also affected by this sickness.
“11 My friends and companions stand aloof from my plague, and my nearest kin stand far off.
12 Those who seek my life lay their snares; those who seek my hurt speak of ruin and meditate
treachery all day long.”
First, his friends and companions stand away from him; even his relatives are keeping their distance. While it’s certainly understandable why someone would not want to get too close to sickness, it still hurts David on a personal level. This aloofness demonstrates self-interest over and against concern for David, and that hurts.
Further, verse 12 describes how David’s enemies take advantage of his present impotence. They try to trap him, they speak out again him, and they conspire among themselves how to wreak even more havoc against him.
In spite of all this, though, David refuses to take personal vengeance.
b. Spiritual troubles
In verses 13-14, David declines to act against them.
“13 But I am like a deaf man; I do not hear, like a mute man who does not open his mouth. 14 I
have become like a man who does not hear, and in whose mouth are no rebukes.”
In fact, he uses that as part of his plea in verse 15.
"15 But for you, O LORD, do I wait; it is you, O Lord my God, who will answer.”
And as he calls upon God, his pleas seem to fall on deaf ears. David reminds God in verse 16 that he had pleaded with God that his enemies not triumph.
“16 For I said, “Only let them not rejoice over me, who boast against me when my foot slips!””
Finally, in 17-18, David confesses that he is nearing the breaking point.
“17 For I am ready to fall, and my pain is ever before me. 18 I confess my iniquity; I am sorry
for my sin.”
Again, he repeats his confession and reiterates the sorrow he feels over his sin. But, David notices in verse 19, his foes are not being brought low; in fact they are mightier than ever.
“19 But my foes are vigorous, they are mighty, and many are those who hate me wrongfully.”
Worst of all, David points out in verse 20, the motive of these wicked men in their accusations against me is that I follow good.
“20 Those who render me evil for good accuse me because I follow after good.”
That is a curious statement to make in a chapter in which David is repenting of sin. On one hand he confesses his iniquity, on the other he declares that his enemies hate him because he is good.
Here is the answer: While David’s immediate troubles are a result of his sin, his life is ultimately characterized by a seeking after God. I think we can all relate to that. Since we have been redeemed and reborn from above, the greatest desire of our heart is to serve God, but that does not preempt our persistent return to old habits and sins.
David’s point is that while he may be under God’s just wrath for a time, his life on the whole is identified even by the wicked as one that seeks after God and pleases him.
In the final two verses, David makes clear that he has not departed from God like Saul, but he continues to trust God – regardless of his failures or God’s apparent separation for him – in spite of that, David is committed to the Lord.
3. Commitment to God
I think the most significant thing about this chapter is that it ends with seemingly no resolution. David is still crying out in prayer for God’s help. Verses 21-22,
“21 Do not forsake me, O LORD! O my God, be not far from me! 22 Make haste to help me,
O Lord, my salvation!”
We’re at the end and there is no resolution. How can that be? It would be like reading the story of the Three Little Pigs: The two brother pigs, whose houses of straw and twigs have been blown down by the wolf, run to the brother who built the brick house. And we see the wolf come and start to huff and puff on the third house…and then the story ends. In some ways, that’s what this feels like. Spoiler alert: the wolf loses.
That said, I think there is great value in seeing the story end here. We really don’t know how long David suffered under these things. But the truth is that in our Christian lives, there will frequently be difficult things beyond our control that seem as though they will never end.
How often have we prayed for something – the salvation of a close friend or relative, or a situation that just won’t resolve (/Fill in the blank here)?
In John 9, the blind man had been without sight from birth. Job lost everything. Or we could think of the example of the apostle Paul. He was in prison without cause. Yet where do we find complaints about his imprisonment? Where does he even ask for prayer that he will be released? On the contrary, in Colossians 4, he asks that a door will be opened to preach the word. It doesn’t matter to him if that is inside prison bars or not. Does he complain in Philippians 1 when others are preaching the Gospel with wrong motives in order to try to take advantage of his suffering? No, he praises God that the Gospel is preached.
In fact, he says in Philippians 1:12-13,
“12 I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to
advance the gospel, 13 so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard
and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ.”
Paul is a great one to read if you’re perspective is mired in world-centeredness. He always redirects us to God’s perspective, and helps us to see where we’re looking at it wrong.
William Cowper was a close friend of John Newton. Cowper struggled deeply with depression, so much so that he was unable to be assured of his own salvation. Yet, by God’s grace, he wrote (among others) one of the most beautiful lyrics in all of Christian hymnody: There is a Fountain Filled with Blood.
“There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Immanuel’s veins.
And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.
The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day.
And there may I, though vile as he, wash all my sins away.
When this poor lisping, stammering tongue lies silent in the grave,
Then in a nobler, sweeter song I’ll sing thy power to save.
Dear dying lamb, your precious blood shall never lose its power,
Till all the ransomed church of God be saved to sin no more.”
The key to all these situations is this: However bad or discouraging these situations were, there was always a confidence that God was neither dead or powerless; rather, these men of faith recognized that God would act, unless it served his glory or their sanctification to allow them to continue through it.
That is what must not be missed in the close of this passage: David’s confidence that God will help, despite the fact that help had not yet come when this Psalm was completed. David is certain that God can help – he is not without the power to do so – and that he will help – he has not rejected David; on the contrary, he cares for David.
The final words of verse 22: 'My salvation': Probably more accurately, ‘my deliverer’. This speaks to the kind of commitment born from years of trusting God and seeing his faithfulness each day.
David had to learn to trust God from an early age: As a shepherd guarding his father’s sheep. He had to trust the protection of the sheep and his own life to the Father’s hand. In the Valley of Elah, he had to trust the Lord to give him victory over the giant, Goliath.
Following that, he served for years in Saul’s army, and God protected him. Then Saul began to seek David’s life. Facing an enemy he could not kill, David was forced to trust God to deliver him from the hand of Saul. Trusting God had been the story of David’s life.
What causes me to trust in God? Knowing that he has saved me my sins. While David may not have been able to conceive of sin and the death of Jesus on the cross with the same level of understanding that we have, he did recognize the core elements of that atonement: That God loved him and daily cared for him and would never abandon him.
Romans 8:31-32 demonstrates the principle for us.
“31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He
who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him
graciously give us all things?”
If God through Christ loved us so much that he died on the cross for our sins, even when we were dead in our sins and at enmity with him, can we have any doubts that he will cast us off now that we are his ransomed people?
Trusting in God, particularly in dire circumstances, is not always easy. One writer put it this way:
"If we could see beyond today as God can see,
If all the clouds should roll away, the shadows flee.
O'er present griefs we would not fret,
Each sorrow we would soon forget,
For many joys are waiting yet, for you and me.
If we could know beyond today as God doth know,
Why dearest treasures pass away and tears must flow.
And why the darkness leads to light,
Why dreary days will soon grow bright,
Some day life's wrongs will be made right, faith tells us so.
If we could see, if we could know, we often say,
But God in love a veil doth throw across our way.
We cannot see what lies before,
And so we cling to Him the more,
He leads us till this life is o'er, trust and obey.”
Trust in God. Are we suffering? Christ suffered more. Are we concerned about a lost friend or family member? Christ loves them more than we do and is even more hurt by their hardened heart. We are called to follow his example - always remembering that no matter what happens, he cares for us; and he never forsakes his own. He will call us some day to his heaven above where we shall dwell by his glorious throne.
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