What Next?

What Next?

Psalm 39

The setting could easily have David sitting on New Years eve looking back at a year filled with disappointments. He had done what most of us have done. He made some New Years resolutions.

 Resolution #1

“I will watch my ways.”

 Resolution #2

“I will keep my tongue from sin.”

But David did what you and I have done plenty of times. He broke his resolution.

David says he is going to curb his tongue when the ungodly are around. And he really tries. But look what happens when he does.

Read From New Living Translation vv. 1-3

David says as he stood there in silence not even speaking of good things that the turmoil just grew to a boiling point. He said my thoughts grew hot within me and “ignited a fire of words”.

Been there?

You promised yourself that you weren’t going to use certain words anymore. But when the emotions burned inside of you the boiling point was reached and language poured out of you like a flooded titanic.

You promised yourself you were going to quit smoking this past year but when things got tough and you needed some relief out came the cigarettes. So much for the resolution.

You promised yourself you were going to be controlled by the Spirit this year but when you were wronged by that person you forgot all about longsuffering and patience and the flesh took over again.

 No wonder it’s easy for us to identify with David

So what do we next?

Do we just decide to live a defeated life?

Hide our heads in the sand and pretend everything is fine?

Or face the facts as David did and learn that there is hope no matter what kind of year you had.

Here is the truth David came to face.

I. Life isn’t long enough to for him to get it right by yourself.

David goes off into this well know discourse that is so often read at funerals. In fact it is probably more appropriate for you and I on a New Years eve than at a funeral.

Read vv 4-6

Life is not getting longer but shorter.

It is not getting slower but faster.

We live and work and busy ourselves to heap up wealth that someone else will spend.

David’s son Solomon realized this when he wrote those words:

“Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.

James writes, “Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

That is David’s perspective.

And so David asked the question we ask. “Lord, where do I put my hope?”

And David answers his question. “My only hope is in you.”

 Try your best to get it right and you are going to find out that there isn’t enough time. Some of you have been trying for years to quit this or change that and time is running out. Where is your hope?

 If your only hope is in God, why do you keep on trying to get it right by yourself. Allow God’s grace to wash you, cleanse you and you can find the victory that David found when he wrote:

“I waited patiently for the Lord to help me, and he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along. He has given me a new song to sing a hymn of praise to our God.

Psalm 40:1-3