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<\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\tThe title gives us no\nindication of the circumstances that brought David to write this\nPsalm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nI.\tDAVID\u2019S PLEA FOR\nCOMPASSION 1-3<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“O LORD, do not rebuke me in Your anger, Nor chasten me in Your wrath. Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am pining away; Heal me, O LORD, for my bones are dismayed. And my soul is greatly dismayed; But You, O LORD–how long?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\tA plea for compassion from\nGod is not uncommon in the Scriptures. There is, of course, the plea\nof the thief on the cross. There is the plea from Habakkuk in 3:2.\nMoses pled for the children of Israel in Ex.32:10-12 and again in\nNu.14:13-20. David, here, pleads for compassion for himself. This\nverse is identical to 38:1 with the exception of one word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nA. God\u2019s Chastening 1<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“O LORD, do not rebuke me in Your anger, Nor chasten me in Your wrath.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
David pleads with God not to rebuke David in His anger or chasten David in His wrath. David says the same thing in Psalm 38:1-4. We can see that David is and was very conscious of his own sin (Ps.32:3-4) but he does not tell us to what sin he is referring here in this Psalm. David obviously regards what he is going through as allowed by God because of sin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We have no idea why God has allowed this pandemic to infect throughout the world, but He knows. We cannot assume personal sin is the cause of each infection. But, no matter what trials we go through, it is always good to start looking at it by first considering the condition of our own hearts before God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nB. God\u2019s Compassion 2-3<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am pining away; Heal me, O LORD, for my bones are dismayed. And my soul is greatly dismayed; But You, O LORD–how long?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The term gracious\/mercy\/merciful<\/em> means \u2018to be favorably inclined towards.\u2019 Therefore, in this context it means compassion. The term pining away\/weak\/faint<\/em> means \u2018to hang down the head\u2019 referring to a depressed state of mind. He will describe this further in verses 6-7. Dismayed\/vexed\/agony<\/em> means \u2018to tremble with fear or trepidation\u2019 as in Ez.7:27.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The king will mourn, the prince will be clothed with horror, and the hands of the people of the land will tremble. According to their conduct I will deal with them, and by their judgments I will judge them. And they will know that I am the LORD.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first half of the above verse is an excellent description of the world right now in the grip of this pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n David is pleading for God\u2019s favor, His compassion, because David is depressed, pining away. His bones tremble and his soul is greatly dismayed. He pleads to the Lord, \u201cHow long?\u201d \u2018How long will you allow me to be like this? How long before you hear my prayer?\u2019 And we might add, ‘How long before this virus is removed?’<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nII.\tDAVID\u2019S PLEA FOR\nDELIVERANCE 4-5<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Return, O LORD, rescue my soul; Save me because of Your lovingkindness. For there is no mention of You in death; In Sheol who will give You thanks?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n \n\tDavid\u2019s question of v.3\nleads to his outright plea of v.4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nA. David\u2019s Plea for\nDeliverance 4<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Return, O LORD, rescue my soul; Save me because of Your lovingkindness.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n David pleads for the Lord to return, as if the Lord had deserted him. We sometimes get into such anguish of soul that we feel the Lord has deserted us. The very fact that we can pray reminds us that God has not left us, no matter what it seems like. So David pleads to God to rescue him, preserve him. He pleads for this based on God\u2019s mercy, His lovingkindness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And we may look at our world, our nation, our state, our community, and ask for God’s preservation. We can ask because we know, firsthand, His lovingkindness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nB. David\u2019s Praise 5<\/p>\n\n\n\n “For there is no mention of You in death; In Sheol who will give You thanks?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some groups like to use this verse as a proof text that at death there is annihilation. They use this verse to teach that a soul ceases to exist at death: ‘soulsleep.’ However, note the word translated mention \/remembrance\/remembers<\/em>. This is a word that means \u2018a public memorial or memory, a public remembrance\u2019 (Ex.3:15; Ps.109:15). The second line in the verse shows what he means. In the grave, who will give a public memorial, a public giving of thanks before men? David declares that he should be rescued because he cannot publicly praise and thank God from the grave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But if we hunker down in this crisis, making no attempt to reach out to minister to others, it will be difficult to make this argument for ourselves before the Lord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nIII.\tDAVID\u2019S DEPRESSION 6-7<\/p>\n\n\n\n “I am weary with my sighing; Every night I make my bed swim, I dissolve my couch with my tears. My eye has wasted away with grief; It has become old because of all my adversaries.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Each thought, in Verses 6-7, builds on the previous one. David begins with the general statement that he is weary with his sighing and ends with an eye that is aged. David\u2019s anguish is affecting him physically. His weeping has caused him to look wasted and old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n David\u2019s problem is his adversaries and he recognizes that this is the hand of the Lord (vss.1-3; Is.45:5-7). The quicker we recognize God\u2019s omnipotence, God\u2019s sovereignty, and our need to abide under His hand in faith, the easier our life will be.<\/em> It is David\u2019s recognition of God\u2019s role in David\u2019s calamity that brings David to plead with God. Thus is this Psalm produced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As Believers in Christ, we know that God is actively involved in our lives. No matter the cause of our trials, He is with us through every one of them. He brings about the fulfillment of Romans 8:28 (“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose”).<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nIV.\tDAVID\u2019S PROMISE OF\nDELIVERANCE 8-10<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Depart from me, all you who do iniquity, For the LORD has heard the voice of my weeping. The LORD has heard my supplication, The LORD receives my prayer. All my enemies will be ashamed and greatly dismayed; They shall turn back, they will suddenly be ashamed.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n \n\tDavid, even though pleading\nwith God for deliverance, shows that he is trusting God by his\nconcluding statements. David declares that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nA. The Lord Hears 8<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Depart from me, all you who do iniquity, For the LORD has heard the voice of my weeping.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n \n\tThe second line of this verse\nexpresses an opposite thought to the first line. David\u2019s enemies,\nthose who do iniquity, can depart from him because the Lord has heard\nthe voice of David\u2019s weeping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nB. The Lord Receives 9<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The LORD has heard my supplication, The LORD receives my prayer.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Both lines of this verse express the same thought. David declares that God has heard his prayer, his supplication. This carries forward the thought of the last line of verse 8. God has received David\u2019s prayer. God has not rejected his prayer. For God to receive is for God to act. And God has not rejected our prayers because we are accepted in Christ. We are encouraged to “draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). This brings us to v.10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nC. The Lord Will Act 10<\/p>\n\n\n\n “All my enemies will be ashamed and greatly dismayed; They shall turn back, they will suddenly be ashamed.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n \n\tBoth lines express the same\nidea. David\u2019s enemies will be ashamed. They will be dismayed\ngreatly. This will be accomplished by their being turned\nback<\/em>, probably\nbecause of being dismayed. Where David began with being\ndismayed\/vexed<\/em>\nin vss.2-3, now it is those who have attacked David who are to be\ndismayed\/vexed<\/em>.\nThey will be the ones who are trembling with fear and trepidation.\nGod will act on behalf of David. In this Psalm it has not yet\nhappened. David is expressing his faith in God\u2019s deliverance. Yet\nhe is confident in God\u2019s future aid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nV.\tCONCLUSION<\/p>\n\n\n\n David was experiencing intense mental anguish. He had fear and trembling. It was affecting him physically. In spite of prayer and trust, David had great anguish. Yet, he still expressed faith in God\u2019s deliverance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is possible to have great emotional anguish and still have faith. Crying before God, pleading with Him to act, does not show a lack of faith. While pleading David was trusting. While trusting David was pleading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The reason David pled for God to rescue him was so that he could continue to praise God before others. Peter also wrote, in 1Peter 2:9, that this is our purpose before the world (“But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light”). We need to recognize our responsibility of proclaiming the Excellencies of our God to this world. We need to publicly praise and thank Him. That is our purpose for remaining on this earth. We praise Him both by word, and by deed, and by our very life and by our death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \n\tSimply because we as\nBelievers are going through great mental anguish due to circumstances\nof this life does not mean we\nlack faith. The\ntruth is that we\nmay or may not. Often we increase a person\u2019s anguish because of\nfalse assumptions about them. That is what Job\u2019s three friends did\nto Job. Let\u2019s not do that to each other or even to ourselves. If\nyou see a Brother in the Lord under a great burden, do what Paul\nwrote in Galatians 6:2 and come along side and help them bear their\nburden. If we find ourselves struggling with fear under these\ndifficult circumstances, go to the Lord and to His Word. Seek peace\nin His presence through His Word. He is the God of all comfort and\npeace. And, as Charles Spurgeon said, learn the peace of being thrown\nupon the Rock of Ages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This Psalm is usually regarded as a Psalm of sickness and spiritual anguish. This is the first of the Psalms called \u2018Penitential Psalms.\u2019 The others are Psalms 32, 38, 51, 102, 130 and 143. The title declares it to be a Psalm of David. \u201cTo the Chief Musician on Neginoth upon Sheminith.\u201d \u201cChief Musician\u201d is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pastorsblog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unionchapel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unionchapel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unionchapel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unionchapel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unionchapel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=628"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/unionchapel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":632,"href":"https:\/\/unionchapel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628\/revisions\/632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unionchapel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unionchapel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unionchapel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}