Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Bible Study / Summer Psalms

Psalm 38 Part 1  07/22/01

Introduction: We have a full length mirror in our bedroom, next to the window. I bought it for Kathy but from time to time, I use it myself. On Sunday mornings I get dressed and stand back a ways so that I can get the whole picture...ZZ Top had a hit song that reminds me of that moment I glance full length into the mirror... 'Sharp Dressed Man'.  The shirt and pants are in order, the tie is straight, the hair, what's left of it, is combed...styling!

     But ..the room still is dark so I walk a bit closer to the mirror. Since the mirror is next to the window, the light gets brighter and I begin to see things a bit differently. My shirt is a bit wrinkled, my tie has a small but noticeable spot on it and my hair, well that's another story. The closer I get to the now bright mirror, the more defects I see.

     So what do I do? I pull down the shade and stand back ten feet, of course. Just a side note. I can't understand why women buy and use those magnifying mirrors...with an attached light..

Explanation: You may be wondering where I am going with all this? You see, the closer we get to the brightly lit mirror, the more we can see our defects. The same is true when we get close to God. We realize how much we need Him and how far away from Him we really are.  The brightness of God holiness, reveals our moral and spiritual defects...our sin.

     It is at that point that we can look in one of two directions. We can look to God in prayer, confessing our sin and asking for His forgiveness, or we can take 10 steps back trying to avoid having to deal with our sin. In other words, we try to ignore or hide our sin from our view, the view of others and we think God's view. But the consequences of this decision are real and often devastating.

ILL: The story is told by Rod Cooper in Leadership Magazine.
     'After I graduated from Dallas Seminary, waiting on my first ministry, I went home to live with my mother. My mom gave me chores. She said, "One of your jobs is to take out the trash, Son." So every week I put out the garbage.

   One week I forgot to put out the garbage. Garbage has a way of making itself known. It began to smell. Every day we kept piling more garbage onto it. It even began to spill over, and it was right where you came into the back of the house. Every time we went into the house we would get a whiff of it. The aroma began to seep into the house and infected the atmosphere. Then it started to infect my mom's relationship with me. Every time she looked at me, it was as if she were saying, "Why don't you take out the garbage?"

   The next week, I took out the garbage. The atmosphere cleaned up. Our relationship was better. Everything was okay.  The big idea here is if you don't take out the garbage on a daily basis, it piles up. It begins to stink. It can pollute your relationships and cause you to become distant from others.

     So if you want to experience a closeness and intimacy with the Lord, you must confess your sin to God, you must put out the garbage of your sinful life on a regular basis.

Background: This is the situation the Psalmist finds himself in. Ps. 38 is called a Penitential Psalm because it expresses a deep godly sorrow for some sin the writer has committed. The Psalmist, King David, had unconfessed sinned and had let the stench build up in his life. Initially instead of looking up to God for forgiveness, he looked around at everything else to ignore his sin, until his life and vitality was drained from him. It is at this point that David writes this psalm.

     An important key to this psalm is found in the title 'A Psalm of David, for a memorial' Most of us would like forget our sin as soon as possible, to look the other way as it were. But before our sin can be forgotten, it must be remember, brought to mind, and confessed to the Lord.

     Ps. 38 is David remembering his sin and confessing it to God. Here he admits that his unconfessed sin has brought great suffering and shame to his life. David wants us to remember what happened to him when he tried to hide his sin and look around instead of looking up to God. This Psalm was recorded in Scripture because we are prone to forget and need constant reminding that God does not look quietly on hidden, unconfessed sin, especially in the lives of His children.

Transition: Do you have any unconfessed sin? Is there sin you are trying to hide from your family, friends...God? If there is, then you need to hear what David has to say. Turn to Ps. 38, where we will see where we are to look in times of suffering.

I. Look Up  (Psalm 38:1)
Read: vs. 1

     We are very willing to talk about God's blessings, but we rarely hear anyone talk about how God is chastening or disciplining them. When we walk faithfully with God He brings blessing into our lives.
 But it is also true that when we walk disobediently before God, He can bring discipline into our lives as well.  How do I know that?

     Hebrews 12:6  says ' God disciplines those He loves.'  This is good news! God will not allow us to go our own way for very long when we are His children, He will always bring us back...and the road back often involves discipline.

     Notice here that David is not saying that he does not want God's chastening hand upon him. In prayer, he asks God not to discipline him more than he could bear. In other words, David was asking God to be merciful.

Trans: What suffering was David experiencing that caused him to cry out to God? Let's look at vs 2-8

II. Look within (Psalm 38:2-8)
Read:  vs 2-8

     When you disobey God, He has many ways to get your attention. Sometimes He allows physical suffering for that reason. This is not punishment, because He loves you dear Christian and He wants you to confess your sin, to take out the trash of your life and return to intimate fellowship with Him.

 Here, David describes his physical and mental anguish.
    -He feels the pain of God's arrows of conviction, of God's heavy hand of holiness pressing Him down so that he will not go any further in his sin.

     -He feels as if all the life has been sucked out of him, there is nothing healthy about him.

     -He is bent over in pain, a pain lodged deep in his loins. (perhaps the consequence of his sexual sin with Bathsheba)

     -He is overwhelmed by his sin. It has gotten out of control. He thought he could hide it but his sin found him out. The flood gates of guilt are open and he feels like he is drowning in his sin.

     -He is numb, crushed and groans in agony.

     David is in a bad way, but freely admits that his current physical suffering and depression is because of his sin and God's discipline. There is a direct connection here in this psalm between unconfessed sin and physical and emotional sickness.

     But, is sickness and depression always a sign that you are in sin and being disciplined by God? No. In fact, most sickness is not because of personal sin at all. It is the result of the Fall and sin entering humanity and life in general.

A few Biblical examples...
Job: Job experienced devastating sickness, almost to the point of death. Why did Job suffer? To show Satan that the Believer will love God not only for what He has done for Him and what He promises, but for who God is.

Blind Man: In John 9  we read of a man who was born blind from birth. Jesus was asked who sinned, this man or his parents? Jesus replied neither. God chose to glorify Himself through this mans suffering  by having Jesus heal him.

     But the fact is David suffered because of his unconfessed, personal sin. As long as we are this side of heaven, we must recognize this as a possibility...Our sickness or depression could be the result of our unconfessed sin and God's discipline upon us. How can you know? We need to look up to God to find that answer.

     James Boice writes in his commentary on this Psalm that we should ask the following question when we  experience severe sickness or hardships.

     -Have I sinned or gotten off the track of obedience to what I know I should be doing and is this setback God's way of getting me back on track and into fellowship with Him? If it is, you will know, just as David knew.

    Psalm 38 shows us that there is a direct connection between our hidden, unconfessed personal sin and God's discipline...and sometimes it manifests itself in physical and emotional suffering.  If this is true, than we will inevitably ask the question, is this discipline, punishment, is it a sign of Gods displeasure with me as His child? We must be very careful with our answer.

     For the Christian, God's wrath has been placed on Jesus at the cross of Calvary. This means Christian are no longer the objects of God's punishment, wrath, displeasure or His withdrawal. God's grace is upon the Believer and His hand is open to heal all who come to Him and confess their sin. When the Christian does experience God's discipline it comes in the form of correction, to place us back into intimate fellowship with God and on the road to righteous and holy living.

Trans: David has looked within, he has searched his heart and life and has remembered his sin that he had once hidden. He acknowledges God's hand of discipline for his unconfessed sin and now in vs 9 he looks up to God once again in prayer.

III. Look Up (Psalm 38:9)
Read: Vs 9

    David  looks up and adds this prayer to God to praise Him for His omniscience, to glorify God for His great watch care over His children. But it is also a sign of David's faith in God. David's hope was strengthened when he expressed this attribute of God.

     You see, the reason many people, even some Christians stay looking within and around instead of looking up to God is because they really don't believe in their heart of hearts that He is listening to them or that He truly cares about them.  As long as people believe that God is not listening or cannot see them, their sin will continue to be hidden and it will fester.

     But, God does know about our hidden, unconfessed sin. And the good news is that He is also aware of our suffering. Nothing escapes His watchful eye and nothing takes Him by surprise. So when David looks up to God here in prayer, it brings him great comfort. The same can be true for you as well. When you look up to God, even though others may not know what you are going through, God does.

 Look up to the God who is listening and who cares for you.

Conclusion: Annie Dillard, in her book Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, writes:

   At the end of the island I noticed a small green frog. He was exactly half in and half out of the water. He was a very small frog with wide, dull eyes. And just as I looked at him, he slowly crumpled and began to sag. The spirit vanished from his eyes as if snuffed. His skin emptied and drooped; his very skull seemed to collapse and settle like a kicked tent. ... An oval shadow hung in the water behind the drained frog: then the shadow glided away. The frog skin bag started to sink. I had read about the water bug, but never seen one. "Giant water bug" is really the name of the creature, which is an enormous, heavy-bodied brown beetle. It eats insects, tadpoles, fish, and frogs.
    Its grasping forelegs are mighty and hooked inward. It seizes a victim with these legs, hugs it tight, and paralyzes it with enzymes injected during a vicious bite. Through the puncture shoots the poison that dissolves the victim's muscles and bones and organs--all but the skin--and through it the giant water bug sucks out the victim's body, reduced to juice.
    Hidden sins can suck the life out of us.

    Are you, like David, drowning in our sin?

     Are you suffering because of hidden, unconfessed sin in your life?

     Does it feel like your life and vitality are being sucked right out of you?

     Are you afraid to look within because of what you might find?

     How many times have Christians believed that they can handle this one little sin? How many times do Christians knowingly put themselves into bad situations and then rely on their own strength to get them out of trouble? How many of these Christians have fallen into a world of sin and deception, all because they though they could handle it and  besides, no one would find out? Only to find out that they have gotten in over their heads and they begin to feel crushed, in many ways, because of their unconfessed sin. We will often then look around and blame others for our situation. We refuse to admit our sin and that often brings about further guilt and deeper suffering.