Psalm 39

Order of Service

• Scripture Reading — Psalm 39
• Sermon
• Pastoral Prayer

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Sermon Title: The Brevity of Life and the Hope of Eternity

Scripture: Psalm 39

I. Guarding the Tongue (Psalm 39:1–3)

A. David guards his mouth in the presence of the wicked while suffering under God's discipline B. His heart burns within him, yet he refuses to speak lest he dishonor God before his enemies C. How we suffer before the watching world is itself a witness

1. Romans 2:24 — Paul (quoting Isaiah 52) warns that ungodly conduct causes the nations to blaspheme God's name
2. Bitterness and hopelessness in suffering drives unbelievers away from the gospel; hope and even joy in suffering draws them toward it
3. Tertullian: the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church — how the early church suffered was how it spread

II. The Fleeting Life (Psalm 39:4–6)

A. David asks God to make him know his end and how fleeting his life is B. The Hebrew word translated "breath" in verse 5 is the same word rendered "vanity" throughout Ecclesiastes — life is a vapor C. Ecclesiastes can be understood as God's answer to David's prayer in verse 4 — all twelve chapters press home the brevity of life D. J. J. Stewart Perowne paraphrases David's prayer: make me rightly to know the shortness and uncertainty of human life, so that instead of being perplexed by what I see, I may cast myself more entirely upon thee E. Knowing the fleeting nature of life drives the soul to cast itself upon the eternal God — see also Psalm 90 on numbering our days

III. Hope in God (Psalm 39:7–11)

A. Verse 7 is the hinge of the psalm: "My hope is in you" B. David's perplexity here mirrors Job's complaint in Job 7:17–21

1. Job questions why the infinite God fixes such attention and pain upon a finite creature
2. David wrestles with the same question under the heavy hand of God's discipline for sin C. The irony: God's discipline is not cruelty but evidence of love and dignity
3. Man is made in God's image and made for eternity; discipline corrects what turns away from God
4. Hebrews 12 — discipline is evidence that God has adopted us as his children
5. Psalm 8 — David elsewhere marvels that God has made man a little lower than the angels and given him dominion D. David's sorrow following verse 7 is the cry of one whose eye is fixed on God — as a son who asks his father "why do you discipline me?" draws the father closer, so honest lament draws us into covenant relationship with God E. Moses spoke to God face to face as a friend (Numbers 12) — bold, honest prayer is not rebellion but intimacy

IV. A Sojourner with God (Psalm 39:12–13)

A. Verse 13 — "Look away from me" is not a request for abandonment but a plea for God to turn his face of wrath away and shine his face of grace and peace, echoing the Aaronic benediction in Numbers 6:24–26

1. A parallel lament appears in Job 10:20–21 B. Verse 12 — David, king over Israel with feet planted in the promised land, calls himself a sojourner and guest — even in the promised land life is still a mere breath
2. "Sojourner" and "stranger" were terms for foreign residents who could not own land and were not permanent
3. Abraham used the same language in Genesis 23:4 — "I am a sojourner and stranger among you" — while standing in the promised land
4. Hebrews 11:13 — the patriarchs died in faith, acknowledging they were strangers and exiles on the earth C. David says he sojourns with God — God himself sojourns with his people in this world where death reigns
5. 2 Samuel 7:6–7 — God tells David he has not dwelt in a house but has been moving and sojourning in a tent with his people
6. John 1:14 — the Word literally "tabernacles" (pitches his tent) among us
7. Matthew 28:20 — "Behold, I am with you until the end of the age" — Christ sojourns with us as pilgrims trekking toward the heavenly country D. Conclusion: the fleeting nature of life rightly considered produces the conviction that we were not made for this world where death reigns, but for the world where God reigns and eternal life rests — the proper meditation at every funeral and at every moment of grief