Psalm 38
Transcript
This is Holly with Presence Point and welcome to our Psalms for Shepherds series. Today, we’re in Psalm 38, a psalm of David, where he asks God to remember him. Now, God had not forgotten him or didn’t know who David was because that’s impossible for God, He knows all of us by name even the number of hairs on our head. He knows how many tears we cry. He keeps them in a bottle, Psalms tells us. But for God to remember David simply meant that he was asking God to begin to act on his behalf and meet his needs. You see, David had sinned greatly and he wanted God to remember him and grant forgiveness and healing.
There’s 22 verses in this psalm and the first eight or so really talk about the pain of sin. And when I read those in a moment, think about your own life, when have you sinned in a way that it’s been so painful to yourself and to others? Maybe your family, maybe your friends, that you have felt what David felt when he wrote this psalm, this poetic lament really. Then the middle of this chapter talks about the loneliness of sin and this external force that were coming to attack him. And the end of this psalm is what David so much and so often does is a cry for forgiveness and a cry for help really trusting God that He will deliver him from this.
Psalm 38 some have called A Groan Before the Throne. I don’t know about you, shepherd leader, but I’ve been there. I’ve been groaning before the Throne. Let me read to you now from the passion translation, Psalm 38.
Psalm 38
1 O Lord, don’t punish me angrily for what I’ve done.
Don’t let my sin inflame your wrath against me.2 For the arrows of your conviction have pierced me deeply. Your blows have struck my soul and crushed me.
3 Now my body is sick. My health is totally broken because of your anger, and it’s all due to my sins!
4 I’m overwhelmed, swamped, and submerged
beneath the heavy burden of my guilt.
It clings to me and won’t let me go.5 My rotting wounds are a witness against me.
They are severe and getting worse,
reminding me of my failure and folly.6 I am completely broken because of what I’ve done. Gloom is all around me.
My sins have bent me over to the ground.7-8 My inner being is shriveled up; my self-confidence crushed. Sick with fever, I’m left exhausted.
Now I’m as cold as a corpse, and nothing is left inside me
but great groaning filled with anguish.9 Lord, you know all my desires and deepest longings.
My tears are liquid words, and you can read them all.10-11 My heart beats wildly, my strength is sapped, and the light of my eyes is going out. My friends stay far away from me, avoiding me like the plague.
Even my family wants nothing to do with me.12 Meanwhile my enemies are out to kill me,
plotting my ruin, speaking of my doom
as they spend every waking moment
planning how to finish me off.13-14 I’m like a deaf man who no longer hears.
I can’t even speak up, and words fail me;
I have no argument to counter their threats.15 Lord, the only thing I can do is wait and put my hope in you. I wait for your help, my God.
16 So hear my cry and put an end to their strutting in pride, to those who gloat when I stumble in pain.
17 I’m slipping away and on the verge of a breakdown,
with nothing but sorrow and sighing.18 I confess all my sin to you; I can’t hold it in any longer.
My agonizing thoughts punish me for my wrongdoing;
I feel condemned as I consider all I’ve done.19 My enemies are many. They hate me and persecute me, though I’ve done nothing against them to deserve it.
20 I show goodness to them and get paid evil in return. And they hate me even more when I stand for what is right.
21 So don’t forsake me now, Lord!
Don’t leave me in this condition.22 God, hurry to help me. Run to my rescue!
For you’re my Savior and my only hope!
If you’re like me, you’ve been there, you’ve been right where David is. I love verse 15, “Lord, the only thing I can do is wait and put my hope in You, I wait for your help, my God.” So dear shepherd leader, I pray that with you today, if you are in a situation where others in your life have sinned and caused you great pain or your own sin has caused you great pain, I ask that you just go through this psalm and look at verses 15-22, “I can do nothing, but wait for you, God, nothing, but put my hope in you. Wait, and put my hope in you.”
[praying] Father, I close this little five-minute time with a prayer. Lord, that those of us who are hurting and wounded and aching and whose bones are brittle. And whose hearing has gone, who can’t even put words together, whose confidence has lost, Father, because of our sin. I pray you’d bring us to Your throne on our knees, seeking your grace and your forgiveness. Thank you, Father, for Your faithfulness and that you will give exactly that. All we have to do is ask. I pray these things in your name, Father, for every under-shepherd, myself included, listening in. Amen.
DIGGING DEEPER QUESTIONS:
- Have you ever cried out to God asking Him to not forget you?
- Are there others in your life that have sinned and caused you great pain?
- As shepherd leader, what will you ask the Father for this week?
