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Wednesday 8/21/24
Title: David asks – what am I waiting for? Hope in God!
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David asks – what am I waiting for? Hope in God!
Psalm 39:1-13,
“(1) For the choir director, for Jeduthun. A Davidic psalm.
I said, “I will guard my ways so that I may not sin with my tongue; I will guard my mouth with a muzzle as long as the wicked are in my presence.”
(2) I was speechless and quiet; I kept silent, even from speaking good, and my pain intensified.
(3) My heart grew hot within me; as I mused, a fire burned. I spoke with my tongue:
(4) “LORD, reveal to me the end of my life and the number of my days. Let me know how transitory I am.
(5) You, indeed, have made my days short in length, and my life span as nothing in Your sight. Yes, every mortal man is only a vapor. Selah”
Well as I told you very early on we don’t actually know what Selah means, but many believe it to be a call to pause and consider what the psalmist just said. Others believe it to be a musical indicator where a pause or break in the flow of the music is to be inserted. Perhaps a transitional musical score connecting two separate parts of the song, like a bridge. Personally I believe both to be true.
Following that line of thinking, let’s contemplate what was just said.
Often in times of difficulty – especially when relationships or even just people are involved, our feelings and anxieties are taken to higher levels. We can be moved to extremes. I am reminded of Jonah who wanted to just die because Nineveh had heard the message of the Lord and responded in repentance when he didn’t believe their sins against God and Israel merited such a second chance. If you remember, God in His kindness to Jonah, grew up a plant overnight to provide shade for him against the heat. This was later destroyed in a night by a caterpillar. Jonah was moved to such extremes in temper that he wanted to die for the loss of the plant. Of course we know it was not really about the plant or the heat, but that both were simply focal points for his real frustration.
Here, David is obviously frustrated, to the point of speaking impetuously to those who were acting wickedly against him. From information gained later in the Psalm this was clearly an issue of being taunted by fools (v. 8). So David asks God to help him guard his mouth – empower him to choke back what he would otherwise say.
As David kept silent, the emotional heat of the situation continued to boil under the surface. More than likely this was more than temptation, David was likely musing on what he had been subjected to by these wicked people. This moved him to ask God to teach him to number his days, that he might gain a heart of wisdom.
Oh that this was the typical response of God’s children under the New Covenant!
Rather than blowing his lid as a compromised pressure cooker, David asks God to help him gain perspective so as to guide and temper his heart, thoughts and feelings so that he might act wisely!
I have to say – that is NOT a bad prayer!
“(6) Certainly, man walks about like a mere shadow. Indeed, they frantically rush around in vain, gathering possessions without knowing who will get them.”
(7) “Now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in You.”
David makes this simple but far reaching statement about the temporal nature of our lives. We make our lives about the pursuit of titles, prestige, key relationships, reputation and possessions. But of what value are these things really, when at the end of life we leave them behind forever?
Now that he has gained some perspective David asks himself really, as much as the Lord – what am I waiting for? I know my hope is only in You!
Why do I even consider attempting to justify myself, right a suffered wrong, improve my reputation before other people’s eyes who are also just as temporal as I am?
Why don’t I just forgo all of that and run to God from the onset?
In keeping with this wisdom David directs his prayer and expectation to God alone!
Like all of us, when we take our focus off of others and what they are doing wrong, we often discover in ourselves things which need to be made right!
Notice where his thoughts immediately go…
“(8) Deliver me from all my transgressions; do not make me the taunt of fools.”
(9) I am speechless; I do not open my mouth because of what You have done. (10) Remove Your torment from me; I fade away because of the force of Your hand. (11) You discipline a man with punishment for sin, consuming like a moth what is precious to him; every man is a mere vapor. Selah”
Ah… there it is! There’s the real and underlying problem. David is not truly agitated with these foolish people, not really. I mean they were providing additional and external aggravation to a soul which was already very uneasy.
Man this hits SO close to home as to make me blush!
Now of course, this song is only a condensed version of the thoughts he actually had in times like this and the prayer a shortened version as well no doubt. What we have here however is sufficient to live through it with him and see how a godly man wrestles with God, his own soul, his sin and the irritation of others which tend to throw logs on an already tumultuous fire.
This is a really good note to set aside in your mind. When you are overreacting to something, know that there is something else – probably something you’ve been avoiding which is the real issue. Bring it before God before it conquers you – even as David is about to illustrate for us.
“(12) “Hear my prayer, LORD, and listen to my cry for help; do not be silent at my tears. For I am a foreigner residing with You, a sojourner like all my fathers.
(13) Turn Your angry gaze from me so that I may be cheered up before I die and am gone.”
This probably sounds more grave than intended. While it could be a final note of inner despair, that would hardly make a Psalm worthy of scripture. As such, this is most likely David embracing the brevity of his life – just as he asked God to help him do. So he closes his Psalm with, “turn your angry gaze from me” which is ENTIRELY different than Job’s cry of asking God to just leave him alone. David is not asking God to turn His gaze away from him entirely, only His anger. This is David’s cry for forgiveness and restoration – so that he may be cheered while still living this life or before he goes to his grave. Another way of saying this would be, “God do not let me go to my grave in sorrow, feeling the heat of your anger towards me. Let my last thoughts be of your forgiveness and loving favor.”
Psalm 40:1-17,
“(1) For the choir director. A Davidic psalm.
I waited patiently for the LORD, and He turned to me and heard my cry for help. (2) He brought me up from a desolate pit, out of the muddy clay, and set my feet on a rock, making my steps secure.
(3) He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the LORD.”
This is a Psalm encouraging us to recall our times of deliverance as an occasion to encourage others towards faith in God and I think the next words bear that out.
“(4) How happy is the man who has put his trust in the LORD and has not turned to the proud or to those who run after lies!
(5) LORD my God, You have done many things–Your wonderful works and Your plans for us; none can compare with You. If I were to report and speak of them, they are more than can be told.
(6) You do not delight in sacrifice and offering; You open my ears to listen.
You do not ask for a whole burnt offering or a sin offering.
(7) Then I said, “See, I have come; it is written about me in the volume of the scroll. (8) I delight to do Your will, my God; Your instruction resides within me.”
How timely is this? This past Sunday we covered the exchange Jesus had with the scribes who questioned Jesus about the greatest command. When Jesus told him it was the Shema – preceding the 1st of the ten commandments and Leviticus 19 which is our call to love our brother – the scribe replied with wisdom which he very likely received from these verses.
The scribes said,
“Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there is no other but He.
(33) And to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”– Mark 12:32-33
David continues…
“(9) I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly; see, I do not keep my mouth closed–as You know, LORD. (10) I did not hide Your righteousness in my heart; I spoke about Your faithfulness and salvation; I did not conceal Your constant love and truth from the great assembly.
(11) LORD, do not withhold Your compassion from me; Your constant love and truth will ALWAYS guard me.
(12) For troubles without number have surrounded me; my sins have overtaken me; I am unable to see. They are more than the hairs of my head, and my courage leaves me.”
Everybody needs lessons in trust – that is biblical faith. Over a decade ago, one of the first ones for us who were coming out of the Word of Faith movement was that faith does not need a shield, it is one! Which means, We do not need to protect our faith by living in denial of what IS – but rather, in acknowledging our troubles and our inability to do anything about them, is the necessary trigger which releases the grace of God into our lives!
When God told Paul this in reply to his desire to be removed from satan’s attacks, Paul replied like this,
“Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Wherefore I take pleasure in weaknesses, in injuries, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.” – 2 Corinthians 12:9-10
Psalm 40…
“(13) LORD, be pleased to deliver me; hurry to help me, LORD.
(14) Let those who seek to take my life be disgraced and confounded. Let those who wish me harm be driven back and humiliated.
(15) Let those who say to me, “Aha, aha!” be horrified because of their shame.
(16) Let all who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; let those who love Your salvation continually say, The LORD is great!”
Then David closes with an embracing of his weakness coupled with a require for God’s willing strength to deliver.
“(17) I am afflicted and needy; the Lord thinks of me. You are my help and my deliverer; my God, do not delay.”
Psalm 41:1-13,
As always there are many, MANY things we can get from the Psalms, but before we branch off into the hypothetical, metaphorical or methodological we need to first grasp what was actually being said.
Meaning, we need to be careful to honestly deal with a passage of scripture, so that we may understand it correctly, use it correctly and reference it correctly.
David here begins with a spiritual principle which is true regardless of what covenant you are under. God honors those who care for the poor and afflicted.
Then David branches off into an example of God doing this for him – but we need to be careful not to lose sight that in keeping with David’s opening statements, God’s intervention on his behalf was due to David’s attitude and actions towards the poor, needy and afflicted.
This is very much like what we used to, and many others still do, when quoting Philippians 4:19,
“But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
This is SO OFTEN quoted by Christians in a superficial “faith statement” which is not supported by this passage nor backed by the actions of their lives.
If you were to ask the average Christian what Paul was JUST talking about before saying this statement, they would almost certainly NOT be able to tell you. The verse itself begins with the word “BUT” which is a strong indicator that something very important was said just before this which may very well affect your understanding of the claim and show you in what conditions his next words could apply to you!
Paul was just telling the Philippians thank you for the financial support they had just begun to start sending to him once more. They were in fact his FIRST financial supporters in ministry, but due to some unspecified difficulties of their own they stopped sending him support for a time. Now the church in Philippi began to do so again.
Paul assured them that he was quite able to get on without their support. That he had gained the wisdom of knowing how to be satisfied with both little and much – that God empowered him for this. Nevertheless, because of their supply sent to him in his ministry for the Kingdom of God, he told them that God would in turn supply all of their needs by His riches in glory.
This is a promise for those who give into the work of the kingdom – and in particular to the relief of those who are called full-time into kingdom work.
By doing this they were seeking first the furtherance of the kingdom of God and His righteousness and so Paul was on good spiritual and scriptural ground to tell them that God would therefore meet their needs as well – just as Jesus had said in Luke 12:31-33.
Christians attempt to use this verse all the time as a positive and faith confession though their giving is near to non-existent!
It is important to know the scriptures. What they do and do not say, what they do and do not promise and under what conditions.
With this in our minds let’s consider this Psalm which again states God’s provision for those who are mindful of and care for the needy, followed by an example of the same in David’s life.
“(1) For the choir director. A Davidic psalm.
Happy is one who cares for the poor; the LORD will save him in a day of adversity.
(2) The LORD will keep him and preserve him; he will be blessed in the land. You will not give him over to the desire of his enemies.
(3) The LORD will sustain him on his sickbed; You will heal him on the bed where he lies.
(4) I said, “LORD, be gracious to me; heal me, for I have sinned against You.”
(5) My enemies speak maliciously about me: “When will he die and be forgotten?” (6) When one of them comes to visit, he speaks deceitfully; he stores up evil in his heart; he goes out and talks. (7) All who hate me whisper together about me; they plan to harm me.
(8) “Lethal poison has been poured into him, and he won’t rise again from where he lies!”
(9) Even my friend in whom I trusted, one who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.
(10) But You, LORD, be gracious to me and raise me up; then I will repay them.
(11) By this I know that You delight in me: my enemy does not shout in triumph over me. (12) You supported me because of my integrity and set me in Your presence forever.
(13) May the LORD, the God of Israel, be praised from everlasting to everlasting.
Amen and amen.”
This is the conclusion of Book I in the greater Book of Psalms.
Just as a reminder…
Book I is comprised of the first 41 chapters in the greater Book of Psalms.
Book I covers the time period of David’s life 1020-970 BC. It naturally fitting therefore that David himself wrote nearly all of this first book (with the exceptions of Psalms 1 & 10)
Book I of course begins with Psalms 1 & 2 which we saw function much like an introduction to the entire collection of Psalms.
- Psalm 1 – Focuses on the Torah, the Law, the godly vs. the ungodly and begins with “happy is the one who…”.
- Psalm 2 – Focuses on the coming Messiah, grace, unfruitfulness versus fruitfulness and ends with “happy are those who”
- Psalm 3 actually begins the content of Book I which starts off with turmoil in that it alludes to Absalom’s attempt to divide his father David’s kingdom. As it turns out, a good number of the Psalms in Books 1-3 take the form of laments – kind of like Lamentations.
The greater Book of Psalms contains at least 73 Psalms authored by David, though he may have contributed to some of the 50 Psalms whose authors remain unknown.
He lived around 1000 BC and most likely composed the majority of his Psalms on a lyre which was a type of harp.
In addition to nearly the entirety of Book I, David also composed Psalms 51-65; 68-70; 86; 101; 103; 108-110; 122; 124; 131; 133 and 138-145. So we are far from done with David’s Psalms at this point!
Next week we will begin with Psalm 42 which is both a lament and the first Psalm of Book II in the greater Book of Psalms. It is composed by the sons of Korah which I will remind you about next week.
Blessings!
Tri
