An exposition of Psalm 39:1-13. This message by Pastor Rod Harris was delivered at Trinity Baptist Church on Sunday evening, October 2, 2011.
Intro:
I like music. In fact I like music of all kinds. Well not every kind. I don’t care for Indie or punk or new wave or rap or any of that weird stuff. But I like to listen to music. But I have to admit some music is just depressing. I’m sure some of the new stuff is really depressing if I could understand the words. See, now I know I’m getting old. I’m well on my way to becoming a curmudgeon! But it’s not just this new stuff that is depressing. I mean if you want to talk about depressing music, we have to talk about country and western music. You know they say if you play rock music backwards you get a message from the devil. You know what happens when you play country music backwards? You sober up. Your wife comes back and your dog rises from the dead! No wonder people drink when they listen to country music!
Now when we think of the Psalms we normally think of praise. And the Psalms are filled with praise but there are also some depressing Psalms. The Psalms run the full range of emotions. And Psalm 39 is a sobering Psalm. It is a psalm that is not easily understood. But I’m convinced that if you wrestle with it you will find that it contains a very encouraging message.
Text: Psalm 39:1-13
This is a Psalm of David.
We are told, in the title, that it is for the director of music. For Jeduthun.
Jeduthun, along with Asaph and Heman, was one of the musicians appointed by David to lead public worship (1 Chronicles 16:37-42; 25:1-8; 2 Chronicles 5:12; 35:15).
Psalm 39 asks us to think about the brevity of life.
That is not a subject our culture is particularly fond of.
We are captivated by youth and vitality.
In fact I would go so far as to say – “We don’t like to think!”
We rush headlong in pursuit of amusement.
Amusement is a compound word.
“Muse” means to ponder, meditate or think.
The prefix “a” is a negative.
So amusement means, “not thinking.”
Most people want to drift through life without giving a lot of thought to anything.
Psalm 39 is a rebuke of that attitude.
The Psalmist calls on us to stop and give some serious thought to this issue.
As we walk through this psalm, here is what we discover:
Thesis: The righteous are characterized by hope in spite of the brevity and the vanity of life.
This psalm has four stanzas each of which provides us with a different characteristic of the righteous and their attitude toward life.
The righteous are characterized by a resolve to remain steadfast in spite of an intense struggle with life’s vanity. (39:1-3)
The righteous are characterized by a determination to live a meaningful life in spite of life’s apparent meaninglessness. (39:4-6)
The righteous are characterized by a desire for relationship in spite of God’s rebuke for sin. (39:7-11)
The righteous are characterized by a recognition that life has a meaning, which is not tied to this world. (39:12-13)