Psalm 39

1 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.
2 I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good; and my sorrow was stirred.
3 My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue,
4 LORD, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is: that I may know how frail I am.
5 Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.
6 Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: surely they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them.
7 And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee.
8 Deliver me from all my transgressions: make me not the reproach of the foolish.
9 I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it.
10 Remove thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of thine hand.
11 When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man is vanity. Selah.
12 Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.
13 O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more.

Key Verse:
10 Remove thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of thine hand.

Key Observation:
David is struck by his sin, bring him up short. He sees the temporariness of life, and pleads for healing and forgiveness.

Memory Verse:
4 LORD, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is: that I may know how frail I am.

Devotion:
McGee says that Longfellow wrote, “Dust thou art, to dust returnest, was not spoken of the soul.” The soul endures; the body perishes. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. All this talk of death, suffering and sickness make this psalm a psalm of grieving. I read that it is often used for funerals and that should not be surprising. Voltaire wrote an enduring work called Candide, where the young man finds out that all is not for the best in the best of all possible worlds. Evil and suffering not only exist—to the rational aware mind-they must be seen to dominate our world.

David here is being swallowed up by his sickness and prays, “O spare me, that I may recover strength.” He recognizes that he is being corrected by God, and is smarting from the discipline, for he says, “Remove thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of thine hand.” When I am sick, or someone I love closely is sick, I think about how mortal I am. Man is but of few days, and full of trouble. When I am forced to consider that I feel so utterly inept. My days, says the Word, are like grass or flowers, here today and gone tomorrow. Its place remembers it no more. What am I to do?

D’Souza says: “The problem of evil and suffering is considered by many people to be the strongest argument against the existence of God.” I cannot answer that completely, not to my own satisfaction, and certainly not to yours. But this I do say. Even the problem of evil, or theodicy, indicates to us that we see the need for the justice bringer. In other words, how can we know that something is wrong, or that something is totally evil, except that God has written on our hearts the way that things “should” be. Christianity stands in stark contrast to our world and gives an optimism that can endure through all trials, all sufferings, all losses. For the teaching of Christianity is that we have souls, and that the suffering of this present life is not worthy to be compared to the glory which we shall receive hereafter. Of all religions, it is Christianity alone which has God reaching down to us, caring and loving and sympathizing enough with our lostness, to send His Son to save us. O death, where is thy victory? Thanks be to God for Jesus, our Lord!