You know what I like about the Psalms is that they just start talking as if you’ve been having a conversation all day long. It’s kind of like real life. It’s as if you get to walk into their house and you just begin a conversation.

I don’t know about you, but when I’m at my house, it’s as if we’ve been talking all day long sometimes and we haven’t been. And the Psalms do that. They just jump right into the conversation. They get right down to it.

And you know, I think about my own life and there’ll be times when my wife and I will be talking about certain things and then we won’t talk for a little while and maybe I’m on the couch and all of a sudden she’ll come down the hallway and she’ll say something like, “And then you know what else?” And I’ll kind of sit there in my chair for a second. I’m like, “I don’t really know what’s happening.” And she’ll talk some more and then all of a sudden it’ll click. Ah, this is about the conversation we had a couple hours ago.

Our kids over the years, they’re now 23 and 20, and I didn’t realize this, but they have said the same word, and they’ll kind of bust in through the garage door that enters into our house, and my wife and I will be sitting there, and they’ll come home from work or from school, and when it’s not been a good day, they’ll just open the door, and they’ll throw up their hands, and they’ll go, “Well, and then they’ll just go on with the rest of their day.” And sometimes we don’t even need to say anything.

I was thinking this morning, there are many young families here. And I think back of when our kids were young, and I would come home from work, and I would open the door, that same garage door that my kids would walk through, and I wouldn’t even have to say anything, nor would my wife. She would just look at me, and her face would say it all. It would say, “These aren’t children. These are like animals.” and I don’t know what to do.

And I think the Psalms are so great because they act like we’ve been having a conversation all day long and they just kind of jump right in to the topic they’re discussing, the emotions that they’re having, the feelings that they’ve been wrestling with. Even the psalm we’re talking about today, it says, “I will guard my ways.” Some of the other psalms, the psalm right before it says, “Oh Lord, rebuke me not in your anger.” That’s how it starts off. One of the other ones says, “Why, oh Lord, do you stand so far away? They just get right into it. It’s like real life.” And that’s what I appreciate about the Psalms.

And it made me think of a question, and maybe you could talk about this in your groups as you guys are meeting, but if you were to write a psalm today, thinking about your life, if you were to write a psalm or a song to the Lord, what would be the first line? What would it be? Would it be an exciting psalm? A psalm of celebration? Would it be a psalm like we’re looking at today that’s a psalm of lament that communicates deep sorrow and grief? What would be that first line of your psalm?

Think about that. I was thinking last week also about Psalm 23 and Pastor Scott was talking about that and then we had a worship night together and it was just such a wonderful time going over Psalm 23. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. And it was just fantastic. I love it.

But then I started thinking of this week and the psalms that we had prepared long ago for today. And this is a psalm that I picked. And I started thinking about that valley. What if the valley that I’m walking through is because of me? What if the valley of suffering I’m going through is because of my own sin, my own poor choices? What do we do in those moments? And that’s what we get to talk about today.

People asked me last night, Ben, what are we talking about? Oh, man. We’re talking about sin today, but we’re also talking about hope. I mean, the whole gospel is about that, right? Our sin. But there’s hope. There’s hope. He rose from the dead. So that’s what we get to talk about this morning. It’s a great psalm. All the psalms are wonderful, but today in specific, I think it’s fantastic. So we’re going to get into it. But let me pray. I know Pastor Joel’s already prayed for us, but let me do that again.

Father, would you lead our time today? Would you be glorified? Would you let us enjoy looking at your word? And I know that anytime we talk about sin, it can be difficult because it affects so many areas and so many relationships in our life. And I pray for those right now who are in the midst of sin by their own choices or by the choices of others. And it may be problematic to talk about things, but Lord, it’s necessary. And there’s hope. There is always hope in you. So Lord, would you lead our time in Jesus name? Amen.

I said there’s always hope and this is always appropriate because some of us have walked through sin and felt the effects of it. Some of us will walk through sin and feel the effects of it. And some of us currently right now are walking through sin and the deep effects that it has on our life.

Okay. So let’s get in Psalm 39. We’re going to start with verses 1 to 3. David says, “I said I will guard my ways that I may not sin with my tongue.” That first person alone may be the message you need to hear today. Right? I may not sin with my tongue. I will guard my mouth with a muzzle so long as the wicked are in my presence. I was mute and silent. I held my peace to no avail. And my distress grew worse. My heart became hot within me. As I am mused or thought deeply, the fire burned and then I spoke with my tongue.

What we realize right off the bat here is there is something wrong. Something is not right. David is dealing with some sort of suffering, some sort of anguish. Something’s going on in his life and he’s struggling. But he says, “I’m going to guard my ways.” He’s going to try to keep his whole behavior and attitude in check. And specifically, he does it in one way. He’s going to guard what he says as with a muzzle so that he may not lead those who do not understand Jesus astray or do not understand how the Lord is working. He doesn’t want to be a bad example towards that.

And when he says he remains quiet, it’s not like we remain quiet when there’s problems, right? At my house, I know for sure there are moments when things are going on and so someone will get quiet. They don’t say anything. Maybe it was me, maybe the kids, maybe my wife. And they may be quiet for a few minutes, a few hours, for a couple days. They might not say anything. And that not saying anything may be accompanied by arms folded. And we know we’re not supposed to ask a two-word question, but we can’t help ourselves, right? And so out of our mouth blurts those two words, what’s wrong? And then all kinds of things can happen, right?

This is not the remaining quiet that David is dealing with. This is not what he’s saying. It’s not out of anger and frustration that he’s remaining quiet, but really it’s out of submission and obedience to the Lord that he’s trying to remain quiet and the suffering that he’s dealing with. But then it gets to a point he says, “I held my peace to no avail. My heart became hot within me.” And as he thought about it, the fire burned and then he spoke with this tongue.

And I like to call this David’s Popeye moment. And you know, just give you a little glimpse into my life if you haven’t already understood. I enjoy Popeye. When I was a kid, this was one of my favorite cartoons. Popeye the sailor. Man, who doesn’t like it? You know, his gigantic forearms that he had. And it was so great. He had his gal, Olive Oil, a fantastic name. There was Brutus, the bad guy, which if there ever was a bad guy’s name, Brutus is it. But there’s a point in Popeye the Sailor Man in every episode when something difficult would be happening. There’d be a problem. Maybe Popeye would have to save Olive Oil and he would say, “That’s it.” And he would say this phrase, and I’m not going to try to imitate his voice because I do such a poor job at it. He’d say, “That’s all I can stands and I can’t stands no more.” And then he would intervene on whatever situation was going on. And I loved it. I loved it all the way till he got to what he did after that. He would open up a can of spinach. And I was like, “Man, even as a child, even as a child, I understood that parents were in on the cartoon making.” I was like, “Can’t you just can’t you give us just these cartoons to enjoy without talking about vegetables?” Couldn’t he have said that’s all I can stand and I can’t stand anymore and open up a Klondike bar or pack of Fig Newton or something.

But David, he cannot keep contained the anguish that he was feeling. He had to speak. And in our life when we are dealing with suffering, we cannot keep it in. You will explode. It will affect all of your life and the people that you are around. Suffering comes in all shapes and sizes, doesn’t it? But if we try to walk through it on our own, remaining quiet, not doing anything about it, it will consume you.

And so our first response into suffering, and these are not the only responses, these are just a few of them that I’ve pointed out, is when we are suffering, we need to cry out to the Lord. We need to cry out to him. And this is what David does. And he does it in a very unique way, in a way that’s really foreign to me. It’s not a learned way of crying out to the Lord, but I think it’s really appropriate how he does it.

He says in verses 4 to 6, he says, “Oh Lord, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days.” That’s how he starts off after he can’t remain quiet any longer. He says, “Help me to know the measure of my days. Let me know how fleeting I am. Behold, you have made my days a few hand breaths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely all mankind stands as a breath. Surely a man goes about as a shadow. Surely for nothing they are in turmoil. Man heaps up wealth and does not know who will gather.”

So interesting because when he’s crying out to the Lord, when he begins his worship, his prayers to him and dealing with the suffering that he’s going through, essentially what he is trying to do as I understand this is he is trying to perceive God’s intentions about humanity and his own life. He’s trying to understand God’s perspective, which is very unique to me because oftentimes when I’m suffering and dealing with hardship, I want God to understand my perspective.

God, don’t you know that this is what I think my children need right now? Lord, don’t you know that this is what my wife needs? Don’t you know that when it comes to my finances, Lord, this is how much money I need? And instead of having God try to understand his perspective, he already knows because he knows everything. He knows what’s within our hearts. He knows within what’s within our minds.

David tries to understand God’s perspective. And the perspective that God looks upon us and he says, “I’ve been here from the beginning. There’s no beginning. There’s no end for the Lord.” But when it comes to our life, the brevity of humanity, right? It’s just it’s like a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. That’s what it talks about in the New Testament. David says, you know, let me know how fleeting I am. He says, you have made my days a few hand breaths. Hand breast is one of the smallest increment of measurements used in ancient Israel at that time. Our life is so brief. Lord, help me to understand your perspective on life in general and the condition that I’m walking through right now.

But then he says something else very interesting. He says, “Man heaps up wealth and does not know who will gather.” We go about our lives and we try to accumulate and amass certain things. I see it with my kids right now growing in their age and you know we got to get married, we got to get a house, we got to have our cars, we got to get a dog and those are all good and appropriate things. It’s what happens as we grow up and we get older, but then it continues on in life. Oh, we need to get this done. And we put all this effort and time into certain things in our life because we think that it will produce in us something that only God can produce.

It makes me think of, and this may sound odd to you, it makes me think of my fence. You know, we have couple sides of our fences that have just been really, really bad the last, you know, year, year and a half. And my neighbor helped me fix one of the fences going down this side, but the one in the back, like it was hanging by a thread. Like, if it wasn’t for the neighbor’s fruit bushes, it would have been down for the count. I mean, it was that bad. And so, I was like, “Baby, I got to fix the fence. I got to replace it.” Uh, but it consumed me. I was all about this fence. I would be at work and I would think to myself, “Man, I got to get home tonight. I got to tear it down. The next day I’ll get home and then I’ll set all the posts and then the next day I’ll do the stringers and I’ll do all the pickets and then I’ll be done.” I would wake up in the middle of the night thinking about this fence that I had to repair. It consumes us.

After I’m long and gone, hopefully the fence will be standing. After I’m long and gone, people are not going to be worried about that fence unless it’s falling down again.

When it comes to suffering, there is no tool in my mind that represents suffering more than this tool right here. I get to be around tools often. And when I pointed to this tool last night, you could see some of the guys and some of the people who have used it before, they started kind of squirming and getting uneasy. Someone jump into their wife’s lap and be like, “Help me.” Because they’re thinking about this. But there’s no other tool than the post hole digger that represents suffering. There isn’t. I mean, you pick it up, you jam it into the ground, which is not too bad, and then you do a couple moves that are not natural. This is not a natural movement. And then to make it worse, you have to pick it up and you transfer the dirt, not into buckets. Now, I made it really easy on myself by buying nice little soil here, but usually we’re jamming it into ground that’s super hard. And there’s concrete, there’s tree roots, there’s all kinds of things down there. Your shoes that you left, there’s many things down there.

And understanding suffering dealing with these difficult moments in life and I’ll talk about that in a few minutes. It also leads us to something else. Suffering stops us in our tracks. Doesn’t matter what we’re doing. When all of a sudden we are dealing with difficult moments, life stops. And suffering, not only does it lead us to crying out to the Lord, suffering can also lead us to the point of life. It can lead us to what everything is about. Why are we even here?

Let me read to you verse 7, just this one verse. After David’s trying to understand God’s perspective, he says, “How and now, oh Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in you.” And understanding how brief his life was, it led David to the question of what do I wait for what is the point of all this then and he understood it was the Lord. As we’ve talked before God is always the hero of the story I hate to burst your bubble but life is not about you, life is not about me hearing that alone maybe you’re a walk away today. Okay. It’s not about me. It’s not about me. We are not the center of the universe. And I know sometimes I wish I was the center of the universe.

It’s it’s seen so clearly for me in one of the biggest issues of sin that’s currently in my life. And this may sound silly to you, but it’s the truth. It’s seen on my driving. For some reason, when I turned 50, all of a sudden, I felt like the road belongs to me more than any other time. My wife and I, we were in San Francisco this last weekend and we watched the Giants game. It was great. They actually won a game. We were driving home. And if you know anything about driving in the city, you have to be a little aggressive. She just got it. It’s the nature of driving in the city. And so, as I’m getting ready to get onto the freeway after the game, I know that I have to be in the right lane. And so, I am. And then there’s a gentleman in the lane next to me. And I know that he’s not in the correct lane. His blinker is on. And so, of course, do I let the person in? No, because he should have thought ahead. And this lane is my lane. And so, all of a sudden, traffic starts going and he starts moving over and merging. And instead of letting him go, I say, “Nope, this belongs to me.” And I keep going and he keeps going. And as we’re inches away from me, suddenly it changes. He starts flailing his arms. And of course, do I relent and let him in? My arms start flailing. And suddenly, a voice of sanity shows up in my car. Okay? And I hear my wife say, “Babe, what are you doing?” And all of a sudden, I’m like, “What am I doing?” It’s like all of a sudden I woke up from like a state of something.

And you know what she says and just there’s not going to be a video so just breathe easy. She says you know I’m going to start doing and we talk about the messages and things that I’m going to be able to share. It’s really fun and she’s got tremendous idea and insights. She says I’m going to start videoing you when you’re driving nowadays and whenever you’re talking I’m just going to have them show a video of you. And I was like, “Okay, I’ll stop.” And it sounds silly, but here’s the thing. Life is not about us. It’s not about me. And although I did not let this person merge into my lane, we do it with so many other areas of our life. Sometimes we need to allow our spouse to merge into our lane. Nope. It’s my way only. I don’t care if your perspective is different. This is what I think and this is how it’s going to go. You’re not the center of the universe in your marriage when it comes to our kids. Nope. This is how it’s going to be, kids. Take it or leave it.

I get there’s a balance in that when parenting, but sometimes you need to allow your kids to merge into your lane at times. When it comes to our finances, when it comes to your workplace, when it comes to your driving, when it comes to the grocery store, life is not about us. We are not the center of the universe.

Listen, suffering in life, be it emotional pain, deep sorrow, relationships, grief over poor choices and habits that we have in our life. It should lead us to the point of life, to the point of humanity. And it is about him. Life is about him. How would my driving change if I understood that? How would my relationship with my wife change? With my children, with my workmates, with my classmates, if I knew that I was there for God’s glory, not my own.

But then the psalm, Psalm chapter 39, it takes a turn and it gets very specific. And this leads us to the next point. When it comes to suffering, suffering leads us, these two points are really not, man, when I was planning these things out, I was like, I don’t know if people are going to really enjoy these things yet, they’re necessary. Suffering leads us to take responsibility. And this is how the psalm changes.

Listen to what he says in verse 8. David says, “Deliver me from all my transgressions or that willful breaking of God’s law. Do not make me the scorn of the fool. I am mute. I do not open my mouth, for it is you who have done it. Remove your stroke from me. I am spent by the hostility of your hand. When you discipline a man with rebukes for sin, there we see the specificity of this psalm. You consume like a moth what is dear to him. Surely all mankind is a mere breath.”

We see that the suffering that David is experiencing in the psalm is because of his own sin. That’s when it becomes very difficult in walking through those valleys of sufferings. Right? David moves away from viewing the condition of humanity and how brief it is to understanding his own condition. He was actually experiencing the discipline of the Lord. He says this says, “Remove your stroke for me. When you discipline a man with rebukes for sin, you consume.” And to David, it felt all-consuming. And it can when we experience God’s discipline because of our own sin. And oftentimes we need to take responsibility. And this is what David does. and declaring these things.

And I’m not saying that all suffering is because of sin, but in this particular case, in this psalm, this is why David was experiencing deep grief and sorrow. And as a side note, the discipline that we receive from the Lord can come in a lot of different ways. Sometimes the discipline of the Lord just comes from us reading the Bible on our own. Sometimes discipline comes from the Holy Spirit that resides within us. How many times has someone been talking in my life and all of a sudden I realize ah I need to go to my son and apologize. I need to go to my wife and apologize. I need to you fill in the blank. You fill in the blank. But we have to take responsibility when it comes to suffering because of our sin.

Now back to the post hole digger. Okay, listen. Whose fault is it when I’m suffering with this post hole digger? It’s me. No one is making me dig holes in the ground. My wife actually, she’s like, “Babe, why don’t you stop stressing out over the fence? Why don’t we just pay someone to do it?” Nope. I got to do it. I got to dig those holes. And so I keep on digging and keep on digging even though I feel my hands starting to loosen up and those blisters creeping up. Even though sweat’s pouring down my face and I’m wondering how much longer, Lord, do I have to dig these holes? But we keep on digging and we keep on digging. And the metaphor, right, in our life when it comes to sin, we keep on digging. We keep on digging those holes and at some point we have to take responsibility and put it down. Say, “God, I can’t I can’t do it any longer.”

Listen to these other psalms that are on your notes in Psalm 19. And this deals with taking responsibility. Who perceives his unintentional sins. Cleanse me from my hidden faults. Moreover, keep your servant from willful sins. Do not let them rule me. Then I will be blameless and cleansed from blatant rebellion. He’s taken responsibility. It goes on in Psalm 32:5, “Then I acknowledged my sin to you.” How often when we are wrestling and struggling with sin that we fail to admit and take responsibility for that which we can control. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the guilt of my sin.” Take responsibility.

Listen, if you’re anything like me, which you probably are, you have experienced a lot of different things in life. And we are who we are because of many different actions with the people that we have come in contact with. We have learned reactions to life. We do. But at some point, we must take responsibility for our part in whatever issue is going on. to whatever sin we are wrestling with. Be it our own or be it someone else’s, we must take responsibility.

But then there’s another aspect of this suffering and this is where the hope comes in. Suffering can lead to joy. And I’m going to read Psalm 30 and then I’m going to read the last few verses of Psalm 39. Listen to Psalm 30:5. I think there’s a song to this. For his anger only lasts a moment, but his favor a lifetime. Weeping may stay overnight, but there is joy in the morning. And then let me read Psalm 39:12-13. It says, “Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry. Hold not your peace at my tears, for I am a sojourner with you, a guest like all my fathers. Look away from me that I may smile again before I depart and no more.”

His prayer is a little bit different now after realizing he’s not the point of everything and how brief life is and taking responsibility for his own acts in regards to the sin and the discipline that he was experiencing. And he says, “God, my life is just temporary. I’m just passing through this life until I have the privilege of entering into eternity with you.” And so, Lord, because of my own sin and the suffering that you’ve allowed me to experience, because God does that, right? One of the ways God allows us to experience his discipline is he lets us feel the earthly effects of our sin.

I learned in Celebrate Recovery, one of the things he allows us to do at times is to see the bottom. He allows us to feel it. And some for some, for me that’s a terrifying thing to see and to feel. But it’s necessary for me to rub shoulders with that in order for me to say God it’s you. You are my hope. You must do something miraculous. And this is where suffering can lead to joy. It can lead to joy because God is in the business of changing lives. Life can be difficult. It’s a difficult understanding to know that one day I’m going to take my last breath. That we all are in that situation. I my parents are now aging. I’ve lost a father-in-law, a stepdad, a stepmom. I’m getting older. And that can be difficult to realize that you’re nearing the end, that life is short.

And so what David says, he says, you know, look away from me that I may smile again before I depart and no more. In other words, God, let me just enjoy those things that you enjoy. And what are those things that God enjoys? Well, he enjoys his own holiness. He enjoys the people that he made. And it makes me think of Matthew, the great commandment, when someone asked Jesus, “What is the greatest commandment?” And Jesus says, “Love God with everything you got and love your neighbor as yourself.”

I’m tired of living a life and experiencing suffering because of my own sin. There’s enough suffering as it is. Therefore, I want to move on from those petty things that trip me up and so easily entangle us, as the word says and enjoy the blessings of the Lord and what he has in store for us. I think of 2 Corinthians 7:10 says for godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret whereas worldly grief produces death.

When I learned the psalm or when I learned that verse I learned it as for godly sorrow leads to repentance. And when I read Psalm chapter 39, I see a godly sorrow. And we may be, you may be at a spot where you’re wrestling with sin or those close to you are wrestling with sin and you may be thinking, Lord, how long do I have to deal with this sin? When is it ever going to change? And I think it begins with what Second Corinthians says here, a godly sorrow. Not being sad simply because you were caught, but understanding that the sin that you are wallowing in, that you are wrestling with, that you are walking in is a sin against the Lord, not just about those who you live with or those that you love.

The greatest example I can think of this is the prodigal son, right? Takes his early inheritance and he squanders it. And as he’s wallowing in the mud, he finally realizes, not only have I sinned against my dad, I’ve sinned against the Lord. And when we get to that point, all of a sudden, we understand, God, you can do something still. Even in the midst of our sin, you can still do something miraculous. It’s the gospel for goodness sakes, right? Even in the midst of our sin, Christ died for us.

Now, the best part of building a fence, I’m sure you all know, is when you’re all done, right? The pain and the suffering is over and you get to sit back and you get to see how level and how plum they things are. And you look at all the new pickets and in the back of your mind, you’re kind of thinking, I know just in a couple months they’re going to shrink and there’s going to be like a half inch gap between all of I’m going to see my neighbor’s trees again. But for the moment, you’re like, it’s all done.

And when we find ourselves suffering because of sin, it’s very difficult for us to see the end process because we are so stuck in it because it’s consuming us. But then when we repent of our sin and we understand that Lord, I’m not the center of the universe. Lord, I take responsibility for what I’ve done. Lord, would you save me? All of a sudden, God goes, “Perfect. Now I can make something beautiful.” And it may seem backwards to some, but oftentimes God works that way.

And I don’t bring that up to say that we should continue sinning on more and more and more and more so that his grace might abound. No, that’s not what I mean. What I’m saying is that even in the midst of our sin, when we finally have that godly sorrow and say, “God, do something that I cannot do. Would you overcome this in my life?” And God says, “Now I’m going to build something magnificent.”

I think of my own life when I prayed in my truck and I was like, “God, help me to lead my family well.” And all of a sudden, I walk in my house and that’s when my life just seemed to fall apart. And I’m like, “What are you doing, God?” And he’s like, “Ben, there’s so much sin in your life that you need to work through right now.” And now eight years later, I can be like, “Okay, now I see how God’s answering that prayer. Now I can see that I’m not leading my family, but I’m saying, ‘Hey guys, let’s go and follow the only person who’s worth following, and that’s the Lord.’” And so God works in ways that are mysterious and exciting and at times difficult.

And that’s why I love this psalm and that’s why there’s such hope in it. And to wrap things up, here’s the deal. If you’re here or even in those listening online, the greatest example of suffering that we know in humanity is that of Jesus on the cross. And what’s unique to it, it was not because of his own sin, but in fact, it was because of ours. And in the Bible, it says that if we believe that if we believe that Jesus died on a cross for our sins, that he was buried in a tomb and that he rose three days later, that if we believe in our hearts and we confess with our mouth, then we will be saved.

As I was talking with Pastor Scott this week, we were talking about what’s the so what, what’s the takeaway. For some of us, it’s finally getting to a point of understanding that I’m tired of living in this life of sin and the effects and the way that it has ravaged my life. And for you, maybe today it’s the first time in many, God, I’m a sinner in need of a savior. And if that’s you today, let me encourage you just to say that, to pray that to the Lord. Say, God, I believe to the best of my ability right now that you died for me, that you were buried, that you rose from the dead. Would you come into my life and make me the person you desire me to be?

For some of us, it we just need to be reminded of the fact that you’re not the center of the universe. Some of us, it’s just taking responsibility. For some of us, we’re in the throws of it and we don’t quite know how to process through the difficult things in life. And so, for you, it’s simply cry out to the Lord. Reach out to him and allow him to do the amazing work that only he can do. I don’t know if it will happen that work that we see on this side of eternity or the next. I don’t know that but God does.

Let me pray for us real quick and then we’ll be done. A few other things to mention and then Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for the beautiful psalms and how they deal with the difficult things of life and also the celebratory things of life. Lord, I need you in my life. We need you in our life. And Lord, if there are those this morning who are walking through those deep valleys of suffering, would you bring comfort to them? I don’t know the specific things they are walking through, but you do. And you can bring healing, you can bring comfort, you can make their lives, their marriages, their families, their workplace into something you desire it to be, not what we desire it to be. So Lord, protect them, watch over them, and encourage them. We love you, Lord, and pray this in Jesus name. Amen.