December 12, 2005

Reading through the Bible in one Year: Daniel 2:31-4:18; 2 Peter 1 John 5:1-2 John 4

Good Evening Brothers and Sisters,

I am going to take this psalm in two sections, half today and half tomorrow.

Psalm 39:1-6

1     I said, “I will guard my ways

That I may not sin with my tongue;

I will guard my mouth as with a muzzle

While the wicked are in my presence.”

     2     I was mute and silent,

I refrained even from good,

And my sorrow grew worse.

     3     My heart was hot within me,

While I was musing the fire burned;

Then I spoke with my tongue:

     4     “Lord, make me to know my end

And what is the extent of my days;

Let me know how transient I am.

     5     “Behold, You have made my days as handbreadths,

And my lifetime as nothing in Your sight;

Surely every man at his best is a mere breath.     Selah.

     6     “Surely every man walks about as a phantom;

Surely they make an uproar for nothing;

He amasses riches and does not know who will gather them. NASB95^[1]

This psalm deals with the futility of life, existentialism.  As we climb in years we watch others around us passing on at a frightening rate.  It seems that many of our friends drop like flies, and the process of elimination is slowly catching up with us.  The questions raise up in our minds as to the purpose of life, the purpose of all the work, the pain, agony, joys and triumphs.  In the end, we pass on, leaving in our stead a heritage, possibly which will affect future generations, often will fade into the past with little effect.  As David grapples with the reality of death, and the reality that you can't take anything with you, he leaves these gems for us to contemplate.

Verses 1-3:  I think that in these verses, David is considering life, and bites his tongue in an effort not to disrespect God with questioning the purpose of life.  He became angry as he thought about life, "my heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned..." The reason that he bit his tongue was because to question the futility of life is to stand on the edge of questioning God's purpose in live, which means that you are questioning God.  To step out from under God's rule in your life is sin, even for a moment, and David was careful to avoid this place.  He was afraid to comment on what he was thinking, but being a prophet and a poet, he couldn't restrain his words.

Verses 4-6:  David may have planted the seeds for his son, Solomon, to start thinking about the great book, Ecclesiastes.  The main focus of the book is the futility of life.  Imagine being in David's shoes as he watches the years creep up on him, and watches life passing away, like a breath of air on a cold day. 

David took his thoughts before the Lord in prayer, in that way he approached God with the problem that seemed to be questioning the purpose of God in his life. 

I am going to close here, have to get back to studying, all comments are welcomed.

Father, build purpose into each of our lives so that we can leave a heritage for our children, rooting them in You.

In Him,

Joe Turner.

December 13, 2005

Reading through the Bible in one Year: Daniel 4:19-6:15; 2 John 5-3 John 14

Good Evening Brothers and Sisters,

Psalm 39:7-13

7     “And now, Lord, for what do I wait?

My hope is in You.

     8     “Deliver me from all my transgressions;

Make me not the reproach of the foolish.

     9     “I have become mute, I do not open my mouth,

Because it is You who have done it.

     10     “Remove Your plague from me;

Because of the opposition of Your hand I am perishing.

     11     “With reproofs You chasten a man for iniquity;

You consume as a moth what is precious to him;

Surely every man is a mere breath.     Selah.

     12     “Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry;

Do not be silent at my tears;

For I am a stranger with You,

A sojourner like all my fathers.

     13     “Turn Your gaze away from me, that I may smile again

Before I depart and am no more.” NASB95^[1]

Yesterday we discussed how that life seems not to have a purpose at times.  How that there are times that we feel as if we are relatively insignificant in the big picture of life.  Yet in the end, David turned to God in prayer as he considered his plight.

The prayer continues in today’s lesson, and David gets very specific with the questions that he had asked in the previous verses, here are a few observations:

Verse 7-8:  David acknowledges that his hope and purpose in life is the Lord.  God is the only one that can deliver him from his errors and God is the only one that can make sense out of his life.  The foolish stand by and say that life was worthless, but God says different.

Verses 9-11:  He considers again the fact that he can't say anything because the Lord is responsible for every good thing in his life.  He also recognizes that God is allowing him to die, and that God controls every situation in life, even the process of death.  The mystery of the way that God will allow the moth to die is puzzling as David considers the marvelous creature that God created.  In reality, nothing was ever created to die, in the garden, everything was created to live.  We are compared to the moth that is here today and gone tomorrow, a breath that passes away very quickly.  Our purpose in life is the Lord.

Verses 12-13:  Wrapping up the psalm, David pleads with the Lord to forgive him of his sin.  As a result of the forgiveness, to remove the distance that has developed in his life between him and God.  He pleads with God to turn the intense gaze away from him and to allow him to experience joy once again.  In essence, David is praying for forgiveness for his sin, and for the peace that comes from knowing that sin has been atoned for.

We stand better than David in this respect.  We know that God has forgiven us and allowed each one of us to enter into close fellowship with Him.  We know from 1 John, that all of our sins are forgiven.  We know from Hebrews that Jesus paid the penalty for our sin, once for all.  We stand righteous, forgiven, and covered by the grace, or unmerited favor of God.  Praise Him.  What is is that causes a person to no longer have the faith of a child?  When do we stop believing and start running our lives on our own?  What does it take to return to that child-like faith, and child-like peace of knowing that we are forgiven?

I took the night off tonight and my wife and I went to see the "Narnia" movie.  If you get the opportunity to see it, think of Aslan as a picture of Christ.  The ultimate sacrifice of the perfect for the defective comes through loud and clear, and causes this study today be better understood. 

I am going to close here, all comments are welcomed.

Father, as we consider the work of Christ and the forgiveness of sin, allow each of us to bask in that forgiveness and not to be afraid of coming before Your throne of grace.

In Him,

Joe Turner.