Sermon Series: A SUMMER IN THE PSALMS

UNDER THE CHASTENING HAND OF THE LORD

Psalm 38
"0 Lord, do not rebuke me in Your wrath, nor chasten me in Your hot displeasure! For Your arrows pierce me deeply, and Your hand presses me down.
There is no soundness in my flesh because of Your anger, nor any health in my bones because of my sin.
For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden they are too heavy for me. My wounds are foul and festering, because of my foolishness.
I am troubled, I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long. For my loins are full of inflammation, and there is no soundness in my flesh. I am feebly and severely broken; I groan because of the turmoil of my heart.
Lord, all my desire is before You; and my sighing is not hidden from You. My heart pants, my strength fails me; As for the light of my eyes, it also has gone from me.
My loved ones and my friends stand aloof from my plague, and my relatives stand afar off. Those also who seek my life lay snares for me; those who seek my hurt speak of destruction, and plan deception all the day long.
But I, like a deaf man, do not hear; and I am like a mute who does not open his mouth. Thus I am like a man who does not hear, and in whose mouth is no response.
For in You, 0 Lord, I hope; You will hear, 0 Lord my God.
For I said, "Hear me, lest they rejoice over me, lest, when my foot slips, they exalt themselves against me."
For I am ready to fall, and my sorrow is continually before me. For I will declare my iniquity, I will be in anguish over my sin. But my enemies are vigorous, and they are strong; and those who hate me wrongfully have multiplied.
Those also who render evil for good, they are my adversaries, because I follow what is good.
Do not forsake me, 0 Lord; 0 my God, be not far from me!
Make haste to help me, 0 Lord, my salvation."

Message:
The theme of our Psalm today is the chastening hand of God and His discipline for our transgressions. The writer to the Hebrews addressed this subject with the following words: "And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: "My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; for whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives." If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it." (Hebrews 12:5-11)

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Psalm 38 is listed among the penitential psalms because of its confession of sin in verses 3-5 and 18. The complete list of such psalms includes Psalm 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 143. David, who is identified as the author in the title, does not actually name his sin in this psalm. Rather, he asks for mercy and help from God because of it. Specifically, he says that God sent the sickness "because of [his] sinful folly" (v.5).
Sin is the most expensive thing in the universe! Nothing else can cost so much. Pardoned or unpardoned, its cost is infinitely great. The existence of sin is a fact everywhere experienced—everywhere observed. Sin is the violation of an infinitely important law—a law designed and adapted to secure the highest good of the universe.
Sin—it is the Trojan Horse; it hath sword and famine and pestilence in the belly of it! Sin is a coal, that not only blacks, but burns. Sin creates all our troubles; it puts gravel into our bread, wormwood in our cup. Sin rots the name, consumes the estate, buries relations.
A mournful catalogue of words, based on a great variety of images, is employed in Scripture to describe the state of sinfulness which man inherits from his birth. Sometimes it is set forth as THE MISSING OF A MARK OR AIM; sometimes as THE TRANSGRESSING OF A LINE—the word occurs seven times in the New Testament, and is twice applied to Adam's fall (Romans 5:14; 1 Timothy 2:14); sometimes as DISOBEDIENCE TO A VOICE, i.e. to hear carelessly, to take no heed of — the word occurs three times (Romans 5:19; 2 Corinthians 10:6; Hebrews 2:2); sometimes as IGNORANCE OF WHAT WE OUGHT TO HAVE DONE (Hebrews 9:7); sometimes as a DEFEAT OR DISCOMFITURE=to be worsted, because, "a sinner yields to, is worsted by, the temptations of the flesh and Satan", sometimes as DEBT (Matthew 6:12); sometimes as DISOBEDIENCE TO LAW, (the word occurs fourteen times in the New Testament, and is generally translated by INIQUITY). The last figure is employed in the most general definition of sin given in the New Testament...SIN IS THE TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW. (1 John 3:4).
There is nothing so hard to die as sin. An atom may kill a giant, a word may break the peace of a nation, a spark burn up a city; but it requires earnest and protracted struggles to destroy sin in the soul. There is pleasure in sin—the Bible allows it——but it is as bitter as the disappointment of the broken heart.
From that sad day of David's fall, he never knew comfort again. The most hideous abominations were committed in his household, and by his own children. The sword seemed never to depart from his house. A shadow was ever upon it. The rebellion of Absalom, with all its painful accompaniments, was distinctly traceable to that terrible transgression. In fact, David was being ever pursued and hunted down by the consequences of his sin in the matter of Uriah the Hittite; the sin was ever starting up in bodily shape and crossing his path.
Sin, a moment of gratification; an eternity of remorse. Sin is the greatest of all detectives; be sure it will find you out. Sin has a medium of exchange that trades in sorrows, disillusionment and death. Sin is a clenched fist and its object is the face of God! Sin can keep you from the Bible and the Bible can keep you from sin.

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The Psalm before us for our contemplation has these words written as an introduction...TO BRING TO REMEMBRANCE. This seems to teach us that good things need to be kept alive in our memories, that we should often sit down, look back, retrace, and turn over in our meditation things that are past, lest at any time we should let any good thing sink into oblivion. Among the things which David brought to his own remembrance, the first and foremost, were (1), his past trials and his past deliverances. The great point, however, in David's Psalm is to bring to remembrance, (2) the depravity of our nature. There is, perhaps, no Psalm which more fully than this describes human nature as seen in the light which God the Holy Spirit casts upon it in the time when He convinces us of sin. This Psalm is designed to inculcate the perpetual remembrance of David and his sin, and of the pardon that was granted. There can be no doubt that the Psalm had this design of making a permanent record of an important event in the life of the author, or of his experience in a time of great calamity; but why this title was affixed only to this Psalm and to Psalm 70 is wholly unknown.
The Psalm describes the condition of one who was suffering from sickness, verses 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10, and 11. Some have supposed that this is merely figurative language, and that it is designed to represent calamity, trouble, sorrow, heavily pressing upon him as if he were sick; others have supposed that it is intended to refer, not to David, but to the people of Israel as afflicted and persecuted, represented under the image of one suffering from disease. Isaiah used this figurative language in his description of Israel and their sin. "Why should you be stricken again? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faints. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; they have not closed or bound up, or soothed with ointment." (Isaiah 1:5-6)
The most natural and obvious interpretation is to regard this Psalm as a literal description of one who was suffering under some form of disease, and its cause was sin! David was suffering under the stroke of God for his flagrant sin with Bethsheba and for his murder of Uriah, one of the most faithful of his mighty men.
In the background the Absalom rebellion is brewing and David is tortured in body and mind. He has been deserted by his friends and is being menaced by enemies. "Is there not a cause?" He knows perfectly well there is for he is reaping what he sowed. Moreover, as he writes this sad Psalm, there seems to be no hope. The Jews, in their services, used this Psalm as part of the general confession of sin on the great Day of Atonement. There is a wail of despair that haunts this psalm, but it is David's despair in himself, not in God.
Dr. Spurgeon suggests that we can observe this Psalm with this outline: "The Psalm opens with a prayer (v.l), continues in a long complaint (vv. 2-8), pauses to dart an eye to heaven (v.9), proceeds with a second tale of sorrow (vv. 10-14), interjects another word of hopeful address to God (v.l5), a third time pours out a flood of griefs (vv. 16-20), and then closes as it opened, with renewed petitioning (vv. 21-22)."

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One thing immediately strikes us about the opening prayer: It is identical (in the Hebrew, almost identical) to the first verse of Psalm 6 which is the first of the penitential Psalms. In fact, the two Psalms bear very close resemblances. True, Psalm 6 is shorter, only ten verses as opposed to twenty-two. Psalm 38 describes the illness at greater length as well as elaborating upon the desertion by the psalmist's friends and the scheming of his enemies. In each Psalm David's specific prayer is that God will not rebuke him in anger or discipline him in wrath. Does this mean that David does not want to be rebuked or that he is rejecting discipline? Not at all! The emphasis is not upon the discipline but upon the words ANGER and WRATH. What David is asking is that God not discipline him in anger. And the reason he is asking this is that the severity of his illness suggests that this is precisely what God is doing!
Verses 2 through 8 describes the psalmist's physical and mental anguish. Physical, because he is suffering. Mental, because he is suffering for sin. The words "because of," repeated three times in verses 3 and 5, leave no doubt that in David's mind this was a judicial illness. He was being punished for a serious transgression.
NOT ALL SICKNESS IS PUNISHMENT, HOWEVER. In fact, most sickness is not. It is important to say this, because physical suffering often depresses us mentally, and in such depressions we are inclined to see connections between our past sins and our present sickness that do not necessarily exist.
We need to remember Job, who was a righteous man and yet suffered. God described Job as "blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil" (Job 1:8). Job's suffering was a demonstration before Satan that a human being will love God for who God is and not just for what the person can get of Him. Job proved God's point when he said: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised"(1:21).
Another purpose of suffering is explained in the case of the man who had been blind from birth, recorded in John 9. The disciples of Jesus wanted to make an easy link between sin and suffering, asking, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" (v.2). But Jesus replied, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned...but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life" (v.3). In other words, God had chosen to glorify Himself through the man's suffering, in this case by having Jesus heal his blindness.
But neither of these is an explanation of David's suffering. David was suffering for sin! As long as we are sinners, you and I have to recognize this is a possibility. I suggest the following questions we ask ourselves when we undergo some great calamity or sickness:
(1) 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 spiritually and into fellowship with Him?
(2) Is God using this to trim off some rough edges of my personality and develop a more Christ-like character in me?
(3) Is God using my suffering as a stage upon which His name and wisdom may be glorified. Is it a place for me to show

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that I love Him for who He is, entirely apart from whatever material and physical benefits He may have given me?
Observation: This last question brings us to one of the hardest of God's purposes for us to see and accept. It is why Job is such an outstanding Old Testament example in his suffering. Still, there should be an element of this in anything we suffer, simply because we are told to glorify God in everything we do, suffering included. This theme is also in Psalm 38...for although David confesses that he is being judged for his sin-—God has made this clear to him— he is nevertheless glorifying God in the way he deals with it. Primarily, he is not faulting God, but is instead praising God as the source of mercy and salvation.
In our Psalm, in verses 9 through 14, David describes three things about the inexpressible sorrow of his soul at this dreadful time in his experience.
"Lord, all my desire is before Thee; and my groaning is not hid from Thee. My heart panteth, my strength faileth me; as for the light of mine eyes, it also is gone from me." He had lost all sense of victory, all sense of vitality, all sense of vision. He was defeated, depressed, and in the dark. He was like a lost soul...yet all his being cried out for God, Jehovah. That is perhaps the worst thing about the hour of conviction, when one's sins come home to roost; one tends to lose all sense of the presence of God. There was a spiritual dimension even to the horrible affliction which attacked David's body.
Note...in verses 11 and 12, He was deserted by his friends and derided by his foes. "My lovers and friends stand aloof from my sore; and my kinsmen stand afar off. They also that seek after my life lay snares for me; and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and imagine deceits all the day long."
We have now come to the clue for which we have been searching. What kind of disease was it in Israel which set a man apart from family and friends; which drove him as a dreadful pariah outside the camp; which caused him to roar his uncleanness whenever anyone started to approach? What fearful affliction caused the Jews to flee from anyone tainted with it? What was looked upon as the very stroke of God? Surely it was LEPROSY! DAVID HAD BECOME A LEPER! Or so it seems.
That fact alone, perhaps, would help account for the strange silence of the historians about David's sickness. How could they record that about the best, the bravest, and the most beloved of all their kings? David does not hesitate, however. He says: "My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore."
The word he uses for SORE is the word specifically used in the Old Testament for the plague of leprosy. No wonder even his family fled from him. Had it been anyone but David, anyone but the king, he would have been driven outside the camp, forced to cover his lip, forced to cry unceasingly, "Unclean! Unclean!" David's sorrows were spiritual--the leper could have no place in the sanctuary. David's sorrows were social--nobody wanted to come near him.
So overwhelming was his situation that at times David simply sat deaf and dumb in the presence of God. The sweet singer of Israel, the man who always had a ready answer, was dumb. We can be sure David never expected anything like this when he first began to play with sin! But then, neither do we!

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In verses 15 through 22, we have David's supplication and confession to God.
Recovering from the dreadful admission, David first expresses his confidence; "For in Thee, 0 Lord, do I hope: Thou wilt hear, 0 Lord, my God (38:15). David may be deaf and dumb in his shock but that does not prevent his whole soul crying out to God--to Jehovah, His Elohim, the only One who could possibly help. To Jehovah, the God of Covenant--the gracious, merciful compassionate One who of His own free will sought out the poor sons of men in order to reveal Himself as the God of promise.
David expresses his concern: "For I said, hear me, lest otherwise they should rejoice over me: when my foot slippeth, they magnify themselves against me." (v.l6) David asks God to protect him from his enemies. For his foot to slip means for David to stumble from God's path, the way in which he should walk. Since this has already happened, the opportunity has come for David's enemies to exalt themselves by depreciating him. In light of the description of David's condition, he could well refer here even to death itself. In the first part of the Psalm David is mostly taken up with his malady; in the second part he is mostly taken up with his malingers, his enemies so ready to capitalize upon his misfortunes. "Hear me!" He wanted his enemies to know that it was God with whom they would have to reckon. It was one thing for God to enter into judgment with his child; it was something else for others to try to take advantage of the occasion.
In verses 17 and 18, David mentions both his contrition and his confession: "For I am ready to halt, and my sorrow is continually before me. For I will declare mine iniquity; I will be sorry for my sin." That is always a good first step; that is getting down to the root of the problem. There are some sicknesses caused by sin; those sicknesses call for a spiritual diagnosis and prescription.
In verse 18 , we see a crucial step in David's healing. Previously he has been conscious of his sin and felt its weight (vv. 4, 5). Now, however, he declares his "SIN." He feels anguish over it. Apart from such deep, heartfelt confession neither we nor David will know healing. In a somewhat different context, James encourages us to confess our sins to each other and to pray for each other "that you may be healed." (James 5:16). Here, as in Psalm 38, confession and healing are wedded.
Again and again in ministering to the sick I have seen honest confession of sin begin the healing process. I have seen people pour out their hearts to God and then experience deep relief and an infusion of joy in the Holy Spirit. There is no other route to health or sanity. We all need to be cleansed. This is humbling, breaking. But in Christ, after death comes resurrection!
Psalm 38 ends with a call for God to act. It is the Lord who will deliver him from his own wrath and from David's sin, sickness, and enemies.
This is not a prayer of victory, yet, as we have seen, it demonstrates the road to healing. It includes an honest description of David's moral, emotional, and physical illness and its relational consequences. The fact that this Psalm was written down and cherished is an eloquent witness that his prayer was heard!