Psalms 39. Psalms 39. Unless you think this
message is just for the old people, it isn't. It's for everybody
here. which that's what the messages
are always. But there's a few things, some
very serious, I don't know how to say this, very timely words
in this psalm. And if we're young, we think,
well, we can just blow this off. But no, that's not the case. This is a mournful psalm. It
shows forth the uncertainty of life and the trials and tribulations
that it holds. And if you're young or old, you've
got troubles. And your troubles, the older
people may snicker at and say, well, that's ridiculous. But
we went through the same thing as you're going through or may
go through, maybe to a different extent, but bullied, picked on,
made fun of. If you'd seen me when I was in
grade school before 8th grade, my two front teeth almost stuck
out straight. I had buck teeth. And of course
I got all the names, Bucky and all that kind of stuff. So people
are cruel. I don't care how they try to
legislate it. I don't care how they try to
do it. People are cruel. They're mean because they're
depraved. And you can't legislate depravity. And we'll try, but
it's never going to work. So David's going through some
things. It's a mournful psalm, and yet the psalmist looks to
his God, which is what we should do. This is a good illustration,
a good example. He looks to his God for both
relief and comfort. And, as one writer said, if we
view correctly Christ in the whole psalm, we see how He endured
all things for the elect's sake, and through Him we will make
it to glory land. We will make it. Let's look at
this. I think I'll just go, not read
the whole thing, but go verse by verse, so to speak, so we
can keep the things in our mind. David says in Psalms 39, and
I will retract here and say this, if you get opportunity, the heading
is that the chief musician, even to Judathon, a psalm of David. Now if you want an interesting
study, look up this Judathon, And he was of the tribe of Levi. His dad was M-E-R-A-R-I something,
but he was one of the main Levites, one of the three brothers of
the Levites. And they had certain people who
did certain things. And these Levites and this particular
man, their family was responsible for the things of the tabernacle. And he specifically was for the
chief musicians. David entrusted this psalm to
him, and he's only entrusted two other psalms other than this
one that Jedithon is entrusted with. And so it's very important,
this psalm. So it heightens the importance
of it. He turns it over to him to make the notes so proper. And then he would present it
to the choir and the choir would sing. He was responsible for
the singing in the tent of meetings. So here we go in verses 1 and
2. David 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."
That's commendable. Now he's not so commendable in
verse 2. 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." That's the first three verses we'll
look at. So, it shows right off the bat how uneven we are, how
uneven the believer is. One minute, he says, full of
wisdom, I will take heed to my ways that I send out with my
tongue. I will keep my mouth with a bridle while the wicked
is before me. That's commendable. That's commendable
because we could go to James and see how wicked the tongue
is. And then he says, this was done so well, I'm just going
to shut my mouth and not say anything, even from good. And that's foolish. Because he
uses the preaching. He uses the telling. He uses
neighbors. You tell your neighbors about
where the Gospel is being preached. Or you tell them the Gospel,
and hopefully they'll come. So on one hand, there's wisdom in
verse 1, and on the second hand, there's foolishness in verse
2. So looking at verse 1, we ought to be very circumspect,
as our Lord taught us, while we are in the company of unbelievers.
Meditation or moderation, I should say, moderation is key. Circumspect,
and that word means careful or guarded in their midst, in the
midst of the lost. For they will seek occasion to
turn upon us and rend us as the parable of the pearls and swine. There's times we just need to
be quiet. And Melinda and I were talking, evil communications
corrupt good manners is hardly ever the other way around. You
get with a bunch of people and they're rip snorting and joking
and this pretty soon you're doing the same thing and pretty soon
you don't have any credibility. So that's because that's the
way we are. And he understands, David said,
I'll take heed to my ways that I sin not with my tongue. I will keep my mouth with a bridle,
and that word bridle in the original, it's more pointed, it's muzzle. Now there's a difference in a
bridle. The horse can still eat, can still move. In a muzzle,
it's shut, it's locking it down. And boy, who am I to say anything? I think maybe the last week I've
maybe learned a little bit about this. But I mean, I was always
cutting up. Always wanting people to see
how general, great guy I was. And as Henry would say, Henry
Mahan, you'll have plenty of time to show people that you're
a regular guy. But we as the believer walk as
under the Lord first and foremost, preeminently. That's what we're
here for. To glorify our God. Not to chum
up and do this and do that. So David understood that. He
said, I'm going to keep my mouth. I'm going to keep my tongue.
with a bridle, with a muzzle while the wicked is before me.
And then he goes to the other extreme.
Then there's the other extreme. Verse 2, I was done with silence. I held my peace even from good.
And if we're a believer, this is exactly what happens. We go
from one pendulum to the next. We go from one And, you know,
hopefully this country's over here. Hopefully it'll start swinging
back. Who knows? But this is how the believer
is. He's a flesh and blood. He has the Spirit and a new creature.
He's got these conflicting things going on within. But by the grace
of God, the Holy Spirit, if we are His, our sorrow was stirred. Now I realize this wasn't the
right thing to do. I need to open my mouth. And he says, my
heart, verse three, was hot within me while I was musing, meditating
the fire burn. Then I spake with my tongue. There's a time to speak, and
there's a time to hold silence. There's the other extreme, hold
the tongue even from praise unto God. But will we bless God for
the Holy Spirit of truth and mercy? For we, the believer,
won't be able to keep quiet for long. It's like Bruce said this
morning, we've got to tell people what the Lord has done for us. Turn with me to verse 41. Verse 3 in this passage, my heart
was hot within me while I was musing, meditating, the fire
burned, then spake I with my tongue. Isaiah 41. He's saying the same thing. Isaiah
41. And verse 1, the Lord says, keep
silence before me, O islands, and let the people renew their
strength. Let them come near, then let them speak. Let us come
near together to judgment. So go to the Lord first in submission
and quietness, and then He causes us, He allows us to speak. And
that's to speak right things. Then spake I with my tongue."
What do we speak? The weather? How those cardinals
doing? How the blues doing? Not so good. Any of this stuff. No, that's
not what we're talking about. Because the Holy Spirit just
convicted us because we're not speaking. Then we speak. Specific
things. We speak right things. Things
of the free grace of God found in Christ. especially today when
religions do not have a clue regarding biblical truth. Yes,
may we muse, that is ponder, meditate, now to speak of the
things of God in Christ Jesus, how He saves, how He calls, how
He quickens, how He does it all. Not us, never us, we're just
the recipients. Or as one old writer would say,
redemption and regeneration. We speak the truth regarding
God, He's sovereign and high, Christ performed a perfect redemption
and us, vile, corrupt, unable to produce life. Again, we're
dead in trespasses and sins. I've never seen a dead man take
a single step. All they can do is be dead, lie
there. Then in verse 4 and 5, this to
me is perhaps I don't know if it's the heart, but it's very
interesting. I wish, may the Lord direct us
to this. Then he said, Lord, this is a
prayer. Make me, not necessarily my neighbor,
not necessarily my friend, not necessarily my spouse, but make
me to know mine end. And the measure There's that
word, Matt, measure. We'll talk about that in a minute.
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 as nothing before thee. Verily,
every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Make me. And he's praying for himself.
I wrote down these words in these two verses. Make me mine in my
days that I may know my days, he says again, my age. Make me to know how frail I am.
When Adam fell, I fell with him. You fell in him. Make me to know
mine end. Well, we can see this in Isaiah
6, but you don't need to turn there, but if you look at Isaiah
5, Isaiah was, it's like three times he says, woe is you, or
woe is the people. He's just up there blasting,
woe is you, woe is you. And then, verse chapter 6, the Lord takes out one of his
idols, which is a king, King Uzziah died, then he saw the
Lord. And he saw the Lord holy and
high and lifted up in his temple. And then the first thing he says
is, woe is me. Woe is me. You deal, deal with, it's a personal
salvation, it's a personal revelation. Lord, deal with me first. Make me to know mine end. The
measure of my days. That word measure, it has to
do with height and breadth. It's used, it's used in measuring
garments is what it is. And I don't know if you've ever
been to a tailor, I know they're still around in
the cities and stuff, but if you ever go to a tailor, and
they had one at Men's Warehouse, it's gone now, and the guy came
out, he measured, and then I came back, and you talk about fit,
they fit. Measure of my days. what it is
that I may know how frail I am. It doesn't matter who you are.
It doesn't matter if you're the greatest coach in the world.
It doesn't make a difference how many houses you have. It
has nothing to do with money. Death is going to meet us. Unless the Lord comes and returns,
unless He returns, no one will escape death. Thusly, may our
gracious Lord show us, show me, show you just how weak and frail
we are physically and primarily spiritually. We've got nothing
all for God. Nothing. We can try not to think
about it, which the believer will do, but not for long. We
can try to act like we don't acknowledge it, which there's
people that I know that are that way. This truth, Debt will not
miss a single mark. It's just not going to miss us.
So let us walk as David here. Let us walk as our blessed Lord.
For this end Christ came in the world. He came to die. Make me to know mine end and
to measure what it is that I may know how frail I am. There's
nothing we can eat. There's nothing we can do. to
make us live longer. And we were talking the other
day about, well, I want to live healthier, and that's good, but
is God not over that as well? You may get run over on the way,
you know, getting out of your car and break your leg and never
be able to walk again. So, any excuse, and I've said
this time and time again, a believer, anytime he comes up with a self-justification
for what we do, the Lord hems us in. And you know, I don't
have, I really can't complain. I really can't do this. I really
can't. He's given us more than what we deserve. That's the bottom
line. Measure our days. And what he says there is we're
not to know the hour or the place as to when we're going to die.
That's not what he's talking about. But it's measure our days. That is to live with an expectation
of death's reality. And thus ever be on our, and
then we'll finally be with our Heavenly Father. It's to bow
before our King. Your will, not mine. Live as
though this is our last day. And I know we don't do that.
We got things we wanna do. People we wanna see. And that's
true. But it could be, you know, like
that guy, I'm gonna get more barns, I'm gonna get this, I'm
gonna get that. And then that night, he was called home. I
don't look at the obituaries very much, but sometimes I do,
and sometimes I'll see some people that are 30 years old, 28, some
people from high school. It happens. So it's measure our
days, make me to know mine and how frail I am. I remember Henry
preached a message a long time ago, and he says we're all just
like a half a gene away from just being morons. You know,
really. In short, let us be ready for
the call home. Let us be ready. Let us take
stock. Am I in Christ? If I'm in Christ,
now you don't go sleep under elephants if you're in Christ.
You don't do foolish things if you're in Christ. You don't tempt
fate. You don't tempt God by doing
things. No, but be ready. Am I ready? Closed with Christ,
the old writers used to say, do I know Christ? Do I know my
Redeemer lives? Am I in Him? Am I in Him? Verse 5, behold,
he hath made my days as a hand breath, vapor, grass our life
is compared to. before thee, verily every man
at his best state." The best that you can do, the best that
anybody can do is altogether vanity. It doesn't make any difference
who we are. May we adhere at Sovereign Grace
Church, be as those wise virgins in the New Testament, they were
waiting for their Lord's return. And that's in Matthew 25, if
you want to look at it at home, Matthew 25, verses 1-13. They
were wise because they had the wisdom of Christ in them. And
they were virgins because they were made so by His pure and
sovereign free grace. And we have His robe of righteousness.
But this death, and I love to hear stories about people who
think they're something and they get put in their place. And I
heard one recently, Vince Lombardi. Does everybody know who Vince
Lombardi is? Probably the greatest football
coach for the NFL. Just great. Great, great, great.
He was in a restaurant. And he wanted more butter than
was given him. And so he called the waitress
over and said, I want more butter. Well, she was told that the patrons
only get so much. And she says, oh, sir, that's
not a court. I can't do that. He goes, you know who I am, don't
you? She goes, you know who I am, don't you? He goes, no. Who?
He goes, I'm the one who dispenses the butter. Turned around and
walked away. Oh, you're somebody. I love, and I've seen these things
when these police pull over, these congressmen or something.
I saw one the other day and it was a woman. She says, you know
who I am? You're breaking the law. We think we're something. We think we know somebody. Oh,
I know this person, I know this person, and I know this. It doesn't
make any difference who you know. It doesn't make any difference
how popular you think you are. Your days are measured Whether
we measure them or not, it's a privilege to measure ourselves
to be found in Christ, not to be measured in the balance and
to be found wanting. We measure ourselves through
the Scriptures and say, I have a good hope. I have a good hope. Christ is my righteousness. I'm
robed. I'm clean. Lord, if it's your
will, take me. Or it could be like Hezekiah.
He prayed and the Lord gave him extended life. So we could think
extended life. But behold, every man and his
best, every woman, boy, girl, and their best, the best they
could possibly be, is vanity. And that means empty. In the
eyes of God, empty. Verses 6-13. We see Christ's right is to see
all things correctly and in their place. When we see Christ, and
he says in verse 6, surely every man walketh in a vain show. We
know that. We know that's why Washington,
D.C. is like it is. We know that's
why city government is like it is. We know that's why our education
system is like it is. We know that's why our neighbor's
selfish, and he's got to get more than you, and he'll tell
you he's got more than you, and you'll want more than him. But
the believer says, no, every man walketh in a vain show, surely
they are disquieted in vain. He heaps riches and knows not
who's going to gather them. You can't take them with you.
We've heard that forever. You can't take them with you.
Get, get, get, get, and then give it to somebody else. And
most of the time, and we've all found this out a little bit,
when the matriarch or the patriarch dies, then there's a fight. Who
gets the money? Who gets this? Who gets that?
I don't want it. I don't want it. Take it. But
we got to say, well, we got a little something. Worms bragging over
which worms taller can crawl the fastest. Every person, man, woman, boy
and girl, are vain in and of themselves. There's none good,
no, not one, says Romans 3. And then he says in the next
phrase, again in verse 6, that riches, he heaps up riches, they
will not follow us after death. It's me, me, me, like Bruce said,
it's all about us. It's not about us. What will
it profit us if we gain the whole world and lose our souls, the
scripture says? Not a thing. And in verse 7,
we see, And now, Lord, I wait for You, for my hope is in Thee.
That's what the believer sees. It's not in riches, it's not
in things, it's not in land, it's not in possessions. It's
in Him. It's in Him. Only in God, through Christ,
enabled by the Holy Spirit, period. Verse 8. Deliver me from my transgressions
and 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. Empty us that You may fill us.
Strip us that You may close us. Break us that You may create
us anew. Verses 9-11 Do we not see Christ taking our
sin upon himself on the tree? God's wrath and justice do us
his elect, but they all fell upon him and God spared him not. And I've said this before, who
can fathom the horror of that scene at Calvary? 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
thy hand, the cry of Christ." Surely every man is vanity. Truly we are all vanity. And
he said in verse 5, all together, that means wholly. Holy. Not a single speck of flesh that's
not vanity. No one is escaping this charge.
I pray this is sinking in to me and sinking in to you. Am
I empty? Are you empty? Are we wholly
empty of goodness? Of what God requires of us? And then we sit back and say,
Bless the Lord, O my soul. Look at what Christ has done
for me. For me. Christ has died, yea, rather
has risen for our justification, and glory shall be ours. And
then in verse 12 and 13, the final request, and again, with
a view to our Holy Savior, Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear
unto my cry. Hold not Thy peace from my tears,
for I am a stranger with Thee, and a soldier as all my fathers
were. O spare me that I may recover
strength before I go hence and be no more." Yes, Christ was
heard. Hear my prayer. He was heard.
Yes, the Father has received Him up to heaven and He is now
seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high. And in verse
13, we shall be spared. Oh, spare me that I may recover. Because of what He endured, we
shall be spared, we shall become strength, we shall recover strength
as a newborn creature in Christ Jesus. And thusly, we'll dwell
with Him forever. to always be remembered by our
tender and gracious Shepherd. Spare me that I recover strength."
And in Him, we have strength. In ourselves, we don't have any
strength. But in Him, we do. And we'll be with Him forever.
That's a story I could listen to and be told over and over
again. May our Lord be glorified. Nathan,
would you close us?