February 22: Psalm 39; Surprising Twists




            Psalm 39 has a couple of surprising twists like a mystery novel. You start reading a mystery and think you know the answers when the author throws in a twist that you didn’t expect. You then have to rethink what is going on before you try to guess “who done it.”
            This is what happened as I read David’s musing in this Psalm. I could identify with him at the start when he wanted to avoid sin by what he said. I hope that is all our goals. We want our mouths to reflect the change in our hearts that comes when Jesus resides in us. But then he applies that to when he is among ungodly people and his turmoil became worse. Ah, I thought, he isn’t being a good witness to the lost and he really needs to speak truth when he is with them. That is another thing we should do. We can’t keep silent when should be explaining the gospel to people who desperately need it. Paul said, “Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!” (1 Cor 9:16). So, finally, David speaks.
            Surprise! He starts by asking God to remind him just how short his life is. What! He doesn’t start telling these ungodly people about God and their sin? No, he starts looking at his own life and how short it is. This is something that we should all get a good dose of before we start telling others how to live. We need to be humble and one of the most humbling thing we can do is compare out life span to God. Doing so puts us in our place immediately.
            David gets around to witnessing to others as he speaks of how we all are short-lived. He expresses the futility of getting all worked up to find riches in this life but not knowing who will get it after we die. Shakespeare must have been inspired by Psalm 39:6 when he wrote:

“All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts … Last scene of all, That ends this strange eventful history, Is second childishness and mere oblivion, Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.” (As You Like It, Act II, Scene VII)

David gave a very powerful and short thing for all of us to ponder. Sometimes this may be all a person needs to start thinking about eternity as Shakespeare did.
            But again, David turns the tables and confesses his own sin and asks God to deliver him from it. What is the sin, what is the meaning of this Psalm? It is possible that he viewed his silence in the face of the ungodly as his sin when he said he didn’t open his mouth. Whoa, is it possible that keeping my mouth shut about the gospel is not just about me but is actually a sin against the Lord? David felt the Lord’s disciple in physical ways. Are there things in my life that would be different if I were more obedient about sharing the gospel or helping those who have wondered from the faith? David sees life as too short to spend it being rebuked for his sin. What a waste of the short lives we have if they are clouded with sin and we are being disciplined by the Lord because of it.
            The last twist is not really a twist at all if we want to live a godly life. David asks the Lord to hear him. We pray and ask the Lord to hear our prayers. David admits that he is only here because the Lord wants him to be alive, just as the Lord kept his ancestors. We also need to admit that we depend on the Lord and recognize his sovereignty over us. We need to trust in the Lord.
            But David asks the Lord to look away from him so he can smile again before he dies. Is this another twist? It sounds like he wants God to leave him alone, as if he is giving up and only wanting to feel good again before he dies. I don’t think this is the meaning of what he is asking. When we look at the description of our glorified Savior it says, “His eyes were like a flame of fire” (Rev 1:14). I think David was asking the Lord to forgive and turn his convicting gaze away from him. We should do the same thing when we are convicted of sin. We can confess our sin and ask for forgiveness. We can come to Jesus and know that he will turn those burning eyes away and welcome us to his throne of grace. And if any of us are not Christians, then we should definitely do that before we depart and are no more (Ps 39:13).

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