psalm chapter thirty nine so you may bear with me i've
uh... trying a new form of uh... of
message here. I'm not handwriting this one,
I've actually had it typed, so it's a little different format,
so I'm trying to get used to. Pray about that, that doesn't
confuse me. Psalm 39. We're looking at the whole chapter
this morning. This psalm, the title of the
message this morning, is Three Lessons in Chastisement. Three
Lessons in Chastisement. Now this psalm of David was penned,
was penned, no doubt, during a time of either great sickness
or great conviction of sin before God. But either way, we know this,
that in this psalm you're going to see that he is pressed, that
the hand of God is pressed on him, that he is heavily chastened,
and he felt this deeply. And I believe that this psalm
that went before surely describes his condition, his condition
as he wrote this psalm. Look at Psalm 38 and verse 1. He says, O LORD, rebuke me not
in thy wrath, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. For
thine arrows sink fast in me, and thy hand presseth sore. There
is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger, neither is there
any rest in my bones because of my sin. For my iniquities
are gone over my head, and in heavy burden they are too heavy
for me. Every believer, by reading these
words, can quickly identify with David's experience. We can quickly
identify that though we have been given a new nature, a new
man, created after true holiness, that neither desires any sin,
but only righteousness, to do those things that please God.
Yet we are always confronted with the old man of sin. We are
always confronted with this principle, this law, this nature that is
in our mind, the old man warring against the law of Christ. which
is faith and love for Him who died in our stead. These two
are constantly at struggle, and we are often brought to see the
old vile nature flood our hearts and souls. David said, my heavy,
my iniquities are gone over my head. It is though a tidal wave
had come in of sin and overwhelmed him and flooded his heart and
flooded his mind. We too often have this come over
us, our sin and our uncleanness and iniquity goes over our head.
We are again exposed to see what we really are. Sinners. Sinners. We are exposed to see
the grotesque and hideous nature of our flesh. So when God in
love chastens us because of our sin, we feel the arrows of His
grace. You see, God shoots these arrows
not in vengeance, but in grace. He chastens us. These arrows
are meant not to destroy us, but rather to chasten us. To
discipline us. These arrows stick fast in us,
and we remember the stench of our corruption. for this purpose,
that we would return to Him. Our Father chastens us for this
distinct purpose, that you should forsake your sin and turn to
Him. Believer, are you troubled with
sin? This is a rhetorical question. We know this is constant. Are you troubled with sin? Does
God's arrow sink deep into your heart? Does His hand press hard
upon you because of your iniquity? Look at verse 6 of 38. David
said, I am troubled. I am bowed down greatly. I go
mourning all the day long. My loins are filled with a loathsome
disease. And there is no soundness in
my flesh. I am feeble and sore broken. I have roared by reason
of my disquietness of my heart." Anybody got any experience with
that? If you're a believer in Christ,
you do. You understand exactly what He feels. What He knows. And believer, when we find our
souls so chastened and afflicted, I want you to understand the
first instinct, usually of ours, is wrong. Usually the chastisement
is meant to draw us back to God, sometimes leads us further into
sin. We are so prone to great sins. And what is the first sin that
comes to mind when you are chastened? Murmur. to complain. I like that. I have it pinned
in my office. Let me not talk of the sovereignty of God and
then complain of my lot in life. That is inconsistent. Matter
of fact, it's nothing more than idolatry and covetousness. To
murmur against God's chastening hand. But yet it is our first
instinct. It is the first instinct of the
flesh. Why me? Why me? Why not you? Do you deserve anything better?
I'm sure we deserve worse than what we had. The scripture says this, the
lot is cast in the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is where? In the hand of God. So why is
it that you are where you are? Why is it that you being chastened,
you being afflicted because of your sin, what is the purpose?
Who's doing it? God is doing it. God is doing
it. One man wrote this, we are so
prone to look at the stick that hits us rather than the hand
that wields it. As an axe could not cut anything
without the hand, so can nothing touch the elect except God purpose
it. Are you afflicted? Are you sick?
Are you troubled? Who's doing it? Who's doing it? Shall not there be evil in the
city? And the Lord hath not done it? Who's doing it? Why are you afflicted? Why are
you tormented? Why are you persecuted? Why is
your life a mess? Well, we know the root cause
is your sin, but we know this, the ultimate cause is God. God
is doing all things, all things after the counsel of His own
will. And to murmur against our providence is to murmur against
the hand that wields providence. That's the first sin that we
are so prone to when we murmur. Are you chastened of the Lord? Let not your heart despise it,
nor let it be confounded or confused. Believer, let us not be doubtful
of our Father's love or question His omnipotent wisdom. Over in Hebrews chapter 12, the
Apostle speaks concerning chastisement. Matter of fact, the necessity
of it. the necessity of it. In Hebrews chapter 12 and verse
5 it says this, have you forgotten? We're prone to forget. Matter
of fact, that Psalm in chapter 38 is a Psalm of remembrance.
Have you forgotten? Have you forgotten? The exhortation
which speaketh unto us is unto children. My son, despise not
the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou are rebuked of
him. Why? For whom the Lord loveth, he
chasteneth, and scourgeth every son he receiveth. Are you chastened
of the hand of the Lord? You should not be confounded.
Why? Because the only chastened sons. Good news. Even in chastisement. That's a great lesson, isn't
it? That we should learn. Chastisement is only meant for
sons. Why is the world so happy? Why
are they in their sin? They're so free. They seem without
bands. The psalmist said in Psalm 73,
Asaph, he said, you know, I envy the world. There's no bands in
their death. Their mouth is wide open and
they just say things. They're bold in everything they
do. Why? They're not sons. They're not
sons. God chasteneth his sons, and
scourgeth every one he receiveth. Are you chasing? Is that good
or bad? Is your chastisement good or
bad? It's good. It's good. And no chastening at times doesn't
seem pleasant. God never says to enjoy the actual
event of chastisement. It's unpleasant! No chastening at the time seems
pleasant. But what is the It's not the chastisement, but
rather the end. The Lord is working to an end.
Chastisement has a reason. That it yield peaceable fruit
unto righteousness. Only His children are made to
feel, then, the arrows of His grace. Remember, His only sons
are made to be pressed down, made to bow down before God over
our sins. Believer, What are these arrows? What are these instruments that
God uses us to bring us low? When God is chastening you, what
really brings you low? Well, I know this. The law makes us feel guilty.
There's no doubt about that. Our guilt overwhelms us. But
what is it that really sticks deep into our heart? It's not
the law, because usually we look at the law and we can sear our
conscience when it comes to matters of law. We look at it, and it's
really bad, and then we look at it again, it's not so bad,
and we look at it again, it's not... What really hurts? Is it not the love? Is it not His pursuing love that
causes that arrow to stick deep into our hearts? It is. It's His grace. It's His grace
and love that afflicts us. Why do we not want to sin? Because
of His love, because of His grace, because of His Son. When we sin
against God, it's not the law that torments us, but rather
the love and grace that is found in Christ that moves us to weep
over our sins. When we are overwhelmed in our
sin and rebellion, it is then that God looks at us. You remember when Peter sinned
and denied the Lord three times. It says this in Luke. Peter said, Man, I know not what
thou sayest. And immediately when he spake,
the cock crew and the Lord turned and looked. Is it not the look of our Master that causes us
great shame when we sin? It's not a look of condemnation,
but a look of love and mercy. And Peter went out and wept bitterly. Believer is not the love of God
in Christ the cause for us to lament over our sins. This love
is only seen in the eyes of Christ, who in love bore our sins in
His own body on the tree. It was Jesus who suffered the
full measure of God's wrath. And it's in this sorrow for sin
It so often leads believers to what David does now in this text. Now, we see David's chastened
of the Lord. We see he's afflicted by his
sin. We see the arrows of God sinking
deep into David's heart. And he, instead of murmuring
now, he's over that. What is he doing? Now look what
he does. He leads him to this other sin. He said, he said,
I said, in his chastisement, in his grief, he said, I said,
I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue,
I will keep my mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me. I was dumb with silence, I held
my peace, even from good, and my sorrow stirred. David here
under the chastisement and lamenting over his sin and rebellious,
over his sickness and circumstance, he determines to do something.
He determines to do something. He determines not to sin. Then we're going to see another
division, that's going to be my first division. The second
one is verses 3 through 6. David learns something. He has
a revelation given to him by God. This determination will
fail. And then he turns to God and
he asks for a lesson to teach. And God reveals something to
him. He reveals this, the frailty of his flesh and the vanity of
his nature. And then the third thing, David
doesn't make a determination, he just makes a declaration.
What is his declaration? Hope in God and prayer. He said, I determined to hope
in God and to pray. So these are the three lessons
that I want you to learn in chastisement. I pray the Lord will help us.
First, look at this determination. David says, I will take ye to
my ways, I will keep my mouth as a bridle. What I want you to see first
is the goodness and sincerity of David's determination. Can
you find anything wrong with his determination? Can you find
anything wrong with it? Surely every believer, especially
one who is afflicted because of his sin, is it not right then
to determine not to sin? If we are afflicted by our sins
because of our murmurings and complainings, surely it is a
good thing for us to determine to keep from sin. You remember
Jesus told that woman taking in adultery, what did he say?
Go and sin no more. Good determination, that's a
good thing. You should not sin. John says,
little children, I write you to these things, that you sin
not. I know this is, what I said before,
is the longing of our heart, isn't it? To not sin. That's
the longing of the new nature, to not sin. Matter of fact, believer, we
are commanded by the revealed will of God to flee from sin,
avoid sin, and mortify sin. Is that not right? Paul says
this, flee fornication. Isn't that just a good command?
Isn't that a good thing? To exhort one to flee from sin?
You know, I remember Augustine had very great difficulty with
the lust of his flesh, and he had to run one time. He got into
a place, and he was tempted to sin. He had to actually take
off! Good! If you're in a situation,
believer, where your sin is temptation, run! Flee! Get out. Avoid it. He said avoid foolish
questions, genealogies. Isn't that interesting to us? Somebody has all these questions,
these high thought. Avoid them. Run away from them. Don't engage with them. They're
just seeking some kind of glory for themselves. Avoid them. Avoid
foolish questions, genealogies which strife. And in Colossians
3, he said, Mortify your members which are upon the earth. So
these are good things, right? To determine not to sin is a
good thing. There's nothing wrong with his
determination. Matter of fact, God reveals that
we should. What then is the problem with David's determination? Look at this. I said, two words,
I will. There it is. There's the problem.
There's the root of his failure right there. I will. Well, let's get our watches out
and see how long this lasts. I determine within my own self,
within my own strength, that I will not sin again. anybody
said that now i i don't want you raise your hand to you might
get embarrassed but everybody i know in this whole room said
i'm done with that done it out finish that is and sure enough
you right back where you start you did it you did it i will
i will keep my sways i will bridle my tongue Listen, believe me,
you could pluck your eyes out of your head, cut off your hands
and cut off your feet, and the eyes of your mind will still
lust. The hands of your mind will still
reach for sin. The feet of your mind will still
run as quickly as it can to sin. Notice in verse 2, David was
able to do this, at least in his own mind, for a short period
of time. and so we made to keep up this outwardly right you make
you may keep it up our you make really just grit your teeth and
determine not to do something and you may for a time all until
you feel good about it and we feel good about it then you just
let yourself go a little bit more and more david was able to do this for
a time you may keep up appearances we like david when you keep something
in It only grows worse. Somebody once said, if you put
a tiger in a cage, he's still a tiger. If you put up a fire inside a
contained area, pretty soon it'll explode. and that's what happens
when man tries to keep sin in his own strength and push it
down push it down pretty soon it erupts it erupts what did
david say look at this he said my sorrow was stirred it didn't
make things better his sorrow was stirred and look at this
He said, my heart was hot within me while I was musing. The fire
burned. Then it exploded. That thing I determined to do,
sure enough, I did it. I did it. Believer, if you grieve with
your sin, is the hand of the Lord heavy upon you? Do you desire
to keep yourself from your complaint? Do you desire to keep yourself
from sin? Listen, with you it is impossible. You won't do it. You won't do
it. You cannot do it. You desire to keep yourself from
sin, but you will not do it in your own grief. You cannot cure yourself. And you will not, God will not
allow you to comfort yourself with your resolutions and determinations. Do not keep the pain of sin.
or else it will explode into sorrow and grief. Yet when we
by our determinations only fail to cure ourselves by the power
of our flesh, the end is always the same. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. This is a lesson
that we must learn in chastisement. Because that's exactly what we
try to do when God chastens us, we say, I won't do it again. Well, in your own strength, you
will. You will. But notice this second thing,
a divine revelation. Verse 4-6, David could not hold
his tongue and he cried unto the Lord, Lord, make me to know
my end and the measure of my days, what it is, that I may
know how frail I am. Behold, thou hast made my days
as a hand-breath, and mine age is as nothing before thee. Verily
man at his best state is altogether vanity." Vanity. Now David desires to know of
the Lord the brevity of his life, the frailty of his nature. Surely We would not make such
foolish resolutions to keep ourselves in our own strength if we had
a better understanding of who we are. You wouldn't try it if
you knew really who you were. Lord, help me to know who I am
so I will not do that. I will not make these vain determinations
in my own strength. Let me know. And so David learned
something in this prayer. First of all, he learns the days,
the shortness and brevity of his life. And secondly, he learns
that man is at his best state, altogether, vanity. Believer,
may God teach us to number our days. Why? That we may incline
our hearts to wisdom. Your life is so short. Your life
is just a breath. You take a man and two friends
and they're in their young age and one dies and the other lives
to be old. When he gets to the point of
death, what will he say? He'll say that that span between
him and his friend is nothing. Nothing. It was a brief moment,
a brief time. You that are older, is that not
so? Has your life not been a breath, just a hand breath? It is nothing
to an infinite God. Our life is but a span, and that's
it. It's nothing. Lord, teach us
this. Why? So that we may set our eyes
on Christ, that we may set our affection on Christ, and not
on ourself, not relying in our own strength, but looking to
Christ. And when we look to Him, it is
only by looking to Him that we are able to move from sin. It
is only by keeping our affection and love toward Him that sin
is put away. Scripture says, All flesh is
grass, and the glory of man is as the flower of the grass. The
grass withereth, the flower fadeth away. So what do we hold on to? But the word of the Lord endureth
forever. What do you hold on to? I want
to hold on to that which endures forever. I want to hold on to
that thing that is going to last longer than I am. It is the gospel. It is Christ. Hold fast to Christ. Look to Christ. Follow Christ.
Obey Christ. And you shall not fulfill the
lust of the flesh. If we have our affection on Christ
and our eyes are on Christ, our eyes are not on the sin. They're
not on the lust. They're on Christ. And the moment
you take your eyes off Christ, what are you doing? You're sinking
again. Look to Christ. May God teach us then to look
to Christ. And then when we do, what do
we learn? We learn this. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. That if I were capable of not
sinning from this point forward, how much would that help me to
God? Not one bit. Why? Because Christ is all my righteousness. Christ is all my sanctification.
Christ is all my wisdom. Christ is my redemption. Christ
is my love, my joy, my peace. He's everything to me. And what am I? Vanity. Here today, gone tomorrow. Do you realize this? That in
a hundred years, no one will even know we were here. They won't even know. There will
be a picture in an album somewhere. Who's that? I don't know. Somebody's grandma somewhere.
Why are you so concerned about it then? What are you so wrapped up with
the things of the world for? Let them go. Follow Christ. Obey
Christ. Believe Christ. Trust Christ.
Why? Your vanity. Nothing. Nothing. Where then shall the chastened
sinner go? Seeing then we cannot determine
to keep ourselves from sin, seeing that our life is but a hand breath,
that our best state is altogether vanity, where then does the chastened
sinner turn for joy, hope, and peace? Most surely we can't run
to our determination But look where David turns in the greatest
time of his grief and sorrow. Go to Psalm 51. Remember, this
is his greatest grief, was when he had committed that great sin
with Bathsheba and murdered her husband. And the Lord sent His
prophet to reveal to him his sin. In Psalm 51, and look at
verse 4, He cries against thee, and thee only have I sinned.
and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest be justified
when thou speakest and clear when thou judgest. Behold, I
was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. What did he learn? His vanity.
Vanity. Behold, thou desirest truth on
the inward parts, and in the hidden part thou shalt make known
to me Y'all shall make me to know wisdom. Look at His cry.
Purge me with hyssop. That's that branch that they
use to sprinkle the blood upon the mercy seat. Hyssop. Purge
me with the blood of Christ. Cleanse me from my sins. And
what? I shall be clean. I shall be
washed. Wash me and I'll be whiter than
snow. If I am washed in His blood, my sins will be white. They'll
be gone forever. Cleansed. Make me to hear joy
and gladness. What is joy and gladness that
we hear? Is it not the gospel? The joy and gladness of Christ.
The joy that's found in Him and His gospel. Hide thy face from
my sins. Blot out mine iniquities. Create
in me a clean heart. O God, and renew a right spirit
within me. Cast me not away from Thy presence.
Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of
Thy salvation. Notice He didn't say to restore
the joy of my salvation, Thy salvation. And uphold me with
Thy free spirit. This is where the believer turns,
seeing his vanity. And David then makes a declaration.
Look at this in your text in Psalm 39. He says this in verse
7, And now, Lord, what wait I for? Seeing that I ain't got much
time, what am I waiting for? What am I waiting for? Seeing
I am altogether vanity and cannot keep myself from sin, what am
I waiting for? I will hope in you. There's a
declaration, not a determination, declaration. There's my hope.
There's my hope. What is my confidence that I
shall see God and live forever? You won't see it in me. You'll
see it in my hope. The Lord is my hope. My hope. David here declares it. He declares
the truth that his hope is not in himself or his determination,
which is vanity, but rather his confidence of salvation is in
God. This he should have done first.
Any doubt of that? That he should have done that
first? In his chastisement, should we
not skip the other two and just say, my hope is in God. My confidence
is in Him. God has to bring us through this.
You have to learn the other two before you're going to do the
other. That's just what God does. Believer, you should loathe your
sin, and yes, you should flee from it, avoid it, and mortify
it, but never attempt to do it in your own power, but rather
by looking to faith in Christ. That's it. Simple. Gospel's not
complicated. Don't make it into a law of rules
and regulation. It is simple. If you desire to
flee from sin, look to Christ, and you won't do it. If you're
looking at Christ, if you're holding to Christ, if you're
fleeing to Christ, you won't. Now, Martin Luther said this.
He said, I can't stop the birds from flocking, but I can stop
them from nesting. You won't stop the feeling of
sin coming up. But surely, we can avoid it and
flee from it, how? By looking to Christ, by entering
into the things of God, trusting in Him, in His strength. Why? Because in weakness is His
strength made what? Manifest, perfect. His strength
is perfect to keep you. Chastened and weary believer,
what are you waiting for? Hope now in God. Said, all your
hope, all your strength. I have no strength in myself.
Lord, you are my strength. Can you find a stronger source
to keep you from sin? Anything less than the power
of God is too weak. Anything less than the power
of God is too weak. Won't do it. Determine then to hope in God.
For Christ has delivered, look at this, He said, You're my hope
because deliver me from my transgression. Listen, Christ has delivered
you from the penalty of sin. There's therefore now no condemnation
of those who are in Christ. Why? He put it away by His one
sacrifice. Scripture says that He hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified by His one offering. He has delivered
you from the power of sin. Do you realize that? That you
are delivered from the very power of sin in that you have a new
nature? In that the Holy Spirit of God Himself dwells in you? Is that not enough power? Yes. Strength. Power is from
Him. See, it's not a cooperative effort
though. It's all Him. It's all Him. It's laying prostrate
at His feet. You know, my greatest picture
of this is when the, I believe it was Hezekiah when he was surrounded
by those Assyrians. You remember what he did with
those letters? The letters told him, you don't trust in your
God. We're going to come and we're going to destroy you just
like I did every other kingdom. What did he do? Did he raise
an army? Did he sharpen his spear? He set himself in battle array
against the enemy? No. He spread the letters before
the Lord. That's a good thing to do. Take
yourself and your vanity and spread it out. And lay there
until God answers. What else are you going to do? Determination fails. Absolute surrender is the only
option. And it's a good option. Why? Because He delivers us from
the power of sin. And you know, one day, He's going
to deliver me from the very presence of sin. This is my hope, my confidence,
that one day I won't have to deal with this anymore. When? Soon. Remember, I'm only a hand
breath. That's it. And I won't have to
deal with this anymore. Good hope. A good hope. And this
good hope leads us to prayer. Look at that. David, he says
this, Look at verse 12. He said, Hear
my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry. Hold not thy peace
at my tears, for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner as
all my fathers were. You see, he takes his place with
Christ. Christ was a stranger here. And you listen, when you
don't run in excess with others, you'll be a stranger. You won't
be People won't know how to deal with you. Oh spare me that I may recover
strength before I go hence and be no more. He's praying for
healing. He's being chastened by sickness or whatever and he
prays for healing. When a man's chastened, is not
our whole body affected? Our mind, our body is weak, we
become sickly. Chastisement is a real thing.
And what is the remedy? Hope in Christ. Faith in Christ. Obedience to Christ. Love. May God bless us, even in the
midst of our chastisement, teach us, instruct us, forsake our
vain determinations, know our vanity, and hope in God. Three lessons in chastisement. God bless you. Let's stand and
be dismissed in prayer.