Saved it till today. Psalm 39. So I've had two weeks to look
at this, Psalm 39, and I've been abundantly blessed. I'm taking
the title for the message from what's said in verse 7. Down
there at verse 7 it says, And now, Lord, what wait I for? What is our hope? What are we
waiting for? What are we waiting for? My hope,
my hope, all my salvation, my hope and all my salvation is
in thee. Look just across the page, Psalm
37, but the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord. He
is their strength in the time of trouble. The Lord shall help
them, deliver them. He shall deliver them from the
wicked and save them. They trust in thee. They trust
in thee. So we have as believers a good
hope, a good hope only in Christ. Every believer can identify with
David. We have no confidence in our
dying flesh. We say with David all flesh is
grass, vanity. We have no confidence in our
dying sinful flesh. All our confidence and hope of
salvation rests totally and only with the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ
is all and in all. He's all of our hope. He's not
some of our hope. He's not some of our salvation.
He's everything, everything in our salvation. We can say with
the Apostle Paul, as he writes in Philippians 3, we are as believers
the true people of God. We're the true Israel of God
that worship God in the spirit, that rejoice in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And he says, we have no confidence
in the flesh. Not mine, not yours. We have
no confidence in the flesh. Our confidence is in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Paul writes 2 Thessalonians,
he said, we have a good hope, a good hope through grace. We
have an everlasting consolation, a good hope through our Lord
Jesus Christ. And it's a good hope through
grace, grace, grace alone. In Romans 15, we read about Our
Lord, who was called the God of hope. He's the God of hope. And then we're gonna see in our
study in 1 Peter 5, he's called the God of all grace. The God
of all grace. He's our hope. He's all of our
salvation. Now this Psalm speak to the issues
we have in our life. Just like David had in his life.
Issues of living, dying, we're dying creatures. We are dying
creatures, but our hope is in Christ. I like what he says in
verse four. He says, Lord, make me to know
my end. It's good to know what the end
of something is. What is the end of believers? To be just
like Christ? My end, like David. David was
man after God's own heart. Like David, And he was, even
though he was a believer and a man after God's own heart,
the king of Israel, he would not exempt from heartache, sorrow,
and neither shall we be. We're always in trouble. In trouble,
coming out of trouble, or headed for trouble. Man that's born
a woman in his few days and full of trouble. We know all about
that, don't we? But I like what Paul said. He
said, our light afflictions which are but for a moment, a moment,
worketh for us a far more an exceeding and eternal weight
of glory. Trials don't work against us. God sends them to us for our
good and for God's glory. They all work together for good
to them who love God, to them who are called according to His
purpose. This song must have been given to David when he was
going through great sorrow and great heartache, for he mentions
that several times. Look at verse 2. He says, I was
dumb with silence. I held my peace even from good,
and my sorrow was stirred, troubled in me. And then he says again
in verse 4, He said, make me to know how frail I am. And then verse 8, he prays, deliver
me from all my transgressions. And in verse 5 and verse 11,
he said, verily, every man at his best state is vanity. You
see the last part of verse 5? Amen, Selah, amen. And then again,
down to the last part of verse 11, he repeats it, surely every
man, That include you? That include every man is a zero,
a zero. Vanity, vanity, vanity, vanity. And then in verse 12, he talks
about over there in verse 12, he said, hear my prayer, oh Lord,
and give ear unto my cry, crying unto the Lord. Hold not thy peace
from my tears. You see that? And then verse
13, he says, oh, Lord, spare me. Spare me. Spare me. So let's take a look at a few
of these things here in these 13 verses. David, verse 1, I
said, David said, I said. David's talking to himself here.
Have you ever do that? David said, I said. I'll take
heed to my ways, that's a good thing to do. Take heed to my
ways that I sin not with my tongue. I will keep my mouth or muzzle
myself with a bridle while the wicked, while the wicked is before
me. Wise is a man who spends much
time in communion with God, meditating, meditating upon the way of God
and his good providence. Hold your place here, and I was
looking at this earlier today. Turn over to back to Psalm number
four, Psalm number four. Let's see if you can identify
with this here. Psalm 4, verse 4. Psalm 4, verse
4. You see it there? Stand in awe
and sin not. Commune with your own heart upon
your bed and be still. Amen. Commune with God in your
heart when you lay down and think upon, meditate upon meditate
upon the Lord. And then he said, I'll take heed
to my way that I send not with my tongue, to control the tongue
and to control the whole man. We studied about that in the
book of James, didn't we? About how the tongue is full
of a unruly member full of deadly poison. If a man can learn to
bridle his speech, his think before you speak, if a man can
learn to control his tongue, he can discipline his whole body. This is especially true when
we should always measure our words before when we are in the
presence of unbelievers. He said, I'll keep my mouth with
a bridle, a muzzle. I'll measure my words while the
wicked is before me. Now we have more freedom of thought
and thinking and saying when we're believers, but when we're
before someone who is opposed to the gospel, we need to be
very careful and measure our words. Now look at verse two.
I was done with silence. That's not a bad thing, to be
silent. You remember in the book of James
we studied, let us be swift to hear, Slow to speak, slow to
wrath. I was dumb. Sometimes it's best
just not to say anything. Quietness turns away wrath. Remember
that old saying that your parents would say to you? If you don't
have anything good to say, just don't say anything. Be silent. David was determined not to speak
foolishly or rashly. It's a good thing to hold your
thoughts and opinions. You don't need to have an opinion
on every matter. What do you think about this?
What do you think about that? It's good sometimes just to be
silent. Just to be silent. There's a
time to speak and there's a time to be silent. A time to speak
and a time to be silent. I turn back a few pages to Job
chapter 40. had a lot to say and his three
friends had a lot to say to Job. But in Job chapter 40, Job 40,
verse one, moreover the Lord answered Job and said, shall
he that contended with the Almighty instruct him? He that reproved
with God, let him answer it. And Job answered the Lord and
said, verse four, Job 40, behold, I'm vile. What shall I answer? I'll lay my hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken, but I will
not answer, yea, twice, but I'll proceed no further. So it's a
good thing. It's a good thing to be done
with silence. The wise man Solomon writes in
Ecclesiastes 5, be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice
of fools. Faith comes by what? Hearing. Faith doesn't come by talking.
Have you ever learned anything by talking? We learn by listening, don't
we? I used to listen to a TV talk show host, and he was
always, always, always talking. But one of the things that he
always said, he said, I've never learned anything by talking.
It's interviewing and listening. Listening, listening. Now look
at verse 3. My heart, my heart. Now whenever we see that in scripture,
he's not talking about this organ we have in our chest that pumps
blood through our body. He's talking about our will,
our mind, our thoughts, our emotions, our soul. He said my heart was
hot, hot within me. while I was musing the fire burn,
burn. Then, big guy with my tongue,
when he had something to say, he was ready, he was ready to
pour out his heart. While David held his word and
meditated upon the Lord, his heart was melting with sorrow,
grief, and pain. While we should carefully guard
our language before men, We are encouraged to pour out our heart
before the Lord. You remember we studied recently
in Philippians, he said, make your request known unto God.
And then recently we looked at Psalm 142 where David said, I
poured out my complaint before him, I showed him my trouble. Look back at Psalm 34, 17. Psalm
34, 17. Psalm 34, 17. The righteous cry,
and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.
The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart. Save us
such as be of a contrite spirit. Look at Psalm 38, 16. Psalm 38,
16. For I said, hear me, But otherwise they should rejoice
over me when my foot slippeth. They magnify themselves against
me for I'm ready to halt and my sorrow is continually before
me. For I will declare mine iniquity. I'll be sorry. I'm sorry. He said, I'm sorry for my sin.
Hear my prayer, oh Lord, and give ear to my cry, he says in
verse 12. John Newton, the old English
preacher, 1700s, said, sooner expect a man to live, a believer
to live without breathing, sooner expect him to live without breathing
as to expect a believer to live without praying. You breathe
all the time, don't we? Men ought always to pray. Christ
is our life and everything we give thanks unto the Lord for
all things. Now he's gonna cry unto the Lord,
verse four. Lord, that's a good place to
go, isn't it? Call upon the name of the Lord.
Lord, make me to know my end. Make me to know my end. Make
me to know the measure of my days, what it is that I may know
how frail, frail I am. He remembers our frame. You remember
Psalm 103. He remembers our frame. He knows
that we are but dust. You remember that old, song from
back in the 70s I guess, All We Are is Dust in the Wind. Do
you remember that? It's a pretty song. I like to
listen to it because that's all this flesh is, is dust in the
wind. All we are is dust in the wind. Now he has something to say here
out of the abundance of his heart. Make me to know my end. You see
that in verse four? Make me to know my end. All things
should be judged by their end. The believer's end goal, what's
the end goal of a believer? To win Christ and to be found
in him and to be raised up in his likeness. David said, I'll
be satisfied, Psalm 17, I'll be satisfied when I wake with
your likeness. What is our end? Well, the end
of our faith is to behold the Lord Jesus Christ. Our faith
will end in sight when we behold Him face to face. We are predestined
to be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
our end. That's a good end. And then secondly, he said, make
me to know the length of my days, the measure, the measure of my
days, how short they are. You remember from our study in
the book of James, life, he described it as but a vapor, a vapor. Psalm 90, you remember he said,
teach me to number my days that I may apply my heart to wisdom.
We know our days are appointed of the Lord. Young and old die
alike as the Lord determines. Man's days are determined of
the Lord. I was reading in our local paper
recently, I always look at the obituaries. I like to see what
people, where they were born and something about their career,
but sometimes you see someone 90, 80, and recently in the paper
there was a 10-month-old baby. His days were determined of the
Lord too. Young and old die alike. as the
Lord determines, man's days are determined of the Lord. Job 14
verse five, his days are determined of the Lord, the number of his
months are with thee, thou has appointed his bounds, his bounds
cannot pass. The exact time that God from
eternity has decreed for you to cease living upon this earth
You can be in the best hospital in the world and they can do
everything, every procedure they can do, but they cannot keep
you alive when God calls you home. Not at all. He says this, see now that I
am he and there is no God with me. I kill, I make alive. I wound, I heal. Neither can
any man deliver out of my hand. The Lord killeth and maketh alive.
He bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up. He maketh poor,
he maketh rich. He bringeth low and he lifteth
up. The Lord kills and the Lord makes
alive. And then he says, make me to
know how frail I am, how weak I am. We have this treasure in
earthen vessels. Make me to know how frail I am.
You see that? Frail, frail. We are frail creatures. How weak and sinful this flesh
truly is. That which is born to flesh is
dying, rotting flesh. Lord, make me to understand we
are strangers and pilgrims here passing through this life like
Abraham looking for a city whose builder and maker is God. The
Lord, by his grace, will cause us to look unto him to supply
our every need. But behold, he said, make me
to know that I may know the measure of my days, what it is, that
I may know how frail, how frail I am. Frail I am. How frail. Fragile. You know, life is fragile, isn't
it? David says in Psalm 73, whom
have I in heaven but thee? There is none upon the earth
that I desire besides thee. My flesh and my heart faileth,
but God is the strength of my heart, the rock of my heart,
and my portion forever. Psalm 73, 25 and 26. My flesh and my heart. We all got heart failure. We've
all got heart failure. Now look at verse 5, Psalm 39. Behold, whenever you see that
word there, behold, I mean stop and take a good look at this.
Stop, look, and listen. Behold, thou hast made my days
as a hand breath. Talk about years, talking here
about days, as a hand breath. And my age is as nothing before
thee, barely every man, at his best point, his best state, all
together, all together, individually or you line the whole human race
up collectively. Vanity. If you had one million
zeros and added up those one million zeros, you still have
zero. You still have vanity. you still
have vanity. More details are given about
the shortness of life. The Lord has made our days to
be measured by the shortness of our days. A span, they say,
is from here to here about 18 inches. A hand breadth, a hand
breadth from here to here on my hand is eight inches. That's
how I measure some of the fish that we catch once in a while.
If it's 7 inches or longer, you can keep it. So I usually measure
it with my hand. But that's just a hand breath.
That's a very short span, isn't it? In the light of eternity,
what's 8 inches or 18 inches? A hand breath. My age before
the eternal God is nothing compared to him. From everlasting to everlasting,
thou art God. So maybe you live to be a hundred
years old. What does that compare to the
Lord? He said, my age before thee, my age is as nothing, nothing,
vanity, Job said, my life is wind, my
days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle. We have a chapter in
the Bible called the obituary chapter, Genesis chapter 5. And he died, and he lived 365
years, and he died, and he lived so many years, and he died, and
he died, and he died, and then Methuselah lived 969 years. You
know what? He died. What is 969 years compared
to the eternal God? Vanity, isn't it? Vanity, vanity. James said, what is your life?
It's a vapor that appeared for a little time, vanishes away. That's all of
us. That's all of us. Verily, truly,
every man at his best state is nothing but vanity. Vanity means
emptiness. Emptiness. And he repeats it
down in verse 11. When thou with rebukest this
correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume.
His righteousness melts away like a moth. Surely every man
is vanity, vanity, vanity. Man is empty of all that's good
and full of that which is evil. Empty of all righteousness and
full of all iniquities. And you know what we say to that?
The last word in verse 5, Sela. Amen. Man's vanity, sinful, wicked,
guilty. Amen. Amen. That's us. That's us. There's none righteous,
no not one. Thanks be to God that the Lord
Jesus Christ came to save nobodies. He came to save those who were
empty, empty and stripped before God. This is a faithful saying
and worthy of all acceptation, the Lord Jesus Christ came to
save sinners. The Lord Jesus Christ, when we
were yet without strength, the Lord Jesus Christ died for the
ungodly. Paul said in Romans that he justified
the ungodly. I'm glad he's taught us that
we are vanity and nothing, that we might fully know that Christ
is everything. He's my wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. Look at verse six. Surely every
man, Every man walketh in a vain show. We're a vain show. Every man is a vain show. Surely
they are disquieted in vain. Disquieted is an uproar. He heapeth up riches, and knoweth
not who shall gather them. Three things in verse six. Every
man walketh in a vain show. Every man walketh in a vain show. I've written down here Psalm
number two. Don't turn on me, just read it
to me. Why do the heathen rage? They're disquieted in vain. Why
do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings
of the earth and the Set themselves and the ruler to take counsel
together against the Lord and against his Christ, saying, let
us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords. He
that sits in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have them
in a derision." They are disquieted in vain. Every man walks into
Vain's show. And notice that word there is
image. Vain's show is an image. We all portray some kind of image,
don't we? Every man walks in a vain image,
a mirage, deluded and duped and deceived until the gospel is
revealed to them, until they know that their hope is only
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't turn, let me read this
to you, Psalm 62, 9. Surely men of low degree are vanity, men
of high degree, they're a lie. To be laid in the balance, they're
altogether lighter than vanity, vanity, vanity. They walk in
a rage of grief and sorrow. Men are shadows, pursuing shadows
while death pursues them. And all the uproars in this life
will soon pass away. Psalm 144 said, man is like vanity,
his days as a shadow that passes away. And thirdly, he said, the vanity
of riches. He heapeth up riches and he does
not know who shall gather them. A lot of very, very rich people
have died. What did they leave? Everything. They didn't take anything with
them. You won't die penniless. You're
not going to take one dime with you, not one red cent. This world
business consists of fruitless honor, needless cares, useless
riches. As one preacher friend of mine
said, the philosophy of this world is get all you can, can
all you get, and sit on the can. All that is in this world, John
said, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the
pride of life, is none of the Father, but is of the world.
All the world passes away in the lust thereof. He that doeth
the will of God abides forever. The fashion of this world, we
see it, don't we? The fashion of this world is
passing right before our eyes. Verse seven, and that leads us
to this. If you understand that All flesh
is sinful. All flesh is grass, dying, withering
flesh. We have no hope in this flesh.
Our strength and hope is only in the Lord. And that leads us
to say in verse 7, And now, Lord, what do I wait for? What do I wait for? My hope is
in Thee. Let's look back a couple pages. Psalm 33. I've got it written
down here. Psalm 33, 20. Psalm 33, 20, we
may look at this Psalm in a few weeks. Psalm 33, 20, our soul
waited for the Lord. He is our help and our shield. For our heart shall rejoice in
him because we have trusted in his holy name. Let thy mercy,
O Lord, be upon us according as we hope in thee. Let his mercy
be upon us according as we hope in thee. David and all believers
considered the things of this world have come to the same conclusion
as Solomon. Solomon was the wisest, richest
man that ever lived in his day. He had everything. He had everything. And you know what he writes?
In Ecclesiastes chapter 1, the words of the preacher, the son
of David, king in Jerusalem, here's what he said. Vanity of
vanity, sayeth the preacher, vanity of vanity, all is vanity. All is vanity. But Christ, he's
everything. He's everything. You see, my
hope is in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Christ in you is a hope
of glory. The believer's hope is in the
Lord's mercies, as we read in Lamentations chapter 3. It is
of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because His
compassion fail not. Great is His faithfulness, O
Lord. My hope is in the Lord's atonement
for our sin. It is what the Lord has done
for us. We are vile sinners. What is
the hope of our sin being put away? It's the Lord Jesus Christ
alone. My hope is in the Lord's beloved
atonement, my substitute to put away my sin. My hope is in Christ
my righteousness. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputes righteousness without work. My hope is in a person. Christ Himself, He is our hope. You see what David's saying there?
My hope is in thee. In Christ Himself. In Christ
we have all things now and forever. Paul writes, if in this life
only we have hope in Christ, we're of all men most miserable.
Our hope we have in Christ is an eternal hope. An eternal hope. And David will quit with verse
8. from all my transgressions. And
know, Lord, what I wait for, my hope is in thee, hope of deliverance. Deliver me from all my transgressions. He prayed that in Psalm 32, didn't
he? Psalm 32, he saved me from all. Blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man whom the Lord
imputed not iniquity and whose spirit there is no God? Deliver me from any foolish idea
and thoughts of salvation apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
insanity, pure insanity to think that there is salvation in any
other than the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Christ himself is our
salvation. Neither is there salvation in
any other, nor the name under heaven, given among men, whereby
we must be saved. We can sum it all up, and we
can say that Christ is everything. Christ is everything. He's my
light, my hope, my salvation. Turn now to one other scripture,
and I'll let you go. I think this kind of sums it
up. David said, it's my hope. Psalm
144. Psalm 144, verse 1. Psalm 144, verse 1. Blessed be
the Lord, my strength, which teaches my hands to war and my
fingers to fight. We fight the good fight of faith.
Verse 2, my goodness and my fortress. He's my goodness. He's my righteousness. He's my fortress. He's my high
tower. He's my deliverer. He's my shield
in whom I trust, who subdueth my people. under me. You see, Christ is my shepherd,
my Lord, my righteousness. He's my all and in all. And now, Lord, what wait I for? My hope. My hope is in thee.