Psalm 39. This is to the chief
musician, even to Jaduthun, a Psalm of David. 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 was stirred. My heart was hot within me while
I was musing. The fire burned. Then spake I
with my tongue, 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,
thou hast made my days as an handbreadth, and mine age is
as nothing before thee. Verily, every man at his best
state is altogether vanity. Selah. Surely every man walketh
in a vain show. Surely they are disquieted in
vain. He heapeth up riches, and knoweth
not who shall gather them. And now, Lord, what wait I for?
My hope is in thee. Deliver me from all my transgressions. Make me not the reproach of the
foolish. I was dumb. I opened not my mouth,
because thou didst it. Remove thy stroke away from me,
I am consumed by the blow of thine hand. When thou with rebukes
dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume
away like a moth. Surely every man is vanity. Selah. 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. O spare me, that I may recover
strength before I go hence, and be no more." And of course the title of this
psalm is, to the chief musician, as many of the psalms are, even
to Juduthim. Now, there is controversy, of
course, as there is with most things as the great scholars
of the world get together hash things out, and one says this
and one says that. So the reality is we don't know
what Juduthon is. It probably was a person, but
we're not convinced. Some people believe it was the
name of some musical instrument. It could have been. I don't know.
And nobody else does either. You know, even though we might
pontificate and say we know what it was or this or the other,
we really can't. But we can relate to those things
that David has written here. And most especially as we consider
them, as we have all of the Psalms, as those things that are spoken
by that One who is the perfect man, that One who walked among
men as a man, who was subjected to all things, tried in all points
like as we are, yet without sin. and in no less fashion or in
any less trouble or any less doubt and fear than any other
man. Now those things, you know, they
are hard for us to grasp if we have a firm grasp on the fact
that He was absolute God who came into the world. born of
a virgin and was without sin of any kind in any inclination
towards it, it is hard for us to really grasp that, or at least
it is for me. You might just completely get
that whole thing. But it is hard for me to understand,
you know, how the Lord could be in doubt and fear and yet
be perfectly a perfect man and a man who perfectly trusted in
his heavenly Father. So there is a weakness that comes
along with being a man. Even a perfect man is a man who
is in weakness because he is, as a man, he has no strength
of his own. All the strength that we have
comes from him. We do not have any of our own.
So the Lord, and as David of course spoke these words, he
said, I will take heed to my ways. Now, a perfect man would
most surely take heed to his ways, would he not? I mean, the
Lord Jesus Christ did indeed take heed to his ways. That he
sinned not, and he did not. Now we pray that. We say, Lord,
I'll take heed to my ways, but we know the likelihood is that
we won't. Because we'll go along and something
will come up and we won't take heed to our ways. We'll just
kind of go the way we wanted to go. The Lord, on the other
hand, is that One who is perfect and would set forth for us that
example of perfection. He says, I said I will take heed
to my ways. And He did. That I sin not with
my tongue. You remember what James said?
He said the tongue is an unruly member. Full of evil. And it's
impossible that man can bridle it. You know, some people can
do pretty good with it. Some people are able to control
what they say more so than others. Some learn that as they go through
life and do a better job of it. But everybody from time to time,
if the right button is pushed and the situation gets right,
their tongue can become unbridled and they can say things that
they wish they had not said. And they wish they could go back
and take those things back. Well, the Lord Jesus Christ never
spoke one word in His life that was unbridled. He never sinned
with his tongue. He sinned not with those things
that he said, but he spoke the truth. Why? Because he is the
truth. He said, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. No man comes to the Father but
by me. And so when he spoke, he was
speaking the truth. He is the Word of God. And he
has dwelt among us. And it's a glorious thing that
he has. He says, I will keep my mouth
with a bridle. Now, why do you put a bridle
on a horse? So you can control him. You've
got to rein him back sometimes. And some horses, even when you
rein them back, they still want to go on. But without that bridle,
they just run off. And so it is necessary, as the
children of God, that we bridle our tongue, that we bridle our
way, that we put hedges about ourselves, I will keep my mouth
with a bridle while the wicked is before me." Now, when he is speaking of the wicked here,
of course, he is speaking of those who are not the followers
of God, those who would tempt us. And how often it is that
those who despise the things of God, they make a mockery and
they'll say things sometimes to make fun of those who have
faith. And it's a hard thing, is it
not, in the flesh to not want to say something back in your
defense. saying a word of truth in defense
of the Gospel to the glory of Christ. But we have to often
be careful that that is our motivation in saying the things that we
do. So putting a bridle upon the tongue is being judicious
in what we say. Now, the Proverbs says that A
wise man, a fool uttereth all his mind, but a wise man keepeth
it in till afterwards. You know, a fool is the man that
just tells you what, I mean, he just says whatever is on the
tip of his tongue. And a lot of people take real
pride in that. Well, they told it like it was. Well, they might
have told it like it was, but it wasn't very wise to tell it
like it was. So grace and the blessing of
God in subduing the wickedness of the hearts of His people is
in teaching them to put a bridle upon their tongue and upon their
way, while the wicked is before me. And he says, I was dumb with
silence. I held my peace even from good,
and my sorrow was stirred. My heart was hot within me while
I was musing the fire burned. What fire is he talking about?
Now, I read one time a guy was commenting on this, and he said,
yeah, David was sitting by the fire and thinking about the things
of God. Well, that's not at all what
he's talking about here. He's talking about the fire that
was burning within him. And he said, while I was thinking
about this, the fire burned hot within me. It's really the same
thing if you look at what Jeremiah said. Let's see here. I think
it's about the 20th chapter over here. Let's see for sure. Yeah. Jeremiah, this is his lament,
and it's really exactly the same thing that's being said here.
He says, O Lord, thou hast deceived me. He wasn't mad at the Lord,
but he was... Jeremiah was, of course, he's
being called the weeping prophet because the Lord sent him. He
said, I'm going to send you to a people and they're not going
to listen to you. But he said, I'm going to send you anyway.
And he says, you're going to tell them stuff and they ain't
going to believe it and they're going to make fun of you and
they're even going to try to put you to death. And so, you
know, he got things, and said, well, you know, Lord, this isn't
right. I mean, he was weighed down under
the heaviness of it. He says, O Lord, thou hast deceived
me, and I was deceived. Thou art stronger than I, and
hast prevailed. I am in derision daily. Everyone
that mocketh me. Now, he's not accusing the Lord
of evil. He's just saying, How it is that
the Lord sent him out here and in reality, the Lord didn't deceive
him because he told him what he was going to do. But you know,
we have in the back of our mind, well, if the Lord gives us something
to tell somebody, surely He gives it to us so they will listen
to what we are going to say. But no, often the Lord gives
us things so that they won't hear. Isn't that what He said?
He said that the Lord put these things so that hearing they might
not hear. The Lord shuts up the minds of
men that they might not hear. And so he says, I am in derision
daily, everyone mocketh me. For since I spake, I cried out,
I cried violence and spoil, because the word of the Lord was made
a reproach unto me and a derision daily. That is, when I spoke
the word of God in the presence of these people, they mocked
me, and they did not care that I said these things. So he said,
I got fed up with it. I got tired, as men often do. And then I said, I will not make
mention of him. Now that's just like Jonah. He
said, I'm not going down there to Jennifer. I'm not going to
do it. And if you stop the saga of Jonah,
You know, a lot of people think, well, what if Jonah had died
before he got on that boat? Well, there was no danger of
Jonah dying before he got on that boat. Why? Because the Lord
sent him to Nineveh. He was going to Nineveh. Now,
he went there with a bridle in his mouth, didn't he? I mean,
the Lord riding him all the way. And he was pulling and everything,
but he was going right straight down the path that the Lord ordained
for him to go. And so he said, I will not make
mention of him nor speak any more of his name. I'm tired of
it. I've had all I can take. But
then what did he say? But his word was in my heart
as a burning fire shut up in my bones that I was weary with
forbearing and I could not stay. He says, I made my mind up. I
wasn't going to say anything else, but you know what next
thing I did was? I was back there telling the
same thing. Jonah said, I ain't going to
Nineveh. Well, what happened when the fish spit him out? Buddy,
he was preaching in Nineveh, wasn't he? Because the Lord sent
him to do it. And the Lord sent the Lord Jesus
Christ into the world to bear witness of His truth. And as
a man, And this is probably not a good explanation of this, but
as a man, I believe, he said, I held my peace even from that
which was good, because he was put into the presence of these
people. But yet the Word of God, he was
the Word of God. The Word of God was in him as
a fire. If it was in Jeremiah, because
the Lord put it there, how much more so was it in him who is
the Word? and tabernacled among men. And
the fire burned within him. My heart was hot within me. While
I was musing, he says, while I was thinking these thoughts,
the fire was burning within me. And I knew that the thing that
the Lord sent me to do I must do, because I will do that which
the Lord has sent me to do. Then spake I with my tongue,
and he said, Lord, help me to know my days. make me to know
my end and the measure of my days, what it is that I may know
how frail I am." That ought to be our prayers and all. I mean,
this was the prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, make me to
know my end. Not what my end is going to be,
but make me to know that I have an end. You see, a lot of people
live their life as if they have no end. They just carry things
that just go right on and on and on, and they're not even
concerned about it. The Scripture says that there
are no bands in the death of the wicked. That is, there is
no trouble. They don't have trouble. I know
whenever I was growing up, I was a kid, and they used to teach
us, you know, well, you know, if you don't know the Lord, when
it comes down time to die, you are going to be in all sorts
of pain and suffering and trouble. And that might be true from time
to time. It depends on what the Lord may be doing in His purpose
and all of that. But by and large, those that
have no thoughts of God, they're not in trouble. They're not even
concerned about it. They just pass on. The Scripture
says the simple pass on and they're punished. They just move on.
But the children of God on the other hand, they're stirred up.
They're concerned about these things. You know, I've had people
tell me, oh, I don't worry about dying. Well, brother, I think
about dying because I know that there is a God who is a consuming
fire who has said that we will stand before Him one day, and
that does trouble me. You know, I confess before you
I am troubled about it many times. I mean, that song we sing, sometimes
I am afraid to die. Now when we consider that Christ
is our Advocate and He is our Mediator and He is our Savior,
then indeed those things are overcome by the grace of God
within us. But it is natural, dear brethren,
to be in such a state as that. And so those who have grace will
pray, I believe, Lord, make me to know my end, that I might
number my days and apply my heart to wisdom, that I might seek
after the Lord. It is like Solomon wrote, Remember
now thy Creator in the days of thy youth before the evil days
are upon you. You see, we are all yet in our
youth. We're not as young as we once
were, but dear brethren, we are all still young men. I mean,
you think about a little kid when he thinks about somebody
old, that's somebody that's older than him. Well, just think what
you'd be like if old Methuselah walked in and said it. I mean,
you'd be thinking you was a kid. He was 969 years old, but you
know what happened to him? He died. I mean, that was the
end. He came to the end of his days.
It was a long time, but it was still the end. But you see, the
promise that is unto the children of God is that there is no end. That is the hope that we have
in Jesus Christ, but in Him and Him alone. So we pray, Lord,
help me to know in the measure of my days what it is that I
may know how frail I am. Let me know exactly what I am.
Don't let me be lifted up with pride and think that I'm going
to pay heed to what some of these... I was reading something the other
day and this guy says he's just right on the verge of coming
up with a pill or some kind of treatment or something you can
take and it will just stop aging and it will be like you just
go on. And how foolish for men to consider
that when the Scripture says the Lord has numbered our days. Now, I don't know how many days
that is. And He might give you a pill,
and He might ordain that you're going to take a pill, and it
might make you live to be 150 years old. But I guarantee you
one thing, it is appointed unto man once to die, and after this,
the judge. It doesn't make any difference
how long you live, 969 years or 3 days. It doesn't make any
difference. It is appointed unto men. And
help us to know how frail we are. What can you do about that?
What can you do about it? It doesn't matter how much money
you've got. It doesn't matter how smart you
are. It doesn't make anything of matter. I mean, when it comes
to those things, dear, when that consideration is brought to our
mind, we are all in the same state of frailty. You know, a
man can be just as healthy looking as can be, and he can drop dead
just like that. It can happen. And what can a
man do to prevent it? You know, somebody dies like
that, and somebody says, Oh, I wonder what was wrong. Well,
there might not have been anything wrong. He just got to the end
of the point where the Lord said, this is your time. The Lord teaches
us to know those things, to know how frail we are, that our dependence
on Thee. Behold, Thou hast made my days
as a hand-breadth, just a vapor. We live our years as a tale that
is told. And my age is as nothing before
thee. What is 75, 80, 100 years? What is that of 969 years? What is that before the Lord?
I mean, it is not even measurable. You cannot even consider it because
He is eternal. Verily, every man at his best
state is altogether vanity. Not his worst state. See, that's
what people think, that men are basically alright, you know,
and they just go along and they mess up and make a few mistakes
in their life, and the Lord, you know, He kind of takes notice
of that and He looks at it. But the Scripture says that man
in his best state is altogether vanity. Now what is vanity? It's
empty. At the very best you can do.
So if you're holding out hope that the best you always tried
to do your best, as I've had people tell me, well, I always
tried to do right. I always tried to do my best.
That ain't worth a flip. Don't take any comfort in trying
to do your best, because your best is not good enough before
Almighty God. It won't account for nothing.
It's as vanity. had his best state. That reminds
me of what he said to Isaiah, that Isaiah wrote, Our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags in thy sight. Now dear brethren, if our righteousnesses,
that is the things that would make us, for people to say, you
know, he was a good man. You know, everybody, when they
died, they were all good men, weren't they? Have you ever been
to a funeral where they just got up and said, you know, that
was a sorry, low-down guy. I mean, he shouldn't even have
been giving breath to breathe. I've known some people that was
about like that, but they didn't say that at their funeral. You
know, they just, they said, oh, you know, he was good and he
went about, you know, doing all these things for the community
and all that kind of stuff. But brethren, if we understood
how frail we are and what vanity that is, what emptiness that
is, those words couldn't even come out of our mouths. Teach
us, Lord, to know these things. Surely every man walketh in a
vain show. Surely they are disquieted in
vain. He heapeth up riches, and knoweth
not who shall gather them. And now, Lord, what wait I for?
My hope is in Thee. See, this is the way of the world,
is to gather up the things that they think will make them happy.
But if a man knows his end, he knows that those things are just
temporary. They are of no lasting value. And there is no point in You
know, letting those things overcome us and take hold of our life
and be disquieted about them. That's what he said here. Surely
they are disquieted in vain. They worry about that. What do
we have that we have not received? Some would say, well, you're
telling men not to be diligent? No, the Lord said to be diligent.
You are to be diligent. You're to be a good steward of
everything the Lord's given you. But brethren, you've got to understand
that it is given to you. That's what it is to know your
end, is that those things that God has put within your hands,
He's given to you. Now some say, oh, well, you know,
what matters is what we do with what God gives us. He said our
days are vanity before Him. I mean, does He care what you
do with what He gives you? He knows what you're going to
do with what He gives you. Does He not? I mean, He orders
all things from beginning to end. He does know. Oh, Lord,
teach us to know that we have nothing, we are nothing, but
that which comes from Thee. He heatheth up riches, and knoweth
not who shall gather them. What's going to happen to your
stuff when you die? You got a will? You need a will? Everybody says,
oh, you need a will. Well, I'm not saying it's a bad
thing to have a will, but you know, if you write a will out,
that doesn't mean that's what's going to happen to your stuff.
Because somebody else may have a more high-powered lawyer than
you had when you wrote the will. And they may say, oh, well, we're
going to vacate this. We're going to do with this.
Well, you have no control whatsoever. over the things that you possess
in this world. Not one moment. In fact, really
before your breath goes. You know, they say, oh, that
old guy, he doesn't have good sense anymore. He doesn't know
what he's doing with his stuff. We need to put him over here
in the home and we need to get a power of attorney over his
stuff. So sometimes, you know, people's stuff gets taken away
from them while they're still living. And they know it, but
it's not a thing in the world they can do because everybody
thinks they're crazy. Vanity, isn't it? That's really
what he's saying. It's all vanity. It's sad in
one way, but why does the Lord do these things? To teach us
what we are by nature. Why? Does He just get pleasure
out of seeing us lament these things? No. because He loves
His people and He'll draw them unto Himself, but He wants us
to know that all that we have comes from Him, that we might
give Him the praise and the glory. Why? Because He's doing those
things. And now, Lord, what wait I for?
My hope is in Thee. See, that's not vanity, is it?
See, that's the end of vanity. When a man comes to that place,
There's no more vanity to it. Solomon, when he looked about
all these things that was going on in the world, he said, I looked
at all of that and he said, vanity of vanities. It's just passing
away. But Lord, teach us to know our days. Because he said, you
know, and I'm going to close with this. This just came to
my mind here in Ecclesiastes. Remember now thy Creator in the
days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years
draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them."
See, people think they just want to live a long time, don't they?
But you know, the older you get, the less of the enjoyment of
the things of this world that there are. And you do, by the
grace of God, I believe as you age in the grace of God, that
you are able to see Empty all these things are. While the sun,
or light, or the moon, or the stars be not darkened, or the
clouds return after the rain, in the day when the keepers of
the house shall tremble, you know something I noticed the
other day? And I've seen old men, you know, shaking. And I've always thought, hey,
you know, they're getting old. And I noticed my hand the other
day. Look at that. I'm not doing that. And if I
concentrate hard enough, I can make that sound. But you know, that's just the
way that life is in this world. I mean, we come to that place
that the keepers of the house will tremble and the strong men
shall bow themselves and the grinders cease, because there
are few and there are some who have likened that to the teeth.
And your teeth fall out. I mean, you can take care of
them as good as you want to, and they're still going to fall out. And those that look out of the
windows be darkened. I used to think, man, I can see
good, you know. And a few years ago, I said,
well, I need a little bit more light here to be able to see
that. And then, you know, I got to where I needed to put some
glasses on. And the door shall be shut in
the streets when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall
rise up at the voice of a bird, and all the daughters of music
shall be brought low. You know, kids, they can sleep
all day, can't they? But you know, the older that
a man gets, the less he can sleep. I mean, he wants to sleep. He'll
lay there and he'll say, man, you know, I need to go back to
sleep. He rises up at the voice of a
bird, and all the daughters of music shall be brought low. What
was that you said? And when they shall be afraid
of that which is high, and I can attest to that, and fear shall
be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the
grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail, because
man goeth to his long home. and the mourners go about the
streets. Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl
be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the
wheel broken at the cistern, then shall the dust return to
the earth as it was, and the Spirit shall return unto God
who gave it. Vanity of vanities, saith the
preacher, all is vanity. And moreover, because the preacher
was wise, he still taught the people knowledge. Yea, he gave
good heed, and sought out, and set in order, Many Proverbs. The preacher sought to find out
acceptable words, and that which was written was upright, even
words of truth. The words of the wise are as
goads and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies which
are given from one shepherd. And further by these, my son,
be admonished of making many books there is no end, and much
study is a weariness of flesh. Let us hear the conclusion of
the whole matter. Fear God and keep His commandments,
for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every
work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good
or whether it be evil. Dear brethren, may the Lord help
us to number our days, apply our hearts unto wisdom, that
we might know how frail we are. But knowing how frail we are
to be given grace to call on Him who is our strength, for
He is indeed the Savior of His people.