Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”. 

In Psalm 39, the poet reflects on the transient and troubling nature of life.  

We see this first in the tension between silence and speech. The poet begins the psalm with a vow to be silent, to say nothing good or bad (v. 1). That lasts for one short verse (v. 2), until his bottled up questions and emotions burst the dam of silence and pour out in speech (v. 3).  

What he says introduces another troubling perspective–life is short and insubstantial. Life is only a breath (v. 5), our years are measured as the width of a hand (v. 5), we go around like phantoms (v. 6). And if we heap up wealth, no one knows who gets it when we go (v. 6). 

A third troubling aspect of life is the problem of God’s role in sin and suffering. The poet says to God,
    Remove your scourge from me;
        I am overcome by the blow of your hand.
    When you rebuke and discipline any for their sin,
        you consume their wealth like a moth–
        surely everyone is but a breath (vv 10b – 11).
The poet feels his suffering is God’s whip correcting him and a blow from God’s hand reprimanding him. Under God’s discipline, his carefully hoarded wealth disappears like a moth eating clothes. But the poet doesn’t understand what it means. He’s not sure what God is saying to him.

Let’s pray. 

God, your presence is not always a comfort and joy to us. Sometimes, like the poet, we feel oppressed by what you do and what you don’t do. We feel your frown of disapproval at our sins. We feel your discipline making our lives short and unhappy.

But like the poet, we cannot just shut up and say nothing. We must express what is on our unhappy hearts, we must vent our confusion to you. We state our complaint. We keep asking the questions you never answer. We wait for an assurance that never comes.  

Look at us O God. Our lives our short. Our wealth trickles away. Our doctors give us bad news. Our breath is fleeting. And we don’t know how to make sense of it all. What are you trying to teach us? What prevents us from hearing and learning? 

With the poet we say,
    Hear our our cry for help;
      do not be deaf to my weeping.
    We dwell with you as foreigners,
        strangers, as all our ancestors were (v. 12).
Yes, Lord, we are strangers in the world you gave us, people with no permanent home, wandering in an uncharted land, looking for hope and meaning. Wishing for a map. We weep at life’s troubles. we weep for the poverty of the poor and the injustice of the oppressed. We weep at our own sin. 

With the poet we say, 
      Our hope is in you.
  Save us from our transgressions;
      do not make us the scorn of fools (vv. 7b-8).

O Lord, in life’s mysteries and confusions, you alone are the quiet centre. We hope in your mercy. We trust you to save us from our transgressions and from the scorn of fools. 

We feel your hand heavy on us as the poet did. With him we pray, 
  Look away from us, God, that we may enjoy life again 
      before we depart and are no more (v. 13).

Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”. 

Psalm 38 is a psalm of lament for sin. The poet is incurably sick and says,
     My back is filled with searing pain; 
          there is no health in my body (v. 7). 
     My friends and companions avoid me because of my wounds (v. 11). 

The poet points to two causes for his pain and sickness.
First, he says to God, 
     Because of your wrath 
          there is no health in my body” (v. 3).
He thinks an angry God sent sickness to teach him a lesson. He asks God to relent:
    Do not rebuke me in your anger 
        or discipline me in your wrath (v. 1). 

The poet says another cause of sickness is his own sin.  He says:
      There is no soundness in my bones because of my sin. 
    My wounds fester and are loathsome
        because of my sinful folly (vv. 3b, 4b). 

So what did cause his pain and sickness?  Was God punishing him? Was it a natural consequence of his sin? Maybe the problem was not spiritual at all. Perhaps it was an infection that needed antibiotics instead of a psalm. Perhaps it was a mental health issue that needed cognitive therapy and rest.

David Levy, a neurosurgeon for 20 years, prayed with patients before operating on their brains. When an ex-marine was preparing for complicated surgery, Dr. Levy said, “If you want every chance of healing, you also need good emotional health. Stress, anger, and resentment can have powerful negative effects on you. Bitterness is like an acid that eats its container” (Levy, David. Gray Matter. Carol Stream, Illinois: Tyndale House, 2011. pp 134). Levy asked the man if there was anyone he had not forgiven. This lead to the man forgiving an abusive parent, and asking God’s forgiveness for bitterness and resentment. Levy says, “His countenance went from stone to sunlight. There was a bounce in his step as he left” (Levy, p. 183). A week later, the six-hour operation went well. 

Of course, the problem in applying this is knowing which of our problems need medical solutions, which need spiritual solutions, and which need new thought patterns. I suspect most of our problems need all three. But who can give us an accurate diagnosis? And who can prescribe the treatment that will heal us? For many of us, it’s a lifelong journey, researching different options and trying various solutions. 

Let’s pray. 

Our father, we pray with the poet, 
   All our longings lie open before you, Lord, 
      Our sighing is not hidden from you ( v. 9). 

You see our deepest needs.
  – We need a relationship with a god who is not angry at us.
  – We need to lose our conviction that we are mostly right.
  – We need to see and confess our sins.
  – We need deliverance from our enemies:
        from people who hate,
        from sickness that debilitates,
        from selfishness that obstructs our vision of you.
– We need to give up our despair, self-pity, and obsessions.
– We need freedom to love you and worship you with all your people on earth.

And our sickness is complicated by sin which harms our lives and frustrates our search for health. We pray with Rabdula of Edessa, who wrote this prayer 1600 years ago: 

My thoughts confuse and cloud my mind. I am in despair because my guilt is vaster than the ocean and my sins more numerous than the waves of the sea. When I remember how I have fallen, I tremble at the thought of your justice. I dare not look upwards, because my sins reach as high as the heavens. When I look down, earth is an accusation to me, for my offences exceed the number of its inhabitants. Have pity on me, Lord. 

Van de Weyer, Robert, ed. The HarperCollins Book of Prayers.  Edison, New Jersey: Castle Books, 1993.  p. 298, prayer of Rabbula of Edessa, d. 435

With Psalm 38 we pray, 
     Lord, do not forsake me;
         do not be far from me, my God. 
     Come quickly to help me,
         my Lord and my Savior (vv. 21-22). 

Amen

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.