SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
2/6/2012 7:45:20 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Life is short
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm
39
Message
of the verses: 1 For the choir
director, for Jeduthun. A Psalm of David:
I said, "I will guard my ways That I may not sin with my tongue; I
will guard my mouth as with a muzzle While the wicked are in my presence."
2 I was mute and silent, I refrained even from good, And my sorrow grew worse. 3
My heart was hot within me, While I was musing the fire burned; Then I spoke
with my tongue: 4 “LORD, make me to know my end And what is the extent of my
days; Let me know how transient I am. 5 “Behold, You have made my days as handbreadths, And my lifetime as nothing in
Your sight; Surely every man at his best is a mere breath. Selah. 6 “Surely
every man walks about as a phantom; Surely they make an uproar for nothing; He
amasses riches and does not know who will gather them.
“7 "And now, Lord, for what do I wait?
My hope is in You. 8 “Deliver me from all my transgressions; Make me not the
reproach of the foolish. 9 “I have become mute; I do not open my mouth, Because
it is You who have done it. 10 “Remove Your plague from me; Because of the
opposition of Your hand I am perishing. 11 “With reproofs You chasten a man for
iniquity; You consume as a moth what is precious to him; Surely every man is a
mere breath. Selah. 12 “Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear to my cry; Do not
be silent at my tears; For I am a stranger with You, A sojourner like all my fathers.
13 “Turn Your gaze away from me, that I may smile again Before I depart and am
no more.’”
“To the chief Musician, [even] to Jeduthun, a
Psalm of David: Some take Jeduthun to be the name of a musical instrument, as
Jarchi, on which, and others the first word of a song, to the tune of which,
this psalm was sung, as Aben Ezra; though it seems best, with Kimchi and
others, to understand it as the name of the chief musician, to whom this psalm
was sent to be made use of in public service; since Jeduthun was, with his
sons, appointed by David to prophesy with harps and psalteries, and to give
praise and thanks unto the Lord, #1Ch 16:41,42 25:1,3; he is the same with
Ethan {s}. The occasion of it is thought, by some, to be the rebellion of his
son Absalom; so Theodoret thinks it was written when he fled from Absalom, and
was cursed by Shimei; or rather it may be some sore affliction, which lay upon
David for the chastisement of him; see #Ps 39:9, 13; and the argument of the
psalm seems to be much the same with that of the preceding one, as Kimchi
observes.” (John Gill’s Commentary)
“Psalm 39 is an exceptionally heavy
lament, which compares with Job 7 and much of Ecclesiastes. It also carries on the
here-today-gone-tomorrow emphasis of Ps. 37 with a new twist, an application to
all men, especially the psalmist. In
this intense lament, David will break his initial silence with two rounds of
requests and reflections about the brevity and burdens of life” (John MacArthur’s
Study Bible introduction to Psalm 39).”
In Warren Wiersbe’s introduction to
Psalm 39 he concludes with these words, “Recorded in this psalm are four
progressive stages in David’s overcoming his difficult experience.”
He
Was Silent—A burning Heart (vv. 1-3):
“1 For the choir director, for Jeduthun. A Psalm of David: I said,
"I will guard my ways That I may not sin with my tongue; I will guard my
mouth as with a muzzle While the wicked are in my presence." 2 I was mute
and silent, I refrained even from good, And my sorrow grew worse. 3 My heart
was hot within me, While I was musing [meditation] the fire burned; Then I
spoke with my tongue:”
We see that David knew when to
keep silent and when to talk in these verses, for he kept silent for a long
time, but then he had to speak out.
David feels that if he would has spoken before he should have that he
would have sinned with his mouth. The
Bible has much to say about the tongue and talking when one should not and it
seems that David knew these teachings.
We see in Luke 24 in the story of
Jesus walking with two men to Emmaeus, disciples that when they were commenting
after Jesus left saying that their hearts were burning because of His teaching
them, and we see in verse three of this psalm that David’s heart was also
burning.
He
Was Despondent—A Burdened Heart (vv. 4-6):
“4 “LORD, make me to know my end And what is the extent of my days; Let
me know how transient I am. 5 “Behold, You have made my days as handbreadths,
And my lifetime as nothing in Your sight; Surely every man at his best is a mere
breath. Selah. 6 “Surely every man walks about as a phantom; Surely they make
an uproar for nothing; He amasses riches and does not know who will gather
them.”
“4 “LORD, remind me how brief my
time on earth will be. Remind me that my
days are numbered--how fleeting my life is. 5 You have made my life no longer
than the width of my hand. My entire
lifetime is just a moment to you; at best, each of us is but a breath.’’ Interlude 6 We are merely moving shadows, and
all our busy rushing ends in nothing. We heap up wealth, not knowing who will
spend it.” (NLT)
I understand why it is that John
MacArthur compared this psalm with the book of Ecclesiastes, especially in this
section of the psalm. In the KJV we see
the word vanity used at the end of verse five where both the NASB and the NLT
use the word breath. Dr. Wiersbe says
“One of my Hebrew professors described ‘vanity’ as ‘what’s left after you break
a soap bubble,” and that is what David is writing about here for he knows that
life is very short and that is what he is writing about in this section. David had something to say and as he looked
at his life he knew that it was so short, so he needed to say what was needed
in this psalm. Dr. Wiersbe writes, “When
we find ourselves burying our true feelings and creating physical and emotional
pain for ourselves, then it’s time to talk to the Lord and seek His help.” David was doing that in this psalm,
particularly in this section.
At the end of verse six we see
something that David’s son Solomon would write about in Ecclesiastes 2:18-19, “18 Thus I hated all the fruit of my labor for
which I had labored under the sun, for I must leave it to the man who will come
after me. 19 And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will
have control over all the fruit of my labor for which I have labored by acting
wisely under the sun. This too is vanity.”
Jesus spoke of this same truth in Luke 12:16-21, “16 And He told them a
parable, saying, "The land of a rich man was very productive. 17 “And he
began reasoning to himself, saying, ’What shall I do, since I have no place to
store my crops?’ 18 “Then he said, ’This is what I will do: I will tear down my
barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.
19 ’And I will say to my soul,
"Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease,
eat, drink and be merry."’ 20 “But God said to him, ’You fool! This very
night your soul is
required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?’ 21 “So is
the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.’”
Dr.
Wiersbe writes, “If you measure the length of life, you may become despondent,
but if you look around you and measure the depth of life, you are
appalled. Life is swift, life is short,
and for most people, life is futile. In
modern vocabulary, people are living for the image and not the reality.”
He Was Confident—A
Believing Heart (v. 7): “7 "And now, Lord, for what do I wait?
My hope is in You.”
Dr.
Wiersbe writes “The main concern is not how
long we live but how we live. Life is measured, not by how rich we are in
material wealth, but whether we have values that last. Are we living with eternity’s values in view? ‘He who does the will of God abides forever’
(1John 2:17).”
It
took David a while to get to this point, but this verse is the turning point of
the psalm, and David figured that because life was short he had to make every
moment count and so he writes, “My hope is in You.”
He Was Repentant—A
Broken Heart (vv. 8-13): “8 “Deliver me from all my
transgressions; Make me not the reproach of the foolish. 9 “I have become mute,
I do not open my mouth, Because it is You who have done it. 10 “Remove Your
plague from me; Because of the opposition of Your hand I am perishing. 11 “With
reproofs You chasten a man for iniquity; You consume as a moth what is precious
to him; Surely every man is a mere breath. Selah. 12 “Hear my prayer, O LORD,
and give ear to my cry; Do not be silent at my tears; For I am a stranger with
You, A sojourner like all
my fathers. 13 “Turn Your gaze away from me, that I may smile again Before
I depart and am no more.’”
David the sinner:
This is where we begin with in this section (verses 8-9). David realized that he was a sinner, David’s
mouth had been stopped, “Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to
those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become
accountable to God; (Rom. 3:19).” David
admitted his guilt to the Lord.
The
sin he committed does not need to be known to us, but David’s broken heart over
that sin is what we need to see and do the same when sin is present in our
lives.
David the sufferer:
(vv. 10-11). C. S. Lewis writes
in his book “The Problem of Pain:” “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks
in our conscience, but shouts in our pains:
it is His megaphone to arouse a deaf world.” David asks for healing in this section of the
psalm.
David the Sojourner (vv. 12-13). The Bible teaches that all of God’s children
are sojourners on this earth, for we do not own anything as we are just
stewards and are waiting to go to our home with the Lord. We are not to get real comfortable while
living here on earth, but we are to prepare for the next life to which we will
go by following the will of the Lord.
Remember Ephesians 2:10, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ
Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in
them.” We are to seek the wisdom of the
Holy Spirit in order to accomplish those works that God has prepared for us to
do so that when we get to our home with Him He will say to us “Well done thou
good and faithful servant.”
Dr.
Wiersbe writes at the end of his commentary these words, “His closing prayer
was that God would turn away His frowning face and give him strength to return
to life with its duties and burdens, and then one day enable him to pass into
eternity. The phrase ‘no more’ doesn’t
suggest annihilation or absence of an afterlife, but that David would ‘no more’
be on his earth pilgrimage. ‘I will
dwell in the house of the Lord forever’ (23:6).”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: The older you
get the more you know that life is short, for one day you are learning to walk
on your own and it seems the next day you are helping your grandchildren learn
to walk. Life is short and it must be
remembered what is done for Christ will last.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1. Seek the wisdom of the Holy
Spirit to show me the works that were prepared for me to do from eternity past,
and then seek the strength from the Lord to accomplish those works.
2. Continue to learn contentment in
my life through all the circumstances that I go through.
3. Learn when to speak and when to
keep silent.
2/6/2012
9:11:12 AM
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