For Sermon Central researchers: I have posted a series of 15 sermons on the Psalms. In recent personal studies I have found the psalms to be richer and more thought-provoking than I had fully appreciated. I had too often swept swiftly through psalms without slowing down to inquire as thoroughly as I might have into the depths of meaning and feeling that are expressed by the psalmists. Upon deeper examination and reflection, I find the psalms to be highly relevant to Christians in every age. My most recent foray into the psalms led me to present a series of studies of selected psalms in a class environment.
In my classes I did not examine every psalm, or every verse of the ones I did. Rather, I presented selected psalms that I believe to be representative of the collection in the book of Psalms. The studies were held in a class environment suitable for pauses for questions and discussion, and to pose “thought questions” where the meanings are not readily apparent, as is often the case in poetry. My notes include suggested points for such pauses, and I have not removed them in Sermon Central posts.
I developed the material with the view in mind that the series may be well used as sermons. There is an introductory sermon that describes what psalms are (whether they are in the 150-chapter book or elsewhere) and explains my approach to the series. The psalms I selected were presented in no particular order in the classes; however, I suggest that anyone using this material as a series begin with the introductory sermon and follow it with Psalms 1 and 2 in that order, as the first two psalms function as a pair. Beyond that, the selected psalms may be presented in any order.
To get as much enjoyment as we could from our study, I did some of the reading from the KJV, which I believe is the most beautiful of the English bible translations. For clarity we also used other versions, mainly ESV, which I have used for several years and the one I have come to prefer.
Psalm 38
Read Psalm 38
The title ascribes the psalm to David. As we have done in the past, and in the absence of any reason to dispute it, we will proceed to study it under the assumption that David wrote it, although there’s no reason to adamantly insist on it.
As we discussed a class on Psalm 17, we identified various sins David committed, but the best known is his sin with Bathsheba and the sins he committed trying to cover it up. Given that the specific occasion of David’s suffering is not given in Psalm 38 – and therefore not knowable - we are in no position to be dogmatic about it.
But sin is sin, and we don’t need to know what specific sin gives occasion to this psalm.
In the absence of conclusive knowledge of the backstory, tell me in a sentence or two what this psalm is about.
Discuss
My synopsis: The psalm describes temporal ill effects of sin on the quality of life, and David’s response to those effects.
The effects David describes – a combination of physical misery, enmity, anxiety, and guilt are the ordinary and predictable product of sin.
David had a consuming love for God, described in many ways but perhaps best in Psalm 42:1-2a:
As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
David knew – as clearly as any human who ever lived – that his sins put him at odds with God, who he adored, and in whom he delighted as passionately as any human who ever lived.
Sin set up an intolerable dynamic tension within David.
It is reminiscent of that described by Paul in Romans 7:14-25 (read).
Paul even goes so far as to describe the condition this way:
Rom 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
What a curious way of describing Paul’s condition: “the body of this death.”
What body is Paul referring to?
His mortal body (was Paul yearning to be released by death)?
The fleshly state, so subject to the temptations to which even the apostle succumbed?
Burton Coffman suggests:
There seems to be here an allusion to an ancient custom of some tyrants, who bound a dead body to a living man, and obliged him to carry it about, until the contagion from the putrid mass took away .his life!
Paul was a living, breathing civil war.
Psalm 38 shows us David was too.
In verse 1 of Psalm 38, David actually asks God to forego the punishment he fully knows he deserves!
Are we even understanding what David is asking? In vs 3-4 he connects his complaint with his own sin:
Psalm 38:3-4 There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation; there is no health in my bones because of my sin. 4 For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.
The word “for” in v4 is in the original language. It means “because.”
The troubles David describes in this Psalm is – by his own testimony – “because” of his sins.
Is David so audacious that he dares to suggest that he be excused from accountability for his misdeeds?
If discipline is from the Lord and borne of love, shouldn’t David welcome discipline as a favor from God’s hand?
His son would counsel:
Proverbs 3:11-12 My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.
Why didn’t David – man after God’s heart as he was – actively seek and embrace discipline, knowing it would be to his benefit and not his detriment?
In fact, in another Psalm, he seems to be doing just that:
Psalm 7:3-5 O Lord my God, if I have done this, if there is wrong in my hands, if I have repaid my friend with evil or plundered my enemy without cause, let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it, and let him trample my life to the ground and lay my glory in the dust.
This isn’t the only time David made this request:
In Psalm 6:1-2 he cries out:
O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath. Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing; heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled.
In the very familiar Psalm 51, he goes further, asking for his sins to be removed.
He begins his agonized plea this way:
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
Despite all these considerations to the contrary - and the sense that is native to most humans (and especially Christians) that the sinner must be held accountable and reap the appropriate consequences for his sins - David seeks to be excused from the normal and natural consequences of his sin.
If I run into your car with my Jeep as I leave tonight, I – or my insurance company – must pay for the damage to your car and your person.
I would be the one who did what I should not.
I must pay.
What “payment” did David want to avoid?
Physical illness?
Ruined relationships?
Enemies, and their taunting?
Or eternity in hell?
To look for the answer to that question, let’s compare instances where David sought relief from his sins.
What is different Psalm 38, 6, 7, and 51?
In Psalm 7 he seem to be saying if I deserve retribution from the hand of someone I have harmed, let me suffer that which is right so that the injured person may have that which is rightly due him.
The other instances seem to be related to sins that do not involve harm to others, but are sins directly against God – as though God himself is the injured victim of David’s crime (which in a sense, God was the victim, as David’s sin made Christ’s trip up Golgotha hill necessary).
It is not evident that David’s plea is for salvation and everlasting life, but for deliverance from the immediate things that afflicted him.
Psalm 38 does not address the eternal aspect of sin’s ruinous results– only those injurious effects suffered in the mortal state.
And yet in David’s lifetime it is said that David’s sins were taken away.
In v13 of 2 Samuel 12, regarding the sins with Bathsheba and Uriah:
David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die.
According to the prophet Nathan, the Lord had “put away” David’s sin. Put it away!
The NASB says “taken away.”
Was Samuel saying the David’s sin was removed in the same sense our sins are remitted in baptism?
If not, in what sense were David’s sins taken away? Is there any other sense?
Yes. Sins were dealt with ceremonially through the offering of the blood (?) of a red heifer.
But that only made the sinner ceremonially clean, with the result that he/she became eligible to enter the congregation (meaning the temple?).
David’s sin concerning Bathsheba and Uriah were “put away” or “taken away.”
What is the meaning of that, as it might shed light on Psalm 38?
No sin was ever taken away from the one who committed them but by the power of redemption. Redemption resides only in Christ’s blood.
Not Adam’s
Not Abraham’s
Not David’s
What could David do to remove his sins? Nothing.
Nothing he could do would remove them.
The high priest did all there was to do on the annual day of atonement, by applying the blood of a bull for his own sins and the sins of his family in the most holy place and applying the blood of the scapegoat to the people.
In David’s day, that’s all that was available.
But that annual ritual didn’t remove the sins.
Hebrews 10:4 …it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
Only the blood of Christ has that power:
Hebrews 9:13-14 …if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, (14) how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
We know that today we may seek – and obtain– absolution on the terms of the gospel.
But the gospel was not revealed to David’s generation.
On what terms could David make such a request?
In v17 of Psalm 51 David states the terms - or principle - under which he places his confidence and relief is sought.
Psalm 51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
David showed in this and many psalms that his spirit was broken and his heart was contrite.
Were the sins committed before Christ “rolled forward?”
That’s what I was taught as a child. Some passages in Hebrews and elsewhere seem to be explained by that perspective, although it strains some passages in Leviticus that say sins “are forgiven.”
If that visualization works best for you, enjoy it in good health.
It’s beyond the scope of our study tonight, I’ll share my point of view which you may consider and agree or not as you wish.
I prefer a different visualization – that Christ’s blood reached not only forward through time as it certainly does, but also backward, forgiving sins at their time on the basis of those who did all they knew to do.
God is not limited to the time dimension as we are.
However you visualize it – sins rolling forward or blood reaching backward, there is no other expiation from sin.
Verse 2 apparently describes what David sees as the judgments of God upon him for which he seeks relief - arrows which lodge within his very flesh, and the hand of God administering punishment and chastening.
2 Samuel 12:10-13 Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ Thus says the Lord, ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house. And I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun.’” David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die.
The actions of God in this passage can be described figuratively as arrows released by God, and the hand of God heavy upon David, for this passage in 2 Samuel makes it plain that the things David would suffer in the course of his life were God’s actions, and not mere incidental and accidental details.
Job’s first 3 “friends,” Bildad, Eliphaz, and Zophar – each from a different part of the country – shared the common belief that all physical suffering was punishment for sin.
Their problem was one of sequitur:
“Sin produces suffering.
Therefore, suffering is evidence of sin.”
What is lacking in that formulation is the exclusive word “only.”
One can say,
“Sin causes suffering.”
But one cannot say:
“Only sin causes suffering.”
So they inferred that Job’s suffering could only be caused by sin he committed.
That is the problem with inferences. They may rest upon false premises.
Experience teaches us that inferences – even when they appear to be rock solid – do not match.
But firmly entrenched in that belief, Job’s friends believed that one not only could, but must infer that sin had been committed, for to them the evidence seemed indisputable.
The evidence didn’t lie, but the premise - on which their interpretation of the evidence - did.
Their inference rested not on the evidence, but on their preconceived but false notion of how God speaks and interacts.
In vs 3-10 and 17 – There is a connection between sin and physical suffering.
Job’s case notwithstanding, physical suffering can be and often is a consequence of sin.
This is relevant not just in David’s day, but in ours.
Discuss - ask for examples.
STD’s, drug addictions, etc.
Furthermore (verses 11-12 and 16) - There is a connection between sin and relationships.
This is obvious and requires little explanation.
There are sins that lie only between you and God.
Those must be resolved between you and the one against whom you sinned, or the relationship is infected.
Similarly, sins between you and others are destructive to those relationship.
Jesus taught this in the sermon on the mount:
Matthew 5:23-24 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.
This applies when you are – or are thought to be – the offending person.
But Jesus also taught that the same principle applies when another person sins against you.
Matthew 18:15-17 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.
Oh, this is so hard! It’s so much easier to talk to third parties who are sympathetic to the injury done to us by another person’s sin!
But Jesus cared so much about relationships that he showed it to be more urgent than bringing your gift to the altar. If you’re bringing a gift and remember something your brother has against you, leave the gift there. LEAVE IT THERE!
FIRST! FIRST! Go and be reconciled to your brother.
Reconciled how? Jesus doesn’t say – at least not here.
So do what you must to be reconciled.
Sometimes reconciliation is impossible.
But at least GO on the mission of reconciliation. It’s more urgent than the gift.
Verses 19-20 – Beyond friend-to-friend relationships, there is a connection between sin and enemies.
Sin certainly has the potential to give rise to enemies.
On its face, sin against another may make an enemy of him.
And God may raise enemies up against us because of our sins. (the book of Judges).
Nationally and possibly individually, as in David’s life?
Here’s another thing sin does:
Sin on our consciences can also make enemies seem to appear where there are none.
Proverbs 28:1 The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion.
It seems to be a part of the design of humans, that there is an unreasoning terror arising from the uneasy conscience of the sinner, which does not allow the sinner to be at ease, free from the fear of discovery and dreaded consequences.
With long practice, the sharp pangs of conscience can become blunt.
David’s sin with Bathsheba and especially that concerning Uriah illustrate how David – and we – can smother our consciences.
Such was not David’s case in Psalm 38! There, David’s conscience was fully functioning.
We saw in Psalm 55 that David’s thoughts seemed to meander from one aspect of that situation to another, ricocheting between complaints about his enemies, expressions of anguish at the betrayal of a trusted friend, calls for relief, and praises to God for his favors.
This psalm is similar in regard to abrupt switches between thoughts.
Maybe our personal prayers are similar.
What I get from this is:
Our prayers don’t have to be organized and polished.
Where does this meandering valley of thoughts lead David?
How does his problem get resolved and his cries answered?
In pieces and parts, ricocheting between his sufferings and his higher thoughts, the nuggets are found in 4 locations:
Psalm 38:9 O Lord, all my longing is before you; my sighing is not hidden from you.
David “bottoms out” in despair at his inability to express or fix his problem with sin and its deleterious effects on him.
It’s as if he says in absolute honesty and surrender,
It’s beyond me – “Lord, I simply lay it all before you in full assurance that you know all that ails me, the cause of it, and the remedy for it.”
Psalm 38:15 But for you, O Lord, do I wait; it is you, O Lord my God, who will answer.
Psalm 38:18 I confess my iniquity; I am sorry for my sin.
Psalm 38:20-22 Those who render me evil for good accuse me because I follow after good. Do not forsake me, O Lord! O my God, be not far from me! Make haste to help me, O Lord, my salvation!
In these interjections, David supplies the answer he seeks.
It all has to do with getting right with God.
