Psalm 39. The title of the message is Life, Death,
and Hope. David speaks of all three of
these in this psalm. was a man after God's own heart. He was deeply concerned. You
can tell this by reading the Psalms. But he was deeply concerned about
his relationship with God. I would to God that we would
be this deeply concerned. David was very sensitive. to
the hand of God in his afflictions. David could not stand the thought
of offending his God. And this shows up in the way
he prays all the time. And I thought of our Lord, the
greater David. He was very sensitive of his
relationship with his Father, God the Father. He was very sensitive.
He said, my meat is to do the will of Him that sent me. As
I hear, I speak. I do always those things that
please Him. He was very sensitive to it. And we ought to be very
sensitive and very guarded in our lives
when it comes to our relationship to God. and when we're out there
among the world, and you're going to see this with David. Now, he says here in verse 1,
David says, I said, he's speaking to himself. He's
speaking to himself. There is a time, and there's
a good time, to speak to yourself, especially concerning the things
of God. David often communed with his
own heart up on his bed. And that's a good thing to do.
Especially, you know, when we are going to pray, it's good
to think about it. When you're off to yourself,
you're by yourself, it's good to think about it, get some thought
to it. And David's given some thought to this. You know, Solomon
said in one place, Son, keep thine heart. For out of it are
the issues of life. David says here, I said, I will
take heed to my ways. He's speaking to himself in his
heart. This is part of what, keep your
heart. Commune with it. And here's his resolve. I will
take heed to my ways that I sin not with my tongue. I will watch
over my conduct and my speech in public." That's what he's
talking about. David knew, especially being
the king, and being a servant of God, and
being a child of God, he knew that when he spoke, people listened. People listened. They paid attention.
I said to Henry one time, and this is after I'd been there
a while, a few years, and I was going somewhere with
him to preach, I believe it was he was going to preach, and I
said, Henry, I realize, I realize that you have to be very careful
who you put in the pulpit, because when you put your hand on somebody,
everybody just thinks that's And I said, you have to be careful
what you say because when you say something, when he says something,
if I say something, you're going to, then when I say it, you're
going to like, then when he said it, you know, we paid attention. Paid attention. And so David's
saying here that I'm going to put a watch, you know, I'm going
to take heed, I'm going to put a watch to my ways, my conduct,
and my conversation when I'm in public. A child of God is
sensitive about bringing reproach on His heavenly Father's name.
We ought to be very sensitive about that. And if you'll notice
here, David starts with his tongue. This is where trouble usually
starts. That's where it usually starts. When you walk into a
room, the first thing you do is open
your mouth. Isn't it? We walk in here, the
first thing we do is start talking. And that's why David starts with
the tongue. James says this in James 3.2,
For in many things we offend all. We offend all. We're full of sin. We can't help
from offending somebody, sometime. If any man offend not in word,
The same is a perfect man, he's a mature man, and able also to
bridle the whole body. He said if he's able to control
his tongue, he can control his whole body. I will take heed to my ways,
that I sin not with my tongue. I will keep my mouth with a bridle,
with a muzzle. Now listen, while the wicked
is before me. We have a tendency, we have a
real tendency that when we run into old cronies, we have a real
tendency to fall into their ways. They don't fall into ours. We
have a tendency to fall into their ways because it used to
be our way. And so David said, I am making
a conscious effort to put a bridle on my tongue to watch my mouth
when the wicked are before me. When unbelievers are around,
he's saying, let's be careful how we talk, especially when
we are under trials. Because then, when we open our
mouth, we are more apt to complain. We're more apt to murmur when
we're under trials. And this is really what David
is talking about. He's under a heavy trial here.
He talks about his transgressions. He talks about God's hand being
a heavy blow against him. And he's saying, while the wicked
are before me, the unbeliever, while they're before me, I'm
not going to say anything. I'm going to keep my mouth shut.
Boy, that's about as wise advice you can get. When you're under heavy trials,
the best thing to do is be still and know that I'm God. And David also knew this. He
knew that the wicked, they would take his words and twist them
as they did our Lord's. They would misunderstand what
he's saying. We have a perfect example of
that in Job. His three friends, they thought
he had done something so wicked. You must really have done something
bad, Job, for God to be doing this. It would have been wise if they
sat there for seven days and seven nights, I think. They sat
there for several days and nights and never said a word. It would
have been to their wisdom to just got up and went home. Just
let their presence be known, got up and went home. But they
didn't. They opened their mouth and they just added to His affliction. David said, I want to keep my
mouth with a muzzle. I'm going to put a muzzle on
it while the wicked is before me. He said, I was done with
silence. That is, I kept quiet. With all
that was being said, David said, I didn't answer. I kept quiet. That's hard to do, isn't it?
That's hard to do. When people are making accusations,
you know that they don't understand what's going on. They haven't
seen what's going on. And to be quiet, like our Lord,
when He was standing before Pilate, He answered him not a word. I was done with silence. I held
my peace, even from good. I didn't even speak anything
good because I knew they wouldn't understand that either. They'd
turn that around too. But what David is saying, what
he is saying here is, I was done with silence and I held my peace
while under this affliction. Even when I speak good, they'll
twist it. I'm just not going to say anything. They'll not
understand what I'm going through. Not the unbelievers. Now, believers,
You understand what, if I talk about going through something,
you say something to me about going through something, we have a
kindred spirit. We know something about what
each other's going through, but they don't. They don't. Their
reaction is this. If they don't say it out loud,
they're thinking it in their heart, I thought you was a Christian.
I thought you was a believer. I thought you were God's child.
Dave said, I just didn't even open my mouth. But look what happened here when
he kept his mouth shut. He said, I was done with silence.
I held my peace, even from good, and my sorrow was stirred. I was not giving vent to what
was going on. I was not giving vent to the
pain and the suffering that God's put me through. And by not doing
that, he said, my heart burned, my sorrow was stirred. And he said, my heart was hot
within me. Well, I was musing the fire burn. That's like putting wood on the
fire. While I was meditating, he said,
it just burned. Then spake I with my tongue.
Then I did speak. You know, we can only keep it
quiet so long. You can only keep pain, the pain
you're going through, you can only keep that in so long. Silence is good. Now listen,
it shows submission to the will of God. But silence toward God
is not good. That's not good. And when David
spoke, when he said, I spoke with my tongue, he spoke to the
right person. Oh, listen, get that. He spoke
to the right person. He spoke to the Lord. And here's his request. This
would be wise, this would be a wise prayer us to pray what
David prayed here. This is spiritual wisdom here. Lord, make me to know mine end. Not just that he's going to die.
We all know that, don't we? We all know that. Let me give
you a couple things here. One of them is this, make me
to know that things are well with my soul. Make me to know
this. I want to know, listen, before
I die, I want to know, Lord, I am yours
and you are mine. Make me to know that. That's
why He's saying, make me to know I'm yours. I'm yours." And then
I think he's saying this, and I heard Henry say this in a message
one time, and I think it's so. Make me to know my end in Christ. Make me to know what I have in
Thee. Make me to know where the true
riches are. The true riches are in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Make me to know where my treasure
really is, because that's where my heart is. Make me to know
this." And I like what he's saying to
the Lord here. Make me know it. Make me to know it. Don't just
show it to me like a flash card or something. Make me to know
it. Burn it into my heart that I'm yours. Never let me forget
that. While I'm out here in public,
never let me forget I'm your son. We have a good end in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Make me to know that, so that
I'll set my heart on things above and not on the things of this
earth. You know as a king, As a king, it would have been easy
for him to have just got sidetracked, and you know, you get caught
up in the glory of it, the fame of it, the riches of it, you
get it... He's asking the Lord to make
him to know, whatever way the Lord makes him know it, that
I'm yours. Never let me forget that. I'm
your child. You're my God. You're my God
here, and you're my God out there. You're my God. And listen, the measure of my
days. You notice that he didn't say
the measure of my years. He calls it days. My days, now listen, my days
and your days are numbered. They're numbered. I'm telling
you, I've got a date on a calendar and a time on that date that
God has appointed for me to leave this world. I know that. And you too. You too. That day
is appointed. It's appointed when a man wants
to die. God keeps His appointments. My days and your days are numbered.
They're marked on God's calendar. Job said this in Job 7 verse
1, Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? And I mean that's every man,
every woman on earth. Are not his days also like the
days of a hireling? You punch in, you punch out.
You serve your time. He says, and it's written in
Job 14, 14, If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of
my appointed time will I wait. My appointed time will I wait
till my chains come. Now why did David ask? He asked,
he said, Make me to know mine end and the measure of my days,
what it is. Let me see life for what it is. Since the Lord has revealed the
gospel to me, since I have believed the gospel, since the Lord has
saved me, I have never looked at this world the same. Never. And the older I get, the more
I realize and understand that the whole world, as the Scripture
says, lies in wickedness. I mean from top to bottom. It
lies in wickedness. There's only one book written
that doesn't have a lie in it, and that's the Word of God. Only
one. Teach me what it is. It's a vapor. You are a bunch of vapors. That's
what you are. You're like fog in the morning
when the sun comes up and burns it off. You're gone. A vapor. you know, our Lord in the Gospels
of Matthew. He said, is not life more than
this? Is it not more than what am I going to eat, what am I
going to drink, what am I going to wear? You know, life is more than that.
Life is knowing God. Life is knowing the Lord Jesus
Christ. Eternal life is to know God and
Jesus Christ whom He has sent. But this earthly life, what is
it? It's a vapor. It's a vapor. And what he's saying here, listen,
what it is that I may know how frail I am. Does anybody here
want to know how frail they really are? No, we like to think we're
strong. And the older you get, you know,
the more we like to look like we're strong. You know, we're
not. You know, I try to exercise with
some of these younger guys, and that's like, I want you to just
quit being stupid and go home. That I may know how frail I am. We're a bunch of frail creatures. You may live to be old and you
may not. You know that? And what he's saying here, always
remind me, always make me mindful of the shortness of this life,
so that I don't invest in it too much. I don't want to invest
too much in this life. Our Lord said, lay up your treasures
in heaven, where moth and rust does not corrupt and thieves
cannot break through and steal. You may live to be old, you may
not. I've known some. I had a friend,
19 years of age. He didn't live to be old. I was working at the machine
shop, and the young man I was training before I came here.
He's the only person that ever started doing this, but he started
calling me old man. He said, hey, old man. That didn't bother
me, because I am in his sight. He was just in his 20s. He said,
hey, old man, what you doing today? Hey, old man, come over
here. Hey, old man. I said, at least I made it to be an old
man. I said, you ain't there yet. You might not make it. And
he was like, and there was like a deer caught in the headlight.
He was like, oh. Oh. He never considered that. He never considered that this
old man is an old man because I didn't die. You know, I'm still
around. But he's a young man, and he
may not be around. He may not be around. That's not trying to scare anybody,
that's just being truthful. That's just being truthful. Every child of God ought to keep
this in front of them. Do everything in the light of
this. We are frail creatures. We're here for just a brief time. He said, Behold, thou hast made
my days as a handbreadth. You know what's interesting here?
How the Lord can make us to know something even while we're praying.
You get the answer while you're praying? Lord, make me to know mine end
and the measure of my days, what it is, that I may know how frail
I am. Behold! It just dawned on him. It's like,
Behold, give attention to this. You've made my days as a hand-breath."
You know what a hand-breath is? It's the width of my hand. He
said, that's my days. He realized as he was asking
the Lord, the Lord gave him the answer. Your days are just like
a hand-breath on this earth. And notice here, he says, Behold,
thou hast made... God has made all my days. All
my days. He's made all my days on this
earth, and they are short. And mine age is as nothing before
thee." My age is nothing. It don't matter if you live to
be old as Methuselah. 969 years. Guess what? That's
been a long time ago. He's been gone for a long time.
969 years, and it says, and he died. And he died. My age is nothing before Thee.
What is my age compared to eternity? What is my age compared to God
who has no beginning of days nor end of life? What are my
days? They're nothing. As far as time
goes, they're nothing. People want to live a long time,
but they have no idea what long time is. They have no idea what
really long time is. Eternity. That's without time. And listen to this. He says,
My age is nothing before you, but let's also apply this to
the age we live in. The age I live in will soon be
gone. My grandparents are gone. My
parents, they're getting frail. They're getting frail. Every
time I talk to them on the phone or I go in, they're getting more
and more frail. Dad's been 90 years old and Mom's
right there with him. They're almost gone. And he's got seven kids right
behind him. right behind them. Then the grandchildren, they'll
grow up and they'll be right behind us. And it's just like a train. Gone. The baby boomers. I'm coming toward the end of
the baby boomers. And we're almost gone. My ages is nothing before the
Verily, every man at his best state, at his most settled state,
is altogether vanity." Here's David's assessment of man. He
looked at himself and he said, Lord, teach me how frail I am.
Teach me my end. Teach me what it is, that I may
know the measure of my days, that I'll give attention to these
things. I won't ignore them. And then he turns to a man. in general, the unbelievers.
He turns to the unbelievers. But not only that, but just every
man, every man at his best state is altogether vanity or unsatisfactory. Man is mortal. Every man. He's all got to die. He's mutable. He's always changing. But when is man at his best state?
when he's young, when he's in his youth, and he's got all of
his strength about him, when he's prosperous, he's settled,
he's got a great business going, he's making money, when he's
in health, when he's all settled and he's got all these things,
man, he said, is altogether vanity, empty, nothing. Pause and consider this. The
next time you envy somebody, Next time you see some superstar, you're seeing nothing. You're
looking at nothing. Somebody ever ask you, you say,
what are you looking at? Say, I'm looking at nothing. You're
altogether nothing. Surely every man walketh in a
vain show. Every man has his own red carpet
night. That's what he's talking about. You know what he's saying
right here? David looks at man as though he were on a stage,
acting out his part in a play, and will soon exit the stage
and be gone. That's what he's saying. That's what he's saying. Surely
every man walketh in a vain show. He's acting out a play, he's
on stage, and soon his life's over with. Listen to this. I
read this today or yesterday. Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow
creeps in this petty pace from day to day to the last syllable
of recorded time. And all our yesterdays have lighted
fools the way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle, life
but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets
his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. It is a tale
told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
So wrote William Shakespeare. Even he knew it. Even he could
see the nothingness of man in this life. He's just on a stage
playing a part. Surely, he said here, they are
disquieted in vain. He causes trouble to Himself
and to others for no reason. He's troubled. Now this is interesting. They are disquieted in vain.
They're troubled in vain. You know why? Because they're
after nothing but vain things. They're after riches and honor
and those things. Those are vain things. Those
aren't spiritual things. Those are vain things. Have you met people who are always
troubled over nothing? Always troubled over nothing.
What are you troubled about? You got everything. What more could
you want? Here's what they're troubled
about. They're troubled about the vain things. Now, if you want to be disquieted
yourself, just deal with the world and the vain things. and you'll be disquieted too. Troubled over the vain things,
not spiritual things, but vain things. Not things that have
to do with God, their relationship with God, how my sin is going
to be put away, how can I stand before God, which I do have to
stand before God. That never crosses their mind.
They're tore up over vain things. And listen, he heapeth up riches,
he piles them up, and he knows not who shall gather them. Here's
one of the main cause of his trouble, he's always gathering. That's why you and I are called
consumers. We're always consuming. Gathering and consuming, that's
what we do. That word heapeth means raking.
Always raking in that which causes him to lose sleep. In Ecclesiastes 5.12, the sleep
of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much. But the
abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep. It won't
let him sleep. Back several years ago, when
we had the machine shop, I got playing around with this online
trading. It ate me up. I couldn't, I mean,
I was checking that thing every five minutes, selling every ten. It just, it just, and I mean,
it begot but consuming. Every time I turned around, it
was just, was it a merit trade, I think? It was just consuming. And I finally just thought, no,
this has got to stop, this has got to stop. Those are the things that take
away your sleep, they take away your peace, they just take away. They just take away, take away,
take away. And it says there, He knows not
who will gather them. He doesn't know who will end
up with His riches. I don't care who He willed them
to. What He's saying here is this, He's gone. He's not going
to know who ends up with him. It might be the one who will
attune, it might not be. He's not going to know who, he's not
going to know. He's gone. They're not going
to know what's going on in this world no more. That's what Solomon was so upset
about in the book of Ecclesiastes. He looked at all the things that
he had done and all the wisdom, in all his wisdom, what he had
accomplished and all these things. And he was disturbed because
he said, who knows, but a fool will end up with this stuff.
A fool will end up and it'll all come crumbling down. And
that's when he saw that the vanity of this life was nothing. It
was just nothing. And now here David turns to the
real subject. He looked at his own brevity,
the brevity of his life. He looked at the nothingness
of man and his end, which we'll see here in a minute. And now
he says, And now, Lord, what wait I for? I have nothing here.
There's nothing here for me. You know probably one of the
greatest positions the Lord can bring us into is when we have
nothing here on this earth but Christ. Nothing. Nothing. There's something in
what our Lord said. There'll be those who are married
as though they were not married, have children as though they
had not children. Even though I'm married and I
have children, yet I know I've got to let them go. And it's
a lot better to let them go willingly, now, before you have to let them
go. And the Lord takes them. They're His. They're His. They're
already His. And we just resign to the Lord's
will in the matter. And now, Lord, what wait I for?
The believer's one sure stay in life and in death is Jesus
Christ. That's our one stay right there.
in this life and in death. But I tell you what, when I look
at this, in looking at this, I could see David like the dove
that flew from the ark and could find no rest for his feet until
it came back to the ark. David was talking about his life
on this earth, he was talking about the life of men in general
on this earth, and then he said, Lord, what wait I for? My hope. My hope. All my hope. for time and eternity is in You. When we survey the brevity of
life and its vanities, we are made to declare once and again,
Lord, You are my hope. You are my hope. In sickness
and in health, in poverty and in wealth, in life and in death,
in time and eternity, the Lord Jesus Christ is my hope. That's it. And then David says here in verse
8, now we come to the problem. We get a little bit to the root
of the problem. And he says, "...deliver me from all my transgressions. Make
me not the reproach of the foolish." You know, the Lord saves us from
our sins. He doesn't save us in our sins,
He saves us from our sins. And he's asking the Lord here
to deliver him. He knows the Lord has saved him.
He says, deliver me. Deliver me from the cause of
my greatest trouble, my transgressions, my rebellion. Save me from that. Deliver me from that. Save me
from being overpowered by my inward corruption. Deliver me
from that. Don't let my sin become the song
of the foolish." I don't want to bring reproach
on your name. Matthew Henry said this, "...deliver me from all
my offenses, from the guilt I have contracted, the punishment I
have deserved, and the power of corruption by which I have
been enslaved." Lord, deliver me. And then he says, I was dumb.
Here again, he says, I was dumb. I opened up my mouth. But now
he's talking about a different situation. Here, David is silent
before God, not complaining, not complaining for his afflictions
he knew were of God. He knew God had brought this
affliction on him, whatever it was at this time in Psalm 39. And he's saying here, I'm not
complaining. I'm not complaining against your
providence. I'm not complaining against your chastening of me.
I open not my mouth against you, not in anger, not in rebellion,
not in murmuring, not in impatience, not in complaining. Lord, I'm
not complaining. I'm not murmuring. But I am asking
you to do this. Remove your stroke away from
me. I am consumed by the blow of thine hand." Now some of God's
children, like Job for one, and there are
some others that I've watched over the years, but some of God's
children have received some hard, hard trials. I mean hard trials. I mean it's like a stroke, like
the blow of God's hand. There was a man who wrote this,
I don't know the man, his name is Rogers, Mr. Rogers. You didn't write it, did you?
No, I know you didn't. He said this, "'Afflictions are
sent by God, thy strokes. They are strokes of His hand,
not of the rod of the law, but of the shepherd's rod. Every
affliction is His stroke to God's children. Secondly, afflictions
are removed by God. That's why David said, Remove
thy stroke. He asked not for miracles, but
that God in His own way, in the use of natural means, would interpose
for His deliverance, and He would remove the stroke. And then thirdly,
afflictions have their end from God. He said, I am consumed by
the affliction. God hath a controversy with His
people. It is a conflict between His will and their wills. You
know who's going to win that battle? It ain't you. It's Him. And He will afflict
until the lesson is learned. But notice the contrast here.
You know, David says, Remove thy stroke away from me, I am
consumed by the blow of thy hand. But we know this about chastening.
We know this. Job said this, that when he is
tried, I will come forth as gold. But now notice what he says here
about the unbeliever. Here's a contrast. When thou
with rebukes does correct man for iniquity, thou makest his
beauty to consume away like a moth. Surely every man is vanity. How
opposite the effect when God rebukes the wicked and when God
chastens His children. He chastens us to remove the
dross, to keep us from being, as the Scripture says, being
judged with the world. But when He rebukes the ungodly,
He takes them away. He consumes them away. Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give
ear unto my cry. Hold not Thy peace at my tears,
for I am a stranger with Thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers
were. I want you to notice one thing
here. David asked God to hear his prayer.
That's why we pray. We don't pray just to hear ourselves,
like the Pharisees. We pray for the Lord to hear
us. And our prayers ought to be always that serious. Our prayers ought to be always
that serious where we can say, Lord, hear my prayer. And give ear to my cry, and hold
not thy peace at my tears. Now listen. This is good. I am a stranger with thee. He's
not saying, I am a stranger to thee, I am a stranger with thee. The God of creation is a stranger
to His own creation. He came into the world and the
world knew Him not. And you and I are pilgrims and
strangers on this earth. It says in Psalm 119.19, I am
a stranger in the earth. 1 Peter 2.11, Dearly beloved, I beseech you
as strangers and pilgrims. David said, Lord, I'm a stranger
with you as we walk through this valley of the shadow of death.
I'm a stranger with you. They don't know you and they
don't know me. That's why there's no use for me to say anything
when they are around, because they don't get it. Oh spare me,
deal gently with me that I may recover strength before I go
hence and be no more. Give me relief before I die."
There's nothing wrong with praying like that. Give me some relief. I tell you what, if God ever
chastened you or bring a heavy stroke on you, you'll ask Him
to let up just a little bit so you can breathe. Let up just
a little so I can breathe. Give me some relief before I
die. Restore the joy of thy salvation. Now, this is some of my thoughts
when I was reading this. I could feel myself in David's
place. I don't want to die like this.
I don't want to die like this over something I've done. I don't
want to die like this. I don't want to die over something
sinful I've done. I want to die. I want to die
in the faith. I want to die in peace. I want
to die Ready to die. Ready to go. I know this, we
do not choose the way we will die, but I know I don't want to die
with my conscience troubling me over some sin and transgression.
David said, Lord, give me some peace. And what he's saying here
is not just peace of body, but give me some peace of joy. The
joy I have with you. Restoring to me the joy of Thy
salvation, He asks in Psalm 51. And I think He wants this. And this is, I'm putting myself
in His place. I want to live and be a blessing. I don't want this to be my end.
I want to live and be a blessing. I want honey to come out of this
eater. I want honey to come out of this
eater. I want to die singing your praises,
preaching the gospel, giving glory to your name. That's how
I want to go.